Square-enix, I beg you.

[HealingWind93]

I beg you as a loyal fan of Final Fantasy XI and Square-enix in general. Please drop PS2 so we can move on and bring the game back to the greatness it once was. I see little hints here and there but you tell us nothing. People are losing faith in the game and I see my friends slowly but surely disappear from the game. It makes me sad to see my first and favorite MMO that I have spent so much of my time on reduced to this. I have noticed things like:\

* Playability enhancements (The FINAL FANTASY XI roadmap for the twelve-month period commencing April 2011)

* Survey: Which Game Client Do You Use? (08/31/2011) (Playonline.com)

And the phasing out of the POL service little by little.

Please Square-enix, if you have anything planed at least let us know or give us some kind of hint. So we can have hope for the future of Vana 'diel.

[Mirage]

Deading a beat horse.

[Laraul]

THey are NOT going to rebuild the game engine...

[HealingWind93]

THey are NOT going to rebuild the game engine...

Oh, I know that. This game has terrible coding. I just wish they would drop ps2 so the can add new content like an new expansion or something. The PS2 HDD has been an issue for so long and if they dropped it then they could add some "New" stuff and not just changes to old content.

[Godofgods]

oh yes. please drop your loyal paying ps2 costumers to make a few ppl happier. Just ditch em'

[Lumiya]

Dear SE, please ignore this thread, for some us actually do still play FFXI on the PS2, like myself. I understand your issue HealingWind93, but I honestly think dropping some of their customers for the sake of a few would be a bad thing. If you and your friends are wanting to quit the game or go find a new game simply due to a lack of expansions, why should loyal PS2 customers who plan to stay and play regardless of additional content suffer for it?

We're talking about a game over a decade old now, that has been repeatedly talked about just being cycled out, and that HAS slowly been condensing and has shown obvious signs of mellowing. This is not the time to try and drop PS2 support. What's left of the fan base are people who have mostly been playing for years, and the game is not and hasn't been trying to really bring in a new crowd. I could understand if this game was still in the early years, but it is quite far from that.

I suggest if you want new content that bad to try out FFXIV, a lot of effort is being put into that game and it isn't as limited due to only having a PC release as it stands and a PS3 release that is constantly pushed back. SE has given you an option to play a FF MMO without having to 'suffer' us PS2 users, so I would appreciate it if you don't try to prevent myself and others from being able to play a game we enjoy.

[Karbuncle]

oh yes. please drop your loyal paying ps2 costumers to make a few ppl happier. Just ditch em'

They don't care about you. They care about your money. that said, You could probably get a free computer on craigslist that runs FFXI better than PS2.

also I'd like to say....

i strongly doubt SE with drop PS2 Support, because this game is their income to revive Fu**ing Failure XIV, Which FYI, Will never happen. Name me one game that was thusly the most disappointingly terrible game of the year and had such horrific press, that somehow managed to come back from that and be a successful game? theres none, its a waste of time. Like 10 people care about that game anymore, and half of them only care because its currently free. Anyway, They wont drop PS2 Support because its just more money they'd lose.

Its just unrealistic from a companies perspective to drop that many people, not because they care about their "Loyal Customers" (They dont, you're nobody to them, nothing but a number), But simply because It would cut into their bottom line.

also


Deading a beat horse.

and just for emphases, PS2 Players, I hate you, Not because you're "Holding back XI", Cause i don't think you are. the game is nearly 10 years old, I really don't care about graphical overhauls at this point, and pretty much the only thing "PS2 Limitations" actually do is stop our inventory from going above 80, but thankfully theres a loopwhole in that.

No, its because theres only maybe 1-2 excuses that can justify your incomprehensible need to play on such a terrible outdated system. there is not a single positive element to it. nothing. If you can afford 12.95+ a month for nearly 7 Years, you can afford to buy the game for the PC or Xbox360. If you don't own a PC? Tell me what third world country you live in and i"ll mail you one.

I can understand some people are in tough financial situations, thats the excuse i can relate too and accept.

But if we're honest for a moment, half of you still play on PS2 cause you're too lazy or cheap to buy the PC version, or worse, have some stupid PS2 Pride BS because you think it makes you cool to defend that dinosaur, and that's just plain dumb. If you're going to blow 12.95+ A month on a game, you may as well be able to actually see what your playing in a higher resolution than 8-bit, and a better FPS rating so you can actually do something in it when more than 3 people on are on your screen.

