Newest interview (abyssea was a mistake?)

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Originally Posted by Natasha

Like I said, can't be explained to someone who didnt like it in the first place. Them being there is one thing, they're infinitely easier... theres no reward to playing anymore... really I would say that the game lost its soul but I dont think that would get what I mean across any better.

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I get what you mean, you want things to "meant something" and that getting it meant you have completed considerable challenge and overcome it. It is definitely a different feeling than just "getting it easily" with minimal effort. Yes the game has evolved since its 2003 NA launch, for you, it may be for the worse, for me, it is for the better. Perhaps you want to tackle Demon Soul and Dark Soul? I know that game will suit your playstyle :)

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Originally Posted by Kimble

So, people like grinding to get gear, because it means something, but they don't want to grind for gear in voidwatch?

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I have no problem with voidwatch excepting that i think the system is pretty dumb (not speaking of drops, im talking about the spawn, atmacite, etc.)

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Originally Posted by Kimble

So, people like grinding to get gear, because it means something, but they don't want to grind for gear in voidwatch?

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OMG, hah hah hah hah hah so very very very very TRUE!! They are now given a "hard challenge" where they have to do it over and over and over and over and over gazillion times till they get the gear (and toss bazillion of junks or same items) and yet the "hardcore" complaint and bitch because they can't get it in one try... Heck tons of other sellable stuffs from voidwatch stil fetch quite pretty gills at auction houses. Magian Trials are still a "challenge" - a super grindfest. Einherjar are still somewhat a challenge as well. Tons of grindfest challenge for old schoolers but yet they still complaint that it is not the way it was, funny...

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

OMG, hah hah hah hah hah so very very very very TRUE!! They are now given a "hard challenge" where they have to do it over and over and over and over and over gazillion times till they get the gear (and toss bazillion of junks or same items) and yet the "hardcore" complaint and bitch because they can't get it in one try... Heck tons of other sellable stuffs from voidwatch stil fetch quite pretty gills at auction houses. Magian Trials are still a "challenge" - a super grindfest. Einherjar are still somewhat a challenge as well. Tons of grindfest challenge for old schoolers but yet they still complaint that it is not the way it was, funny...

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Voidwatch is not that hard. So I assume the people who complain about it are not the same people or they have some specific complaint about how the system works.

out of curiosity what is your favorite zone in the game?

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Originally Posted by Neisan_Quetz

FFXI's population was in decline before Abyssea was released, not saying Abyssea didn't eventually compound the problem.

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I only came back because of Abyssea and I know a lot of people in the same boat. The idea of spending a year to get to level 50 didn't appeal to me (still doesn't) - and hearing the devs say Abyssea is/was a mistake makes me think the game is going to go in the opposite direction to what I want in a game, which is sad.

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Originally Posted by Natasha

I have no problem with voidwatch excepting that i think the system is pretty dumb (not speaking of drops, im talking about the spawn, atmacite, etc.)

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Voidwatch is not dumb, stagger means you cannot zerg, some mobs you have to space out the stagger or they will own you. Stagger means a lot of different jobs are needed, and Paladin is a must have and many other non abyssea jobs. Spawn is great, you no longer have to WAIT for hours and try to claim. Atmacite is just the right amount of boost, not AWESOME like abyssea but a little help is better than none. Temp items is great, if you know how to use them, you up the chance of winning. The droprate is suck, but hey, you asked for old school style, where the drop rate is, notoriously SUCKS and you have to kill it many many many times. But at least no one is going to outlot you now, even if you get 11 Fajin boots - which I have yet gotten, instead I been getting all these damn logs...

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Originally Posted by Natasha

Voidwatch is not that hard.

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It's not hard at all. People don't hate VW because it is hard, they hate it because they would rather play the game than spend 3 hours gathering people for a 5 minute fight.

And of course the ludicrous drop system doesn't help either.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...logfantasy.png

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

Voidwatch is not dumb, stagger means you cannot zerg, some mobs you have to space out the stagger or they will own you. Stagger means a lot of different jobs are needed, and Paladin is a must have and many other non abyssea jobs. Spawn is great, you no longer have to WAIT for hours and try to claim. Atmacite is just the right amount of boost, not AWESOME like abyssea but a little help is better than none. Temp items is great, if you know how to use them, you up the chance of winning. The droprate is suck, but hey, you asked for old school style, where the drop rate is, notoriously SUCKS and you have to kill it many many many times. But at least no one is going to outlot you now, even if you get 11 Fajin boots - which I have yet gotten, instead I been getting all these damn logs...

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It's a stupid system, it might as well be all done through bcnms if you just run somewhere to pop something.

And no, im not complaining about having to go somewhere... Im saying that the system is redundant in that theres no other reason to go to any of these places. The stagger system sucks too but im not going to bother explaining that one to you.

