To: Mr Akihiko Matsui

[Ritsuka]

I hope you bring the old Final Fantasy XI game back. Every sense abyssea the games turned into s$$t. Alot of older players think so as well and thats why they stoped playing the game.
I herd a rumor that they planed on making this game out to be like World of Warcraft. IF you turn this game into another WoW clone thats it for me.

I'm not really sure what to do about the leveling system either. Sense all the Newb's only want to do 18 man partys doing grounds of valor so when they do get high enough to do other stuff they have no idea what they are doing. There still quite of few of us who love to do the old 6 man party sets up but its more defacult now then it use to be even tho I'm still able to do it with enough shouting in town to find people to join. I've notice they put a cap on lower level pages in abyssea zone for lower level's, Maybe put a 1 game day limit on page's in grounds of valor would stop those 18 man party's and maybe not.

And on a side note would be nice to get male mithria adding to this game and battle choco's just my 2 cents hope you read it.

Regards
Loyal FF player sense 04

[FrankReynolds]

I hope you bring the old Final Fantasy XI game back. Every sense abyssea the games turned into s$$t. Alot of older players think so as well and thats why they stoped playing the game.
I herd a rumor that they planed on making this game out to be like World of Warcraft. IF you turn this game into another WoW clone thats it for me.

I'm not really sure what to do about the leveling system either. Sense all the Newb's only want to do 18 man partys doing grounds of valor so when they do get high enough to do other stuff they have no idea what they are doing. There still quite of few of us who love to do the old 6 man party sets up but its more defacult now then it use to be even tho I'm still able to do it with enough shouting in town to find people to join. I've notice they put a cap on lower level pages in abyssea zone for lower level's, Maybe put a 1 game day limit on page's in grounds of valor would stop those 18 man party's and maybe not.

And on a side note would be nice to get male mithria adding to this game and battle choco's just my 2 cents hope you read it.

Regards
Loyal FF player sense 04

It was always a pain in the butt to get a six man group together, so it seems that nothing has changed for the people who prefer that size group. Why try and force the people who don't want to party with you to do something they don't like? Sounds like a terrible idea to me. Most people are completely content with the way leveling works now.

[Meyi]

There's no dislike button...

[Ritsuka]

No most ppl just like the idea of going AFK for hours and getting free exp. It wasnt always hard to get partys going. Depending on the time of day. Sometimes i could have a complet party set up in 5 mins or less.

[Reiterpallasch]

I herd a rumor that they planed on making this game out to be like World of Warcraft. IF you turn this game into another WoW clone thats it for me.

If by "WoW clone" you mean "successful game with a fuckload of subscribers", then sure. I don't see the point of any part of your post other than to cry about things you have limited knowledge about at best.

[FrankReynolds]

No most ppl just like the idea of going AFK for hours and getting free exp. It wasnt always hard to get partys going. Depending on the time of day. Sometimes i could have a complet party set up in 5 mins or less.

Well then that's what they like. You don't have to do it if you don't want to (unlike what you are suggesting be done to them).

So I'll ask again: Why do you want to be around people who don't want to be around you? and why should a game company cater to people who want to make other people unhappy?

[Eyeballed]

It was always a pain in the butt to get a six man group together, so it seems that nothing has changed for the people who prefer that size group. Why try and force the people who don't want to party with you to do something they don't like? Sounds like a terrible idea to me. Most people are completely content with the way leveling works now.

I've got an answer for you. When this game was released, and up until Abyssea, there was a fanbase of, I don't know specifically, but a much greater percentage than those that remain today. Abyssea ripped much of what we knew the game to be right out of the hands of those who were actually enjoying themselves, believe it or not; Those who didn't mind putting a little effort behind their mid-game simply for the sake of the feeling of accomplishment, if anything else.

There's a few concepts that you, and many of those who support your argument, simply don't seem to understand. One of those is the illusion of choice. Because of the ratio in number of folks who prefer, (and I use that term loosely, point), the greased rail to endgame and the small remaining minority, those of the latter group are forced to either conform to the norm, go solo, or find another game. And even going solo provides only a percentage of the challenge that used to exist in the game, as it's far more productive to spam pages of EP mobs.

Another concept is that this game is an RPG, and RPG's, since the beginning of RPG time, have had content to experience and enjoy at all levels of progression. There's always been a story, a journey, a gradual curve of character growth in ability. With this system, do you have any of that? Are you sure it's an RPG you want to be playing?

