As the first on this thread, a serious question...

It's going to sound like a troll, for sure:

But as far as what Square-Enix has (Abyssea) done to (Abyssea) this game (Abyssea)...

There are still new players to guide?

yes!

and no, his was not sarcastic. if you would visit the old cities like windurst or bastok youm would see them wandering helpless around knowing not what to do.

I wasn't being sarcastic either.

Square-Enix spent most of the year of the three add-on scenarios (ACP, MKDE, ASA) catering to new and lower-level players, and basically found most of the game deteriorating. This was largely true due to the fact that if you did a search on all players, you'd find that only about 1/4 - 1/3 of the players was below the level cap.

For example, right now on Leviathan: 1:35 or so AM PST 3/8/11:

There are 1,457 players on.

Only 377 characters are NOT Level 90.

Hence my very legitimate question.

I helped 4 players do Genkai 4 over the last 2 days while doing Magian trials. Fairly surprising, but also somewhat disconcerting that people can level up and not get Kindred's Seals. I wonder if it is a new RMT invasion...

Post Abyssea has killed this game for new players, not only does it make it hard to start the game, its impossible to do most missions without guidance, most new players arn't going to know what the Community Sites are. In this sense, these forums are great for those players. However sense Abyssea killed exp pts after level 30 and the gear market for the most part as well, newer players get stuck and even when you see a player at or around level 30 there still sub-jobless due to not knowing what to do, or being unable to get help doing it. Its upsetting honestly, breaking the required level caps on rank missions and increasing exp yeild will still help those that can't or don't want to use abyssea to exp past 30 and get rank missions done, it still doesn't fix the lack of player interaction at lower levels. Something that honestly, should be revived.

There are still new players, met one the other day and helped them get their subjob. There just aren't a lot. I see a handful of people at any given time without subjobs. So I imagine there are a few new people starting every so often.

I've met about 4-5 new players in the past few weeks and sadly they played for a few days and I have not seen them since.

I don't think that Aby or anything has killed it for new players. This game has gotten a whole lot easier to be honest. I remember when I first started 4 years ago, then it was hard. I didn't know about wiki and trying to figure anything out sucked. Also, back then you only got 50 exp for a DC, so leveling was extremely slow when soloing. Now, you can reach level 10 in about 20 minutes. The only real problem I see for low levels is the lack of gear on the AH. If they would reduce the cost of gear and perhaps make more available from NPC's, I think that would solve a lot of frustration for new players.

Actually a lot of the gear can be obtained from NPCs pretty easily in each starting city. I recently leveled my PUP up and found some of the gear on NPC's.

Abyssea has done a lot of damage for new players in the bigger scope of the game.

When a player joins and is new they do what we all do. They look around and read and sometimes google to find information on the game. Some buy the *cough* Brady's Guide *cough* and use that to help them along their way.

Once they start leveling and get to the point of parties there's a good chance their going to catch a party with people trying to blow to 30 and key person in Abyssea. They get power leveled and boom before they know it they are in their 30's. They start to try to figure out what they are doing and due to the fact that they are leveling so fast because players they are partying with want to get to Abyssea they find themselves frustrated because they are still that same new player just 20 levels higher.

They are clueless about zones, mobs, or the concept of how to play their job. To them the game is a point and click game that takes no skill to play. They get bored and now they want a job at level 90. So what do they do? They sit and ask for help 24/7 instead of trying to learn the game themselves and grow. They sit and shout for help in Jeuno, they then go online and maybe buy gil so they have money to pay people to let them join in Abyssea parties.

This is just random things that i've seen new players do.

Once they hit 90 they end up quitting because they have no clue what this game offers and they got to 90 so far they "BEAT FFXI WOOWHOO" and go off to play something else.

I've seen a few new people around since I started leveling with some newbie friends I dragged into the game with me. I've also seen people shouting for stuff that someone with a 90 job or high-level friends could solo (limit breaks, coffer keys, etc.).

I do think it's unfortunate that Abyssea makes it possible for someone to level a job from 30 to 90 without ever interacting with a single new person but I don't know if that necessarily ruined it. Subscriptions were dwindling long before Abyssea; all Abyssea did was provide a scapegoat. I think the exp boost and FoV fix was a step in the right direction in making the game newbie-friendly. It's easy as hell to duo/trio up to 10k or more an hour at level 20 or 30 now if you know where to go... which seems like something a forum like this could provide.

