Classic server, what's the argument against it now?

[bungiefanNA]

He said he dind't want to have to pay the money for a new character, while keeping his current one.

[Hellkat]

With how many years it has been, how many of those old players still have the same email account? How many would notice if it got stuck in their spam filter? SE is horrible at advertising their online games outside Japan.

I got the return to Vana'diel campaign e-mail ok. It's why I came back to try it.

[Prrsha]

Great post, and I agree with you on many things.

I really liked a lot of things about the original game, it was more challenging and dangerous, and it felt like a real life/death perilous adventure.

I'm enjoying FFXI in 2015 a lot too, obviously it is easier and has a lot of QOL things that cut down on legwork, which is nice. I'm enjoying being able to build RME which was almost impossible for me under the old system.

I actually spoke to some of my Facebook friends about this today, theres around twenty of them who are former FFXI players, who played hard from 2004~2011 and then quit for different reasons. We talked about a retro server and 8 of them said they would re-subscribe to play a 2008 Server, they specified that campaign battles must be included.

So on that casual tiny poll, we got an 8/20 people would re-sub just for the Retro Server.

I'm all for it too, but I would keep my current main character on this 2015 server, and start a new character on the Retro Server. Who knows, I might end up deleting my main and going Full Retro, lol.

Do I think SE will make one? No.

Thank you for your kind comment. I think the problem with most people against the idea (those who say people wouldn't return) is that many of those people (perhaps?) don't keep in touch with their former friends who left in that era? I am just amazed at how many quit the game over the changes... not amazed at the reason, just at the number. One could only guess the total number that "silent majority/minority" is but it wouldn't help SE to at least test the waters with an e-mail poll.

Like Hellkat posted above, I got a return to Vanadiel for a week free notice. Funny how I got one though as my account is active. I saw 2 old LS members join the campaign over this week. They said they got the e-mail too. My filter didn't see it as junk (I use Hotmail).

As for your comment, I have to agree. SE will most likely not make a classic server if they don't poll the public. It has been the trend in other MMORPGs to poll the old playerbase that left, if they are interested in one. If SE sees dollar signs by the response, it will go over well I'd imagine and they'd work toward one. One also must remember that SE's age old system of advertising the game via word of mouth in saaay 2004, is a lot different now. Now we have facebook and player rings that can quickly spread information to large groups of people in a small amount of time. Word of mouth spreads much faster now...

[Prrsha]

Level Sync was an early method to address this disparity of levels between friends, but is not really needed much anymore since Trust came out on top of all the other changes.

This... the trusts. While I agree it is a nice system for those who are alone and choose to play alone, it is just another example how the QoL effects the old game mechanics. Why find a friend and duo or trio or even form a party when you can just summon expendable NPCs that you don't even need to really level?

It makes finding people who wish to play old style who are new to the game when they have an easy button stamped on older content. It is very hard to find people willing (currently) to do old content the old way when they first don't have the tools (self level cap) and don't have the numbers (all the players who left due to the changes away from a party leveling system). A server to gather all of those people in one area would massively help the effort and bring back players who wouldn't play currently otherwise, if they had an option for this.

This server would in no way effect other players who wanted to play the current playstyle as those servers would continue to exist (like they do in other MMORPGs). If the server gives SE money to help the current servers, that means more dev money for everyone. I just hope they don't toss it and use it to finance other games like 14. I don't mind 14, I just don't like the practice of milking a game of its money, neglecting it and tossing potential content to other games (and expecting you to pay the same fee while you are at it).

[bazookatooth]

He said he dind't want to have to pay the money for a new character, while keeping his current one.

He can always stop paying for his old character and not play it. If he moves to a classic server, he'll have to make the same decision anyways. Let's be real here though. It's only $1 a month for another character. He doesn't have to make a whole separate account.

This... the trusts. While I agree it is a nice system for those who are alone and choose to play alone, it is just another example how the QoL effects the old game mechanics. Why find a friend and duo or trio or even form a party when you can just summon expendable NPCs that you don't even need to really level?

It makes finding people who wish to play old style who are new to the game when they have an easy button stamped on older content. It is very hard to find people willing (currently) to do old content the old way when they first don't have the tools (self level cap) and don't have the numbers (all the players who left due to the changes away from a party leveling system). A server to gather all of those people in one area would massively help the effort and bring back players who wouldn't play currently otherwise, if they had an option for this.

This server would in no way effect other players who wanted to play the current playstyle as those servers would continue to exist (like they do in other MMORPGs). If the server gives SE money to help the current servers, that means more dev money for everyone. I just hope they don't toss it and use it to finance other games like 14. I don't mind 14, I just don't like the practice of milking a game of its money, neglecting it and tossing potential content to other games (and expecting you to pay the same fee while you are at it).

You could just invite everyone who wants to play like you to one server now instead of waiting for a new server that probably won't come.

