To: Mr Akihiko Matsui

The anti-EXP crowd seems to blame abyssea with everything - way too easy exp, leeching problems etc... even as you can get similar experience via GoV. It's basically boils down to the ones who want to get to 99 ASAP so they can do the endgame grind vs the ones who rather take leisurely stroll in xp but facing an uphill battle since they are in the minority category. One thing I wonder is why these people who love XP not using moblin maze monger? It eliminate camp problem, it's right there in lower jeuno, 6 people means 6x30 mnts - quite challenging, fun, and fast paced, with decent rewards - and has been proven to give you more xp than the old school style party. There is another thread asking for MMM revival, maybe they should flock there.

No offense to some but if people like the way the game was you shouldn't shoot them down for it, I agree the game was alot better in the old days but they could have been improved with some of the stuff out now, and in some ways how the game is now its lacking elements of the past, we are lacking content that brings us all together and content that gives us a real sense of accomplishment, everything now is far too easy, and some elements of the past that was a sense of accomplishment have been brutally slain by re-vamps to the game.

I hope the new content has elements that give us a challenge and let us use our skills with certain jobs to give us the edge, as of right now battle content consists of throwing X amount of jobs into a blender with 1 mob and 1 pop location, not my idea of fun and many others as well, I think all people are really looking for in FFXI now is a challenege, lets take the training wheels off kids and really try to ride this bike.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sayomi

No offense to some but if people like the way the game was you shouldn't shoot them down for it, I agree the game was alot better in the old days but they could have been improved with some of the stuff out now, and in some ways how the game is now its lacking elements of the past, we are lacking content that brings us all together and content that gives us a real sense of accomplishment, everything now is far too easy, and some elements of the past that was a sense of accomplishment have been brutally slain by re-vamps to the game.

I hope the new content has elements that give us a challenge and let us use our skills with certain jobs to give us the edge, as of right now battle content consists of throwing X amount of jobs into a blender with 1 mob and 1 pop location, not my idea of fun and many others as well, I think all people are really looking for in FFXI now is a challenege, lets take the training wheels off kids and really try to ride this bike.

---

It bothers me that a lot of people defend their argument with "Oh, that's no accomplishment!; Let me tell you what a real accomplishment is..."

Sense of accomplishment is different from player to player. As it is now the game has myriad of options for all kind of gamers from the hardcore to the casuals. There are quite a few hardcore contents that are challenging, even though those same people are complaining that the only solution is zerging or cheating hacks and not much options when it comes to strategy. As for the casual, abyssea is a great place to test your battle prowess and being able to solo NMs there is quite satisfying, wether you use the best atmas or forgo all atmas + cruor buffs for extra crispy challenge is up to you. There is also Walk of Echoes which is rather challenging on its own - though no ones seems to bother doing this. I think there are plenty of options now more than ever, but the majority still flocking abyssea and voidwatch like there is no tomorrow lol, at least in Bahamut server. And soon SE is adding more of this so called dungeon events with the burrow and play as monster.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eyeballed

It bothers me that a lot of people defend their argument with "Oh, that's no accomplishment!; Let me tell you what a real accomplishment is..."

---

I never really suggested one, it would be nice to have one again, not impossible but not too easy, thats all. :-)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wish12oz

Im completely against everything in the OP.

I am however in favor of SE adding a new "Old School" or "Vanilla" server, where the level cap is 75 and everyone on it has to start from scratch, and it has all content up to Abyssea and the first level cap increase. Someone should make a new thread about this.

---

This is something I wouldn't mind. I've always liked the old way of leveling/playing because it seemed easier to socialize and make friends and people were generally much more willing to help lower level players, while at the same time missions and endgame could be very challenging with a much higher sense of accomplishment; both things I loved about this game.

Today's playerbase is aged though. We've got a ten year old game where the vast majority of the players have been through the leveling process time and time again, so even though I personally prefer the old FFXI to the current one, I can understand why changes were made. I doubt the things we thought 'weren't so bad' back then would be nearly as simple today even if the game had been left alone. More would have capped off their levels and not looked back, more would have quit over time, and it would have only become harder for newer players to access certain items and areas. I think the main problem here is that a lot of vocal players are unhappy that this game isn't in its heyday anymore, more so than what the devs are doing or have done to work around that and keep us logging on and enjoying the experience. Personally, I think it's awesome that we're getting a new expansion this late in.

