Friday, August 15, 2008

How Long Is Too Long?

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/14/new-final-fantasy-xi-boss-could-take-24-hours-to-kill/

Remember, Final Fantasy XI is not like the other ones. The other ones can be paused, single player... FFXI is not. FFXI is like World Of Warcraft.

With that said, it's well known within the gaming community that FFXI is one of the more intense MMO's out there in terms of dedication, but when you start making players physically ill from having to slave away at one boss for 24 hours (they can't do shifts because the boss only allows 18 people in at once), then there's a problem, especially when the boss is on a server with elite players that are using characters with ridiculous stats. The irony of this is SquareEnix's message before logging into FFXI, essentially saying to not ignore family, friends, work, or school because of the game. When a boss takes longer than the average human is awake, you need to look in the mirror and face the irony of your log in message.

I understand epic boss battles. I've played games for ridiculous periods of time. Never, however, have I ever put myself into physical or mental harm because of a video game. If I was starting to feel like I was going to pass out from a game, I would turn it off. Simple as that. I'm sure that casual gamers are now scared off from even approaching FFXI (where most people consider 2 hours a long gaming time, that's a normal boss battle.)

SquareEnix has more creativity in them to come up with better ways to keep people drawn into FFXI (and thus making money off every players monthly fees) than to make a miserable, unhealthy time sink of a boss. The reactions of some people disgust me as well - although a majority of the people say that this is completely wrong of Square to do, there are those select few out there who just can't grasp it. Example: "I applaud them for doing this. Now, people will be able to not only experience a long battle inside the game, but a physical and mental battle that they've never seen before."

What's your take on the situation? Do you think Square Enix is taking it too far with the length of time on this boss?

No comments: