Make FFXI Free to play!

yep, the barrier to new (I mean truly new, not returning) players is the age of the software and SE's decision not to modernize it. it's their decision, I'm not going to argue it because I don't have their data. would the loss of PS2 players cripple the financial model? idunno Would the cost of a redux of the graphics engine prove higher than anticipated revenue? Idunno would the current playerbase support a redux that would likely require buying the game again? Idunno would the loss of dial-up support kill the revenue stream? Idunno

And that's just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head in 30 seconds. How does F2P address any of that? that is putting up the $ without back-end numbers. BUT I can tell you this, if you can just buy your way into top end-game form at least 70% of the players that I know personally are GONE. We didn't put in all this time and effort just to see some noob a**wipe come in and be playing with stuff at least as good as ours.

To put this topic in the can.

"Make FFXI FTP"

The typical response from both SE and community.

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Originally Posted by Runespider

I came back to have a play around with how the game has changed lately and was amazed by the player loss since I was on last. This game is not going to last much longer the way it is, the player loss will soon simply reach critical numbers and when that happens it won't be profitable anymore, XIV is also going to cut large numbers away (even though it's horrible). Not even counting the fact that this game's players have almost all fully leveled everything now, this game needs new players desperately.

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What's the flaw here was Abyssea utterly wrecking the lifecycle of players- and in a sense, deliberately hobbling the game by not merely streamlining, but outright excising portions of how it was designed to work. It's a broken newbie experience. Why? Because Abyssea was meant to be the last bit before FFXI was put to pasture. It turned the game into an endgame-heavy system, without tending to the roots. The top of the tree is showered with love, but without the roots, it will eventually wither.

F2P won't get you that. What you need are reasons for high-level players to be in low-level areas and KEEP them there.

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Free to play will bring in lots of new and old players, all filling up the zones and hungry to do all the content (who doesn't wanna goto dunes or wherever and see masses of players?), it will also make the game a lot more profitable and hopefully that will spur new interest in SE to keep the game properly updated.

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No it won't. It'll channel everyone through Gusgen -> Crawler's/Abyssea again. Players will flow to the points of lowest effort, just like they do now, and ignore the rest. They'll just do it in greater numbers. The only thing that will fix the non-endgame is simple.

You have to make people go through it. Not "optional", because people generally skip optional for optimal. You -have- to build content that's relevant, and given a limited development team, the most relevant is endgame. Thus, Adoulin- and the impossibility of making the game relevant for new players.

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Is F2P desired under normal conditions? No. Is it a huge boost to a floundering title? You bet it is, look at Rift and how full the zones are compared to before. Sometimes you have to be a realist and F2P is what this game needs to keep it breathing and fun. Will the game continue to run for years to come even with massive player losses? maybe, but will you still want to play such a stale, dead game?

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FFXI is already "dead", in that sense- it'll go the way of Everquest. A loyal hardcore retro-gaming base, and that'll be about it. The stay of execution for this game is FFXIV. If it succeeds, FFXI will die. If it fails, FFXI may die anyway. F2P won't change that. I can wander through Everquest, which is a F2P'd version of it's prior self.

It's the same way. Dead almost entirely, with the endgame being the only thriving portion of the game. FFXI did it to itself the second Abyssea's exp system became active, and honestly, the only way to even start to revive it would be excising the exp fountain the same way they did the blinker-Gil fountain. Because THAT entire deal was the previous dev lead surrendering to what he considered the inevitable failure of everything prior to it, that 1-75 was no longer meaningful content and the rest was only meaningful until FFXIV supplanted it.

You can't even -find- most lower-level gear on the AH anymore. Why? Because nobody needs it. Mostly, the game now starts around 50th gearwise to the obvious conclusions, and Adoulin in turn renders everything prior to it meaningless.

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FFXI is still a great game, but it needs more love from the developers and a lot more fresh players. A free to play hybrid (with an optional subscription for extra benefits) will bring in a lot more money and most importantly players, the money F2P players spend on cash shops is insane compared to the measily £12.99 a month most of us spend.

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It won't get the dev love. S-E doesn't have the money to do so, and it doesn't have the capacity to make F2P appealing other than re-establishing the grind for F2P- which is about the only way I'd appreciate it. Let them sweat it out the old-fashioned way and we'd actually have a low-level game again. No books, no Abyssea exp bonus effects, having to 6-man it in the fields and dungeons.

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The people that are hardcore against f2p when the game is dying are like parents refusing a blood transfusion for their baby due to religious reasons, sometimes you just gotta stop being pig headed and see the reality of the situation and although you might not like it see that it's the best for the game.