The real problem I have, for one, is SE took the game and flipped it on its head for no apparent reason other than to garner a new playerbase, which is fine, except they did it while giving out a big "fuck you" to the rest of us. The "rest of us" being those who played the game because we liked what it had to offer.

[Modoru]

Honestly "gathering groups" for party used to be very specific to certain jobs [eg, it was pretty hard for me to obtain a party as Thief unless I made it, and even then I had problems on occasion because I couldn't find a white mage, or a DD, or a tank, among other problems], and the grind to 75 wasn't a complete issue, it was fun to an extent, sure.

However: Meripo was tedious, admit it. Grinding on birds for ridiculous skillchains is as fun as grabbing dolls in altepa, except mages can do the damage instead of just DDs. The "endgame" for FFXI was stripped to the "elite few", where most of the player base was excluded, in linkshells that had an exorbitant amount of drama, flawed "lot point" systems, unrealistic entrance requirements [aka, you needed to have a decent amount of gear before coming in], and very, very corrupt leaders. Abyssea pretty much allowed everyone else to play on an equal standing and have a chance at good gear -- the "elites" just learned how to do it in lower numbers.

Abyssea wasn't a curse to this game -- it was instead, a boon, because it brought a breath of life to this game once more, facilitating a tedious process for newcomers and certain older players, allowing for more dynamic play and a faster pace.

I admit, it fell flat with the proc system -- it made many jobs obsolete, but other than that, it was still a decent design.

That said, these are just my opinions, but I highly disagree about abyssea being a problem.

Also: I'm pretty sure the reason why there's less people today isn't because of abyssea, but instead because the game is already past the decade milestone, and a lot of people got bored, or just moved onto something else, not because of abyssea.

[Arcon]

No most ppl just like the idea of going AFK for hours and getting free exp.

I absolutely adore that. That's about the only thing I like about Abyssea. I'd pay 1M for an hour of EXP rather than doing that shit myself.

[Meyi]

No most ppl just like the idea of going AFK for hours and getting free exp. It wasnt always hard to get partys going. Depending on the time of day. Sometimes i could have a complet party set up in 5 mins or less.

Not everyone does that. I wouldn't call it free; it can cost anywhere from 400k~1mil.

As for "it was always easy to get a party going", looking at your main job makes that statement kind of obvious. Now if you were a Beastmaster or Summoner level 99 for a main job, I might scratch my chin and think about that for a moment. Of course Red Mages got invited to parties quickly! Hell, whenever I'd log on my Bard to do Dynamis or Salvage, I'd get literally 10 /tells asking to join people's parties. But you know what? That's not for every job in this game; such a luxury was for a select few. The beautiful thing about Abyssea is that all jobs can enter and be given a fair chance to play.

Honestly there's a good handful of people who want to level old school. Just ask them. Shout in Jeuno and make that party "in five minutes or less"; I can guarantee you'll have as much luck today as you did eight years ago -- being able to Level Sync will accommodate the sparsity of members your level who can tank and heal.

I would also propose avoiding Fields of Valor and Grounds of Valor as that will make the EXP too fast and too mainstream. Also don't use EXP bands because they're also a newer addition to the game and the EXP was massively increased as is. Wouldn't want to unbalance the oldschool feel!

I've got an answer for you. When this game was released, and up until Abyssea, there was a fanbase of, I don't know specifically, but a much greater percentage than those that remain today. Abyssea ripped much of what we knew the game to be right out of the hands of those who were actually enjoying themselves, believe it or not; Those who didn't mind putting a little effort behind their mid-game simply for the sake of the feeling of accomplishment, if anything else.

Oh my God the misinformation levels of these forums always drive me insane! I don't understand how everyone can be so naïve when the knowledge is easily accessible. I don't understand how people can be so foolish when they were supposedly playing when said events unfolded! Perhaps bad memories? Perhaps rose tinted glasses? Come on.

The truth is that the game's population began to decrease rapidly before Abyssea was even mentioned to the playerbase. Before Abyssea was even added to the game there were server merges -- my server was one of the ones to disappear. It was after the merge that Abyssea came, not before it. Do you know why the server had to merge? Because many players were bored of the stagnation of the game and left. Our populations were so low Square Enix deemed us in dire need of a boost of life and thus kicked us onto Bismarck. For the record my first Abyssea party was a LaTheine worm party on Bismarck.

Many players have returned because of Abyssea. Some have left again, some have stayed. It seems there are more people leaving because they're upset that the game isn't making other players suffer as much as it used to. Good riddance I say! At the end of the day it's a game and it should be pleasurable. Square Enix didn't remove the old way of playing the game, so those who are upset by the new additions should gather like minded people and do old content in the old fashion.

