The Cult Of FFXI

I think after reading so many if these post that FFXI is no longer just a game but has transformed into something more sinister. A program that completely controls the weak minded. Some of you will deny having an addiction to this game yet you play if literally for 18 hours a day. There is a reason SE put up the message when you log in about not forgetting about work and friends and family. It's cause it actually happens! FFXI is a sickness, a mental disorder. Some of you will be playing this game when your old and gray and that is simply pathetic. Now go ahead and bash me for telling you FFXI junkies and addicts that you are what everyone including yourself already know.

While that is 100% true, it's not XI but MMO

It's part of why they're going extinct. Can't get the young ones into the addiction.

I slightly disagree.

Its more that after so many years, they've distilled the addictive parts down and refined them into far more sinister things. Loot boxes, straight up gambling, etc.

They've perfected the art of addictive games for money now, so MMOs have gone out of style because they are just the slower, older version of the process.

Hyper addictive, 'drain your wallet', phone games are the new MMOs, plain and simple. Just a substantially more streamlined version that targets children.

Which is... horrifying to say the least.

Joke's on you. After reading this post I've traded in my Marsyas for meth.

Hmm. When I first saw the thread topic,ni thought it was just another troll post.

After reading the post, I think it's a player's significant other who is projecting (likely) Her frustration at the community instead of at the individual.

Just a guess.

I took a ten year break for this exact reason. But the reality is though MMO's and now phone games are geared to the reward systems of our brains and thus why they are addicting, fault also lies with the individual.

Everyone has a responsibility to those around them and I believe although SE profits off the system they do put the warning in there to remind us. In the end SE would rather us take years to complete objectives that to grid 15+ hours a day because the profit is in the long haul.

You can do both: play FFXI & do other things. I think that's an over generalization to some degree. While there may be some people who play this game to the exclusion of other life pursuits, it is also very common for people to have several other hobbies. FFXI just happens to be one of them in a long list of things. It's easier to play this game and pay once a month and stay subscrubed than it is for me to buy a new game from GameStop (idk what the new game stores are now?) every 3 months for 60$ that I won't bother picking up again.

FFXI has a good bit of depth, so there are layers to the progression each player will make. It's not always an addiction to the game, but it's the thrill of character development that keeps people playing. If there are people who play for 18 hours a day, it's likely they don't have many friends, a social life, a family, hobbies/work, or are just socially awkward. And for those people, that's their choice. Not sure why that's anyone else's concern.

FFXI used to be about adventure. Now it's about gear and parsing.

We have only ourselves to blame.

I was hoping Jim Jones would be here with a bucket full of glowing weapons...I'm disappointed.

If FFXI is a sickness surely posting low quality threads on a third rate hack website is the solution !

Someone better make a meme out of this immediately

Also the 18 hours you speak of most people are AFK.

I'd say in a given day the average person plays 1-2 hours max.

Unless you consider all the bots farming spheres 18 hours a day then maybe you got a point.

That's a good point if you look at the price/entertainment value of a MMO. It is much cheaper than paying 60 bucks for a 20-30 hour game you beat. Even if you are extremely casual about FFXI you can slowly work towards long term goals. Instead of beating a game in a week or two and being bored.

Just because you're sick doesn't mean the rest of us are, go get help.

“The cult of Final Fantasy” Richy will work on the rest of the lyrics

I mean, a lot of players started the game when they were young, like in high school or college. Most of us are grown *** adults now with families and careers. I do enjoy playing and I'll probably play for years longer but I have a life outside of the game, and it's the same way with the people I play with.

And it's MMOs in general, not just Final Fantasy XI. They are addictive by their very nature.


Yeah, the new "GaaS" stuff is really just MMO-style gotchas. Only instead of a sizable team churning out lots of new content they are more content-light, so more profitable with less investment. I see my kids getting into this stuff, games like Fornite or Overwatch, and it's just predatory. Gaming has largely adopted a sick business model, honestly playing MMOs feels healthier at this point.

