Final Fantasy XI

Final Fantasy XI
North American boxart Special Japanese boxartVana'diel Collection boxart
Developer(s)	Square Co., Ltd.
Publisher(s)	PlayStation 2 Sony Computer Entertainment<br[ />Windows (PC)/Xbox 360 Square Enix
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360
Release	PlayStation 2 May 16, 2002 / March 23, 2004 Windows(PC) November 2002 / October 28, 2003 // September 17, 2004 Xbox 360 / April 18, 2006 /// April 20, 2006
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Final Fantasy XI (ファイナルファンタジーXI, Fainaru Fantajī Irebun), also known as Final Fantasy Online, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in the Final Fantasy series. It debuted in Japan on the Sony PlayStation 2 on May 16, 2002 and was released for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers on November 5 of the same year. In January 2004, Square Enix announced that over 500,000 users utilizing over 1 million characters were playing the game. As of 2006 there are currently between 200,000 and 300,000 active players daily and is the dominant MMORPG in the Japanese market. Three expansions for the game have been released since 2002, capitalizing on the game's success.

The story is set in Vana'diel, and various tasks can be performed in that world, either to improve a characters powers or completing quests.

Gameplay

Cutscenes and conversations with NPCs place the player as an important character who participates with the plot as it progresses. From the player's first steps in their starting city to important tasks completed for certain characters, the player is treated as if he or she is the first to interact with such characters, giving the impression of such events taking place in the present moment.

Other players do not view NPC interaction, despite being in the same area, so NPCs are never "busy" talking to multiple players at once. However, some NPCs may turn to face a player's character and stay in that position until another player's character interacts with that specific NPC. Some cutscenes do include other players, such as party members participating in a quest or mission.

Quests provide some story and interaction with NPCs, while missions give a more linear and developed plot. Later missions include a dramatic backstory, and even a final boss that can be defeated, though gameplay still continues. This is a significant difference from many other MMORPGs.

The newest plots are often not available in their entirety at first, and are unlocked gradually over time. For example, both the Zilart and Dynamis storylines are unlocked when the player progresses to a certain rank in either the San d'Oria storyline, Bastok storyline, or Windurst storyline. Ranks are gained by completing missions for any of the three main cities.

The Final Fantasy Theme includes familiar elements from previous Final Fantasies, including; music, jobs, magic, summons, items, monsters, recurring characters from previous titles such as Moogles, Chocobos, and the character Cid.

The world is broken up into different regions, and then zones. Regions are a composite of zones (Sarutabaruta is comprised of Eastern and Western Sarutabaruta, as well as the Inner and Outer Horutoto Ruins). Zones, such as the Inner Horutoto ruins, are where the action actually takes place. Moving from one zone to the next requires loading of data, and monsters cannot pursue you from one zone to the next (this is called "zoning"). On the other hand, this lets the game present different sets of graphics/music/monsters in different zones without taxing your computer/game console.

The nature of the leveling system, and concurrent scaling of monster difficulty, in FFXI has the effect of nearly forcing players to play as groups, more so than other MMORPGs. Not only are there functions that facilitate the formation of parties, the experience gain system and the scaling of difficulty for most jobs to defeat enemies of the same level (an enemy rated as a Decent Challenge at Level 25 will be much more difficult to defeat than a Decent Challenge at Level 1 due to how enemy stats often scale higher than players) makes solo play past a certain level gradually slower and more impractical. This allows jobs (classes) that are solely designed for support of parties, such as Bards, to play a much more significant role than solo play. After around the first 10 or so levels, monsters that a player is able to defeat alone give progressively less experience points; eventually, at higher levels, if a player is able to defeat a monster alone, the monster is likely to give no experience points. The assistance of other players is necessary to gain experience points efficiently, and at the higher levels where "partying" becomes necessary for leveling up, players get abilities that will be more useful in use with others. Parties can accommodate up to 6 players each, and for more difficult missions and quests, up to three parties can form an alliance to work together to take down difficult foes.

