Any countermeasures planned for declining player population?

[Edyth]

In 2010 and early 2011, I saw the normal online population hover around 3,000 online when I used /sea all.

Midway through 2011, /sea all results dropped to about 1,500 characters typically online at any given time.

Now in 2012, on a summer afternoon, I see ~900 people online.

A few things need to happen to counter this. My top 4 suggestions:


1. We need server merges to revitalize the communities while content is added and improved to retain, regain, and recruit players.

2. The game needs to be made more convenient for new players. Travel around Vana'diel is great when you've got Abyssea and Voidwatch warps, but for new players who have to wait week after week for vital outposts like Valkurm Dunes or Buburimu Peninsula to be conquered by their nations, the game's pace is like a Crawler inflicted with Gravity II. Movement speed in FFXI is an issue as well. I'm sure it would cause "major complications" if the default player movement speed were increased, but something needs to be done to pick up the pace for players who are just beginning and can't travel freely, and the only parties going on are in Gusgen Mines a couple times a day.

3. Exciting content and important fixes need to be delivered more quickly. Blue Mages were teased with getting Spike Flail in what, 2009? Meteor took 3 years to arrive after being announced. The enfeebling magic, VW stagger, and new avatar updates still haven't happened. Cruor buffs still wear off when we're disconnected. Etcetera.

4. We need to feel like there's hope. When the customers really, really, really want something, it would be a great idea to do more than talk in an illogical loop about balance and say no. Players are voting with their wallets now. Way too much. Make Red Mage better instead of shooting down or ignoring great suggestions. Fix blood pact recasts instead of making spirits cost less MP. FFXI's current direction is not popular, and Square Enix's unwavering resolve to make FFXI what it wants instead of what the customers want is costing the game and the company a lot.

[Gokku]

1. no, no we dont carby merged with gila and it was horrid i came back to a sea of gimp idiots who think they are Jesus Muhammad and cocaine in 1.

2. not really an issue what new players need most is a newb friendly server cuz lets face it alot of older servers are some cold shoulders.

3. T A N A K A and you can keep on dreaming

4. See 3!

sorry to be the bringer of reality but lets put it this way people waited what 8 months for einhanjar update and got 1... yes ONE single room. now you look at the post about moogle slips and you see that thers at most 10 or so new drops form odin 2.0 10-1 they are gonna bring back the 36man bullshit and 10-1 almost none of the drops will be worth the effort required to get 36 players to beat him , youll have another legion shitstorm and he will get nerfed for 18 man groups who will then kill him with x2 ochain / relic plds 3 cors 2 brds 2 whm 1 sch 2smn 1rdm and 6 relic / empy DD's.

it will be NI 2.0 + prov + legion combined and SE will argue that lower costs and 100% drops justifiy the 1% population win rates.


my predicted odin 2.0 kill strat

full buff alliance and have 2 plds and 1 whm drop and form a holding pt. main alliance zergs odin down to x% (or out right kills) when or if wipe does occur plds take over and hold ... rinse repeat zerg.

[Camiie]

If they cared about this game's success they wouldn't have stuck us with you-know-who as Producer. It's Japanese custom to stick a failed employee on an unimportant project where he can languish until he quits or retires. FFXI is that unimportant project. Just imagine that Ivan Drago is in charge at SE. "If it dies... it dies."

[Finuve]

as far as I can tell Lakshmi is faaar from needing a merge

[Reiterpallasch]

Too bad there aren't any cross server activities in this game. Blizzard is currently working on a system for WoW to allow cross server zoning to help fill low level, low population areas that need it.

Something like that would be awesome in FFXI, but we'd obviously never get it because:
1: Technical limitations, for obvious reasons.
2: It's something in a rival MMO, and therefore it is the devil and we should never have it ever.

[Finuve]

I hate cross server anything in an MMO, the last thing I want it to meet people I'll never see again, completely takes away the point of a community

[Spiritreaver]

If they cared about this game's success they wouldn't have stuck us with you-know-who as Producer. It's Japanese custom to stick a failed employee on an unimportant project where he can languish until he quits or retires. FFXI is that unimportant project. Just imagine that Ivan Drago is in charge at SE. "If it dies... it dies."

