The Lure of FFXI

[Cow_k]

I'm always a little shocked at number of people who can't avoid self destructive behavior unless they have something else to tie themselves up with, though I think a lot of it comes from younger people. While true addiction never goes away, the need to party and get wasted seems to hold less sway the older most people get. I personally never saw the draw though.

[Kaludneisucks]

For my part, I remember clearly, as a freshman in high school, the day i got my nintendo power with the first look at Final Fantasy. I had to have it, dragon warrior being my then current fav, and me being a long time RPGer. I have followed the Final Fantasy franchise everywhere, it being the only real video game i have ever been interested in. When i found out about the MMo it was only natural.
After a little while i realized this, too, was just like every other FF, requiring tons of time and dedication to accomplish all the little things.

As i progressed in life with the game i found it a very good way to save a few bucks every month, a night at home camping NM's was MUCH less expensive than a crawl round San Fransisco. My wife and i found it a fantastic team building excersize, and many good times were spent on TS or Vent chatting with out LSmates from around the world.

Of an occasion we would take trips to visit some of our online pals, further developing real ties to real people in a false world.

i like to think it doesnt negatively impact my life, i have a great job, good interpersonal relationships and i actually am pretty fit. Like all things, those who may have issues with MMO's are the same people who would have chemical dependancy issues, moderation in all things, MMOs are every bit as valid a release as any.

[Zimbabwe Justice]

I've played off and on since middle school, when I was 12. I'm 17 now. It's just really fun and addictive. I've yet to find another game, let alone an MMO, that has matched FFXI's magic for me. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the game is just god damn amazing to me. I love it.

[Tagus]

You've got a lot of great responses here! I'd be interested to see you post your paper on these forums, not only so that I could have a chance to read it, but also the responses you got to it. For me, FFXI is quite simply a very well designed and variable form of entertainment. The balance between the jobs, the incredible depth of the world, and the social relationships that you can develop (and sometimes destroy) all without the responsibility of ever looking someone in the eye add up to form a great source of fun. FFXI does have some pretty obvious design mechanisms that are geared towards seriously hooking people, however. The game is designed so that everything takes a long time to complete, and the amount of time and people it takes to do something increases exponentially as the game goes on. The 500 exp it takes to hit level 2 is fun and easy! However, 500 turns into 1000 exp, which turns into 10,000 exp, and eventually "ends" at over 40,000 exp per level that require hours upon hours to complete... until you realize the limits of your chosen job and decide to start a new job to complement your existing one, and then it's 500 exp, 1000 exp, etc. So if you're asking what makes it so addicting, the answer is that the game is designed to be a fun, social, and diverse form of interactive enterainment... which progresses ever so gradually into a addiction. I like to think of the analogy of boiling a Lobster. If you boil the water first and drop the Lobster in, it will go apeshit and thrash around because of the shock of the boiling water... but if you put the Lobster in luke-warm water and slowly raise the temperature, the Lobster will sit there calmly without ever realizing that you are boiling it alive. We're all biological creatures with an imperfect understanding of our own shortcomings, and SE is charging us $15 dollars a month to sit in their pot of water. The only advantage we have over the lobster is that if they turn the water too hot and start to kill us, we won't be paying them anymore. I guess it beats doing the dishes.

[Kaludneisucks]

It is only an addiction if you have no control over it, dont be a weakling, be a Human, and run your life, dont let it run you.

[johnboy]

I started playing simply because i was spending a fortune down the pub everyday, it proved to be one of the only things able to keep me indoors, mainly due to always having something to do, i'm one of these people that if i stand around for longer than 30 mins i go mad, so interacting with friends and keeping up challenges that the game throws is why i still play today.

[bombard]

Yanno, I never really thought about why I play.

It's something to do, I play alot less during good weather months, but more during the cold seasons. I am in 2 bowling leauges, work 50-70 hrs a week, still hang out with friends, do things with my wife like play tennis, movies, hikes -- etc -- and I am far from anti-social, and I'm one of the last people who 'hides' behind my avatar. I am online whom I am offline, minus some of the fucked up looking clothing options the game has. Hell my char even looks like me as much as possible (hume M, brown short hair lol).

I've always like video games, I've always liked Final Fantasy. Not everyone who plays the game is 'socially inept', and many people whom I've made friends with on the game just enjoy the game for it being a game. I just think of it as a big ass chat room with dragons and swords.

