Newest interview (abyssea was a mistake?)

[Olor]

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.

regular six man parties were a luxury only for the chosen few jobs. They were always dead for jobs like bst, blu, pup and smn. As someone who spent a year painstakingly soloing blu to 48 back in the "good old days" I can confidently say that the new set up with GoV alliances is way way way way way way way friendlier to noobies than the old six man party era ever was.

[xbobx]

As you stated, people need to come to terms with the fact this game is done. SE is on autopilot. Many of the new gear is trial of magian grinds it seems. Take all that old equipment you had, and grind out out. Maybe in a year you will be able to have all five nyzul askar pieces upgraded, etc etc.

The game was getting close to death before abyessa came out, ti breathed new life into the game for a bit, even brought a lot of people back. They finished that content and want more, they are not getting anything more so they leaving.

I am almost seeing an argument from some of you that the way to do content is to drag that content out making it take years to get a reward, that way the onus is off the developer to actually develop new and exciting content.

Personally I would rather see things like abyessa come and go, where the developers are constantly adding more content like that, where you jump in, in six months you done all you need and you are on the next exciting content.

But what we normally get, here is an expansion, here is your gear, we plan on it taking you 2 years for you to get, so. we will offer 5 missions, about 3 hours worth each 3 months, drag drag drag. Hey look how hard the game is, because time=hard.

The game needs to keep the pace going or it is done, that will not be done by going back to the old ways, if they do, the game will not last till the end of 2012. Very few people i know want to go back to that, most will quit. You guys celebrating are in the minority.

[Olor]

xbobx has it right... I would have never come back without abyssea, and if the trend is towards crappy drop rates and alliance only content, I don't think I will put any more crysta in my account.

[Luvbunny]

That Square-Enix consider Abyssea to be a failing on their part, despite it's massive success, is proof that they are largely blinkered to our opinions. We might as well be shouting at a wall. We've gone from fairly obtainable scrolls for mages to having ridiculously low drop rates on them in a high level event which can only be done once an hour, and only if you're lucky enough to find space (Read: Walk of Echoes). We've been hit by the truly incomprehensible drop system for Voidwatch which leaves players getting a handful of nothing virtually every run. And despite huge opposition, they're still set on giving away Scholar's only unique proc spells to anyone willing to sub it.

Sometimes it seems that despite their more vocal nature, they've reverted back to the old days of doing their own thing and to hell with anyone who questions their wisdom. Creatures evolve to survive, and so must MMO's. Abyssea was a success because it gave everyone a chance to obtain useful items, and share in the enjoyment. That SE could even remotely consider it a failing, I truly despair.

VW is not too terrible - it's not any worse than trying to get Aby gears,VW is harder because you need 18 people to do it, so more organization and time wasting waiting for everyone just like the old days. But yeah, they should definitely improve it so that you can do it with 10-18 people. Walk of Echoes is fun, you can log in and go for it - too bad it's pretty dead again, unless you do it on weekends or during japan prime time, which is daytime for US. Scroll drops are awful and should be rectified - expect nothing will change - they just do not want to deal with what the customers actually demand.

Scholar spells being sub-able is terrible ideas, one of the worst they can come up so far - just to show that Tanaka being you know, himself, screw players - take it as it is, or as we like to do, give him the middle finger and stop paying.

For some people, Abyssea is too easy and they got everything they wanted in 2 months or less - for the majority, it is fun rewarding content that they can log in and play and keep doing it over and over (limited to your stones) and feel good about their jobs.

[Luvbunny]

It is a game, if I want a sense of accomplishment, I look outside the game, to things in life that actually have real meaning. A digital piece of gear has no meaning.

Well said Bob, a game should be about fun, something you can log in and enjoy, and play nice with others. A little grind here and there is fine - and Abyssea is very good in giving you a little at a time but never all at once so that you keep coming back for more again and again.

