Ever since I started FFXI, on the semi-rare occasion that JP's invite me to join them, I am always amazed at how smoothly and efficiently and therefore fun their exp parties are. I can not recall a single party with JP players that I have not enjoyed. Almost as rare is the amount of equally smooth, efficient and fun NA parties. WHAT THE HELL?!
Why is it that there are so many more gimp, sub par, unskilled NA players that make getting into a group and working through the levels such a poor experience? Is it the general attitude of us westerner's of not taking pride in what we do, overall laziness and sloppiness, the mentality that "I do what I want, when I want, how I want and to hell with everyone else" that makes NA players as a whole so noticeably worse at this game than JPs?
I do concede that there are gimp, sub par, unskilled JP players but one has to admit they are far less common than their equivalent in the NA population. Even then, a gimp geared JP person is not always a bad player. Quite often I have noticed that a gimp JP will either do respectable damage while not pulling hate and being an MP sink or will keep up with mage duties such as healing, hasting, refreshing etc quite nicely.
Take my parties last night on SAM which got me thinking about this. Now it's not that the NAs in my first party were gimp. Well maybe the 63 WAR using a Great Sword and a Scorpion harness but everyone else was great. PLD, WAR, SAM (me), DRG, SMN (Aj from Nyzul group), RDM (JP). The PLD was very good, the DRG was respectable though should have used sushi for penta spam or so I reckon anyway, Aj did awesome keeping everyone buffed and assisting with the cures, and the JP RDM (who coincidentally was the RDM in the next party) was never out of MP before Convert was ready. The exp came nicely and I went away relatively happy with my progress towards 65 and GEKKO!
As I was running back from the party when the PLD had to go to bed, this JP BLM sent me a tell asking if I'd like to party even before I had put my flag up. I was actually going to go to bed but I couldn't resist the JPness so I said {Yes, please} and boy am I glad I did! NIN, SAM, SAM, BLM, BRD, RDM. OK, now I know you are going to say "Wait a minute Enna. The JP party was obviously going to be better with the RDM BRD combo" and I agree. But the exp was DOUBLE what we did in the respectable mostly NA party beforehand. The BLM never over-nuked and pulled hate but finished mobs off quickly, again the RDM never ran out of MP, the BRD though a little slow on finale's kept everyone buffed and assisted curing, the other SAM and I worked together to keep the hate on the NIN with TA-Yuki, and the NIN didn't seem to ever get hit except by Incinerate. The experience even between a decent NA party and a JP one was just so different though this is probably not the best example to use in proving my point below but its what got me thinking anyway.
I really understand why so many of the good NA players refuse to party with people outside their linkshells or circles of friends. The chances of getting a gimp NA in your party that you can't coach, instruct or suggest alternative ways of doing things (in a friendly manner!) is just too high. And Lord help you if you get one of these people and try to coach them in ways of playing better and enjoying the experience more themselves. "What do you know about doing this job?!", "I've got 2 level 75 jobs already so I know what I'm doing!" And my favorite "........" Silence.
Now I don't claim to know all the ins and outs of this game. I don't claim to be great at everything I do. But I do feel (and I think a lot of people would vouch for this) that I do things very well, pay attention to the little things and try to give my best effort gear-wise and play-wise in all parties and events.
If this post gets just one person who plays below the standard they a) know that SHOULD play at b) didn't realize they COULD play at, then I will be every happy. Until then, I'll just keep my fingers crossed, hope for a JP party or one of the few really good NA ones when my flag is up and continue to try set a decent example for other people that get to experience playing with me :p
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3 comments:
What's sad is that even some Maat's Cap owners still aren't... great at the game.
It is totally possible for an NA group to be spectacular but at the same time, you can kinda see the many differences between NA and JP in not just FFXI but in many games. There are just some stuff we excel at as NA (WoW, FPS games) and there are some stuff the JP excel at (FFXI, Fighting games, puzzle games). This is all just simply majority speaking though.
Then again, some people are just silly and there's probably more of them in NA than there is JP, given the population.
Yes, my views are very much generally speaking too. I recognise there are plenty of really good NA players and its even better getting into pt's with them since we can communicate but as a whole, JP pt > NA pt 99% of the time.
"What's sad is that even some Maat's Cap owners still aren't... great at the game."
LOL... reminds me of the merit PT I was in yesterday. ThHe person I replaced apparently sucked so bad that the PT wiped and proceeded to kick and replaced him. On my server he's known to be an ass as well... an ass with a maat's cap.
I've PT'd with decent to extremely good PTs over the years. Its come to a point where I've lowered my expectations for either NA or JP pt. Its much less frustrating to me when I have lowered expectations.
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