LOL

Just had a vision of 'youknowwho' in gloves and trunks and a buzzcut, leering down over a beaten and broken Altana.

[Alhanelem]

The only countermeasure would be "make the game fun again."

[Sarick]

In 2010 and early 2011, I saw the normal online population hover around 3,000 online when I used /sea all.

Midway through 2011, /sea all results dropped to about 1,500 characters typically online at any given time.

Now in 2012, on a summer afternoon, I see ~900 people online.

A few things need to happen to counter this. My top 4 suggestions:


1. We need server merges to revitalize the communities while content is added and improved to retain, regain, and recruit players.

2. The game needs to be made more convenient for new players. Travel around Vana'diel is great when you've got Abyssea and Voidwatch warps, but for new players who have to wait week after week for vital outposts like Valkurm Dunes or Buburimu Peninsula to be conquered by their nations, the game's pace is like a Crawler inflicted with Gravity II. Movement speed in FFXI is an issue as well. I'm sure it would cause "major complications" if the default player movement speed were increased, but something needs to be done to pick up the pace for players who are just beginning and can't travel freely, and the only parties going on are in Gusgen Mines a couple times a day.

3. Exciting content and important fixes need to be delivered more quickly. Blue Mages were teased with getting Spike Flail in what, 2009? Meteor took 3 years to arrive after being announced. The enfeebling magic, VW stagger, and new avatar updates still haven't happened. Cruor buffs still wear off when we're disconnected. Etcetera.

4. We need to feel like there's hope. When the customers really, really, really want something, it would be a great idea to do more than talk in an illogical loop about balance and say no. Players are voting with their wallets now. Way too much. Make Red Mage better instead of shooting down or ignoring great suggestions. Fix blood pact recasts instead of making spirits cost less MP. FFXI's current direction is not popular, and Square Enix's unwavering resolve to make FFXI what it wants instead of what the customers want is costing the game and the company a lot.

I DON'T WANT ANOTHER FORCED MERGER!

you may ot realise it but people are quitting because the developers are doing lackluster improvements and making people HATE the game. IT doesn't take rocket science to know why people are quitting in droves. Forced mergers don't help all that's being done is pissing people off. You notice the spike in players quit last merger? If people want to move to a popultered server give them the ability to move to one without paying a server transfer fee.

The people who ask for mergers discust me because I have enough fun with the 1000+ players online. When you have 3k online It's not fun because everyone is fighting for resources.

OH God please don't listen to people like this developers. It's people like this that want overcrowding and more people to leave.

[cidbahamut]

The only countermeasure would be "make the game fun again."

I suspect there's some internal debate over whether or not that coincides with their vision for the game.

[Winrie]

Screw another server merger, i got enough fun from kujata morons on my server, if that happens ill be takin my happy ass to 14, which at the moment is a much better game. This game died when abyssea ruined every bit of content that was alive at the time to appease casual gamers. Sorry to break it to you, but keeping casuals happy on a 10 year old game is an idiotic viewpoint.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Screw another server merger, i got enough fun from kujata morons on my server, if that happens ill be takin my happy ass to 14, which at the moment is a much better game. This game died when abyssea ruined every bit of content that was alive at the time to appease casual gamers. Sorry to break it to you, but keeping casuals happy on a 10 year old game is an idiotic viewpoint.

Expecting others to stay after 10 years of the same game, gaining little new content is much more idiotic.

Disliking FFXI and then moving to another SquareEnix MMORPG is even more idiotic than the previous.

[Vivivivi]

I have a feeling if this new "hardware" that was mentioned around the new year is a new platform, such as PS Vita or iOS, I believe this game will get a resurgence of new players, AND retain them. Here's why:

Voidwatch and Voidwalkers are the most ingenious, low cost, self-marketing strategy SE could have come up with for this game if they are indeed planning on bringing XI to the aforementioned platforms. New players adventuring in areas like West Saruta-Baruta or South Gustaberg, discovering the game for the very first time will be witnesses to some of the very best players on their server, and get a first-hand preview of some of the very strongest NMs in the game. They'll also see all of the cool equipment and spells and job abilities that lays ahead should they decide to continue their journey in Vana'diel, and potentially meet some more experienced veterans who can help guide them along, or offer them a link pearl.