If I were to add up my subscription fees and then compare them to any number of hobbies i enjoy as regularly as playing FFXI, it wouldn't even be close. 13 bucks a month for 15 years vs buying a new video game/console every 3months/2 years (I still have an xbox 360 and ps3 slim i never use, thats how behind on latest game consoles I am). FFXI saves me money on gaming (I quit FFRK and PokemonGo for the depth/freemium cost reasons I mentioned above).


It's all about Life Balance. And have to teach the kids the same. Video games are cool, and have a place, but it's not healthy to consume them in large portions, to the exclusion of other things. The same can be said about any area of life actually. Many of us know of people who are complete bookworms and super into schooling/education, and are extremely smart, but they can't hold a casual conversation with another human because they've adopted such an overly complex way of communicating. It's all not healthy in the long run, just comes out to balancing it all out.

Don't forget that despite all the people that never talk to anyone in online games. A lot of people play for the social aspect. It isn't all about glowing in Jeuno. I've had some very good chats with linkshell members.

The trash talk and laughs in discord are awesome, could log for that only.

I haven't played fortnite, but I'd disagree. The gameplay in Overwatch(and I believe Fortnite as well) is entirely unaffected by any sort of real money transaction(unless you go to a gaming market to pay someone to boost you or something.. not the ingame stuff).

Both offer substantial entertainment value out of gameplay with no purchase at all in Fortnite's case, and a single one-time game purchase in Overwatch's case. People needing the newest skin to look cool is reflective of the individual as much as the design imo. Most people I know who play these games buy cosmetics rarely or never.

Thanks, Nite....


Look in my eyes, what do you see?
The cult of Final Fantasy
I know your anger, I got my DREAM's
I'm everything you want to be

Just sorta wrote itself. LOL

FFXI is far more social than other games. Even social media in general. Kids these days will be in the same room and text each other rather than just talk lol. It's kind of strange, they have developed a social awkwardness in person, it's really a shame. I had my wife's sister bring her friends over to just hang out, they all texted each other. It was madness.

I know I sound crazy with this, but i'll say it anyways. MMOs DO teach you how to work together and collaborate, and you do build valuable people skills in the process. I joked with a friend of mine who used to play WOW, he put on his job resume that he had "Project and Event Management experience", because he used to "coordinate" raids and "discuss" fight strategy and roles for each person, and then "follow through" on it. He explained that he would assign everyone a role, and then "periodically check in" to make sure it was being executed properly. He would "adjust scope of plan on the fly", in reference to changing the battle strategy mid-fight.

I thought it was kind of silly, but then when I thought about it, I realized how true that actually is. Just dealing with the many different personalities in a video game is an experience in itself, and it translates to other areas. Certainly not the same as managing a large-scale project for a corporation, but the same foundational skills apply (working with people, arranging assignments). I say all of this to say, joking about people who have "no life" playing a video game, you'd be surprised to know these are very skilled and intelligent people in real life and their attachment to the game has no bearing on their outside life. I know thats what people want to believe, but it's not always the case.

and who has the better lua and bott coded

My FFXI addiction drove me to... math! I spent hours last night trying to pin down the formulas for luopan perp cost(bagua charm and JA interactions.) See the depths of my depravity.

For every 10 people who you know that rarely or never buy cosmetics, there is a person who spends on them obsessively. And GaaS exists to exploit these weak-minded people. In Call of Duty they made it so loot boxes fall from the sky and other players see it/see what you get:



And there are countless other examples. I stand by what I said, it's predatory.

About as predatory as supermarkets and gas stations putting impulse buy candy/soda by the checkout. Lootboxes are fine, if they don't provide gameplay advantages.

A fool and his money are easily parted.

Pretending to be a woman and cybering could be concidered as a"very good chat" I guess.

This is a false equivalence.

What is specifically sinister about those kinds of microtransactions is how they prey on your sense of self-worth.

Candy at the checkout line is "gee I want sugar right now."
Microtransactions in video games is "I feel more powerful/elite/talented/worthwhile as a player or as a person."

Those cosmetic skins sure make a big difference for all of those categories, yep.