The History of Final Fantasy XI/2008

==2008 - The Age of Mythical Weapons==
In 2008, Final Fantasy XI saw the very first Mog Bonanza. Furthermore, Mythic Weapons made their debut. 
Wings of the Goddess saw many storyline updates, which for the first time incorporated both Quests and Missions to develop the storyline.
The Version Updates in 2008 were all incredible and well received by the community. Apart from the slow Missions/Nation Quests, the other content added was on-par with the great Salvage update.
Jan. 1st, 2008 	    A Black Rat Family appears! 	    A Black Rat Family appears!
Jan. 1st, 2008 	In 2008, Qiqirn (Rats) appeared in various places from January 1st thru January 15th. A large Qiqirn named Lucky Mouse was followed by smaller Qiqirn named Lucky Rat.
By trading the lead mouse random gifts, players had a chance to obtain the furnishings Snowman Knight, Snowman Miner and Snowman Mage.
This event was accidently triggered and started on November 19th. Players prematurely were receiving the snowmen by trading items. There were player reports that GMs sent in-game messages instructing players to drop the snowmen, and even the items disappearing from some player's inventories. The event was turned off until the appropriate time with an emergency maintenance.	
Feb. 4th, 2008 	    Valentione's Day 2008 	    Valentione's Day 2008
Feb. 4th, 2008 	The Valentione's Day event ran from February 4th thru February 15th.
The content was the same as the previous year, but the new item Cupid Chocolate was added.	
Feb. 13th, 2008	    Absolute Virtue video released 	    Absolute Virtue video released
Feb. 13th, 2008	As promised at the Fan Festival 2007, Square Enix released a video of the development team fighting Absolute Virtue. Although only five minutes in length, the video shows the same player characters using 2-hour abilities many times. The community was skeptical whether or not the development team would use their GM tools to fight or fight legitimately as real players.
Immediately, the community dissected all languages of the AV videos that were released. This included frame-by frame of all four; the Japanese, English, German, and French versions. Some new information was learned, as well as many crazy theories put together. 
In the end, Absolute Virtue was still as difficult as always. Manafont Meteor spam would continue to wipe entire linkshells.	<youtube width=450px>5yy5BnejiVc</youtube> 
Above is the video created by the developers, showing hints at defeating Absolute Virtue.
Feb. 18th, 2008	    Announcement of "Rapture" 	    Announcement of "Rapture"
Feb. 18th, 2008	During Game Developers Conference 2008, Square Enix revealed that their new MMORPG will be using the same engine that was used for titles such as Final Fantasy XIII. Previously known as the White Engine, this new multi-platform engine is now known as Crystal Tools and expands throughout Xbox 360, Windows Vista, Playstation 3, and Wii. 
Square Enix also gave the first code name to this title, Rapture.	Starting with this announcement, rumors of the game shutting down popped up every couple months on community boards. 
With Wings of the Goddess offering no real incentive for veteran players to stick around, many players began to take breaks around this time.
Feb. 21st, 2008	    The Doll Festival 2008 	    The Doll Festival 2008
Feb. 21st, 2008	The Doll Festival returned from February 21st thru March 3rd. The MHMU delivered the furnishings Bonbori and Festival Dolls to all player's Delivery Boxes.
To coincide with the event, another Fan Art contest was held. The theme was "The Ladies of Vana'diel." The entries can be found here, be sure to click the "Next" button on the top or bottom of the page to see the other pages of entries.	
Mar. 11th, 2008	    The First Wings of the Goddess Update - Scholar Overhaul	    The First Wings of the Goddess Update - Scholar Overhaul
Mar. 11th, 2008	
*BG Wiki's March 2008 New Items List
{| width=100% style="border: 2px dashed red; border-radius: 5px; background-color: #eae9e9"	New Features & Content
*New Wings of the Goddess Missions added:
**Nation Quests 3 & 4 added to all three nations (totaling 6 quests).
*The following beastmen stronghold zones were added: Beadeaux (S), Castle Oztroja (S), and La Vaule (S)
*Artifact Armor & Limit Break quests were added for Scholar and Dancer.