Do the devs even play their own game or listen to anyone anymore?

Master Leveling has become almost impossible for any legit party setup these days, Asura is overwhelmed with RMT bots selling EXP and they go unpunished for months if at all. Do any of the devs even play this game and SEE WITH THEIR OWN EYES how bad it's gotten?

95%+ of the population have to resort to buying from the RMT because of how many of them are posted in the exp zones now. I myself want to play this game.... not pay people to play the game for me!

They haven't ever. There is no "any more".

Do they play the game? Probably. Do they listen to the non Japanese? Not much.

Master Levels are supposed to be a big grind like job points were initially.

My advice to you if you want to EXP normally is come to a smaller server where the RMT are far less prevalent and more people grind in parties or with trusts like you'd expect. Asura is overcrowded, so that's where the big bucks are for RMT, they care so little about any other server that you might see one or two RMT yells a day if any.

On the other end of the spectrum we have people such as Pixela complaining that there isn't enough for the ultra-hardcore to do. So this is for them, really. I wish it was easier too tbh, but its not that hard to get to ML15-20 and that's all you really need.

nice fix would be to drasticly increase exemplar points gained in daily content like seg runs / sortie so even when doing your daily things you can get your levels needed to eventually work towards making that content easier.

Easier means you unsub faster. You'll stay. You'll grind. You'll complain. You'll do it anyway.

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Originally Posted by Clou777

nice fix would be to drasticly increase exemplar points gained in daily content like seg runs / sortie so even when doing your daily things you can get your levels needed to eventually work towards making that content easier.

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It's very likely that it will be eased somewhat at some point. I mean EXP was, CP was,, etc.

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Easier means you unsub faster. You'll stay. You'll grind. You'll complain. You'll do it anyway.

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Even if it was three times easier, its more than enough to keep an ordinary player busy for years. No one's "unsubbing faster" if the grind is softened at all. And even when everyone has all jobs ML50, they'l undoubtedly come out with super job points or some other crap like that to keep us grinding til the apocolypse consumes us all.

While there are tons of RMT in all the master level camps... none of them are stopping you from getting EP. The Locus mobs respawn so fast that there is no issues with competition. There are tons of different camps with different options for mobs... and the first chunk of levels can all be gotten via content like Odyssey. People are just more lazy these days so most dont want to do master levels since it doesnt have a huge impact really. I don't know why SE added such a grind to cater to people LONG gone, that hate this game and only play on private servers. They should have added more rewards to actually doing content instead of a direct focused grind. This grind is worse than lv1-75 was. They keep trying to cater to players that are long gone.

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People are just more lazy these days so most dont want to do master levels since it doesnt have a huge impact really. I don't know why SE added such a grind to cater to people LONG gone,

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IDK, if it only caters to "people long gone," Why do I see so many people doing it?

Surely in their mind they envisioned people shouting to team up for master levels and grinding the same mob for hours without bots... We know that people are too lazy for that in 2023.

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Originally Posted by Immortal

Surely in their mind they envisioned people shouting to team up for master levels and grinding the same mob for hours without bots... We know that people are too lazy for that in 2023.

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Well this is the reason I say people wouldn't really enjoy a "classic server" as much as they say they would. After all, it seems the whole point of this feature was to bring back that feeling of grinding mobs for hours to level up. The problem is, some people would seem to rather cheese it by cleaving or paying someone to do it for them than doing it the old fashioned way. I have gotten parties to do so plenty of times but I can't blame people for wanting to find a faster way since MLs ramp up so fast it gets pretty discouraging pretty quickly.

We all spent literally years leveling jobs up to 75 back in the day, it's not hard to see why at least some players aren't excited to do that again with master level. Particularly when it's only stat increases and no new abilities/spells/etc.

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Originally Posted by Clou777

nice fix would be to drasticly increase exemplar points gained in daily content like seg runs / sortie so even when doing your daily things you can get your levels needed to eventually work towards making that content easier.

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it will come, just like you can get CP through Monster rearing, rings, capes, RoE and such.

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Originally Posted by Immortal

While there are tons of RMT in all the master level camps... none of them are stopping you from getting EP. The Locus mobs respawn so fast that there is no issues with competition.

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Not really, there are many times when I couldn't get mobs because they seem to pull them before they even spawn correctly.

Not only that, the lag or whatever it is they are using prevents me using JA's sometimes. I've had a few people say that when they are near these groups of players seemingly using automation, it has been detrimental to their gameplay experience because they press buttons and nothing happens.

I sincerely hope the Devs don't listen to my XI podcast.

Otherwise with so many people submitting nonsense reports to them instead of proper ones. Some submitting the same ones daily even. No wonder they can't get to as many.

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Originally Posted by Sirmarki

Not really, there are many times when I couldn't get mobs because they seem to pull them before they even spawn correctly.

Not only that, the lag or whatever it is they are using prevents me using JA's sometimes. I've had a few people say that when they are near these groups of players seemingly using automation, it has been detrimental to their gameplay experience because they press buttons and nothing happens.

