If it's good enough for Cartman, it's good enough for Square-Enix.

The developers of the online role-playing game Final Fantasy XI seemingly borrowed a page from the Emmy-winning South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" by updating the game with one of the longest - and most physically grueling - video game fights ever. Introduced in the game's latest downloadable update, the boss monster "Pandemonium Warden" remained perfectly fit after a group of high-level adventurers wailed away at it nonstop for over 18 hours straight.

Though the seemingly unbeatable boss will not prevent people from 'completing' the game -- persistent online games typically do not "end" like most single-player games -- it has sparked debate over what exactly the game's developers, Square-Enix, expect out of their devoted fan base. Message boards have lit up with disgruntled players calling out the company for failing to respect its very own in-game warning telling players they have "no desire to see your real life suffer as a consequence [of playing]. Don't forget your friends, your family, your school or your work."

Easy for them to say. While the beast continually healed, the gamers weren't so lucky.

"People were passing out and getting physically ill," leaders of the player guild said in a forum post. "We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible news story about how video games ruin people's lives."

Too late.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/...defeat/1238418

-I read somewhere that you can leave the battle at any time, save your game and can resume the boss battle at a later time. The people that play the game for 18 hours straight have problems with self control. I just purchased world of warcraft and i already know i wont become "addicted"

Wow, that's pretty amazing! I had no idea that people still play FFXI!

I think it's still the 3rd of 4th most subscribed MMO out there behind WoW and Runescape.

There was a boss in FFXII that was similar. The guy had 100 million HP and you could leave, save and come back to fight him without starting over. It took me over a week of playing about 2 hours each night to beat him.

I still play FFXI, my brother does too. We're on Siren server and over the weekend the population usually reaches 3,000. I expect that to increase once summer ends.

Too bad I'm not level 75, sounds like you have to be to fight that boss in a party. If they tone him down and decide to keep him.

All I could think about was the two optional bosses in FFVII. Those guys seem like pansies compared to that.

Yeah, the Weapons were hard, but paled in comparison. But even though the boss had endless HP, I still wouldn't consider him the hardest boss in XII. Zodiark took that award. It took me about 30 tries to take him out and I had everyone leveled well into the 90's.

Joystiq just posted that this boss has been taken out of the game. Too many players were complaining about it.

I don't know, I think it's pretty cool. No way in hell would I ever do it if I played the game, but I like the idea that it's there if you want it. Kind of the same thing with the Weapons in FF7.