FFXI has a fairly complex item synthesis system, in which players use Crystals obtained by fighting the various monsters to turn specific combinations of items into other items. Different recipes, using different classes of ingredients and different Craft skills will produce different types of items. For example, items produced by the Alchemy craft skill under the guidance of the Alchemist's Guild tend to be medicines and antidotes, whereas items produced by Smithing and Leathercrafting tend to be armors of various sorts, and Goldsmithing crafts rings and other accessories. A player may raise in rank within a Guild as their skill for that craft increases, giving them access to item recipes whose products grant higher benefits or net the player more profit. The main flow of profit for crafters in game is the creation of "HQ" or "High Quality" synthesizing. Generally as the gap between both recipe cap and player craft level increases the higher chance of a HQ synthesis occurring. These items usually provide better statistics than their "NQ" or "Normal Quality" counterparts.

Game Economy

FFXI has an almost entirely player-based economy with a heavy reliance on "Auction Houses" in each of the major cities of Vana'diel. Most monsters in FFXI do not drop any in-game currency known as gil when defeated, with the exception of monsters called 'Beastmen'. Beastmen drop very small amounts of gil, however, meaning that unlike other games in the Final Fantasy series, it is impossible to make enough money merely by slaughtering monsters.

Various items used in crafting, as well as sometimes extremely rare equipment items, may drop off the monsters that are defeated. Players who do not require the item may sell it to other players via the Auction House. The Auction House is also the primary method of obtaining weapons, magic scrolls and other materials. Since Final Fantasy XI has been 'live' for a few years, the game economy has expanded as more players acquire more gil and items. As time passes, there will be more game currency in any given server economy. This has lead to a natural inflation of item prices, both of general consumables (food, potions, etc.) and transferable assets (armor, weapons, accessories, and the like). However, because there are servers that have been online for far longer than others, the Purchasing power parity of players on World X may differ greatly from that of players on World Y. The massive difference in Purchasing Power Parity between servers has been a source of consternation for many players, most obviously ones situated on servers with high inflation rates. The laissez faire nature of the economy means there are few price control measures that Square Enix can enact to curb what many players see as rampant inflation. As is detailed below, many players are content to blame inflation problems on "gil sellers" while not taking into account that inflation is inevitable whenever more and more currency is introduced into an economy, or supply cannot meet demand. Furthermore, as trans-server trade of gil or game items is not possible, inflation, and what is effectively a Consumer Price Index, will continue to rise; regardless of the effect of Gil selling, or real-money transfers (RMT), for in-game currency and items.

While Square Enix has developed Final Fantasy XI's economy to be quite a "hands-off" player-driven economy, there are still a few methods of economic control that they can exercise (if that is their wish). One economic and inflation control measure that is in place are "gilsinks". By having player characters spend Gil on services, most commonly transportation, or items provided by Non-Player Characters, game currency is removed from the economy as no player profits off these expenditures. However, in the instance of item purchases, the vast majority of players will purchase items from NPCs for the purpose of crafting low-cost items into a high-cost product in a value-added process. Thus, the profit the crafters will reap negates the investment lost in the gilsinking action of purchasing from an NPC. Until the game developers make finished products like weapons, armor, and specific consumables more available and competitively priced with items that can be crafted in a value-added process by PCs the system of gilsinks will remain an ineffective measure to curb inflation. A form of taxation also occurs when players are charged a fee for selling items in the Auction House. The fee was highest in the central city of Jeuno, where even individual merchant gil transactions through Bazaar are taxed, but in a recent update, Aht Urhgan gained higher Auction fees, while Jeuno's bazaar tax percentage dropped down, as well as the auction fee.

Job system

Main article: Final Fantasy XI character classes

One of Final Fantasy XI's most dynamic features is the flexibility of its job system, adapted from previous Final Fantasy titles. Players are able to change their jobs in their residence freely and without penalty, allowing the player to experiment with a variety of play styles before settling on a single one. Each job has unique abilities, which must be activated by the player in order to come into effect, last a limited time, and have a "cooldown" period before they can be used again; traits, which are passive abilities that are always in effect; and a special "2-hour" ability that performs some extraordinary function and has an extraordinary 2-hour-long cooldown period to go with it.

