Final Fantasy XI - Online

Certainly not me. I love FFXIbut the amount of time required to combat the Pandemonium Warden - can you say 18 hours without flinching? - is just insane.

Imagine the hailstorm of feedback this got - too difficult, too time-consuming, too everything. FFXI’s developer heard the frosty reception and released this sweet little memo…and I quote:

Regarding Specific Notorious Monsters

The past two weeks have seen considerable feedback from players regarding the amount of time required to combat the Pandemonium Warden, a recently implemented Notorious Monster (NM). Discussion has spread significantly throughout forums, and it has become apparent that this is indeed an issue of major unrest in the community.

We would like to assure players that the development and management teams place a high value on their feedback, and the issue has since been taken under serious consideration. Together with Absolute Virtue, it has been deemed that the combative techniques for weakening these NMs are too difficult. As a result, some players have engaged these enemies using unanticipated methods which led to extended battle times. It is by no means the desire of the development team to see players involved in encounters that require an excessive amount of time and effort to complete. It was for this reason that previous measures were put into practice which prohibited NMs from being held in battle for prolonged periods. In response to these events, we have determined that further alterations are required to prevent such battles from exceeding a certain predetermined length of time.

HALLELUJAH!

Welcome to my blog site. This is for all you FFXI players, fans and nuts — both newbies and vets — whose free time (um, 20 out of 24 hours, I suppose?) is dedicated to the game. This is my first post which I would like to use as a springboard for newbies to get into the swim of things.

So here’s FFXI in a nutshell:

• Final Fantasy XI AKA FFXI is an MMORPG (that stands for massively multiplayer online role-playing game, folks!) published by Square Enix.
• Its PC version was released in 2003.
• The story is set in the fantasy world of Vana’diel
• All battles are real time (hooray!)
• The four main cities in Vana’diel are Bastok, San d’Oria, Windurst, and Jeuno.
• There are 5 races: Elvaan, Hume, Galka, Mithra, and Tarutaru
• These are the common monsters ready to kick you and your Aunt Fanny: Adamantoise, Ahriman, Behemoth, Bomb, Cactuar, Chimera, Cockatrice, Flan, Four Fiends, Garuda, Iron Giant, Malboro, Tonberry
• The Shadow Lord is Public Enemy Number One
• Players begin the game as residents of any one of the three main countries, San d’Oria, Bastok and Windurst
• Gameplay is comprised of two major components: missions and quests
• Each nation and expansion has its own set of missions and quests
• A player may choose from 20 different jobs — Warrior, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Thief, Paladin, Dark Knight, Beastmaster, Ranger, Bard, Summoner, Samurai, Ninja, Dragoon, Blue Mage, Corsair, Puppetmaster, Dancer, and Scholar.
• FFXI players can participate in crafting and hobbies.
• FFXI has a largely player-based economy, with a heavy reliance on “Auction Houses”
• FFXI currency is called “gil“

So that’s the (cracked) nutshell version of what the game is basically about. Expect a lot of action and a lot of grinding. As for moi, to get away from the daily grind (hey, I have a life outside FFXI, ya know!), I invest in the occasional gil from sites like IGE.com. And no, I don’t a give a second thought about purchasing virtual currency. Life is too short to waste arguing about the EULA.

I’ll be back with another post soon.

Your friendly FFXI Nut