@SquareEnix: Kickstarter campaign to get a graphic upgrade?

[Demonjustin]

Well the advantage of a Kickstarter is they can see that people who play the game are willing to foot the bill for it even though it likely won't pull in any profits for them by doing it. If they didn't Kickstart it then it wouldn't be done for sure, they'd never make more money off it then they'd spend in the long run but if we foot the bill and show them we truly want it then they'd do it and lose nothing by doing it.

[Emdief]

Looking at threads like this it seems Japanese players would also like at the very least a client upgrade to DX9 or higher. Edit > Now, whether or not they would be willing to Kickstarter it is another issue altogether.

And to repeat myself yet again, for a starting point this is what I would personally like to see in the Kickstarter:

- Main goals :
1) DX11 client with proper PC optimization and features (AA, AF, V-sync, longer drawing distances, better performance on modern hardware, better audio processing, snappier UI, etc.)

2) HD textures for all items, characters, monsters and areas. There's no need for a model rework, it would take even longer and be more expensive for little gains. The HD textures alone would make all the difference.

And if you doubt that would be more than enough just look at all the models they pretty much lifted straight out of XI and put in XIV just with higher resolution textures.

- Additional goals :

1) OpenGL/Mantle support

2) HD Rework of environmental and gameplay FX (particle effects in abilities, spells, etc., water effects, weather effects, etc.)

---

And that's about it. In my opinion the game doesn't really need much else from a Kickstarter like this.

Agreed, HD Textures would do, no need to touch the models. Also, modders would probably benefit from the directx 11 support, and that could open for more support from the playerbase.
I disagree with people saying that a big corporation should not use crowdfunding. The market is changing and has changed already. I see Double Fine looking for funds, Epic Games developing Unreal together with the players, someone like Chris Roberts rising more than 46 millions for Star Citizen, Capcom not caring about Mega Man and Inafune rising alone 12 millions or so from his fans, and so on.
The old economic system still exists, but things are changing, and most of the times those big corporations are the ones that don't want to risk. That's where we should come in, and that's where all the new technologies can come to help.

To be honest with you, before making this thread I didn't even know about the WoW remake of the visuals. I thought about this for two main reasons:
1. I knew it happened already in the past, with a very old game made by Funcom called Anarchy Online. Fans were amazed and the game had a lot of new players because of this.
2. I do love GTA 4. I play on a PC. That means mods, that means hq textures, that means community. Given the right support and care from the community, we can boost and change games as much as we want, that's why DX11 would help a lot.
I don't really understand why some of you are so pessimistic and negative, it's SE and it's us. We're discussing together, it might bring something good.

[Xantavia]

2. I do love GTA 4. I play on a PC. That means mods, that means hq textures, that means community. Given the right support and care from the community, we can boost and change games as much as we want, that's why DX11 would help a lot.

Don't know about GTA4, but remember, modding your game is against the official ToS. Officially, I don't think they would want to make it easier to happen.

[predatory]

But what if I don't want to foot the bill for SE to redo the graphics. I mean I've given them alot of money over the years, and shouldn't game improvements have been part of the money I spent? I mean this isn't a f2p, this is a p2p with a monthly service charge for ALL characters on an account, and the base game itself, and each expansion over the years has dipped into my wallet. A upgraded UI and graphics is a great idea, (hell I'll oversample the new graphics to make it look better if they do it), but how much more extra money should I invest in this game?

SE said last year that FFXI was the highest grossing game they've ever sold, some of that money could have been used to upgrade the graphics, UI etc, but instead of doing that SE decided to tear down and totally rebuild FFXIV. I just can't see rewarding that kind of behavior by throwing more money at them, especially in light of the fact that they want to keep the ps2 as a platform in Japan, which would make any graphics improvements barely minimal over what we have right now, because the ps2 can barely handle the graphics interface as it is. I started on ps2 and I can tell you that it gets laggy fast. I remember zoning into jeuno and getting lag and I was afraid the machine was going to melt everytime I went into dynamis.

I don't know, pay for an upgrade if you want, but I don't want to

[Auriga]

Just upgrade the game already SE, the serious players are tired of this procrastinational crap. You went an made a knock off of WoW on 14 thinking that'd be ok.. it wasn't.

11 will not be allowed to die, end of story, we pay you, now get the job done.
Wanna complain ya don't have enough to do the job? look at this thread, clearly people are willing to throw down for it.

I'll take up the cause, then the game would wipe out 14 an WoW altogether.

The game became a flagship along time ago, if ya let this die.. the fans can promise you to raise it from the dead one way or another.

