After 7 years...

[Kaych]

I agree with the OP.
I havent logged on FFXI in a good while. There has been alot of problems with the game since the very start and it seems like SE just keep adding new problems and spend years of fixing old ones...

-The RDMs still cant DD with their swords. The DPS is still horrible and the WSes is laughable. It takes so much effort to even be half as good as a "proper" DD (MNK, WAR etc). And watever excuse SE use to "justify" this is always a bad excuse...

-SMNs still have their bloodpact problems. Only one DD-bloodpact every 45 seconds cant compare to the regulaire DDs and the lvl 1 - 65 bloodpacts is still as useless as ever (cept maybe a couple).

-PUPs have finally gotten the update they deserve, but it took them years to get them... (the same as pretty much everything in this game, hint WotG)

-Abyssea made everything else bad. You got gil, exp and armor from abyssea that was basicly better than anywere else in the game. The fact that SE didnt consider this WHEN they implemented abyssea is embarrassing. It has taken them too long to implement the trial of magians-system to "fix" old endgame items.

The list is soooooo long that I dont want to make another really long wall-of-text, but one would think that after so many phail-updates and complaining from the community, SE would maybe stop adding new problems before they fix the old ones...

[Seiowan]

I returned to the game mostly because of Abyssea. I was a previous player, on a different account since I lost my credentials, but Abyssea had enough lure to drag me into Vana'diel once more. It was great. I could login for short bursts, actually get something accomplished and then log off happy.

Why oh why isn't that going to be true for future content?

I tried Walk of Echoes to get my missing high level scrolls (By high level I mean everything added after the level 90 cap). Countless runs and only one scroll drop. Holy II. Thanks SE... appreciate the sentiment. The prices are now through the roof (2mil each) and Walk of Echoes is more barren than Mars.

Voidwatch throws some interesting fights around, but truth be told, that's all I think of them as. Fights to be fought for the sake of killing something. The drop system is so mind-bogglingly horrendous, that I can't imagine many people actually getting anything useful out of it and, from my perspective at least, there's only a small handful of items worth owning.

Right now, there are still plenty of things to keep me interested, but I confess that the majority of them are vested in Abyssea. One day the devs might learn that if something is popular, you should probably keep building on it rather than throwing it away and re-hashing the less popular stuff.

[Tarage]

Short answer is no.

[MAXWINTER]

@runespider - sad to hear your pov on the game atm , it probley the reason why i gone from the game and only back a short while, not because i hardcore player like you but because of the frustration of trying to do things in final fantasy 11.
This was probley down to my job choice and my next level after pld atm is 52 war.

My view is the game needs a new expansion but if they keep adding things for player like you even if it new goal then that would keep game going i think , for me it a different story , i be sticking with ff14 and looking at dragon quest to hope it plays more like a phantasy star online type game (maybe not combat wise though) than like how these two games have been playing.

Still the offline games are still around if you get burnt out by online games then try them they will always keep you busy a fair bit.

[Izzybella]

In My Opinion:
To me an MMO should have a natural progression. You get higher levels, you have harder mobs and you get greater rewards. Not 'leech every job to 99, buy chocobo blinkers with cruor, sell for gil, BUY said greater rewards'. The biggest bummer to me has been the gear that I spent months, if not years, acquiring (relic) is collecting dust. (oh yes, new content allows you to +2 relic now...yay...NOT!)

Abyssea content has been fun. I can go solo DOM OPs for seals/xp/cruor or I can get in a group for +2 items. I think the biggest gut-buster for the game was allowing level 30 to come into Abyssea. (yes, this...again) I would guesstimate a third of the player base now doesn't even have a map to Crawlers Nest. Why should they? Its now just a place to book burn to 30 then hop to Abyssea.

and stop with the proc of mobs for Altana's sake! It was fine in Abyssea, new, different. We don't need it for VW. Especially how RANDOM. SE wants every job accounted for in order to get crappy drops or chances of 1/100 decent drops? If you had made the proc system in abyssea more 'balanced' then you wouldn't be trying to make up for it with the crappy VW system.

