To all adventurers and pioneers!

[Karbuncle]

You know, I remember with this forum was alive with bitching about them never talking enough, and "just give us some info" was all everyone was asking for, even if it wasnt 100% finalized, knowing their "plans" for the future was wanted... Which is why a Timeline was asked for, so on, so forth.

Now this new director is actually actively giving us progress updates, informing us of delays and whats planned in the far and near future, which is loads more than we can say we got before he was heading this ship, and still, endless b*tching.

I mean, I honestly lost brain cells upon reading the guy who said he no longer wants to try GEO because of its Aura, and Bell... Both of which we knew were part of the job from literally square one. Just made literally 10% of my braincells commit suicide, knowing they share the same earth with his brain cells was too much for them.

But, In all seriousness, I'm going to try to be the voice of reason here, and calmly say.. MAKE UP YER GD MINDS! He may not be giving us great news but at least we're in the loop now, and getting SOME news, and not finding out its been delayed on the day of the update like we used to.

SoA Is going to be released with a solid amount of out-of-box content, the 7 "HNMs" alone will probably keep us busy for a while, including the Weapon augment system shown in the JP Live stream... colonization and reives are likely going to be something we're doing for a good time considering the dagger i saw was pretty bad*ss, the other weapons likely follow suit.

They're delaying some things, its expected, its happened since FFXI existed, I know its disappointing, but at least its not on the same level as Alexander or Odin yet (though, Cait Sith will be)... plus, they're expecting most of it introduced in Summer, which generally speaking, is about 2 months... the general length between updates anyway, so its most likely just being pushed back 1, maybe 2 updates at best.

Now, come May/June if they delay it again, I'll take up pitchforks with you, for now, just... seriously quite with the emo... not saying not to complain when they do sh*t baddly, because thats dumb... Just... have some bloody consistency.

[Mercator]

First off, I'm a long time XI subscriber and loyal fan. Played off and on for nearly 10 years. The FFXI community has taken a lot of crap over the last few years and honestly, I feel like second class. I'd imagine many newer MMOs would love to have such loyal subscribers and they wouldn't crap on their customers. We didn't have an official forum until what, last year?

So, more "testing" is needed. What has been done since Abyssea? That's when the testing should've taken place. Storage accessible in all mog houses? This seems like an easy programming fix to me. I know the FFXI team probably has 4 people on it, but still. The OP is a "we've been sitting around 'testing' and 'working hard,' but please, buy this overpriced, unfinished expansion where you won't really get your money's worth until summer at the earliest." Much like the later months of FFXIV 1.23. SE is good at asking people to buy incomplete products. We essentially gain a couple of quests/missions, 2 new jobs that everyone will be leveling simultaneously, and probably a silly requirement like "go get old content item X" to gain access to the new continent task.

New activities should be quick, fun, lowman events. Yeah, big things like Skirmish and such are good to have around for those few end-game shells that still exist. My social shell is down to a handful of members and we've always enjoyed things like Limbus and Nyzul...things you can do lowman. I'm curious to know what average linkshell size is now compared to say, 2008.

I'm not expecting miracles, but clear and honest communication should be a given from the development/community team. I know there's considerable focus on FFXIV at this time and that FFXI is just a cash cow. But please, don't forget about the XI fans. Of all the XI expansions, this one just doesn't even seem exciting to me and that's disheartening for me and should be for you. The announcement of new expansion came only a few months ago and it seems this was just pulled out of someone's *** to sate the SE fans until XIV is ready. Sorry if this comes off as rant-y, but it's honestly how I feel.

[Kincard]

FFXI Expansions have historically been mostly vaporware on release so I wasn't really expecting much different this time.

The core of the game continues to be the job system. Can we get an idea of what the dev team's vision of each job actually is and how they plan on accomplishing that? There hasn't been major job updates in something like a year, and it'd be nice to know what their vision is, how that job is currently fulfilling that role (this is very important), and what they plan on doing if it doesn't satisfy point 2.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

I've officially renamed this collective set of features as "Final Fantasy Versus XIII-2."

No matter how many times you try to title drop, these forums still aren't the right place to complain about a different game.

Consequently, I had given up on FFXI for a while, but was actually excited about trying GEO. Then I watched the live footage where the GEO waved a super scary, intimidating bell around

So you haven't been paying any attention for the past 20 years or so?

[Demon6324236]

You know, I remember with this forum was alive with bitching about them never talking enough, and "just give us some info" was all everyone was asking for, even if it wasnt 100% finalized, knowing their "plans" for the future was wanted... Which is why a Timeline was asked for, so on, so forth.

Now this new director is actually actively giving us progress updates, informing us of delays and whats planned in the far and near future, which is loads more than we can say we got before he was heading this ship, and still, endless b*tching.

Firstly I agree with 90% of what you said, but some things I need to point out.

