Linkshells

Many of FINAL FANTASY XI’s players start out their day in Vana’diel by saying hello to their buddies on their linkshell’s chat or by going off on wild adventures with those closely-knit companions.

This year, we’ll once again take a look at these linkshells that connect so many players’ lives.
At the time of our tally, there were 47,028 linkshells active at least once during the day across all Worlds for an average of about 1,470 linkshells per World.

When we took our measurements, linkshells with 1 to 9 characters made up 78.43% and linkshells with 10 to 19 characters made up 13.87%. All in all, linkshells with 19 members or less made up 90% of Vana’diel’s linkshells. These results are almost the same as last year’s.

78.43%	13.87%	4.24%	1.91%	0.86%	0.37%	0.16%	0.08%	0.04%	0.01%	0.03%
1-9	10-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-89	90-99	100-
(Number of Members)

After looking at the data last year, we concluded that many players possessed multiple linkshells, using them for different purposes and on different scales. This year we’ve looked even further into the issue through our analysis of the survey data.

The graph below represents the results to the survey question, “Within the span of a week, how many linkshells are you active in?”

None.	One.	Two.	Three.	Four.	Five.	Six.	Seven or more.

The data used reveals that over half of the participants who answered the survey use 2 or more linkshells.
Let’s take a look at the differences between players who only use one linkshell and players who use multiple linkshells.

Casual conversation. Casual adventuring. Doing missions and quests. Leveling/improving skills. High-level combat such as Dynamis and Limbus. Linkshell events. Battlefields. Hunting notorious monsters. Other.

High-level combat such as Dynamis and Limbus. Casual conversation. Casual adventuring. Doing missions and quests. Leveling/improving skills. Hunting notorious monsters. Linkshell events. Battlefields. Other.

Among the players using multiple linkshells, it seems there is a high percentage of players engaged in Dynamis and Limbus, and the number of players engaged in battlefields and doing missions and quests is on the rise compared to players only using one linkshell.
While both single linkshell users and multiple linkshell users seem to highly value casual conversation, the multiple linkshell users have a tendency to use each of their different linkshells for specific activities and purposes.

Lastly, we looked into the reasons players joined their linkshells.

A friend invited me. I was invited by members of my party. A member of the linkshell recruited me in town. Someone invited me during a casual conversation. Other.

A friend invited me. A member of the linkshell recruited me in town. I was invited by members of my party. Someone invited me during a casual conversation. Other.

In both cases, invitations from friends comes in as the most common reason for joining a linkshell.
Looking at these results, we can see how players use the linkshell system to keep in touch with friends and to intermingle with new acquaintances.
Although it’s not a significantly large number, many of the multiple linkshell users cited being recruited by members in town as a reason. The trend seems to be that the players using multiple linkshells have a tendency to actively seek out linkshells for their various interests and types of people they want to spend time with.

Before we bring this section to an end, we would like to introduce a rather interesting piece of information.
The following linkpearls all have one thing in common. Compare each linkpearl and see if you can guess what they have in common.

[ 3,12,1 ]	[ 4,5,2 ]	[ 5,7,2 ]	[ 5,8,1 ]	[ 6,3,8 ]	[ 6,10,2 ]	[ 6,12,1 ]
[ 6,13,1 ]	[ 7,1,8 ]	[ 7,1,9 ]	[ 7,11,2 ]	[ 7,13,2 ]	[ 9,2,10 ]	[ 9,12,1 ]
[ 9,13,1 ]	[ 10,1,7 ]	[ 10,1,12 ]	[ 10,1,14 ]	[ 11,1,10 ]	[ 12,1,10 ]	[ 13,1,11 ]

These are all linkpearl colors that, as of the end of May 2009, do not exist in any World in FINAL FANTASY XI.

The following are the top 10 most common colors in the game.

[ 0,0,0 ]	[ 15,15,15 ]	[ 15,0,0 ]	[ 7,7,7 ]	[ 0,0,15 ]
[ 15,15,0 ]	[ 0,15,0 ]	[ 0,15,15 ]	[ 0,7,15 ]	[ 15,0,15 ]

*The number values represent the slider settings that determine a linkshell's color.
From left to right, the values are Red, Green, and Blue. The slider is set to zero when the slider is on the far left and set to 15 when the slider is on the far right.

For those of you out there planning on creating your own linkshell, why not try a truly unique color that emphasizes your group’s personality?

Linkshells are the foundation of Vana’diel’s vast community. Vana’diel is shaped by the hands of adventurers like you, and it is through linkshells that many hands may act as one to grasp the future!