Why was MMM canned?

With the introduction of Meeble Burrows I've come to same the question that has been bugging me since this system was introduced by the devs:

Why was MMM canned?

MMM may not have been the most widely popular event and it rose at a time where XI was in a rut shortly before Abyssea but it did have something so many events fail to deliver and that was its raw potential. The concept of influencing a dungeon with runes, the varied objectives, the casual and hardcore appeal, the ease of access via Jeuno and the trading card nature of collecting items made for an event that had something for everyone but the incomplete nature of how MMM was handled resulted in it never being polished, rewards were never expanded and thus the event quickly became banished to obscurity.

In a time where people constantly bring up old HNMs, Fafnir, Ebon Panels, Abyssea and all the popular events of yesteryear, how about a quick recap on MMM?

Voucher 01 - Kill everything.
This voucher was pretty much the most popular event back when MMM was relevant due to the comparable EXP to parties of the time but with EXP becoming an afterthought suggestions have been made to:

-Repurpose this run into an event designed to assist in magian trials via weather runes.
-Add some rewards based on clearing runs to placate those who yearn for the old EXP style. Gather friends, kill some VT-IT mobs and have a shot at getting something 99 relevant in the process in addition to EXP/marbles/runes/cruor/whatever.

Voucher 02 - Survive the swarm.
Not quite as popular as Voucher 01 because of the fact that you could become overwhelmed and wipe nevertheless this run saw some popularity during the height of MMM. Voucher 02 had a simple concept that has always been exciting to some aspect in that you're surrounded, scared as hell that crowd control might fail and you're tasked to beat back the enemies slowing trying to pick you off. Damage output, support lines and healing outputs are all tested here but:

-A system that awards marbles for each enemy defeated similar to Blitzkrieg.
-Add useful drops to marble rewards.

Voucher 03 - Not quite Nyzul Isle
This was an interesting maze setup because it combined basic monster destruction with a multi-tiered dungeon however due to the random nature of floor layouts, runes only influencing the likelihood of seeing a favorable monster type and the number of monsters per floor it never caught on in popularity. The layout itself would be pretty conducive to a dungeon crawl as the random nature of what appears coupled with wide open areas that scream 'put a boss monster here'.

Voucher 04/08 - Crafting
The dreaded crafting run has always been pretty terrible as not only does the game require you to make items in a time limit while farming materials from the zone but the random nature of the event could have your entire progress wiped out via the random number generator blowing up your final craft task. With the recent expansions to crafting skill caps this would be a pretty good place to skillup if adjustments were made to the skillup rate similar to the Fishing maze or craft related items be put in these mazes.

Voucher 05/06 - Gobbie Adventure Time / Metal Gear Gobbie
These mazes were designed with a pretty good casual concept of something to do with minimal gaming time and the objectives were 'unique' in that you were tasked with raising an NPC to beat a boss or dodging agro while recovering items. Such mazes would be ideal for handing out inconsequential trophy items (akin to the miners hats or cavers shovels) or a place for players to build up marbles for rewards.

Voucher 07/09 - NM battles
If Legion is supposed to be the alliance battlefield for HNMs then MMM was the place for 6man boss battles against NMs that were very little else other than suped-up normal mobs and for its simplicity the overall event itself was pretty fun. Divine Magic using Dhalmel? Got it. Badass Rabbit of Monty Python fame? Possible. It seems like this was the place for players to have fun tailoring mazes to their hearts content while potentially getting some loot in the process.

This is a great idea but why wasn't it expanded upon? These vouchers were the place to crank out the rehashed models and to stick loot on monsters because ultimately the whole thing is meant to be a playground.

I would support making MMM support magian trials. Some of the elemental/mob combinations are practically impossible.

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Originally Posted by Trisscar

I would support making MMM support magian trials. Some of the elemental/mob combinations are practically impossible.

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Which is why I, and several others, have suggested weather runes. But since this content wasn't being touched, nothing was done about it.

Totally agree, I wish they would revamp this, so many potentials, so many possibilities. It's like they just drop the ball, never looking back or revising it. This would be a great alternative stuffs to do to help magian trials weapon, among many other possibilities.

me and my brother still do MMM, he loves his fishing... i do agree that they should add weather runes to make magian trials go faster, would be a simple thing to do. If they and more runes to control the type of mob then it could only get more useful.

Voucher 02 was better for a meriting party than 01 was. The fact that you didn't have to go chase everything down made it better for the BRD. Allowing weather in Vouchers 01 and 02 alone would revitalize these areas.

