The History of Final Fantasy XI/2012

==2012==
In 2012, Final Fantasy XI celebrated its 10th anniversary. A major Vana Fest was held in Japan to commemorate this special occasion.
Synthesis Skills saw their first level cap increase in 8 years. The coveted spell Meteor was given to players to use, along with the incredible new Raise spell Arise. New events included Nyzul Isle Uncharted, the difficult Legion content, Voidwatch’s conclusion with Provenance, and Salvage II.
Jan. 1st, 2012 	    Happy New Year 2012 	    Happy New Year 2012
Jan. 1st, 2012 	From the 1st to the 16th Wyrms and Wyverns appeared in Vana’diel. The names were Dragatama Wyrm of Light (Same model as a Memory Recepticle in Promyvion), Wassailer Whitby, Lucky Ladon, Delightful Drake, and Auspicious Ajattara
Trading items to Dragatama and Ambitious Arnold may have granted players the new Snowman Cap, which grants a Snoll Costume effect.	
In Grauberg (S), Ambitious Arnold a giant worm appeared with smaller worms around it. This NPC was unique, as past New Years events monsters always roamed around in a line, but Arnold did not move. There was no notification to players that Arnold was in Grauberg. It is likely that since it was the “Year of the Wyrm”, it was a play on words and the joke was that Arnold was an “Earthworm”.
Jan. 26th, 2012	    Square Enix Accounts began accepting Credit/Debit Cards	    Square Enix Accounts began accepting Credit/Debit Cards
Jan. 26th, 2012	At last, the Square-Enix Account system could accept Credit Cards and Debit Cards instead of just Crysta (If your bank didn’t reject it as fraud) or Paypal (if you can get through UltimatePay first). Click and Buy also had a premium upcharge of $.30 per month to process your payment. Direct payments should have been the case from the very start of the Square-Enix Account system, as outside of Japan there were never any in-store prepay card options like other MMOs.
This new direct payment method was simply disguised as being processed by Square-Enix, but it was processed by a company called Global Collect. Some said that this is what Square Enix wanted the whole time, to point fingers at other companies rather accepting the responsibility of fixing payment problems. As long as it isn't on their end (the website having a glitch problem) then there is nothing they can do to help you, and instead refer to you these other payment processor companies. Many players still had issues with this new system at first, whether it was their cards being rejected or website errors.
For some bizarre reason, Security Tokens and additional game content could still only be purchased through Crysta or Click and Buy for a while after this change.	
Feb. 1st, 2012 	    Valentione’s Day 2012 	    Valentione’s Day 2012
Feb. 1st, 2012 	Valentione’s Day ran from February 1st thru February 15th. The event did not change from the previous year, except that every player received items delivered to them from NPCs.
Rengedama fireworks as well as six total chocolates were received, of which depended on your nation of allegiance:
San d’Oria: 
*=Curilla= sent the Temple Truffle and =Regine= sent the Choco-scroll
Bastok:
*=Ayame= sent the Choco-katana and =Brygid= sent the Choco-ligar
Windurst:
*=Kupipi= sent the Fudgy-Wudge and =Chamama= sent the Chocolate Rarab Tail	
The Delivery Box and Sent Box slots were frequently used for extra inventory spaces by some players, leaving only one receive box open for Gil from the Auction House for sold items. 
Getting these deliveries from NPCs was rather annoying until it was found that they gave short Movement Speed effects. While they were rather weak and only lasted a few minutes, it was neat to have such an effect from food. They also stacked with other forms of movement speed to get a rather fast effect.
Feb. 14th, 2012	    Valentiones Day 2012 Screenshot Contest 	    Valentiones Day 2012 Screenshot Contest
Feb. 14th, 2012	A Screenshot Contest was held for North American players via the official forum. The theme was Valentione’s Day. Ten winners were chosen, and the winning entries can be found here on the official forum.
The prize was a Love Chocolate in-game item with the signature of any community team member the player chose.	
Feb. 14th, 2012	    Nyzul Isle Uncharted Investigation introduced 	    Nyzul Isle Uncharted Investigation introduced
Feb. 14th, 2012	
*BG Wiki's February 2012 New Items List
{| width=100% style="border: 2px dashed red; border-radius: 5px; background-color: #eae9e9"	New Features & Content
*This update introduced the Nyzul Isle Uncharted Area Survey Assault.