So, how about some additions to the Dev team?

[Rezeak]

I would love more expansions i feel it would draw more people back to the game.

I would like to say i thought the storyline in abyssea was amazing and i know alot of people go what storyline but if you do the quests and read what the npcs are telling you there is a definitly a deep storyline to it ofc it's all opinional which is why alot go "Abyssea has no story" but if you take your time and read what the npcs say when you do quests for then you'll enjoy it ^^.

[Asymptotic]

I have always felt like an expansion to the North or South would be more likely than a Far Eastern expansion.

[Camiie]

Which every MMO does this (don't fool yourself, every forest, dungeon, lava area etc is exactly the same as a previous one.)

If you'd stopped before the parentheses you would have had a good point. MMOs do reuse mobs, items, textures, and models. To say that every forest, volcano, etc. is the same is a rather ignorant statement. Even if they're made of the same or similar pieces it's not like they aren't still different in many ways.

"New zones" doesn't make the game "lively" because there's tons of RoZ, CoP, ToAU and WoTG zones no one really cares for.

Well, zones are supposed to include points of interest and lead us to other zones with more points of interest. The reason no one cares for many of those zones is because they've already seen what they were supposed to see, fought what they were supposed to fight, and outleveled the content therein. New zones with new points of interest would indeed make the game more lively. You're right in the sense that just throwing down an empty zone won't do much good, but it's safe to assume people want new areas that include new things to do.

FFXI is pretty much done for and the only thing "ground breaking" about ToAU was they listened to cry babies about CoP being too hard, therefore it was done in a way a blind monkey can complete it.

COP was an aberration when you compare it to what came before and after. If anything ToAU was a course correction from the deviation that was COP.

Be real, how likely are you to care about content in the Far East if it isn't Abyssea style?

I'd be willing to accept a compromise. It doesn't have to be Abyssea, but it shouldn't be Zilart kings or VW either. Missions similar in difficulty to what we had with ToAU, and events that are based on rewarding our time spent doing them.

Because XIV is their future, XI is the past. XI is well past its prime and lost a lot of people and will continue to do so, no company in their right mind would ignore something to have the potential to be their next cash cow. Why do you think the EQ team eventually made an EQ2?

Because Sony made the same mistake that SE did before SE did. They figured the loyal player base that they'd treated sooo well over the years would gladly abandon their time and efforts and flock to the new shiny hamster wheel even if the shininess was just a really thin layer of spray paint over a wheel that was even rustier and clunkier than the old one.

Why do you think Blizzard eventually made WoW and SC II? They were perfectly content (in your logic) with keeping only SC, Diablo and DII and Warcraft 1 - 3 around since it had "more subscribers than WoW did initally (and probably still does.)

The old Battle.net games are pay to play? They have more subscribers than WoW even though they have no paying subscribers at all? WoW is the same genre of game as Warcraft 1-3 and Diablo and Diablo II? What nonsense is this?

[Kieron]

Elexia, if you're so adamant about your love for FFXIV, go post on the FFXIV forums. FFXIV has had the worst first impression I have ever seen for a game. It's a FF game that sits at an average of 49 on metacritic. It's unfortunate but it's true.

The game is a laughing stock within the industry. At least FFXI and FFXI: ToAU garnered acceptable reviews when FFXIV just out right disappointed everyone. SE won't ditch XIV because it looks bad when dealing with investors (who wants to continue relations when your partner prematurely kills the project?). The game is most likely costing SE more than it's worth at the moment.

Also, if I am not mistaken, FFXIV was (losing players while it was free) and is losing players as of now.

[Cursed]

Elexia, if you're so adamant about your love for FFXIV, go post on the FFXIV forums. FFXIV has had the worst first impression I have ever seen for a game. It's a FF game that sits at an average of 49 on metacritic. It's unfortunate but it's true.

