The problem with cutting the budget for FFXI

I think a lot of companies fail to understand the implications of annoying a base of users that consume a product and have been loyal to it for a long time.

The budget for XI was cut and so the amount of staff was lowered and reassigned, this was obviously done to save money. The calculation was obviously done that most of us would stay anyway because we have played it so long, so why not cut the budget on what you give us for our subscription fee to make more profits.

The problem with this is we do not just consume FFXI, you are effectively annoying tens of thousands of people who are fans of FF and fans of your company.

Personally speaking, I spend far less on XI now than I did before and I also don't like buying your companies other AAA products anymore either. I have been successfully soured to Square Enix products by the way it treats a game I've paid you to play for 20+ years.

You may make more profits from XI by making us pay the same and giving us barely any new content, but I guarantee you that this is going to lose you far more money in an unseen way by burning fans this way.

This kind of anti fan penny pinching is what made Blizzard into one of the most hated gaming companies, when they used to be loved.

Fans fail to understand how things work and oversimplify it.

Blizard fans actually did something about it though; by joining a lesser MMO which temporarily surpassed WoW. Then, Blizzard announced an expansion which brough them back.

SE knows the ppl who are here, will stay here. I am guilty, sometimes........Also have taken year/years long breaks. So, I am not part of the loyalist community perse. I dip in every now and then. SE's forum algorithm allows you to hang around for a bit after the fact, so long as you are logged

I just want to see more BST jugs..........BST has less than 50% of the bestiary as pets. I don't think that is too much to ask for, considering BST is a pet class......but I am certain many want more pressing things such as content which benefits the playerbase as a whole.

The loyalist have to speak with their wallets, or nothing will change. It is up to the loyalist really......because if they leave, XI won't have a playerbase. Thus, SE will be forced to act (Could lead to a shutdown however lol). The "WoW -esque" folks who are fed up are already gone playing Horizon or some $hit.

There is more than just one problem here. But really it's a chicken and egg situation. It's hard to justify spending money on a game with not that many players and a low likelyhood of obtaining more players. Thus players leave, then it's harder to justify spending money, more players leave, repeat.

But even if they decided today they wanted to spend more money on the game, I don't think it would have the desired result.

Seekers of Audolin actually had content cut because it underperformed. So I don't think SE has seen any reason to consider making something on that scale again since. I don't think anything less dramatic than a full remaster with new content would bring people back.

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SE's forum algorithm allows you to hang around for a bit after the fact, so long as you are logged

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This isn't really anything on SE's part. They use a generic (and once popular) forum software called vBulletin; and by itself it simply keeps you logged in until your login cookie expires. I suppose SE could have set the cookie lifespan shorter to boot people faster but really I don't think this fact was any specific decision on their part.

Stop cutting the budget, give this game what it deserves. You are killing it faster, not preserving it. Doing the absolute bare minimum is going to hurt the game, I am sure they already see the sub numbers dipping on their end.

I don't expect them to make expansions, I do expect them to keep the level of staff assigned to the game at an acceptable level.

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Originally Posted by radar

I don't expect them to make expansions, I do expect them to keep the level of staff assigned to the game at an acceptable level.

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Aside from the producers, no one really knows exactly who is assigned to / involved with FFXI, so no one is really in a position to commment on staffing levels, whether actual or what is needed.

Ultimately though, in response to "giving it what it deserves," SE is a business and businesses do what is in their best interest for profit / survival (at least, theoretically, with some of the really questionable things SE's done lately). Unless they do some cost benefit study that tells them "if we do this, we will get a lot of subscribers," it simply won't happen. Frankly I actually do think that the producer is trying to get whatever he can manage to pull from SE for the game, it's just that difficult to do, like pulling teeth or having root canals.

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Originally Posted by radar

I think a lot of companies fail to understand the implications of annoying a base of users that consume a product and have been loyal to it for a long time.

The budget for XI was cut and so the amount of staff was lowered and reassigned, this was obviously done to save money. The calculation was obviously done that most of us would stay anyway because we have played it so long, so why not cut the budget on what you give us for our subscription fee to make more profits.

The problem with this is we do not just consume FFXI, you are effectively annoying tens of thousands of people who are fans of FF and fans of your company.

Personally speaking, I spend far less on XI now than I did before and I also don't like buying your companies other AAA products anymore either. I have been successfully soured to Square Enix products by the way it treats a game I've paid you to play for 20+ years.

You may make more profits from XI by making us pay the same and giving us barely any new content, but I guarantee you that this is going to lose you far more money in an unseen way by burning fans this way.

This kind of anti fan penny pinching is what made Blizzard into one of the most hated gaming companies, when they used to be loved.

