United We Stand!

TUFF was out of town this holiday weekend so I should have done a lot more posting about FFXI, but I was busy...playing FFXI. I can see why people get hooked on these games, since there's so much gameplay to explore. In fact, I never have a problem finding something to do...my problem is choosing from the many things I want to do.


Anyway, Bronco made some major strides this weekend. The big news is that I headed out to the widely reviled Dunes to join a party for some monster killing/experience farming. Most people dread working in the Dunes because there are a lot of new players (like me!) messing up groups with their noobishness. Or noobosity. Or whatever. Given that I'm not what you'd call a "people person" to begin with, I didn't have high hopes.


As it turned out, I had an ABSOLUTE BLAST in the Dunes. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe I was too wet behind the ears to notice that our groups weren't operating at max efficiency, but every party I joined kicked major butt. I gained a ton of levels (I'm up to lv 21 in Warrior) and I had some interesting conversations with fellow players.















What really surprised me was how nice everyone was...the experienced players were going out of their way to bring the noobs like me up to speed without being overbearing or bossy at all. One player even took an extra half hour to help me get a couple items I needed for the subjob quest, which I couldn't have come close to doing without assistance (Thanks Angeliner!).


There's still a time and place for solo play, but I find myself gravitating more to groups now. Working with other people makes me that much more excited for when The Bucket joins up in a couple weeks!