As of April 2006, a player may choose from 18 different jobs. In homage to the six job classes available in the original Final Fantasy, the initial jobs available to a player are White Mage, Red Mage, Black Mage, Warrior, Thief, and Monk. Upon achieving level 30 in any of these jobs, a player may opt to complete quests to unlock the jobs of Paladin, Dark Knight, Beastmaster, Ranger, Bard, and Summoner. Introduced in the Rise of the Zilart expansion pack were the Samurai, Ninja, and Dragoon job classes, which can also only be unlocked after a character reaches level 30. In the new expansion of Final Fantasy XI, Treasures of Aht Urhgan, three new jobs were made available in the game: Blue Mage, Corsair, and Puppetmaster.

Once the player has attained level 18 on any job, he may complete a quest that enables him to use any job he has as a "support job" for his main job. Support Jobs operate at a maximum of half the level of the player's main job, and gives the character abilities, spells and stat bonuses from that job at that level (with the exception of the sub job's 2-hour ability, and Dragoon's "Call Wyvern" ability). Some elements of Support Job abilities may also be reduced, such as Sneak Attack (loses its damage modifier from Dexterity, making it only a guaranteed critical hit) and Trick Attack (loses its modifier from Agility, making it only transfer enmity with no added damage) when Thief is used as a support job.

The current maximum level in Final Fantasy XI is 75. Level limits are placed at 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70. They are typically referred to as Genkai (level limit) 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. For instance, a character who has not finished Genkai 1 will not be able to level to 51 until he or she completes the quest for Genkai 1. At the time of the release of Treasures of Aht Urhgan, no Genkai 5 quests existed for any of the three new jobs that were added. Breaking the tradition of a fight with a particular NPC in Jeuno, the Genkai 5 quests for these jobs, which will be added in late July, 2006, involve battles with relevant NPCs in the Aht Urhgan areas.

Square-Enix has also announced that there are no plans to increase the level cap beyond 75. On reaching level 75, a character may continue to earn experience points for two reasons: to get a buffer for experience points ('XP') so that XP losses due to deaths do not cause the character to delevel, and to earn merit points which may be traded in to permanently raise specific statistics and gain other enhancements in the merit system. In the merit system, the player is given the option to convert any future experience points into limit points, gained at the same rate as experience points. Limit points are used to accumulate merit points, at a rate of 10,000 limit points to 1 merit point. Merit points can then be used to modify a character, ranging from a bonus to the chance of a melee critical hit to a bonus to any of the seven base statistics. There are caps to how much any one statistic can be raised through the merit system, but it allows for a level of character customization that is not available before the ultimate level cap. A player can choose to return to accumulating experience points instead of limit points at any time in the player's Mog House. In addition, attributes raised by merit points can be lowered through the mog house, although the limit point/merit point cost will not be refunded. If a player's job is level 75, and has capped EXP (43,999/44,000), they will automatically go from "Normal EXP" to "Merit" without changing in their mog house.

Player Vs. Player System

Final Fantasy XI's Player vs. Player (PvP) system is unique among MMORPGs in that players may only compete directly against one another under very specific circumstances. PvP happens only in "matches" that players enter only by their own consent; players cannot attack one another outside of these circumstances. Players who are defeated in a PvP match do not lose experience points, and they cannot lose items or equipment from being defeated.

There are two types of PvP matches: Ballista, and the newly incorporated Brenner. Each is a different game, but both have similar details. The objective of Ballista is to score points by throwing a "Petra" into a "Rook". Participants may find "Petras" by using the Ballista-Only "Quarry" command. Once a "Petra" is found, the participant may score only after attaining "Gate Breach" Status. "Gate Breach" may be attained by killing an opposing team member, or be within the vicinity when an opposing team member is killed. After attaining the 'Gate Breach" Status, participants have 3 minutes to throw the "Petra" into a "Rook" in order to score points. A maximum of 5 Petras may be scored for each period of "Gate Breach" status. Points may also be awarded for taking out opposing team members.

