I think there were actual documentaries back in the day that talked about it but I really don't remember. Also depends on what countries dudes were doing it from.
Didn't some dude one time post a car he bought with the amount of gil he sold?
Oh god yes. I don't recall his name but I want to say he stopped posting shortly after. And I believe he sold his character? I want to say it was right after making a relic and my memory is saying Apoc. Someone could do some digging if they wanted but that's what my memory says.
You can't have kings without botting. They go hand in hand. Always did. Pretty much the only LS who got consistent pulls were those that botted and it was the same 2-3 LS per server. They all denied it (ofc) but they all fucking did it. It was only fun for those groups, but for those ignorant enough to believe botting was rare or nobody really did it, we wasted countless hours of time (I know I did).
Besides that, the weird hours that kings would spawn was annoying because of how their spawn windows worked. I remember my LS claimed Nidhogg at like 3 AM and I got a phone call to log in and haul my ass to Aery. Of course I did because I was 16 and had no real responsibilities. Was worth it because I got a drop I needed by default. But shit like that was crazy.
We've had this debate before on other threads. I was one of the best claimers in iiZerg without botting, and I even have screenshots with panda proving how often I claimed and him still being mad at me for not botting.
Should have been awake camping not just ready to log on after other people did the work to claim.Besides that, the weird hours that kings would spawn was annoying because of how their spawn windows worked. I remember my LS claimed Nidhogg at like 3 AM and I got a phone call to log in and haul my ass to Aery. Of course I did because I was 16 and had no real responsibilities. Was worth it because I got a drop I needed by default. But shit like that was crazy.
Camping SW/DI without the death spot alarm was an exercise in insanity. 6 hours of widescanning on the off chance that it even appeared in your zone.
god didn't intend for them to be camped in such a way
I don't miss that alarm sound, it would scare the fuck out of me while being half asleep slumped in my chair.
I kind of regret that HNM was the only activity I never really did. Never was in a LS that camped them, but I also didn't need any of the drops from them for my main jobs so it wasn't a huge deal for me. I certainly went to HNM camps sometimes to watch when I was bored, and pretty sure I helped out other LS a few times as an allied or neutral party, but never really got the full experience. I didn't bot and I knew all the HNMLS were botting so times I helped claim I wasn't very hopeful lol. Don't think I ever got one but can't remember at this point.
The other endgame activity I only dipped my toes into briefly was salvage, and I'm kind of glad about that >_>
I fucking loved Dark Ixion and Sandworm at first because it was so different and outside the box of SE’s regular fare. But like everything else, trying to do it everyday got old quick.
Same. I do think they tried an experiment to stop bot claiming and it just ended up being eh. They should have made them way harder and unable to be held
Lot of people have made massive amounts of money off this game at the various stages of it's life time.
(And by massive I am referring to 6+ digits wise.)
Back during RoZ/CoP classic times, money was mostly made off of:
- Selling items.
- Selling gil.
- Selling characters.
- Powerleveling services.
As more things were added to the game, more points of interest to sell things started. In Treasures, stuff like:
- Selling items, gil, chars.
- Powerleveling services.
- Content clears. (Assault, Nyzul, Salvage, Einherjar, etc.)
- Full carries through expansion content.
- Selling claims of mobs/kings/etc.
- Selling limit points/merit points caps etc.
With the latest expansions in the game, I'd say there is more room for profit now than before. The amount of sellable content has greatly increased because of how the game is now structured. Everything has value to someone and every aspect of the game can be sold for a price. There are so many new timesinks in the game that can be zerged by experienced sellers such as REMA weapons and such that offer a large profit.
Along with these kinds of sales, there is the third-party sales of bots, cheats, exploits, etc. over the years. There are so many different levels of tools for this game over the years, a ton of which not everyone is aware of. Along with the different markets (JPs have their own side of this as well.) The level of automation that is done now in this game is way beyond what most people think, mostly due to it being private. During the HNM days for example, there were basic cheats and bots, but packet bots were also a big deal.
I was the developer of XiP. Our packet bot had more features than just a claim bot that weren't really known/advertised because we kept things quiet for obvious reasons. Outside of the claiming, our bot also had a full radar system through packets, the ability to track Dark Ixion/Sandworm easily from anywhere in any of the pop zones on any job, the ability to tell if DI/Sandworm popped regardless of which of the pop zones you were in, packet based warping, etc. We also had private features that weren't public that mostly our own linkshell had the ability to use. Profit wise, our bot sold for around $750 for the base bot, $25 per user connecting to it. Take that, multiply it by having sold a copy on basically every server more than once for some servers, linkshells generally had at least 15-20 people connecting etc. It adds up.
There were much easier ways of camping them.
On modern day ffxi there is not much room for profit. Gil sales have declined very rapidly due to decreasing demand and increasing supply. But yeah
I paid for my books and meal plan every semester in college by selling gil.. so there's that.
The dude I sold my character to claimed to have made over $250,000 running his HNMLS from 2007-2009. He had a nice house and nice cars when I went to his place to hand over the play online manual (so I couldn’t recall the character).
Super nice dude. Gave me $3,500 cash. Paid for my first year of junior college. Eventually lead to a free BA and MBA. No Regrats.
i really was playing the game wrong for the longest time. i only wish i'd gotten involved in awful shit sooner.