Friendlist {|Do you need it?|}

A few days back as I was sitting in Ru’Lude Gardens after browsing the auction house, I took a look at my friendlist and realized every single person that I’ve ever put on there has quit the game. Nearly 15 people that didn’t bother me as much as the rest of the populace and were actually respectable, all gone. That got me thinking; is the friendlist even needed? The people in my linkshell will never need to be added because I can just ask something in /l and get an answer, as well as a half-dozen idiot responses. Most people that play this game with their friends know when they’re going to be online and usually talk on AIM or something because they’re cheaters that use a windower. It’s not exactly an exploit or hack, but it does break the ToS. So cheaters most of you are, and cheaters most of you will always be. That being said, if I ever get around to actually downloading it I’d use both the windower and one of those parsers just to publish how fucking half-assed most of the people I’ve partied with really are. I nice list of people, what kind of shitty gear they have and how they fuck up would certainly make the blog more exciting. Encore, being the only ls-mate I’ve been able to XP party with probably ever is an exception. He did exactly what black mage is supposed to do in the Jungles (that being nuke and not die), even with a ninja tank and a severely gimped Drk/Nin (Ninja tanks in the Jungles and Drk/Nin before level 30 both being future blog entries.). The most bizarre thing the friendlist does is show when people are logged onto PlayOnline, but not yet on FFXI. To me that’s very reminiscent of a dog watching out the window, waiting for its owner to return. If SE removed the friendlist completely, would anyone really be affected?