Though yeah, it would be fun to be able to log on as a level 75 just as the old ls is gathering for, idk, sky... I just reactivated again after a good several months break so idek what old gear is even worth the effort anymore but that just used to be one of my favorite things - running up there with a full alliance to take on a kirin or two. I miss those days.

Edit; bleh it didn't reply with quote.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sayomi

(...) as of right now battle content consists of throwing X amount of jobs into a blender with 1 mob and 1 pop location(...)

---

And it's different than before how?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meyi

And it's different than before how?

---

You couldn't kill most endgame at one point in the game with just zerging alone, is what i'm saying, remember the days of strategy and stun chains ect? Mindless zerging is fun and should still have a place but lets have some strats behind things as well is all i'm saying.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sayomi

You couldn't kill most endgame at one point in the game with just zerging alone, is what i'm saying, remember the days of strategy and stun chains ect? Mindless zerging is fun and should still have a place but lets have some strats behind things as well is all i'm saying.

---

And communicating and prioritizing procs is not a strategy... Because?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Trisscar

And communicating and prioritizing procs is not a strategy... Because?

---

Because neither communicating nor prioritizing procs is required.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arcon

Because neither communicating nor prioritizing procs is required.

---

You have a very piss poor understanding of what strategy is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a specific goal. Strategy is all about gaining (or being prepared to gain) a position of advantage over adversaries or best exploiting emerging possibilities. As there is always an element of uncertainty about future, strategy is more about a set of options ("strategic choices") than a fixed plan. It derives from the Greek "στρατηγία" (strategia), "office of general, command, generalship".

---

Taken from one extreme, even simple, straight up zerg is a strategy. Taken from another, nothing we do involves strategy because we players always seek the path of least resistance so will pick the battle plan most likely to succeed with the least amount of effort.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Trisscar

You have a very piss poor understanding of what strategy is.

---

I wasn't even talking about what a strategy is. Yes, communication and prioritizing of procs is a strategy. But neither of those things is required. Hence, a strategy is not required. That's what I said.

Also, I wasn't really agreeing with him, as there is current content that does require a strategy and a proper execution to work. I was just telling you what he meant by that. I know I should stop talking for people, it's a bad habit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Trisscar

And communicating and prioritizing procs is not a strategy... Because?

---

Are you joking or being serious I can't tell... You wan't real strategy? Take a look back when Odin from Einherjar first came out, that was just an example of real strategy and don't tell me something in response that your LS killed Odin while afk eating Papa Johns when it was first introduced. I'm really not trying to offend what you said although I understand where your coming from but cmon lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sayomi

Are you joking or being serious I can't tell... You wan't real strategy? Take a look back when Odin from Einherjar first came out, that was just an example of real strategy and don't tell me something in response that your LS killed Odin while afk eating Papa Johns when it was first introduced. I'm really not trying to offend what you said although I understand where your coming from but cmon lol.

---

When Odin was introduced was a little before my time when I started doing endgame events, so I wouldn't know.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arcon

I wasn't even talking about what a strategy is. Yes, communication and prioritizing of procs is a strategy. But neither of those things is required. Hence, a strategy is not required. That's what I said.

Also, I wasn't really agreeing with him, as there is current content that does require a strategy and a proper execution to work. I was just telling you what he meant by that. I know I should stop talking for people, it's a bad habit.

---

Sorry for the misunderstanding Arcon.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Trisscar

When Odin was introduced was a little before my time when I started doing endgame events, so I wouldn't know.

---

It's all good, alot of elements of the past were pretty hard but tons of fun, I loved watching linkshell after linkshell line up to die to cerberbus lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sayomi

It's all good, alot of elements of the past were pretty hard but tons of fun, I loved watching linkshell after linkshell line up to die to cerberbus lol

---

I liked die in a mess back when you could honestly expect to die in a mess.

well im not gonna read trough 74 pages but since a thread like this is going on i will post this here to get soome visibility (since alot of people will probably let it pass if i just leave this like that) , i posted this : http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...l=1#post353272

on the official thread and i want to know the opinion of the people around here, i know some people wont agree with me but i am really curious on the opinions around that and i would like some serious feedback not basic things like: wow it just plain bad, or wow awesome i loved it. I wanna know why you think it sucked or found it awesome, i know i am not a dev but i m graduating as a game designer this year so this is pretty much good for me as well in my career so i want to know if i am being unreasonable or not. thanks for your understanding.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Smokenttp

well im not gonna read trough 74 pages but since a thread like this is going on i will post this here to get soome visibility (since alot of people will probably let it pass if i just leave this like that) , i posted this : http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...l=1#post353272

on the official thread and i want to know the opinion of the people around here, i know some people wont agree with me but i am really curious on the opinions around that and i would like some serious feedback not basic things like: wow it just plain bad, or wow awesome i loved it. I wanna know why you think it sucked or found it awesome, i know i am not a dev but i m graduating as a game designer this year so this is pretty much good for me as well in my career so i want to know if i am being unreasonable or not. thanks for your understanding.

