This game could beneift from a classic server.

[Draylo]

And exactly how does offering a SINGLE separate server with a different ruleset stop the game from "evolving" as you called it? How about YOU stop with your dumb complaints about stuff that doesn't affect you and let people provide feedback about things they desire.



Ok, first that was my thread (idk why this one popped up) and apparently you didn't read it because the majority are in favor of the idea in there. Further, everyone against it said nothing about it being terrible, only that they don't think its possible due to resources or other proplems.

Moving on, if anyone needs to grow up I would say it would be you and draylo over there, two people who are complaining about people requesting something that has no affect on the current version of the game you seem to like so much. The game was as I liked it, this is not some kind of mystery I actually enjoyed it back then and ever since abyssea have been in search of a similar experience. Regardless of why they made the changes they did (the changes actually made subs drop, not go up) it doesn't matter because this is NOT REVERSING ANYTHING, just offering an alternative for those who wish it. Stop being a selfish jerk by saying EVERYTHING must be your way and nothing else may exist when I and I assume the OP are simply seeing if it is POSSIBLE (no demands, a check) to bring back something we greatly enjoyed and wish to again.

You do realize the DEV resources are already pulled too thin? They are probably the same people who work on XIV, and work on this game on off days.... Making a silly server for people with nostalgia goggles bolted on will just be a huge draw of resources for NO reason, we already played that game, time to move on. The main problem with your idea is that it pull from a tiny DEV teams time.

[Natasha]

You do realize the DEV resources are already pulled too thin? They are probably the same people who work on XIV, and work on this game on off days.... Making a silly server for people with nostalgia goggles bolted on will just be a huge draw of resources for NO reason, we already played that game, time to move on. The main problem with your idea is that it pull from a tiny DEV teams time.

Oh i'm sorry, are you on the dev team? You have the exact details on the resources available? You know if more can be allocated if needed? You do not know anything, if the devs don't have the resources then they will say so or just ignore these requests. Your comment is completely and utterly pointless, at worst its complete miss-information and at best its unofficial and speculative. Just because you have no desire for this does not mean others do not genuinely have that desire, every single thing you say is completely unsupported.

Your argument is just plain bad, you are arguing that something you do not know IS. Either back up your points with hard evidence or remove yourself from the conversation that you have no stake in.

[Zarchery]

Zachery you are one of the biggest fucking faggots i've ever had the displeassure of meeting in my whole time playing XI. I see you going through the forums trolling almost EVERYONES fucking threads acting like you're gods gift to Final Fantasy. The way you're online playing and the time you spend trolling I can't even imagine you're even employed for christ sakes! How does someone who spends the time you do with all that shit possibly work a job. I wish I could come through my monitor personally to beat the fuck out of you. You're a fucking joke dude. People like you ruined XI in the long run. Idk man maybe i'm wrong maybe you get paid good money to troll who knows. Alls I do seem to know is you're a ass hat and need the beating of a life time mother fucker. lmfao Say what you will I said my peace.

Wow. Bitter much?

How long do you think it actually takes to write a message board post? A standard full time work schedule still leaves 6+ hours a day on weekdays to do other stuff. And when did the definition of trolling become "holding opinions contrary to me"?

[Yadam]

i agree with Jblauh 100%

[Yadam]

THIS IS A GREAT IDEA! and for people who say "stop living in the past" , that is such bullshit, it's not living in the past. it is simply wanting to play a great game that we can no longer play due to 7 years of horrible updates that we didn't even want. Do you ever go back and play games that are 10 years old, or more? that's not living in the past, that's saying "hey that game was amazing, and i want to play it again". Todays games are purposely targetting casuals and noobs and rage quitters, people like Zarchery

[Yadam]

it would work, it would bring back more players, thus more money, and you guys who love playing solo with your NPCs can still continue to do so on the other servers, everyone wins, there really isn't a reason for you to be arguing other than you just like to shoot peoples ideas down.

[Shirai]

I'm also picking sides with the "Bad idea" crowd. I did enjoy those times immensely, but they are not coming back.

Several very solid reasons have already been given on why this idea is not feasible and why it will not "save this game".
People may come back for 1, 2 maybe even 3 months, but in the end nostalgia will not keep them. The server would turn into a ghost town fast.

