When Your Family Figured Out You Play XI Too Much

I remember skipping class because Nidhogg was 100% chance of pop and I was next in line for M body. I'm from EU and usually the pops were only on NA times during the middle of the night. I got it too so it paid off! :p. Weekends I used to be up at 5-6 AM because Dynamis was every saturday and attendance was really important in order to be eligable to get stuff. During one easter break we had a LAN party and I stayed up for like 48hrs trying to push as much EXP as I could since finding a party during EU hours was a pain. Either you would get cranky, none-English-speaking Japanese people or have to wait until late as hell to play with the NA guys. That is why I love the new concept of being able to play but without a crap ton of people.

Now I play casually, solo stuff I can manage on my own and merc the rest. Occasionally I join Ambu and other "easier" content that does not take up too much time.

Yeahhhh I hate to say it but this game has damaged A LOOOOOT of people’s lives… hell, it might even have destroyed some lives too, I wouldn’t doubt it.

Don’t get me wrong, this game is special to all of us but it’s early design was absolutely terrible for game-life balance and many of us were too young to notice or care at the time.

Seeing Mercs and Multiboxers everywhere is a little annoying but still a vastly superior option to what used to be imho. Low-man content is ideal, I agree.

Back in 2004 when i was unlocking a paladin some one from a social ls told me she would help me i had no idea how to do the paladin quest, that person never came back online afterwards, her friend in the shell told me her husband took her to some addiction Rehab, than it clicked for me and i started to understand the FFXI play button menu, apparently she would play for at least 10-15 hours just helping people think her name was something like princesskitty or something cant quite recall it was in bahamut when we had 30k ppl than i moved to pandy to play with family members when they gave us that service oh god i remember that guy that would shout about tinfoil stuff back in bahamut aliens and ***and he has a ls for that some weird hume LOL i think his character name was kelvin? i don't remember hmm. Ah yea than i joined spicy's COP LS we wiped on omega and than killed it on the second try most of the people just helped good old days, paladin for omega ultima fight kinda was a garbage strat lol

When my dad was dying from cancer and I didn't go and visit him in hospital because I needed to camp Nidhogg. RIP Dad.

Oh damn. I'm really sorry about your dad. :(

This comment really hit me and triggered a supressed memory. I remember my grandpa called me on my birthday to wish me a happy birthday. I was on the game doing something, I think in a PT and I was eager to get back since I didn't want to keep people waiting. So I didn't at all appreciate his gesture and was basically a spoiled brat. I did not show it to him out of respect but I clearly could've spent more time talking with him.

He passed away suddenly a month later just before Christmas. So that was his last gratulation I got. It clearly put things in perspective for me of how you should really focus on living in the moment and appreciate the people around you. Because suddenly they will vanish like they never even have existed.

I see people say this now and then and I'm sorry but it's complete BS.

If you have the kind of personality where you can get heavily addicted to something and you have a massive hole in your life where you can spend a lot of time doing it, you're going to get addicted to something to fill that hole. If not ffxi it would of been wow, if not wow it would of been drugs, gambling, booze or something else. In the grand scheme of things, being addicted to a video game is going to have far less harmful impact on your health and life than many others things could have.

Regardless, lots of people who were "addicted" to FFXI back in they day and moved on and became very successful people. Some like to scapegoat onto things and blame them for how their lives turned out. It may make you feel better, but at the end of the day we all know it's garbage.

I'm with RadialArcana on this one. In my early university days I questioned how much better my life would have been if I never played XI, and then my brain would remind me "But then you'd just be playing other games - probably WoW"

Even back in the day I always avoided end-game content, so my addiction had nothing to do with linkshell attendance or anything. Instead, I would craft job concepts, item concepts, ways to reconfigure existing stuff, or theorycraft strategy. My high school notebooks are filled to the brim with doodles of my characters and wish-list items I'd love to see in the game for my favourite jobs.

That's why overall I think FFXI is actually a good game. Its playerbase isn't here just because we've been Skinner Box'd to death. We've stuck with it for nigh on 20 years because it has deep and strategic gameplay.

