Classic server, what's the argument against it now?

[PlumbGame]

Do you care to actually refute any of the points I make, or are you merely calling me out on my credentials? Because as far as I'm seeing this, you're all wrong, you cannot actually dispute anything I say, so you're latching on that one assertion and completely ignoring the merit of all the other arguments because you can't actually come up with with anything to counter them because I am right and you are wrong.

I understand you really, really want a classic server, but you need to accept reality.

I just did.

Don't tell me to refute something you never refuted in the first place, then not like the example I gave.

it's as easy as typing everquest into your search engine.

[machini]

I just did.

Don't tell me to refute something you never refuted in the first place, then not like the example I gave.

it's as easy as typing everquest into your search engine.

Thank you for proving that you are nothing but a blind zealot incapable of listening to anything that contradicts your deeply held belief that a classic server is totes viable and profitable and the only reason Squeenix has decided not to make one is not because they did a silly thing like a cost-benefit analysis on how much money it would take and how much of a return they were likely to get, but solely because you have to pleaded and cried for it enough.

[PlumbGame]

Thank you for proving that you are nothing but a blind zealot incapable of listening to anything that contradicts your deeply held belief that a classic server is totes viable and profitable and the only reason Squeenix has decided not to make one is not because they did a silly thing like a cost-benefit analysis on how much money it would take and how much of a return they were likely to get, but solely because you have to pleaded and cried for it enough.

I listen to many things that contradicts my beliefs. I just like facts.

Don't piss on me and tell me it's raining.

[machini]

I listen to many things that contradicts my beliefs. I just like facts.

Don't piss on me and tell me it's raining.

You have given no facts yourself. Your entire argument hinges on "There were more players in the past, therefore the past version of the game is better, and recreating the past version of the game would result in increased players". You do not take into account the amount of time and money that would be required to do such a thing. You do not take into account the idea that the people who are interested in playing FFXI are already playing FFXI. You do not take into account that the player base from back then has aged and changed. Many of my friends who played FFXI when we were younger now have families, children, and careers, and cannot devote time to playing an MMO.

Your entire argument that a a classic server would work is based on your desire to have one.

Furthermore, I typed in EverQuest into google, and saw nothing that said that a classic server for FFXI would be massively profitable.

[PlumbGame]

You have given no facts yourself. Your entire argument hinges on "There were more players in the past, therefore the past version of the game is better, and recreating the past version of the game would result in increased players". You do not take into account the amount of time and money that would be required to do such a thing. You do not take into account the idea that the people who are interested in playing FFXI are already playing FFXI. You do not take into account that the player base from back then has aged and changed. Many of my friends who played FFXI when we were younger now have families, children, and careers, and cannot devote time to playing an MMO.

Your entire argument that a a classic server would work is based on your desire to have one.

Furthermore, I typed in EverQuest into google, and saw nothing that said that a classic server for FFXI would be massively profitable.

/facepalm. And the circle continues.

[detlef]

I can see what you are saying, but then use other games as an example. Not only have I ran into teenagers still play everquest, but what about all the 30+ 40+ year olds making up an at least 5k+ (this is being generous) population that just capped out their server on the TLP that launched?.

I don’t really have an opinion on this except to postulate that EQ players appear to be very, very loyal to the original game for whatever reason. And I would hazard a guess (correct me if I’m wrong) that it is related to EQ being the only (?) serious MMO option at the time and therefore the people who played were very loyal and passionate about it. That’s all I can really say with my limited knowledge.

You are trying to present "this is 2015, no one has time for this" type comment, but it is completely false, even more so with studies being shown all the time with the increasing popularity of gaming and stuff like LoL hitting 3/4 (iirc) the size of the superbowl in terms of people watching. People have all the time in the world to sit around and play, and hence if you need to look at the examples already given.

I guess I am saying that to a degree because 30-40 year olds generally have less free time to devote to gaming. But I also think that there are many more things competing for time even just looking at home entertainment. Things like mobile gaming and services like Netflix now take up huge chunks of our time. A game like FFXI could skate by back then, but in today’s cutthroat environment, a lot more effort is required to get people to choose to play your game.

The rest of the stuff you posted had to do with how tough for SE to do this and I can’t give an educated opinion on that except to say that if it was really easy to do, maybe it would be in the works.

[machini]

It's okay. I understand you can't accept reality.

The fact is every argument for a classic server or why a classic server for FFXI would work or be profitable has been shown to be false and wishful thinking. All you have resorted to now is name-calling, nitpicking, and outright ignoring everything that contradicts your desires. And I'm done dealing with someone such as you.

[bungiefanNA]

All client development requires PS2 dev kits. Server development is different, because it doesn't need the graphical and audio assets. Unofficial servers run mostly on SQL, and something running calculations of events. Official servers shouldn't be too different except in scale, since they are running on multiple machines working together.

[PlumbGame]

I don’t really have an opinion on this except to postulate that EQ players appear to be very, very loyal to the original game for whatever reason. And I would hazard a guess (correct me if I’m wrong) that it is related to EQ being the only (?) serious MMO option at the time and therefore the people who played were very loyal and passionate about it. That’s all I can really say with my limited knowledge.

I guess I am saying that to a degree because 30-40 year olds generally have less free time to devote to gaming. But I also think that there are many more things competing for time even just looking at home entertainment. Things like mobile gaming and services like Netflix now take up huge chunks of our time. A game like FFXI could skate by back then, but in today’s cutthroat environment, a lot more effort is required to get people to choose to play your game.

The rest of the stuff you posted had to do with how tough for SE to do this and I can’t give an educated opinion on that except to say that if it was really easy to do, maybe it would be in the works.

I do get where you are coming from though. I would never think that FFXI population will be as grand as it once was, but I do think at least 1 server would succeed. Hell, I know people, 15, 20, 30, 60, whatever, that will just come back just for the sake of the HNM game and being able to try and lock other people out of HNM claims. It's obvious that many of us enjoy current FFXI, I even enjoy current FFXI. I was super excited at the ease of restrictions on dynamis etc... That being said, again, I feel the amount of population interested in something like this is undervalued

I agree too, a lot of what we talk about is truly something only SE would know. Well to a degree, they can only pinpoint the most popular era based off of subs, no actual survey though. This is one reason other games are used, specifically EQ, at least from my perspective. EQ is one, if not the only MMORPG out there that can pin point similar aspects that exist in FFXI in the 75 days. The only real difference, to me at least, is the FF skin. Using this to your knowledge, you have to assume there is loyal fans also, well, actually, there is. You can use FFXIV to support that since it's one of the most successful WoW clones ever on the market, which I think is argubly because of the fan base if you are to look at similar wow clones success compared to WoW itself. Anyways, you can assume that there may be a success doing the same idea here. I think even more so given that FFXIs pop at peak was roughly 4 to 5x the amount EQ hit, leaving a vastly larger audience to appeal to.

[machini]

All client development requires PS2 dev kits. Server development is different, because it doesn't need the graphical and audio assets. Unofficial servers run mostly on SQL, and something running calculations of events. Official servers shouldn't be too different except in scale, since they are running on multiple machines working together.

Any alteration of the server that would involve data that would be visible to the client, such as weapon/equipment statistics, item descriptions, returning widescan to its old functionality, or seasonal adding and removal of NPCs would require changes to the client data.

The client-server model that FFXI uses places an extreme amount of trust in the client. A good deal of calculation and decision is not done server side. This means that making changes to the server will require changes to the client, which means server development requires the capability to do client development.