play-online
Latest
December Final Fantasy XI update to increase level cap once again
Square Enix has announced a free update to its flagship MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI, which might just make you say "World of What-craft: What-aclysm?" Fine, nobody would ever say that under any circumstances, but the fact remains: This patch has a lot to offer the game's faithful player base.
Final Fantasy XI celebrates seven years with their Adventurer Appreciation campaign
It's been seven eventful years since chocobos and moogles have invaded MMOs, and Final Fantasy XI is still going strong as they celebrate another anniversary with their player base. Of course, any intrepid adventurer knows what the Adventurer Appreciation holiday is all about. It's not that the moogles come out and give away free items or how they recount many insane statistics to you, like how many times you've talked to NPCs. No, it's not about any of that.It's about getting your Anniversary Ring to boost experience gain again! Wooooo hooooo!*Ahem* Excuse me. It's more than just getting a massive experience boost. Especially this year, with the rumor of ancient and powerful Mog Tablets resurfacing across all of Vana'diel. Who knows what's truly in store for this year's event, but it's certain to be worth your while! The campaign will start with the appearance of moogles in the city squares on May 12th and will end on May 25th.Remember, if you still have your ring from last year, use your charges before getting a new one! You can't get a new one, until you throw your old one away!
Final Fantasy XI to receive mentoring-esque Level Sync system
Square-Enix is taking another step towards making Final Fantasy XI a little bit more playable for the masses by implementing what it calls the "Level Sync" system. The feature resembles the mentoring systems found in EverQuest II or Age of Conan in that it allows higher level players to drop down to friends' levels and adventure with them while gaining experience.In its announcement of this feature, Square-Enix went out of its way to emphasize that it has built in the system safeguards against abuse by powerlevelers and gold farmers. There are also some reasonable limitations intended to keep the game streamlined, fun, and balanced. For example, equipment-based stat bonuses will scale down with each level a player drops.There are explicit details at the official Final Fantasy XI website about how experience gains and equipment scale. We approve of this addition (as if you needed us to); in fact, we wonder why certain other games still don't have it. Being able to play with friends regardless of their time commitment and experience is a big positive, and we can't even think of a substantial drawback.[Via Allakhazam]
Square offers to bring back deleted characters for new expansion
Are you or someone you love a former Final Fantasy XI addict just itching to get back in the game again? No? Well me neither, but Square Enix is offering its services for those looking to fall off the wagon again. They're bringing back the "Return to Vana'diel" campaign, where players who have previously deleted their Content IDs or PlayOnline accounts can have them automagically restored. And wouldn't you know it, they're starting the campaign a scant three weeks before the release of their fourth expansion, Wings of the Goddess. The "Return to Vana'diel" campaign is set to run through the end of February though, so it's no rush.Personally, when we have enough strength of conviction to delete a game after we unsubscribe, it's usually evidence enough that we don't want to go back. So whether Square Enix is being nice and just offering a service to its former players or whether they're just being dirty rotten enablers hooking in former addicts, is certainly a question open to interpretation.
FFXI customers axed for using third party tools
The population of Vana'diel shrunk by another 3,330 today after Square Enix continued their crackdown on third party tool users of Final Fantasy XI Online. Similar actions were taken by the RPG maker over the summer when they suspended or terminated 3,400 PlayOnline customer accounts for violations of the game's user agreement.While most gamers appreciate a clean playing environment, should users of tools like Windower (which allows FFXI to be played in windowed mode) be penalized for adding an aftermarket feature that Square Enix probably should have implemented in the first place? The counterpoint to this argument is the maintenance cost and man hours necessary to selectively filter out cheat mods. Casting a wider net and banning all third party tool users allows developers to spend more resources on creating new games.
