When Your Family Figured Out You Play XI Too Much

Before social media shined a floodlight on it, sort of. There was at least plausible deniability that we weren't doomed.

I think playing FFXI made me more of an *** IRL too. Arguing with idiots on forums for years made me better at arguing IRL. I think I'm at risk of becoming a bit of a Karen too as the community becomes more whiny and entitled.

I'll bite on this one, hoping it doesn't derail this thread. I know many people and names in this thread but they may not realize who I am. (alot do)

I started playing FFXI in 2004 after college, picking it up from my younger brother. I was soon doing all the things previously mentioned. Scheduling my life around NMs and waking up at 3:00am to <call5> that Tiamat had popped.

Fast forward to 2007 I had a good job but FFXI was consuming my life and I was addicted. This became an intersection in my life and I decided that I needed to justify my time on this game, so at the time it was a very "taboo" thing to RMT FFXI. This was strictly a practice of Chinese and was absolutely frowned upon.

I started small and sold my coveted Kraken Club for $1000 on a forum which I now own along with several other FFXI related sites. It was so easy! but the loss of my Kraken Club was like losing a child, I had to get another one.

So my journey began....

From 2007 to current I run multiple FFXI RMT businesses.

The market was nothing but shady criminals and half the time when you bought or sold you were rolling the dice 50/50 on if you were going to get what you wanted from the transaction. The transactions were riddled with fraud and there was a space for someone to build a LEGITIMATE business that bought and sold FFXI commodities.

I spent years building my reputation by always being upfront and truthful about my polices, about the risks of the business. (There are plenty). I always paid. I always delivered. Sometimes I lost money at the start but I knew if I could build my rep as the trustworthy source in the long term I would make it. I dealt with slander from competitors(still do) and people who were just trying to destroy my business knowing full well the posts were 100% lies.(see below about shitty people). Now in 2021, I have bought and sold thousands of accounts, moved over 1 trillion gil/items. I am closing in on 4m USD sales in 14 years, and have bought/sold my coveted kraken club more times than I can count.

In my friends and family's eyes I went from an addicted gamer to someone they tell their friends about a success story. A market people still to this day have trouble wrapping their minds around.

FFXI has helped me tremendously not only financially but it has taught me how to run multiple businesses, it has taught about about economics, it has taught me about a ton about monetary payments. I have learned a lot about taxes for virtual goods and paid a lot of said taxes :(. It has re-enforced that there really are shitty people that hide behind a computer and there are some very genuine great people.

Through it all I have first and foremost enjoyed being a player of the game and continue to play now into my 40s. I truly enjoy the community, and the game.

Did you move onto other games as, I assume, FFXI got less profitable?

Also, have you applied the experience you have gained buying things at half the price you resell them for to other things beyond MMOs?

Really don't want to derail the topic, if you have specific questions you can PM me, Thanks all!

They realized I was playing too much when I said BRB home pointing and tried jumping in his traffic to bloodport

These stories are too funny, glad to know I wasn't the only one to get hit with the "FFXI bug". LOL. To insinuate that FFXI "ruined lives" is too much of a stretch, but it certainly led to periods of neglected responsibilities. I had plenty of "call in to work" days back around the time of 2004-2006 for various reasons.... camping NMs, staying up way too late, and sometimes it was simply because I didn't want to go to work. I had vacation days to take so it's not as if I really bent the rules or put myself out, but still ... seems foolish in hindsight.

My first advanced job at NA launch was Dragoon, so I know a lot of you feel that pain. Way too many hours sitting on the steps in Lower Jeuno moghouse area shouting for parties, and then either no response, or somebody send me an invite at like 11:30pm right before I was going to log off and go to bed. Judgment call... alright screw it, yeah I'll go. Party leader tells me they're in "location X" and I have no idea where the *** that is, look it up on Allakhazam and the maps look more confusing than what I already imagined in my head. Oh well, let's wing it. Grab chocobo and start heading way the hell out somewhere, get totally lost, go to look at the map and realize I never bought it, oh well *** it let's keep going. 10 minutes later I discover I went in a circle somehow and I'm back where I started, the pressure is on because I know my choc is going to kick me soon. This usuallt results in me getting chocodumped in the middle of nowhere, or party leader sends a tell that they found someone else. Or he says the dude that D/C'd that they were trying to replace surprisingly logged back in like 15 minutes ago and nobody told me. I get pissed and just log out on the spot. Then I log in the next day and instantly get aggro'd and killed because I didn't log out at a safespot first.

Yep, good times... LOL

When my wife started humming the Jeuno BGM while cooking.

I have used the term 'afk' many times to non gamers which is something I picked up in FFXI.

And now another example of playing too much FFXI.. I read all the personal life impact comments and felt nothing but this note about BST life got me in the feels! XD

Not me but in my group

Dusk, Midknight, and I were 1000% into Abyssea parties when they came out. We had one running a little over 24 hours at one point. I worked 2 jobs + school, and I'd revisit the home in about 8 hour increments. Dusk and Mid ran the burn the entire time, to the point where Mid was apparently hallucinating thinking frog noises were in the house. (Out in the country they would be making noise all night). It was hilarious but that's how I got my smn to 75 in a day.

The bois would all gather together at my place since I was the only one with net at the house. I even put up a SET of bunk beds in the LAN party room. To this day that abyssea burn was one of our favorite memories.

Back in Middle school to High School (Secondary, whatever you call it) getting out of school on Friday, playing FFxi at my best friends house (both of us who still play).

Play FFxi until the wee hours of the morning. Farming crystals and other random stuff so we could afford spells and armor. Maybe partying for levels, hunting down bards in search. Etc. Etc... Getting PL'ed by someone's Mom, who didn't want us to swear in chat. Well, ya, that lasted all of two seconds as we found where the line was.

Wake up Saturday morning, go home do homework, play more. Sunday same story, whole family is watching Football, I'm just over here, trying to do dynamis. Classic. I think they knew I was in deep when I was trying to explain gear haste to them. To be fair, they probably were happy I wasn't doing other drugs compared to this.