Reasons Why FFXI is Declining

[Tamoa]

I actually had to wiki this.... lol I never knew a game like this existed......

I do believe you have been looking at the wrong thing.

[Omegablue]

I do believe you have been looking at the wrong thing.

Ok, so maybe he/she/it isn't Starcade. I direct you to search for him on here or just go to the Dark Renegade's Musings. Wannabe sociopath ITG who can't figure out why everyone considers him a nutter. It used to be fun to poke him with a stick until he turned on approving all replies there.

[Oddwaffle]

Bottom line is this "SE needs to make the game interesting and friendly for everyone". The whole game needs to be interesting. Not just one part. If you leave a bunch of people falling behind the rest then those people aren't having fun. How? Dev can read through the thread for inspirations but shouldn't follow the suggestions like mindless robots. Only a few people out of thousands of players post here and not all of them are smart, right or even correct.

FFXI is unfriendly. It's hard to play. It's difficult to start when you are clueless. The game doesn't tell you anything. Imagine playing FFXI without wiki page, without forum or any community assist. FFXI has thousands of players not even visit the wiki page for info and just walk around clueless. What to do? Where to go? How do you do that? These are the information SE must provide to the players. They are the casual players. They don't make efforts to find obscure information about the game. You have to spoon feed these people. Show them everything. Quests need to have markers. Items for quests need to be provided with ease (not looking up on AH for a chance of buying them).

Too much of FFXI relies on its community. When the community shrinks, changes or just simply move on, the game becomes difficult to play to new players. The game takes too much effort to play. People just want to have a blast with a game after they get home from work or school. SE needs to understand how to make FFXI engaging but not overbearing. Exciting but not hard. Fun but not too easy.

[Eyeballed]

Reasons: The removal of (forced) gradual progression. Being able to hit cap in a few days of concentrated effort devalues almost every aspect of the game outside of what remains at the end, and what is at the end is all that could remain: modest upgrades and repeated attempts at those modest upgrades with which to grind out more modest upgrades. It is so simple to grasp, and yet this design philosophy unbelievably still persists even in FFXIV: ARR. If they are truly only concerned with developing for endgame, they ought to remove the crafting system, remove level-based progression, remove the open world and find another way because this approach is never going to work.

[Hawklaser]

FFXI is unfriendly. It's hard to play. It's difficult to start when you are clueless. The game doesn't tell you anything. Imagine playing FFXI without wiki page, without forum or any community assist. FFXI has thousands of players not even visit the wiki page for info and just walk around clueless. What to do? Where to go? How do you do that? These are the information SE must provide to the players. They are the casual players. They don't make efforts to find obscure information about the game. You have to spoon feed these people. Show them everything. Quests need to have markers. Items for quests need to be provided with ease (not looking up on AH for a chance of buying them).

While I agree things should be made more new player friendly, I don't agree with holding a persons hand all the time. Not every quest needs a marker, but the ones for new players would benefit from them. Goal would be to introduce players to a common old school RPG mantra, talk to everyone.

Now its gotten to the point of if the npc doesn't have something like a giant yellow ? above their head they get ignored. When you can get all kinds of different information from npcs if you do talk to them, granted not all of it is useful but that goes back to the whole exploring aspect of RPGs as well.

Edit: Glitch happened and posted before was done.

[Daemon]

While I agree things should be made more new player friendly, I don't agree with holding a persons hand all the time. Not every quest needs a marker, but the ones for new players would benefit from them. Goal would be to introduce players to a common old school RPG mantra, talk to everyone.

Now its gotten to the point of if the npc doesn't have something like a giant yellow ? above their head they get ignored. When you can get all kinds of different npc's if you do talk to them, granted not all of it is useful but that goes back to the whole exploring aspect of RPGs as well.

Edit: Glitch happened and posted before was done.

Hand? More like arranged marriage or forever be banished with no hope of support ever again.

Atleast that's how I see it.

[Zumi]

Bottom line is this "SE needs to make the game interesting and friendly for everyone". The whole game needs to be interesting. Not just one part. If you leave a bunch of people falling behind the rest then those people aren't having fun. How? Dev can read through the thread for inspirations but shouldn't follow the suggestions like mindless robots. Only a few people out of thousands of players post here and not all of them are smart, right or even correct.

FFXI is unfriendly. It's hard to play. It's difficult to start when you are clueless. The game doesn't tell you anything. Imagine playing FFXI without wiki page, without forum or any community assist. FFXI has thousands of players not even visit the wiki page for info and just walk around clueless. What to do? Where to go? How do you do that? These are the information SE must provide to the players. They are the casual players. They don't make efforts to find obscure information about the game. You have to spoon feed these people. Show them everything. Quests need to have markers. Items for quests need to be provided with ease (not looking up on AH for a chance of buying them).