Given the exp boost, Fields of Valor, and Level Sync (as well as the upcoming AH merger), this game is a hell of a lot more newbie friendly than it was when I started four years ago. Abyssea doesn't matter; the people who leech all their jobs to 90 in Abyssea probably wouldn't spend a lot of their time in pick-up groups sharing advice with new people anyway.

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Originally Posted by Yopop

They sit and ask for help 24/7 instead of trying to learn the game themselves and grow. They sit and shout for help in Jeuno, they then go online and maybe buy gil so they have money to pay people to let them join in Abyssea parties.

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This has been a problem with some people since the day I started. Some people just have no initiative and want everything handed to them. That will never change no matter what the game is. I do agree that they are perhaps leveling so quickly they do not understand the jobs, but you had that with AFB parties before, so this is nothing new either.

I saw a post by someone once that said "They were happy for the decrease in time it took to get to 90 because the bulk of the people in the game have been here a while and it shouldn't take forever to get a new job up to cap once there." I kind of agree with it. It's become a lot easier and faster to get to 90, but then this game has been out a long time and I think they are more focused now on making the vets happy, which is a good thing. New people will adjust or leave. Back in the day, new people would leave because it "took too long" or "was too hard". There is always a reason for someone to leave and you can't make everybody happy.

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Originally Posted by Corres

yes!

and no, his was not sarcastic. if you would visit the old cities like windurst or bastok youm would see them wandering helpless around knowing not what to do.

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Hi Corres <3

To answer this thread: on ragnarok there are a lot of newbies, more than i ever saw. I often help people to do genkais, Nyzul climb, Cop, ZM. Not sure about the situation on other servers, but on ragnarok there is definitely a consistent new playerbase.

I will say that I've even said that many times.

I've played a very long time and I used to dread playing other jobs because I did not want to spend 12 hours in a party to get a few merits or a couple levels.

Before they added the ToAU besides us stealing the mana burn idea from gil farmers it would take us crazy hours to get merits and levels. Then when ToAU came out I leveled BRD to 75 in 4 weeks which was crazy for that time.

Now I can level jobs that I know how to play in a few days and get on with doing other content in the game. I just feel that the players that are Post-ToAU and Abyssea are missing out on really learning how to play the game and enjoying some aspects they are not being exposed to.

Of course theres going to be new players. This is a Final Fantasy title afterall. My son age 9 is just starting to get into them and I wouldn't be surprised if he plays 11. Well aslong as the servers are up and running by then lol.

I have also been noticing an influx of older players coming back as well. This will help the new players too, especially if some of the older player are leveling new jobs as well.

I'm on leviathan and have helped loads of newbies.
I even have jobs at lvl 10 that I plan to get to 60 or 90 some day.
Almost got war to 60 and that was lvl 20 a week ago.

I've been doing level sync party's recently and also can solo on bst all the nation mission to 10 with certain degree of difficulty or ease.

So there are ppl with low lvl jobs still or ppl willing to help, if them self are free.

The thing that I find funnier, I don't help new players with this as much as I help people who are in their 90's with CoP, ZM etc, :)

I've still never done Nyzul though, I've not done a lot in that ToAU zone, but it looks nice though :)

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Originally Posted by Kogenta

Hi Corres <3

To answer this thread: on ragnarok there are a lot of newbies, more than i ever saw. I often help people to do genkais, Nyzul climb, Cop, ZM. Not sure about the situation on other servers, but on ragnarok there is definitely a consistent new playerbase.

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Only problem I have since i have been playing this game for 2 years is the fact that you have a lot of people who have no clue in what they are doing, That being said SE really need to update Nyzle Isle or at least make it soloable cos I'm finding it difficult grabbing a group of experienced people that's willing to help out as I'm stuck on Floor 55... although my LS and I do it from time to time.... I'm just sick of people disbanding parties when they fail a floor.... especially on a Lamp Order floor cos that's a real pain in the backside lol

And the problem's gotten worse with Abyssea -- you basically get a job to 30 and leech the crap out of stuff until they throw you out or you pay them or whatever...