Voucher 05 was the most interesting voucher of all. If the augmenting system was expanded to be worth doing for a level 99 player, you bet your boots I will be in there guiding Chappy around every day until I get my dream item. At 75, the belt was absolutely worth getting for a BLM or SCH, not so much now.

Voucher 06 has plenty enough reward, but only if MMM is worth doing. My personal best marble count is 75 in a single run (cleared in under 5 minutes). I would still be doing it if it weren't for the fact that MMM isn't worth doing anymore, so finishing up my rune collection is a complete waste of time.

Voucher 07 was plagued by dropping nothing but sidegrades for the 75 cap, and the drop rate was your typical Tanaka style drop rate (eg. nothing drops, ever). Once Abyssea and Magian Trials came out, everyone forgot Gnole Torque or that sword that was all the rage for BLU ever existed because all the new gear shit all over everything that was available at 75.

Voucher 08 is a great finishing mini-game. The "good" rewards include a bundle of Moat Carp, a pair of rings, and Pirate Charts. I got the good ring, I don't care too much about Pirate Charts, and I quested Lu Shang's long before the event was implemented. There's no reason to continue doing this anymore for me. Now maybe if rewards included Gugs or Liks(Ebisu item fish) or Matsya, that would be worth something.

Voucher 09 could have been interesting, but the drops for the 80 cap when it was introduced were sad compared to everything else introduced at the same time. By everything else, I mean Abyssea.

It makes me sad that I invested so much time building up my rune collection (~95% complete), and it isn't worth doing anymore.

If they allowed you to customize and fight certain monsters in weather condition, I think it would be hustlin' and bustlin' again. Even greater if you did them at a certain level and geodes could drop as well! I would definitely use it to make alot of fire and earth weapons. Perhaps even some MDB weapons for tanking if it allowed you to clear them in a decent timeframe. And SE *does* want you to spend more time, trying to obtain more stuff to keep you playing longer, so I would probably want to make all available magian weps in that case lol

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Originally Posted by Komori

If they allowed you to customize and fight certain monsters in weather condition, I think it would be hustlin' and bustlin' again. Even greater if you did them at a certain level and geodes could drop as well! I would definitely use it to make alot of fire and earth weapons. Perhaps even some MDB weapons for tanking if it allowed you to clear them in a decent timeframe. And SE *does* want you to spend more time, trying to obtain more stuff to keep you playing longer, so I would probably want to make all available magian weps in that case lol

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What, you mean make Metal Plates available on much tougher runs? I'd actually like that.

MMM had the distinction of coming out at a very bad time for a new system like this. It came on the heels of the horrid add-on scenarios and just before Abyssea when people discovered just how insanely overpowered they could be. Some minor improvements were made to the system but by that time there was just no interest. I really don't see how Meeble Burrows is going to be much different TBH.

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Originally Posted by Trisscar

What, you mean make Metal Plates available on much tougher runs? I'd actually like that.

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What? No where in my post did I mention empyrean weapons. I meant weather so that one could go in and fight monsters needed under weather conditions and it allowed for geodes. Technically it is the same amount of work, it would just make magians take less time because your not waiting days to weeks trying to camp specific weather (fire, light and dark weather come to mind when trying to ease up magian...)

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Originally Posted by Komori

What? No where in my post did I mention empyrean weapons. I meant weather so that one could go in and fight monsters needed under weather conditions and it allowed for geodes. Technically it is the same amount of work, it would just make magians take less time because your not waiting days to weeks trying to camp specific weather (fire, light and dark weather come to mind when trying to ease up magian...)

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I think it came across as Magian=Emp, technically yes, but probably not what you meant.

Don't forget the infamous marble nerf meant that you had to do MMM for weeks before being able to being able to really do much in terms of making your own mazes. Adding insult (and confusion) to injury, the dev team earlier mentioned that they were surprised by the level sync down trick that players were using to get more marbles, but OK with it... then nerfed it into oblivion. Most NA players quit MMM after that.

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Originally Posted by Komori

What? No where in my post did I mention empyrean weapons. I meant weather so that one could go in and fight monsters needed under weather conditions and it allowed for geodes. Technically it is the same amount of work, it would just make magians take less time because your not waiting days to weeks trying to camp specific weather (fire, light and dark weather come to mind when trying to ease up magian...)

