The winter seasonal event of Final Fantasy XI known as the Starlight Celebration kicked off over the weekend, signaling the start of a crazy holiday rush to find hidden trading cards, join the Smilebringer Boot Camp, and acquire gifts from all sorts of shenanigans.

Goblins are back to their mischievous ways as they try to beat their sworn rivals, the button-nosed Moogles. The goblins are intentionally breaking the rules and riding Chocobos to find the trading cards hidden by the Moogles. There was an outrage of course (Kupo! Kupo!) and you will have to retrieve the buried trading cards before the goblins do.

Just keep your eyes open for patches of overturned soil on the ground, and soon enough you’ll have a full set of cards to trade for various rewards. Strength is in the numbers for this card hunting task; Square Enix has confirmed that the more party members you have while searching, the more cards you will recover.

If you don’t want to get your hands dirty digging up cards, you can practice your best smiling face and bring joy to FFXI world. The Smilebringer Boot Camp will be open for the rest of the Starlight Celebration and will provide seasonal rewards care of the satisfied Smile Sergeant quest givers (just smile, don’t laugh, they’re really called like that!)

Free gifts can also be had with little effort. Festival moogles are on standby to dish out holiday tasks, from keeping Vana’diel safe to collecting important items lost in the mad shuffle of the season. And if you have FFXI Gil to spare, vendors will be hawking their goods in all the major cities, which, as you may have guessed, will have already exploded with sparkling decorations.

Like it or not, the Starlight Celebration will keep you in a bright and pleasant mood in the next couple of weeks so suppress that urge to be a goblin Grinch and just have fun!

If you’re not the type to hang out in forums or hunt down fan-made tutorials for Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix has done part of the legwork for you. It has compiled a list of frequently asked noob questions on how to more easily navigate and play their newest MMO.

While other online games get flak for holding your hand too much, Final Fantasy XIV has gone the opposite direction — after the initial opening quests, the game leaves you pretty much on your own. The lack of in-game guides has made life hardest for those new to MMO gaming, but at least this newest Q&A has the makings of a beginner crutch.

Help topics include how to decipher the detailed maps, how to properly assess an enemy’s strength to avoid one-shot deaths, and a handy chart on when you can unlock those all-important class, regional and local quests.

Square Enix also confirmed in the Q&A that the upcoming late November version update will widen the availability of regional Disciple of Land levequests to all three city-states, easing the need to travel to and fro when all you really want to do is hang out in your linkshell’s homebase in either Limsa Lominsa, Gridania or Ul’dah.

It seems convenience and entitlement are the name of the loyalty game. Dual-subscribing fans can claim a pair of speed-increasing Hermes’ Shoes. While the gold-tipped clog design is a far cry from the Greek god’s classic winged sandals, the movement speed boost will be a boon for early level questing.

Playing both games will also be made more affordable. Once players link their FFXI and FFXIV accounts to the Square Enix Account page, the subscription rate for the older game will be lowered from $12.95 to $7.00 per month–or almost halving the rate. But there won’t be a chance to bundle the discount given the strict 1:1 correlation rule:

The discount applies to one FFXI account for each FFXIV account. For example, if you have two FFXI accounts and 3 FFXIV accounts, you will receive two of the discounts. This offer will remain in effect until January 2011.

Lastly, fans will be able to transfer their FFXI character name to FFXIV under the format [Character Name] [FFXI World Name]. As an example, a character named “Finalfan” on Carbuncle server in FFXI will be known as “Finalfan Carbuncle” in FFXIV.

The prospect of having a server surname is far from appealing even to non-roleplayers, but at least it ensures a higher chance of name availability. Nothing breaks the gaming mood more than having to settle a name dispute while the rest of Hydaelyn explores the breath-taking content uninterrupted.

Kupo kupo, it’s finally here! The June version update has arrived in Final Fantasy XI, encouraging all moogle housekeepers to leave their duties behind and celebrate on the streets instead. OK, so there wasn’t really a mass security breach in Vana’diel, but players just have loads of new content to explore that they probably won’t be going home in awhile to check if the houses are being kept in order.

Foremost among these new features is the raising of the job level cap from 75 to 80, the first time the game has done so in a long time. The long-term plan is to gradually raise the level cap up to 99–a nod to the series’ console roots–over several version updates this year. Players hoping to gain these five additional levels ASAP should make a dash for the Ru’Lude Gardens and finish the new limit break quest “New Worlds Await.”

