New expansion?!?

[Zeargi]

Lately, I feel like SE has been more hush-hush on the update info. Which is usually a tell-tell sign of two things: Working on other important projects or Unsure of the direction to take things to maintain a happy user base.

[Seillan]

Thats your personal oppinion, and like mine, neither is right nor wrong.

I just find it annoying that i have to go do 12 year old artifcat quest, or expansion story lines to get relevant end game items for today. To me, its obnoxious to have to get mission rank 6, then finish cop, just to upgrade AF gear from 12 years ago into something for today. Thats a lot of back tracking for new people and makes it way less approachable.

You just described many of the reasons I prefer FFXI over just about any other MMORPG I've played in the last 10 years. It suits a niche that many of us aren't able to find anywhere else. If you want an online rpg that plays like "most of the others" then play one of the others. I like the "backtracking" and god forbid, having to go through those dreaded storylines! The nerve of an online rpg trying to tell an interesting story

[Alhanelem]

I doubt it. The way Adoulin screwed up the game way more than even Abyssea, it seems extremely unlikely they'd dedicate that kind of time an money to the few people still playing.

The game is a lot better, not a lot worse, since audolin. It like... almost made up for abyssea. Almost. The reason abyssea broke the game was it made everyone feel powerful... but only while you're in it. Then any new content they came out with that wasn't abyssea wasn't nearly as compelling because it couldn't live up to abyssea with its power mechanics. The expansion is the first thing since abyssea to bring you a feeling of power outside of Abyssea. In other words, it was the first thing to come out that could compete with it, and offers a wider range of things to do.

They can do more expansions til the ps2 runs out of disk space again; after that they can't really do anything without dropping ps2 support everywhere.

the way i see it, they just had a very small update this month. if we see another small update next month then that puts the probability that they are working on another expansion pretty high.

Update was more minor than usual because of the holiday season. Next update will be more significant.

or expansion story lines to get relevant end game items for today.

You're annoyed that you have to do current relevant content to get relevant items? What?

I agree that the rather extensive amount of content that is needed to progress can be off putting, but at the same time it's also one of the game's strengths. I don't know how they can address this without really blunting the experience.

[Catmato]

This game is a lot better since Adoulin came out.

The game is a lot better, not a lot worse, since audolin.

It seems your opinion isn't shared by everyone. Plummeting server populations seem to show that. If Adoulin made the game so much better, where are the players?

If SE wants any new expansion to succeed, they have to do a hell of a lot better from the start than they did with Adoulin. I don't know anyone who stuck around after coming back for the start of Adoulin.

[Ageofwar]

Lately, I feel like SE has been more hush-hush on the update info. Which is usually a tell-tell sign of two things: Working on other important projects or Unsure of the direction to take things to maintain a happy user base.

i've been rather disappointed with recent updates to FFXI, so much so that i can't will myself to login

I believe it more a case that SE have more important projects on its books like FFXIV - Heavensward

[bungiefanNA]

They can do more expansions til the ps2 runs out of disk space again; after that they can't really do anything without dropping ps2 support everywhere.

Pulling the data from the PS2 partiton, FFXI is still under 10 GB on PS2. The extra partition size is for room for duplicating files while patching, until the new copy replaces the old one at the end of the patching process. They're nowhere near using the full 40 GB on the drive.

[Bluestar2kx]

THe problem is the general populous isnt able to 'let it go'. Thats why there is reforged AF/RELIC armor, R/E/M weapons. This is the only mmo i have ever played that keeps the same gear you got 12 years ago relevant for the sake of 'but i spent so much time back then getting it why shouldnt it be relevant today'.

Seriously, every other mmo works on the system that each expansion works like this:
Current level / i level (99 / 119)
Group gear is i 109/ raid gear is 119

Expansion rolls around, new level/ilevel (105/i125)
New group gear = 117, new raid gear = 125 (*note that new group gear is comparable to old raid gear, but not as good, but better than old group gear).

They tried to not upgrade old gear into ilevel gear, and people flipped a shizlle when their R/M/E wasnt the best weapon anymore. Now if there was an ergon for every job and that was the new i level version of an end game weapon, i think it would be more in line with every other mmo.