Even if its "I like the controller" (Which is clumsy and slow), Theres like a multitude of things you can do to hook up a controller to your PC and play with that, and on the PC, and since your FPS would be higher than 4, you could actually do things with it reliably.

So basically you're robbing yourself of experiencing FFXI as it was meant to be played, above 3 frames per second with higher graphical resolution than a Gameboy Color.

PS2 Was pretty much just a gimic to make FFXI a "Console MMO" and hopefully drive sales anyway. Xbox360 as well, but that was more of an afterthought me thinks

Anyway, PS2 Rant off. You guys go back to playing your game. and try to enjoy yourselves. I know how difficult it can be running through port jeuno with 1 frame per second and everything looking like Minecraft

Now, I'll sit here quietly awaiting the fevered responses of angry PS2 Players attempting to explain to me their reasoning for using it. You know you want too, You cannot resist the urge.

[Lumiya]

You're right, I can't resist the urge. ; ; I've played on PS2/PS3/Xbox360/PC before. I enjoy PS2 version the most. That is all there is to it.

[Psxpert2011]

Processing power can't be upgraded for PS2 but I know how to upgrade MY HDD, I still have the HDD software from stock purchase and the hardware can be formated to perform just nicely. 250 GB and 10000 RPMs anyone? ^^b

[Frost]

PS2 = Horse & Carriage on the freeway...

[FrankReynolds]

oh yes. please drop your loyal paying ps2 costumers to make a few ppl happier. Just ditch em'

We're talking about a company who can't be bothered to hire even 1 guy in their Japanese support center who speaks anything besides Japanese, and has thereby screwed all the people who bought the game before NA release. They don't care. Hell, they may even hate you.

[Godofgods]

PS2 = Horse & Carriage on the freeway...

It wont be long till your saying the same thign about xbox 360. Hell even pong was once considered the greatest game in the world!

[Arcon]

It wont be long till your saying the same thign about xbox 360.

The game's evolution doesn't have that much planned, at all. The Xbox can easily store twice the game, both in disk space as well as RAM. That will do for at least 10 more years of FFXI. By which time it will be perfectly legit to complain about the 360 as well.

[Dsherman]

The PS2 HDD is no where near full when the only thing on it is FFXI. The HDD is made with 40Gig of capacity. It probably has 37 or 38Gig of free space available right after a reformat with NOTHING installed.

And with a full copy of FFXI installed, it still has WELL OVER HALF of that free space still available. Like 24gig of free space on my PS2.

The problem is that FFXI apparently has to be confined to an allocated block of space that is only 8 gig in size. And that 8 gig block is what got full for some customers last December due to an error made by someone at SE in the preliminary update that was made available on November 30, 2010 to prepare for the main update on December 6, 2010.

There was no server downtime on November 30. Anyone that just left themselves connected to the game over the entire span from November 30 to December 6, as well as anyone that never made an attempt to start the game in that time frame did not get the November 30 update.

It is my belief that anyone that did not get the November 30 update before the December 6 update did not have a problem with the December 6 update. Anyone who did get that November 30 update had a problem with HDD being reported full when they attempted to do the December 6 update. For people that got this error, the only way to get rid of the error that had been downloaded in that November 30 update was a clean install of the entire game.

I do believe there is still plenty of space available in that 8gig block of space for new things. Plus they changed the download process a bit so that there is even more room for new things to download successfully.

I believe there is a separate block of space on the HDD for the PlayOnline Viewer (and also for Tetra Master). If you use the PS2 Browser function to delete any of those things on the page used to start the PlayOnline Viewer from the HDD, you are deleting that block of space. That way the PS2 itself does not need to track any other files used for FFXI. They are all stored in that block.

I also believe that SE can not just simply increase the maximum size of that block without help from Sony. And Sony may not be willing to do it any more since the PS2 is nearing the end of its life as far as Sony is concerned. And even worse, Sony hasn't made a unit that could install and run FFXI on HDD in over 4 years. (the last PS3 with PS2 backward compatibility)

Even so, I am still under the impression that there is still quite enough space in that 8gig for SE to add expansion data and so on if they wanted to. But with the PS2 nearing the end of its life as far as Sony is concerned, issuing a new title for PS2 (an expansion disc) is probably being blocked or very strongly discouraged by Sony.

It's probably more the lack of support from Sony for a new title (an expansion disc) than it is the lack of support from Sony to make that 8gig block bigger that keeps SE from doing a full expansion. However, they can do it with downloads of add-on data such as they did with the Abyssea areas.

