First off, you bought an internet connection(and you're seriously overpaying for it) JUST for a single video game? That's beyond insane.
Second, you're factoring in costs that aren't part of the game. That's like factoring in how much you're paying for car insurance each year and also including what you pay for gas, your car payments, and any maintenance done on the car. Plus, unless you're only using the internet for FFXI; no porn, no email, no shopping, no streaming, etc, it's not an inclusive cost to the game.
You obviously missed my point, and one of the very first things I said in response to your question. I never HAD an internet feed until I wanted to play FFXI, I never HAD an xbl gold membership allowing my online game access before I got FFXI to play.
I know
now my internet usages go beyond FFXI. That didn't happen for quite a few months after I initially started playing FFXI. Didn't have a computer at home til, wait it's the 19th, less than a month ago, that's in 2 years.
I do use my gold xbl for CoD4/Waw and a few (very few) other games, mostly the live experience.
Yea that internet is over charged.. that's my life in a nutshell, I get raped by companies =) Look up some of my MS complaints in the gaming section of this forum. hehe
At that aside, lets divide my monthly fee into quarters to account for the other 3 online games I play. $15p/month for internet, $15p/month for FFXI, & $5p/month for gold membership..that's $420 p/year.
Substantial difference, just remember though, no internet feed, regardless of the cost, no FFXI pour moi.
The only thing this has to do with the OP is that in 6 years I personally would have spent over $5500 ultimately for FFXI.