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See above. Simply making the game F2P would do nothing to restore life to it, unless you literally cripple the exp gain system to oldschool levels in the process.

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Originally Posted by nyheen

whats with the people trying to get this free to play? seems to be doing fine with the monthly subs. why you think SE would want to drop it to F2P?

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Sometimes it's a pain in the butt getting you character deactivated because you forgot to add Crysta or funds to your bank account on payday. I would consider a F2P option but most of the game content would be restricted except the LS chat and Say.

If SE made Vana'diel more player friendly but restrictive to progression unless you pay your sub, I would think that would be reasonable. Maybe if you son't pay your sub, you can't leave your Mog House,lol! Your under house arrest until taxes are paid in full! =P

If you cant, well so what! At least we can still log into PoL and send messages to our friends. I tried XD

http://www.datgif.com/wp-content/upl...ad-old-man.gif

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Originally Posted by Psxpert2011

Sometimes it's a pain in the butt getting you character deactivated because you forgot to add Crysta or funds to your bank account on payday. I would consider a F2P option but most of the game content would be restricted except the LS chat and Say.

If SE made Vana'diel more player friendly but restrictive to progression unless you pay your sub, I would think that would be reasonable. Maybe if you son't pay your sub, you can't leave your Mog House,lol! Your under house arrest until taxes are paid in full! =P

If you cant, well so what! At least we can still log into PoL and send messages to our friends. I tried XD

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You know you can reactivate characters for up to a year right?

What?.....

Idk I got bored....

Even with us paying them there hasn't been much improvement to this game.

Sorry to say but XI isnt selling great anymore then what it was from launch.
Do I think they game should go free to play? No but I do think we are paying too much for a game thats 11 years old.

Um it isn't selling very good because it's an old game. The only people who are going to buy it now are:

"Returning players"
"Friends of current/former players who were recommended the game"

I would think at least when XIV is released and (Hopefully) if it's successful, a reduction on XI's monthly fee will be in order.

Free to play is a bad idea and brings in the wrong kind of people. Just look at when frre to play did to EQ2. There are less people playing the game now that its free to play then when it was paid to play. Its hard to build a community when the game is full of game jumpers.

F2P is a bad idea like other said. However a good point was brought up. The lack of new players will kill this game. Veterans are concentrating more on end game content and that leaves no one to level in gunmen mines and crawlers nest. People don't like others leeching in abyssea. People quit after a week trying desperately to catch up to mid level players.

Veterans quitting will cause a snowball effect and will lead ffxi to its grave.

The best way to avoid that is to make soloing easier up to lvl 75. By 75 you have a chance to be admitted to an abyssea party.

Make all previous missions easier such as Rise of Zilart and Promathia. I don't mean the nostalgic but the actual mission length. It took me a week and a half to get about 3/4 of Promathia done with a lvl 99 beastmaster. The running around is nuts.

Also making trial of magians weapons easier to get will also help. Eliminating the need to proc for areas would also be nice.

I know people will bring up well veterans will be upset.... We'll veterans played at a time when there were more people to team up with. You have to realize that there aren't a whole lot of people who need atma nm's. Leave SoA and beyond content the way it is. Make everything else attainable either by solo or duo.

F2P is a bad idea like other said. However a good point was brought up. The lack of new players will kill this game. Veterans are concentrating more on end game content and that leaves no one to level in gunmen mines and crawlers nest. People don't like others leeching in abyssea. People quit after a week trying desperately to catch up to mid level players.

Veterans quitting will cause a snowball effect and will lead ffxi to its grave.

The best way to avoid that is to make soloing easier up to lvl 75. By 75 you have a chance to be admitted to an abyssea party.

Make all previous missions easier such as Rise of Zilart and Promathia. I don't mean the nostalgic but the actual mission length. It took me a week and a half to get about 3/4 of Promathia done with a lvl 99 beastmaster. The running around is nuts.

Also making trial of magians weapons easier to get will also help. Eliminating the need to proc for areas would also be nice.

I know people will bring up well veterans will be upset.... We'll veterans played at a time when there were more people to team up with. You have to realize that there aren't a whole lot of people who need atma nm's. Leave SoA and beyond content the way it is. Make everything else attainable either by solo or duo. Make it like any other drop. Proc would give you a higher chance but I think killing the nm should also give you a chance to have the atma drop regardless of the proc.

I love this game so much that I want it to continue on a successful path. Getting new players is the only way to make this game like it used to be.

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Originally Posted by Prestorian

F2P is a bad idea like other said. However a good point was brought up. The lack of new players will kill this game. Veterans are concentrating more on end game content and that leaves no one to level in gunmen mines and crawlers nest. People don't like others leeching in abyssea. People quit after a week trying desperately to catch up to mid level players.

