Oldschool Learning Curve

Managed to get the last copy of FFXI at Tec-Drome for a much more reasonable $40.

Installation went fine, registration was a bitch. Had to make several different usernames/accounts/ids/passwords for using the PlayOnline service, a mail account/password, some other member thing that I have no clue what relationship it had to do with the game, register a contentID for making -one- character, finally allowing me to create a single character with which to play FFXI.

It was a tough start. Seeing as it first started in 2002, this MMO is definitely in the EQ oldschool classification. My n00b character got plunked headfirst into a town which belonged to the nation I chose with nary a tutorial.

Resolution was a eye-watering 640x480 stretched out onto my 22" monitor. I had neglected to plug in my gamepad, so I was stuck trying to work out esoteric keyboard commands with only the help of a quickstart guide. And no, WASD did not work on the default config. That was "config 2" according to the quickstart guide... except I still have no clue how to enable config 2 two hours later.

Mouselook was inverted, making it horrifically disorienting. There were a ton of NPCs around me, which I couldn't seem to talk to.

With some patience and careful application of japanese RPG gamepad logic, I eventually figured out basic commands like targeting the NPC, hitting enter to begin dialogue; moving around; and finding a basic interaction menu. Each success was a massive accomplishment.

Random chatting with nearby NPCs eventually got me on track to finding an NPC with the newbie tutorial program. Except he was off by the West Gate and I was somewhere at the North Gate. Enter more desperate Quickstart Guide reading in an attempt to find the map key (it was a typed command, /map - *sigh*).

Some oldschool jogging through a couple of city areas later, (You think Ogrimmar is big? *snorts*) the helpful NPC told me a couple useful things, patted me on the back and sent me out the gate to go fight some monsters.

Cue another miniature learning journey trying to work out how to wear my sword (Oh, inventory is ctrl+I and equipment is ctrl+e) and attack monster. (Target, hit enter, select Attack, hit enter, let auto-attack work its magic, scroll randomly through blank job abilities wondering which level gets me a couple skills, etc.)

The grind wasn't too bad actually. Even CoX makes you hit a couple dozen monsters to get to the next level. It took me a loooong time to find the magic sequence of keys that actually showed me my status and xp-to-next-level though.

Soon, I was level 4, being warned by helpful NPC that any death from now on would yield 10% xp penalty and possible deleveling (*gulp* oldschool, right...) and my two next tasks were to go wander to a faraway area to kill one monster and pick up an item to deliver to someone, except we're talking about crossing several areas each direction.

Eep. My eyes were watering at the horrible resolution anyhow, so I logged out, thinking I would try and look up any possibility of increasing screen resolution. Out of curiosity, I tried PlayOnline's FAQ service, and sure enough, the answer was there. There was a config program that could be activated out-of-game. Eureka!

Seeing the game again in proper 1650x1050 pixel resolution did wonders for my morale.

I gamely took off in an attempt to finish the second task and ended up wandering around lost in a series of mines trying to find a mine overseer to pick up said item from. One was surrounded by a great many passive but optimal-con monsters, so one was very tempted to sidetrek and kill 'em. Ended up logging out cos of lack of time.

But wow... Talk about oldschool. This one quest is turning into an epic journey.

And I foresee some crunchy reading of game guides and manuals in the near future.

Still, I suppose if I don't treat it like a job and stay far away from being hardcore, it might be an interesting sort of adventure/experience for a couple months.