This is all of course dependent on if the game is quickly brought to new platforms, while Voidwatch is still "the thing" to do.

[Camiie]

Vivivivi, I completely disagree. Whenever I go to the starter zones the only time I've ever seen people doing Voidwatch is when I happened to be in a group doing it. I haven't seen any newbies come by at all, much less oohing and aahing over how cool we all look. Besides, if someone did ask me about it, I'd be forced to give my honest opinion and I'd most likely end up scaring them away from the event.

I did run across excited newblets once while doing VWNMs when those were popular, so I do see where you're coming from. I just don't see it happening now no matter what systems they add. It's too little too late.

[Spiritreaver]

Screw another server merger, i got enough fun from kujata morons on my server, if that happens ill be takin my happy ass to 14, which at the moment is a much better game. This game died when abyssea ruined every bit of content that was alive at the time to appease casual gamers. Sorry to break it to you, but keeping casuals happy on a 10 year old game is an idiotic viewpoint.

That Abyssea 'ruined' content that came before it, is a telling commentary on said content. SE's reaction to the generally positive player reception of Abyssea-style content is telling also. As well as continually disheartening.

@the bold last sentence of the quote, that is completely backwards. As a business, you do not brush off the majority of your customers to satisfy a select minority. And you definitely don't do that when there is zero difference in what each group is paying into the company.

The HC players are gonna burn through content faster than the casual players. And after they are done lording over those 'lesser' player they leave for greener pastures. Who is left still paying that monthly and proping up FFXI's revenue-stream then? Exactly.

And as to going to 14...are you insane? I mean you have seen firsthand what SE will do when they no longer give a care about an MMO property in their control, and you'd let them have the chance to do it to you again?

[Insaniac]

Attributing any kind of ulterior motives to the VW design process is foolish. VW and every event we have gotten since are the result of an extremely limited budget, a skeleton crew dev team, and a circa 2001 mmo design ideal.

[Vivivivi]

Camiie, no I agree with you that's the current situation, I was just pointing out that if SE got XI in front of, say, the iTunes audience, there would be an influx of new players, at least to check it out, and VNMs and VW might be a hook to get them to stay ^^

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

I have a feeling if this new "hardware" that was mentioned around the new year is a new platform,

In b4 new Hori clock.

[Damane]

the issue is there and it needs adressing. It has come to the point where you blatantly cant even do the new content due to lack of people via shouts (VW for example). I'm hopeing for a major annaouncement on the vanafest, but I wont hold my breath. The game is dying faster then expected.

[Kagetachi]

My thoughts on while the population is going elsewhere is because the FFXI team and Square Enix do not want to share their plans for future expansion beyond what we are getting soon. Supposedly they are working on another Expansion but no to little information has been brought to light. It's hard for people to stick around when they have done everything they want to do. IMO tho, the story in this game was far from concluded.

[Kluaf]

well geeking for new info i decided to look at the JP forum and wow most every post has 1000s of reads and likes as compared to our forum totals are very low. we hardly ever break 20 likes on a post i didnt see to many under 40 likes and also there wasnt a lot of well your idea is ok but it should be this way. i seen a lot more togetherness than on the na forums. im sure theres 1upers and toppers there as well but i didnt see a lot of it myself.... jus sayin dont forget to hit the like button wen u see something u like. no 1 has time to read every single post but im sure the admins have way to check the most liked posts and threads so kep that in mind wen your complaining about about not getting your voice heard....

[Winrie]

Sorry to break it to you, but before Abyssea, we had Limbus, Dynamis, Salvage, HNM, ZNM, VNM, Sea, Sky and Einherjar all to do, that all held a relevance to actually do. Im sorry but tending to the casual gamer did more damage than it did good, it gave veterans a year of fresh air to move on from the game, and it gave newer people a chance at decent gear without having to grind out. As for the comment to whomever the hell said it, HC players back before abyssea were not capped on most endgame content, Hence camps still had 60ish or more people at them, salvage still was some of the best stuff in the game, hence worth doing on a regular basis, HNMs still held great gear, and odin was a viable option for king gear among some other rare pieces.

