Okay okay, I know I’ve been neglecting you guys. But I finally got my copy of Final Fantasy XI, so isn’t that sort of a good excuse? :s

I’m at 24:30 hours of gameplay and still nowhere. I’m a Hume Black Mage, level 7, sucking in battle and even worse at crafting. My girlfriend however, bought the game aswell after seeing me playing and after 13 hours she’s level 8 (almost 9) with her Elvaan Warrior. And she’s kicking ass :(

The game is great though, although maybe a bit too dangerous. Just this weekend we spent all our time in Vana’diel and almost forgot to eat on Sunday evening. Also, progressing in the game takes time. Don’t expect to be doing anything useful when playing for an hour or so. Leveling up, quests etc can take hours (took me 10 hours to go up one level last Sunday :(). Plus the fact that you can’t pause and that you’re playing with other real people, doesn’t allow you to walk away when you want. When you’re out in the field battling monsters you just can’t leave everyone behind. And logging out whenever you want isn’t possible either. It takes 30 seconds of healing time without getting hit, which requires you to be at a safe spot… kind of to not let you cheat and log out immediatly in the middle of a tough battle. So you’ll be travelling another 15 minutes back to town if you’re too low level like us to go any further ;)

Crafting is another fun time killing hobby you can enjoy in the world of Final Fantasy XI. It just costs you crystals and items. Combining the right ones can create more expensive items, or can cause you to lose it all. I gave it a shot last night, causing me to lose all my 4000 Gil I saved up. Now I’m at 100, but I’m hoping the Japanese will buy some of my stuff today (I managed to create some small items with my craft afterall), so when I log in I’ll have some cash again!

Another great thing about the game (and I heard this about many other MMORPGs) is the fact that the people on the servers are really friendly. This one guy (think his name was Hexpak, sorry if I got it wrong) showed me around town for 3 hours (!!!) because I didn’t have a clue where to buy what etc. He helped me in some battles, gave me some cash etc. Phylny (I know I’m writing this wrong but damn it I even have problems with my own in-game nick ;)) helped out aswell, and Silenteye sent me money for no reason. You’ll get healed by any White Mage that passes you and he’ll even throw in a Protect and Shield. Nothing asked in return! It’s even better than real life! (Now you’re scaring me sic :P)

Anyway, as you can see, I’m crazy about the game. Hope it doesn’t start interfering with my real life though ;) but oh well, atleast when I’m in-game I’m spending less real money! :P

So if anyone feels like joining, we’re at Windurst on the Carbuncle server. Look for Suibhne and Aislynn ;)