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Originally Posted by Natasha

out of curiosity what is your favorite zone in the game?

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Zi'Tah and Boyahda because it is green (and not red...with red sky) and hardly no one is there. Discovering new ground tomes that most japanese players exploit, hellooooo zeruhm mines!! Walk of Echoes cuz I can just go do it and afk for 8 mnts. Most of the ToAU zones cuz of Nyzul and Assaults. Some areas in WoTG cuz I have to do the missions - and have to wait for other people to do the missions.... The second abyssea expansion is not too bad since many areas are green, not attowha though.

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Originally Posted by Olor

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...logfantasy.png

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This needs its own thread.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

Zi'Tah and Boyahda because it is green (and not red...with red sky) and hardly no one is there. Discovering new ground tomes that most japanese players exploit, hellooooo zeruhm mines!! Walk of Echoes cuz I can just go do it and afk for 8 mnts. Most of the ToAU zones cuz of Nyzul and Assaults. Some areas in WoTG cuz I have to do the missions - and have to wait for other people to do the missions.... The second abyssea expansion is not too bad since many areas are green, not attowha though.

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Zone, singular.. I want to know which zone you like most of all (at least the top 3)

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Originally Posted by Olor

It's not hard at all. People don't hate VW because it is hard, they hate it because they would rather play the game than spend 3 hours gathering people for a 5 minute fight.

And of course the ludicrous drop system doesn't help either.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...logfantasy.png

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Thats exactly the point i was making -.- ... That if people were complaining it was hard then they werent people who were wanting old ffxi back.

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Originally Posted by Natasha

It's a stupid system, it might as well be all done through bcnms if you just run somewhere to pop something.

And no, im not complaining about having to go somewhere... Im saying that the system is redundant in that theres no other reason to go to any of these places. The stagger system sucks too but im not going to bother explaining that one to you.

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It is pretty great actually, you are forced to go places, and you have to do some legwork in WoTG areas and use the maws. The direct teleport is beyond awesome, now you can just port to gusgen mines, crawler nest and boyahda direct with no walking!! The NMs need some teamwork or they will own you, and none of the zerg strategy will work for all the mobs, people actually have to level other VIP jobs to be more versatile and follow direction to when to engage and when to not engage. Mages have to work together to share the stagger systems and not blindly spam spells, Sch actually matters, and whms have to work extra hard to keep the tank alive - not to mention PLD can shine where mobs murder the ninjas and the monks.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

It is pretty great actually, you are forced to go places, and you have to do some legwork in WoTG areas and use the maws. The direct teleport is beyond awesome, now you can just port to gusgen mines, crawler nest and boyahda direct with no walking!! The NMs need some teamwork or they will own you, and none of the zerg strategy will work for all the mobs, people actually have to level other VIP jobs to be more versatile and follow direction to when to engage and when to not engage. Mages have to work together to share the stagger systems and not blindly spam spells, Sch actually matters, and whms have to work extra hard to keep the tank alive - not to mention PLD can shine where mobs murder the ninjas and the monks.

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Direct teleport is even worse.

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Originally Posted by Natasha

Zone, singular.. I want to know which zone you like most of all (at least the top 3)

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Boyahda, and Zi'tah (mainly for the relaxing zen music). But I like a lot of zones, there are plenty of unused zones in the game though - if it not for magian trials most people won't bother going to explore. Ground tomes are great addition, at least when you skill ups and do things in these dungeons, you feel like you are getting something extra.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

Boyahda, and Zi'tah (mainly for the relaxing zen music). But I like a lot of zones, there are plenty of unused zones in the game though - if it not for magian trials most people won't bother going to explore. Ground tomes are great addition, at least when you skill ups and do things in these dungeons, you feel like you are getting something extra.

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Lol you must be like anti-me... I hate grounds tomes (indirectly) since the update they came with gave way to book burns.

Whats so bad about direct teleporting?

And what is wrong with book burning? lol

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Originally Posted by Natasha

Direct teleport is even worse.

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This is one of the best thing ever happened in the game, no more useless timesink travel time. It is great the first time you go explore, but not for the 100th time you have to do it. Direct port to the zone where bcnms are (not the bcnm itself) would be great, then I can easily find more people to do this since it cut down the 10-15 mnts time spent to reach the bcnms. You want instant fun, not needless time sink over and over and over. All those waystone earrings are beyond awesome, you can warp direct to Nashmau to do Einherjar instead of having to wait 10-30 mnts for people to gather.

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Originally Posted by Kimble

Whats so bad about direct teleporting?

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Please don't make me get into that >.> ... I hate having to stand up for what I believe because it takes forever lol ... as you can see im willing to do it anyway and its cutting into study time.