VW is not the way I see end(ing)-game content. You give us the content/ability to low-man then promptly take it away.

Now to the 'random seal drops off Dom Ops/Quests': How can it be so hard to allow a choice? Either soloing or in a party. So many times I have gotten seals I don't want/need but someone else in the party does...and they get the one I want/need. Make it a choice to take or add to the pool!! HOW HARD CAN THAT BE??? Wasting my time does NOT endear me to play more. It just makes me sad.

[saevel]

I am glad I am not alone on this. Everything post Abyssea pretty much sucks and it's back to the hamster wheel grinds of 2003-2006. Just make sure you do not subscribe to FF14 and stop buying any products from SE. The only thing they will listen is the sound of money - nothing else will work. But yeah - the last 18 months have been awesome, glad I was able to enjoy Abyssea.

Pretty much this. Tanaka won't listen to any player feedback, he's already demonstrated that with his little interview Q&A. The only thing he will listen to is his boss's telling him to fix it or he'll be desk warming. Shareholders do not like red ink, they don't like lost profits and they really don't like individuals who think their more important then the owners of the company. Right now we're at a point where we take our feedback to the shareholders either in the form of letters to the CEO / company President or through voting with your wallets.

[Cahlum]

SE needs to release new casual content every update and new hardcore content every update. VW is not hardcore as it requires 0 skill just luck with procs, I am amazed that they have not added brews to VW yet as they have done to WoE...

All I want is an 18 man event that requires fun challenging strats, no proc system, no brews, no temp KIs, no auto-reraise, no atma and no time limit.

Add some fun new NMs for hardcore players that provides great gear that can be pooled, people may say that old FFXI is worse I agree in some ways but I certainly do miss 30+ man dynamis runs where you had certain parties for things like sleeping, stat killing, kiting, tanking, DD it was fun as you felt like you fit into a part of the strategy rather than throw 12 DDs at it when a mob is proced and hope for the best.

[Glamdring]

I was really excited after this update went live.

There's actually a lot of stuff to do. My friends and I are actually logging in on weekdays for the first time in months.

I'm sorry, but I absolutely can't sympathize with you. I'm having fun.

'Down with GG on this one, getting the hell out of Aby makes me happy as a clam! I hated what that system did to player skill, and the player mind-set. "I just did 6k damage on 1 WS!" BFD, the IMPORTANT question is did you win and did it accomplish anything for somebody? There's alot more to a good game than a DPS parser, I should know, playing since NA release, never used one even once, and have enjoyed almost all of it... until Abyssea put the game in easy mode. I get more gratification playing solitaire on my PC than I do playing anything in Aby; I go there because I HAVE to for some of the gear that I want, not because it's in any fashion satisfying.

[Meyi]

I would guesstimate a third of the player base now doesn't even have a map to Crawlers Nest.

To be fair my 8 year old Elvaan still doesn't have the Crawler's Nest map, nor does my 2 year old Taru. I can assure you it's not because of Abyssea.

[Ravenmore]

DEV need to keep release content for casual player, and content for hardcore player, both gear should RIVAL to give everyone motivation. They need to stop to spam only one type at once, that make no one happy.

Abyssea was only to please casual player
VW is only to please hardcore player.

They also need to stop ruin the hardcore content by changing the difficulty just to please casual player. Speaking of it, how you guy would like if DEV turn abyssea hardcore, say they remove cruor buff, brew, higher the level and difficulty of every mob/nm? Then call it: Abyssea Reborn!! I swear god all casual player would bitch about it.

It get to the point where everything turn no challenge, and everyone wear the same thing, the only difference really is how one group worked hard to get it, while other group do it super easy and making fun of the hardcore player.

There is NOTHING hardcore about the fights or any of the content outside of drop rates. If that is you idea of hardcore then wow. I remember a time when lowmaning something was the only way to prove you were hardcore. Everything in the(not including the things even the "hardcore elilte" couldn't beat") game back at 75 could be beaten with the tried a true body toss. The fact that they force you to take 18, theres no point in lowmaning the hard fights to prove yourself. Also that was the game pre-abyssea too. Take off the glasses.