Final Fantasy XI expands wedding services
by Eliot Lefebvre 
Oct 21st 2009 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Culture, Events, in-game, Roleplaying
Weddings in MMOs are sort of an odd beast at best, but the setting and atmosphere found in Final Fantasy XI suited the feature even way back when it was first introduced. Unfortunately, actually going through the process in-game has always been something of a hassle, what with the additional fees, the scheduling problems, a convoluted registration feature and so forth. Considering your only reward was usually an in-game wedding ring, it didn't light many people on fire. However, even though the game is entering its twilight years (or possibly because of that), Square-Enix is rolling out a new and more straightforward system to make marriage less of an issue -- in-game, at least.
Rather than having an ornate application to fill out, the game will be instituting a page in which you can simply schedule a time, date, and place. The nation's wedding masters will be added in as NPCs, allowing you to talk with them at any time to retrieve a certificate as a house furnishing once you've gotten married. In addition to all of this, you'll no longer have to jump through hoops for most of the wedding items (presumably including the game's tuxedo and wedding dress), as they'll be purchasable by anyone who requires them. If you prefer having a more ornate wedding, however, there's an optional Player Event system in place allowing you to expand beyond the confines of the existing system. It's not exactly a Vana'dielian Vegas, but Final Fantasy XI's updates to the system should at least make it a bit easier to tie the knot.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dblade said on 1:13PM 10-21-2009
What's really, really annoying about all the recent FFXI news is that they are coming when the game has been out multiple years, and they are things that should have been addressed or fixed long ago. It's like now that they got all the junk out of the way, like the three mini-expansions, chocobo racing, and moblin maze mongers, they actually are spending time fixing real problems in the game.
If they had done this much sooner, FFXI would probably have been a lot better.
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koehler83 said on 2:04PM 10-21-2009
Are you serious?! Who the hell cares about this? You wanna talk about wasting time.. Anything to do with in-game marriages is a waste of time. What a waste of resources. No one outside of Japan could give half a crap.
How about finishing that expansion that came out like 2 years ago? Hey, what a concept!
Dblade said on 2:50PM 10-21-2009
You'd be surprised, several friends I had when they played wanted to do weddings and even went so far as to set dates and get chaperones, but the backlog meant years wait. As far as I can see, they have constantly added WOTG missions and content, adding the beastman strongholds, ANNMs, the SCNMS, the new thing with the pixies and those unique weapons, Xarc campaign and that union thing, and it goes on...
It's not like they ignored WOTG at all, but what they have been ignoring is a lot of basic fixes like this, something that really isn't labor-intensive.
XeroHedgehog said on 2:23PM 10-21-2009
Dblade has a point with how FFXI's recent improvements could have come far earlier, but I disagree on how it could have affected the game quality - the new content that has come out so far has added a great deal of variety to a game that was originally an incredulous grindfest. SE has done a good job making the game accessible to a wider audience, and that's a win-win situation for the developer - not only does that make it easier for them to earn more long-term subscribers, but it also provides those subscribers with ways to not want to cancel that subscription.
As for the new wedding support service, what I'm most interested in is how Square-Enix will cater to two unique subsets of matrimony - those who are interested in having a casual wedding (even less formal than the Bastokan weddings provided by the current service) with no dress code, acting more like a giant reception than a wedding ceremony, and same-sex marriages, which have been disallowed under the previous system (which has probably provided awkward moments for those male players who find out their Mithra bride is actually a dude :P).
In addition, having the service being separated from an ingrained system allows for far more creative ceremonies and receptions; why not have a San d'Orian military wedding outside the East Ronfaure Cavernous Maw, partake in a campaign battle after the ceremony, and then follow it all up with a private Ballista match as part of the reception? Now that SE is having the players run the events themselves, the possibilities for ceremonies even more memorable than those that the game has offered over the past few years are innumerable.
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Dblade said on 2:59PM 10-21-2009
I think it could have retained a lot more people than it lost. It took them forever just to add a basic tutorial, for one, and a lot of updates that were added later could have been used at ps2 launch, like the outpost warp system. Not losing exp during COP fights alone without any of the nerfs would have saved so many people's sanity. FFXI has a lot of players, but it also had a lot of churn.
The game really needed the wider audience much earlier. The changes I think are designed not to engage new people, but to make the game less of a pain in the ass for those that remained.
As for the changes, reading up on it looks like you can reserve a NPC minister for basic ones, and apply for server time to place objects to make a more immersive experience. Not too sure about the latter, I see a pretty big backlog for that since it has to be labor intensive to allow players to modify the ingame environment, especially in non-instanced areas like Purgonono isle.