While surfing YouTube this week we stumbled across this excellent redition of the Matrix (1999) trailler. Most of it was filmed either in game or with promotional shots for Final Fantasy XI. Watch out for those Taru Taru agents!

IGN does not own or produce the following fan made video. All content is copyright it's original owners and is provided for satirical entertainment only

Fan Festival is proud to play host to another amazing showcase of talent from our community! This year we are featuring four different contests for our attendees to participate in including an Art (visual and physical), Movie, and of course the ever popular Costume contest! Don't waste any time, head over to the Contest section and find out how to enter so you can get started on your masterpieces right away!

Visit the Fan Festival 2007 website for more details.

Aselin has posted her new column looking at the Treasure Hunter trait and Drop rates. We've got an excerpt below:

About a little over a month ago I decided to take a look at two of the most poorly understood mechanics in this game—Treasure Hunter and drop rates. Over the course of one month I looked at several factors: Treasure Hunter traits, moon phases, and the number of Thieves in a party or alliance. Now, mind you, that this may not be the most complete study, but I did what I could in the time allotted. Therefore, the following is my theory on how both Treasure Hunter and drop rates work in this game. I observed drops from notorious monsters, BCNMs, and Dynamis. A more complete look at this would take a much longer time requiring the help of players from the FFXI community. The first part of this article looks at the Treasure Hunter trait and is my understanding of how it works. In the second part I will discuss drop rates and how they probably work. Take the following as nothing more than a theory and an example, but it is something that I have observed after a little over a month.



Drop rates in this game are purely random as many players would attest to. However, players are not too sure on how they work and how Treasure Hunter affects it. Over a month, I have noticed that not only Treasure Hunter traits affect drop rates, but moon phase as well, which I will get to later on in this article.

Read Full Article

Source: PlayOnline

PlayOnline registration server will be unavailable due to maintenance at the following time. During this period, the following services will be unavailable:

- Registering or canceling PlayOnline accounts
- Reviewing or updating member information
- Reviewing, purchasing, canceling, or reactivating Content IDs
- Purchasing expansion pack registration codes
- Applying for the World Transfer Service

Also, if there is a problem with your payment method, you may be automatically disconnected from the game during the maintenance period. To avoid this, please complete all necessary billing changes in advance.

Thank you for your patience.

[Date & Time]
Phase 1
Oct. 1, 2007 from 0:00 to 9:00 (PDT)

Phase 2
Oct. 2, 2007 from 0:00 to 8:00 (PDT)
* Maintenance completion time may be subject to change.

[Affected Services]
PlayOnline

[Details]
Maintenance of the PlayOnline registration server.
* Both PlayOnline and PlayOnline contents will be available.

* The Return Home to Vana'diel campaign will be unavailable during the registration server maintenance.

Please be aware that several services including purchasing, cancellation

As if the bans were not enough, Square has also released details on the Special Task Forces' activities from the last month:

Source: PlayOnline
Today's report will outline our actions conducted from August 28, 2007 to September 25, 2007 in dealing with players violating the user agreement, as well as details on the activities, results, and goals of the Special Task Force.

Click here for a report on the Special Task Force's overall activities.

Square has banned a number of accounts for violating the terms of use. We've got full details below:

Source: PlayOnline
Around 8080 accounts in violation of the FINAL FANTASY XI user agreement were suspended or banned today.

Click here for details.

Source: PlayOnline

We are currently experiencing difficulties with the World Transfer service. The issue is currently being addressed. New updates will follow as additional information becomes available.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

[Date & Time]
Sep. 26, 2007 from 6:15 (PDT)

[Issue Details]
World Transfer service is unavailable.

[Cause]
Under investigation.

[Affected Services]
FINAL FANTASY X

Source: PlayOnline
A small update that fixes some exploits found in the September 11th update.

At the following time, we performed a version update of FINAL FANTASY XI.

[Affected Period]
Sep. 25, 2007 12:00 (PDT)

[Affected Services]
FINAL FANTASY XI

[Important Update Details]
- Counter measure was implemented to combat abuse of an improper function of the game.

This version update was performed to implement a counter measure to an improper use of the game that was found on Sep. 11, 2007.
The counter measure for the NPC Varchet in Southern San d'Oria is still being tested by our team and it will be addressed in the near future.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

We've got a brand new poll regarding End Game today. We'd love to know if you have reached it yet. Prevous poll is below:

Question:
Will You Reset Your Char Once WotG Is Released?

