I’m sure this is probably something you’ve seen before, but I always love pointing it out. The Final Fantasy XI site has a page set aside showing updating stillframes from inside the gameworld. They’ve also got a camera moving through much of the game’s ‘old world’, taking in the sites and occasionally pausing to enjoy the view. I’m not sure if the camera ever ventures into the newer zones they’ve added in expansions, but it’s interesting just the same to watch the players in the old world go about their business.

You can pop this link open in Windows Media player and enjoy a clientless in-world tour of one of the FFXI servers. I’m not sure which one; I’m not sure they’ve ever said on the site, but it’s definitely a live server and not a looping video. Just another reason I really love FFXI.

During business hours US is primetime playing time for Japanese players, so I’ve always had a ‘good show’ when viewing the feed. Back when I was a cubeguy doing cubeguy things, they played the music that was associated with the zone as well (thought it doesn’t appear they do that anymore). It was great background music, with the added bonus that sometimes I’d be talking to a manager and a combat would break out on my desktop.

I lament the fact that no-one else that I know of has adopted this little toy as a fun thing to put on their website. I’m not a programmer, so I couldn’t tell you if this is trivially easy or actually kind of challenging to put together … but it doesn’t *seem* like it would be that hard.  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to stream Azeroth to your desktop, occasionally catching glimpses of newbies running through the barrens or watching the scrum of bank-top barkers in Orgrimmar? Good stuff.