I never expected to write this post

I've long believed that only a maniac or masochist would ever play FFXI for fun.

I last played in August 2012 and that was after a year long break. I started playing again at the very end of January 2017. So, I had a 4 year and 5 month break, and I've been playing again for about 2 months.

As usual, the decision to return was prompted more by others than personal interest. Needless to say those others fell by the wayside almost immediately, leaving me to trudge on alone. But has it been a trudge? No, it hasn't!

Change

A huge amount has changed in FFXI since I last played. SE introduced a pretty awesome way for people to complete old content and level up very quickly without a group. That's been a huge boon to my enjoyment.

Mechanically, two other changes have made a huge difference to my enjoyment. Firstly, fast travel has been expanded enormously. It's still nowhere close to being on par with "modern" MMOs but for FFXI it's a quantum leap. Secondly, it's now possible to equip gear cosmetically and, again, it's not like other games. On the downside, you have to keep the item you want the cosmetic look of somewhere in your (also vastly expanded) inventory somewhere. On the plus side, you don't permanently change the look of any item and the "look" applies to any gear you wear. FFXI has a long tradition of min/max "gear swapping" and this has been well catered for. I actually really like the implementation of this system.

To do or not to do

A further boost to my enjoyment has been the personal limitations I set before considering any personal goals. The main one is that I won't buy the last expansion. This immediately reduces the number of things that can be done in a game that already has a huge amount to do. I think the latest content is largely expansion agnostic so this probably hasn't made as bigger difference as initially anticpaited.

Secondly, I decided to avoid any and all current "end game" activity. This basically excuses me from the frankly cynical FFXI gear treadmill, which I can only assume is now the sole driving force behind a game now in self-confessed maintenance mode.

So, having forbidden myself from doing anything that literally every other player IS doing, what am I doing?

I started played in FFXI in 2007, which was just after Wings of the Goddess came out. That was the preceding major expansion. Apparently the 6 releases between that and Seekers of Adoulin were just "Battle Content." So, broadly speaking, I want to "complete" the content that I came up with.

Even the simplest quests in FFXI have a huge amount of detail and because of the aforementioned gear treadmill it was always hard to focus on enjoying that. There were always more pressing gear acquisition concerns.  The fact is, I was never able to commit enough time to have anything other than respectable gear; I've always been behind the curve. The bulk of my playtime was really about treading water gear-wise. Sad but true.

And so, my main goal for this "stint" is the completion of the Wings of the Goddess storyline, which I always really enjoyed. I've completed the story from all the previous expansions and so this really feels like unfinished business. I also wanted to get my Beastmaster to 99. Aside from that I have set some fairly arbitrary gear goals. These were really just a way to structure my involvement with older battle content as better gear is more easily attained elsewhere. It's the journey that's important to me, not the goal.

Finally, Summoner. When I first started to play FFXI I wanted to play Summoner but I never felt as if I was allowed to. It wasn't a popular class when I started to play but, as a pet job, it didn't have the independence of Beastmaster and Puppetmaster. It was always one of FFXIs true support jobs and, thus, largely irrelevant. However, I've always loved the lore surrounding Windurst and summoners so I think it's just something I'll have to do.

In conclusion

Although my return to FFXI was sudden and unplanned, I knew I needed to make a plan quickly. It is easy to get overwhelmed by this game. Once I understood that it was nostalgia that had bought me back to FFXI and I could concentrate on playing content from the era I am nostalgic about.

I think that explains why I'm finding it so satisfying.