Im not even going to mention the essence of teamplay and SKILL that was needed before abyssea, now its mindless f'n zombies flailing at everything til they cap, and its easy to cap, when you cap you quit. Considering people were doing all the above endgame contents for how many years obtaining gear? and now most the playerbase is bored and were one year after abyssea year long reign? im wrong right? Abyssea killed your game. Anyone even notice how abyssea and new nyzul is harder now? if SE believed an extreme casual environment would save ffxi then those pieces of new content would be easy mode as well. Argue it if you wish, it doesnt matter at the end of the day for anyone.

[Insaniac]

Wrong.

This chain of events killed ffxi.

1) FF14 is announced
2) Level cap increase
3a) FF14 fails
3b) FF11 crew and budget is gutted to try to save FF14
3c) With that budget the skeleton dev team is unable to build content to fill the void of events left by the level cap increase
3d) Abyssea remains as the only enjoyable content but it's not enough to sustain an entire game
3e) New content consists of uninspired fight mechanics copy/paste zones and mobs and little to no storyline.
4a) Tanaka turns his torturous gaze back to FF11
4b) Horrendous grinds low drop rates and side grade gear are reintroduced
4c) Player feedback is once again cast into the wind

Basically, you can blame abyssea all you want but it's just not correct. FF11 is failing now because FF14 failed and the original vision for the game after the level cap increase got thrown out the window leaving the game stagnant especially when they tried to close pandora's box and go back to pre-abyssea reward to effort ratios. So I guess what I'm saying is the reason people are leaving now is the same reason people were leaving before abyssea.. Tanaka.

I try to not respond to you "abyssea ruined ffxi" maniacs but your post was so silly I decided I would but I won't reply again unless you make some valid point.

Oh also.. ffxi was never hard. Skill never had anything to do with the gear you had. Before abyssea for the most part it was always a fight against the random number generator and/or a NASA bot.

[Anapingofness]

I pretty much agree with the OP. However, I'd like to avoid another server merge if possible. The thing is, even if there is another server merge it will not help this game any. What this game needs is an influx of new players and for that the game needs to be A LOT more newbie friendly.

They need to increase movement speed across the board, permanently. Even with all of the OP's done, my personal chicken grown, VW and Aby warps the actual movement speed is downright disgusting. They also need to have you do the chocobo quest in the three nations and reduce it from x4 hrs to like x30min-x15min max.

They need to fix and revive the mountain of old and dead content they have or remove it in favor of something new and exciting. They need to be adding new content period.

Another thing SE really has to do is listen to its player base- actually hear us out and consider what we have to say instead of this pissing around that they do. A very roundabout "no" is not a reason for not hearing us out. Quite frankly, SE is one damned lucky game company to have so many loyal fans. This is especially true considering how badly we are treated.

Dear SE, why must we have events that continuously fail and suck? Why can't you get with the program? Why can't you show even a moderate amount of professionalism and pride in what you do?

Now, I've heard people say that they're letting the game die in favor of FFXIV. To be perfectly honest, at this rate a part of me is inclined to believe that. However, don't think that these issues won't follow those players who migrate to FFXIV. In fact, we still see some of the same issues in FFXIV that we see in FFXI. The only difference is that at least some of those issues are being solved. Which brings me to my last point, problems that go unsolved will balloon into issues that are difficult to solve. I understand that SE would have to do a lot of work to fix the problems in FFXI but they made their bed, now its time to lay in it. Quite frankly I have very little sympathy for SE. People need to remember that FFXI isn't some freebie game. They're being paid to do work on this game, and they're being paid a lot of money for extremely lackluster services.

Edit: Insaniac's post = win. Silly Abyssea nay sayers. How little you know... /sigh

[Neisan_Quetz]

See all Found 2.6k players on Quetz during JP Prime, which is roughly what I remember it being like in 07/08. Probably about ~400 less but it's been a long time.

For JP Prime anyway, NA numbers have definitely taken some sort of dive.