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What with the eventual and unavoidable complete death of Voidwatch, it should be considered a possibility to add stuff like Metal Plates to it in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by Demon6324236

I think it came across as Magian=Emp, technically yes, but probably not what you meant.

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Forgot. Yes; Empyrean are physical magian trials but I don't really categorize them as specifically magian weapons but I do guess your technically right. But the only way I'd like for MMM to drop plates is if they revamp the content and make a particular maze into a battlefield with tougher monsters and perhaps a boss at the end that has a chance to drop multiple plates or a pouch or two perhaps?

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Originally Posted by Komori

Forgot. Yes; Empyrean are physical magian trials but I don't really categorize them as specifically magian weapons but I do guess your technically right. But the only way I'd like for MMM to drop plates is if they revamp the content and make a particular maze into a battlefield with tougher monsters and perhaps a boss at the end that has a chance to drop multiple plates or a pouch or two perhaps?

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Maybe they can add trophy items, like helms buds and stuff that upgrades empyrean weapons. And if they could also add Alexanderite on it as well, that would be cool. But I won't hold my breath on it, these belong solely on the list of things not likely to happen.

If it makes any kind of sense you can bet Square won't do it.

I'd be happy with weather and geode drops alone and a way to streamline magian trials. I would like to make more fire weapons (I'd like to make a dagger and H2H for my pup until I work on Vere). And a few others that would be extremely useful while working towards relic and empyreans.

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Originally Posted by Komori

I'd be happy with weather and geode drops alone and a way to streamline magian trials. I would like to make more fire weapons (I'd like to make a dagger and H2H for my pup until I work on Vere). And a few others that would be extremely useful while working towards relic and empyreans.

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You could have runes that spawn monsters that can only be killed by using specified weapon skill. Speaking from personal experience on farming lights (specifically amber) it's tricky to get mobs to die just the way you want to under normal conditions.

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Originally Posted by Hashmalum

Don't forget the infamous marble nerf meant that you had to do MMM for weeks before being able to being able to really do much in terms of making your own mazes. Adding insult (and confusion) to injury, the dev team earlier mentioned that they were surprised by the level sync down trick that players were using to get more marbles, but OK with it... then nerfed it into oblivion. Most NA players quit MMM after that.

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Actually the marble farming was moved to specifically Voucher #06. I spammed that for two MONTHS (getting ~40-60 marbles each run without CC points, ~80-100 with 6 CC points) with my friends letting me borrow their entrance (before everyone figured out revitalizers in #09 thank God) in order to get ALL of the implemented runes. There are still runes that have NOT been implemented, either!

Back in April (in this thread) the devs said NO to any more MMM upgrades...

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Originally Posted by Rosalie

Actually the marble farming was moved to specifically Voucher #06. I spammed that for two MONTHS (getting ~40-60 marbles each run without CC points, ~80-100 with 6 CC points) with my friends letting me borrow their entrance (before everyone figured out revitalizers in #09 thank God) in order to get ALL of the implemented runes. There are still runes that have NOT been implemented, either!

Back in April (in this thread) the devs said NO to any more MMM upgrades...

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Maze Voucher #06, of course, requires 100 marbles to get in the first place. So if you're starting from scratch it isn't a solution.

MMM was misunderstood and underutilized by NA players before aby. My ls had a static for yrs on MMM and even just using it to lvl you could burn more exp per hr doing MMM than by a standard pt IF you had players who understood the system. It would be great to see it refreshed but its one of those sadly lost parts of the game.

Weather runes!

Given Meebl's is using the same zone as MMM (which already used same parts of the zone as WoTG missions and Sandworm HNMs), it's probably for the better it's being ignored as of now, unless you want to be spamming the entrance because the sector of the zone your rune will take you to is being occupied by someone else doing Meebl.

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Originally Posted by Kaisha

Given Meebl's is using the same zone as MMM (which already used same parts of the zone as WoTG missions and Sandworm HNMs), it's probably for the better it's being ignored as of now, unless you want to be spamming the entrance because the sector of the zone your rune will take you to is being occupied by someone else doing Meebl.

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Meeble Burrows is SoA content. As such it's obviously not going to be permanently in another expansion's (WotG) zone, this is just a temporary measure for testing. I mean they can't realistically expect people to journey to a new zone (which might not even be test-ready yet) across other new zones (ditto) to test some partly-finished content.

Actually Meebles is filler content that probably lore-wise has something to do with SoA but physically takes place in the same WOTG zones MMM did.