Some info about the game:
- There is several version of the game, JP (japanese) PC, JP PS2, JP XBOX360, NA (North America) PC, NA PS2, NA XBOX360, EU (European) PC and EU XBOX360. The best graphics is on the PC.
- Beware on what version of the game you buying, eventhough you can use any version of the game to play your character (after you register), you can only use the original version to get the expansion. eg. I bought the PS2 US version when they launched it and I also bought EU PC and XBOX360 version when it finally arrive over here. When they launched it in the UK, a new expansion pack (Treasure of Aht Urhgan) was introduced and I cannot access the new area eventhough my EU version have it installed. I had to import the US PS2 expansion pack to get the registration code and after registering, I can access the area even using the EU version. (still with me? lol)
- There are many "jobs" you can choose to be in this game, I will give you a brief info on them:

Starting Job
1- Warrior - One of the best DPS class, all rounder when it comes to weapon choices and they have the main job trait in the game "Provoke" or taunt(you are WOW refugee, so i assume you know these MMORPG terms)
2-White Mage - main healing class, will also buff the party members
3-Black Mage - Nuke, using magic to dmg mobs.
4-Thief - Can also be compared with rogue, high evasion, best spike dmg, can run ver fast ("flee" ability)
5-Red Mage - "Refresh" b*tch in party
6-Monk - Again another DD, use hand-to-hand weapon and have high HP boost.

Advanced Job:
7-Paladin - By far the best tanking class, can cure himself and get a lot of damage mitigating moves.
8-Dark Knight - Master of dark magic, very powerful DD (damage dealers) and they get cool armour
9-Dragoon - You get a pet dragon (wyvern) to help you deal damage, one of the most hated job in FFXI world, you must have a very thick skin to lvl this job lol, also known as LOLDRG
10-Samurai - Good DD, best known for ability to WS (weaponskill) this is where you do a special move all the time.
11-Ranger - This used to be god in FFXI, the damage output is just insane but since the nerf the damage is lowered. Rng cannot use trap, they just use range weapon.
12-Ninja - This is by far the coolest job around, you get to cast magic so you have shadows, and when mobs hit you, the shadow absorbs it. So, Ninja is shadow-tank and Paladin is blood-tank. Since they nerf Ninja job, it is harder to tank as a Ninja.
13-Bard - Sing songs to buff party, debuff mobs and to run really fast lol
14-Beastmaster - Beastmaster have ability to "charm" or control mobs to fight for or with him. Solo master
15-Corsair- New job from new expansion, Blend between Ranger and Bard. The coolest thing about this job is you get to use gun and wear pirates costume in party, arrrrrr
16-Blue Mage- New job from expansion.A very good DD that uses magic to land physical attack, these attacks is learnt from mobs,
17-Puppetmaster - LOLPUP
18-Summoner- You get to summon avatars (eg Carbuncle, Ifrit, Diaolos etc) and make them fight for you, super duper damage from specail 2-hour ability.

-That is a lot of jobs, the good thing is you can use the same character to have all these job, the main jobs you get at start, and the advanced job you have to quest it at lv30. When you get bored with 1 job, you can change job at your residence anytime. There saving you the money to create 18 toons to try out different jobs.

-At level 18 you can do quest (you see the pattern here? this is a Japanese game and they LOOOOVEEEE quests) to equip subjobs. This is where you get to equip a second job, for example Warrior/Ninja, but you can only get half of the ability/levels from the second job. In that example a max out 75 Warrior (the lvl cap is at 75 at the moment and they planning to keep it at that) can have a lvl 37 Ninja subjob. He will get the ability of lvl 37 Ninja, notably the ability to cast shadows on himself, making him one fearsome DD.

-Soloing is very hard in FFXI, as the monster grow harder as you lvl up, the only feasible soloing job is beastmaster where they charm a mob and send it to fight another mob.

-Partying is the only way to progress past level 11-ish and it is hard to get party. Some jobs get invites easier than other and some job is considered a must for a pt and without them there will be no party, ie tanks and refreshers.

-PvP is laughable in this game. They tried to introduce it by creating a new PvP arena but as you said in your post, it suucksssssss.

-Server - There is a lot of servers to choose from when you start the game, the only problem is you cannot create extra character on another server, so if for example you created a toon on Ifrit server (my server ) and then you decided to create extra character, your new character will only be in Ifrit.

-World - The world is ok and they tend to rename mobs for another area, especially pre-Arht Urhgan, You fight crabs at lvl 10 and you fight crabs at level 40, its lame. If you are a FFVII fan you might notice that the world map is the same with FFVII world map

K, thats it. if you have anymore question feel free to ask on this thread, will try to answer it

Hehehehe, I am on Ifrit server. But the server is slowly dying and the last time I played, like 2 weeks ago, there is only 1500 people on the server at that time and it was during US prime time. Looking for parties is soooo hard now so I started playing WoW while having my flag up.

I wont be surprised if this server is the first to be combined with another to increase the population.

eh?

I just resubbed on my Playonline US version using my CIMB CC which obviously use my Malaysian address. Are you sure you are doing it the right way? You cannot change the address on the main part only the CC part. Like mine, the acc address is in the states (totally made up too) but my Credit Card address like I said earlier is in Malaysia.

Just started playing again after a year and a half hiatus (just had a baby girl, now she can walk and find her own food so I can get back to my gaming way of life ) and heard that they are increasing the level cap on the next update. I think I will finally quit for good if they do that and just play FFIII while waiting for FFIX to go gold.

What server is Malaysian players active in?