RMT everywhere

[Alhanelem]

Sorry, but I'm just not going to stand behind the argument that "buying once" is okay. Buying even once is an endorsement of the behavior, and so is turning a blind eye to the people "buying once."

[Stompa]

Sorry, but I'm just not going to stand behind the argument that "buying once" is okay. Buying even once is an endorsement of the behavior, and so is turning a blind eye to the people "buying once."

I totally agree with you.

Buying Gil destroys the Role Playing Game RPG part of MMORPG.

When I joined FFXI in 2004, I was arriving from a background of playing Dungeons And Dragons table-top since the early 1980s, being an AD&D Dungeon Master for three decades, and also being a huge fan of the groundbreaking and wonderful Baldur's Gate PC games.

In RPG, you can't just say "my character suddenly obtains millions of gold coins from a Bank Account in an alternate dimension" and yet this is exactly what Buying Gil does.

In FFXI, your character starts out with nothing, just some level one pyjamas and an Adventurer's Coupon to obtain 50 Gil. Becoming rich took a lot of work, and sometimes luck, which is called RPG realism. Back in the original game, it also took ages to level up and to skill up, which again is RPG realism.

I always felt that it was wrong to make the acquisition of Gil, experience points, and skill-ups, so much faster, in recent years, because I felt that the original core FFXI's slow progress actually reflected the RPG realism of the hardships that an adventurer faces. Not everybody in life has the guts to be an adventurer, not everyone in life becomes a Master, and not everyone in life becomes a billionaire.

What I liked most about the original FFXI was the stratification, the structure, and the strict rules that made adventuring difficult from level one onwards. This added realism to the character's adventuring journey, it gave the character a history of overcoming obstacles and enduring hardships. This made the characters feel more rounded, more real.

There is nothing realistic about a character that sleepwalks AFK from level 1-99 and then uses sparks books to instantly skill up to Skill Master Status. Similarly there is nothing realistic about an RPG character that suddenly obtains millions of Gil from a Bank Account on planet Earth.

Realism is not about graphics. Realism is about atmosphere and lore, and emotional engagement, the fact that you believe in and relate to a RPG character. The NPCs and player characters in FFXI might look like toy soldiers and dolls, compared to new 2019 eye-candy games, but those FFXI NPCs and player characters exist in a world that has a lot of history and lore and memories, all of which create an atmosphere of realism and emotional engagement.

Being an adventurer is not for everybody. Adventuring is a hard life. This is why most NPCs chose to be shopkeepers and townspeople, instead of being adventurers. And if the hardship of adventuring is removed entirely, it is no longer an adventure.