Costume system

[Blace]

You sound like a homeless person who when given an apple says "what's the matter mr. Money bags? Too cheap for a hamburger?"

When the previous director answered people's cries to fix blinking he basically said it was impossible, now we have a new director who is looking for a way around it AND giving us a system where we can wear what gear we want and all you can say is "why you no do good things?"

Terrible, terrible analogy. It shows you either skimmed my post or missed the point entirely.

What I sound like is a homeless person who's been given new shoelaces when my shoes are falling apart. New shoelaces are nice, but do absolutely nothing for me in the long run when things as a whole are breaking down. [EDIT: And if we're considering this analogy, I'm not a 'homeless person', I'm a consumer that has paid upwards $3,000 in subscription fees in support of SquareEnix's continued operations.] "We're aware the game is falling apart, dying because we aren't making proper adjustments for the player base and the game's current condition. To compensate, here's a cookie."

So no, Cabalabob. What I am saying is "why you no do relevant things that affect the game's drastically failing health". People have dealt with the gear blinks for all these years and it's never been game breaking, and this is coming from a WHM. To try and pose it as some sort of godsend of an adjustment in comparison to real game problems is laughably ridiculous, at best.

[Trumpy]

I dunno but it sounds kinda optional to me, AKA you have to lock it so you can still blink if you prefer. Personally i think it might be annoying having to lock every time you zone or having to remember to but we will see how it is implemented. Too bad avoiding the movement lock using gear swaps doesnt work with dancer JAs.

I dunno bout tthis "social status" thing you are speaking of, I never saw someone in particular gears and though "oh wow that guy is soo cool and better than me." I honestly could care less what you look like or what you are wearing. But im pretty sure this is just an appearance thing, when you check someone you would probably still see what gear they are wearing, and I dont think you will be able to lock the appearance of an item you havent obtained. But it sure would be nice if you could lock in say full Charis gear which looks great instead of a mixed set, where you might be wearing 2 or 3 aurore gear which ruins your whole look with blaring pink against the dark color or charis armor (just an example though it would prolly be outdated now)

[Catmato]

So no, Cabalabob. What I am saying is "why you no do relevant things that affect the game's drastically failing health". People have dealt with the gear blinks for all these years and it's never been game breaking, and this is coming from a WHM. To try and pose it as some sort of godsend of an adjustment in comparison to real game problems is laughably ridiculous, at best.

Yeah, how could adding an industry-standard feature do anything to keep people from leaving?

[Blace]

Yeah, how could adding an industry-standard feature do anything to keep people from leaving?

You must be new to gaming, but that's ok. Industry 'standards' for games do not involve fluff content. Standards are structures that affect day to day operations within the game's environment, economy, and player progression. I'm sure it must be very difficult for you to comprehend so I'll put it another way.

At this point in a game's age, it doesn't matter how much extra fluff content there is or how many vanity options there are. A vanity system is not, and will never be a "standard" of games; it's an option. Regardless, the player base needs more than Barbie Dress-up for the last remaining 500-1000 per server if they expect the lifeline to lengthen. If that's your highest expectation from the dev team's resources towards this game's future then there's a problem. Logic dictates otherwise, but it's becoming very clear that's not a strong area for some here.

[Catmato]

Most major MMOs released in recent years have a vanity option. No MMO released in recent years has the targeting problem*. To me, that means they're standards, even if it doesn't fit your customized-for-this-discussion definition.

I'm not really sure where you got the idea that anyone holds this feature as their highest expectation. I didn't say that, and I certainly don't feel that way. However, features like this, and their other recent quality-of-life updates show that the game is definitely going in a different direction than it has in the past. No, it's not making me log in every day, but it's definitely keeping my account active.

When the game has been updated so people don't feel like they're going back to the stone-age of gaming and there's some real, lasting, worthwhile content to do, they'll be able to bring the servers back to life.

*I'm aware there are workarounds, but the problem is still there. You can walk around the dogshit in the yard, but you should still probably still clean it up.

[Afania]

I dunno bout tthis "social status" thing you are speaking of, I never saw someone in particular gears and though "oh wow that guy is soo cool and better than me." I honestly could care less what you look like or what you are wearing.

Social study 101:
Social status is part of human nature. That's why doctors/lawyers dress differently from workers. Once I dress up more formal than usual irl and another guy asked if I'm a manager or something, with a "omg you must be rich and successful" attitude, even though I'm not. In FFXI I sometimes got /tell from others if I'm wearing something rare.

Just because you don't have the thought, doesn't mean everyone else won't have. So yes, social status exist everywhere, irl and FFXI.

[Blace]

I agree with you that the targeting problem is non existent in other games. Saying that "most major MMO's" have a vanity option however, is very generous. In fact, there are very few top titles that come to mind; those that do only offer it as re-skins and/or appearance tabs in which the stats aren't even carried over. My definition isn't customized for this discussion. If you're using the term 'standard' you're stating something that is considered a general accepted guideline that top title MMO accept as.. well.. a standard:

• Currency, trading system (auction houses, personal stores, etc.)
• Personalized character development options (stat distribution, skill allocation, gearsets)
• Functioning and balanced class/skill system
• Challenging fights intertwined with character progression (raids, instances)
• Sources for player income (equipment/item/material sales, crafting, quests)
• Alternative leveling methods (repeatable quests, randomized instances, experience boost systems)
• Expanded content/updates to retain playerbase's interest (expansions, events, promotion of character growth, etc)
• Continued maintenance to address bugs

You will not find a successful MMORPG that does not have what is listed above. That is because these are the standards, and only a few are listed. That being said, PVP is not a standard. Vanity items are not a standard. A game being either open world or instance based is not a standard. Payment options are not standard. Heck, even character customization options don't have a standard. These are all things that would be considered to affect quality of life or are things at the developer's discretion. There is nothing "custom fit" about my statement, it's pretty straightforward.

