The Real Problem With FFXI

This is probably going to offend somebody out there, but I can’t say that I care.

The real problem with FFXI is multi-boxers.

On Asura this is the cancer that has caused the community to go from a player base that tries to occasionally cooperate with one another into a bunch of “solo” players hijacking the economy by selling everything you can think of. Sure, multi-boxing makes sense from a logistical point of view, and yes, I have benefitted myself from knowing a few people who do this. But you know what? Pretty much everyone on Asura has benefited from people who do this. It’d be nice if the game could find a new normal with actual players as opposed to multi-boxing being embraced by the community. I’m not entirely sure that XI will ever be an actual game again until this practice is more closely scrutinized by SE. That said, I can’t blame them for turning a blind eye to it. They love money, but who doesn’t?

3000 people online on Asura. More like MAYBE 500 people and the rest are the legions of multi-boxed GEO/COR/BRD/WHM mules.

Have to agree, it turned into something very very few did (it was even frowned upon in the past) to something everyone and their grandma does. I don't know if its the age of the game, the availability of add-ons or everyone having more expendable income. It's crazy seeing everyone 6+ boxing with the characters following them like FF8 with all the addons/bots available.

It's been a while since I really played, and I was never on Asura, but multiboxing didn't happen in a vacuum. Everything in FFXI is designed to be done with a group of people. There's very little/no "solo" content. Also, the game benefits HEAVILY from support-only party members, even if they don't do a whole lot outside of buffing. Combine this with a relatively slow combat system that is easily automated (I don't mean that in a bad way, just consider something like FFXIV, which is carpal-tunnel inducing on some jobs).

MMO players always gravitate towards efficiency. Spending 15/30+ extra dollars a month to be able to do whatever you want, on your own schedule? People are ABSOLUTELY going to do that.

There are no viable fixes for this, because anything that would render multiboxing non-viable would require massive, overarching changes to the entire structure of the game, from job abilities to the flow of combat. Even "well just break Windower" won't work because when I triboxed I did it without send or any of that. I had an autohotkey script that let me swap windows with a controller press and I always sang songs/cured/etc manually.

So I get where you're coming from and I sympathize, but this is just never, ever, going to happen.

Well, the end of this isn't going to happen so this thread is dead upon arrival.

One of the more fun things about multi-boxers is that their pocket WHM/GEO/COR/BRD are better geared than some people's main WHM/GEO/COR/BRD which gates new players (especially in the case of BRD) from joining pickup content.

Why take a good 3-song BRD that is trying to get better when you've had a pocket 4-song BRD for over a decade?

I think this is the real issue with multiboxing, not whatever OP said.

As someone who 3-4boxes sometimes more (free login yay) This is the whole thing for me. Sometimes I only have 30min to and hour at a time to play, so it's nice to hop right into something. I can run through a full set of HTBF, refarm my own merits, and if I want to take a break in the middle of it, I can, then pick it back up later. I have no problem with other people doing this as long as they're not bringing bare-bones, naked characters that can't contribute. The neat thing is, with multiple characters, I almost always have something to work on to gear their various jobs.


I can definitely agree with this sentiment, I'm fortunate that none of the characters I use were from scratch (except my own) so they already had a few jobs geared, however I've done GEO, BRD, COR, WHM, RDM, SCH, BLM, BLU multiple times as a result, and can accomodate other people who might have a support job geared and I can adjust to whatever role someone else can fill.

Not faulting anyone who uses tools, I certainly have, but the amount of public automation is the real problem with FFXI. Nobody would be multiboxing if they didn't have all this automation pre-written and handed out for their use.

The economy is fine, but when 3/4 of top end players are multiboxing you have no top end players available for forming new groups. The same players who can easily do everything are burned out and don't care to try anything because it's all so accessible. Linkshell groups don't need to be maintained because everyone can 'solo' 'duo' or 'trio' with their friends and armies.

By weakening the dependence on other players, you get rid of the drive for people to make and form lasting groups. That was the heart and soul of ffxi, and it's almost entirely gone now.

