With all the changes, do you think SE is trying to end us/this

[Alhanelem]

They aren't "bringing the game to a close.' It's not going to be "over" any time real soon. It's not a tactic or a strategy. People are only saying stuff like this because they think SE is trying to be difficult on purpose, and they're not. They might have some semi-clueless people on the business end, but I guarantee you the payment frustrations are not a product of SE going "Hm, we're sick of keeping this game. What can we do to make people leave?"

[chubrocka]

Look at it this way, se can say "we are closing all servers and ending the game in a year". That would cause a major drop off in playership, servers would have to be quickly merged, alot of ppl would be out of work overnight and players would grumble because they were unable to complete everything they wanted to in the game.

If you make it incredibly easy (as they have), ppl can get everything done they wanted to and move on, causing playership to gradually drop, server merging would be slower, some ppl would stay out of hope for new content. Some players would be more willing move on to XIV (which is getting better and better) and whatever their new mmo is going to be because they are satisfied with thier xi experience and want to play other se games due to that experience. They can remove workers off xi to other projects gradually so there would be less lay offs and they could still milk xi for awhile. Then when they finally make the one year announcement they only have a couple servers and a handful of ppl working on xi anyway and its no big deal if it tanks. Its a great business strategy really.

But long story short (too late), yes I believe its the end times for ffxi. Makes me sad, I miss the game and would like to play more, I just have nothing to do and my ls has fell apart due to ppl leaving the game already.

Thank you for your thought. I agree with you. Thank you too for not being childish in the response.

[Elexia]

Honestly, use common sense. XI is about 10 years old and they said they'd run it as long as people are willing to play it, BUT at one point every business comes to terms that "it costs too much to operate versus what we're making in profit" and will slowly phase a product out, MMORPGs are the main service that slowly phases out.

They can't just go:
"Yawn I think we'll end XI today, switch it all off."

That's bad business practice but they do have the right to do so if they felt like it and no one can complain as you agreed to it when you signed up (actually read the terms and eula, they're there for a reason.) I honestly wouldn't mind seeing XI ended as I've played since the start but as long as it is making them money it's highly unlikely they'll end it BUT a lot of recent decision can indeed hurt the playerbase, especially come next month.

[Sparthos]

I'm pretty sure if they wanted the game to end they'd just turn the servers off.

The new payment system is easy. To me it's like having our noob filters back (back in the day when stuff like the dunes, SJ quest etc would 'filter' out some of the bad players). If you can't figure out how to use a credit or debit card to buy crysta, you probably can't figure out all the easy to understand things in game either.

This is completely asinine. Did you bother to turn your brain on when posting this?

The billing change has mucked things up for individuals who have lived in countries that crysta isn't sold in. Nothing like playing and paying for years only for SE to change the rules simply to streamline their own systems for the revival tour of FFXIV.

Who needs money from regions of the world that haven't accepted virtual currency anyway.

Now if you can't buy crysta off the bat, you're forced into an unholy alliance with Click and Buy. Bad enough you could be hit with conversion fees but many banks see this company has shady enough to be put on a blacklist whenever charges are made to them.

Good to know FFXI is on the same level as online gambling though.

Worse, the JP base has no such changes and luxuries that the rest of the world doesn't get. You do however get to overpay SE, deal with a 2nd rate company or quit the game though.

But who am I kidding, this is all a strategem to weed out the noobs who can't pay their bills because SE has made this process so easy that only a complete idiot would be unable to give this company their money every month.

[Alhanelem]

This is completely asinine. Did you bother to turn your brain on when posting this?

The billing change has mucked things up for individuals who have lived in countries that crysta isn't sold in. Nothing like playing and paying for years only for SE to change the rules simply to streamline their own systems for the revival tour of FFXIV.

How is it asinine? Yes, we know SE mucked up this billing thing, but you really, really think they did it on purpose and are trying to get people to leave? Because that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Yes, they messed up, but they most certainly didn't do it intentionally.

[Sparthos]

How is it asinine? Yes, we know SE mucked up this billing thing, but you really, really think they did it on purpose and are trying to get people to leave? Because that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Yes, they messed up, but they most certainly didn't do it intentionally.

I do not believe that this billing fiasco was done on purpose but the poster I quoted made the bold statement that billing is "easy" and that it's a simple process of knowing how to use a credit or debit card.

What an unbelievably dumb statement to make.

[chubrocka]

This is completely asinine. Did you bother to turn your brain on when posting this?

The billing change has mucked things up for individuals who have lived in countries that crysta isn't sold in. Nothing like playing and paying for years only for SE to change the rules simply to streamline their own systems for the revival tour of FFXIV.