I really do believe that FFXIV is the path that SE chose to satisfy the demands to get rid of PS2 limitations. It would take enough work to almost write an entirely new game to re-make FFXI without all those limitations done for the PS2 on just about everything on the servers. And that is what FFXIV is... an entirely new game.

Yes, they blew it badly on the initial release of FFXIV, but they are trying to fix it to make a really terrific game for everyone without all those limits that are all over the place in FFXI because of FFXI being written for the PS2. Dropping support for the PS2 will not remove those limits. But it would remove a noticeable count of customers from the game (mostly Japanese, but there are others). So I can't say I blame them for going this course with FFXIV.

[Lumiya]

Thank you Dsherman, extremely well put and to the best of my knowledge accurate as well. You do PS2 players a great service.

[Ritsuka]

I've tryed honestly to update my ps2's hard drive but i dontk now how too. Please let us know how cuz everything you place a HDD that isnt from sony the ps2 doesnt see it. So how do you make a ps2 see another hard drive that isnt form sony? I know the HD loader see's other hard drives and I've used it but you put in the disk that suppose to format the hard drive it says there's no hdd. Sony did something so the ps2 wouldnt use any hard drive gotta use there's So its not SE's fault its sony's realy.

[Glacont]

Dear SE, please ignore this thread, for some us actually do still play FFXI on the PS2, like myself. I understand your issue HealingWind93, but I honestly think dropping some of their customers for the sake of a few would be a bad thing. If you and your friends are wanting to quit the game or go find a new game simply due to a lack of expansions, why should loyal PS2 customers who plan to stay and play regardless of additional content suffer for it?

We're talking about a game over a decade old now, that has been repeatedly talked about just being cycled out, and that HAS slowly been condensing and has shown obvious signs of mellowing. This is not the time to try and drop PS2 support. What's left of the fan base are people who have mostly been playing for years, and the game is not and hasn't been trying to really bring in a new crowd. I could understand if this game was still in the early years, but it is quite far from that.

I suggest if you want new content that bad to try out FFXIV, a lot of effort is being put into that game and it isn't as limited due to only having a PC release as it stands and a PS3 release that is constantly pushed back. SE has given you an option to play a FF MMO without having to 'suffer' us PS2 users, so I would appreciate it if you don't try to prevent myself and others from being able to play a game we enjoy.

You are so On Point. Thank You

[Arcon]

You are so On Point. Thank You

On point of his own opinion? Kudos to them. I still disagree, and so do most people on here.

[Spiritreaver]

Oh, I know that. This game has terrible coding. I just wish they would drop ps2 so the can add new content like an new expansion or something. The PS2 HDD has been an issue for so long and if they dropped it then they could add some "New" stuff and not just changes to old content.

From a pretty logical standpoint(and with the knowledge that i have FFXI on 3 platforms), i have a question and maybe can you answer it for me OP: What effect would dropping PS2 support actually have?

I just been meaning to ask this question again for a while now and you get the duty of answering.

From what i remember of FFXI's history, the game was originally coded for both PS2 and PC with PS2 getting the game first. So even if the PS2 was dropped, wouldn't SE essentially have to rewrite a bunch of code for anything to actually change? Just wondering here.

I mean do you really think that right now SE would even consider essentially remaking XI while they are still pulling an Ahab chasing a way to salvage XIV?

[Glacont]

On point of his own opinion? Kudos to them. I still disagree, and so do most people on here.

Does not matter if you're against. The situation that we're in, PS2 Gamers still playing, remains unchange. No need to reply. Our conversation is closed.

[Atomic_Skull]

THey are NOT going to rebuild the game engine...


So I guess that mean FFXI will start to die around late 2012 when Windows 8 starts shipping standard on new PCs (word is that Windows 8 has dropped DirectX 8 emulation)

No DirectX 8, no FFXI.


Processing power can't be upgraded for PS2 but I know how to upgrade MY HDD, I still have the HDD software from stock purchase and the hardware can be formated to perform just nicely. 250 GB and 10000 RPMs anyone? ^^b

Doesn't matter because the DNAS servers are frozen and only maintained for legacy purposes at this point, which means Sony won't accept an application to increase FFXI's hard driver partition size. Basically they are just running in a closet somewhere with minimal maintenance.

[Arcon]

From a pretty logical standpoint(and with the knowledge that i have FFXI on 3 platforms), i have a question and maybe can you answer it for me OP: What effect would dropping PS2 support actually have?