Brenner, a new from of Conflict introduced into the community on February 20th, 2006, is a game similar to Capture the Flag. The objective is to steal the other team's "Flammen", and place it within your own team's "Flammen-Brenner". Depending on the rules set by the MC (players can change a set amount of rules for a small fee), each team can have either two, four, or eight Flammen-Brenner. Each Flammen-Brenner has a set amount of hit points, and when brought to 0, the person who dealt the finishing blow will be given the Flammen. The player who receives the Flammen must run back to an empty Flammen-Brenner on their team's side to fill it with the Flammen. If one team has all Flammen, a 3-minute countdown to victory will commence. Surrounding each Flammen-Brenner is an NPC combatant known as a Posten. These will use powerful magic as compared to the level cap within the battle. They serve no important role in the battle besides damaging enemies and protecting their Flammen-Brenner, and can be knocked-out for a limited time.

For the inaugural "Conflict event", the game of Ballista was used with the rules released before the competition began; it had been thought that the first game would be similar to basketball.

Plot and setting

Setting

File:Vana'diel.jpg

Map of Vana'diel

Final Fantasy XI takes place in a world named Vana'diel.

There are currently 32 servers available for play, and one server used by Square-Enix for testing. Server names follow in the Final Fantasy tradition of borrowing from different mythologies; while some, such as Ifrit and Diabolos, have also been the names of summons in previous Final Fantasy titles, others, like Lakshmi, have no Final Fantasy namesake. PC, PS2, and Xbox 360 players from across all nationalities play together on the same servers.

A player is allocated to a random world when they create their first character. Subsequent characters are automatically assigned to the same server as the first. In order to place a new character on a specific server, a 10-digit passcode, known as a "world pass," may be purchased in-game. When a player creates a new character, by entering this passcode, he is able to place the character in the world from which the world pass was purchased. Once on a world, a character may not be moved to another world, except in the rare event of a World Migration, which Square Enix use as a means of controlling imbalance in server population.

The four main cities in Vana'diel are Bastok, San d'Oria, Windurst, and Jeuno. The expansion "Treasures of Aht Urhgan" (released in Spring 2006) added the large Aht Urhgan Whitegate/Al Zahbi city area. The rest of Vana'diel is made up of a number of outdoor, dungeon, and minor town areas split into various regions. While most areas are accessible by walking, various modes of transportation facilitate movement. Each area in FFXI is quite large and can take a large amount of time to traverse on foot.

Characters

Template:Spoiler There are five races that a player may choose from in Final Fantasy XI. Each race has unique characteristics that make them better suited to certain types of jobs than others.

• Elvaan — the "Elves" of Final Fantasy XI. Steeped in the tradition of knighthood, the Elvaan consider themselves superior to the other races. There are male and female Elvaan. They founded the Kingdom of San d'Oria and the Marquisate of Tavnazia. Elvaan characters rate highly in strength and mind, suffering in intelligence and dexterity.

• Hume — an adaptable race most resembling humans. There are male and female Humes. They formed the Republic of Bastok and the Grand Duchy of Jeuno using the natural resources of the surrounding area. Characters belonging to the Hume race are well-balanced in terms of in-game stats, having no particular strengths or weaknesses.

• Galka — large, beast-like humanoids who possess incredible strength and endurance. The Galka reproduce through reincarnation and therefore have no specific gender, though the race is generally considered to be male. They form the minority population of the Republic of Bastok but originated in the lands of Kuzotz in the far south, where their civilization was destroyed by the Antican beastmen. Galkas are defensively strong and can take and deal a great deal of damage, but have very low ratings for magical power and agility.