Seems like on some other servers it has become normality, but it's not as widespread here. Yes, you do see some multi-boxers running around, but it's not excessive. I have two multi-boxers in my LS and they are very useful, sometimes (but not always) playing two, maybe three characters at a time. This helps considerably when we are lacking numbers and need to fill in the blanks, or if we need to save extra pops for things like Ou. So the benefits of multi-boxing, especially on quieter servers, should not be underestimated.

However, I do understand that for some players, it could be strange to them if someone isn't multi-boxing, like it comes as a surprise to not have several desktops/laptops set up to solo group content at your will. The closest I get to multi-boxing is when I play my Father's character at the same time as my own, but his macros are completely different, so I usually end up manual playing through menus. This is rare though... I prefer to solo or set up a party.

A huge problem, not THE problem. Yes, multibox. (also, the ability to create an endless supply of "boxes" regardless of bans)

My mules are better than pug.

The real problem is volte enemies are Fomor and Fomor are “undead” but volte are not undead!

This is my scenario as well. I used to be single and ready to mingle pre SOA, but after life got really busy and I started paying attention to my wife... well I don't have that time any longer. I adopted both my mules from friends who wanted to give it a shot and just stopped so I got lucky there too... unfortunately, they didn't have much in the way of endgame gear so I still suck @3box.

I don’t take pugs, it’s simple play time is short, I want to get things done. I can take a break when I like. And even if windower was not around people will still multi-box, I did it on Xbox and ps2 with very little problems. As selfish as it sounds. Facts are it’s faster to do it myself. Then yell for someone who has no clue how to play said job. And slow me down.

This pretty much encapsulates a lot of what I was trying to say. Thank you Thorny.

Sure, it’s fast. Sure it’s efficient. Once you get all of that setup. Setting up a multiboxing gambit isn’t exactly easy or straightforward.

I dont know if it gates new players as much as it encourages them to actually put the time and effort into becoming well geared. Multiboxers that have best in slot mules have invested a ton of time into their characters and probably have the skill set to go with it. Not being able to play with the best players is not gating new players.

If anything high level multiboxers can easily make up for deficiencies that new players have and take alot pressure off of them, but then it is up to the new players to learn their job and invest in the gear needed to be able to play at that level, or they can just be lazy and never rise to greatness.

Multiboxing allows for more flexibility when playing with friends. Someone doesnt have to be stuck on geo or whm for every event because a good multiboxer can cover multiple roles allowing others to play varied roles when they want to try something new.

This is a big thing for me. I don't know many people that enjoy playing WHM, BRD, GEO as mains, so I can cover those and they can tank, play a DD, something that can potentially contribute more.

I started to 5 box recently, it wasn't just because of the getting on and being able to do my own thing it was also because a lot of support players on Asura are really lazy. BRD's who think only putting songs up and afking for 11 minutes is acceptable. Geo's who will do a bubble and sit afk most likely not even procing their bubbles. You get the jist so i made my own support team, because if i play like ***i don't kill content

I've spent the last couple months specifically setting up a bare bones setup across all my guys for this same reason also. 5x RDM 5xWHM 4xBRD 4xGEO 4xCOR. Also developing methods to run 3x2 teams of support to allow more room for those single boxers who prefer the front line play (of which the majority of players do).

I have also set these up as a way to get my linkmates CPed, sure I could do it faster if I just made my own PT, but hell I am in no rush, and I enjoy sharing what I can.

Also, yes having geared to the 9s mules is definitely helpful, I am rocking earth staffs at the moment and various other cheap upgrades, and they are indeed pulling their weight, where they can.

In the long run they will get better as left over gear starts overflowing on them. But also so will my linkshell members who enjoy the kind of support merc-mania has instilled in everyone, but without it costing them a single gil.

Also set aside room for a library of the cheap void/shard items for people in my shell to take for free (the high value ones are sold and split to those who attend that run).

Solo players - full on alliance-boxers can come in all sorts of variety. Some are greedy *** and there is a reason they have resorted to full blown my 6-box only mentallity. and that is because that attitude has lost them all their friends.

most are not. Welcome to the party.

I doubt the game would be in great shape if they cut a major portion of their revenue.


It sounds like your real problem is with Asura and the culture of transaction > community. Just because those people multibox (don't have to split profits) doesn't make all multiboxers bad.