[Siegtaru]

To me, I really enjoyed the teamwork aspect involved when you're able to do it with people you actually like. If I could solo everything in the game 'till 75 and not rely on friends, I'd go play WoW. ;P I also like that you make a lot of friends on FFXI. I still talk to alot of my friends from the game that date back almost 4 years ago now, and some of them I wouldn't know what it would be like if I'd never met them. The best part, though, is that you can actually work hard to get shit in this game, which is actually difficult, and it means something. If you get something really incredible (Relic, Mythic, Full Salvage Set, etc.) it's not like the other 50 people of your job class have the exact same thing. Makes it feel a little more fun, since the players do control the economy as it is. I guess it feels more like the real world where we influence things than a place where the game hands everything to you easy-peezy.

[Ansems]

I have set goals for my chara, and that is what keeps me going.

[Arthars]

What makes FFXI so incredibly "fun" to play, in comparison to other forms of social entertainment outside the virtual box?

This all started when i was a kid. All my friends are the Atarii, NES etc gamers and we play game together. So eventually, we are all gamers. We also stick together and formed a soccer team, basketball team, badminton team etc etc, so we pretty much do the same thing together.

Because we are all sports person, we like to play sport video games at that time(I started from Winning eleven 1 till now). Perhaps teamwork is the word and we started into venturing into mmoprgs where we can do it as a whole.

You can say that we are "no social lives" but we just dont enjoy getting drunk outside, smoke my lungs off etc. Yes we all still have girlfriends, and im married, in fact, to someone i know in FFXI, and also got my very own Oniontaru now. My friend too, have married etc, with only a very handful left, playing games still (PS3 Winning eleven sucks, too easy). So now FFXI merely an entertainment to us. Like i said my wife also play FFXI, she kinda understand what i am doing. She infact rather see me play at home, or even late nights in the weekends(so i can look after baby), than going out, fool around, get drunk and maybe ran over by a car.

Not like playing FFXI will make you lose social life. You get ur irl friends, workplace friends too. and it isnt bad to make online friends during your "off-peak" hours from work and late nights. Its like having someone to talk to 24/7 (other than sleeping), have fun and not ruining other people's lives.

basically talking mainly on why spend time in ffxi than in clubs

[Bingbong]

Main Question:

- What makes Final Fantasy XI so enticing, so addicting, to the point where individuals spend forty hours or more a week within the online virtual realm? (Personally, I was guilty of this at certain points during the past four years.)

Don't know if you are still looking for answers here, but I have 45 minutes to kill at work, so why not. With Final Fantasy, you have a "brand name" that has a rich history with it. The major downfall, for me, of the other Final Fantasy titles is that eventually, you run into the credits... no mas, ~fin, and all that stuff.

For me, that sucks.

In FFXI, you never really reach "the end". I guess my point is that I usually spend the same amount of time on FFXI that I would on any FF RPG that comes down the line, having the endless amount of stuff that XI does though, I keep firing that up, to do something new, something different, something I haven't done yet. There's enough interesting things between in game activities, and social interaction that I like coming back versus firing up FFXII for another round.

[Gulkeeva]

hmmm this may or may not relate to FFXI "playing" but it does to FFXI in general!

I haven't played FFXI in about 4-5 years but still keep in touch with people on FFXI, and "collect" pics of FFXI.

For me its basically mithra, I've always loved catgirls. if you've seen my FFXI gallery, mithra makes up about 60-70% of the pics out of several thousand >.>

If I had more then 24 hours a day, I'd probably play a bit... still!

[Olo401]

Now that I've had a MMO experience outside FFXI (Warhammer, which from what I hear has a system very similar to WoW) to compare & contrast, I can answer this topic much better than I have before.

First and foremost, the mission and quest storylines are, in my opinion, much deeper and well-designed around the player's interaction with the NPCs. WAR does has storylines you can follow easily that are built into its normal and public quest systems, but they don't really immerse your character into the story - you're just there to lend an ear or a hand to some objective, whereas in FFXI your character is an integral part of the overall story. And then there's the cutscene movies. To my knowledge you don't get that during gameplay in any other MMO (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Second, the overall gameplay is well-balanced. It's not too difficult or epic to play (like say SW Galaxies), but then again it's also not too easy (like WoW). And once you get used to the game's system things get a bit easier, but still there's a challenge.

Third, you don't need a secondary character to play a different job class. This is kinda offset by how you can make a secondary character in other games without a extra monthly charge, but in other games you're locked into a single class.