Matsui here.
[...]
However, as this is a very large change it will take us some time. We’ll first be looking into a feature that will allow you to keep a certain appearance temporarily.

What I see when I read this is that a lot of time is being divulged into a system so people can look pretty. That's great, and honestly I'd be all for that... if this was about 5 years ago and I didn't feel it was a cop-out for them to counter their lazy recycling of crap gear models and forcing people back into AF1.

For example, we are imagining a system where you could equip cosmetic equipment and lock your appearance, and then switch to your practical equipment. As an added effect, we are also planning to make it so you no longer blink when switching equipment.
[...]
Locked appearances will automatically be removed when changing areas.

So.. what I get from this is that this "lock" will only be activated manually every time we enter a zone, and has to be manually repeated every time. And this is only a convenient side-effect of the vanity system, and not an attempt to actually resolve the blinking issue.

Is a vanity system nice? Sure, and I wouldn't mind it. But will putting in a vanity system keep the 3/4 of the playerbase which have been playing for 5-10+ years on end? The same people that leave for something new because of severe mismanagement of endgame processes and lack of pre-planning/maintenance for content? No, it will not.

XI is dying, and its not because of XIV, or WildStar, or EQN, or any other top titles set for release this year. It's because players are done putting all their work into a game only to see it turn worthless after a single update. Players realize that they can't progress on something because SE once required large numbers for it, and since the interest and numbers no longer exist, said player is unable to progress because no update was made to adjust. Players look for new environments, new challenges with interesting mechanics, awesome looking loot, etc.. and we get.. well I've said it enough already. Point has been made.

Convince me that a vanity system is the best allocation of the developers time over the above, and I will concede. Otherwise, I feel my stance on this is entirely valid. A vanity system is the last thing we need. We've dealt with the distractions for far too many years, and it's time SE's stepped it up before everyone else steps down.

[Zhronne]

FFXI is one of the few MMO games where Server-side community still has some sort of relevance.
Much less than in the past, but it still exists as a macro-social mechanism, and personally I love it.

The amount of things you can (or can't) tell by looking at what someone is wearing and when is a beautiful additional level of depth which disappeared from modern games. It's a channel of communication we're mostly unaware of, unwilling users.
I understand how this won't matter for the majority of people, but I'll be very sad on the day when looks on gear won't matter anymore in FFXI :'(

[Anjou]

I agree with you that the targeting problem is non existent in other games. Saying that "most major MMO's" have a vanity option however, is very generous. In fact, there are very few top titles that come to mind; those that do only offer it as re-skins and/or appearance tabs in which the stats aren't even carried over. My definition isn't customized for this discussion. If you're using the term 'standard' you're stating something that is considered a general accepted guideline that top title MMO accept as.. well.. a standard:

• Currency, trading system (auction houses, personal stores, etc.)
• Personalized character development options (stat distribution, skill allocation, gearsets)
• Functioning and balanced class/skill system
• Challenging fights intertwined with character progression (raids, instances)
• Sources for player income (equipment/item/material sales, crafting, quests)

Currency, trading system (auction houses, personal stores, etc.)

Would love to see this happen, a personal store is something that we have already, it's a bazaar. The currency trading could allow people to get the last needed points for maybe that set of vanity armor for their mannequin.

Personalized character development options (stat distribution, skill allocation, gearsets)

That's the merit system, where we allocate our merits into additional stats and job specific abilities.

Functioning and balanced class/skill system

Yeah this one is a biggy, a lot of classes still to this day get screwed out the hoo haa. SMN being one with no different gear, and RDM? Nope, they don't even get the Atinian staff...

Challenging fights intertwined with character progression (raids, instances)

This already happens with the old endgame, which is being revamped.

Sources for player income (equipment/item/material sales, crafting, quests)

^!!!!! THIS AND THIS SO MANY TIMES. You will not believe how miserable it is making money in the beginning on just FoV and GoV for newer players. I used to make my money off of NPC'ing bird blood from Buburimu, but there needs to be something that players can do to get some good money into their pockets.

Alternative leveling methods (repeatable quests, randomized instances, experience boost systems)

Quests never really yielded much experience, I don't see them doing this any time soon. I would however like to have a quest that afte turning in listed items, you get a special dedication effect, since the cooldown on the emperor and empress bands only cover a few levels if you're low, and then you gotta wait like 16 hours, and can't hold another exp band, whereas the anniversary rings allow you to use them every hour.

Expanded content/updates to retain playerbase's interest (expansions, events, promotion of character growth, etc)

From what I've heard, FFXI has 1 more expansion coming out for sure.

Continued maintenance to address bugs

They are already doing this and are still doing this.

[Twille]

how your character looks is part of.....who you represent

This is exactly why FFXI needs such a feature. So people can look like what they want, rather than what gear currently gives them the best stats/bonuses.

....of the hardship to obtain that specific item you're showing off.

The system mentioned by Camate states you can lock an appearance of gear, meaning you have to actually have the gear first. Your shinies will still be shiney.