This game is so cheap to pick up now, there's still a month free and it will run on old pc gear so there's bound to be a few new players joining up to see what the MMO is all about.

I joined to see if I'd like the MMO style of game before I dove in to FFXIV when it comes to PS3... not sure I'd have moved over yet even if it had been released though (there must be a thread going on that somewhere....)!!

As a new player I've had plenty of people take me under their wing and sometimes lowbies can even help high level players with trials (killing hundreds of worms while I levelled and he counted them off springs to mind!). Also people seem to be trying out new jobs etc so this area of the forum \should/ be a good thing.

Yes it seems to be the same on most servers. Most of the population are level 90's. Even new players which doesn't really make sense.

I heard SE are putting a lvl 75 cap on Abyssea, so players must be at least lvl 75 to go to Abyssea. Which I think would correct the game and make the it balanced again. New players will have enough time to learn about their jobs even with the new experience boost in original Vanadiel areas. However what about all the players who obtained multiple level 90's in a matter of days?

Agreed, but from personal experience (having leveled monk from the ground up just recently). SE does need to do a better job getting low-level folks the tools they need to succeed in the early levels. Opening up AH access to all nations would be a good step in that direction. Also, making low-level gear more readily accessible will help as well.

In my experience over the past two, or three years, the majority of new people I meet, aren't completely new. They are returning players, who for whatever reason are starting over from scratch, or existing players leveling one of their mules. You do run into totally new players every now and then, but not really all that often. The game is mature at this point, and just about anyone who is interested in trying it, already have.

That said, it would be cool to see SE try to attract new players though. This is an awesome game, that just keeps getting better. Unfortunately it's always been a niche game. Most people I know in real life have never even heard of it, and the ones who have are strongly biased against it due to issues that have long been resolved, or never existed to begin with.

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Originally Posted by Kimiko

Agreed, but from personal experience (having leveled monk from the ground up just recently). SE does need to do a better job getting low-level folks the tools they need to succeed in the early levels. Opening up AH access to all nations would be a good step in that direction. Also, making low-level gear more readily accessible will help as well.

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The only problem i find with the merging of the AH, is that the gears and stuff are so expensive... i mean phalanx for a new player on sylph would be expected to pay around 700k for a scroll which to me is very expensive and very unfair on a new player compared to how they would be able to make gils so earlier in the game.... it's things like this that makes people resort to gil sellers (not that i ever brought my gils) but I do find it's very hard to make gils from time to time and i've been playing for 2 years....

I have seen a fair few new and returning players on Asura. In fact, it seems like you see a couple new posts every day over on the Allakhazam forums about a new or returning player starting. Granted, the majority of those posts are "What has changed since I quit?" and "Which server should I join?", not asking actual questions. Maybe having official forums available will lure some newer folks here...

As far as Abyssea leeching goes, I've definitely seen a resurgence of parties after the experience-boost update. More people looking and quicker invites. For my time spent I'm happier to make 400-600 a kill right now than wait hoping for a Abyssea leeching spot then wait an hour+ for the xp to build up. For me, it's much more satisfying to properly party anyway!

A friend of mine helps new players all the time. Nearly every day she's helping someone break a level cap, or get kazham keys, AF, etc. There are still new players out there, just gotta find them :P

What I think makes it hard is that a lot of the people who had crafted in years past are not, or are crafting other things or doing synergy. As a result there is less crafts going in and out of the auction house. I don't see combining the auctions of all towns alleviating this issue. It is a help though as those who craft might find it easier to do so if the can sell in more areas.

even with the influx of new players i ran a naked mule from 1-10 in 47 minutes no ring naked with a sword only no pl or books. simple you say? lol so out of giggles before the level increase i ran a mule from 1-90 no sub job with capped h2h in under 2 weeks even has hand ful of atma and zone boss wins and af3 in that time.... what used to take us years to accomplish can be achieved in a few weeks . i have been playing since '05 and if i sat down grinded i could probably accomplish an identical char minus some of the gear in a few months with everyjob at 90 :s is it a farewell to ffxi ? is it a wow retake? some of us old timers get upset at watching noobs with equivalent jobs we worked years to get but others embrace the change as its a game and just fun to play but it all comes down to whther the game is still right for you or not i still enjoy helping new people and remember the day it used to be me :). But the times coming where i dont have much left to do anymore because everything is being handed to us on a silver platter i have almost all 20 jobs at 90 now and almost every job has full set of af3+1 and working on +2 on some but where to next? even that is all low manable now

