...Ok, so. I'm not sure if I've addressed this or not yet but... It may seem I'm laughing in the faces of all those who got bad news on FFXI. That's not the case. You see, my grandfather owned the company business I now work for, He passed away in October of 2003 and my dad inherited the company and we moved into his house and the company's base of operations. Everynight to this very day since I have slept only feet from where my grandpa passed away. At 14-15, this did NOT sit well with me. I had moved away from all of my outside of school friends into a house that reminded me of my grandpa constantly. I found my comfort in a box at Walmart that I paid $81.99 for; Final Fantasy XI with Rise of the Zilart preloaded. FFXI was my escape from the things that bothered me IRL. I was bored IRL? FFXI. That girl in high school shot me down? She was nothing special, FFXI.
Maybe this type of escape was a bad thing but it slowly became less of a crutch and more of a hobby, for awhile I quit until I got a PM on here from a person some of you may know as Ladyjazz. It was an invitation to a new LS. So I came back, joined up, and ended up, like Jazz, an Officer. Those days spent in TitanSentinels were not just "some" of the best days of my time playing FFXI, they were THE best days of my time playing FFXI. Seekers of Adoulin came out and it seemed to ruin everything. The LS seemed to just die overnight. I had only been logging on to chat as I found nothing post-Seekers I was interested in so I announced my hiatus on my LS' website which I later ended up editing to be an indefinite hiatus. I ended up here...watching and waiting for news of something that would interest me and nothing ever caught my interest until I saw some of you guys starting FFXIV. I have had the temptation on free weeks to log on to XI but I know what awaits; an empty or broken linkshell.
To put it into perspective, the thought of going back to FFXI now to find the LS empty and my beloved friends gone is the same sadness I felt as a 15 year old boy, on the day my grandpa was laid to rest. I have lost friends who were very dear to me and I don't want to go back. This is also the reason I changed my name. Yes, I will always be called Kojo to most of you but that was just a name from a chapter in my life that is over.
I didn't really know where else to post this so I'm just posting it here.
/bow