[Glamdring]

just my 2 cents, put me down with those opposed to any server mergers. I'm finally able to get in turns at pop drop NMs in Aby so that I and my firends can actually get in meaningful runs at Aby +2 gear and higher trials on the Empy weapon paths, I'd rather not go back to having to log on at 3:30 am to have a possibility of doing those. Yes, I could go straight to VW, but considering it's about as much fun as self-circumcission with a putty knife and no anesthesia I'd really rather not. If the Legion rewards ever actually scale to the difficulty of the content that could be a viable alternative, but I haven't seen any hints of that happening so I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Spiritreaver]

Sorry to break it to you, but before Abyssea, we had Limbus, Dynamis, Salvage, HNM, ZNM, VNM, Sea, Sky and Einherjar all to do, that all held a relevance to actually do. Im sorry but tending to the casual gamer did more damage than it did good, it gave veterans a year of fresh air to move on from the game, and it gave newer people a chance at decent gear without having to grind out. As for the comment to whomever the hell said it, HC players back before abyssea were not capped on most endgame content, Hence camps still had 60ish or more people at them, salvage still was some of the best stuff in the game, hence worth doing on a regular basis, HNMs still held great gear, and odin was a viable option for king gear among some other rare pieces.

Im not even going to mention the essence of teamplay and SKILL that was needed before abyssea, now its mindless f'n zombies flailing at everything til they cap, and its easy to cap, when you cap you quit. Considering people were doing all the above endgame contents for how many years obtaining gear? and now most the playerbase is bored and were one year after abyssea year long reign? im wrong right? Abyssea killed your game. Anyone even notice how abyssea and new nyzul is harder now? if SE believed an extreme casual environment would save ffxi then those pieces of new content would be easy mode as well. Argue it if you wish, it doesnt matter at the end of the day for anyone.

@ first rambling paragraph-

To say it as simply as i can, grindfest for gear ad nausea in lieu of actual game design is not a good thing. I've done all the events you rattled off and a few you didn't, all came before Abyssea and none of them were hard once you do them a few times. Having to wade into the grungy cesspool that was Endgame pre-Abyssea and stay there for YEARS on end to get a shot at gear that might boost your play a few %age points was not cool. Saying it was is being disingenuous. Your figure, 60+ ppl at a camp trying for 5 year+ old gear, is also not cool.

And wth do you mean by players not being capped on endgame? If you mean not having every single item, then i know of very few players that have a fraction of that. If you mean having done everything there is to do, can't say i know anyone that's done that either.

@ rambling paragraph the second-

How much teamplay and skill were needed to have tanks engage, DDs zerg, and mages support rinse-alot? Not trying to be Abyssea white knight extraordinaire here, but you can't say that those roles magically vanished when Visions went live. Not only did they remain, they had Abyssea's nifty quirks melded to them. And really that synthesis of old and new took skill and teamplay to a fun place that hadn't been around for most oldtimers since WAY back in the day.

Cutting my rambling short, you know what is atm and will ultimately kill FFXI? The current mindset held by the dev team and their insistence on trying to put the genie back into the bottle. Abyssea worked and worked well. Now instead of behaving like a real business and building from what was considered a win by the vast majority of players and most non-players possessing the common sense the universe granted a cat, the dev team is trying to time-shift FFXI back into a period where it was bleeding subscribers do to ingame stagnation.

Personally, i loathed Salvage and Dynamis both. What i didn't do however was try and pin all of FFXI's ills on those parts of the game i found distasteful. I've said before, if you don't like Abyssea-that's fine. Just own your opinion and roll with it without tearing down one of the few critical successes that the game has enjoyed in a while.

Your final line was spot on though. End of the day it doesn't matter much either way.

[Zerich]

Sorry to break it to you, but before Abyssea, we had Limbus, Dynamis, Salvage, HNM, ZNM, VNM, Sea, Sky and Einherjar all to do, that all held a relevance to actually do. Im sorry but tending to the casual gamer did more damage than it did good, it gave veterans a year of fresh air to move on from the game, and it gave newer people a chance at decent gear without having to grind out. As for the comment to whomever the hell said it, HC players back before abyssea were not capped on most endgame content, Hence camps still had 60ish or more people at them, salvage still was some of the best stuff in the game, hence worth doing on a regular basis, HNMs still held great gear, and odin was a viable option for king gear among some other rare pieces.