The good thing about Voidwatch is that the gears never really replace AF3+1 or +2 and just a nice compliments and something different to wear (and show offs). So if you did not get it for the 20th time, you can just stop doing it but it won't affect your gameplay. They did right with magian trials but completely drop the bomb at the last few trials.

[Sharnak]

Well said Bob, a game should be about fun, something you can log in and enjoy, and play nice with others. A little grind here and there is fine - and Abyssea is very good in giving you a little at a time but never all at once so that you keep coming back for more again and again.

The good thing about Voidwatch is that the gears never really replace AF3+1 or +2 and just a nice compliments and something different to wear (and show offs). So if you did not get it for the 20th time, you can just stop doing it but it won't affect your gameplay. They did right with magian trials but completely drop the bomb at the last few trials.

You remind me about trial =w=,
Trial 2339: Apademak's Horns x75
Trial 2772: Heavy Metal Plates x1500
Form 75 horn to 1500 plate! even it's tradable.
What will coming next? 500,000 of something?
I'm not wonder at all under Mr.T's politics.

What he plan is just "How much i can tortune player as long as possible." Bring someone else that listen to player comment be producer of XI pls. Unless SE just want to move all player form XI to XIV so sent him to tortuen player who still fun to play XI.

[Luvbunny]

Don't worry, Walk of Echoes would have saved FFXI without that pesky Abyssean content.

I wish this was true - Walk of Echoes is pretty dead, again - I do like it, and it is great fun thing to do and remind me of Phantasy Star Online. As it is now, it feels rather half ass jobs, just like everything else in the game. There are MANY older contents that sound very promising but was done poorly - and yet they do not bother to even tweak and improve it. Moblin Maze is amazing idea on paper, but having to do one zone over and over gets old - and not having good drops also stop people from playing. The same can be said for Assaults, Nyzul, and Einherjar - same areas over and over with restriction.

[Sharnak]

Don't worry, Walk of Echoes would have saved FFXI without that pesky Abyssean content.

When is last time you go play Walk of Echoes? Even on peak time of JP I still found that I can't go in conflux that I want, just can follow ppl to do any conflux which ever got enoup ppl to win. I just see it's less and less ppl each days pass.

[Luvbunny]

What he plan is just "How much i can tortune player as long as possible." Bring someone else that listen to player comment be producer of XI pls. Unless SE just want to move all player form XI to XIV so sent him to tortuen player who still fun to play XI.

I think this is exactly the plan. Abyssea probably was developed as a "swan song" to FFXI, and they were hoping people will be tired of it and ready to move on. What they did not expect was how big of a turd FF14 turned out to be. SE had to shame Tanaka, forced him to publicly apologize, shuffled him back to XI and moved the star director Yoshi to FF14 to save that original IP before it's too late. Now FF14 is going in the right direction, and they are ready to burn version 1 (the huge steaming pile of tranny hot mess) and relaunch with version 2 next year. If you look at the new timeline for XI, and now the Tanaturd back at XI, expect for him to kill this game in a year so that people will move to 14. But after experiencing how badly they handle XI over the past 10 years - I won't bother playing 14 even if it's served in gold platter with all the nice trimming. I'll go back play their offline games that can be completed in 60 hours with no drama - looking forward for FFXIII-2!!

Also notice how we are not getting any kind of respond from the developers on this thread. You can bet they are still awaiting for the "comment" to be approved by SE lawyers and PR dept - and they are figuring out how to spin this interview as something "positive" and "encouraging". Tanaturd probably got some stern lecture on how to give interviews and answering questions. There is no comparison when you read FF14 letter from developers, and have to read FF11 insight of new future... Though this probably their intention all along - make it so that FF11 looks really bad, so people will have something to look forward for 14.

[Arcon]

Don't worry, Walk of Echoes would have saved FFXI without that pesky Abyssean content.

I wish this was true - Walk of Echoes is pretty dead, again [..]

When is last time you go play Walk of Echoes? [..]

That was sarcasm.