I am a bit surprised this didn't roll around here yet, but perhaps you wonderful folks aren't much of MMO players. Tried searching, so mods, feel free to axe if not needed.

Apparently there's a new boss so difficult in the FFXI MMO that one group spent 18 hours trying to take it down. 18 hours straight, to the point of becoming ill and having to quit. The thing apparently has multiple forms and a ridiculous set of abilities.

I'm a bit odd as to where to direct my confusion - at Square Enix for creating a boss that might end up literally killing someone one day, or at the FFXI players who actually honestly want to try to justify spending 18 hours straight on one thing. I'd almost err on the side of being on the side of the players. Yeah, players can have addictive personalities and often they may have misplaced priorities with games and their lives, but what developer that isn't the one behind E.T. for the Atari makes a boss that requires that kind of time period to defeat?

Original story:
http://petfoodalpha.com/?p=1055

Informative blog post from one of the players:
http://rukenshin.livejournal.com/17133.html

Original Discussion thread:
http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60265&page=19

18-hours wtf you got to be kidding me!! 18-hours straight to kill one boss wouldn't it get a bit boring after a couple of hours trying to kill the same thing but failing time, after time, after time.

You would be amazed what a little commroddery and teamspeak can do. I dont think Id have the patience, to do it, but I know people who will play against a boss for hours in WoW. I also know I will repeat MAG runs in PSU with a group I just enjoy chatting with more then 2 or 3 times (I usually hate repeating levels) because they are cool....

....so as much as I couldnt, I can understand how there are people who can.

That's why I quit FFXI. I like working for things and feeling a sense of accomplishment but SE's lost their damn minds. Plus there was the whole thing where the community basically made anyone with the word "mage" in their job's title worthless thanks to their preference for the super easy to kill mobs that reflect all magic cast on them. I doubt I'll ever return. The community has decided that mages aren't worth having and I don't like any of the melee jobs.

I also know I will repeat MAG runs in PSU

OT: What is PSU and what's a MAG run?

That is a bit too much I think. Like Diortem said voice chat with some good people can still make it fun. I've had alot of fun playing games I don't like only beucase the people I played with were really cool.

I saw this on Kotaku when the story first appeared, thats just f*cking insane!
an 18 hour boss battle? what the hell..
has anyone actually beaten this game yet?

OT: What is PSU and what's a MAG run?

Phantasy Star Universe....

And MAG is an event going on right now... Maximum Assault G. Basically, its a quick tour over a graphically updated corssection of Phantasy Star Online levels for insane experience, drops, and 4X the difficulty. The individual goal is to at the end of the event have more kills then everyone else in it (total, not in any run). As a community, there is a reward for all for the number of monsters kill in total.

Ive been using it to level up characters for a project... and to play with clan-members who I think are damn cool.

Boss battles are always my favorite part of a game (big SOTC fan), but they shouldn't last more than a half an hour. I think the longest enjoyable boss battle I have fought was Yami from Okami.

It is almost like the game designers (of FFXI) wanted to ensure that no one would ever beat that boss. Games should be made to enjoy, there should never be a challenge that is attainable only through heavy coffee intake and massive sleep deprivation.

Boss battles are always my favorite part of a game (big SOTC fan), but they shouldn't last more than a half an hour. I think the longest enjoyable boss battle I have fought was Yami from Okami.

It is almost like the game designers (of FFXI) wanted to ensure that no one would ever beat that boss. Games should be made to enjoy, there should never be a challenge that is attainable only through heavy coffee intake and massive sleep deprivation.

Definitely, this is more of a boss to torment people. The longest boss battle I've been in was probably fighting Vamp on MGS4 because I didn't know how to kill him. :lol:

Definitely, this is more of a boss to torment people. The longest boss battle I've been in was probably fighting Vamp on MGS4 because I didn't know how to kill him. :lol:

Torment is probably the perfect word to use in this situation. The guys that tried to beat it had to stop because many were about to pass out. Perhaps they should have taken Capcom's advice and had a sandwich to keep their energy up. A peanut butter, jelly and 6 pounds of sugar sandwich (that sounds so gross).

Dammmmnnnnnnnn boy

Torment is probably the perfect word to use in this situation. The guys that tried to beat it had to stop because many were about to pass out. Perhaps they should have taken Capcom's advice and had a sandwich to keep their energy up. A peanut butter, jelly and 6 pounds of sugar sandwich (that sounds so gross).

Doesn't sound like the nicest of things.
Or one of those Mega man drinks! :lol:

This is why I am glad that my MMO poison, WoW, is streamlined enough to have dungeon instances target completion time be around 45 mins to an hour.