When social services took away my malnourished son because I needed to get Level 75 Red Mage so my Linkshell wouldn't kick me out for having no useful jobs and I needed Hecatomb Harness for my Dragoon

There have been quite a few hardcore players than went on to be successful, there are quite a few people who still post here who did well for themselves and also a few very well known mini-celebs.

Didn't the now Billionaire that made Discord used to run a big HNMLs on FFXI for many years?

aggrod some dudes with guns on the wrong side of town and that's when i learned they don't need to stop to /ra irl

I don't think Stanislav is a billionaire just because the company is valued in the billions. Discord is yet to make a profit. Were it to be sold, it is possible he could be a billionaire but I don't know how that stuff works entirely.

bro why did you need an LS for Kirin at 99

They said a few months back that Microsoft offered them 10 billion dollars to buy it, a few other companies made offers too.

Yes, I know that, but that doesn't mean the two founders split the money and have $5bn each does it? The investors will take shares, etc. I don't know how it would translate to direct income for each of the founders, maybe >$1bn after tax if they took the money and left the company, maybe not quite. Either way he is rich as *** I am sure, but not sure if he would be a billionaire if it sold.

Microsoft would turn it into ***like Skype and LinkedIn and all other ventures they ruined if they took over though. Amazon would make it shitty too and you can't trust any game developer like EA not to make it neutral and free to use.

more importantly- why did you need a Hecatomb Harness for anything at 99?

screenshots or it didn't happen!

Generally speaking, I guess? But you still have to acknowledge that there are "enablers" out there that capitalize on unhealthy addictive behaviors. Mobile gacha games do this and we all recognize it as a predatory business practice. (To varying degrees, depending on the game, etc)

It's not like FF11 invented addiction. But its game design absolutely REWARDED addiction. FF11 was the kind of game that basically required you to build your life around it to achieve endgame success. Think about how much time you'd spend on a weekly basis just for scheduled events, and then think about how much commitment it required to do HNMs, timed-spawn farming, crafting skillups, even just leveling a job to 75...

You dedicate so much time to get ***done. That's the kind of thing that ENABLES addictive tendencies. And don't pretend that FF11 wouldn't be where it is today without that history.

So to your point... sure, certain people have a higher inclination towards addiction. But it would be ridiculous to say that crystal meth isn't a part of the problem too.

thinking of it, is there any longterm successfull MMO that isn't based on a franchise? the only ones i can think of are WoW, FFIV and back then FFXI.

personally FFXI didn't hook me instantly, i was rather disappointed but kept playing cause previous experiences in the franchise were so good i figured there has to be the good stuff somewhere.

almost seems like with the archtype MMO design you need a big franchise to push ppl past the first 100+ hours or so to get to the stage where ppl start thinking they invested so many hours to get here, they can't stop now.

regarding addictiveness; i think addiction != addiction, someone can be very addicted to drugs but gambling doesn't do it for them. i don't think the theory that one should be glad FFXI got a hold of them cause otherwise they'd be doing meth.

Everquest, Runescape, Maplestory come to mind

Bolded some things that really stood out to me. How can it be BS if this is the thing that filled that void though? I can see how a person can get addicted to video games far easier than drugs or alcohol. For one, all you need is the system to play on, and the monthly fee, VS the incredible money sink that is drugs/alcohol. Maybe it's because I could see myself being addicted to gaming rather than drugs because I've never felt the need for that ***.

I don't think you see the big picture that an addiction to gaming can actually cause. It can start with blowing off friends, then lead to family, then you start missing work, then bam, no job. Say bye to paying the bills, then say bye to your home. Sure, it's not as common as other addictions, but to just shake your head at it and call it *** is *** in itself.

And who are you to argue against someone's life turning out differently if they weren't addicted to FFXI? You were never in their shoes, you have no idea what is/was going through their head

yeah they popped in my head too. i think eve online has been running for a while aswell but were any of those as popular as wow, xi or iv?

