Would a FFXI kickstarter be considered by the developers?

[Castanica]

I keep hearing in interviews and from the AMA, that the main problem XI has is a lack of funds (above and beyond what it makes) for an engine rewrite to move away from consoles and make it a pure PC game. They can't do proper updates because of PS2 dev kits for example, an expensive engine rewrite would be required.

I know the game is profitable but that it doesn't make enough money to warrant such an expensive amount of programming work. Is there any chance the community reps could ask the devs if they would consider an engine rewrite kick-starter or something? There are a lot of players who really love this game and have disposable income to put into a project to fix the issues that currently plague it.

I'm not asking for a graphics overall or a new graphics engine (that would bloat the cost to extremes), just rewriting it as a pc exclusive so that new content can be made away from the ps2 dev kits.

I'm not sure what the main stumbling block is here or how much we are actually talking about but this game still has a fairly large amount of fans that would put money into a kickstarter if it would help the problems the devs currently have that are stopping them making proper new content additions.

There are plenty of low quality mmorpg titles made form sratch on kickstarter that raise millions, I'm sure a game such as this with a very passionate fanbase could equal or better that.

[Spectreman]

I keep hearing in interviews and from the AMA, that the main problem XI has is a lack of funds (above and beyond what it makes) for an engine rewrite to move away from consoles and make it a pure PC game. They can't do proper updates because of PS2 dev kits for example, an expensive engine rewrite would be required.

I know the game is profitable but that it doesn't make enough money to warrant such an expensive amount of programming work. Is there any chance the community reps could ask the devs if they would consider an engine rewrite kick-starter or something? There are a lot of players who really love this game and have disposable income to put into a project to fix the issues that currently plague it.

I'm not asking for a graphics overall or a new graphics engine (that would bloat the cost to extremes), just rewriting it as a pc exclusive so that new content can be made away from the ps2 dev kits.

I'm not sure what the main stumbling block is here or how much we are actually talking about but this game still has a fairly large amount of fans that would put money into a kickstarter if it would help the problems the devs currently have that are stopping them making proper new content additions.

There are plenty of low quality mmorpg titles made form sratch on kickstarter that raise millions, I'm sure a game such as this with a very passionate fanbase could equal or better that.

Yea lets do it like Star Citizen and give all the best items in the future to players who donate more! Lets make this game a true P2W model!!

Castanica, it seems that you have too much money in your pockets, why not just sign a check with millions of dollars on it, that im sure you have it, and send it to SE? Problem solved!!!

[Castanica]

Yea lets do it like Star Citizen and give all the best items in the future to players who donate more! Lets make this game a true P2W model!!

Castanica, it seems that you have too much money in your pockets, why not just sign a check with millions of dollars on it, that im sure you have it, and send it to SE? Problem solved!!!

Where did I say any of that? Please read the posts you reply to. Nowhere did I say anyone had to do this or that they would get anything out of it over those who don't.

[Raydeus]

They won't do this for many reasons.

Sad but true.



PS > I'd go into detail about what stuff I'd like to see if this ever happened, but there is a very high chance I'm going to suspend my sub for a while unless something really interesting happens in the next update.

Lately I just don't feel like playing the game anymore.

[Castanica]

Sad but true.



PS > I'd go into detail about what stuff I'd like to see if this ever happened, but there is a very high chance I'm going to suspend my sub for a while unless something really interesting happens in the next update.

Lately I just don't feel like playing the game anymore.

As I mentioned this isn't talking about a graphic update, this is an engine update so that they can make updates again. Right now the game engine is based on ps2 tech which is why they can't update it anymore. The basic game would look the same.

[Sirmarki]

Sad but true.

(Referring to Graphics)..

I still think the graphics in the game, despite the age of it, are more than viable. To rework all the landscapes, models and animation would be an insane amount of work.

It does seem that the code is the limitation. It seems that SE are limited on what they can do at the moment, and can only work with what it allows them to work with.

[Zeldar]

Yea lets do it like Star Citizen and give all the best items in the future to players who donate more! Lets make this game a true P2W model!!

Castanica, it seems that you have too much money in your pockets, why not just sign a check with millions of dollars on it, that im sure you have it, and send it to SE? Problem solved!!!

Obviously you don't know how it works. I don't see anywhere where Castanica suggested that you would be REQUIRED to donate anything towards this. It also wasn't suggested that anyone get preferrential treatment for donations, though a nice cosmetic item would be a nice gesture. And if Castanica DOES have millions and donates it to SE, I'd hope you'd show a lot more gratitude !

[Zeldar]

I'm not so sure Stompa... look at the age of those programmers.....in their what, 40's or 50's? They are still around, and while they may be working on other projects, I'm sure they could be persuaded to join the team, even if its just for a 1-time project. The graphics are fine to me, but I would love to see an end to PS2 limitations when it comes to adding new content.

[Seiowan]

More money isn't always the solution. It's time, staff and resources that will be the deciding factor.

[Castanica]

More money isn't always the solution. It's time, staff and resources that will be the deciding factor.

It's mainly been money. If you read and watch the interviews they have given over the years, the only reason they decided to go ahead with XIV was because XI was limited to the PS2 written engine, the ps2 dev kits were a serious limiting factor. Re-writing the XI engine for PC would cost as much as making a new game so they decided to make a new game instead. They thought they could just make a new one and we would all migrate over happily, didn't work out in the same way it didn't with Lineage 1 and 2.

Most of the developers we have working on XI right now aren't really developers as you would think of them on other games, they are content creators using development engines that the first dev team made for them to make content in. That's why they are limited in what they can make for us now, best case scenario is the base engine is converted away from ps2 and they get new development suites to make content in. Sadly that will probably never happen, once the ps2 dev kits conk out there won't be anymore content at all.