The old FFXI was immensely time consuming, most people that played in those days, like myself, do not have the time nor will anymore to invest vast amounts of time into this game, wake up at odd hours to fight certain NMs, to give some examples.
Apart from that, you think they'd put any resources into making new content for it?

it would work, it would bring back more players, thus more money,

No, it will not.
Do you have any idea how much it costs to set one up?

Hint: It's not just a computer they plop down somewhere, it's a cluster.
And this cluster needs energy and regular maintenance.

Apart from that, you are grosely overestimating the amount of people that would come back for something like this.
An investment like this is not going to pay itself back.

[Yadam]

people would not come back for just 3 months lol, there's plenty of lifers who would continue to play that game for many years. i can see your argument about money though, but i believe enough people would come to the server that it would be worth it, the fact that the game was so time consuming was a GOOD thing, it kept people around for much longer. tons of people quit once the 75 cap got raised.

[Ris]

Preventing their resources from being spread too thin would undoubtedly be the main hurdle. However, if the classic server turned out to be as successful for FFXI as it was for Lineage 2, the financial gain could greatly benefit overall development. Imagine three full servers worth of new and returning players, breathing new life into the game. Hopefully that would justify the resources needed for such an undertaking.

This is a good point. But I have one other question... instead of an entirely different server branch, why can't SE just work in features that appeal to this audience? Why does it have to be a whole separate server?

But if it was as successful as that example so it's a net gain all around, I would be happy for the game. I guess I'm just skeptical it would bring in that many players...^^; But if SE does their market research and think it's ok...

[Natasha]

This is a good point. But I have one other question... instead of an entirely different server branch, why can't SE just work in features that appeal to this audience? Why does it have to be a whole separate server?

But if it was as successful as that example so it's a net gain all around, I would be happy for the game. I guess I'm just skeptical it would bring in that many players...^^; But if SE does their market research and think it's ok...

There are two problems with this, the first being that FFXI is already so different from how it was that the changes would have to be drastic and go against a lot of what was added to work. Problem two is that doing so is actually hurting the people who like FFXI as it is now. Offering a classic server does no harm to players who like the current version and gives players who want it a place to go, best of both worlds.

snip

First, thanks for taking a more pleasant tone for discussion. Though I still believe you are making a lot of assumptions of your own. While classic does require a larger player base than the current version of the game I think it can be managed. There are about 13 servers going at the moment for the game, assuming that all of them have roughly the same population (they don't but this is just a hypothetical) asura has about thousand people on when I do a /sea all, lets say 10% of that want to play classic (that right there puts you at a /sea all of 1300) and then factoring returning players I would say you'd have probably a low of 1500 (could be a lot higher, Im trying to remain conservative but optimistic in my estimation). Now, thats not quite pre-abyssea population levels but its good enough to give it a try IMO (note thats players active at any given time, not total players active on the server). And for the record, while it is known that population was slightly in decline at some point after wings of the goddess it was not "tried and failed" the game was growing and growing up until not long before that and hit its highs in the ToAU expansion so no, its original form was pretty popular just not so much the perceived stagnation with wings and the following addons. Also it bears noting that abyssea caused the mass exodus of a lot of players like me, other types of players liked the changes so you might not have noticed it but at the time there was a large outcry and a number of big linkshells dissolved as a result.

In the end, I just want to say that as long as it is separate from your experience and IF the devs can accomplish it why are you against it? (and before we go there again, how do YOU know with certainty the devs cant do it? just let them speak for themselves if they will)

Also, I don't know too much about lineage and if its an apple or an orange but everquest was really quite like ffxi and was around even longer than ffxi (ffxi drew a lot of inspiration from it) and it worked there so, thats a more apples to apples comparison for you.

snip

I don't know who said it would "save" anything, I certainly didn't and I don't expect this idea to. Also I don't think you understand, classic servers are not supported with new content and in this case we are talking about a single server. Would it need a cluster? I don't know, but the way I see it is ffxi already has servers so this would be maintained along with those and likely hosted in the same location. FFXI as is could probably due with a server merge and that would be the best time to do this, merge a few active servers and switch a now unused server over to supporting this. While you assume the tasks to be monumental in size I see it as being appropriate and supporting a larger group than you would think.