If your wish came true- a lot of people are quitting the game as a result. Unless they have a tight-knit crew, with all jobs covered, that are also available to group up at all times.

The fact that there are more people here trying to justify multi-boxing as opposed to speaking out against it just shows that this is an issue.

If you don’t have time to wait for people to do content then how do you have time to level multiple accounts up and cap their gear? This isn’t something mere mortals are capable of. Like—-I have multiple REMA. On one account. It took me a long time to get to this point. I can’t imagine doing it five more times. It seems like a HUGE time investment. Again—-something mere mortals aren’t capable of.

I love reading: “the problem with ffxi is [x]. You see, on Asura [blah blah blah] happens and it really sucks. SE should get rid of [x].

There’s more than one server. Idk if multi-boxing is a problem on Asura, but it wasn’t a big issue on Leviathan. I have single boxed and multi-boxed, and I can say that on a smaller server it’s a solution rather than a problem. Shouting for hours to get a support job to run a few Ambu is not exactly ideal.

So far as multi-boxing being a gate to new players, there was plenty of gate keeping by elite single boxers back in ffxi’s hay day, so I’m skeptical that ‘PUG sux, I’ll bring my mule’ is a new problem and isn’t just another iteration of something that has and always will exist in ffxi.

I’d also argue that is possible, maybe even likely, that ffxi would have been shut down without the revenue that multi-boxers contribute. If that’s the case, then it’s tough to say that the problem with ffxi is the exact thing that’s keeping it alive. On that vein, SE certainly has more resources for new content with multi-boxers than without them.

If multi-boxers are really that big of an issue for you, you can always start a single boxer shell—idk if it will survive, but if you can’t keep one single boxer shell alive, it should throw some cold water on the notion that squashing multi-boxing is going to be some panacea for everything that you don’t like about the game. If it does survive then you can enjoy playing the game like minded people

you don't need any REMA's on mules. must have missed this part.

As mentioned in last post. Multi boxers are filling some critical roles that just arent popular to play, or at least to have to play only.

you might as well say, "you know the problem with XI, no one wants to play a support role" Which is a truer statement than the OP.

I am a career Bard. I like playing support. I’m a real player.

OK, tell your multi box mate to swap his BRD to a GEO and go smash stuff.

idk, gitgud?

It can take a long time, but with extra characters you always have help. And for REMA, almost all of the prereq can be done at the same time on each character. For ambuscade, I now have 3-4+x the rewards in a month. For HTBF I now have 3-4+x the REM stone rewards. It adds up like crazy.

I've played a majority of the last 4 years or so with 2 characters or more and being able to always have support jobs or THF mains for better drops makes things go much quicker.

As others said, too. Your mules don't need REMA especially in the start. But when I didn't have any immediate REMA or gear needs on my main character, I'd try and deck out my alt, and back and forth over and over. My alt(s) have some jobs geared better than my main either out of pure luck of their personal drops, augments, or I know i won't need more than 1 character with that job so I gear it to the max or as close as I can get.

2004: I got tired of *waiting* to find that 5th/6th member or to join an XP party
2010: I got tired of *waiting* for my turn in the LS to farm an Empyrean weapon for myself instead of someone's 2nd or 3rd.
2017: I got tired of *waiting* for someone to answer my shout for Ambuscade VE/E/N when I came back.

I got tired of waiting, sitting there doing nothing. Now the LS has an Idris, now the LS has a 4-song bard. We'd still be in the stone ages doing Delve or going solo w/ some RDM no-TP strategy.

I'm having WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more fun. Adding a GEO/BRD/COR to your roster literally speeds up everything else when things took forever before.

literally just packed 4 out of my six mules to help out an LS person who was struggling with a fight. in the time it took for me to check back in this thread. instead of shouting for hours, we knocked out the mob 3 times and got his drop (with less interested people in the group than a pug) he got his item and I bounced. took us less than a game day.

But yea dragging 5x people along who either, could be doing other things, or are all after the same drop you might want, is the better way to go.

I might add, we got a few bonus valor legs that they got also.

edit, they as in the other 2 people in the party.