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See the problem with htis is that nobody cares at a corproarte level that makes any decisions because they're operating at about 75 different franchisses and ongoing projects and company promotion metrics that the actualuser base doesn't matter if and when the corproation does eventually lose money - they dont' really lose money they just get less of it over a given period of time - like harvesting an orchard, just wait until next year, the point is that the orchard exists.

Without an orchard you get nothing.

Yeah but besides money what ahve you given SE to work with? you pay like 100/mo for 5 toons that have no spirit or personality or emotion that you didn't actuially give htem a voice or character or personality in your macros and your advnetures that the SE chat-reading algorithms have literally nothing to work with besides a bunch've: doll hits <mob> for 2354 dmg. macro lines. THAT SHIT ISN'T PROFITABLE.

Your macro lines are a part of *YOUR* character's personality, like the trusts. The trusts have 4 lines of party chat and more personality than you do! You're the one failing SE not the other way around. Think on that: thousands of peopel with characters all hoooked up to a digital chat logging mainframe wiht chat reading artificial intelligence all interacting with the game environment itself - having fun adventuring interacting, but NOT A SINGLE PLAYER HAS EVER TRIED TO DISPLAY THEIR PERSONAILTY/SPIRIT IN GAME.

Here's a macro for you:
/ja "Weapon Bash: <t>
/wait 1
/p /ja "Knife" <face>

You're the problem because you dont' ha ve a soul.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Seekers of Audolin actually had content cut because it underperformed. So I don't think SE has seen any reason to consider making something on that scale again since. I don't think anything less dramatic than a full remaster with new content would bring people back.

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underperformed or was cut due to time constraints, get some quick sales funds to continue funding ARR development?

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Originally Posted by Rinuko

underperformed or was cut due to time constraints, get some quick sales funds to continue funding ARR development?

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the decision was made after the release, not before. Thus it was due to the performance, not a cause of it.

Source: speaking out of your behind

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

the decision was made after the release, not before. Thus it was due to the performance, not a cause of it.

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Cut content is done during the development cycle, not post though.

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Originally Posted by Immortal

Stop cutting the budget, give this game what it deserves. You are killing it faster, not preserving it. Doing the absolute bare minimum is going to hurt the game, I am sure they already see the sub numbers dipping on their end.

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Game is over, bud. It is in maintenance mode. This is what you get between the game ending or staying online. There is no "give it what it deserves." It is nice we all like something, but stop projecting your desires on it in the face or reality.

Game will stay online with minor addendums so that people can continue to enjoy it. That is it, and that is all. Appreciate it for what it is worth and accept it.

Maint mode, yet we got a new master trial and will get updates to old content soon like Besieged and race changes. You can pretend to think its in maint mode or over but that doesn't make it true. The game is still getting updates and changes. I can project my desires all I want, nothing is stopping me from doing so and I hurt nobody in the process. We come here to post opinions and discuss on forums, which is what people are doing. Who are you to tell people to stop? lol Also how is your private server going? I heard not so well :(, guess not even you are accepting of things you dont like.

There is giving what it deserves, updates. You trying to make people stop posting their opinions and wishes for the game only hurts it further, but surely in your mind that is exactly what you want. Like really, what even is the purpose behind your stupid post except to have some kind of veiled attack. You are the one telling people to face reality? Yikes.

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Originally Posted by Rinuko

Cut content is done during the development cycle, not post though.

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Not all development is complete when an expansion releases: Content gets planned for future patches and isn't necessairly complete beforehand. There seems to be this idea that devs simply hold back completed work for future updates. While there are cases where this was probably true, it isn't always the cases. The release of an expansion doesn't mean 100% of the content for it is ready.

All I am saying, is they treat one of their most profitable games as a failure, while SE continues to produce and take chances on failures (Avengers, XVI, The First Soldier, etc). XIV actually failed and costed them a $hit ton of money, and they spent money to remake it. I seriously doubt you lose money making XI expansions.........XI has been nothing but profits since its' inception.

The age old question is why? Tech? Creativity? Feel XI will get an expansion, after Downtrail. Could be wrong......
https://i.imgur.com/HjPtYyP.gif

the squeaky wheel gets the oil

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XIV actually failed and costed them a $hit ton of money, and they spent money to remake it.

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And then it became a success. clearly, it was worth the effort for them in this case.

I'm not really sure XVI counts as a failiure. 87 score on metacritic, it certainly doesn't appear it sold badly either.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

And then it became a success. clearly, it was worth the effort for them in this case.

I'm not really sure XVI counts as a failiure. 87 score on metacritic, it certainly doesn't appear it sold badly either.

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I think SE may expected higher sales but it's likely broke even at very least and will sell more once the PC port releases.