I think all my reasons were covered in the 'teleport to bcnms' thread that had been on the hot topics for a while.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

This is one of the best thing ever happened in the game, no more useless timesink travel time. It is great the first time you go explore, but not for the 100th time you have to do it. Direct port to the zone where bcnms are (not the bcnm itself) would be great, then I can easily find more people to do this since it cut down the 10-15 mnts time spent to reach the bcnms. You want instant fun, not needless time sink over and over and over. All those waystone earrings are beyond awesome, you can warp direct to Nashmau to do Einherjar instead of having to wait 10-30 mnts for people to gather.

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This is EXACTLY the problem with casuals (i view myself as casual just so you know) travel is not a timesink -.- ... what good adventure had no travel in it?

Ah well, sorry, not going to dig through another thread just to find you reasoning, lol.

I travel the same path to work every day. Doesn't make it an adventure.

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Originally Posted by Natasha

Thats exactly the point i was making -.- ... That if people were complaining it was hard then they werent people who were wanting old ffxi back.

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The old ways are about gathering people for hours... and asking if they have xyz jobs, and camping the sky and fight it out with RMT people to get claim, and have 5-7 things dropped that are either not what you want, or good luck getting a claim cuz some of the VIP members of LS have the claim and you are just warm body to help them get what they want.

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Originally Posted by Kimble

Ah well, sorry, not going to dig through another thread just to find you reasoning, lol.

I travel the same path to work every day. Doesn't make it an adventure.

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Why even have areas then, if theres no reason to travel through them.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

The old ways are about gathering people for hours... and asking if they have xyz jobs, and camping the sky and fight it out with RMT people to get claim, and have 5-7 things dropped that are either not what you want, or good luck getting a claim cuz some of the VIP members of LS have the claim and you are just warm body to help them get what they want.

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You never had to do endgame, if you did you were expected to make some kind of investment in it. <- this makes sense

Now, everyone does it cause thats all there is <- this does not make sense.

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Originally Posted by Natasha

This is EXACTLY the problem with casuals (i view myself as casual just so you know) travel is not a timesink -.- ... what good adventure had no travel in it?

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Travel is fine, you have to travel inside abyssea (very minimal) - you have to travel to get to VW pop (very minimal) - but traveling for more than 10-20 mnts to reach a zone IS NOT OK. The first five times you may like it, but not for the 10th-20th time you keep having to do this. Things that should take a 60-90 mnts can easily stretch into a 3-4 hours deal because half the people did not do their homework and everyone have to wait around for them to get there. This is not OK - it's rude to make other people wait for you, especially if they are there to help you get your stuffs done :) Obviously this is not about you, heh heh heh.

Ok this is getting annoying now. Stop with trying to romanticize "old FFXI", your deluding yourselves.

You people argue and complain about abyssea making "XP" easy ... and yet yearn for "old style" Xp parties. Yet you fail to mention those parties were RDM BRD BRD WAR SAM MNK, and NOTHING ELSE. Your wanting to level SMN, BST, PUP, BLM, or a myriad of other jobs, better have a friend who's RDM or BRD and hope they insist you be allowed into the party. "Old style" XP was just people holding their party hostage to get their friends in.

"Old style" content boiled down to two things, one being waiting 3~4 hours in Dragons Aery to attempt to outclaim all the bots for a 21~24hr spawn NM. Second having to making a schedule to attend an event with 17~20+ other people where the leaders would tally points and control gear distribution. If you didn't' give the LS leaders wet oral encouragement then you'd be near the bottom of the list for getting your stuff done, maybe never being allowed to get your drop.

THAT was FFXI, if you didn't fall into those two groups then you were stuck with absolutely nothing to do. Assault / Nyzule Isle gear sucked, there was better available on the AH for the most part. There was NO strategy, no SC / MB, no mysterious magic that made the game "better". It was a bunch of LS leaders herding cats and telling you what to do. They could carbon copy whatever "winning" strategy was present on BG to maximize gear acquisition for the leaders and their chosen few. Ultimately this always boiled down to a melee zerg. No strategy involved, just the simplest / fastest method for obtaining gear.

Abyssea introduced super hard NMs, but also super powerful buffs. Anyone and I mean ANYONE complaining about this, just go do Abyssea without crour buffs or atma, there your problem is now solved. The only reason abyssea seems "easy" is that players found the best combinations of atma possible. Remove Apoc / RR and suddenly it seems much much harder. And ultimately, Abyssea NM's weren't any harder / easier then pre-abyssea NM's once players found a strategy. Omega, Ultima, Hydra, Khimera, and Kirin were all "easy" once we figured them out. DL was FARMED for drops, just throw CSS and he's a joke. It may take longer, so a 30min fight vs a 5~10 min, but length of fight does not dictate difficulty.