[Seibar]

1) have you changed your lifestyle (quit school, changed jobs, etc) so you can play an MMO
2) have you tried to quit playing and been unable to stop
3) have you lied to friends and family about how much time you play
4) has your health suffered and still you continue to play
5) are you depressed when you can't play (depressed in a clinical sense...unable to sleep, feel very sad, sleep too much, get drunk to take up time until you can play again, etc.)
6) do you get angry when others suggest you stop playing so much

If anyone answers yes to any of these questions, then its relevant to ask what in the MMO makes them 'feel' better?


Nonetheless, I like the thread and applaud the raising of the issue. While I suggest it should be worded a bit differently, I still thinks its a worthwhile topic.

1. sorta maybe sure. wake up at 5am or whenever for HNMs back in the good ole days.
2. i quit for weeks on and off, never really 'tried' quitting like i've 'tried' quitting smoking though.
3. yupp
4. being sick is the best time to play i thought?
5. i get drunk while i play, lol. no
6. not angry

[Viviton]

Personally, i played FF for my RL friends, we all started out at a similar time back when we were like 14 and it just snowballed into an addiction.

I recently quit FF, and i stand by my decision being purely based on the fact me and my RL friends spent less time with each other in-game. We still chat in college and whatnot, but i do believe games like FFXI are around because people enjoy the friendship and 'comradery' (sp).

I'm not sure what other precise aspect of the game has the ability to absorb so many people...i guess there's alot of social desirability, the people online feel less 'sad' because other people are doing the same thing; if you asked a complete stranger to camp Nidhogg at 2am, he'd/she'd tell you that you're mad. But you can jump into a community where actions like that are accepted, and hell sometimes even encouraged.

Everyone who plays FFXI have common goals; get better, get richer, have fun and it's these types of activities that keep online games going...there is no end, there is no game over and there is never noone to talk to...

[BeeMan]

why watching TV for hours a day is socially acceptable but playing online games is looked at as 'wierd' is beyond me. besides, it's cheaper than a movie, and it keeps me out of the bars and strip clubs.

This sumes it up for me perfectly =P

[Quendi]

Like some have already said, the reason I was lured to this was the fact that I play every FF game that comes out, period. I wasn't really excited when they said they were releasing an mmo FF, but I knew I'd try it anyways. 5 years later and what do you know, I'm still here >.>; That being said, I both love and hate this game, for the aforementioned reasons from other posts. I think Final Fantasy is unique in the way that you will find some people who have only played FF rpg's, due to the success of the 20-year old franchise. I am one of these people. However, my faith in Final Fantasy has been steadily declining over the years, especially since Square became Square-Enix. I've never been completely impressed w/ what the latter has done. I love FF for I-X, not X-2, or XI, and especially not XII. Advent Children was enjoyable for me, but was obviously not an original story by the company, who have since been milking VII for every penny it's worth. I hope SE picks it up by restoring the originality of the franchise, but I don't hope too much.

[Shamaya]

There are 3 things I can think of straight away that just about everyone searches for in their lives, which can easily be found in FFXI:

1. Entertainment
2. Social Relationships
3. Progress

And for me there is a 4th, purpose.

While in the "real life," it can often be very difficult to satisfy these 3-4 desires, I find them fairly easily in FFXI. As for (1), entertainment, a lot of what I used to do before I got sucked into the interwebs felt boring and pointless, after awhile if not at first. Nothing seems to have the same 'replay value' as multiplayer net gaming.

Besides being easily entertaining every time I log on, (2)social relationships (for me) are rich, plentiful, and very low-maintenance in FFXI. It's really easy to meet new people all of the time, and to maintain those relationships and balance them with the rest that you already have. Since there are a lot of mediums of communicating online and in-game, you could be "spending time" with quite a number of different people at the same time. LS chat in a way is parallel to hangin out 'at the spot,' hanging out with the regulars. But say you had a current romantic interest. You could be spending time with them "alone" at the very same time, ie you could be doing a quest with each other, leveling up, or simply talking in tells. So the social mediums are very flexible. And you don't have to worry as much about social chemistry online as in IRL. Say for example you were a part of two cliques IRL, but you wanted to hang out with both clique's at the same time. It might not be easy. Say one of those cliques/groups was having a party. If you went to said party but wanted to hang out with the second clique at the same time, you'd have to bring those people along. And it might just get too crowded at the party. Or there could be that conflict of chemistry. Just because you get along with both groups doesn't mean that those groups would get along with each other; they might find each other boring or irritating (think like jocks vs anime club, or something). But in FFXI I could, say (and this happens all the time), be in exp party with casual players that I know, while freely participating in the LS chat of an HNM shell with hardcore players, and at the same time I could be on Skype, Vent, or TS with people that don't even play FFXI. And geography isn't a problem. I have a core group of friends that gets on Skype and we all chat every day (we don't even play the same games or do the same things). We've all met IRL several times, but we live in various locations so we don't get to meet often (north and south florida, california, massachussetts, canada, and the united kingdom). Without skype it'd be much harder to go and "hang out with the guys" on a daily basis.

