s I opened up my inbox this morning, I was greeted by a message from my friends at Square-Enix. More precisely, I had received my copy of the Final Fantasy XI Newsletter. I think it's been more than three years since I've played, but the month that I spent in Vana'diel gave me some of the best gaming memories of my lifetime. No other online community of which I've been a part has been so open and supportive of its new members – when a stranger approached you, nine times out of ten they were there to provide a useful snippet of information or some great conversation.
Final Fantasy XI's party system is both its biggest crutch and its greatest asset. Although being a new player can prove difficult, once one works up the courage to reach out to a stranger and complete that first party quest, you're almost certain to become hooked. This reliance on forming parties probably helped facilitate a lot of the social interaction I experienced, though I'm pretty confident that a great community of dedicated gamers played a part as well.
So here's my quandary: in an attempt to win back players who have since moved on to other things, Square-Enix is offering to recover characters which were thought lost forever. That's right – my Lvl. 20 Thief / Lvl. 15 White Mage is there, waiting for me in the depths of some cold dark server. I'm still a bit hesitant to rescue her – the month I spent playing Final Fantasy XI left me feeling more antisocial (in the real world, anyway) than I had since preschool. Anyway, consider yourselves warned. If I disappear for a month or two in the foreseeable future, you now know where to look for me.