People still complain because we are given inaccurate information, which is almost as bad as no info at all. We are told things will be done within a certain time frame, which goes way beyond that point, for instance the Storage update, I think that was announced we would get it by like summer or fall of last year, yet here we wait. Were we not told about it at all we would be saying something about it still, it would be a little different though. If nothing was said we would not know they were supposed to be working on it, that they were planing to do it, or that we have been waiting much long than originally expected. But we were told, so many people are angry for just that reason, we were told and we did not get it.

Here, Ill give you one of my poorly done examples of what this is like. It would be like if last year a guy told his son that he was going to buy him Halo 4 when it came out, then the game came out and the dad said he will get it for Christmas cause he is low on money currently, when Christmas comes he tells his son they are broke, now he has to wait on his tax return, that comes and now he has to wait till next Christmas. Basically, set back after set back after set back, when we were told it would be coming long ago and we are still waiting.

Really the main problem people have now is what is being done. We are getting a ton of unfavorable updates people do not like, on top of that all of the updates people do want are being pushed back for the most part, and past that we are being told our expansion will be drawn out rather than really releasing it as a full package. Basically its a lot of things back to back which people do not like, which is why they complain, sure we asked to be informed, but really, what did you expect? When people are informed of something and it upsets them they often do not simply shut up because they were told something, they speak out about it, and really, thats about the only way to possibly influence it. So the player response in this case is fairly justified in my mind, even if you are correct.

[Merton9999]

No matter how many times you try to title drop, these forums still aren't the right place to complain about a different game.

You missed the point, which was the obvious parallel to XI. Versus has never appealed to me, so I've never had a reason to complain about it. The reference was a simple comparison using a well-known issue to make a stab at XI.

So you haven't been paying any attention for the past 20 years or so?

Regarding the bell, the only incarnations of geomancer I liked in that 20 year history had no bells in sight, and I was hoping they'd downplay them here as well.

As far as the auras go, I loved the luminescent look in the still shots, but the videos make them look like sewer gas. Some interesting imagery and messing around with friends are the only things this game has left for me. Any challenge has been old and tired for years, along with engaging storylines. If people are still getting those out of this 10 year old MMO instead of what else is available out there, more power to them, but I would personally lose brain cells if that's what I still cared about here.

[Beeraga]

My pre-order has been cancelled and I'm about to cancel my account. I have been playing this game for over 9 years.

I find it ridiculous that people can't voice their frustrations about how SE has been fleecing us, RE: Phogg's post that was deleted (and I can attest that the post existed, I saw it). Where exactly are our monthly fees going? It's certainly not going to develop the content that was promised to us 2 years ago, and certainly not going towards the content that was being sold to us via the new expansion.

I'm done throwing my money out the window hoping SE will get their act together someday.

[Yinnyth]

I find it intriguing how many players only continue playing because they want SE to change or add stuff. The way I see it, my money goes towards what's in the game now. I wouldn't be playing if it's not fun to play -right now-. I wouldn't be paying SE if I weren't playing.

Even more intriguing is how many likes "I quit" posts get. It's like everyone on the forum hates SE, yet continues to pay them, then rejoices when one of their brethren finally cast off the shackles of MMO addiction.

[Demon6324236]

Even more intriguing is how many likes "I quit" posts get. It's like everyone on the forum hates SE, yet continues to pay them, then rejoices when one of their brethren finally cast off the shackles of MMO addiction.

Basically. People want SE to change, they come to these forums and either look or post themselves in an attempt to get SE to change some things, they have some hope, but over time that hope is lost, and after a while longer they give up. When people choose to leave they are given likes because people agree with their reasons, some even with they could quit for the same reasons, I am one of those people even, but I have to many friends I care about on this game, I stay to talk to them and so we can do things together. I agree with people who have problems with SE's service and the game, I have many of the same problems and have said something about them at some point, but I myself will not leave for those reasons alone, so for now I simply agree with others who share the views on it I do, and voice my problems continuously.

Basically, people like these posts I think because they agree with the reasons for leaving, not necessarily that they are applauding the person who is breaking their chains from the addictive game and finally escaping the prison. Also, its done because people are actually leaving to show their anger and disappointment, which not everyone is willing to do, even if I myself am not willing to leave the game because of the problems I have, others are, and they impact SE more than I do. Its kinda like how people will agree with a martyr even if they themselves are not willing to put their life on the line for the same cause, in this case, we agree with these martyrs, but we are not willing to leave this game to make that stand.

[Kincard]

I'm actually kinda surprised at how strong the negative reactions are, but I do understand where they're coming from, given that the content in the past year while Adoulin was being developed was pretty much drip-fed to us, leading to the assumption that the expansion would be a big patch. I personally am going to wait to see how much content is actually there upon release (WOTG had nothing but zones, campaign, and next to no missions) before I make any decisions. I don't think it'll be too hard to beat WOTG's release.

My expectations really arn't that high, so I hope SE doesn't disappoint.