Final Fantasy XI For PC Explored

Thanks to Adrenaline Vault for their hands-on preview of Final Fantasy XI for PC. This cross-platform MMORPG is due for PC this October in the U.S., several months ahead of the PlayStation 2 version, and features many features to excite the average Final Fantasy fan: "Each player is granted their own Mog house complete with a yellow cherubic Moogle servant... To travel great distances quickly... [a] favorite method of transportation is at near hand: the many splendored horse/chicken hybrid, the Chocobo." Another hands-on preview at Frictionless Insight brings up the interesting problem of control methods that work for both PS2 and PC: "What won't be familiar to PC gamers is the user interface. The system of menus... ties in with the need to be accessible to gamepad-type controllers. With a moderately button-intensive gamepad in hand, PC gamers will zip through menus with a flutter of finger twitching and d-pad action."

Comments

Ebay style economy

[Fred IV]

FFXI sports an eBay-style auction system that augments the local array of NPC-owned marketplaces. Players put items on the auction block to go to the highest bidder less a small service fee collected by the NPC auction house owners.

Nice, this sounds a lot better than the crap I have to go through to buy and sell at my current online RPG. I hope this becomes the standard way of doing things.

Is there an existing game that uses an ebay style player economy? This seems like too good of an idea to be unique to FF XI.

Re:Ebay style economy

[The Munger]

I wonder if perhaps this is to reduce the number of real-life auctions?

With all the developers/publishers putting things in EULAs and requesting auctions to be closed, perhaps they decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I think players would warm to it a lot more than forking out real cash as well.

Implementation could also be an interesting point. I wonder if you have to be in the game to collect on your auction, or whether you'll be able to do it via web/email. Couldn't you see merchants popping up who don't move away from the auction houses?