I'm considering, possibly, buying FFXI for my laptop. I can't really play in any sort of serious manner, as I am a student in such a position that time is a limiting resource, but also, I've no real aspirations of doing anything other than having a bit of fun.
My question is, what is the economic situation, in general, in the game? I've been looking over threads at several sources to help me make my decision, but get conflicting information.
For example, I hear about persons or groups of people who monopolize areas of the game to get gil, which is sold online- to people who it seems to me would not have had reason to buy it if they could have gotten to the area that was monopolized. If this is true, it seems less than conductive to "fun" to me.
Conversely, I hear about players who are getting ore (I'm still foggy on this) but face dropping prices as other players do the same thing- this seems like a good thing to me, as it creates in the very traditional sense, a competetive market.
Basically, even though I've no intention of playing seriously, I don't want to play if I'm just going to basically be extorted or unable to find parties due to a catch 22 of not-having-equipment-to-get-in-a-party-so-I-don't-get-equipment-so-I-can't-find-a-party...