Too much of FFXI relies on its community. When the community shrinks, changes or just simply move on, the game becomes difficult to play to new players. The game takes too much effort to play. People just want to have a blast with a game after they get home from work or school. SE needs to understand how to make FFXI engaging but not overbearing. Exciting but not hard. Fun but not too easy.

FFXI would pretty much need a total redesign to attract new players. There is no tutorials, no in game help on quests, or even a reason to do most quests, no guide to help tell new players what they should be doing.

Something like a FFXI 2.0 HD Remix, UI and systems overhaul, essentially its what they have in FFXIV. Something like that most likely won't happen because FFXIV is the new game they want to attract new customers with. The game still has some people playing it which is why they still keep the game up. I don't see FFXI shutting down until hardly anyone is playing it. Even the original Everquest which came out before FFXI still has its servers up.

[Daemon]

FFXI would pretty much need a total redesign to attract new players. There is no tutorials, no in game help on quests, or even a reason to do most quests, no guide to help tell new players what they should be doing.

Something like a FFXI 2.0 HD Remix, UI and systems overhaul, essentially its what they have in FFXIV. Something like that most likely won't happen because FFXIV is the new game they want to attract new customers with. The game still has some people playing it which is why they still keep the game up. I don't see FFXI shutting down until hardly anyone is playing it. Even the original Everquest which came out before FFXI still has its servers up.

Yeah but in order for that to happen, Sony will have to discontinue PS2. Then give it about 2-5 years until ps2 owners system malfunction. Then we will have to wait for SE to remake FF7. Then maybe make a new Final Fantasy movie actually related to the game rather than a sequel to some typical sci fi movie with the same concept as every other alien movie.

Then possibly... Just maybe they may come around to recoding FFXI down to the last expansion.

But before all of that happens, REM, New Red mage spells, inventory, and all other things need to be fixed first D:

[Oddwaffle]

It seems hard but it's actually not that different that what FFXI is offering at the moment. You don't really need to have a big "?" or "!"on some NPC, nor do you really need an arrow/dot on the radar to point the way (it would help a bit though).

Start out with much more detailed descriptions on what to do and where to go in the quest menu. What FFXI currently has is ambiguous at best and completely useless at worst (sometimes you can't even tell who gave you the quest!). It could be something as simple as: NPC A in area B asked you to look for item C. The item is believed to be found in area D from E type of monster.

Then put the markers on the players' map or ask the players to buy the maps from X NPC before doing the quests. FFXI has markers on the map. SE can use it to show the players where to go without running around looking for the ??? point.

For quests that require items that usually on AH but no longer available due to how EMPTY the AH is, a way to get the item must be provided. For example, a ??? point could be provided for the player to fight some easy NM for a 100% drop on the item (make it rare/ex).

Lastly, eliminate or greatly reduce the fame requirement for vital quests like Gobbie bags, Mog House expansions, RSE, Utsusemi Scrolls, Teleport Scrolls and Nation Missions...etc. Worried about abuse on the scrolls? Make it repeatable or drop from mobs. Most old players don't really need these scrolls so no point in making it hard for new players. Possibly extent this to some abyssea quests as some of them require repeating the same thing over again (aka. NOT FUN QUESTS).

Of course, this only helps on the quests and story side. FFXI must also allow people to level quicker solo or as a party. You don't want a new player spending 3 months getting to level 99. A lot of people will quit before that. Make it 3 weeks with 2 hours of leveling a day maximum. It doesn't have to be something ground breaking or hard. 1st, double exp gain (like the x2 exp campaign). Then make it so exp rings from conquests will give 10,000 exp with 1 hour recast similar to the anniversary ring. Also make it so players can exchange it without limit. Finally, greatly increases basic skill up rate for all combat and magic skills (ideally, x5 times rate for combat and x10 times for magic). We have enough people running bots to skill up.

"Oh you will get bad players who don't have a clue of what to do!" - argument will be there but let's just think through this. #1 If you solo or FOV stuff at the current speed from lv1 to lv99, chances are you aren't getting any better at understanding the game than just sleeping through it in abyssea. Esp, if you are in a social LS and not doing much partying #2 Most of the 'good' players aren't that good but actually have good gear. #3 Actual good skills come gradually with experience with actual situations in small party and understanding the game mechanics - which is found by reading the forums and such - so you have to get SE to modify the game to accommodate people without access to forums and such information. This is why FFXI is flawed; it doesn't explain game mechanics to people and force people to experiment it and analyze with mathematics and statistics.

I understand that Matsui can see this point and has been trying to change FFXI. The level on item is for this purpose as well as making items that are more permanent and don't require switching gear. However, the idea is sound but the execution is a mess. He forgot the implications, the changes to the playerbase, the reactions from players and failed to provide alternatives for people to accustom to changes.

[Zarchery]

Isn't the general response to this question "FFXI is declining because my personal interest is waning, I'm getting fed up with it, and my personal feelings are the only thing that exists."?

I mean, that's been the way it's gone since 2006.