Thinking of coming back, is it worth it?!

[CoderJunky]

Hey Guys!
Well I'm an old player here ( extremely old lol ) I've been floating between mmo's these days and just never got the same experience that I got with ffxi. So I'm thinking of coming back. Is the game worth coming back too right now? I hear rumors that they are stopping updates and that the server populations are low, are these true?
At the point of, "Do I pay, or not". Any info guys?
Thanks,
Tom

[Stompa]

Its totally worth it if you enjoyed FFXI in the past.

It is much easier to level jobs now, solo or in small groups. XP-boosting systems are everywhere. You can get NPC Trusts that help you XP, help you in quests/missions/battlefields, so even if your friends are offline, you can still make progress. Trusts are fun if you liked the original FFXI, because you get to form parties with your favourite FFXI storyline Heroes.

It is easier to travel round Vanadiel, using homepoint warps, teleport books etc. It is easier to skill-up weapons and magic, easier to skill up crafting, and it is possible to make money just by killing normal mobs and selling "sparks" or "accolade" items, enough money to keep your game rolling along.

Server populations are certainly low, but will certainly increase during the RoV events that are ongoing during this year.

Linkshells are easy to get now, you can pick them up from NPCs in town, who will let you choose the type of LS you want, and the approximate TimeZone too. Most LS are more friendly than the old days, because they are now trying to hold onto any friendly members they can get. So you should be able to make new friends.

Updates will certainly stop, which doesn't bother me much personally. I've been playing a long time and yet I still have lots of things I want to finish in the old content, some of those things (Empys!) will take me absolutely ages, so new content doesn't bother me much. Also we have had *new content overload* these last few years, so many new things almost every month, so I fell behind on things like Unity and Vagary, which I still want to do in the future.

In summary, if you liked FFXI in the past, you should enjoy returning now, because the game is now much easier to progress in and do the things you were unable to do in the old game. And also if you were away for a long time, there was so much new content added in 2010~2015 to keep you busy for years.

[Alhanelem]

At the very least it's worth it to experience the grand story finale. A lot of grind gets reduced as you progress with it, so if you don't have much time to play you can still enjoy it.

[CoderJunky]

Thanks for the advice guys much appreciated! I'll be joining back, what's the most populated server to be in?

[Alhanelem]

I'd just stick to whatever you were on, as people you know might still be playing. You don't need big groups or anything for the main draws of the current updates.

[detlef]

It could be worth it. Some people who come back are pleasantly surprised by all the freedom of being able to get stuff done solo and the many, many sweet QoL improvements. But then, others are turned off by the low populations and by the fact that maybe things are a bit too easy and less meaningful. Your mileage may vary but I think the experience is enjoyable and refreshing.

[Seillan]

I'd recommend Asura personally, but then I'm obviously a little biased. It seems relatively bustling compared to how I hear some other servers are fairing these days, and I never really get a sense of the population being all that low when I'm running around various areas. There's also the reddit linkshell (which just opened a new overflow shell because the first is constantly capped) that you could look into if you're hoping to get involved in the community fairly quickly. It's pretty much a haven of sorts for new/returning players.

[Alhanelem]

It could be worth it. Some people who come back are pleasantly surprised by all the freedom of being able to get stuff done solo and the many, many sweet QoL improvements. But then, others are turned off by the low populations and by the fact that maybe things are a bit too easy and less meaningful. Your mileage may vary but I think the experience is enjoyable and refreshing.

If you're turned off by low population, well, every server has a lower population than it used to, its only a matter of how much. No current server has the pop to support regular group finding etc which is why we have the Trust system- to effectively reduce the amount of content people need to find groups for so when it comes to content that DOES need a group, there are enough people seeking it.

Further, bailing your low pop server for a slightly less low pop server only deteriorates the experience of the players on that server. It's better for everyone if the population is more evenly distributed (Of course, it would be even better if they did a merge to increase the average population per server... but then again, now that everyone can use 4 trusts, a higher pop could cause server load problems)

[Cyleena]

Hey Guys!
Well I'm an old player here ( extremely old lol ) I've been floating between mmo's these days and just never got the same experience that I got with ffxi. So I'm thinking of coming back. Is the game worth coming back too right now? I hear rumors that they are stopping updates and that the server populations are low, are these true?
At the point of, "Do I pay, or not". Any info guys?
Thanks,
Tom

The game has totally changed since when you probably were last on it. You might feel overwhelmed at first by all the changes but if you can get with a group of people that like to do stuff and get stuff done then it is worth coming back. If you can't then there is trust npcs you can get now to help solo if you struggle to get help on some things (you will still need to find groups for some of the harder content like Vagary when you are ready to do it). I would say read up on the forums including bg wiki, etc so you can know what to expect. Like Stompa mentioned you can get social linkshells pretty easy now by getting them from npcs. Most server populations are low atm but Bahamut (I believe), Odin, and Asura have a decent population still. The game is going to stop major updates after November but will still do maintenance updates for bugs etc after that. Regardless of your decision I wish you the best in your real life and ffxi adventures.