The real difference between abyssea / pre-abyssea / post-abyssea is that you could control your gear acquisition rate. Abyssea had a steady method to acquire your +1/+2 armor and emp weapon. For 8 seals you would have to fight a guy 3~6 times, so you could say the +1 armor had a 15~25% "drop" rate. For 6 coins you would have to fight a NM 2~4 times (if it was the guaranteed drop) so again same 25% "drop" rate. Armor was a bit harder due to 10/9 but was still obtainable with friends. Which is the whole point, if I'm helping a friend get his +2 armor, there will be other drops that myself and everyone else could lot on. Something for everyone and all that jazz.

THAT is what abyssea was about, helping each other acquire better gear without having to give oral encouragement to linkshell leaders. You could still do it with a LS and you would acquire a crap ton of gear, I know I did, but you could also opt to just go do those NM's with a few friends. The choice of gear acquisition was in your hands.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

Travel is fine, you have to travel inside abyssea (very minimal) - you have to travel to get to VW pop (very minimal) - but traveling for more than 10-20 mnts to reach a zone IS NOT OK. The first five times you may like it, but not for the 10th-20th time you keep having to do this. Things that should take a 60-90 mnts can easily stretch into a 3-4 hours deal because half the people did not do their homework and everyone have to wait around for them to get there. This is not OK - it's rude to make other people wait for you, especially if they are there to help you get your stuffs done :) Obviously this is not about you, heh heh heh.

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The amount of travel in ffxi before abyssea was perfectly acceptable, long enough to make people be serious but not long enough to make you not want to go somewhere.

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Originally Posted by Natasha

You never had to do endgame, if you did you were expected to make some kind of investment in it. <- this makes sense

Now, everyone does it cause thats all there is <- this does not make sense.

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This is a GAME, not work, not stock market, no one should do "investment" of any kind other than to log in, go play and have fun, repeat infinitum over and over. Yes in a way, any gaming experience is just another way of wasting our free time, hence it should not feel like work where you have to invest. When I log out of the game, everything about the game means absolutely nothing to me.

I'm sorry but the most annoying thing about old FFXI was sitting around and waiting for everyone else to get there to get started. hell that is still the most annoying thing.

"hey guys, event starts at 5!"

/gets to the event right at 5.

/other people wait till 5 to start to move to the area.

/is now 6 and event is finally starting.

Yeah, that was REAL fun.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

This is a GAME, not work, not stock market, no one should do "investment" of any kind other than to log in, go play and have fun, repeat infinitum over and over. Yes in a way, any gaming experience is just another way of wasting our free time, hence it should not feel like work where you have to invest. When I log out of the game, everything about the game means absolutely nothing to me.

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Already explained what I think about your game theory.

Saevel, thank you for saying it like it is. Your post summed it up quite nicely. The old ways are retarded, stupid, and just plain suck. Long live abyssea!! Voidwatch is not perfect but at least those crap and logs are all mine and I can blame my luck for not getting the gears or for getting it the 10th time.

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Originally Posted by Natasha

Already explained what I think about your game theory.

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Yes, I play for fun, and you play to find some "meaning and accomplishment overcoming great challenge" :) To each of their own I suppose, and now FFXI is giving both of us different ways to enjoy the game.

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Originally Posted by Kimble

I'm sorry but the most annoying thing about old FFXI was sitting around and waiting for everyone else to get there to get started. hell that is still the most annoying thing.

"hey guys, event starts at 5!"

/gets to the event right at 5.

/other people wait till 5 to start to move to the area.

/is now 6 and event is finally starting.

Yeah, that was REAL fun.

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Not every second should be volatile fun, its not like this game was made so that every second will get adrenaline flowing. Part of the game is communication, and part is strategy~ Waiting is inevitable in any online game, dont expect it all to be action.

If an event is suppose to start at a certain time, I expect it to start at that time. Is that really to much to ask for? lol

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

Yes, I play for fun, and you play to find some "meaning and accomplishment overcoming great challenge" :) To each of their own I suppose, and now FFXI is giving both of us different ways to enjoy the game.

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I don't get anything from ffxi anymore cept maybe nostalgia... still enjoy it but if i hadnt have played it before abyssea and started after, I wouldnt be playing today.

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Originally Posted by Kimble

If an event is suppose to start at a certain time, I expect it to start at that time. Is that really to much to ask for? lol

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Thats a people problem, not a game mechanic problem.

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Originally Posted by Natasha

Thats a people problem, not a game mechanic problem.

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And direct teleporting helps alleviate that problem.

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Originally Posted by Kimble

And direct teleporting helps alleviate that problem.

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An unnecessary and detracting fix.

So you're perfectly fine waiting around and not doing anything for an hour while everyone else gets there even though you were on time?