Im not even going to mention the essence of teamplay and SKILL that was needed before abyssea, now its mindless f'n zombies flailing at everything til they cap, and its easy to cap, when you cap you quit. Considering people were doing all the above endgame contents for how many years obtaining gear? and now most the playerbase is bored and were one year after abyssea year long reign? im wrong right? Abyssea killed your game. Anyone even notice how abyssea and new nyzul is harder now? if SE believed an extreme casual environment would save ffxi then those pieces of new content would be easy mode as well. Argue it if you wish, it doesnt matter at the end of the day for anyone.

translation: baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw

[Glamdring]

OK, just a comment on the general line of complaints/praise for the old alliance based battle systems like Dynamis, etc. THIS WAS ALWAYS A MATTER OF PLAYER PREFERENCE IN PLAYSTYLE! You never had to do Dynamis or HNMLS or Salvage or whatever, the choice was your based on how you liked to play. That's why there was always so much side-grade gear-to give meaningful rewards in the playstyle that any individual player preferred. If there was any hole it was in viable end-game purchaseable gear from crafters, which robbed people who didn't mind grinding for a ton of gil to purchase gear in order to avoid the hard fights an outlet for their playstyle.

No system is going to please everyone, period. My personal preference was the alliance and larger battles, but I'm completely aware that not everyone shared that preference. Conversely, lots of people like the !! proc systems, I loathe them, again my personal preference. I'm not alone in my preference, and not too many other players are alone in their preferences.

I personally feel that SE needs to develop multiple playsystems catering to the varying playstyles players prefer, but all resulting in comparable quality rewards-if not the same rewards. As an example, why can heavy metal plates only be gotten as drops in VW? Is there some dogmatic law that says your grind in whatever system has to preclude you from rewards from any other system? Especially considering that a trial path may force you from 1 system into another? Look at a full empy path-regular NMs to Voidwalkers to Aby to voidwatch, 4 playstyles that only have killing something as part of your grind as a common element? How does that satisfy player preferences?

SE derives their income from players grinding the time sync, what does it matter how they grind as long as they spend the time and thus the user fees? BTW, making multiple paths would also go a long way to curtailing alot of the griping on here from people who want to bash this or that content, and other players for not wanting to do this or that content. I for one am all for anything that might reintroduce a degree of civility to the game, and to these forums as well.

[Helel]

See all Found 2.6k players on Quetz during JP Prime, which is roughly what I remember it being like in 07/08. Probably about ~400 less but it's been a long time.

For JP Prime anyway, NA numbers have definitely taken some sort of dive.

Pretty much this... Once again, I don't know where people are getting their numbers from. I've seen over 3k during prime time on Bismarck. The population is great at the moment, and we do NOT need another server merge. The rest of OP's concerns are valid but also a rehashing of things that have already been said countless times.

[Tamoa]

Did a /sea all on Asura a couple of days ago around 4pm est and there was around 1.8k people online. I'd say that's pretty good for being EU prime. Maybe a select few servers have lower numbers on average but I really don't think it's anywhere near as bad as it was on Pandemonium before the merge, with 700ish people online at that time. And that's well over 2 years ago already since Pandemonium merged with Asura.

[Teraniku]

Sunday Morning around 9AM EST we still break the 3k mark on Shiva

[Enaula]

Maybe some people like me waiting VanaFest for come back in this game? XD

[Kaych]

Threads like this should keep being made until SE fixes these things. I am sick and tired of them presenting an idea and use years to implemeting it. And also not fixing current problems.

[Puck]

They'd better have something big planned for Vanafest like when they blew us away with the pre-Abyssea Vanafest. There needs to be a large-scale injection of new zones, innovative systems, and something Abyssea didn't have at all: story.

I haven't logged in for weeks, and it's not like I don't have things I could be doing in-game, there's just no motivation to do that. Why get X piece of gear to make X job better? So I can then fight more things to collect more gear to do the same stuff? But why? To what end? It's all just running in a hamster wheel, getting gear to fight things to get more gear. It's pointless.

