With the announcement that Final Fantasy XIV is to be another online game, the major question among FFXI players is “Do I leave all the work behind and move on to the new game?” I am certain that a lot of forum posts will occur when the new game comes out that such-and-such LS leader quits for new game, such-and-such LS moves to new game, etc etc. But the real question in this entire bombshell announcement is, “What does your linkshell mean to you?”
At the end of the day, most FFXI players are a member of at least one linkshell. Be it a social, event, or endgame shell, every linkshell member has an in-game “family” that hopefully helps its members out.
In my case, my primary linkshell these days is a social linkshell that just happens to do endgame stuff. Members overlap into my Dynamis and Sky linkshells, and the Salvage linkshell I’m an erstwhile member of. Would I want to move on to FFXIV with these people? Certainly.
I’ve been playing FFXI for just over 5 years now, and gone through several linkshells. When I started, my friends and I all decided that once one of us got the 8000 gil to buy the linkshell, they would. Thus began our small LS for us to chat on. Eventually we joined a larger LS and its immediate successor, and that’s where I stayed for the next year and a half. Once I hit 70, I decided to join up with the endgame shell a bunch of my friends from my social joined up in. I enjoyed it but burned out quickly, so I quit for a while.
Suddenly one day I decided to return to Vana’diel, so I joined yet another social LS, then kinda meandered around, quit for a month, then came back and joined yet another endgame shell that folded soon after I joined. That’s about the time I transferred to Seraph from Ragnarok. I stayed there for a while in a social, joined an endgame shell then almost immediately quit. I was kinda fed up with endgame attitudes by that point, heh.
Then in the beginning of ’08, an old RL friend convinced me to transfer to Phoenix, where I plan to stay til the servers are shut down. Why is this? While I’ve all but left the social I joined upon arriving on the server, the shell I’m in now truly means a lot to me.
And why is this? Is it the people? Is it the attitudes? Is it the “do endgame stuff for fun” situation we do? The answer to all of these is a resounding “Yes!” I have never been in a linkshell like this before. We do not have drama, thankfully, everyone in the LS is very very competent, and we seem to think we can do anything if we put our minds to it. That sort of ambition is such a relief after being in linkshells before that kinda were “eh” about most things.
When your social LS kills Kirins on a regular basis in addition to doing Sea Gods, it puts a very warm feeling in your heart. Not to mention doing Limbus (including Ultima and Omega) a couple times a week, making up a large portion of a highly successful Dynamis linkshell, and seeding a new Sky linkshell that is doing very well!
In the end, though, what my linkshell means to me may be different from the next person, but when you would want to move onto the next game with this same group of people solely based on the fact that the linkshell truly is family, I believe that you’ve found a keeper. And that I would not trade anything for.
So, what does your linkshell mean to you?
My Linkshell means everything to me. I started one the same day as I created my current character, almost five years ago now. Many members have left the game or have branched out into other Linkshells over the course of my career, but the times I’ve had with my LS have been some of my fondest memories.
It’s almost strange to consider a group of “strangers” from all over the world to be a second family to me, but it’s true. A few have gotten married, some have new babies, etc. Just last night I was speaking with a kid I met when he was 13 and he’s now 17 – a good portion of his life has spanned our friendship.
I don’t really buy into the hooplah surrounding FFXIV right now but I did have one reaction upon hearing the news:
/lsmes I expect all of you to organize on my server when FF14 hits. No exceptions.
I have a ‘best friend’ who is definitely coming with me, but it wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t get my whole ‘family’ of linkies to come along for the ride.
In FFXI (and MMOs in general I suppose), just as in life itself, money and possessions and accomplishments are all fleeting but family & friends are what truly matters.
Thanks for the read; great topic!
~Draconum of Odin
/begininput
Linkshells are a very important to peoples XI life. Everyone knows if you run solo on XI you aren’t going very far since a good 89% of the game is group-oriented, and /shout’ing in whitegate is a recepie for fail.
My most memorable linkshells that I was in was very few. If I recall, Avengers [even though there was a crapload of controversy with the leader Gainaman and the ffxi wiki], DMW [pre my break from FFXI], and now the one I am currently in, which for the most part, is drama less. I recently also joined a Sky shell, and that’s going really well, and am in the process of getting a Dynamis shell as well. Scary thing is all three have all the same people for the most part, which is good in a way because I already know them and what to expect.
Although, linkshells arent all flowers, candy, and sunshine. I remember when I came back from lolWoW, two good friends of mine [Lithande and Aeithor from Avengers] went on to bigger and better things (lolendgame). Actually Aeithor became leader of Senshu, an endgame LS at this time. Thoes two were the coolest and nicest people I’ve ever met in XI. They helped me get Rank 10 in Windhurst (I was Rank 5 at the time I believe) and go from ZM1-Sky in one night. I find out that they both quit because of drama in the Senshu LS (which also disbanded, later what was left of them formed volume [which is already causing problems as per BG forums]).
I don’t know WTF happenes with people at endgame, I myself never wanna go through turning XI into a second job. I noticed most endgame shells you spend hours camping mobs, most endgame shells also dont allow you to have any other shells, and its a breeding ground for drama-type situations. Who on earth wants to live like that? For some virtual item to make a non existant toon hit a little harder/swing faster/cast faster/ect? Then acting like some elitest jerk just to satisfy your epeen (because your rpeen is too small and embarrasing to talk about). I}t must be some sort of a disease.
I really hope XIV addresses some of these issues with endgame. I also hope they hire COMPETENT GMs that actually know what they’re doing [Side note: Some of the stories I heard about GMs are horrendous. One that sticks out in my mind is when a shell was fighting a HNM (forgot which one). They were doing kite and DoT, which proved slow but effective against this particular HNM. Another LS was waiting for a chance at it if the current LS wiped. Soooo a GM pops out of nowhere and says something along the lines of, “You’re holding the NM too long and not giving the other ls a chance to fight it”. The player and GM were going at it because the GM was being a complete ass and didn’t understand logic or XI for the matter.]
Back on topic though. I do hope that when the time comes to move from XI to XIV [if its not a wowclone]. That I’ll be able to join a few people from the [good] LS’s i’ve been in. You have to remember, when you first start any mmorpg the first impression is most likely going to be the community. If they are all asshats (lolWoW) and still need to hit puberty, you aren’t going to enjoy it as much as having a crew you can talk to and so stuff with in the game, and knowing you will be joining them in another game will bring comfort to the awkwardness of starting over again in n00bland.
I dont know if I’m gonna jump to XIV right away (the Japanese will probably get it first anyway even though SE says its gonna be released everywhere at the same time). Only time will tell. I know, though, once XIV comes out SE is gonna drop XI like a rock. Just like how Sony dropped EQOA once EQ2 came out.
/endrantinput