Choices:
Option 01: Yes [2 votes]
Option 02: No - Use Existing Character [13 votes]
Option 03: No - No Plans To Purchase WotG [0 votes]

Thanks to OpalFlame:

Bastok Airships


Death By Vrtra


YAY, For Kamp Kweh

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Source: PlayOnline

The PlayOnline registration server will be unavailable due to maintenance at the following time. During this period, following services will be unavailable:

- Register or unsubscribe PlayOnline accounts
- Review or update member information
- Review, purchase, cancel, or reactivate Content IDs
- Apply for World Transfer Service
- Purchase expansion pack registration codes

Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.

[Date & Time]
Sep. 24, 2007 from 22:00 to 23:00 (PDT)
* Maintenance completion time may be subject to change.

[Affected Services]
PlayOnline

Our topic of the week this week involves the New Job, Screenshots and Video released at the Tokyo Gameshow. As you can see from our updates on Friday the information is massive.

We're looking forward to more information in the coming weeks. In the mean time please give us your impression of last week's blow out!

Source: PlayOnline

Earlier this week, a new promotional video for the Wings of the Goddess expansion pack was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show.
For all of you who could not make it over to Japan for the special event, we've posted the footage on our official site. Click here to view exclusive images of new monsters, areas, one of the new jobs, and much, much more.
Also, be sure to check the site often as it will be updated regularly in the coming weeks!

Images from the past? No Way! Check them out:








Check out our TGS '07 Images Section for more from Wings of the Goddess!

A brand new area has been revealed. We've got the first screenshots below for you:







Check out our TGS '07 Images Section for more from Wings of the Goddess!

Oh my! Could it be a monster invasion? We'll let you decide with these new monster images from WotG:






Check out our TGS '07 Images Section for more from Wings of the Goddess!

The media onslaught for Wings of the Goddess continues with the following images from the TGS '07 trailer:














Check out our TGS '07 Images Section for more from Wings of the Goddess!

We've got some great images of the new Dancer job straight from the Tokyo Game Show. We're so excited about these new images we've opened up a special TGS 07 section in our screenshots section.






Check out our TGS '07 Images Section for more from Wings of the Goddess!

Welcome to yet another Week In Review for Final Fantasy Vault. This week has been full of huge news that every FFXI player should read. Join us as we recap the week that was:

On Monday we opened the week with our YouTube of the Week. This week the video was the first ever released Final Fantasy XI Trailer circa 2000. We also posted a featured forum topic "Is FFXI Dead?". It helped stimulate discussion on the current condition of the game.

Tuesday brought the creation of a new poll. This week we asked if you plan on restarting your character for Wings of the Goddess. A silly question considering you might need level 30+ for the new jobs but some people do prefer to start from the ground up ^_^. We also posted Square's Screenshot of the Week "A Tarutaru’s power flows from the nose!".

The release date for Wings of the Goddess was revealed to be November 20th on Wednesday. This is possible some of the biggest news to come out this week. As we speculated a few months ago - the expansion is being released right after the Fan Fest! The content for it doesn't actually go live until November 22nd, check out our news report for full details. We also posted our third podcast on Wednesday. If you haven't checked it out please check it out.

Thursday brought news of a new job that could be featured in Wings of the Goddess. An image and vague details surrounding the Dancer job emerged early in the morning thanks to Famitsu. We still don't have confirmation or solid details from Square Enix. Could this job work like the Bard? No one knows yet but the image looks really neat. We also posted three new screenshots in to our database on Thursday to help close out the day.

That's the week that it has been on Final Fantasy Vault. Filled with lots of excellent news - look forward to even further content in the coming weeks as Wings of the Goddess draws closer.

Looks like Square is performing some maintenance on all Worlds. This will shut down Final Fantasy XI from 10am (PST) to 12:00 (PST) and all reservations for the Pankration will be deleted. Please observe the notice below:

At the following time, we will be performing maintenance on all Worlds. During this period, FINAL FANTASY XI will be unavailable.

Maintenance operations will delete any reservations for Pankration matches. Players who are scheduled to participate in Pankration matches, those who will enter Assault, Salvage or Einherjar areas, or those who will participate in Dynamis or Limbus at the time of the maintenance, we ask that you please wait until it maintenance is complete before engaging in these activities. Please note that we cannot replace items that are lost during the maintenance process.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

* The World Transfer Service will be unavailable starting 30 minutes before the maintenance. Please wait until after the maintenance is completed before attempting to use this service.

[Date & Time]
Sep. 21, 2007 from 10:00 to 12:00 (PDT)
* Maintenance completion time may be subject to change.

[Affected Services]
FINAL FANTASY XI