Newest interview (abyssea was a mistake?)

[Psxpert2011]

Abysea plays it's own part within the community who has in it's own right completed most (if not all) content of FFxi. It's to unwind and do large - small party runs.

They just mention that it *unbalanced the game due to the fact that players only see fit to max out their jobs for that particular content. The problem what (I, in particular)could fix this is relocate the carnivorous maws that transports adventurers to abysea and strategically place them in hard to reach areas (or just area in the past).

Placing them in the present doesn't make areas more usable, it's a distraction to new players whether or not they know the whole roadmap of the MMO (not including rank missions and quest) rather than playing for fun and for the moment (that's how I started).

*Unbalance in a way where most content is being used and others have gone redundant. An example: Hardly nobody does Sea or Sky because everyone find it more fun to be in Abysea and "reck havoc". The only balance (which IMO has worked and should be the only measure to counter-balance the world of Vana diel) that has been implemented were the use of stones and a zone timer. This in turn keeps a balance and control whether or not SE has made adjustments to this and things are easier.

[Camiie]

The problem with Abyssea, as I've stated before, is that they didn't have a fourth add-on that carried it all the way to the new permanent cap. To put it another way, The worst part about Abyssea is that there isn't more of it.

Abyssea basically modernized FFXI. It finally came in line with it's successors. Heck, in some ways it crossed the line and became more player friendly than even the friendliest MMOs out there. As far as battle systems go, while not perfect, it is by far SE's best work.

Oh it definitely shifted some paradigms, and it wasn't without some growing pains (for lack of a better term). I was hurt at first by the way some people I consider friends reacted to the ability to low-man everything. They figured if they could three-man everything then by god why should anyone else ever come along. After a while though, things worked out and I've found my place with friends who wanted to team up with me. Even if it did suck at first, I wouldn't trade the end result for anything.

For those who think Abyssea ruined the MMO aspect of FFXI I offer you this. Now, I do Abyssea with friends and sometimes strangers, and with the generally relaxed nature of the content I feel like I can really be myself and I think I really have built closer bonds with people as a result. I'm no longer "at war" with other linkshells, and have been able to get to know people who I would otherwise have had to /blist to avoid HNM shenanigans. I no longer have to subjugate myself to linkshell leadership in order to get decent gear. There are no distribution arguments over gear that's taken 3 years to appear in the loot pool.

[Arcon]

It's written down, so it must be true. Do you believe everything spoon fed down your throat cause someone somewhere wrote it down?

What? "Someone somewhere" wrote down that Tanaka was gone, and everyone believes it. Now SE themselves say it's not true, but you believe the rumors instead? I hate having to argue with people like you.

VW is harder than Abyssea, which is the point here. You can't duo Voidwatch, at least not higher tiers, and many people struggle with it, simply because they don't get 18 members for each fight. The "do it within your LS" approach won't work if you don't have enough people interested in it. Sure, you can shout for more members for certain fights, and people do it, but not everyone even gets to that point. I've seen it in many LS, and guess why they don't have the people? Dynamis and Einherjar were also done with 18+ people, but the problem is that those people left, for the most part also because of Abyssea.

I'm not saying the new stuff is bad, on the contrary. I love the new stuff, and the old stuff, pre-Abyssea. Abyssea itself is fun and easy, you can casually go in there and get an Empyrean, and awesome gear. But it was detrimental to the game. I hope FFXI will recover from it, maybe even some people will return, but right now it's not looking good. And the development team recognized the negative effect it had, hence what they said.

[Kincard]

The problem with Voidwatch is it swung way too much back into the other extreme, where something like 9/10 times you'll get a crappy log or ore in your chest and you feel like you wasted a lot of time. Would be nice if there were more substantial consolation prizes, like the ones you would get from Einherjar- if they had done that there probably would be way less complaining.

[Malamasala]

Main issue with VW is always that you could still be getting items you already got. Not really fun to get your 5th super rare armor and not be able to share it.

