FFXI's Shortfalls

Theres a few, of course, nothing is perfect.

Key notes: Interactive = Play = Fun.
Staring/waiting = X.

1) Wasting an incredible amount of peoples time. Its one thing for progress to be slow in game, its another when no progress goes on at all. For example trying to pop a tier2 (of course this isn't the only way to get seals, but in some cases its the only means in a practical sense, as other nm's may require more people than you can help to bring along with you) nm in the midst of competition. It would be one thing, say if SE decided to make it a requirement of 20 body seals to get af+1 to slow progress, but instead they choose to make one tier2 pop at a time. Meaning the group or person not getting the pop isn't getting to do really much of anything at all, and if he doesn't wait hey may miss his turn, or his chance, the video game ceases to be a video game that you're actually "playing" or being interactive with, as much as your just staring at a computer screen waiting for someone else to finish doing something. (There are quest to obtain seals, that can be done any time without delay, but the chance at the correct reward is incredibly slim, and a retarded repetitive quest does not = fun in any sense, especially when the reward vie an nm is so much greater, and so much funner (ie a battle) in respect to those quests.)

The distinction I'm making between slow progress in respect to not playing and slow progress vie just because the nature of the process taking long is a very important distinction. IE there is no "fun" in waiting, or in NOT playing as can be found in a process that would take equally as long but allows you to actually do something in respect to that goal.

2) Another example of just staring at the screen in ffxi as opposed to being interactive is lfp. Especially for certain jobs (and before 76), (brd whm), the video game turns into staring at a chat log waiting for purple letters to pop up that say (party?), it isn't till then that you're actually "playing". It wasn't for years till SE finally came up with /dnc, that helps in some cases, but this is still incredibly slow progress in comparison to group play and again can't really apply to all jobs.

3) Lack of reward or incentive for people to help you. Most things in ffxi require groups or parties (obviously). LS's usually require point systems or something to that like. Heroes of aby nms is the only example I can think of wherein this has been somewhat changed/helped by the implication of "trophies" in kills. I don't mind helping for example in respect to a Rani cause it gives me the chance to get an augmented body, but again, this is a rather new thing and is only found in heroes, quite pathetic. (One could also argue abyssitse and or atmas, but these are temp things, once done they're done, trophies on the other hand can relate to multiple jobs and require random augments that can take multiple times on each)