---

I know you didn't want this kind of response, but there is just way too much in that post to comment on all of it.

About half of it is good, and the rest i bad. If you break that up into separate posts, I'm sure people will be more willing to give feedback. I will say this though. They made exp way easier to get for a reason. The old methods of gaining exp never went away. All those people you see in gov / abyssea alliances leveling aren't going to go back to six man parties. They will just quit leveling new jobs. They only do it now because it is convenient.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FrankReynolds

I know you didn't want this kind of response, but there is just way too much in that post to comment on all of it.

About half of it is good, and the rest i bad. If you break that up into separate posts, I'm sure people will be more willing to give feedback. I will say this though. They made exp way easier to get for a reason. The old methods of gaining exp never went away. All those people you see in gov / abyssea alliances leveling aren't going to go back to six man parties. They will just quit leveling new jobs. They only do it now because it is convenient.

---

thanks i will see if i can break it up, also i know is kinda of a hassle but mind telling whats you tought it was good and what it was bad tough?, also i know that people will strugle if the abyssea capped is raised and the damage is already done but before all this you had only 2 reasons to level up a job :
1- because it would be usefull in a engame event you wanted to join
2- because you liked how the job played
if people eventually need for the 1st reason they will still level up jobs altough job favoritism is not benefical and i recognize that but its part of the game, no one wanted smn in the past now its a must for the new zerging game to work. i know i might have been anoying about this stuff but i like this game alot and it pretty much saddens me that people will just skip 8 years of hard work that has been put into a game because things where made irrelevant(also i know that theres a way to make some things relevant again, limbus 2.0 was a tentative on that even tough ppl dont do it much it still there as an "end game" option again), but i kinda dislike that low and mid levels where made irrelevant in the process(and i know that alot of people will disagree with me here).

The main issue with the other post is where you state "Raise level entry for Abyssea to 70-75 to make old content relevant again". I'm sorry, but how is that going to help make old content relevant again? I simply don't see how the logic follows.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FrankReynolds

About half of it is good, and the rest i bad. If you break that up into separate posts, I'm sure people will be more willing to give feedback.

---

That's the main issue with that post. There's so much in there that almost everyone will find something they don't agree with, so it's unlikely they'll like the post.

As for the EXP thing, you already said it, it's too late to do anything now. If you changed it back, every older player would have all their jobs leveled, but new players would struggle completely.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Trisscar

The main issue with the other post is where you state "Raise level entry for Abyssea to 70-75 to make old content relevant again". I'm sorry, but how is that going to help make old content relevant again? I simply don't see how the logic follows.

---

well i should have been a bit more specific on that, the thing is that this ideia alone would actually accomplish nothing and defnitly would not help to make old content relevant again, but it does make sense with the other ideias implemented altoghter. Say the let aby cap on 30 , but decide to put back the cap on mission ,but alowing ppl to quest an item for removing the cap, people will just breeze trough it like the cap wasnt there and would pretty much be the same as it is today. with pretty much no reason whatsoever to have low/mid level equipments or even belive that used to exist those levels. dont get me wrong its not like i dont like to level up fast , but i do fell that its too fast, and thinking in the game as a whole it feels like theres something throw away.

i've got it, eyeballed is rosina2.0

suddenly, it all makes sense

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arcon

Because neither communicating nor prioritizing procs is required.

---

It's kind of difficult to get to a level of throughput where these are not required without having spent a great deal of time on prior content from which you were unlikely to extract meaningful power upgrades from without communication and cooperation, though.

It's a little misleading to suggest these things aren't required at some point, even if you happen to sometimes luck into a pick-up kaggen run with enough geared folks to obliterate him in 30 seconds.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Plasticleg

i've got it, eyeballed is rosina2.0

suddenly, it all makes sense

---

Suddenly all of what makes sense?