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There are tons of camps...I find it hard to believe you are struggling for mobs. Also you are showing your lack of game knowledge. Ages ago SE added a claim shield on all mobs to combat bots. Theres a random timeframe from spawn that if you try to claim it will block your action and make you wait to repeat as a penalty.

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Originally Posted by Immortal

Also you are showing your lack of game knowledge.

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I have far better things to remember in life than what SE have implemented over countless years. I have been playing since 2006.

The fact that you are getting high rate about it shows that you more than likely use/support bots/RMT.

Myself and somebody else in my linkshell have struggled a few times to get monsters. Then again we play the correct way.

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The fact that you are getting high rate about it shows that you more than likely use/support bots/RMT.

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It doesn't show anything other than you have no problem making assumptions with no basis, just like another certain someone who reports "all characters in the zone" every day for botting.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

It doesn't show anything other than you have no problem making assumptions with no basis, just like another certain someone who reports "all characters in the zone" every day for botting.

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Hardly comparable and the fact they have basically said 'let them be and it's you're problem, go find another camp' suggests otherwise.

I'm just being realistic... I think SE should be the one to deal with them and rightfully so. You shouldn't waste your time caring about it or your game time being frustrated with it, just find a different camp or deal with it. The mobs respawn every couple of seconds, literally. Almost 90% of RMT and bots are using ranged attacks to pull mobs, you have plenty of time as a real player to beat them to it playing the "Correct way" as you say. You just learned of that mysterious "JA lag" you were experiencing, its not JA lag and its not from bots, its an intended method from SE. So use that and have some fun.

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Originally Posted by Sirmarki

Hardly comparable and the fact they have basically said 'let them be and it's you're problem, go find another camp' suggests otherwise.

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Hardly comparable? it's the exact same thing. Both of you are just assuming things and there is no grounds to make such an assumption.

There is no connection between game knowledge and tool use.

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Originally Posted by Immortal

I'm just being realistic... I think SE should be the one to deal with them and rightfully so. You shouldn't waste your time caring about it or your game time being frustrated with it, just find a different camp or deal with it. The mobs respawn every couple of seconds, literally. Almost 90% of RMT and bots are using ranged attacks to pull mobs, you have plenty of time as a real player to beat them to it playing the "Correct way" as you say. You just learned of that mysterious "JA lag" you were experiencing, its not JA lag and its not from bots, its an intended method from SE. So use that and have some fun.

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My apologise if I came across as you supporting their methods. I just feel that we shouldn't be made to accept them, because quite frankly - they shouldn't be there in the first place.

Why do you want to cap Master Levels so fast?

Also the thread title is stupid, you don't have to play the game to be a developer on it. Players are the worst people in the world to develop a game they care about, which is why private servers suck and die so fast.

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Originally Posted by Pixela

Why do you want to cap Master Levels so fast?

Also the thread title is stupid, you don't have to play the game to be a developer on it. Players are the worst people in the world to develop a game they care about, which is why private servers suck and die so fast.

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No one said they wanted it "so fast." We just want it to where it's reasonably achieveable playing conventionally. i.e. not cleaving with a very specific party comp or paying someone else to do it. Right now it takes drastically longer than it took to level up to max level in "the good ol' days." And if it's TOO long, that just pushes people to do anything to speed it up, i.e. pay mercs/RMT to do it for them.

We get it, you're a super duper hardcore who wants everything to take as long as possible so you never run out of things to do. But most of us aren't like that.

I'm not at all actually, when I post it's normally in the interest of the game and not for my benefit.

Maybe you can't understand that, but I think you probably do.

Mlevel taking a long time to cap is in the best interest of the games future, and it's not even something that NEEDS to be capped. People just WANT to because mmorpgs minds are far more goal orientated than most other gamers.

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I'm not at all actually, when I post it's normally in the interest of the game and not for my benefit.

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See, what is preventing me from believing this is the fact that most of your opinions are detrimental to the game and not beneficial to it. But I'm not going to copy paste everything I wrote in all those other threads for you. You don't understand basic marketing concepts, you don't understand the basics of how a corporation works, you don't understand that it takes money to make money.

Let me be real: every "real" player could quit the game right now and SE could keep it running off RMT and their cheating customers alone. You do not need to worry about something costing SE a few pennies on the dollar causing the game to suddenly shut down or stop getting updates. You do not need to worry about personnel changes spelling sudden doom for the game. Even though this game isn't really that popular, it still prints money for SE with little effort. It. is. not. going. away. So please, stop standing in the way off marketing efforts to attract customers from other SE products to the game, stop being paranoid about changes in the staff roster, and maybe consider being just a little bit more positive around here.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

So please, stop standing in the way off marketing efforts to attract customers from other SE products to the game,

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I don't really wanna step into the middle of what all you guys have going on here, but that line just made me laugh.

It's like saying "please stop blocking the train" at somebody who's out surfing. We're so far removed from any part of any of SE's decision-making processes in this forum that nothing anyone - everyone! - says here will even slightly shift the actual direction of the company's plans on anything. Howling into the void isn't getting in the way of anything, it can't bother anyone but other forum dwellers.