[Prrsha]

You could just invite everyone who wants to play like you to one server now instead of waiting for a new server that probably won't come.

Read my above post on why that is not possible. The #1 reason is that most if not all of the people I know have jobs waaay past the CoP era level cap. Because of that, we cannot level synch down to the correct level. If they added a command like /synch Prrsha 30, I could become level 30 and do older content like the beginning CoP with others, as it stands now, no such system exists.

Once again, read my above posts before replying to them, thank you.

[Alhanelem]

If they added a command like /synch Prrsha 30, I could become level 30 and do older content like the beginning CoP with others, as it stands now, no such system exists.

I still don't see the value in this because
1) Most of us have already completed content like CoP etc. If you want to do those things again you'd have to start a new character anyway, because you can't uncomplete your progress. If you're helping someone else who's just doing it for the first time, you can sync to their level. Otherwise, why would you want to do it again?
2) Doing old content again isn't the same as when you did it the first time. It just isn't, whether you're at the level it was originally created for or not. It's the social experiences that made the first time what it was, and nothing can bring that back. E.g. I've done every avatar fight multiple times for all the rewards. They were all fun the first couple times. But by the time I was done, it was becoming a tiresome task. I know few people who can repeat the same thing more times than that and still find it fun.
3)I'm unable to understand what the difference is between killing things at level X vs killing things at level Y as long as the targets are appropriate for whatever level you are. People who don't want to grow more powerful over time are a tiny minority. The sense of progression is what keeps people playing an MMO. Fighting that sense, well, it just doesn't make sense.
4) I mentioned this before but it bears repeating, if you really want to do old content, just start a new character. The only valid argument I can find against this is "I don't want to pay the extra fee." If you don't want to do it because you wouldn't have all those convenience features unlocked, then congratulations, you're a poor candidate to gain enjoyment out of a classic server or an arbitrary level setting feature in the first place. A classic server wouldn't have those QOL features, and it would take work the devs can't or won't put in to combine old game with new QOL features.

A server to gather all of those people in one area would massively help the effort and bring back players who wouldn't play currently otherwise, if they had an option for this.

If this actually happened, it would potentially destroy the game for people who enjoy it the way it is. The population is too small, not enough players would come back / new players come in to sustain both. Most of the population on the server would be current player transfers. But this is a waste of time, just repeating everything that's already been said.

Then there's the problem of the content never changing. People will get bored and quit eventually. This obviously will happen whether such a server/feature is implemented or not.

Short of SE handing a license to the community to keep the game alive (Which I'm not sure how we'd do it because I'm sure no member of the community has a working ps2 dev kit), the future of the game, classic server or no, is locked in.

And you know what else is locked in? Everyone's opinions on this issue. I don't know why this thread goes on when everyone's essentially made their mind up. Nobody is convincing anyone of anything. In fact as I write this last sentence, I almost don't know why I bothered to post. It will probably be my last because I don't know how much longer my forum account will remain active. Everyone needs to step back and take a deep breath; everyone also needs to realize that this simply isn't going to happen, whether everyone wants it or not.

[bungiefanNA]

I do actually know some PS2 FFXI players with PS2 dev kits, that post to a forum on the dealing in developing homebrew software for the PSX (PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4) Scene. They would not have sold them to SquareEnix for any amount of money. There's maybe 10 of them, which is still a puny number of systems to handle gradual hardware failure. Some defunct developers have broken contract and auctioned off their development kits instead of returning them to Sony when they went under, and some individuals have had luck in obtaining some of those units, primarily in Europe.

However, it is unlikely that SE would give out their development software/tools/code to individuals like that, when it's in their interest to protect their IP for future profit.

[Zarchery]

And you know what else is locked in? Everyone's opinions on this issue. I don't know why this thread goes on when everyone's essentially made their mind up. Nobody is convincing anyone of anything. In fact as I write this last sentence, I almost don't know why I bothered to post. It will probably be my last because I don't know how much longer my forum account will remain active. Everyone needs to step back and take a deep breath; everyone also needs to realize that this simply isn't going to happen, whether everyone wants it or not.

Discussion of virtually every topic is like this. Anyone with a strong opinion will usually just become more entrenched in their own view when an opponent tries to change it. It's a lot more about swaying undecided third parties. In some cases, such as politics, debate actually becomes more about energizing the people on your side to take action and vote. This American Life did an interesting story about this last month.

[bazookatooth]

Read my above post on why that is not possible. The #1 reason is that most if not all of the people I know have jobs waaay past the CoP era level cap. Because of that, we cannot level synch down to the correct level. If they added a command like /synch Prrsha 30, I could become level 30 and do older content like the beginning CoP with others, as it stands now, no such system exists.

Once again, read my above posts before replying to them, thank you.

So start new characters. That's what you will have to do on a classic server anyways.