FFXI – The Leading Cause of Zombie-ism
Artwork, Just for Fun by: Elmer the Pointy
Thought this might be fun to share with everyone. Poor Square Enix has been taking quite a beating in the Japanese news lately. Final Fantasy XI is being targeted in the midst of a media frenzy regarding… Online Gaming Addiction *thunderclap* .
Livedoor News decided to take it one step further and depict an MMO-addicted father in the emotionally scarring comic you see above. I translated the provided version, but you can see the original on their site if you are bi-(lingual)-curious.
A lot of the buzz concerning “netoge haijin,” or people addicted to “interNET games,” seemed to stem from the release of this book, aptly titled: ネトゲ廃人 (ne-to-ge hai-jin), which delves into the lives of such people and offers illuminating quotes and statistics about what such an addiction can do to a person. The book also references Final Fantasy XI directly more than a few times.
The Livedoor news article mentions an 18-year old boy who got sucked into the world of Final Fantasy XI. He would spend 20 hours a day playing, subsisting on just bread slices and milk. His life consisted of being behind the computer screen or in bed, but if he had to sleep, a friend would take over in order to camp monsters. “I lost an enormous amount of my life. If young people spend all their time playing games, they won’t be able to work. If net addiction increases, I can see it being a serious problem in Japanese society.”
A look through the news recently shows that many other Japanese people feel this same way. More than anything, this kind of pressure might be what drives Final Fantasy XI’s shift towards casual play, and brought about the promises of a more relaxed MMO experience from Final Fantasy XIV.
Source: Livedoor News
※この記事はElmer the Pointyの提供でお送りしました。
Comments
Comment from Starcade
Time July 1, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Take a look at the amount of stuff in the game which involves an abjectly absurd amount of time, effort, etc. etc. etc. (Mythics, Relics, Ancient Currency for advancement, blah blah blah…)
I can understand Square-Enix wanting to do that, not unlike the optional Weapons in VII and the Dark Aeons in X International and the advanced Coliseum Cups in X-2 International and Yiazmat in XII.
The problem with XI is that so many of the top-level monsters seem to require that level/type of gear as the price of admission (consider that there still is no workable strategy, completely under the rules, for the defeat of PW — and AV is debatable yet too).
For the other examples, this was an optional challenge. For XI, this is part of the main game, per se.
Comment from Trotsky
Time July 1, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Yep, MMORPGs are evil and FFXI is sorta like Satan in this regard.
Comment from Kurosaki
Time July 1, 2009 at 7:44 pm
After 7+ years, I’ve doubt SE devs will change and you will see some issues that plague FFXI show up in XIV. Also, they probably will be reluctant to change them. They frequently ignore the screen which we have to hit accept to before opening FFXI in full view by implementing absurb long fights along with other things. This is a MMO and they are meant to have time sinks to keep you playing, but the devs still yet to find that balance of time versus fair rewards for the groups involved in many quests/items in the game. The community team has been making a good effort to show some effort from the PR side of SE, but until the Devs are on the same boat, I don’t see much changing.
Comment from Cemalidor
Time July 1, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I don’t think that Se will do much about FFXI, prolly they will just til the hype cools down.
Comment from Minks
Time July 2, 2009 at 5:07 am
I think SE should make all Lottry NM into Pop NMs to eliminate camping all together.
All NM’s Gods should have a half hour to an hour limit till it depops.
Of course set limit for some like one fight per 24 hours or once a week.
So there is no camping the ??? where you trade the pop item there will be a scheduled time window like a dynamis hourglass.
I hate MMO timesinks and if they want timesinks there are better ways like adding more content which is the reason for timesinks for devs.
Another way to add good timesinks is to make a reward system for assisting others in missions, quests, mini-games you’ve already completed.
Comment from Vahlshdeh
Time July 2, 2009 at 11:32 am
Hmm I would leave a witty comment but I need to go eat my slices of bread and milk, no time. 
Comment from Malacite
Time July 5, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Personally I blame the individual over the game in this instance. I’m not defending SE here, just that people with addictive personalities tend to find themselves in these situations. It’s not like endgame content in XI is all that fun either…
Which is something I dearly hope SE will change in 14. The work vs reward ratio is vastly unbalanced and FFXI more often feels like a 2nd job, almost slave work really.
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Time July 8, 2009 at 10:06 am
[...] and Elmer’s recents post about online addiction (FFXI – The Leading Cause of Zombie-ism) brought to memory my experience with MMORPGs. FFXI was the first MMORPG I ever played, and [...]
Elmer the Pointy Reply:
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Where do you buy your slices of milk? I’ve searched everywhere…
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Lionix Reply:
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:27 pm
The Internet, of course.
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Rekiconeki Reply:
July 8th, 2009 at 6:01 am
You freeze it first, then slice! Any FFXI addict will tell you this. =D
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