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Final Fantasy holds a special place in my heart. Being a late bloomer with video games, the PSX was my first real video game system, and that was when the PS2 was on the verge of being released. The first game that I played through for the system was Final Fantasy VII. I spent almost an entire semester finishing the game, and it endeared me to the series, and set me up to move into the larger world of RPG's. Six years later, I sit nightly in front of my television and explore the strange and wondrous world of Vana d'iel. Final Fantasy XI is my new (MMO)RPG home.
I began playing XI a week after it came out in the US. I've moved up through the ranks, made a lot of friends, and experienced a very engaging story. All in all I am very satisfied with the game. The game has more content than any one person could complete in a lifetime of playing. There are quests, missions, multiple jobs, crafting, farming, gardening, etc. To each his own, the saying goes.
Variety is the spice of life, but brings with it frustration to the "traditional" RPG fan. Personally, I am a bit of a completist when it comes to my games, as are most other RPGamers that I've run into. I enjoy unlocking everything, finding all the unique quirks in a game, getting the ultimate weapons, defeating the secret bosses, you get the idea. This, however, is quite impossible in a game as big as XI, without turning into a complete vegetable. There simply isn't enough time to complete the current content before more becomes available.
This brings me to an impasse. While I enjoy my favorite series' foray into the online realm, it also leaves me feeling like Square-Enix is ripping me off for not providing a complete game. I'll never be able to "fully" enjoy the game like I would any of the other FF titles. I feel torn between trying to appreciate what content is available and trying not to miss out on anything.
MMORPGs provide endless hours of content and entertainment, but are ruining the future generation of RPGamers. As with the decline of tabletop RPGs following the introduction of video game RPGs, so are stand-alone video game RPGs failing in lieu the MMO tidal wave crashing into the next-generation console and PC market. As gamers begin to compare games like Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft, which provide literally hundreds of days worth of content, to games like Suikoden, Kingdom Hearts, and Dragon Quest which only provide a couple dozen hours of entertainment each, players will begin to become dissatisfied with the limited content provided by a stand-alone game.
Economically speaking, MMOs make more business sense. The game must still be purchased at full retail, in addition to the monthly fees associated with continued access. When these games draw hundreds of thousands, some even millions, of players who are willing to pay like this, companies that used to develop traditional RPGs will begin to lose interest in this venue as sales of the MMO continue to support their bottom line without much effort on their part. Square-Enix and Final Fantasy are the poster-child of this problem. It will be five years between the release of X and XII, and three years between X-2 and XII. With XI supporting the company, there has been no real push to develop new games in the series. Once Final Fantasy XII is released, how long until we see a PS3/Xbox 360 stand-alone FF game? XI will continue to be the stopgap in producing new games.
So where does this leave us? While I don't think that stand-alone RPGs will ever die out, at least not in my lifetime, I fear that we will begin to see longer time between releases and less effort put into originality and innovation. Until XII comes out later this year on the PS2, I plan on spending a lot of time in Vana d'iel; however, it feels like I'm feeding the enemy.
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