The Final Fantasy XI anti-RMT task force strikes back

Fascinating? The game is SIX YEARS OLD. People are still fighting and gnashing teeth to get 4 year old content because it (arguably) seems the best in the game. People who had accounts compromised OVER A YEAR AGO still have not had their hard work returned. Even if you do have your account compromised you will never get back anything that wasn't dropped. All your neato items are sent away never to return. SE dropped the ball big time on this one and you say that's 'fascinating'?!? What's fascinating to me is that more people don't realize that SE discourages finding information about THEIR OWN FREAKING GAME. The quests give no exp, no clues/hints, and very little gil; fame is next to useless unless you're a summoner (whee), every death is a huge penalty without the almighty white mage, and they nerf things up so badly almost annually as to totally obscure the use of entire job systems (bst, rng, blm anyone?).

The only thing this game is good for is socializing. It's got to be one of the most expensive and expansive chat rooms in existence. 500k players? Pfft. In a year I bet that's cut in half. If only by hackers and SE's indifference to their paying customers in never returning stolen property.

I will always remember dinging level 10 in FFXI and being inspected by a passerby, who informed me that I can now equip earrings now. What type of earrings, I asked? The answer he gave me was a crafting critical success worth five times more money than I'd seen in game to date, selling just about everything that dropped on the AH.

The idea of the job system providing incentives for players to re-roll on their own character is brilliant. Unfortunately, it creates an environment where most of the people at low levels don't WANT to be at said low levels. In order to breeze through the unpleasant chore, they expect to take on the toughest mobs possible, as quickly as possible. This means that they're spending the money for top end equipment and consumables, and even getting to the spots they want to farm requires an airship pass (awarded by a quest that happens way after players need one, or in exchange for several hundred thousand gil) and consumables to let you sneak past monsters who will otherwise kill you and inflict an exp penalty.

And you say this game has a RMT problem? Really? I can't imagine why.....