Some things they would have to recode. A graphical overhaul will be necessary for future compatibility (as Atomic_Skull pointed out), but most people don't event want better graphics, they want better gameplay. Inventory space, the notorious example, would require no recode, it would just require changing the upper cap from 80 to, say, 100. And possibly adding a quest for it. Same goes for some UI improvements. Your last point, however, stands, and I don't think they'll do anything for FFXI until they've either fixed the current state of FFXIV or removed it altogether, none of which I think will realistically happen.


Does not matter if you're against. The situation that we're in, PS2 Gamers still playing, remains unchange. No need to reply. Our conversation is closed.

Good, then you won't talk back anymore. PS2 gamers are playing (allegedly) but they shouldn't. That's the point.

[Yarly]

Dropping PS2 support means having to rewrite the engine? Only stupid people will think that!
The transformation is going to be MAGICAL!1!11

[Morier]

Ya SE get rid of the ps2 so the game can return to it's glory days when ....it was....on the ps2... hmmm.

[Glacont]

(Allegedlly) is the wrong word. [Fact] is correct. Ps2 players do exist on FFXI. Hence the purpose of this thread, and few others whom state thier opinoin on the subject matter. Weather You're fore or against is not important. It won't change what's happening. You can continue to present your opnion, or inject any rude comments, but each day after work I log on and play.
And let's say one day SE does cut Ps2 off, that won't matter either. From 2004 to 2011, I have had a Great Run. I Remain On Top. Now, I only replied because I have time before work. You won't be seeing Me checking the forums to see if "such n' such" replies back. I'll be too busy enjoying My time spent with lsmates.

[Arcon]

(Allegedlly) is the wrong word. [Fact] is correct. Ps2 players do exist on FFXI. Hence the purpose of this thread, and few others whom state thier opinoin on the subject matter. Weather You're fore or against is not important. It won't change what's happening.

Allegedly is just the right word, because I've yet to see anyone play this on the abomination that is the PS2, even if someone else knows better. And I know it won't change, because it's very clear that SE only do what they want and not what players want, they've proven that on many occasions. I just hate if people try to derail threads by bringing up irrelevant information. Like, if someone ignores the fact that this thread is precisely about sacrificing the PS2-onri players, by saying that people still play on the PS2. If people weren't playing on PS2 still, this thread wouldn't even have been started.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

What would SE blame when they don't want to do something if they did this?

[axlzero]

just put the ps2 system users on there own server and have the other servers for more powerful systems like ps3 xbox and pc problem solves if the ps2 users goto a more powerful system they can move to another server for free but since they will be left behind sort of speak people on ps2 server will see better drop rates faster lvling and get certain other perks that the rest of us wont get while they are on there server but expations will not go past zilart, COP, TOA, WOTG, three ad on and will only have abyssea and not viodwatch or some of the other zones basically they will be frozen in time

[Spiritreaver]

just put the ps2 system users on there own server and have the other servers for more powerful systems like ps3 xbox and pc problem solves if the ps2 users goto a more powerful system they can move to another server for free but since they will be left behind sort of speak people on ps2 server will see better drop rates faster lvling and get certain other perks that the rest of us wont get while they are on there server but expations will not go past zilart, COP, TOA, WOTG, three ad on and will only have abyssea and not viodwatch or some of the other zones basically they will be frozen in time

So you skipped my question and Arcon's succinct answer a little ways up, did ya? Go back and read both posts again. That fellow not only was smart enough to see the main point in my post, but also had the insight to give a constructive answer that was spot on imo.

[Atomic_Skull]

There is no reason the PS2 client couldn't continue to exist while the PC and 360 clients are improved. Everything the game does except character movement happens on the server end anyway. EVE Online and Ultima Online have both at one time supported both the original and updated clients at the same time on the same servers.

SE will have to make a decision whether or not to update the PC version to DirectX 9 in the next year or so because Windows 8 apparently does not have DirectX 8 emulation and by the end of 2012 it will begin shipping on new PCs.

Then again that would be one way to gradually force everyone over to FFXIV.

[Drai]

Idc about the PS2 players playing, but I don't see any good reason the servers are capped at 56k, playing on PS2 I understand, but do companies even OFFER dial- up anymore?

[seya]

This fight will go on forever i agree that ps2 sucks but i play on ps3 with the ps2 version , the only thing that SE could do to finish this fight is what they should have done long ago release the game on ps3 and problem solved

[FrankReynolds]

yeah, but there will be a PS4 by the time they release it, and even though PS3 is plenty powerful, sony will stop making it.

