New Final Fantasy XI boss takes the cake in time commitment

Chances are, when a Final Fantasy XI guild situated in Seraph decided to take on a new boss in their MMO of choice, they had no idea their hellish experience would be reported across countless gaming sites.  When Beyond the Limitation, a name that now seems a bit ironic, attempted to tackle Pandemonium Warden earlier this month, they realized they had bitten off more than they could chew.

Forget your six hour Karazhan horror stories because the Square-Enix has created a boss of such epic proportions that it may require an entire day to kill.  In this case, Beyond Limitations spent up to 18 hours (without breaks) chipping away at this boss until they decided to call it quits, later estimating that just another five to six hours would have been enough time to complete the task.

Sylphet of BtL posted complaints in the BG Forums, claiming that members were vomiting by the end of their 18 hour MMO ordeal:

"People were passing out and getting physically ill. We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible new story about how video games ruin people’s lives...

We are one of very few LS who have killed AV (not using the wall trick) so we know quite well what is futile and what is not.  None of us doubt that PW can be killed.  We just call into question exactly what the development team thinks is reasonable from human beings."

Another player posted on the forums that the Pandemonium Warden is beatable, perhaps within 10 hours given enough firepower and effort.  Of course, that number is still a few hours too many for most gamers who still require oxygen to live.

With BtL's documented incident in mind, MMO players might start to wonder if game companies really have our welfare their minds when they post warnings like this:

Perhaps Square-Enix gets a kick out of charging money for inducing self-destructive behavior, but anyone who plays regularly MMOs knows that in light of all the publicity surrounding game addiction, companies are tacking disclaimers and warnings on login and loading screens.  Nevermind whether or not gamers heed the advice -- what of the developers themselves?