*edit*
wait, ultima online had a rather long franchise befor it launched, not sure if it's still running but if it's probably as niche as FFXI by now. so a franchise is no guarantee but it sure helps.

When I got an Alaskan dog and called him Fenrir and told him to Assault a Wild Rabbit in the garden. Turns out my wife had bought our daughter a pet rabbit. I quit SMN that day.

I think all that's really being said though, is that it's easy to speak FFXI's name as an addiction because it's so singularly powerful.

It's very much what Jessikah and Radial said though. If they weren't playing FFXI, then they'd be playing something else/doing something else, giving that whatever else an equivalent time investment.

For instance, much of the nerd population is addicted to video games in general. But because they never had just one game take up so much of their time, it's just weighing video games as a whole. This doesn't seem as bad, because some games are bad, and you can trash talk them and put them down. They might even make video game addicts not feel like playing for a few hours or a day or two. All that they don't have is something addictive that lasts.

FFXI on the other hand, as compared to Crystal Meth, is highly addictive because even at it's worst it's still good because it always has some small way to feel rewarding. It lasts.

On top of that, the way its endgame content was originally designed was in such a way that you didn't have to be addicted to the game itself to be addicted to the experience it could give you.

Outside of the gameplay, one very addictive thing about FFXI is the social persuasion and feelings of power you can get from being a social powerhouse, i.e. a Linkshell leader that gets stuff done. A hot girl that gets handed free stuff. etc.

There were plenty of endgame LS leaders who got a feeling of power from leading folks by the nose through Dynamis, Sea, Sky, Einherjar, Abyssea, Assaults, Salvage, and all the other stuff. People who felt entitled to all of the Alexandrites from alliance based Salvage Etc. Some of these leaders weren't addicted to the game, just addicted to basically being a king. Whether they'd admit or even realize it is another thing, but it was very much a factor in the game and its longevity. I literally remember reading an LS called Remedy's personal forum where they talked about, "Making a girl Jewish by injection." (copulating with insemination) as the price for her to get her Dalmatica. She did it, too, according to that forum.

It was a big factor in why people wouldn't just drop the game for FFXIV, too. Why go from being a king who has it all, to being
neophyte scrub #462? FFXI wound up being much more than a game. It became a castle, a throne, a home, and a shelter. A money maker for the unscrupulous, and a dating site for many unsuspecting folks.

At some point I think everyone has said they stopped playing for the game itself, eventually, but for the people they met along the way that either inspired or directly had a hand in accomplishing their goals. Goals usually set to impress FFXI "peers." For as much as the game rewards addiction, the playerbase itself standardized it as the path to success through how they interacted not only with the game but with their fellow players. Social pressure is a very real factor in FFXI, and it's even on display in this thread. Much like the real world, positive and negative social pressure towards substance use/abuse impacts how much/little you do. The pressure didn't end for many when they logged out.

FFXI wasn't just a game to get addicted to, it was a world. Living, breathing, and flawed. Just like everyone who plays in it.

It practically bled into the lives of anyone who played it. Even people who did not like it have it forever lodged in their memory as a grueling experience that they can never forget.

We share our part in making it that way.

The way the game is now doesn't allow for that sort of thing to really happen(happen regularly, I guess, I don't really know), which is ultimately much better. But also far less addictive. Far less commanding. There's not much of a power structure to get entrenched in, because it's easier to catch up and be on par. Gil matters less and is so easy to make. It's a different world from the one of old.

So, without FFXI, people would have filled their lives with something else. Something with less pressure, maybe. Early WoW had many of the same pressures, from what I know secondhand. But the level of addiction very much depends on the experience you are getting from the other worlds. Without that experience falling apart, you stay addicted, without much to cut you off.

So it's very believable to me that someone could have an MMO ruin their life, especially FFXI. However, that might not matter at all if they took part in enjoying the terrible boundaries that many did. Just because something enables you to be bad, doesn't mean you should have let it get the better of you.

Also, another thing to acknowledge is the fact that many of these terrible people also went on to turn themselves into real world successes. It's probably better that we didn't analyze it, because to do so leads down no rosy lane.

