Via QJ.net: "Bannination is at hand in the land of Final Fantasy XI Online, people! According to a news bulletin posted at the game's official site, an issue allowing players to create multiple items for particular treasures and rewards by exploiting the game system in areas like Salvage and Assault were discovered on November of last year by the team."
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The Final Fantasy XI official site at PlayOnline.com has a new article focusing on the developers' enforcement of the EULA, particularly with regard to Real Money Transactions (RMT). The piece outlines the past year's work by the Special Task Force.
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Massively: Every few months the Final Fantasy XI drops a massive update to the game, and we're due for another one of those later this month. The December Update is going to see updates and tweaks to elements of the title across the board, with new missions and quests centered in the Wings of the Goddess expansion areas one of the update's biggest selling points. The other big component is the introduction of the "Fields of Valor" system. Fields of Valor will allow players to take on 'training regimes', targetted missions to slay a number of specific enemies in a specified amount of time. Every day, one training mission will be assigned and the rewards for completing it include experience, gil, and points within the new Fields of Valor system. Points may eventually be turned in for fun bennies.
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There are lots of ways you can play the everlasting Final Fantasy XI -- on your PC, your Xbox 360, and even (in case you've forgotten) on a hard drive-equipped PlayStation 2. Where many people can't play it, though, is on PlayStation 3s, as most models lack backwards compatibility. But when we caught up with the FFXI development team at the Fan Fest event in Hollywood, California over the weekend, we learned an interesting tidbit: It turns out Square Enix was indeed looking into the possibility of releasing a version of FFXI for the PS3, until they ran into a small snag.
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You heard rightly, Final Fantasy XI will be represented in Dissidia: Final Fantasy in the form of Shantotto, the impish little Tarutaru from Windurst. It was confirmed at a recent Final Fantasy XI event, and it looks like she will be a playable character.
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SquareEnix Ltd., the publisher of SquareEnix interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories, today announced their plans for three new expansion scenarios for Final Fantasy XI.

Six years since its initial release, Final Fantasy XI currently has 500,000 active users playing in Europe, Japan, and...
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Every Final Fantasy story is set in a different world. This of course means, every compilation features different locations and environments. The environments in every Final Fantasy are thus different from each other, as they reflect the themes and ideas of the story, as well as the emotions involved in the story at the time you encounter them in a game for the first time. Of course this is helped with the oh-so-magic use of music...

Continuing with our Top 5 Season We've compiled our top 5 iconic Final Fantasy locations which can be found following. Do you agree with our choices? If not what would you change in the list? (Please note this article contains Spoilers)
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These promotional videos ran in the Open Mega Theater at Tokyo Game Show 2008! It's a new comedic campaign featuring a humorous look at the world of Final Fantasy XI, and the many deep, emotional tales that flow throughout Vana'diel everyday. Enjoy!
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The official website for Square Enix's yearly fan-gathering for the Final Fantasy XI dedicated, Fan Festive 2008, is now open. This year's event is being held at the Renaissance Hollywood, Southern California and is only 54 days away with the whole thing kicking off on Friday, December 5th. There's a giveaway featuring an ultra-cute Nomad Moogle Sheild and other bits. In addition to the giveaway there will be contests aplenty. Attendees can expect a fan art contest to enter drawings and sculptures into as well as a costume contest. And finally, it wouldn't be complete without a sneak peek at an upcoming version update and a developer panel.
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"Included in the version update scheduled for early September will be modifications to the degree of difficulty of Pandemonium Warden (and associated pets), Absolute Virtue (and associated pets), and Jailer of Love. The aim of these changes is to create battles where a decisive outcome may be reached within a shorter period of time."

More after the jump.
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Gamervision reports:

''A new patch has added some new bosses to Final Fantasy XI, including the somewhat ridiculously resilient Pandemonium Warden. A guild named Beyond the Limitation attempted to take down the Warden, but had to quit after 18 Hours of combat. One of the guild leaders reported, "People were passing out and getting physically ill. We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible new story about how video games ruin people's lives."

They estimated that it would have taken an additional five or six hours to beat the Pandemonium Warden, and had to question their abilities in the game. The boss changed forms every few hours, and when they finally decided to call it quits, the enemy was in it's 20th form. They are also one of the only guilds to take down the highest-level boss in the game without glitching it, so they weren't screwing up the Warden battle.''
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1UP writes: Final Fantasy XI development team on the eve of the latest patch release to their current expansion, Wings of the Goddess, and talked with Koichi Ogawa (FFXI planner), Mitsutoshi Gondai (FFXI job planner), Mizuki Ito (FFXI battle planner), and Hiromichi Tanaka (FFXI producer) about the state of the game and its future.
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As one of the only MMOs to ever prove successful on consoles, Final Fantasy XI has also avoided some perks normally associated with PC-focused online titles. One of those missing bonuses was remedied Thursday, as Square has announced that Final Fantasy XI and its expansions are now available in disc-free, downloadable form.
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The next version up date will usher in a number of new additions to the Campaign system, as well as several changes to existing elements.
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Square Enix has dated Final Fantasy XI '2008 Edition' a compilation box which will be out on PC and Xbox 360 on May 23.The 2008 box contains the online Final Fantasy - which people are still playing, apparently - and all four expansion packs; Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urghan and the latest, Wings of the Goddess.Last year the 2007 edition hit the shelves, with the stand alone game and three ... » Read More

Square Enix has announced the May 23 release of Final Fantasy XI 2008 Edition, a new retail collection which includes the original Final Fantasy XI game plus all four expansions: Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urghan and Wings of the Goddess.

Final Fantasy XI 2008 Edition will be released in Europe and other PAL territories on May 23, 2008.
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A new study from Nottingham Trent University explains the widespread underbelly of gender-swapping throughout the world MMO world. ... » Read More

Play Reports: Luurs' avatar, 'Sots', had amassed the stash over four years of play, and the newspaper reveals that in total his horde was apparently worth 75 million Gil - or nearly 4,000 USD. US police authorities have, so far, refused to investigate this crime, despite Luurs identifying former friend 'Ayri' as a suspect.
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Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI development team announced that the Fan Art Contest during the upcoming Doll Festival that will begins in March of 2007. The official theme of this year's contest will be "The Ladies of Vana'diel." The contest will be accepting all submissions as of today until the March deadline. The official contest announcement (via the link below) has information on how to enter.
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Most MMO players know the story of IGE and Affinity Media by now, (the owners of WoWhead, Allakhazam, Thottbot and WoWinterface), and their relationship. A really interesting article popped up on Radar Online today which highlights some of the dodgy characters that are involved in the Affinity Media business which had claimed to have no involvement with IGE. Brock Pierce who is an advisor and a board member of Affinity Media, is highlighted in the above article and I have to say there's some pretty unsavoury stuff here pointing at child abuse. This has been brought up before regarding Brock Pierce who has apparently denied charges but there are filed legal cases which he has tried to settle.

In related news, there has been paperwork filed this week where IGE admits that it is Affinity Media (see additional link). Not that anyone doubted it. Next time you hit up an Affinity Media site, just think about who you are supporting and who's pockets your traffic is lining with cash.
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