Newest interview (abyssea was a mistake?)

[Kimble]

I like how people say abyssea was so horrible and shitty, yet they ate it up and did everything it had to offer, lol.

[Lokithor]

I find it a amazing how many people (still certainly a minority though) consider Abyssea to be the death of FFXI. Those are the ones that found it OK to repeat the same, years old content, over and over and over again, comfortable in the sameness of their world. Abyssea and the Magian Trials saved this game. Before these events, all content was focused on restricted access events repeated endlessly for very low percentage random drops. Abyssea and Magian changed this to systems where people could measure their progress to goals in a predictable fashion with much lower access restrictions. This made it much more player friendly and was overwhelmingly (a certain vocal minority excepted) applauded.

So, what do we have now? VW is a return to big alliance, restricted access, repeat endlessly for low percentage random drops, now made even worse by not being able to direct alliance drops to those who actually need the item. Now we read that the development team seems to think that this is the right model, despite the opinion of the majority of players.

Here's the solution. Create a single (one will do) server for FFXI "Classic" and move all of the dinosaurs there, where the level cap remains 75 and they can live their endless MMORPG groundhog day. The rest of us can move on and not be bothered with shouts of "get off my lawn" when we walk past.

FFXI needs more content that has Abyssea / Magian modelled systems of reward, not fewer.

What is really missing in the last few years though is real FF content. What is the hallmark of the FF series? Gameplay yes but more so character and story. That has really fallen off. WoTG was actually great from that respect - except it took way to long to play out. It was like trying to read war and peace one paragraph every 6 months. What the game needs is more new zones, more adventure, compelling stories written through challenging quests and missions.

And more Abyssea style content.

[Zaknafein]

I like how people say abyssea was so horrible and shitty, yet they ate it up and did everything it had to offer, lol.

Partaking in abyssea, because it was the only relevant EG event after 94% of the game was replaced/outdated by it doesn't mean everyone was all titillated & swooning. We did it because that's where af3, and new age weapons were placed at.

Also I am not anti everything about abyssea. I was happy to see casual gamers get a chance to gear themselves out properly.

I was less enthusiastic to see a lot of those casuals then become the next gen elitests, and/or suddenly think they were master tacticians.

I am a fan of the proc system. Empyreans. WoE versions. Seeing unloved jobs getting some playtime.

Not so much of a fan to see DA botfest become spam trade ???, apradar to track timed spawns, or fleehacking to pop vnm.

Imo the level 30 entry to abyssea was the biggest mistake.

So it had it's good, and bad points. For me it just broke the game too much.

[Kimble]

Eh, level 30 entry really didn't matter as most of the people still playing had already leveled a few jobs to 75. If they didn't really understand how to play then, having to wait till 75 to enter abyssea wasnt going to teach them.

[Vold]

I hate scrubs. They ain't good for nothin'. The worst kind are the ones who don't even know they're scrubs and call other people out on it. They're usually people who are pro anon so they can spew whatever the hell they want without backla-oh wait look at my mule character under my name nevermind what I said.


You know on a serious note the direction that Abyssea could have been would have been accomplished if SE hadn't jumped the gun with FFXIV. It really was like 5 years ahead of it's time. We didn't really need it and that's the problem for both games. No one was ready for a different FF experience with 14 and 14 is killing 11 by lack of developer support. It's an expensive lesson learned but hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

[Luvbunny]

Here's the solution. Create a single (one will do) server for FFXI "Classic" and move all of the dinosaurs there, where the level cap remains 75 and they can live their endless MMORPG groundhog day. The rest of us can move on and not be bothered with shouts of "get off my lawn" when we walk past.

Please let SE create this and put all the anti-abyssea in one place and strip them from all their empyrian and magian weapon, and AF3s and let them relive the glory old days that is FFXI Classic and be happy with the grind and challenges.

[Zaknafein]

Eh, level 30 entry really didn't matter as most of the people still playing had already leveled a few jobs to 75. If they didn't really understand how to play then, having to wait till 75 to enter abyssea wasnt going to teach them.

I mean less about people not knowing their jobs, and more about them having 10, 15, or in a lot of cases 20 95's now. The thing I liked when xp was a horrible grating ugly chore were people had a few jobs only. So they tended to take more pride in them. Nowadays players just burn up jobs like some sort of crack fiends. They get minimal gear on them, and run right to the next.

Really though that trend started with smn burns. Abyssea just exacerbated the problem.

[Kimble]

Eh, as long as they dont bring their bad jobs to things I do, I dont care, lol.

[Vold]

Eh, level 30 entry really didn't matter as most of the people still playing had already leveled a few jobs to 75. If they didn't really understand how to play then, having to wait till 75 to enter abyssea wasnt going to teach them.

It mattered in the sense that it killed 6 man parties. I like leveling in Abyssea at low levels too but let's not pretend here, it killededed the hell out of the game pre end game and overall that's a bad thing because new folk can't get anywhere. They chug along on life support to the old 75 cap before someone gives them the time of day for Abyssea experience. As a veteran it's real easy to sit here and tell them to suck it up etc but it's never as easy as we like to think it is. There's a difference between newbies and returning players, by the way.

Without new players coming in there's no one to replace old players that quit. Maybe we don't care today because it don't effect us right now but what happens when the servers close because there's few left? Oh, oh shit it's too late now to welcome newbies. But none of that matters because SE decided it was a good idea to risk it or they didn't foresee entire alliances in Abyssea as is the case usually. So whatever. For right now the game is alive and kicking.

[Setsuai]

I do understand what they are saying about abyssea. Sure, we all loved it. It's incredibly fast experience, you don't have to grind solo to get your levels anymore, its low man friendly, etc. You go in, set your concoction of atmas and cruor buffs and you're almost unstoppable. Even the lower level players are getting in on the action. But the problem is IMO people are spending too much time in abyssea. The people who are taking in 30ish jobs to level them aren't taking the time to level them correctly and learn the job, creating a whole new slew of problems. Then you get players who are doing events with under leveled skills and no idea how their job even works. I won't say I'm the exception to the rule. I have leveled that way, and while I don't know all the ins and outs of the jobs I have leveled, I'm currently taking the time to learn from more experienced players. But not everyone wants to put in that kind of effort.
Another problem is that while people are comfy and warm in abyssea, outside, it's turned into a cruel, unforgiving place. Stuff you could normally do in abyssea, you can't do outside, because we've grown so accustomed to the abyssea system, we've forgotten all the work it takes to do endgame. Granted, stuff like storyline (CoP, ToAU, RoZ and the add-ons) and stuff that used to be end game like Nyzul, Limbus, and Sky Gods have become a cake walk, there's a whole new set of end game stuff that's gonna rip us apart because we're ill prepared for it. I give major points to those already doing VW and conquering that part of end game.
I don't know; it may just be me, but I'm afraid we've become soft because of Abyssea. I'm not saying we need to get rid of it. Like the producers said, they opened a can of worms with that one, and its one they'll never be able to close. It's too engrained in the players. I do think we need to stop spending most of our time in Abyssea though, and go back to the days when end game was alot of blood, sweat and tears. I think we'd feel more accomplished then.
Again, this is just my opinion and not meant to offend anyone. I apologize if it comes off that way.