• Mithra — cat-like humanoids with agility and grace. There are very few male Mithra, and player characters are only female. They live in the Federation of Windurst and the tropical island of Kazham. It has been hinted that Mithra from Kazham come from a southern island known as Tsahya. The Mithran race is agile and dextrous, but suffer from weak defensive and magical powers.

• Tarutaru — tiny humanoids with incredible intellect and an innate talent for magic. The difference between a child and an adult is sometimes hard to make out. They founded the Federation of Windurst, and live there alongside the Mithra. Rated highly in intelligence and mind, Tarutaru are the perfect magic casters, but have very weak melee stats.

The following two races are featured in the main Final Fantasy storyline and its expansions.

• Zilart — An ancient race that existed 10,000 years before the present events. Their continued attempts to open the Gate of the Gods are the focus of the Rise of the Zilart storyline. In the game's second expansion "Chains of Promathia," the Zilart are revealed to be alive and well.

• Kuluu — An ancient race that existed during the same time period as the Zilart and were considered inferior to them. Only two Kuluu have survived until the present day; however they were unaccounted for until the Chains of Promathia storyline began. The Kuluu lack the ability to directly communicate to the souls of other Zilart, and are considered inferior for that reason.

There are different races that oppose the original five player races, collectively called the Beastmen. These are made up of the following species, most of which together follow the Shadow Lord behind the original story's misfortunes:

• Antica (Ant-like humanoids)
• Gigas (Giants)
• Goblins (Diverse, intelligent beastmen)
• Kindred (Beastmen known as Demons)
• Lamiae (Technically, not true beastmen, though often referred to as such. Naga-like in appearance, these homunculi were created by Imperial alchemists)
• Mamool Ja (Lizard-like humanoids of varying physical features, ranging from Chameleon-like to Monitor-like)
• Moblins (A tribe of non-nomadic Goblins who created and reside in the mining community of Movalpolos)
• Orcs (Orcish brutes)
• Qiqirn (Friendly, rodent-like beastmen)
• Quadav (Turtle-like humanoids)
• Sahagin (Fish-like humanoids)
• Tonberries (Kuluu mutated by the Meltdown)
• Trolls (Massive beastmen, but not as large as Gigas)
• Yagudo (Bird-like humanoids)

File:FourNationsFFXI.jpg

The symbols of the four main nations of Vana'diel

At the start of the game, players may choose whether to side with The Republic of Bastok, The Kingdom of San d'Oria or The Federation of Windurst. Players who select the "Home Nation" for their specific race get a nation specific ring. The objective of implementing national allegiances is to fight for one's country and help it claim as much of Vana'diel as possible, while preventing outright warfare between the nations by substituting this competition for battles. A special status effect known as Signet facilitates conquest; it is bestowed upon the player by an NPC official from the player character's region, a Ducal Guard in Jeuno, or a signet staff. While under the effect of Signet, engaging in successful battles with an enemy in a region will earn Regional Influence points for the Nation the player character belongs to, and Conquest Points for the player. Signet also causes defeated enemies to "drop" elemental crystals, which can be sold or used to create new items from lesser ingredients. At the end of every week (at midnight Japan time on Sunday night), a Conquest Tally is conducted. The Nation with the highest influence will control the region for the week, and the Nations are ranked by the number of regions they control. If the ratio of player deaths to beastmen deaths gets too high, the region falls under Beastmen control, preventing elemental crystals from dropping until a nation regains control. Additionally, that region's "Outpost" (usually a distinct wooden structure within one of the region's zones) and guard stands (short flag poles, usually near entrances to other regions' zones) will become unmanned.

Advantages of controlling a region include having regional Vendor NPCs will sell regional products in the nation controlling their region, the ability to do the Regional Supply Quest for that region, an outpost Teleport will now be cheaper for that region, the ability to renew Signet at the Outpost or any regional guard, and the ability to set Homepoint in the region with no charge.