[Yarly]

Then again that would be one way to gradually force everyone over to FFXIV.

The master plan has been revealed!

[Solonuke]

If anything, adding more inventory space isn't going to help me very much as I have a big problem navigating the menu itself. Having a two dimensioned inventory space with a bigger resolution would definitely help me out on this as navigating in mog sack and mog satchel don't really go fast since i can't quickly scroll through it by using left or right buttons. And this is where the PS2 limitations come in as it doesn't support a high resolution at all and programmers have to keep themselves to a very low resolution which makes for stupid workarounds such for menus as you have 21 atmas and you'd have to navigate through 7 different pages to get to the last item you want. Gearing up a job with 7 other jobs that are properly geared can become a chore that is really time consuming as you have to change jobs, then navigate another menu with a porter moogle. You could have up to 400 different items in your inventory, but for me that doesn't help as menu navigating is cumbersome at best. Searching for items would cut down on the gearing up time, but unless you're using third party applications on PC you can't do it.

Gearing up and navigating through them is one problem, but so is running this game on never systems. It seems like if I would run this game on a dual core that's superior compared with the Pentium 4 recommendations for PC, it seems to hog an entire CPU even if it's 3.4 ghz! But it's very generous on memory as it only consumes 128 MB. I can get heavy drop in FPS around confluxes which seems a little bit odd for me as there's no one around the flux, even if there were people around the flux I still think it shouldn't put me into 5 FPS when I'm running on cutting edge technology that crushes the recommendations for this game. It doesn't help that the game doesn't seem very stable at all if you're doing something else in windows. Starcraft had an update for some time ago where it wouldn't use more resources than it had to, why not with this game?

Playonline's way to download patches is a good reason why people would download the updates through torrents instead of using the launcher that followed with the game. When I updated the game once, it said it would be finished in 9 hours and I cancelled it, installed updates through torrent which took less than half an hour then launched POL. POL now said it was less than an hour until it was finished with downloading files, which for me didn't seem right as we're living in a world where most people have stepped away from 56K and use broad band and torrents. I could probably write a post that exceeded the post maximum of letters about why I dislike playonline, if any update that would be great for the game then removing playonline would be the best. As nothing else but FFXI is connected to it at the moment and payment is no longer done with it, it leaves me wondering why we just can't get rid of it. All the advertisement with playonline is at least 3 years old and most of the logos you could use along with your profile isn't newer than FFX-2, a 7 year old game.

There are so many boring and bland zones in this game. I thought most zones looked ugly when I started playing and I still think they look ugly. You could add as much content to older zones you want, but it still doesn't make it easier to navigate in them let alone spend less time getting to where you want. There are so many places I genuinely rage over the fact that there's a foot tall cliff that I simply can't walk over so I have to spend half an hour walking around. Cases like this is why some people would use hacks to bypass them as they're downright frustrating to encounter. Monster redistributing and changing of ???s is not a good idea as it renders older guides useless, but I still think I should head over to zone X and do Y stuff because of it's implanted in my brain that I should go there but it's changed because of the recent patches. If anything I think most of the zones should get a major overhaul including map changes as they're outdated by today's standards and players progress at least hundred times faster compared to when the game was released.

It would be very nice if the quest was updated if I progressed further in it. Anyway, that's some of the reasons why I want the game to go away from the PS2.

[Lumiya]

If anything, adding more inventory space isn't going to help me very much as I have a big problem navigating the menu itself. Having a two dimensioned inventory space with a bigger resolution would definitely help me out on this as navigating in mog sack and mog satchel don't really go fast since i can't quickly scroll through it by using left or right buttons. And this is where the PS2 limitations come in as it doesn't support a high resolution at all and programmers have to keep themselves to a very low resolution which makes for stupid workarounds such for menus as you have 21 atmas and you'd have to navigate through 7 different pages to get to the last item you want. Gearing up a job with 7 other jobs that are properly geared can become a chore that is really time consuming as you have to change jobs, then navigate another menu with a porter moogle. You could have up to 400 different items in your inventory, but for me that doesn't help as menu navigating is cumbersome at best. Searching for items would cut down on the gearing up time, but unless you're using third party applications on PC you can't do it.