If anything, it is those forum dwellers that respond to every post in every thread as though they speak for SE that are "blocking the train". The chance of getting an official response is admittedly small given this company's inability to or lack of interest in engaging or communicating with its player base. But those individuals only help to eliminate any chance.

No. No one at Square Enix care a bit about FFXI anymore. Most of the original team from. Squaresoft that made FFXI, including Sakaguchi, don't even work there anymore, and Square Enix executives are too dumb and greedy to employ them back.

They used to care. Up until ~2008~2010 that is. Now it's just a lost cause. There are alternatives you know, to enjoy this game, if you want.

Most of the fans and players are gone too. People want the game they love, no vertical progression, challenges from the get go, now power creep, grouping at every level, no steamrolling, horizontal progression, every good equipment of every level meaning something and being important, an economy directly connected to each and every players that is not bloated, GMs available 24/7 whom actually care a lot... you know, an actual good classic MMO experience, and not FFXIV with worse graphics.

And that is way things like Everquest Project 1999 exist and are very successful.

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Originally Posted by Cherrywine

If anything, it is those forum dwellers that respond to every post in every thread as though they speak for SE that are "blocking the train". The chance of getting an official response is admittedly small given this company's inability to or lack of interest in engaging or communicating with its player base. But those individuals only help to eliminate any chance.

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100%. Thank you so much for this.

Agreed and sadly that's the same issue on the ffxiv forums.

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Originally Posted by Lortheron

Most of the fans and players are gone too. People want the game they love, no vertical progression, challenges from the get go, now power creep, grouping at every level, no steamrolling, horizontal progression, every good equipment of every level meaning something and being important, an economy directly connected to each and every players that is not bloated, GMs available 24/7 whom actually care a lot... you know, an actual good classic MMO experience, and not FFXIV with worse graphics.

And that is way things like Everquest Project 1999 exist and are very successful.

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You keep coming and spouting garbage about private servers. None of that was challenging, get it thru your thick skull. Literally everything from Adoulin onward was more of a challenge than 75 cap and leveling. Every level didn't mean something... what a joke, you say that as you endlessly lvl sync to someone in the dunes or qufim island on your dinky private server lol. No power creep, right... as if we weren't melee burning literally every NM past TOAU. As if RDM didn't solo 90% of end game. This game is nothing like XIV with worse graphics, you are so jaded its incredible. Go do an Odyssey V25 NM and tell me its similar to leveling off crabs in Qufim island, you are a huge part of the problem that holds this game back.

Literally all his posts are some kind of gloom or doomsday or angry boomer against the system. Its always them hating on retail

I'd love to challenge you to debate me on 75 cap vs current era, and why you think it was more challenging than anything we have now. How you think endlessly lvl syncing in Qufim/Dunes or fighting Bst pets for EXP is somehow a challenge.

MMO players that have played for a long time tend to get their brains stuck in final destination mode, they effectively turn into "ARE WE THERE YET" drones.

Back in the day, all we wanted was progression. So a +1, some XP or a few more points toward lotting some item. These days some people want CAP, and because they can't get it in a fairly fast amount of time they get super salty. The cap gives the biggest endorphin rush and so they want the cap.

Master levels is about slowing you down by force, and just letting you get a little progression while doing other things.

MLev don't really matter, you don't need to cap them in the way you needed to cap job points. One of the worst things on a job you really like is no longer getting any progression and when I capped job points I was depressed for weeks. Mlev fixes that, cause you'll always get a little bit of sugar when you do anything.

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Originally Posted by Lortheron

100%. Thank you so much for this.

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I really don't think it's appropriate to thank someone for flaming other users, but maybe that's just me.

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They used to care. Up until ~2008~2010 that is. Now it's just a lost cause. There are alternatives you know, to enjoy this game, if you want.

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The people who are actively part of the project do care about it. The issue is more that SE itself has to please its investors, and spending lots of money on a game that isn't that popular anymore isn't going to impress anyone investing in SE, unless they're an investor that's also a player of the game, but the odds of that are really, really low.

At the end of the day, SE is a business, and all of their decisions, no matter how much passion any of their employees may have for a project, are aimed at pleasing investors, because that's how corporations and capitalism work.

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Originally Posted by Zenion

I don't really wanna step into the middle of what all you guys have going on here, but that line just made me laugh.

It's like saying "please stop blocking the train" at somebody who's out surfing. We're so far removed from any part of any of SE's decision-making processes in this forum that nothing anyone - everyone! - says here will even slightly shift the actual direction of the company's plans on anything. Howling into the void isn't getting in the way of anything, it can't bother anyone but other forum dwellers.

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You know, you're honestly not wrong, it's just really frustrating to see someone who actively doesn't want something to happen that would be beneficial for SE's customers purely because he thinks it will take dollars away from the game (despite the fact that the whole point of a discount is you get people who wouldn't have paid any money otherwise, so money is gained, not lost).

And what you said applies equally to him- SE is going to spend what it's going to spend regardless of how he feels either.