The ffxi model is:
increase ilevel, add new trials to old equipment! Keep using that 5 year old bp with new trials!

So basically, every other MMO, a new gear update comes out, you toss the old stuff after getting the new stuff. So nothing is really valuable at all?
Maybe thats why FFXI has survived, and on a sub model at that, when few others can but the almighty (crappy and stale?) wow.

FFXI makes you feel like getting that gear, however old the original was, was actually worth something, that it was an accomplishment, which is why so many got into FFXI I'd wager, because getting somewhere made you feel like you really actually DID get somewhere.

I still treasure my kikoku long after I got it, even though I moved to a different character, because that was a major accomplishment for me. Sure some have multiple relic weapons, but for me, just having that one, is worth more then all of them. I imagine other people feel the same way about a lot of things they have.

So naturally, players will have a cow when that work is trashed for no reason (other mmo models), when that isn't how FFXI works.
And personally, I'm quite happy with FFXI's model, I really like it, and I hope they continue on the same path.

[Roja323]

Survived is a very loose term... Sorry if basing things off popular MMO that have 2-3x the active player base is frowned upon, but thats what they did with ff14 and it has worked okay so far.

Like i said its my oppinion vs your oppinion, but in the end its both oppinions.

Abyssea killed ffxi
No it didnt
Adoulin killed ffxi
No it didnt
etc etc

FFXI has been slowly decreasing for years, and no one things put a nail in its coffin, but the fact that the devs are coppying from other more successful mmo should indicate that they have an idea of what needs to be done.

[Bluestar2kx]

Survived in this case is a very direct term, not a loose one.
As I said, FFXI has done it with a sub model the entire life of it, which little likelihood of that changing.

The only other old school MMO to make out better then FFXI on a sub model is WoW.
Everyone else either died, or went F2P to break even or make a profit (Hell even Elder scrolls online is going that route now). So while the population has declined over the years, it's still one of the few that can actually be called successful, I'd sooner borrow ideas from FFXI, then almost every other game, even if they have more people now then the borrowing game does. (they only have those subs because it's f2p, we both know that.)

So borrowing from other MMO's in the way you suggested, is not the way FFXI should be, if dev's felt differently, it wouldn't be here. To add to that, while ideas are fine and dandy, I wouldn't say taking ideas from games that had to go F2P just to stay online makes them a great target for borrowing from, even if their population is higher, it's done using a flawed and quite honestly, a model that milks the consumer. That's why they're still dying.

What makes FFXI unique, is part of it's model, and that's why it's still going. Take that away, and you get what we saw: people will leave.
So while "opinions are opinions, and neither right or wrong inherently", there's plenty of basis in fact to say which applies to FFXI.

But I will give you credit, FFXIV is quite popular, and maybe one of the only games I'd trust "ideas" coming from to XI, as long as it doesn't get as stupidly easy and boring as it.
We just have to see if it can keep the strength in the way so many others couldn't.

[Zeargi]

Survived is a very loose term... Sorry if basing things off popular MMO that have 2-3x the active player base is frowned upon, but thats what they did with ff14 and it has worked okay so far.

Like i said its my oppinion vs your oppinion, but in the end its both oppinions.

Abyssea killed ffxi
No it didnt
Adoulin killed ffxi
No it didnt
etc etc

FFXI has been slowly decreasing for years, and no one things put a nail in its coffin, but the fact that the devs are coppying from other more successful mmo should indicate that they have an idea of what needs to be done.

Well, the other thing that is holding the game back some is it's lack of marketability. I love my PS2, It's where I started, and I moved on to the Xbox 360, because I had friends that played the game and it was usually a good thing, minus the freezing here and there. But the PC players have a digital download for this, which in today's society seems to be a must. I, personally, enjoy have a physical copy of something, I like the box art. But without the ability to reach a multitude of people, there's not a huge growth in population. And people may argue with this statement, I feel that console gamers tend to out number PC gamers. So if Sony and Microsoft would allow for a joint experience like we have now on the PS4 and XBone, the digital marketing would help get people into the game, and with the new gen systems, we could possibly see changes that are currently just not doable. But then again, that's just a pipe dream and an endeavor like that would take A LOT of money, and I'm not sure SE is willing to put that much money back into a 12 yr old game.