Classic Server

[Alhanelem]

I'd like to see your proof for your claims. Considering the peak of FFXI was during the things you claim everyone supposedly hates. I think it is more probable than not you are wrong.

Your counter-claim is just as dubious as his claim. Neither of you have data, and you're just saying he's probably wrong. This sounds to me more like "I want you to be wrong and I think you're wrong because it goes against what I want."

Personally, I do know some people who enjoyed the old-school leveling scheme, but not because of the game experience itself- They enjoyed chatting with friends for hours. The EXP-gaining process was just what they happened to be doing while chit chatting. I don't know anyone that specifically liked the EXP-farming process itself- They liked the socializing that went with it. That, to me, speaks of a boring game that is made less boring by chatting- not a game that's lots of fun in and of itself. The problem with this is we could all be playing UNO on facebook and chatting and getting the same level of enjoyment, because the game itself isn't what they're having fun with. From a gameplay standpoint, the endgame content is generally more fun than the leveling process, in my humble opinion.

Honestly though, I think you're just defending your suggestion to the death regardless of what anyone thinks of it. You're just going around calling people wrong or likely to be wrong without anything backing up your assertions. The reason I can recognize this is i myself have been guilty of it on several occasions- I'm pretty (in)famous on this board for defending an unpopular viewpoint on certain issues here. Please, by all means, give us something tangible to show the support for your suggestion- because I'm honestly not seeing it. 80% of this thread is you replying to me or someone else saying they're wrong because they don't agree with you.

I could get behind this idea if the devs responded to this by saying they could reasonably do it without compromising the development of version updates to the main game. But until they weigh in on this, I'm not convinced it can be done without a significant impact on the main game.

[Natasha]

Your counter-claim is just as dubious as his claim. Neither of you have data, and you're just saying he's probably wrong. This sounds to me more like "I want you to be wrong and I think you're wrong because it goes against what I want."

Personally, I do know some people who enjoyed the old-school leveling scheme, but not because of the game experience itself- They enjoyed chatting with friends for hours. The EXP-gaining process was just what they happened to be doing while chit chatting. I don't know anyone that specifically liked the EXP-farming process itself- They liked the socializing that went with it. That, to me, speaks of a boring game that is made less boring by chatting- not a game that's lots of fun in and of itself. The problem with this is we could all be playing UNO on facebook and chatting and getting the same level of enjoyment, because the game itself isn't what they're having fun with. From a gameplay standpoint, the endgame content is generally more fun than the leveling process, in my humble opinion.

Honestly though, I think you're just defending your suggestion to the death regardless of what anyone thinks of it. You're just going around calling people wrong or likely to be wrong without anything backing up your assertions. The reason I can recognize this is i myself have been guilty of it on several occasions- I'm pretty (in)famous on this board for defending an unpopular viewpoint on certain issues here. Please, by all means, give us something tangible to show the support for your suggestion- because I'm honestly not seeing it. 80% of this thread is you replying to me or someone else saying they're wrong because they don't agree with you.

I could get behind this idea if the devs responded to this by saying they could reasonably do it without compromising the development of version updates to the main game. But until they weigh in on this, I'm not convinced it can be done without a significant impact on the main game.

He doesn't have to prove anything Draylo says is wrong anyway, he has no info and the request isn't to him. If people want it, they should support it, if they don't then theres no reason for them to even be in here. Only the devs need be convinced people are interested in it, and only the devs can decide if it is an economically sound proposition for them.

[ruzoko]

I know, they are ridiculous. If you look at the facebook page (which I don't recommend) for FFXI you can see them all gathering and spouting their nonsense. "I hated how the game got so easy to lvl!!!" "I hate how things are so easy now!!" they have no idea that nobody liked ridiculous amounts of exp required to level or any of the old stuff, it was all nostalgia.

