It really cheers me up, that Tullemore and Jerbob, and many other true FFXI fans, are posting about the game that they clearly care deeply about. It makes me so happy to know that I am not alone, in my profound and life-defining love for Vana'diel and all things FFXI.

Tullemore in particular, takes the time to write extremely lengthy and detailed clerical breakdowns of the facts at Ground Level, based on his own empirical experiences, and the surrounding available information. I find his analysis to be extremely intelligent, and rooted in a deep respect for the original FFXI core game, and in many ways he is voicing the really strong feelings that exist in a remarkable fan culture, that has evolved among FFXI fans for almost twenty years.

Obviously, I have nothing but contempt for Rmt, Botters, or other cheaters. I see these as enemy attacks upon the world of Vana'diel that I love.

But I do not see any conspiracies here, rather I see a sad aspect of modern life, which is that honourable behaviour is no longer prized in the mainstream, and those of us who live within the self-imposed confines of a strict honour code, are considered old-fashioned and kooky.

Personally, my happiest moments were hunting NMs in the open-areas, out in the wilderness. I liked the RA-EX drops, and I didn't mind spending years camping NMs. In my experience, the Rmt did not have the patience or the skill to farm NMs generally, and they tended to ignore 70% of NMs altogether, because the drops were not only RA-EX but also they were exotic kooky drops that the mainstream players didn't care much about. Obviously the Rmt always botted the high Gil value NMs, or those NMs that dropped popular RA-EX gear.

I have said before, that there should be thousands more new open-area NMs that drop fun, unusual, exotic gear, gear that is not game-changing or essential or super-popular or High Gil Value, and this would allow people like me to go Hunting again. A RA-EX fun hat, a nice earring, anything that says I farmed the ferocious NM and finally got the drop. If it is not a popular or valuable item, so much the better, because I was farming the NM as a challenge and test of skill and persistence.

But open-area NMs were pretty much stopped in 2010, something that I consider a huge mistake.

The trigger-pop NMs in Aby, and the entirely mechanical instance NMs in SoA and Ambuscade etc., are not real NMs, they are not To Be Hunted, but rather delivered to you at a Drive Thru window.

I believe that mechanical instance NMs / instance battle content, is far easier to farm mechanically by Rmt Botter types, than are the exotic remote open-area NMs of the original game.

All that being said, I greatly admire and thank the FFXI Dev Team for working so hard to keep the game online, and for adding a lot of fun and cool QOL features in recent years.

I am always happy that FFXI is still available online, and I am grateful for every single day that I can spend in Vana'diel.