Imagine XI
MMO Community Research Project

Hello everyone,

Imagine XI is an independent MMO community research project built on Final Fantasy XI.

The purpose of the project is to study how game systems influence player behavior, party formation, retention, progression, and long-term community health. Rather than attempting to perfectly recreate a specific era of FFXI, the server is being used to test design ideas and observe how players interact with them.

Research areas include:
  • Party composition and role diversity
  • Job popularity and specialization
  • Progression pacing
  • Retention and return rates
  • Cooperative vs. individual play patterns
  • Economy participation
  • Mission and content engagement
  • Social network formation within online communities


The project may collect anonymous gameplay metrics such as:
  • Job selection
  • Party demographics
  • Spell and ability usage
  • Content participation
  • Leveling behavior
  • Economic activity


No personal research data is collected beyond what is required to operate the game service.

Core Design
  • Permanent level 75 cap with horizontal endgame — post-75 enemies and content keep their teeth, post-75 gear is rebalanced for level 75 use, and content gated above 75 is normalized down so nothing is locked out of the game. Still in development.
  • All spells are auto-learned as you level — including Blue Magic. No mob-learning grind, no scroll hunting required to keep a job functional.
  • True bidirectional Level Sync: sync anchors to the target's real level — lower members sync up, higher members sync down, and skills are treated as capped for the synced level.
  • RUN and GEO available from character creation


Job & Combat Systems
  • All-weapons equip freedom: build what you want.
  • SMN: avatar perpetuation cost removed at the engine level, blood pact timers removed, and pet gear lines rebalanced.
  • SCH: Accession/Manifestation reworked as time windows that apply to multiple eligible spells, not one-and-done per cast.
  • HNMs are sleep-immune
  • Party-support enhancements for several jobs.
  • Alternative TP and casting experiments currently in development.


Quality of Life & World Systems
  • Pixie Rescue revival system: die in the field and a pixie spawns to raise you, heal the party, and keep you safe while you recover.
  • Mission-optional progression paths.
  • Infinite ammunition and ninja tools removed.
  • Item stacks increased to 99.
  • Permanent Warp Scroll.
  • Mounts unlocked early.
  • Relaxed entry requirements on selected instanced content.
  • Enhanced page completion rewards.
  • Market Lottery system.
  • Gil and Sparks exchange NPC, plus a conquest point exchange on a single consistent currency ladder.


Client Experience
  • Custom launcher with automatic updates — DATs, addons, and config delivered with checksums, no manual patching.
  • ImagineXI Overlay: a full custom Windower HUD — player/party/target panels, cast bar with recasts, live equipment grid with tooltips, quest tracker, DPS/HPS meter, party-wide Treasure Hunter tracking, AH activity feed, and a modern menu dock using real client icons. All draggable, resizable, per-panel opacity.
  • Custom DATs layered via XIPivot, so item descriptions and tooltips always match actual server stats.


The goal is not to determine a single "correct" way to play FFXI, but to better understand which systems encourage sustainable communities, diverse group play, and long-term engagement.

A Brief Personal Note

Some of you may remember my old BlueGartr account from when I was a teenager or young adult. If you go digging through my post history, you'll likely find things I said that I wouldn't say today.

Like many people who grew up online in the early internet era, I've had years to learn, mature, and gain perspective. I'm not the same person I was then. Life has a way of changing people.

I'm posting from the same account because it's mine, and I don't feel the need to pretend that part of my history never happened. I can only acknowledge it, own it, and continue moving forward.

My hope is that any opinions about the project are based on the project itself—the research, the design ideas, and the community we're trying to build—rather than comments made by a much younger version of me many years ago.

Whether you agree with the project's goals or not, I appreciate anyone willing to evaluate it on its current merits.

Feedback, discussion, and participation are welcome from anyone interested.

Launcher: https://github.com/markup-ux/imaginexi-updates
Discord: https://discord.gg/b2jE66Bjxq

— Mark Wilson
Independent Researcher
Sigma Xi Research Society
Imagine XI Research Project