There's a few concepts that you, and many of those who support your argument, simply don't seem to understand. One of those is the illusion of choice. Because of the ratio in number of folks who prefer, (and I use that term loosely, point), the greased rail to endgame and the small remaining minority, those of the latter group are forced to either conform to the norm, go solo, or find another game.

Hmm, sounds the same as always. I had to solo on Beastmaster. And had to solo on Summoner. Many players in this game have come to understand the idea of soloing. Personally I prefer it to working with other members, but I'd not want to rain on other people's parades by demanding the party system be abolished so everyone had to play my way -- why should it be the case here?

Obviously if "oldschool" is such a minority then that tells you something; that system was unwanted. If it was more pleasuring then more people would do it. Wanting to get stuff done faster? Well yes, it is a video game so clearly people don't want to spend four or five real life hours obtaining one level when they could spend the same four or five hours and gain half of their levels. The sooner someone levels, the sooner they can cap skills (and don't you dare start the "Abyssea = no skill" bull) and the sooner they can do content in the game they deem fun. If you deem leveling fun, then make a party and do it that way. The amount of people who like slow and sluggish EXP are few and far between, but still possible to locate.

As someone who used to play the game solely for the leveling up system, I have to say I also open my arms to welcome the change that is Abyssea. After my seventh job to 75 I was getting burned out on EXP myself. After starting a new character (and having to relevel all of his sub jobs!) I'm thankful to have a system to do this quickly with.

Oh, and as a disclaimer because I see that I left that window of opportunity open, skills were not magically capped in the oldschool ways. Some DDs capped, yes, but a lot of tanks had defense skills they had to force up painfully, DDs had other weapons they didn't often use in exp parties to skill up, and mages had awful magic (usually defensive) they had to try and push forward. Back eight years ago, skill up parties were all the rage and there were always lots of them to be found (especially in The Boyahda Tree and Kuftal Tunnel). Surprisingly, after Abyssea, such parties don't really exist anymore. Once in awhile I'll see a shout or a group from Linkshell go, but for the most part, people just solo their skill ups now, and seem to do it fast enough. It's better to spam to 99 and then level up skills afterwards because at least 99 has more options to Haste gear and Accuracy. And, you'll know what the final cap is to aim for.

And even going solo provides only a percentage of the challenge that used to exist in the game, as it's far more productive to spam pages of EP mobs.

I love soloing! I find it can be very challenging, and very rewarding. Nothing like being able to take down foes that everyone claimed you couldn't! And there's always less idiocy to mess up the success rate.

Another concept is that this game is an RPG, and RPG's, since the beginning of RPG time, have had content to experience and enjoy at all levels of progression. There's always been a story, a journey, a gradual curve of character growth in ability. With this system, do you have any of that? Are you sure it's an RPG you want to be playing?

Unfortunately it has the three letters MMO in front of it. While I love RPGs (though hate leveling and how long half of them draw the story out, but I digress) there's a significant difference between RPGs and MMORPGs. Really, the MMO is the most important acronym and shouldn't be overlooked. That MMO means I'm playing the game with other people, and will more than likely need their help to succeed in my goals. Unfortunately, being forced to play with other people means I have to deal with their stupidity and their needs too. The most effective way to take care of them and myself with the least amount of time required is to be max level and have good gear. I also feel it'd be rude to expect people to help me at a low level when I could be a much higher level and be of more assistance to them. Or even worse, expect people to help me when I can have the capabilities to do it myself.

Also I can't recall the cutscenes ever changing in this game because of my level. Pretty sure the story stays intact. So, that reasoning for wanting things to go back to the old way is quite flawed. (Besides, even preAbyssea people spammed to 75 and did fights like the Shadow Lord at max level. I was one of the few who did him at level 50 and let me tell you, it was really scary and consumed a good six hours of a night.)

The real problem I have, for one, is SE took the game and flipped it on its head for no apparent reason other than to garner a new playerbase, which is fine, except they did it while giving out a big "fuck you" to the rest of us. The "rest of us" being those who played the game because we liked what it had to offer.

If you like the pain and suffering of the old game then go for it. Nobody's stopping you. There are plenty of people on these forums bitching the way you do, so consider playing with them. Seriously. Don't drag everyone down into your pity party because many of us actually enjoy the tracks the game is on now. It's fun. It's a game. I like the fact that Square Enix has reminded us it's a game, not a lifestyle and not a job. It used to be a lifestyle and a job. Now it's a game. And for that I thank them whoreheartedly.