Veterans quitting will cause a snowball effect and will lead ffxi to its grave.

The best way to avoid that is to make soloing easier up to lvl 75. By 75 you have a chance to be admitted to an abyssea party.

Make all previous missions easier such as Rise of Zilart and Promathia. I don't mean the nostalgic but the actual mission length. It took me a week and a half to get about 3/4 of Promathia done with a lvl 99 beastmaster. The running around is nuts.

Also making trial of magians weapons easier to get will also help. Eliminating the need to proc for areas would also be nice.

I know people will bring up well veterans will be upset.... We'll veterans played at a time when there were more people to team up with. You have to realize that there aren't a whole lot of people who need atma nm's. Leave SoA and beyond content the way it is. Make everything else attainable either by solo or duo. Make it like any other drop. Proc would give you a higher chance but I think killing the nm should also give you a chance to have the atma drop regardless of the proc.

I love this game so much that I want it to continue on a successful path. Getting new players is the only way to make this game like it used to be.

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Game not about the exping anymore. This game does need improvements on traveling to next spot toget next cutscene. Found that most cutscenes in the game dont need you to be actually in the room. Alot of older content needs to be done much easyer and newer content needs major improvements aswell. Abyssea... think we need to remove travel stones, (raise timer cap), entry unlimited, and add double/tripple the chance of getting procs.

SoA needs better designed content, not unbeatable content for 1 year+.
Graphic upgrade is very important.
UI & Character Animations need major improvements.

FFXIV will probably just replace this game if FFXIV combat becomes more like FFXI.

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Originally Posted by Rustic

S-E doesn't have the money to do so, and it doesn't have the capacity to make F2P appealing other than re-establishing the grind for F2P- which is about the only way I'd appreciate it. Let them sweat it out the old-fashioned way and we'd actually have a low-level game again. No books, no Abyssea exp bonus effects, having to 6-man it in the fields and dungeons.

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I recall another thread that suggested the (little-known) 14-day free trial be extended indefinitely. It's hobbled to prevent RMT's by only including core game (i.e. pre-Zilart) content, a level cap of 30, and no shouting/trading/bazaaring/auction. Find a way to get these people into a linkshell in spite of the "no trading" restriction, and that's pretty much what you've just described.

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Originally Posted by Ziyyigo-Tipyigo

I recall another thread that suggested the (little-known) 14-day free trial be extended indefinitely. It's hobbled to prevent RMT's by only including core game (i.e. pre-Zilart) content, a level cap of 30, and no shouting/trading/bazaaring/auction. Find a way to get these people into a linkshell in spite of the "no trading" restriction, and that's pretty much what you've just described.

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Don't forget you cant invite people to parties either, you have to be invited to a party... wonderfully stupid.

Yeah, it is too limited. Should probably level cap you to 50, and allow trades to some extent. Like one trade per day.

Should also be allowed to tell people who are on your friend list, and create parties.

I honestly wish there was a way to simply allow it to be a real trial rather than having to work around stupid assholes who would abuse the damn thing, without it there is hardly anyone who would try this game out, let alone with it when it makes the game look like its dead, abandoned, and terrible.

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Originally Posted by Volarione

You know you can reactivate characters for up to a year right?

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Actually you can reactivate characters forever now.

After reading all the post there is one thing no one brought up. There are more then one type of free to play systems that can and do work, but i doubt square will even attempt to look into it, since one them could make them even more money.

One such system is just keep the subs base model as is. You get a discount on any add on's if any come along if have paid enough months on a subscription. and if need a content code same price as currently and server swap same price. for those on subs model nothing will change and get all updates for free.

Next you allow anyone to play up to lv99 , but only in the old areas for free and there gear is cap at lv 65. unless they pay 5 dollars get one week weapons unlocked. or are on a subscription. gear is back to normal.

Mules will be 10 dollars under this free to play model and be locked same as main account for gear and access. if you have no subscription and then it will become unlocked: example max lv99 and lv65 gear or where ever your main account content you got, if monthly subscription then same as always.

Next you charged for each expansion + , Example You charge people like 30 dollars for zilart and if subscription runs out still get access to zilart all the time for life and lv cap be 99 and gear be cap at 70 with no subscription. You have all expansion +'s then they will cap at lv 99 and lv95 gear if buy all the expansions pluses and no subscriptions will be needed. And if they do it right that could make them about 300 bucks, and that be like 2 years of subscriptions fees. and allows a influx of new people. And the rest of us wouldn't notice much beside alot of new players and shouts.

You still get the codes from the registration works fine for the way it is if paying monthly, but the areas become locked if not paying the subscription and if in a area when the subscription runs out it warps back to starting city unless got expansion + bought or subscription fees working.