Obviously it was not ridiculous if people are repeating it over and over, and whats even more annoying is how much against it those who hate old FFXI are, who cares if a server is made for those of us who enjoy it? As many of you people say, dont like it, then don't play it, this back and forth of nostalgia and go back to FFXI (on FFXIV forums for those wanting it to have some FFXI in it) the arguments against even a classic server for people is ridiculous. If all you people are going to complain at those who preferred the old ways why not just let us have our server and be done with it?
And last its obvious people liked the old ways otherwise we wouldn't see it pop up many times over about the old days, even I prefer the old ways to this "Easy" setting its on LS = worthless, socializing = not needed, gear = clones everywhere now, its basically a cheap version of FFXIV now and its not the game it once was. The 893483843 warps are annoying, makes teles and warp spells pointless (some are handy will admit) but to the extent its gone is just people being lazy.

[ruzoko]

And @ Draylo and Alhanelem obviously you both aren't seeing the petition, just because people do not hitting a "Like" button on here does not mean it isn't supported, petition barely created and has more than triple the support than this thread. Why? 1st. Most don't bother with these forums or even really know what goes on in them (I didn't for quite a long while) and 2nd. Most who do not play FFXI currently likely do not know they can get on these forums free this week so they dont bother to check it.

[detlef]

And @ Draylo and Alhanelem obviously you both aren't seeing the petition, just because people do not hitting a "Like" button on here does not mean it isn't supported, petition barely created and has more than triple the support than this thread. Why? 1st. Most don't bother with these forums or even really know what goes on in them (I didn't for quite a long while) and 2nd. Most who do not play FFXI currently likely do not know they can get on these forums free this week so they dont bother to check it.

Ray Rice signed the petition so it's definitely legit.

[ruzoko]

Legit enough despite the few trolls around, so show support or be on your way thank you.

[Stompa]

<I need some time to put together my answer.> :P

But it seems that all-or-nothing is the going meme here. People saying it was all horrible back then, or all great, or whatever. The truth is more subtle and common-sense - there have been some great improvements to the game since 2008~ and also some detrimental changes. And those changes are appreciated differently by different players. It is very complex and so the universal "it is better" or "it is worse" is not useful, imho. Some things are better, some are worse.

I personally liked the old party xp system, and I dislike the XP Avalanche afk thing in Aby Sandsweepers, especially since the Rambo BLM updates. Old xp parties were more social and involved more individual skill plus effort. To me that made them more fun than just leeching and watching numbers go up.

I liked level 75 player and 75 gear cap. It was simpler and you could use stuff you farmed years ago. I don't like my gear being re-outdated all the time.

So those are the things I miss. I don't miss running really slowly lol. I don't miss waiting for airships. And I love the HP nexus warp system. I also like the level synch and gear scaling systems a lot. So I would play on a level 75 server for sure, but only if it wasn't 100% retro timewarp, and included *some* of the positive changes (such as movement speed and HP nexus etc.) that have been added since 2008~.

But I also see that it is an unlikely thing to happen, because of the cost/return axis, and SE money being put into new content rather than old, which I can't say is a bad thing.

[Alhanelem]

He doesn't have to prove anything Draylo says is wrong anyway, he has no info and the request isn't to him.

The thing is, Plumb doesn't either. He's just declaring people to be wrong with no basis.

And @ Draylo and Alhanelem obviously you both aren't seeing the petition, just because people do not hitting a "Like" button on here does not mean it isn't supported, petition barely created and has more than triple the support than this thread.

Internet petitions are highly abuseable and I put no stake in them whatsoever. Since posting here requires a game account and you have to buy more copies of the game to have more accounts, vote padding is far less likely. Internet Petitions are also not scientific and do not prove anything.

Again, I'm not against the concept of the idea itself, but rather i object to the potential disruption it would cause to current players enjoying the current game in its current state. I also highly doubt that even the people on this petition supporting the idea would come back for very long if the "old" server didn't get content updates (if it did, it would eventually return to where we are now and render the whole thing pointless)- and if it got content updates, that would hamper the progress of the main game. So the only way this can happen is if the dev team is suddenly given more resources to work with than they have currently. Even if you have 1000 people who say will definitely play on a retro server, they may all play at different times and the number of simultaneous users will be quite low, and they will have the same problem.