And I'd rather everything but Abyssea was removed. Pet buffs didn't exist until Abyssea and that is just super sloppy balance by SE. One could easily think they didn't notice pet jobs existed until a year ago. And the new VW content sure doesn't seem to remember pet jobs. (Dynamis seem to though. Good job whoever is responsible for Dynamis)

[Vold]

Wow looks like some persons were right about Abyssea not being a new direction for FFXI and was just transitional content. Who were they again? I forgot their names already.

Also, lol @ everyone who thought Tanaka wasn't part of FFXI during Abyssea and were so quick to point the finger at him for VW after he "returned to FFXI". But no, it's not enough. Not for Runespider. Now it's going to be a conspiracy. Tanaka is just taking credit for Abyssea. That's it. If I hadn't opened my mouth here that conspiracy theory would have eventually made it's way to light by someone being serious.

My job here is done. Moving on from the Tanaka/FFXI drama.

[Kincard]

Yeah, this whole


[SIZE="5"]TANAKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA[/SIZE]

stuff is pretty silly, I thought by now most people know that this game has been a collaborative effort for a while now. It feels like one person proposes an idea, then the whole team approves/develops it.

For example, we know that Mizuki Ito is the guy who directed the Abyssea addons (Who is currently the project director), and Yoji Fujito designed the chocobo raising/magian trial systems. The former also designed the dreaded ZNM system and the dreaded PW fight alongside Daisuke Sase, so it's not like the guy who made Abyssea is infallible or something. Really, it just seems like the entire team is settling on trying to move away from Abyssea rather than one guy swooping in and going "hurr make the game crappier".

[Afania]

I laughed hard reading this newest interview.

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/story.htm...16&storypage=1



Players liked Abyssea, they made it to be enjoyed and now they say no more of that, we should never of done it. BALANCE > happy subscribers.

The only mistakes with Aby were adding brews, and indeed making them really cheap and easy to get. Also very fast XP without adding masses of new endgame content was probably a mistake.



The future looks so bright and rosey, aren't we all just so glad we got Tanaka back here?

When they have a success they deem it failure, this game is going to bleed players again soon. None of us are ready to go back to old FFXI now (taking years to get 1 piece of gear etc), and that is where we are headed.

Fun.

What they mean is Abyssea destoryed many aspect of old FFXI such as team work/strategies. In old FFXI you needed to watch your MP pool, stun all spells, be careful with hate, stay out of AoE, and so on. Abyssea is nothing but engage and WHM cure V spam. -ga coming? Eat it then cure V. Watch MP pool? No body cares. Be careful with hate? You got hate you get cure V again. Mobs do AoE? Keep whacking shit and eat that AoE, who cares, we have unlimited Cure V. And the difference beteween job was gone, because it's all about who can cure the most and who can do the most dmg. The only difference between job is really just proc.

I don't know what's so fun/happy about content like this. Sure you get gear fast, and you're happy with fast gears, but I think the process of getting gear should be more important than result. The process of getting gear should be a challenging process that you think your ass out to win the battle. You can get it in 1 month instead of 1 year that's np, but you shouldn't just get it by engage and have a mule spam cure V.

VW is also a fail, mostly because of the amount of ppl you NEED to get it going. Why do you need 18/18 ppl if you can kill it with less? With everyone getting gold chest drops there shouldn't be a problem of letting random ppl join, thus still keeping the intention of everyone can join the fight. Other wise there isn't much problem with VW, sure item drop rate is low, but you can also spam them over and over again without farming trigger.

[Selzak]

SE is so incredibly out-of-touch. Not just with FFXI, but in general.


If this game had any kind of balance (job balance, for instance, is laughable) then what he said might make sense. The game has never been properly balanced...at least Abyssea makes it enjoyable. I don't know how much longer SE can continue on its namesake with such poor management.

[Godofgods]

The developers do have a point. And most everyone ingame has mentioned it to some degree or heard someone else mention it. I mean, how many times have you been somewhere in origional content and head something along the lines of 'man, wheres them atmas when you need em!'

Tho overall i think it is a test of the players ability, not the developers. We need to adjsut depending on the situation. (something xi players are not known for unfortinoitly)