Today’s version update also activates the rest of the Wings of the Goddess nation quests which, according to Square Enix, are set to “reach their climactic conclusions.” And if these are still not enough to fill those long gaming hours, then maybe the new trial sequences for relic and mythic weapons will prove a worthy diversion.

To top it all off, battle-hungry adventurers can either explore the fabled Walk of Echoes area (the first part of which has been opened to level 70+) or prove their might via the Vision of Abyssea battle add-on. Powerful monsters roam both forbidden realms and would should be great testing grounds for the dozens of new job abilities, traits and spells packed with the June update.

The official website for Vision of Abyssea, the first of three battle add-ons  launching this year for Final Fantasy XI, came online yesterday with two in-game shots and a short teaser description. The battle add-on will be available for advance purchase through the PlayOnline Viewer sometime next month (no final date yet) to the tune of $9.99. This release will be tied to a version update tentatively schedule for mid-June.

The other two battle add-ons called Heroes of Abyssea and Scars of Abyssea will have the same retail cost as announced last March. Players can only access the Vision of Abyssea content if they have installed Rise of the Zilart and Wings of the Goddess expansions.

Square Enix announced last March during the VanaFest 2010 that the three add-ons are set in the parallel world of Abyssea, a land “fraught with perils and home to savage hordes.” The FFXI developer warned that dangerous Notorious Monsters will challenge adventurers to their limits, but assured that the game experience will not be bogged down by overpopulation lag and hours-long encounters.

Sounds intimidating, right? Well the risk pays off handsomely in the form of brand new equipment patterned after Artifact and Relic armor.

The mechanics are eggsactly the same (couldn’t help it guys–puns are pure fun!), but it doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy the annual Egg Hunt this year. Find eggs that bear the first three letters of your character’s name to get an imaginary moogle hug and a shiny treat.

Aim for more eggs BINGO-style to unlock more prizes. The Egg Hunt is also considered by some to be a popularity contest  since players can use their linkshells to arrange egg trades with party mates. Having a large network of friends to  trade with lets you collect all the initial eggs you need.

Loners, don’t worry, you can kill mobs instead instead of being forced out of your social shell. Gather egg item drops from the mobs and bring them to the moogles stationed in the capital cities who will gladly trade them for initial eggs.

For those not eggscited with the holiday event, well get crackin’ on the March 2010 version update being uploaded this week. Tons of fantastic content if all this egg business just isn’t for you.

Odin and Alexander await in the new Version Update patched yesterday during the All Worlds Maintenance of Final Fantasy XI. Aside from introducing the long-requested summons, the March update—the first of four announced for this year—also activated major changes in the Puppetmaster job.

Notable boosts include raising their hand-to-hand combat rating from rank C to B+ , and removing the ranged accuracy scaling of automatons based on distance. Puppetmasters also found “promising” the new level-based scaling of automaton stats under maneuver effects, since it can reach a +4 stat per maneuver at current max level 75.

In terms of crafting, the March update added dozens of cooking, woodworking and goldsmithing synergy recipes mostly at the lower ranks. Gardening addicts should also adjust accordingly because the harvesting period for plants has been changed to one week.

And in preparation for the longer level grind to 99, Square has made the add-on scenarios easier to finish. “Key items necessary to progress through the add-on scenarios are now available for purchase from NPC Squintrox Dryeyes,” said the Version Update patch notes. Keep in mind though that purchasing the required items only unlock if you have the missions for the said scenarios, which comprise of “A Crystalline Prophecy”, “A Moogle Kupo d’Etat”, and “A Shantotto Ascension”.

Photo credit: http://uaiiyuugowii.blogspot.com/

Want to carry FFXI with you always? Then better grab the newly restocked Tarutaru trading arts mini. There are four Tarutaru to collect and are great candidates for that FFXI shrine in your room (we have one as well)! Collecting these four would give a Windurst feel to that PC, or can be a great collectible set for trading or selling in the future. Though these little figurines represent the Tarutaru heroes like Robel-Akbel and Star Sybil, it would do you good to take care in handling them—they won’t have the same powers as the heroes they were modeled after. And no, Square Enix Online Shop won’t be accepting refunds for them lacking “handle with care” instructions.