New expansion?!?

[Dazusu]

I never implied the game was going to die with my post; just that the current direction the game is (and has been taking since the latter half of Adoulin) is not the one the vast majority of players wanted to see. I feel this is reflected by the drastic population decline since Adoulin. What else could be considered the causation? I know from first hand experience, my own Linkshell stopped playing almost entirely because of the epic gap in group content between Delve I and Delve II. Most other Linkshells (people who enjoyed playing together in groups of 12+) also stopped playing around this time.

Before anyone goes on a "solo/3man/6man is better / linkshells are for assholes / I never liked end-game" crusade, I'm not saying large group play is for everyone - I'm saying it wasn't catered for; and those that enjoyed it stopped playing in considerable numbers. Around 16~20 people quit from my own group.

It was getting incredibly boring arranging events for 18 people when the options were "Do we kill Tojil, Bee or the Shark?"; whereas at level 75 end-game, you had options such as Sky, Sea, HNM camps periodically, fights like Alastor Antlion (and other poppable NMs), Limbus, Einherjar.

The problem now that content is deprecated within a couple of months of being released. Or it's designed for small groups. There's no variety or real options for large groups. (Again, I think low man play should be catered, as well as larger groups.)

The low man experience in FFXI right now is consistent. If that's not your style; you find yourself bored; really quickly.

This is probably why it feels like an anti-community ghost town when I login and see not a single person moving or shouting/yelling for pretty much an entire day.

Anyway, I digress. A new expansion would be great... it might cause people to return. I'm not holding my breath though.