The game is a laughing stock within the industry. At least FFXI and FFXI: ToAU garnered acceptable reviews when FFXIV just out right disappointed everyone. SE won't ditch XIV because it looks bad when dealing with investors (who wants to continue relations when your partner prematurely kills the project?). The game is most likely costing SE more than it's worth at the moment.

Also, if I am not mistaken, FFXIV was (losing players while it was free) and is losing players as of now.

QFT.
Don't forget there is the professional career and pride issue within the organization; internal politics. Like every organization there will be colleagues telling the big C suite bosses "we told you so" and the Big 3-5 C's (CEO/CMO/COO) at least will be tearing shit up within the company and re-allocating resources (where did you go Abyssea Dev team?) to unflood their already sunken ship.

Who wants to be tagged as the person who ruined one of the most distinct, original and successful RPG(MMO)s titles in gaming history?
You think that dude's gonna get a job anytime soon when FFXIV is pronounced dead?

If SE had any brains at all, it would look at FFXIV's 2k? playerbase and then at FFXI's 150-200k Active subscriptions and just say "Screw it. Dismantle FFXIV. Give all the resources to FFXI. Launch FFXI-2. FFXIV never happened. You hear me, it never happened. Dump it in Koyoto"
but instead of amputating the ganglion infested pinky toe that is FFXIV, they've decided to take an aspirin, cut the other 4 toes off and pray to God the infected USELESS pinky toe doesn't fall off the foot, regardless of the threat of it spreading to the entire foot, the leg and eventually rendering them a walking pile of puss and utter crap.
wait never mind, they're already there./

[DrStrangelove]

[*]

How understaffed is FFXI, and is the cost not worth the benefit of adding on to the team?

There is your answer.

Suck it up...FFXI is a product, and SE is a supplier. We are the customers.

SE is not a group of independently wealthy teenagers needing direction on how to make us happy. They are in business and owe it to the investors to do their best to make the company as profitable as they can. While we may not AGREE with their strategy, our investment is $12.95 / month, while their investment is their job, their career and tens of millions of dollars of investors money.

We know how to enjoy ourselves and don't care about the future of the company.

They don't have that luxury.

[Camiie]

There is your answer.

Suck it up...FFXI is a product, and SE is a supplier. We are the customers.

And without us what are they?

[Greatguardian]

And without us what are they?

You're still paying customers worth the exact same $12.95 whether you're happy, sad, obsessively in love with Tanaka's hair, or in the process of throwing your PC out the window. Anyone still playing is too addicted to stop playing regardless of how few resources the game gets, and that's all that matters.

[Glamdring]

You severely underestimate the amount of content in FFXI, especially when taken from scratch. The problem isn't lack of content at endgame. It's lack of content with rewards that matter.

95% of the game sits around unused and forgotten because it's generally considered a waste of time to mess with.

The main reason so much of the content is wasted is because it's too easy XP wise to blow past it. Who needs to farm an Empy hairpin when you are going to go from 30-99 in less than a week? AF? Hell, even Raja's ring isn't worth the effort anymore because it stopped scaling at 75. If it weren't for things like maps and being required for area access even less of the content would be used. Could you imagine starting an NPC fellow from scratch these days-the quest would be easy enough but who's going to grind it up levels, especially since the only end-game it can be used in is GoV? and I say this despite LOVING Yufafa, my little butt-saving soothing healer... now it's usually me saving her butt

[Greatguardian]

The main reason so much of the content is wasted is because it's too easy XP wise to blow past it. Who needs to farm an Empy hairpin when you are going to go from 30-99 in less than a week? AF? Hell, even Raja's ring isn't worth the effort anymore because it stopped scaling at 75. If it weren't for things like maps and being required for area access even less of the content would be used. Could you imagine starting an NPC fellow from scratch these days-the quest would be easy enough but who's going to grind it up levels, especially since the only end-game it can be used in is GoV? and I say this despite LOVING Yufafa, my little butt-saving soothing healer... now it's usually me saving her butt

Why do you care? Gear being useless shouldn't matter to you since you're the resident champion for gear/gear swapping being unimportant and the best player on your server, right?