To truly make this work, you'd need overwhelming support from the entire current and former playerbase. If even the official forum community isn't rallying behind it, I just don't see that happening, no matter how many signatures you have on an off-site petition.

(in before someone just declares me to be "wrong" with no real basis).

But it seems that all-or-nothing is the going meme here. People saying it was all horrible back then, or all great, or whatever. The truth is more subtle and common-sense - there have been some great improvements to the game since 2008~ and also some detrimental changes. And those changes are appreciated differently by different players. It is very complex and so the universal "it is better" or "it is worse" is not useful, imho. Some things are better, some are worse.

I have to say I agree with this sentiment. There isn't really a cut and dry hate and love for a certain era of the game. Different people like different parts of what's happend and dislike others.

When I look at people who quit 5+ years ago though, I don't see them as having left and not returned "because abyssea" or "because insert feature here is no good", because they haven't experienced those contents. If they don't like them, it's merely a perception given to them by word of mouth, and not based on actual experience. So with all due respect, how do you know people who quit a long time ago wouldn't like the game now? You may think they wouldn't, and that's fine, but that's an opinion not a fact.

[ruzoko]

<I need some time to put together my answer.> :P

But it seems that all-or-nothing is the going meme here. People saying it was all horrible back then, or all great, or whatever. The truth is more subtle and common-sense - there have been some great improvements to the game since 2008~ and also some detrimental changes. And those changes are appreciated differently by different players. It is very complex and so the universal "it is better" or "it is worse" is not useful, imho. Some things are better, some are worse.

I personally liked the old party xp system, and I dislike the XP Avalanche afk thing in Aby Sandsweepers, especially since the Rambo BLM updates. Old xp parties were more social and involved more individual skill plus effort. To me that made them more fun than just leeching and watching numbers go up.

I liked level 75 player and 75 gear cap. It was simpler and you could use stuff you farmed years ago. I don't like my gear being re-outdated all the time.

So those are the things I miss. I don't miss running really slowly lol. I don't miss waiting for airships. And I love the HP nexus warp system. I also like the level synch and gear scaling systems a lot. So I would play on a level 75 server for sure, but only if it wasn't 100% retro timewarp, and included *some* of the positive changes (such as movement speed and HP nexus etc.) that have been added since 2008~.

Do agree with you there, there are some improvements to FFXI that i would prefer be put in the classic way, the cost is hard to say it would definitely take time to do though, but SE did botch up alot of FFXI with the releases after abyssea. Which as i heard from another is possibly due to a rush to get some money back from how badly the original FFXIV release went, since the release of it was around the same time abyssea and following occurred.

[Alhanelem]

I liked level 75 player and 75 gear cap. It was simpler and you could use stuff you farmed years ago. I don't like my gear being re-outdated all the time.

As an example of differing perspectives creating different views about how good the game was and is: I hated this. It's not as fun when the stuff you farmed years ago is still the best, because then you don't get the buzz and excietment of finding new rewards, because rarely do you find anything new that is better (and inventory frustration made me hate the deluge of "sidegrades"). Keeping the level cap the same the so long contributed to things getting stale in my opinion. As a Summoner, my gear literally looked nearly the same for years, and that's boring, especially when we were also waiting years for defects in our job to be addressed. I was pretty close to quitting before the level cap rise was announced, and then I was back in the thick of things again. It was fun doing new stuff and getting upgrades, something that was very rare before.

But like I said, different people have different experiences and different reasons for playing. Neither camp is "right" or "wrong." As someone once said, "your mileage may vary."

This is why, for me, it comes down to an issue of development resources. There are undoubtedly some people who at worst would want to reminisce, and at best would regularly want to play an old version. The question is if it's realistically plausible for the devs to implement this. I'm honestly expecting a community rep to come in here and say "There are currently no plans". I totally wouldn't mind being suprised though- If they did say they would do it, then that tells me (hopefully) they have the resources or can get the additional resources required.