This help old players returning and for them to bring along new players. To get there friends to try the game and become addicted to the game. Since the money from them not even coming to square since they have been afk for years or if it a new player never played this game. Also if someone get a use copy then they got to pay through the teeth. For the registration codes.

You do not need a registration code to start the free to play element. Just a copy of the disk rest stuff be on square account manager. This way people can just jump in and install and play the game and forces square work on there account management system to be more casual friendly.

Would be kinda cool if FFXI was free to play if you were paying for a character in FFXIV....would be incentive for all XI players to check out XIV.

Wont happen of course ^^

FFXI wouldn't succeed as a F2P model simply because it's the most time consuming MMORPG out there. Almost everything takes forever to accomplish (even walking through areas), almost everything requires help from multiple people to get stuff done (even your own artifact armor). That was cool in the beginning of the MMO era when interaction was the biggest thing but nowadays nobody wants that. Its all about time spent/reward. Well besides us crazy people that are addicted to this.

FFXI might even be rediscovered by a new generation of players but for them to stay the game has to change A LOT. And honestly i doubt the majority here that are getting their Adoulin gear through endgame linkshells would like the changes.


Like someone already said the market for low level gear is basically dead. Its scary to be honest that i came back to the game after 3 years to find it near impossible to gear yourself through the AH. Actually almost the whole Auction House seems dead right now. As a returning player i sincerely gave up on the idea of doing Abyssea.


There are no linkshells doing them and i came to a conclusion that either SE close the gap between Adoulin and pre Adoulin themselves or we might start recording youtube videos to remember our good times before the servers are shut down, because when veteran players start quitting the game the gap that Abyssea created between players will kill endgame linkshells and the game itself right after.

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Originally Posted by Spectreman

FFXI might even be rediscovered by a new generation of players but for them to stay the game has to change A LOT. And honestly i doubt the majority here that are getting their Adoulin gear through endgame linkshells would like the changes.

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They had it with abby , just that guy, he got pulled off of ff11, before he was able to finish all the stuff and was forced to fix ff14 with a big fat raise, and, Then we got the guy that wanted to change the game back to his way(the old style and He would not listen to the fans). Now this new guy got a mess to clean up again with seekers and it sucks he got to fix issues instead adding stuff., because this game was on the verge of being amazing again with abby system and if they could have just added FF14 gear in ff11 then . Your able to bring to FF14 some the gear you earn in FF11 that would have been a game breaker for mmos and this game would even been crazier then any mmo in the world in a amazing way.

I'm really going to miss FF11 when it finally comes time for it to be shut down.

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Originally Posted by Anjou

I'm really going to miss FF11 when it finally comes time for it to be shut down.

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I really don't think the game is in a rush anyway...maybe some server merges. I believe EverQuest is still running since 1999 and is on its 19th expansion. Hosting a server is getting cheaper and cheaper.

Would be nice if fees could at least go down...maybe by half.

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Originally Posted by Amaroq

Hosting a server is getting cheaper and cheaper.

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Oh, I'm sure all the servers are hosted out of a shoebox at this point, but that codebase for new content doesn't get any younger or less Byzantine. And SOE, ironically enough, doesn't have to worry about keeping people who still understand the PS2 on the payroll.

FFXI is F2P for me. My mommy pays the monthly fee.

I cannot say one way or another whether F2P is the last hope for FFXI. Part of me would argue that it would only cover up the things that are still wrong with the game--archaic game philosophy, misguided job balancing, catering to endgamers only, among other issues. Another part would say that F2P couldn't hurt if S-E found it in them to change to the FFXIV engine and spruce up the UI.

I'm not sure going to the Guild Wars 2 model would work at this point (One-off payment to play, for those who don't know), but it couldn't hurt.

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Originally Posted by sc4500

They had it with abby , just that guy, he got pulled off of ff11, before he was able to finish all the stuff and was forced to fix ff14 with a big fat raise, and, Then we got the guy that wanted to change the game back to his way(the old style and He would not listen to the fans). Now this new guy got a mess to clean up again with seekers and it sucks he got to fix issues instead adding stuff., because this game was on the verge of being amazing again with abby system and if they could have just added FF14 gear in ff11 then . Your able to bring to FF14 some the gear you earn in FF11 that would have been a game breaker for mmos and this game would even been crazier then any mmo in the world in a amazing way.

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The second S-E murdered (rather than fixed) the lower-level play by giving people an amazingly trivial road to 30-99 and similar tactics for new players to 10-70, they'd basically cut the roots out from under the game. Now the game is essentially starting when you can enter Dynamis -> 99.