There's no adventures left to be had. No epic stories left to experience. THAT'S what's really killing the game. I'm just crossing my fingers that Vanafest will bring an announcement that the game's future includes new adventures, not just new battle events.

[Llana_Virren]

They'd better have something big planned for Vanafest like when they blew us away with the pre-Abyssea Vanafest. There needs to be a large-scale injection of new zones, innovative systems, and something Abyssea didn't have at all: story.

Dear god, I hope for no new zones. With the exception of the missing hemisphere (reference the area between the Aht Urhgan capital to the east, and the unseen area extending beyond the oceanic space on the Conquest map), there are already dozens of zones that are seldom if ever populated because there is nothing of value in them at this point. Revamp these zones, rather than creating more areas that will not be populated outside of limited times/events.

There isn't enough new blood in FFXI to justify creating a new series of zones, which is why my "I dream of a fully visitable Vana'diel world" to be a fantasy that will never be revealed. So I would advise against getting hopes up on "new zones" while strongly supporting "innovative systems and ... story."


I haven't logged in for weeks, and it's not like I don't have things I could be doing in-game, there's just no motivation to do that. Why get X piece of gear to make X job better? So I can then fight more things to collect more gear to do the same stuff? But why? To what end? It's all just running in a hamster wheel, getting gear to fight things to get more gear. It's pointless.

There's no adventures left to be had. No epic stories left to experience. THAT'S what's really killing the game. I'm just crossing my fingers that Vanafest will bring an announcement that the game's future includes new adventures, not just new battle events.

With most MMOs, the secondary attribute of the game -is- gear collection; and it is vastly easier to create new gear and gear-aquisition challenges than it is to add epic storyline content. I think a lot of players don't know that the whole "getting gear just to make the job better" -is- one of the vital aspects of MMOs, and with a member base that shows limited to know growth, adding hard-to-aquire gear is the best method of maintaining a member base which has already completed the storylines. That is to say, the gear aquisition methods need to not be totally futile (*cough* Nyzule *cough*)

[Meyi]

Please no more merges. I like my name. Unfortunately there's many copies of it on half of the other servers. I don't want to lose it, and I'd hate for others to lose theirs because of me.

I'd rather see the game become more enjoyable and more people return/pick it up than merge. Or, find ways to make the game fun with fewer people. We don't need 3,000 people per server to have a good time.

[detlef]

find ways to make the game fun with fewer people. We don't need 3,000 people per server to have a good time.I think this is the best course of action to take.

[Kysaiana]

Ugh, not another server merger please... Even if there was 5k people on at once, you would still have trouble finding members for VW because of the root problem: the drop rate sucks. I have every single VW clear, a handful of semi-rare drops like fajin boots, maybe 98 HMPs, and serious lack of motivation to even bother trying for more. That's after months of doing VW on a regular basis 3-4 days a week. I go with a small group that shouts to fill in the gaps. And if the leader wasn't JP I doubt we'd be able to do that since, for whatever reason, NA just don't do well with pickups.

TL;DR you can't get people for anything because there's nothing to do, not because there's no people.

[Alhanelem]

Revamp these zones, rather than creating more areas that will not be populated outside of limited times/events.Revamping zones is what they've been doing for years now. Nobody likes it.

[Sparthos]

Revamping zones is what they've been doing for years now. Nobody likes it.

IDK why people want new zones so badly. New content using the dozens of useless zones would be better than wasting resources on more new zones that wind up being useless.

[Arcon]

IDK why people want new zones so badly. New content using the dozens of useless zones would be better than wasting resources on more new zones that wind up being useless.

Something to explore. Something new. Some of my greatest memories are from getting to know my way through unknown territory and exploring new places, like the temple, jungle, Xarc/Uleg, QSC, Kuftal, Movalpolos, etc. and I'm very sure I'm not the only one.

I'm not saying I don't want content either. Just new zones with nothing happening is also pointless. What I want is a full-blown expansion. New areas, new storyline with missions, new city, new dungeons and possibly new endgame event. I realize that at the current stage it's unrealistic, even though it probably would be their best move. No matter how much this game is currently declining, just imagine how many people would come back if they heard about a new expansion. If it's any good it could potentially revive the entire game, which is still their best-selling game yet (with the highest number of subscriptions, too). It would be in their best interest, but they're too busy with trying to save their other product, just so they can clear their imagine of having produced a bad game.