Plot

There are currently eight major plotlines in Final Fantasy XI, including:

• San d'Oria Storyline
• Bastok Storyline
• Windurst Storyline
• Zilart Storyline
• Dynamis Storyline A
• Dynamis Storyline B
• Chains of Promathia Storyline
• Treasures of Aht Urghan Storyline

The Dynamis storylines are also unique in that the storyline progresses through clearing special Dynamis zones, not through completing missions as with the other storylines in the game. These zones can be entered by up to 64 people at once and have their own set of rules for loot gathering and monster claiming. There are also two distinct Dynamis storylines, the first of which consists of special versions of Windurst Walls, Bastok Mines, Southern San d'Oria, Ru'Lude Gardens (in Jeuno), Beaucedine Glacier, and Xarcabard. The Beaucedine Glacier zone is unlocked upon successful completion of the Windurst, Bastok, Jeuno, and San d'Oria zones, and the Xarcabard zone is unlocked upon completion of the Beaucedine Glacier zone.

The second Dynamis storyline (also the newer of the two) is separate from the first and can only be accessed once a player has progressed through a certain portion of the Chains of Promathia storyline. It consists of Dynamis zones of Qufim Island, Valkurm Dunes, Buburimu Peninsula, and the Tavnazian Safehold. Dynamis-Tavnazia is unlocked by completing the former three zones. As a rule, the newer dynamis zones are meant to be conquered by fewer players: Qufim, Valkurm, and Buburimu hold a maximum of 36 players while Tavnazia can only hold 18. The plots for the three main cities, at least in the missions, are relatively similar, and some of the missions are the same for all factions.

Development

Right at the conclusion of creating the English version of Chrono Cross, work began on the basic system of play for Final Fantasy XI. The Japanese game players were told to expect English speaking players, which was intentional to create a unified game world instead of different one balkanized by language. This development allowed for a 66% reduction of potential costs in setup.

Different creatures had to have their names standardized, as they are called by different names in the Japanese and American versions. It was originally announced that there would be simultaneous release on both the Playstation 2 and PCs as well as concurrent Japanese and American release. The game was developed and run on the NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti GPU, which the President of Square described as the most powerful graphics processor available at the time. Following an August 2001 Beta test in Japan, a public Japanese Beta test was done in December 2001. The game was the first developed under Squares new philosophy to develop for "all platforms and media".

Audio

Final Fantasy XI was scored by Nobuo Uematsu, Naoshi Mizuta, and Kumi Tanioka. The expansion packs were scored by Mizuta alone after Tanioka left to pursue other projects and Uematsu left Square-Enix. A vocal, Distant Worlds, performed by Izumi Masuda, composed by Uematsu and arranged by Mizuta, was later released in a July 2005 patch.

Nobuo Uematsu noted the increased difficulty of scoring a game for which there was no linear plotline, a major change from the previous ten Final Fantasy games. It was also the first Final Fantasy game he composed for while he was no longer a Square employee. At a concert tribute to Uematsu in San Francisco, California, several pieces from the game score were played including "Tina's Theme" and "Ronafure" from Final Fantasy XI. Some of the music from Final Fantasy XI has been released on Itunes for download. A CD of Final Fantasy XI music entitled The Star Onions (Final Fantasy XI - Music from the Other Side of Vana'diel) was released on August 24th, 2005 with ten tracks.

Expansion

File:FFXI Dragoon.jpg

An Elvaan Dragoon in full Artifact Armor

When news was first circulated about an expansion to Final Fantasy XI, it was thought that the game's title would be Final Fantasy XI: Vision of Girade and was unclear whether it would be a free upgrade or not. On October 28, 2003, Final Fantasy XI was released in North America on the personal computer along with the first expansion Rise of the Zilart, with a PlayStation 2 release on March 23, 2004. It was also made available on the Xbox 360, the first collaboration of Square-Enix and Microsoft. The Xbox Live! version was also Beta tested to see how their online playing system supported Final Fantasy XI. The Xbox version was the first game on the Xbox 360 to require the use of their hard drive addition.