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Originally Posted by ShadowHeart

even with the influx of new players i ran a naked mule from 1-10 in 47 minutes no ring naked with a sword only no pl or books. simple you say? lol so out of giggles before the level increase i ran a mule from 1-90 no sub job with capped h2h in under 2 weeks even has hand ful of atma and zone boss wins and af3 in that time.... what used to take us years to accomplish can be achieved in a few weeks . i have been playing since '05 and if i sat down grinded i could probably accomplish an identical char minus some of the gear in a few months with everyjob at 90 :s is it a farewell to ffxi ? is it a wow retake? some of us old timers get upset at watching noobs with equivalent jobs we worked years to get but others embrace the change as its a game and just fun to play but it all comes down to whther the game is still right for you or not i still enjoy helping new people and remember the day it used to be me :). But the times coming where i dont have much left to do anymore because everything is being handed to us on a silver platter i have almost all 20 jobs at 90 now and almost every job has full set of af3+1 and working on +2 on some but where to next? even that is all low manable now

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I think part of the issue is that people get so up-in-arms over it not taking as much time to "catch up," but many of them are not as willing as you to help new players. It took you a short period of time to run a mule to 10 not just because of the experience overhaul, but because you knew exactly what you were doing; you've done it at least 20 times. FFXI is a rather obtuse game when most of the new players are coming from the one-job-per-character-hotbar-hand-holding-quest-driven MMOs. That doesn't make it bad, but it is often perceived that way.

I returned a few months ago, and I'd love to find new players. (I'm on Sylph and share a name with my forum name.) About three of my friends have joined in the past two months, and it's been a lot of fun getting them through rank missions, doing sub job items, and the like. We've been doing roaming parties (as opposed to camping parties), and getting more EXP than our IT++ camping parties once did, and it's been a blast. Frankly, with the EXP update, we've found that our weird (and incredibly more entertaining) style of play has even become quite profitable. Here's to hoping you find similarly revitalizing methods of enjoying the game. (Also, congratulations on the utterly masochistic task of doing a subjobless run! I knew there had to be somebody that would try it.)

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Originally Posted by Jeanluke

What I think makes it hard is that a lot of the people who had crafted in years past are not, or are crafting other things or doing synergy. As a result there is less crafts going in and out of the auction house. I don't see combining the auctions of all towns alleviating this issue. It is a help though as those who craft might find it easier to do so if the can sell in more areas.

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I agree completely and have witnessed this myself since more or less the advent of Abyssea. Crafters have seemingly vanished from the game for nearly all gears below level 75. I was reading over a few profiles on FFXIAH the other day and noted that for a majority (of the ones I viewed) players would have several level 90 jobs but absolutely zero crafting skills.

I think a huge part of the problem lies not so much with the absence of crafters as it does with the difficulty of becoming one. The crafting system is tedious in every regard. Slow to level, hard to get supplies, poor instruction in game about advancement and recipes make learning and leveling a craft not only extremely frustrating, but hideously discouraging to a casual gamer.

I would love to see the level caps on crafting removed to allow each craft to reach veteran rank as well as a more forgiving system on breakage all tied in with an improved skill up rate.

There are an abundance of new players on Asura.

I've helped 5+ get started in San d'Oria and also invited 3 of em to the LS i'm in.
I agree this game should probably have a beginner's tutorial but, that's wishful thinking.

Just lead the ? marks to Alaune in South San d'Oria or, wherever the Tutor NPC in your nation is.

