Common Courtesy

Final Fantasy XI Online has a lot of little courteous things that many people take for granted. These are all minor things that everyone should follow to keep everyone around them happy. Without common courtesy, we might as well all be playing World of Warcraft right now.

Courtesy in Parties

 * First and foremost, it's always good to have your subjob at an appropriate level. Having an underleveled subjob tells the party that you are lazy and unwilling to play to your best.
 * Unless the whole party is doing so, keep language appropriate. No one wants to hear the F-word ten times in every sentence you type.
 * Gear is obviously not as important as skill, but it's also courteous to your party to come with at least moderately good equipment. Go with what feels right for you.
 * For Mages, equipment should be the last thing on your minds. Keep up the spells. Some spells are less important, but try to keep up-to-date as best as you can. "I'm too poor" isn't a really good excuse.
 * Know what you're doing. Playing White Mage and being Power Leveled all the way to Lv60, then not knowing how to Cure is a surefire way to get your party killed.
 * This one may seem obvious, but it happens a lot. Don't go away without informing your party.
 * If you're tired, tell the party. Either disband and find a replacement, or warn them of how tired you are so they can keep close watch over you.
 * Concerning replacements: Don't leave a party without at least a few minutes' warning and at least an attempt at finding a replacement.
 * Try as hard as possible to make sure your party is going to stick together if you do manage to find a replacement. It's very annoying taking a ten minute run, only to find out you need to Warp back anyway.
 * Keep the levels of your party members close together. Having a party that ranges from Lv35 to Lv40 is not going to be very good. The Lv35 would experience a huge exp loss, and the Lv40 wouldn't get kills as fast.
 * Set your Home Point accordingly. Don't have your Home Point in Whitegate when you're partying in Valkurm. This especially goes out to the tanks and healers- the most likely to die.

Courtesy for Everyday Things

 * Spamming anything; whether it's in /say, /shout, /tell, or /em, it's all very annoying.
 * Don't put tons of words in your macros. Just get the point across.
 * If you have Cure or anything of the sort, solo players often appreciate a buff or a little Cure.
 * Same thing goes for Raise. If you're not in a hurry, don't just run past a KOed player if you have time to stop and give a quick Raise.

There is a lot of courtesy in this game and that's what separates us from the savages of World of Warcraft and most other MMORPG's. There are a lot more measures of courtesy out there. Don't hesitate to add anything you see missing. If everyone followed this little page 100%, the game would be the best game in the world.