Highly Notorious Monsters

[ThePatriarch]

Yes. Absolutely zero.

This is you saying that HNM's had no popularity.

HNMs were a part of the game, and they were something that some of the most advanced players in the game enjoyed

This is you nullifying your prior statement. Whether or not you want to admit/believe it, HNM's were very popular. In some cases on the more crowded servers there would be in upwards of 100 at each camp. And you say advanced players... What do you think people aspire to be in MMO's? The greater majority of people who play MMO's would eventually like to get to the "Upper Tier", and slay those massive monsters with friends, or work on finally clearing that instanced dungeon.

Even more, Notorious Monsters are easily one of the biggest parts of FFXI (arguably the biggest). There are so many forms of NM/HNM's, and each and every one of them are liked by a certain crowd.

You had your ground HNM (Ground Kings/21-24hour spawn)

Small time World NM's (leaping lizzy, Valkurm Em, etc)

Forced pop HNM's (sky, sea, etc)

ZNM (Zeni Notorious Monsters)

Instanced HNM's (Nyzul, Assault, Salvage, Dynamis etc)

The fact that you would say that no one had any interest in HNM/NM's, is simply ignorant.