What were you like as a new player?Follow

We were all new once, and as much as some of us hate to admit it, many of us made mistakes which would get us laughed at if we made them now. Some of the same mistakes are still made by new players every day, and they receive grief for it, whether they should know better or not.

So just for a little bit of a different introspective, what were you like when you first started playing? What were some of the mistakes you might've made which, when you see new people do it, make you either laugh or twitch?

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Among some of my mistakes as a "newb":

-(I hate to admit it but...) I was a "Ghetto Paladin" (war/whm) most of the way to 30. No one ever bothered to "correct" me, other than to say I was gimped. Monk held no interest for me, and later, Ninja just felt like it would be daunting.

-When I first got to Valkurm as a War (main job at the time) I didn't know what a Tank was, or what people meant when they told me to Tank.

-For the first ten levels or so, I didn't know what Signet was or what it did.

-For the first 15 levels, I didn't know items in my inventory could stack.


Go ahead. Look back and laugh. It'll be good for you.

When I logged in inside Northern San d'Oria I was in Watchdog Alley. It was night time. It took me over a half hour to figure out how to get out of that enclosed area on the ground because I couldn't see any stairs and didn't know where I was supposed to go. I had been playing the game for 5 days already before I realized that there were other parts to the city, and Northern was the most deserted haha. I was so surprised when I actually saw other people.

FFXI was my first role-playing game ever - I'd only ever played games like Socom. Imagine my learning curve in this game...

(1) I chose Mithra coz it most closely fit who I am (no I don't have a brown nose, a tail or cat ears). It's usually assumed that I'm a manthra - that's my only regret in choosing a Mithra character.
(2) My game name is my RL nickname - not very creative but I didn't want a system generated name.
(3) I initially chose WHM - for all of 1 hour. I switched to THF and started the slow painful process of leveling.
(4) My first adventure was into East Sarutabaruta (sp?) where I made it all the way to where the Giant Bees were. Didn't know how to /check - what was that? - and promptly got killed by a bee. I was mortified - everyone was laughing at how stupid I was. I finally learned how to equip my character, what to do to actually fight with a weapon (I bare-fisted my first 4 levels).
(5) With the exception of a brief party in Tahrongi Canyon at level 11, I solo'd my THF to level 13. It was then off to the Dunes, where I continued to solo my THF (coz no one wanted a THF - "we need big ka-boom damage not dink-dink-dink damage".) How I ever got leveled and a sub-job I'll never know. My friends had left me behind in levels - I kinda felt lost a bit.
(6) I didn't even know where the AHs were in Windy and I certainly didn't know about the warp npcs to get me around. I felt like I had to be the dumbest player on the face of the earth coz my friends were just bouncing all over the place, getting things done (leveling, getting sub-jobs, making gil, completing quests, etc.).
(7) Somehow I made it to level 30 - came close to quitting a bunch of times because having to wait from 8am until 10pm for a party invite isn't a lot of fun. I had an awesome party with a PLD that later told me he had leveled his THF to 63 at the time. He helped me to see and learn the potential of THF - don't know why he took the time to do that, but he did what no one else had ever done for me. Thank you, Ashburnitall!
(8) At level 40, a whole new world opened for me - THF was fun; THF could take me places (and get me out of places) that no other job could. THF remained my main job until I hit level 59.

That the bee incident sticks out in my mind so clearly after 2 years should tell you what happened next - I became determined and driven to learn the game, to understand it, to catch up to my friends. Sometimes, I do miss the early days of playing - I don't miss the frustrations, but feel sad at no longer having the joy of soloing an aggro'd Yaguda and winning the fight when you didn't think you could. Maybe Sea and the new expansion will renew that feeling for me.

Zuzeeque

BLM7 75/THF 59/WHM 47/RNG 41/NIN 34/RDM 26/SMN 22/WAR 20/BST 18

My friend didn't know that you could rest your life back when he first started playing. He hit level 4 many, many, many times. Haha.

I read a LOT before I started playing so I knew a lot of the basic crap. I'd NPC things and sell them for more on the AH...stuff like that.

But I had my share of stupidities too...just can't really recall any right now.

its definitely all about using the mouse to walk and do everything...it took me about a week to realize i could use the numpad...that made my life easier lol

When I started (a year back now) I lvled my RDM on my own (with no help from a pty) from 1-31 cause I was well a noob who didn't read up on stuff but I learnt everything I need to know now although it was too late for my B-seals XD (must've thrown away a good 100 B-seals cause I didn't know what they did).

Edited, Tue Apr 11 19:26:07 2006 by AnthonyInvincible

Fortunately for me, I had a group of friends get me involved. I started up when they were in their twenties and thirties so I had a crash course. Of course, I never knew about outpost warps until I was in my sixties haha.

I bet my friends secretly laughed because when I was fresh into the world I would always get so uptight and panicked about fighitng rabbits outside San d'Oria. I also started working on lyrics to the city's song so I could sing to the bagpipes. ^_^b

Oh my! I did that too!!!!!

Luckily for me, my fiancee got me into the game, and an awesome linkshell full of awesome people (friends now) so they taught me the basics and the "roots" of the game... but when they weren't around, I was left to my own devices.. let's see...

