Thank you for an awesome article! I knew most of the information featured in it already, but there were some new tidbits - not to mention the good presentation of it.

I play Mithra BLM on Remora and have recently become exasperated at the skyrocketing prices, inability to camp certain Notorious Monsters and worse - many of my in-game friends' quiet acceptance and joining in on the buing of gil. As one player commented: "I work all day in my real job and only have a couple of hours to play. Why shouldn't I be able to let someone else do the farming?"

The worst part is, that I am in a similar situation; my job takes the chief bulk of my day, but I so adore the world of FFXI that I haven't given up on my Mithra, regardless of the fact that I've played for over a year and my main job is only at level 51.

So, fine, I've levelled a few other jobs up to the 20s and 30s, but my point is, that without either huge dollops of extra time, OR purchased gil, I'm going to have a long, long stretch ahead if I am ever to hit the endgame activities.

The cynic in me sometimes ponders, whether the crazy ingame economy is all a ploy by Square Enix to squeeze out as much in membership fees as possible.

This is so 1995...

Dave

Yeah, because it was a multi-million dollar industry in 1995, that RMT. Dave, go dislike something else unless you have something to add.

Nukapai, I feel your pain -- I've played for nearly two years and haven't hit 75 myself, but it doesn't bother me so much. I have a great group to play with and if I'm not on that often... well, neither are some of them. We've all got other things to do. I'll keep paying SE because I love the game, not because I'm trying to rush rush rush to what, sky? To bitching about HNMs? Nah. Because I like to hang out with dancing Tarutaru. :)

Hehehehe. Hehe. I love dancing Tarutaru. They inspired me to do a Mithra Boogie. Everyone does find it quite funny when they first see it. :D The Mithra /panic motion is pretty useful in all kinds of macros. But anyway, detail, detail. If I would have known about the extent of RMT in this game, I am not sure if I would have started playing it, but now that I'm involved in the game, that's not going to make me stop playing either - not unless the game becomes completely unplayable due to it.

I run my own LS too, and it's definitely the heart and soul of the game for me. :)

Wow. Finally got a chance to actually read this instead of skim it. It's better than most of the crap gaming mags pump out on a monthly basis.

I don't know much about these games, but I found the article a fascinating look behind the scenes nonetheless. Great job Alisha!

Thanks for the compliments, fellas. It warms a girl's heart to know that not only was I clear (hurray!), but that the text is appreciated. Matt, you made me blush.

Not that I think much of the gaming magazines, but even so. :)

Nukapai, I find that the gilfarmers are pretty easy to avoid, and as the prices go up for the big ticket items, they go up for the things I craft and farm as well. It's only a little extra effort to keep up, in the end. But it IS a major pain when you try to camp something only to find a group of people in shoddy gear surrounding the spot, and worse when they start sending you /tells... or when you see bots. It sets the teeth on edge. But it could be worse.

This entire RMT begs the question: how much fun is a MMO when you have to buy, with real money, to be on a level playing field as the other players.

Now I have two reasons not to touch an MMO: the monthly fees are outrageously high, and to top that off, competition has its own price tag.

That and I spend enough time gaming as it is without a MMO :P

You absolutely do NOT have to spend money to buy MMO money to be on a level playing field!

Some people just don't want to play the game. That's all it is. Sometimes I hate leveling up in a single player RPG, but I'm not going to hire someone to do it for me... then what's the damned point?

Exactly, Alisha. I always wonder what the motivation can possibly be to get someone else to do the work for you when the work IS the game... surely they are then playing the wrong game?

But then I realise how many hormone-fuelled overly competitive teenage boys are involved and realise what's going on... ;)

They want to prance around in the "l33t" gear and feel powerful; strut their stuff to each other.

It's alllll about the e-peens.

e-peens? That's something I haven't heard before. :D

Ive bought gil before, and I agree it is contributing to the problem. Also though, as you said buying the item itself contributes to the problem. The RMT market will always be there, regardless of what we do. Yeah we support it by buying gil, but its not like WE can fight it. What do we do, stop buying items and spending in game money? Stop playing the game we pay for? Yeah we could eliminate the buying of gil, but we could never omit the buying of items.

Reason for buying gil? I make 10 dollars an hour at work, whilst going to college. Not only do I not have time to farm for gil, but I hate farming, its tedious and not a fun part of the game. I work an hour a day, i earn 10 dollars. I farm an hour a day, I earn about 100-200k. For working two hours, 20 bucks can get you roughly 3 million gil.. whereas working in game for 2 hrs on farming returns about 400k. Which is more productive to my time and my interests?

I get to play the game effectively and get the items I want to be the character I want. There is no competition in being the best. The only reason I seek money is to improve my character to be effective during missions, quests and events. Those have the most social interaction and allow me to have fun with friends. As for the occasional 20 bucks i spend? Who cares? Twenty dollars is a triple to the movies, or a trip to the diner with some friends. So when I spend 20 dollars on gil, it is effectively just going towards having some fun.

pc gamer and a few other gaming magazines have made their policy clear that they will not take any advertising from firms involved in RMT.

i just started playing ffxi a few weeks ago and have played other MMO's over the years as well as all kinds of games...it doesn't surprise me that people misplace their priorities with regards to any game and do silly things as a result..