The 5th Vana'diel Census (05/16/2005)

The 5th Vana'diel Census (05/16/2005)

Introduction
On May 16, 2005, FINAL FANTASY XI celebrates the 3-year mark since its launch in Japan, and prepares to enter a fourth year of service! The original Vana'diel Census was created as a simple overview of the FINAL FANTASY XI community-- a community that has continued to grow at a phenomenal rate. In response to this growth, the fifth Vana'diel Census will include several new categories that will analyze the FINAL FANTASY XI community from a whole new perspective. Without further ado, let's take a look at what the data reveals.

Login Distribution
First, let's analyze the login distribution. This graph represents the total number of simultaneous logins across all worlds over a 7-day period. Little change can be seen from the same time period we analyzed last year, and the various peak times of Japan, North America, and Europe continue to create the unique FINAL FANTASY XI login pattern. In Japan, the number of logins increases sharply from 9 p.m., while the North American peak time stretches for 5-6 hours across Japan's midday period. The length of the North American peak time can be explained by the 3-hour time difference between the east and west coast, with each local time zone peaking at around 7-8 p.m. Logins for Europe tend to drop slightly before midnight JST, and then slowly rise over the next 5-6 hours. With such a wide range of peak times, the worlds of FINAL FANTASY XI are constantly populated by tens of thousands of players.

Main Job Level Distribution
Let's move on to the distribution of main job levels. Based on data compiled at the end of March 2005, we conducted research on the main job levels of over 1,550,000 characters belonging to over 500,000 registered users. Please note that the following numbers exclude level 1 characters, which are generally known as "mules" or "storage characters." Such characters are used mainly for item storage, synthesis, or gardening. These level 1 characters comprise a sizable 41% of the total number of characters in FINAL FANTASY XI. Assuming that a character's highest-level job is his or her "main job," we have compiled the data below.

Excluding level 1 storage characters, characters up to level 20 comprise around 55% of the total population. Compared to last year, there has been a 1% increase in the number of level 30 characters, which can be attributed to the effect of level-restricted areas in the Chains of Promathia, and also to players attempting to quest for extra jobs. The number of characters of level 50 and above has increased dramatically to 24% from 15% last year, while characters of level 71 and above have increased by almost 5% to 9% this year.


 * ≪Main Job Level Distribution (Level 2-75)≫


 * Main Job Distribution (Level 1)


 * Main Job Level Distribution (Level 2-75)

Jobs Type Distribution
Next, we investigated the types of jobs within FINAL FANTASY XI.

Considering the fact that the vast majority of level 1 characters are warriors, we decided to remove these "storage" characters from our calculations for job type distribution this year. As a result, the percentage for warriors decreased dramatically, accompanied by an increase in the percentages for all other jobs. Despite thishowever, the ranking for the most popular jobs remains largely unchanged.

The combination of white mage/black mage maintains its top position this year at 12.95%. In fact, mage job types occupy the top three positions, proving that magic users continue to be a popular choice. On the other hand, the higher percentage of beastmaster/white mage players shows a growing interest towards solo play.


 * ≪Main Job Distribution≫


 * [ Main/Support Job Ranking ]

Racial Distribution
Looking at the chart for racial distribution, we can see another example of how statistical trends have reversed. The formerly dominant Hume males have been overtaken by Tarutaru males, while Mithra have risen from fourth to third position. Does this show that more people prefer the cuter characters in the game?

Gender distribution remains at a steady ratio of 5:5.

Aside from Humes, the general image of each race appears to influence character size selections, i.e. Tarutaru are more often of the smallest size, while Galka players usually choose the largest model. Even last year's trend of medium-sized Elvaan males has now been replaced by a higher percentage of large-sized characters.


 * ≪Racial Distribution≫




 * [ Race Size Distribution ]

Face Type Distribution
This is the first time the percentages for different face types have been compiled, and we have discovered that every race shows a wide variety of choices. We hope that these statistics will come in useful the next time you create a character and wish to choose a common face type or a face that stands out from the crowd.

Hume (Male) : The first four options occupy three quarters of the chart. Hume (Female) : The first three options each account for roughly a quarter of the chart.

Elvaan (Male) : The second and seventh options that have hair hanging over the forehead appear to be the most popular. Elvaan (Female) : All face types are equally popular.

Tarutaru (Male) : The sixth option seems the most popular, with almost a quarter of people choosing this face type. Tarutaru (Female) : The fourth, fifth, and eighth options seem to appeal to the most people.

Mithra (Female) : The sixth option alone accounts for a third of all Mithra face types. Galka (Male) : The sixth option appears to be the most popular for Galka as well. The remaining face types are equally selected.

