Return to Vana'diel?

Hello FFXI community,

I was wondering if SE had any big plans to get people playing again with a new expansion on the horizon? I think some advertisements and another return to vana'diel would be nice to get returning players back and maybe some new players to come join and experience the game, would be nice to have the players required to level up the new jobs with,

It's my belief that, like Abyssea before it, SoA is a financial safety net in case FFXIV ARR underperforms. (Which, by a hunch, I suspect may happen.) If that's the case, there probably won't be a whole lot of buzz about it... They will certainly make announcements on their relevant web sites and pages, and might even do a teeny bit of advertising, but nothing near the level of other modern MMOs.

Sadly it was said somewhere before that the entirety of the new expansion will focus on the lvl 99 players. Although the new producer also stated that the new expansion as well as the game as a whole is being tinkered with so who knows what things will be like.

As for new and returning, if your returning and still have your old char it wont be so bad. Starting from scratch is a little more tough but not impossible if you like the game. Sadly ffxi in its current state is not new player friendly by any means so it has more problems holding the new players than most mmos and with ARR on the horizon and the videos being released, ffxi is really showing its age.

ffxi of 2012 is not the ffxi of 2002-2010 so returners will be in for a big surprise.

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Originally Posted by Elphy

As for new and returning, if your returning and still have your old char it wont be so bad. Starting from scratch is a little more tough but not impossible if you like the game. Sadly ffxi in its current state is not new player friendly by any means so it has more problems holding the new players than most mmos and with ARR on the horizon and the videos being released, ffxi is really showing its age.

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That's in part due to the fact that you don't see older players in lower-level areas, period. Abyssea's made anyone who hits L30 on a new job effectively vanish from anywhere else if they can find a cleave party to leech exp off of, and even those that don't are jumping in huge steps towards L99 anyway. The game was designed around a much more gradual level-up process, and Abyssea zones broke that badly.

As for new expansions showing their age- honestly, it's a twofold issue. The new expansion won't have a PS2 release in the US, and honestly- that's where the limitations are. Having to work inside the PS2's "box" of capacity. Even if the game upgraded to PS3/XBox/PC levels of capacity, you'd be able to free up huge amounts of room for renovating the engine. Renovate, do another "Hey, try our new and improved FFXI!" promotion by putting some trial discs out there showing off the new look up through Zilart areas and there you go. Bonus: Trial FFXIV with the same disc as a "Explore the worlds of Square-Enix".

I think S-E right now still has the lingering thoughts that FFXI was something to be gently put down after FFXIV became the new star of their MMO universe, when in fact they should be looking at it like Sony did for Everquest. It got revamped and is still producing profits for them, enough to fuel a steady release of new content, graphics improvements, and more. It costs less to improve and expand an existing system than it does to build a new one from scratch- the only real fetter on FFXI improvements has and will be is forcing the game to remain inside the capacity of a 12-year old console.

If they're willing to treat FFXI not as an old flower about to wither but as an evergreen that will easily last decades, you could see it last for another 10 expansions, easily. Everquest is on it's 19th one as of last month! To me, I look at FFXI and FFXIV as similar to EQ1 and EQ2. Both have managed to coexist and profit without stepping on the other's toes, and S-E can do the same.

It'd help if they had a more robust account restoration system, mind you...

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Originally Posted by Elphy

Sadly it was said somewhere before that the entirety of the new expansion will focus on the lvl 99 players. Although the new producer also stated that the new expansion as well as the game as a whole is being tinkered with so who knows what things will be like.

As for new and returning, if your returning and still have your old char it wont be so bad. Starting from scratch is a little more tough but not impossible if you like the game. Sadly ffxi in its current state is not new player friendly by any means so it has more problems holding the new players than most mmos and with ARR on the horizon and the videos being released, ffxi is really showing its age.

ffxi of 2012 is not the ffxi of 2002-2010 so returners will be in for a big surprise.

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I still see quite a bit of new player or returning player every once a while, except they usually don't last very long, and just depop after a few days/weeks. The ones who kept playing are the ones who played for years.

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Originally Posted by Afania

I still see quite a bit of new player or returning player every once a while, except they usually don't last very long, and just depop after a few days/weeks. The ones who kept playing are the ones who played for years.

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They're the ones with the biggest investment in the endgame situation, while new/returning players are in that vast empty void where the rest of the game -used- to be.

When you come back to what appears to be a dead game (since everyone's far away in 99ville) full of zones with nobody there...yeah. It's got a chilling effect. Imagine a new player going for their subjob and finding Valkrum utterly devoid of players. It's counterproductive.

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Originally Posted by Shaadjd

Hello FFXI community,

I was wondering if SE had any big plans to get people playing again with a new expansion on the horizon? I think some advertisements and another return to vana'diel would be nice to get returning players back and maybe some new players to come join and experience the game, would be nice to have the players required to level up the new jobs with,

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The return to vanadiel thing no longer exists because it's no longer needed- Characters are no longer deleted for inactivity. Most people who needed to reactivate under the old program and intended to have already done so. That doesn't mean of course they can't send "please come back" emails or something of course- just saying, RTV'D doesnt exist because it has been replaced by simply pressing "reactivate" on your square enix account.

Then again, there's folks like me who have lost so much info over the years that I don't even know if the account I used to have IS recoverable- which is why I started a new one.

FFXI really is one of those games people tend to orbit back to, often a long time later.