[ckb]

Threads like this should keep being made until SE fixes these things. I am sick and tired of them presenting an idea and use years to implemeting it. And also not fixing current problems.

We need to post these complaints on the XIV forums. The devs actually read, respond, and take action over there. Typically I just lurk but I'm sick of this shit too.

[Cahlum]

SE really needs something absolutely massive at vanafest and from what we seen so far that stupid lion fight thing. It doesn't look like we gonna get it.

Cerberus is completely void of EU players now

[Winrie]

IDK why people want new zones so badly. New content using the dozens of useless zones would be better than wasting resources on more new zones that wind up being useless.

To see something different for once besides the same old Abyssea, Port Jueno, White Nostalgia walk?


Yeah i dont keep up with these forums too much, but all i'll say to all the responses to my posts, im entitled to my opinion, as you are <3 And XIV had nothing to do really with this games decline, XIV is XIV and not XI. Once again opinions.

What this game needs is new things, not reskins, new content that doesnt involve going back to places we went to for years before lolbyssea came along. Problem solver? Yoshida needs to clone himself and work on XI, orrrrr we can do what sensible people do when a game becomes boring, leave?

[Sparthos]

Something to explore. Something new. Some of my greatest memories are from getting to know my way through unknown territory and exploring new places, like the temple, jungle, Xarc/Uleg, QSC, Kuftal, Movalpolos, etc. and I'm very sure I'm not the only one.

I'm not saying I don't want content either. Just new zones with nothing happening is also pointless. What I want is a full-blown expansion. New areas, new storyline with missions, new city, new dungeons and possibly new endgame event. I realize that at the current stage it's unrealistic, even though it probably would be their best move. No matter how much this game is currently declining, just imagine how many people would come back if they heard about a new expansion. If it's any good it could potentially revive the entire game, which is still their best-selling game yet (with the highest number of subscriptions, too). It would be in their best interest, but they're too busy with trying to save their other product, just so they can clear their imagine of having produced a bad game.

New zones boil down to some brief exploration, whacking a few new monsters and then you never return to that place unless it's absolutely necessary via some event or partying gimmick. Abyssea-Grauberg and Vunkerl had me exploring those two zones far more than the originals precisely because the zones had something to do and plenty of something to keep me coming back.

Sure, new zones and a new expansion are the ideal but we haven't seen ideal since *insert your golden age here* and I'd much rather see zones like Monarch Linn, Boneyard Gully, Arrapago Reef, Riverne, Pso'xja, Castle Zvahl (S), Yuhtunga Jungle and the host of other currently empty and wasted zones tweaked into something people still sticking around can enjoy.

Focus the efforts on fun content I'd say and the zone it happens to occur in should be an afterthought - though some scenery changes would be nice.

[Jile]

1393 people online at 3:30pm on a Sunday here on Phoenix. I'd also like to avoid another merger.

SE needs to get off their butts and start marketing this game again. Its age is irrelevant because its still a good game at the core. Without advertising and putting out game disks (almost nobody has a copy of ffxi regardless of format) it's obvious SE is intentionally phasing out this game - really no other way to look at it.

Yes, we need new real zones/mobs/missions regarding those new zones.

It's depressing to come online, see 5 out of 70 friends made over the last 6 years are online - the rest have honestly retired due to lack of enjoyable content.

Please SE - add new content. Market this game again - keep new money coming in for your dev team and no new mergers if they can be avoided. Sell us a new expansion at the level of ToAU, even if it takes a couple years you can add it to the plans and string us along for years with just a promise of new content.

Or, do nothing. Ignore us. Watch our servers average users continue to drop and tell yourself "meh, it was gonna happen anyway'....



I want to walk into a new zone and well... lol, feel like this Taru:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-hnosMeXwY&list=FLNTrTptqW2RkgS7EllkSR7g&index=11&feature=plpp_video

...well then again I'd like to see a crawler eat a Taru too but who's counting... lol

[Eric]

WTF was that video???