Gearing up and navigating through them is one problem, but so is running this game on never systems. It seems like if I would run this game on a dual core that's superior compared with the Pentium 4 recommendations for PC, it seems to hog an entire CPU even if it's 3.4 ghz! But it's very generous on memory as it only consumes 128 MB. I can get heavy drop in FPS around confluxes which seems a little bit odd for me as there's no one around the flux, even if there were people around the flux I still think it shouldn't put me into 5 FPS when I'm running on cutting edge technology that crushes the recommendations for this game. It doesn't help that the game doesn't seem very stable at all if you're doing something else in windows. Starcraft had an update for some time ago where it wouldn't use more resources than it had to, why not with this game?

Playonline's way to download patches is a good reason why people would download the updates through torrents instead of using the launcher that followed with the game. When I updated the game once, it said it would be finished in 9 hours and I cancelled it, installed updates through torrent which took less than half an hour then launched POL. POL now said it was less than an hour until it was finished with downloading files, which for me didn't seem right as we're living in a world where most people have stepped away from 56K and use broad band and torrents. I could probably write a post that exceeded the post maximum of letters about why I dislike playonline, if any update that would be great for the game then removing playonline would be the best. As nothing else but FFXI is connected to it at the moment and payment is no longer done with it, it leaves me wondering why we just can't get rid of it. All the advertisement with playonline is at least 3 years old and most of the logos you could use along with your profile isn't newer than FFX-2, a 7 year old game.

There are so many boring and bland zones in this game. I thought most zones looked ugly when I started playing and I still think they look ugly. You could add as much content to older zones you want, but it still doesn't make it easier to navigate in them let alone spend less time getting to where you want. There are so many places I genuinely rage over the fact that there's a foot tall cliff that I simply can't walk over so I have to spend half an hour walking around. Cases like this is why some people would use hacks to bypass them as they're downright frustrating to encounter. Monster redistributing and changing of ???s is not a good idea as it renders older guides useless, but I still think I should head over to zone X and do Y stuff because of it's implanted in my brain that I should go there but it's changed because of the recent patches. If anything I think most of the zones should get a major overhaul including map changes as they're outdated by today's standards and players progress at least hundred times faster compared to when the game was released.

It would be very nice if the quest was updated if I progressed further in it. Anyway, that's some of the reasons why I want the game to go away from the PS2.

I'm sorry, but I actually read this entire wall of text, and the summary I got from it was; 'I barely enjoy this game, have nothing good to say about, and have hated aspects of it for a majority of its life. However I still want to play it despite it pissing me off, but they need to completely overhaul it.' See my earlier post about going to FFXIV please. What some people have said they wanted if PS2 was removed was at least reasonable; the things you are mentioning are for the most part impossible without a complete overhaul. I honestly don't even understand why you play the game if just walking around a zone can upset you so much, or every time you log on for that matter. I'm not trying to be rude or insensitive, but if I felt the same way about FFXI you did, I would of quit years ago.

[Atomic_Skull]

Idc about the PS2 players playing, but I don't see any good reason the servers are capped at 56k, playing on PS2 I understand, but do companies even OFFER dial- up anymore?

They aren't capped at 56k, there is a send/receive indicator in the upper right corner of the screen, check for yourself. The game is designed to be able to run over a 56k dialup connection but it is by no means limited to that.

[Kennx]

As soon as they make people pay for FFXIV, they will drop so much in money they better do something quick to make this game better or they will be fu**ed and both games will be done... just saying... no one gonna pay for that crap....acually been thinking of canceling my accounts untell something is done...playing the same content just altured is getting boring... doing trials over and over is very boring.... poping mobs in old areas is boring..... no new story line.... boring.... zzzzzz

[Drai]

They aren't capped at 56k, there is a send/receive indicator in the upper right corner of the screen, check for yourself. The game is designed to be able to run over a 56k dialup connection but it is by no means limited to that.

I thought that the servers were capped so that people with faster connections didn't have an advantage claiming nm's and such, if not than ignore my previous post :P

[Arcon]

I thought that the servers were capped so that people with faster connections didn't have an advantage claiming nm's and such, if not than ignore my previous post :P

There's two kinds of "faster" when it comes to server connections, higher transfer rate and shorter round-trip time. The transfer rate depends on your connection mostly, and on what the server is able to dish out. The round-trip time usually only depends on the location between the two computers, server and client. Since informing the client that a mob has spawned doesn't require lots of information to transfer, but only a short sign that the monster has spawned, it's the round-trip time that matters, and that cannot even be capped (efficiently), since it's largely outside of the server's (or the client's) control. So I doubt that's the reason for it.

Tl;dr Europe is screwed.