Who needs money from regions of the world that haven't accepted virtual currency anyway.

Now if you can't buy crysta off the bat, you're forced into an unholy alliance with Click and Buy. Bad enough you could be hit with conversion fees but many banks see this company has shady enough to be put on a blacklist whenever charges are made to them.

Good to know FFXI is on the same level as online gambling though.

Worse, the JP base has no such changes and luxuries that the rest of the world doesn't get. You do however get to overpay SE, deal with a 2nd rate company or quit the game though.

But who am I kidding, this is all a strategem to weed out the noobs who can't pay their bills because SE has made this process so easy that only a complete idiot would be unable to give this company their money every month.

This thread sint about payments please, ther are about 50 that are.

[Vold]

While they aren't trying to kill the game because that would be stupid to not want tens of millions of dollars handed to you on a silver platter every year for basically free, they also aren't actively trying to prolong it's lifespan. They could do far better, but they won't. It's no secret that SE does not desire to restrict their entire MMO staff(or call them what you will) to one MMO "forever" it's not the nature of the Japanese game developers to want to work on one game for so long. The Japanese are not content with being content like other developers. They are a creative bunch. They innovate constantly across the board on all things technology. But they are human still, and need to make money like the next person. Hence why there's 14 Final Fantasy titles out there to date with a 15th otw for certain, and that's just the main franchise and not counting -2 sequels.

SE openly admits to this style, more or less. Now, some of them don't have a choice on the matter, but the big names certainly do and have made the decision to move on to FFXIV and perhaps this apparent new MMO now. It's a shame and all but like I've said before, I can't blame them. Mostly because FFXI is terribly limited because of the PS2 and it's got to be just as frustrating to them as it is to us that something can't be done or realistically done without taking forever. The PS2 is just a plain shitty console, and PS3 is turning out to be no better for FFXIV.

tl;dr - Trying to kill FFXI? Certainly not. But they are going to milk it for as long as it can last. I hope I am pleasantly proven wrong someday with a surprise re-release version with reworked graphics and all that jazz to prolong its lifespan, but I ain't holding my breathe for it.

[Sparthos]

This thread sint about payments please, ther are about 50 that are.

Just for you, I'll comment on the OP. The fact is that SE is winding down XI.

All of the concessions made in Abyssea were to keep the dwindling base happy as XIV eventually ascended to it's freshly minted spot as flagship SE online title.

What better way to keep us all happy than to turn a harsh and barren desert into an lively oasis of treasure? This game before Abyssea sported the wonderful world of VNMs and the most poorly designed HNM ever brought forth on Vana'diel - Yilbegan.

Things were terrible in FFXI. So bad in fact, SE qualified an NM that drops Darksteel Ingots and Ebony Logs as the centerpiece of a version update.

The plan seemed to be exciting players old and new in XI via Abyssea to then move onto XIV as faith was restored in the company. You could easily "finish up" XI and be content enough to move on to greener pastures.... except the greener pasture turned out to be a no-mans land.

When XIV fell through, the plan backfired. You had individuals once again clinging to XI because the new game failed except SE doesn't seem to have any intention of giving XI any new expansions due to PS2 limitations and the fact that money is best spent on a new game rather than a nearly decade-old one.

So now we sit in limbo. We know what SE has planned for a good while out and no expansions are in the works. This is either a surprise designed to excite individuals are a subtle way of saying that XI is done in terms of world expansion and new places to explore.

With how long it took to hammer out WOTG and how devoid of content the 3 side packs were, it's not exactly shocking to have little faith that no further expansions are being designed.

[Alhanelem]

I do not believe that this billing fiasco was done on purpose but the poster I quoted made the bold statement that billing is "easy" and that it's a simple process of knowing how to use a credit or debit card.

What an unbelievably dumb statement to make.

There's nothing dumb about it. Billing is not as "easy" as you think it is. Especially in this case, there's contracts to hammer out, customer service to manage (or fail to manage). "Knowing how to use a credit or debit card" is up to a consumer. The business has a lot of backend stuff to deal with that the customer never even sees. Think a little harder about how things work before you go around calling people 'dumb.'

The fact is that SE is winding down XI.

That's not a fact a all, and in fact they're not winding it down but turning things up.. They're doing a lot to work within the constraints they have and I'm impressed with that. However, sooner or later, they're going to have to address some key problems such as the consoles with the restricted disk space in order to make new content more original.

They can't afford to "wind it down" until, at a bare minimum, XIV is taking in money. And it's still completely uncertain when or if that will happen.