The second expansion to the game, Chains of Promathia, was released in Japan on September 16, 2004, and a bundled version of the game complete with the two expansion packs was released in Europe on the same date. Five days later, on September 21, 2004, the expansion was released in North America for $30 USD. In addition, the US version of the full game plus the two expansions was released as a single DVD-ROM called "The Vana'diel Collection" on August 16, 2005. A third expansion, Treasures of Aht Urhgan, was released worldwide on April 18, 2006. The game was also released on Xbox 360 on the same day bundled with all three of the expansions released to date.

A direct sequel of Final Fantasy XI was thought to be in development for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Windows Vista.. Square Enix quickly denied this report, though they confirmed that another MMO is in development, albeit not related to the Final Fantasy series.

Square also announced their intention to let gameplayers communicate by text messaging with people playing the game online.

Release

Final Fantasy XI was listed as one of IGNs most anticipated games of 2004. There were objections raised to naming the game the eleventh in the series, since it was not a structured story, preferring the name Final Fantasy Online. To commemorate the 3 year anniversary of the games release, Square-Enix hosted a Fan Festival where fans could try out the third expansion Treasures of Aht Uhrgan.

Reception

By December of 2002, Square president Yoichi Wada announced that there were over 200,000 subscribers to Final Fantasy XI, allowing the company to make up the investment costs of the game and begin making a profit. In January 2004, Square Enix announced that over 500,000 users utilizing over 1 million characters were playing the game. Having also been released on the Playstation 2 as well as the personal computer, it became the first cross platform MMORPG ever created. Right before its release on the Playstation 2, 1/3rd of the players were thought to be English speaking. Japanese players are thought to prefer playing on their Playstation 2s, while English speakers prefer the PC version of the game. There are also currently between 200,000 and 300,000 active players daily.

For the April-September 2004 financial period, Square saw online gaming, particularly Final Fantasy XI, sales increase by 101 percent and operating profit increase by 230.9 percent. As of summer 2006, revenues have continued to hold steady from subscription services. Since its Xbox 360 release it has become by August 14th, 2006, the 6th most played game at Xbox Live!.

It was rated an 8.4 at Gamestats.com. It was thought to be a well done but unoriginal game, and in fact with only Japanese servers running and forcing North American players to play with already much more experienced Japanese players, all the quests had literally already been beaten. Gamespot criticized for having an unconventional control system, a lengthy installation, and having no player versus player aspects. Other problems have included EXP grind which involves constant battles to access different parts of the game, and overcrowded camp sites. With regard to the Xbox 360 release, there has been criticism that the game would only work if accompanied by a hard drive.

Final Fantasy XI was awarded the grand prize from the Japan's Consumer Entertainment Software Association (CESA) for 2002-2003 along with Taiko no Tatsujin. It was also named IGNs Game of the Month for March, 2004, citing the games huge customization and its successful cross-platform and cross-language game world. A Final Fantasy XI themed lobby is present in the online game Minna no Golf.

Updates

On June 14th, 2002, the game server was down for four hours for maintenance to the database servers, bug fixes on the text interface and a new patch for the game client. This is thought to be the first patch ever released for a console game.. On July 8, 2002, Square also shut down the item auction system due to some players exploiting the system. In early 2006 SquareEnix discovered that a group of players had found a way to generate the game currency and exchange it for real currency, which in turn drove up prices for all items across the game. In response, 700 accounts were permanently banned and 300 billion Gil was removed from circulation. This effort is an attempt to stop Real-money trading (RMT) in the online game. Square Enix has stated that RMT is officially a violation of the Terms of Service for Final Fantasy XI. In July 2006, Square banned or suspended over 2,000 other accounts for similar manipulation and commerce. The summer 2006 update will allow for the long requested ability for players to raise and breed Chocobos.

External links

• PlayOnline (Official North American Site)
• PlayOnline (Official European Site)
• Final Fantasy Wiki category list for Final Fantasy XI
• StrategyWiki's FFXI wiki guide (previously hosted by Wikibooks)
• FFXIclopedia (wiki dedicated solely to Final Fantasy XI)

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