And for me, progress(3) is very important. I like to feel like I'm working towards something and actually making progress towards that goal. While it might seem easier to progress in another online game, like WoW, making progress in FFXI is still much easier than making significant progress IRL. It might take me 4 years to get a BA and 2 more to get that masters, but I can level up and start to gear out a 75 in a month(s). I can log in each day and start to see results in days or weeks, as I accumulate gear, merits, or whatever. If I'm in school working towards a career, I'm going to see/realize very little to no progress/difference from one day/week to another. While everything in FFXI is only virtual, when I log on I actually feel like I'm /doing something/, like my efforts are actually having some effect on my current situation. It's hard to get frequent gratification like that for progress that I'm trying to make IRL.

I don't think purpose (4) is as much an issue for some as it is for others. I dk about you, but I hate feeling like I don't have a purpose or place in the world. Like I'm just another number; another gear in the economic machine. It's difficult sometimes, for me, to look at my life and feel like what I'm doing matters, or that it has meaning or purpose, or like I can make any sort of difference. But in an MMO I do feel that way, and it's probably largely due to what I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

I feel embarrassed after writing all that, but there you go.

[Tricen]

Main Question:

- What makes Final Fantasy XI so enticing, so addicting, to the point where individuals spend forty hours or more a week within the online virtual realm? (Personally, I was guilty of this at certain points during the past four years.)

- Things to Consider Regarding Question -
* Why do people fall into this cyberspace dependency (Internet/Virtual dependency) on FFXI? Is it to displace the community the individual has in reality, when they find more positives in a welcoming online world? Is it the psychological gratification from doning a new persona online and the ability to dissociate their identities in real life with their actions online? Or is it the idea of temporarily escaping negative situations in reality, to "live and breathe" in a fantasy realm? If not, then what else could it be? What makes FFXI so incredibly "fun" to play, in comparison to other forms of social entertainment outside the virtual box?

People have different ways to distract themselves from boredom or life in general. I have never been a sports fan, and I've never been a social type of person. The types of things that I found to be the most entertaining were things I could do by myself. Guitar, and drums are an example, as well as video games. Now, I'm not a huge gamer, but the idea behind gaming is something that appeals to me. FFXI was something I've always wanted to try, an MMO. After a while, I began to really enjoy the idea of it, even though I had a shitty PC and windows ME... I had terrible lag (24/7) up until about lvl 64.... yet I stilled played.

I guess the reason why I found FFXI so appealing is because you can, more or less, control just about every aspect of the game. You don't have to worry about the awkwardness of real life social situations, and I find it easier to talk to people online than in person.

[Xavierus]

As was mentioned, the tone of the original post sets the tone of this paper. Is this the same person who posted about his 13 page essay about his addiction to FFXI? From his commentary in the OP, it sounds like it. If so, I read the 13 page essay and thought it was really well written, but do not agree with the game being “Addicting.”

Most people can set their priorities straight on when to play a video game vs deal with real life things. Ask many of the people on these forums, who have jobs/families/whatever in real life that they have to deal with on a daily basis. FFXI is a very fun endeavor, but I don’t think it has the addictive properties anywhere near the degree of many other addictive behaviors such as drugs/alcohol.

That being said, as most of the posters have said, the reason to play these games stems from the feelings of accomplishment you get. Working hard to obtain a rare piece of armor, being able to play the game w/ friends or family who are located half way across the world, meeting new people and being able to do so in the comfort of your home. These are just a few of the reasons why an MMORPG like FFXI are played. Does that make them an addiction? No.

And I don’t play anywhere near 40 hours a week. I think many of the players on here who hold a full time job don’t. The original posters should’ve taken a non-biased viewpoint when writing this topic, but I see a typical paper being constructed in a manner to make FFXI players and MMORPGers in general look like they are as bad as Heroine.

/sigh