Linkshells
Linkshells are a vital element of play in FINAL FANTASY XI. It is possible to be a member of more than one linkshell so that players do not need to be dependent on any one group. Many adventurers carry multiple linkshells and switch freely between them depending on their adventuring goals. We compiled statistics on the number of active linkshells on every server during a 24-hour period and examined the results.

During those 24 hours, there were 47,576 active linkshells, for an average of 1,487 per world. Compared to last year's results, the number of active linkshells per world has increased by more than 100.

This increase can be attributed to the rising number of European players, forays into Dynamis, notorious monster hunts, and many other factors that make use of the convenience of linkshells.

As was discovered in the previous census, during a 24-hour period, 68% of linkshells were populated by up to 10 members, while 87% of linkshells were populated by up to 20 members.


 * ≪Linkshell Usage≫*1 day



Beastmen
As a new category for this year's census, we compiled statistics on job distribution for the various beastmen of Vana'diel.

Goblins topped the chart for variety, with a total of eight different jobs ranging from warrior to white mage. Black mage was the most prevalent job, appearing among six different races, while samurai was the least common, showing up only among the Yagudo.

The following is an analysis of each beastmean race based on job distribution.

Orc : As befits their appearance, many Orcs choose jobs that rely on brute strength. Quadav : While many choose frontline job types, 40% of Quadav are mages--a relatively high percentage among beastmen. This shows the Quadav as a knowledgeable race, despite their savage reputation.

Yagudo are the only beastmen with samurai among their ranks. Many of their number also choose the less common jobs of summoner and bard, painting the Yagudo as a race with an appetite for the unusual. Gigas : While no mages exist among the Gigas, half of them choose the professions of ranger and beastmaster.

Goblin : Goblins hold the record for job variety, with each of their eight professions equally represented. This presents the Goblins as a race that values freedom and flexibility. Sahagin : The Sahagin have only four job types, with an equal distribution of mage and frontline professions.

Tonberry : Thieves and ninja account for more than 60% of Tonberry job types. Perhaps this selection compliments the Tonberry obsession with revenge. Antica : Warriors and paladins take up around 60% of Antica job types, although black mage is the most common when looking at a single profession. The proliferation of paladins may attribute for their highly structured military society.

Items
This year we compiled a ranking for the most popular items in the Auction House. The heading "Percentage of AH Goods" refers to an item's percentage of the total number of goods put up for auction. "Successful Bids" refers to the rate at which a particular item is bought.

The charts for the three main nations show the influence that synthesis guilds and available quests have on Auction House items. Jeuno was the only nation where items used directly in adventuring were more popular than synthesis materials.

[ Goods Most Placed On Auction ]

Synthesis Skills
In a Vana'diel Census first, we compiled the statistics for synthesis skills.

The pie graphs show the distribution of skill ranks within each synthesis skill, while the bar graph shows a comparison of skill rank distribution among the various crafts.

From both types of graph, you can plainly see the high number of amateur fishermen. This result points to the relative ease with which fishing can be taken up, thanks to the availability of fishing rods found through monster drops and the numerous fishing locales.

Both smithing and goldsmithing have many amateur- and recruit-level practitioners.

This phenomenon can be attributed to the fast-selling ingots that can be made at the lower ranks, and the prohibitive cost of furthering these skills beyond basic levels.

Looking at the bar graph we can see that cooking, alchemy, and woodworking are popular crafts, with many practitioners above the craftsman level. These are skills that create items immediately useful to adventurers such as juice, potions, and ninjutsu tools, and are relatively inexpensive to master due to the income generated through the sale of these items. Cooking in particular requires no other craft skills for most of its recipes and is the easiest for players to begin.

Perhaps unexpectedly, clothcraft is fifth in line for the largest number of characters with craftsman rank or greater. The ability to create a wide variety of mage equipment may account for this percentage.

Both leathercraft and bonecraft show a similar distribution up until the level of journeyman. This can be explained by the necessity of these crafts as a secondary skill in many recipes, and the value of items that can be synthesized and sold at every skill rank.


 * ≪Skill Rank Distribution≫




 * ≪Comparison of Skill Rank Distribution≫

In Closing
That's it for the fifth installment of the Vana'diel Census.

Another year completed with the introduction of Ballista, launch of the PlayOnline service in Europe, the release of Chains of Promathia, and countless game content updates. This was all made possible not only through the hard work of the FINAL FANTASY XI development team, but by you, the fans, who are connecting from all around the world. Try to imagine for a moment 500,000 people in one place (think of 10 stadiums that can hold 50,000 people; like the Tokyo Dome, Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium, etc.)! Now imagine all of those people connecting to one gaming service! Even though MMORPG's take place in a virtual fantasy world, we realize that every character in the game is a real person. We will continue to do our best to bring smiles and a happier online experience to everyone!

Until one day when we meet in Vana'diel...

May 9, 2005 Sage Sundi Global Online Producer