surefire way to get SE to drop ps2 support

[Camiie]

Playing FFXI in 2012 on a Playstation 2 is like being 40 years old riding a bike to work.

Not all bikes are made for kids with bells, baskets, and tassels.

[Spiritreaver]

And once it's dropped then what? You really think they're going to fix all the game engine limitations?

Had this talk with a LSmate. Its easy for some to parrot "Drop PS2 now!" without actually addressing the actual issue, which is SE laziness.

[Mifaco]

Things to thank the PS2 for:

-Halfassed port to Windows complete with absent IME due to licensing issues.
-Terrible console-focused UI that is ages behind WoW or any other PC game.
-Horrible draw distance on the Windows version.
-50 model limit - thanks for shopping PJ, come again when you can see me.
-Auto-translate dictionary is full, we'll never get another auto-translate term added again.
-No visible capes.
-Absolutely horrible UI scaling for a UI designed for a 640x480 resolution. I sure do like having my alliance boxes disappear for no reason when I open my macro menu!
-Graphical DOWNGRADES - yes, DOWNGRADES - because the PS2 just can't handle it. Case in point: Aern bracelets and Avatar glows used to look much better before they were downgraded
-Endless corridor after corridor after corridor, even in outdoor areas. Notice how there are few really "wide open" areas in the expansion areas?

Face facts, supporting a dying platform is foolish. This game could have been so much more were it not chained to the PS2.

[Camiie]

Face facts, supporting a dying platform is foolish. This game could have been so much more were it not chained to the PS2.

Sure it could have been so much more, but it IS tied to the PS2 and that is NEVER EVER going to change. It IS a PS2 game sloppily ported to PC and 360 and it always will be.

FFXI will never be modernized to any great extent. It can't be without far more work and money than SE is willing to put into it. There's not some magic switch in the code that turns off "PS2 Limitations." There's no "Infinite Storage" setting. There's no "HD Graphics" or "High Res Textures" button they can push. It's an old game and it's always going to look and feel like one even with the new UI. If people want a modern game experience then they need to find a modern game to play.

If every PS2 died tomorrow and every PS2 user switched to PC the day after it wouldn't change a damn thing.

[oliveira]

Things to thank the PS2 for:
-50 model limit - thanks for shopping PJ, come again when you can see me.
Face facts, supporting a dying platform is foolish. This game could have been so much more were it not chained to the PS2.

PS2 draws more players than PC version on crowd situations. Which is funny. The bottleneck is the way the game is being run ON THE PC which might be a argument for you, but still while on the PS2 I can see people dash past me as their models load faster than on the PC. Fun stuff...

Only complains that I consider valid are the console focused UI (FFXI is a Console game for all that matters) and I could rant how mouse support on the windows version suck to a point it even gets on the way of proper gameplay when you accidentally click inside the game window...

What binds and chains FFXI is the design, not the platform. And funny enough, the design is what made what it is today. So we're like dogs who are chasing their own tails.

[cidbahamut]

Who the hell uses a mouse with FFXI?

[oliveira]

Who the hell uses a mouse with FFXI?

They would do me a big favor if they added a option to DISABLE the mouse completely inside the game window.

[Gilraen]

Wow, people who understand FFXI's origins. So rare these days, really. Yes, FFXI was originally released on the PS2 to showcase Sony's HDD peripheral. The Beta release (in Japan only) and initial retail release had HDD pack-ins preinstalled with FFXI. Further, at the time, only the PS2 retail release had Zilart included. They did the PC version first in the US because the US had many more personally owned PCs than Japan (ironic, huh) making it easier to produce, though they also did not include Zilart in a bid to get more money on expansions. We still got the PS2 HDD bundle, complete with Zilart, over here and that's how I got into the game because, well, I couldn't afford a capable PC then. As has been pointed out, they won't change the game once the PS2 is ultimately left by the wayside. It's the very heart of the game, will be till the day the servers finally go silent as all MMOs must do.

Also, if you enable hardware mouse the game window won't hold the cursor hostage anymore.

[Diraco]

If you play on the PS2, you're doing yourself a disservice. The game looks plain terrible on PS2. Check out these example videos (same video as I linked to on ffxiah, move along if you already saw):

PS2, maximum possible capture quality (please select 720p resolution):
PS2 640x480

PC, maximum quality on old ATI drivers,1x background (select 720p resolution):
PC 1280x720, lowest resolution that most would use on a PC

One thing the PS2 does have going for it that you'll notice in the video, is the character models on PC load unbelievably slowly compared to the PS2, even though I used a very fast PC (5ghz i7) and XI installed to SSD.

[oliveira]

One thing the PS2 does have going for it that you'll notice in the video, is the character models on PC load unbelievably slowly compared to the PS2, even though I used a very fast PC (5ghz i7) and XI installed to SSD.

Well, PS2 uses a lightweight simplified POSIX (linux/unix like) kernel, extremely optimized I/O drivers (compared to the generic stuff Windows use to be compatible with anything) running on a dedicated I/O CPU and a ridiculously high video memory bandwidth (around 38 GB per second) ... You could probably have four veridical confluxes spinning close to each other and the PS2 would not slow down a single frame from all that effects being drawn.

But yes, it's resolution is even lower than 640x480. In fact it's 512x512. Put the PC version on 640x480 window size with 512x512 back buffer and you get exactly same graphics as the PS2 version