[Damane]

Well the advantage of a Kickstarter is they can see that people who play the game are willing to foot the bill for it even though it likely won't pull in any profits for them by doing it. If they didn't Kickstart it then it wouldn't be done for sure, they'd never make more money off it then they'd spend in the long run but if we foot the bill and show them we truly want it then they'd do it and lose nothing by doing it.

i am sorry we did throw them allready alot of money at, FFXI was for SE one of the most profitable game and the cash of FFXI surely wasnt put all back into the game (naturally not), but the last years 1 year pre FFXIV release and the years following the FFXIV debakel and rebuild, ALOT of FFXI money was poored away and put into FFXIV, dont you think that the FFXI players deserve something for free, especially considering we are still paying and our sub-price is actually alot higher then FFXIV's sub. I think its time to poor some money away from FFXIV and reward FFXI (and its community) for what it has put out. i wouldnt mind paying again 30 bucks like it would be an expansion but definitly not more.

[Demonjustin]

i am sorry we did throw them allready alot of money at, FFXI was for SE one of the most profitable game and the cash of FFXI surely wasnt put all back into the game (naturally not), but the last years 1 year pre FFXIV release and the years following the FFXIV debakel and rebuild, ALOT of FFXI money was poored away and put into FFXIV, dont you think that the FFXI players deserve something for free, especially considering we are still paying and our sub-price is actually alot higher then FFXIV's sub. I think its time to poor some money away from FFXIV and reward FFXI (and its community) for what it has put out. i wouldnt mind paying again 30 bucks like it would be an expansion but definitly not more.

While I agree there's a difference here that makes or breaks the idea of doing it at all. FFXIV was a new game, one which would pull in players and keep them there for years, hopefully lasting a long time like FFXI did and creating enough profit that the investment was not wasted. FFXI getting a graphical update isn't the same way, almost no one would join due to graphics being improved but the cost would likely be quite high due to the fact this game has (12?) years of content now that'd need to be gone through for it. If they threw money at it then it'd be a loss of money for sure, almost everyone on the game has come to terms with the graphics we have and while it'd be great for them to be improved I wonder who would be so willing to pay an expansions fee for those graphics.

In the end, the chances they'd make enough money off it to even out seems kinda unlikely for me, the chances they'd profit are even less, but a kickstarter really does eliminate all chances of losses on both sides so far as I know. I think you get the money back if the goals aren't hit and if they are then SE could then put the money into it as we want them to and use any additional money to put into the game and make it even better. Updates are getting faster and better than ever, but there are so many things this game could benefit from money wise, such as improved servers and the like, but none of it will likely ever happen if it's an extremely large undertaking because to them it just wouldn't be cost effective.

[Triannasky]

FFXI getting a graphical update would be nice, but as stated before it's a old game, graphics and content need to be overhauled to really bring players back. alot of the new content has been great, but older content is pointless at best. Changing the content of the game to reflect what the game now in 2014. great example is campaign, and SE taking the time and changing the content would be great for players. SE finds new ways to do stuff all the time. Graphics is a most, but so is evolving the content. Thanks to the poster of this thread, always nice to see someone with great ideas.

[Zarchery]

This is such a ridiculous idea on so many levels. SE doesn't even want to drop Playstation 2 support, you think they're gonna reprogram the entire game from the ground up to make it a little prettier? Not to mention that FFXI is something of a niche, less popular game among the MMO market, so you have a small percentage of people who would even be interested in playing. Add to that an even smaller number of people interested enough in a graphics update to pay for it. Now consider that this isn't funding some Joe Blow film maker's crappy independent art project but rather a major project by a major corporation, so it's not going to be cheap. I'd rather that this business use the funding it already has in place; profits from sales of its products and services.

[Demonjustin]

This is such a ridiculous idea on so many levels. SE doesn't even want to drop Playstation 2 support, you think they're gonna reprogram the entire game from the ground up to make it a little prettier? Not to mention that FFXI is something of a niche, less popular game among the MMO market, so you have a small percentage of people who would even be interested in playing. Add to that an even smaller number of people interested enough in a graphics update to pay for it. Now consider that this isn't funding some Joe Blow film maker's crappy independent art project but rather a major project by a major corporation, so it's not going to be cheap. I'd rather that this business use the funding it already has in place; profits from sales of its products and services.

Say it however you'd like, it's not going to change the fact here that if players don't foot the bill or do it themselves then it will never be done. We have to either accept it'll never be done or we do something like kickstarter and hope we get enough money for them to do it. If you leave it to only be done by them then kiss your wish goodbye. There's no real downfall to doing it this way anyways, so I don't understand why the objections to it.