thistlechaser | And last stop on the 'I hate FFXI train'...

First off, best license plate ever:

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So continuing in my efforts to do everything I hate the most in FFXI, today I spent half the day random partying.

quistie made a post called How does Thistle do this?, and so I feel like I should title this post 'How does the rest of the world do this?'. Honestly, I don't understand how anyone puts up with random parties, ever. I'd rather sit and stare at my screen with the computer turned off. This is how my day went:

(Hour and a half waiting for an invite.)

Party #1: Actually worked! ...until some idiot brought a PL in. Then the WHM stopped curing and people died. Luckily the party lasted only 30 minutes total.

Party #2: WAR/WHM leader/tank, never got more than three members. Disbanded after 40 minutes.

Party #3: Asked to go to the Desert. Left the Jungle, got to the Desert. Party never got more than 2 members. Disbanded.

Party #4: (After another hour seeking) Asked to go back to the Jungle. I kindly told the person what they could do with the Jungle.

Party #5: Had three members... puller pulled... we all died. Got member #4, puller pulled, we all died. Got member #5... can you see the pattern here? By the time we had 6 people, I was five levels lower than everyone else. >< I got next to no XP, yet I kept dying. Negative XP for the party.

And so on. About 9 hours total spent, and I made about 7K total XP. Suddenly XPing through Campaign only doesn't look so bad!

All this doesn't even mention how awful the people are. Unskilled, sucky armor, "lol" all over the place, and insulting everyone at every turn. Say macros, idiot party "funny" macros, macros about avatars giving party members blow jobs, god. If I had been on COR, I would have just shot them all.

I can't remember the last time I partied with randoms, it's probably been years, and it's going to be years more before I do it again. (Which is a shame, because I actually liked SAM, but no job is going through this crap.)