At the same time not everyone is leveled capped but depending on the day of the week and time of day there may be more people that are starting out but on the opposite side of that there are 20 jobs to level and I for one only have 6 capped and are always looking to level up more jobs. I don't believe abyssea should be a major ground for leveling under 75 though this creates issues when you rely on people to do a job and they never learned to play it

Abyss hasn't killed the game, we are killing it by doing only abyssea pt, abyssea missions, abyssea quest, and abyssea related tasks, i think there's a lot of people who still would like to finish Missions, to do BCNM, to get assaults or other end game activities, new players uses abyss leeching because there are not enough low leveled players lfp, SE tried to solve these issue by raising exp received from mobs and doing FoV usable mora than once in a in-game day, now we have the oportunity to give new life to the zones now forgoten in favor of abyssea, peronally i enjoy more a normal yhutunga, yhoator, quicksands, garbage s#@tadel, aht urgan pt, than leeching all the way, we should help new players with this, putting the example, how many of us has spent hours leveling his/her job in these camps, or skillung up on Boyada Tree, we can show them how is done by reviving these zones by ourselves, i think there's a lot of new players who still don't know the old camps, who still need help with missions, or somethink alike.

In recent times the LS i'm in has invited at least 6 new players in the game within the last 2 weeks. These players have stuck together because no one else is around the starter towns. I've leveled lower jobs to get to know these players and there are a lot more out there then we see. The thing is that this is an MMO world that can never be perfect. Sure abyssea may have hurt the new players but the game is almost 10 years old with major focuses on endgame content for the high majority of the population being 75+ now.

If you want to have new players come into the game or help the newer players SE will need to add more beginner content, limit level restrictions to abyssea, add extra missions to starter nations, combine all AHs into one central one, etc. These are just my opinions on some things that could be changed to help the newer players.

If they would also add NPCs in each starter city that can port you to jeuno post 75 (so it doesn't take from airships post rank 5) or after doing a quest along with combining all the AHs into one can help the population in starter cities as well. I don't see harm in combining all the into the jeuno AH this way you can access everything you need from each city.

dude, lol get into these site "www.mercadolibre.com.mx", they sale it for $500 MXN pesos, wouch it would be like $35 US,

here´s an example: http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx/...n-2008-nvd-_JM, just ask the seller if they can ship it worldwide, some of them actually do, so maybe you get lucky idk, cheers :D

i got this crazy idea but i dont know if SE will take it as real , to boost the new player sense. this game is all about having company with you , to talk and share things if thats the case then why not open a small system to summon players to help those new players with their leveling, questing or even crafting ?!

Put a small board that has the high level players name in it , and make an NPC that can teleport them to that NPC where their names are called by the new player . the high level have to just add their names and what they want to help with and the new player just have to scan through the names and see what he wants the most help with , and when accept that they must be in party for hour or 2 to help this guy of course how to track this, is by giving the new player an item given by the NPC , when he finish the deal with the high level he can give the item back to the high level player to trade the item to the NPC and that will give points ,

now why a high level want to help a new player unless there is seomthing really rewarding LIKE ! giving a free access to relic or Mythic weapon for 24 hours of your choice . or something really rewarding like hard to get item of course after gathering alot of points from this system .

or it can use this points to raise the crafting system ?! or to use it as Blessing for helping new player to boost the player skill up ?! it can be anything like that and we make sure that the new players stay in FF11 also we get what we need as well ;p !! lol what do you think , its crazy no ?

well of course this system can be used with level 30 + to avoid abusing mules or something or the new player has spend more than 1 month playing the game or SE can think of better ways to stop the abusing.

would like to see new players coming and enjoy the game as i enjoyed it when the game was released also i find it cool factor to summon a high level player lol ;p like level 90 of your favorite class ( even if he/she were gimp still awsome for new player ! lol ) <3

cheers ~

There seems to be quite an influx of returning people on Sylph over the past 2 months as well as new people. So yes definitely a need for a new player guide as well as adjustments to the game for those who are returning after a year or more of being away. At the moment they are being completely gimped or left out by abyssea.

If Ive been on this game in 5 accounts (all do-overs), and 4 of them I never got my chocobo license or been to jeuno yet 3 of them I got subjob. Does that make me a returning player or still a newbie. Either way I've gotten so much support from the good LSes in Sylph. I ask people in all worlds to check to see who is shouting for help or has a question about the game every now and again. You might end up with another good friend who will want to return the favor one day.

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I would love to see the level caps on crafting removed to allow each craft to reach veteran rank as well as a more forgiving system on breakage all tied in with an improved skill up rate.

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yes please its pretty bad at 100+6~ and fail a synt under 10 x3 in a row while leveling another craft and getting hqs under cap :|

as for helping new players il help with anything if i can as long as they havent burned/leeched 30+. recently did lb1 and some af/spells for someone