1) The item stacking thing - yeah, didn't know I could do that.
2) Checking mobs/PCs - yeah didn't figure that out for a while, and then once I knew how, I ticked off one-a-many players by constantly checking them.
3) The AH. 'Nuff said.
4) I bought weapons that I couldn't even use. I think I started as a war, and I remember buying a scythe lvl 24 or something from the weapon shop in sandy thinking I could use it.
5) Whenever I came across NPC's, I would buy anything they sold. Like Water and vegetables - I thought I needed them to survive. (who'd a known they'd be for crafting - cooking 53 thank you very much)
6) Macros. Once my fiancee told me about them, i remember saying "they're too confusing, I dont wanna use them." And once I did finally understand them, I spammed " /wave /poke /smile " macros everywhere I went.
7) Chocobos! I thought that the bird stayed with you at all times.. so when I was crossing a zone, I saw a mob that checked as "EP" and got off to fight it and wondered why my bird ran away.

I can't think of anymore. I got a good laugh at all the ones that were posted. I don't think I was ever gimped, my fiancee and linkshell made sure of that.

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Edit: Forgot the funniest one.

For those of you on the PC....

I couldn't figure out how to log out of the game!! I remember pressing every button trying to log out. I knew the "-" sign brought up the menu, but I didn't know I had to press it twice to get to the log out option. I remember I was late for work the first day I got the game (after installing it). I had to "Alt tab" to get out fast and then had someone from the linkshell tell how to do it (fiancee plays on PS2)

Edited, Wed Apr 12 09:35:32 2006 by Bellemithra

Hmmm.....lets see. I picked Galka and decided to go as Warrior. I also ended up in Windy as a couple of my friends who just started were there as well.

My kind of braindead moments.
1. Started lvling in East Saruta - I remember thinking West Saruta was some distant nasty land.
2. Thinking my lvl 30 friend was uber high.
3. I hit level 5 and get the ability to Provoke......hmmm seems kind of useless to me.
4. I used to drop silk threads or give them away.
5. Level 10 I get my first party at Maze of Shakarami with a bunch of LS buddies. Being War I get asked to tank....what is tanking?
6. As part of number 5 I get asked to setup a macro to provoke (You mean I have to use macros in this game too). Also take note of #3 and #5 again.
7. First trip to Dunes (about lvl 15) and konschtat/la theine area for party, sub job items, and tele crystals. These places scare me.
8, 9, 10, 11, 12 - (This one deserves a bunch of numbers in my book) using Great Sword till lvl 33 as Warrior until a Galka Bard in party informed me of Great Axe.
13. Realising I was only a so so tank took me till lvl 37. I then realised spamming provoke is required by warrior tanks to hold hate.....that worked so much better.

Used a spear as WAR (first job) and THF6 until I hit level 30...because I wanted to be a dragoon *slaps himself*, Then, during the DRG quest I realized that *gasp* because I wasn't rank 2 I couldn't get into Chateau d'Oraguille, so I just chose PLD because it was close and fell in love.

I had the macros, scing, and everything, all by the time I hit level 5......5, 55.. *sigh* Didn't even know how that there was an Equip macro until then....and how I hated changing from Dark staff - S/S

-Didn't use AH; bought all of my equipment from NPCs and trades in San d'Oria.
-Considered myself generally wealthy when I made my first 10k (at the time though, which was back at the PS2 launch, 10k was actually a good chunk)
-Fought as a WAR/MNK, and still do to this day. Went from using a Sword and Shield, to Axe and Shield, to Great Sword, and Great Axe.
-Walked to Bastok and Windurst at lvl 15. lol This has to be my greatest little adventure. I still take that long walk from time to time. Kind of relaxing. (Plus cheap.)

Hmmmm...

Well, apart from either dropping or npc'ing crystals (Griselda of the Bat's Lair Inn and Olwyn of the general good store, both in Bastok, still get this smirk on their faces when I walk in), I:

- tried to dodge attacks till around lvl 5, when I came to terms with the fact that dodging doesn't help at all
- managed to lvl my elvaan drg to lvl 36/37 not even thinking about buying some rings and earrings
- thought quests and missions were nothing but a waste of time, things that could only slow you down on accomplishing the real mission of the game: getting to lvl 75
- thought the game was pretty realistic when I saw a bird fight a quadav because...hey, mobs seem to tick each other off as well at times
- thought food is only used by people who didn't understand the value of money
- thought farming was indeed farming, as in cows and milk and growing crops
- looked for a mule at the AH

Later, I started to play a taru mage. New character, new stupid things:
- tried to find the taru dance emote for quite some time. /dance and /swing among many others didn't work...
- placed a Warp macro right next to my favorite nuke spell macro and understood this wasn't all that smart when I ended up in Jeuno while actually trying to Stone II a mandy in the jungle

I probably did some other ridicuous stuff as well, but fortunately I seem to have a selective memory lol.

Funny thread^^

Edited, Sun Apr 16 06:59:47 2006 by Wiseblood

I did a lot of the same stuff.

Heh Ramor, I did the same Spear/WAR thing, because yes, I wanted to be a DRG as well. Didn't snap out of it until much later on, then I used an Axe, like a semi-respectable in the dunes. >.>

I bought/sold all my stuff to NPCs. Didn't try the AH until I was on my second or third character, and was a level 8 WAR or so. Then I'm sure I overbid, cuz I didn't understand how it worked. I didn't learn until I was on my 4th character, and had a support job. >.>

I remember my first day in the game. My buddies and I ran out into sarutabaruta, and a mandragora ate us. :p Obviously, we didn't check it. I also remember whining for someone to lead me back to town too. :p

I remember doing Mission 1-1 with a party of people, running into the Horo Ruins, and getting eaten by a gob... so did everyone else though, cuz back then, we were ALL newbies. >.>

I soloed for a really long time too, not until level 30, but until around level 14. My first real party was in Buburimu, back when people actually partied there... Gosh that was so scary for me. I'm anti-social by nature, so partying was a huge step forward for me. :p I also did the "I g2g" bit after I gained my level too. *looks ashamed*

Typical newbie I guess. :/