The world is very beautiful, but very equally cruel.

In many ways, I can chart the last 15 years of my life by moments in FFXI, and was the impetus to making this thread. Because its impossible for me to deny after this many years that my life would have been better had I never discovered FFXI.

I knew for years I should avoid any form of online gaming- I was already feeling the pull of addiction from gaming in general...the constant new content and social interaction I knew would be a bad combination to only make that addiction even easier to fall into.

Yet, I still fired up FFXI based on the name, as I'm sure many/most of us did at first. It was a trusted name in RPGs, and the thought of bringing all that we loved about console FF to the online concept was just too tempting.

Years later, I can look back and see key moments where I chose FFXI over RL. And that isn't exactly pleasant to re-live, but it is vital to me realizing how I got to where I am right now. In many ways, FFXI has evolved from a distraction from everyday life to what is my everyday life, with RL distractions. Quarantine months sure didn't help diminish this, as I'm sure is the case for many of us.

The fact is- FFXI is a huge part of who I am, and who I've been for well over a decade and a half. And there's not much else I can say that about. The net result certainly hasn't been positive- but I can't say that FFXI is at fault. It clearly has been more the result of who I am than a specific game/addiction- if it weren't this, it probably would have ended up being something else.

I can relate to that but to me its been a net positive. I've done pretty well for myself in my life, and I consider FFXI to be something that I've grown up with and that has been with me forever in a positive way. I started the game when I was 12 years old, only a month or so after NA release and have been with it ever since. It did have its ups and down in terms of its influence on my life, but at the end looking back I don't regret it. I enjoyed myself and kept out of trouble and certainly playing it helped me through some rough times. Now days I don't play it as much as I used to but balance is always a good thing.

the cringe level,

I want to make a documentary about this thread

Better how though? It's easy to imagine such a thing, from the regrets you build up over time, but no man can read the directions which fate has mapped out for us. To read it in hindsight is folly.

I too can chart the course of my life by FFXI, and with regrets induced from my relationship to it.

In a burgeoning spiral of events(that I actually typed out but then thought it would be oversharing), if I had never played FFXI I would have never dated Soree/Fyris. I may have been less stressed/depressed during and after my short 4 years in the Navy. But then I would not have met Sarah, as I would likely still be in the Navy.

I had a few grimy years in FFXI's old endgame, and that's definitely a sore point in the game's history, but overall I think it's a great place and game. It doesn't hold me like it used to, but it still charms me 100%.

To use an analogy, can a fat person blame MacDonalds for making them fat? If Mcdonalds had made all their food less tasty and far more healthy 10 years ago, all the people would have gone to Burger King or something else. FFXI was competing for players with games offering the same thing, and the players wanted them to do it.

The issue is not the product, the issue is us. Whether people like it or not, we wanted what it was offering and if it stopped offering it we would of gone elsewhere. If FFXI had never existed the people complaining would not be doctors or lawyers today, they would be complaining that wow ruined their lives.

I have a friend that is fairly similar to me and he plays ff14, he constantly complains that there simply isn't enough to do in the game and is really angry about the lack of content that keeps him invested since it's so casual friendly. What do you think he does? He plays two mmorpgs and rotates between them.

The issue is this, the people that got "addicted" to a game that rewarded them for putting a lot of time into the game wanted to be doing that (whether they like to admit this or not). It's not the companies fault for giving you exactly what you wanted at that point in your life.

FFXI and WOW were made to be good at filling your time, and the people that bought into that wanted it to do that. If the games did not offer them what they wanted they would have gone to another game. If FFXI would of been unable to keep me (and everyone else) busy we would of swapped to WOW. If both games had been casual, we would of played both at once and so would anyone else who was the same.

Can a heroin user blame heroin for their drug addiction? By your analogy, no, they have to blame drugs themselves. If McDonalds was their vice, then yes, they can say that McDonalds was the cause. However, you can’t just lay blame with the weight of responsibility, like it seems how you’re misinterpreting it. You can blame the vice but you cannot hold the vice responsible.