What would make you return to ffxi? (if you left and came back for the free access)

[Alhanelem]

They had a steady cash flow but they didn't know nor want to keep it going and that is their mistake.

That's not entirely true. The game had been gradually losing players over time for a long time. FFXI lasted far longer than they planned or intended. Just like any game studio making any other kind of game, they hoped to make more money with a new game (which, they probably will, though it certainly ended up taking a hell of a lot longer than they expected- but at least they learned you can't just spit a game out into the wild and expect it to perform) Wings and Audolin were both probably not originally planned in their early game planning- It's probable that their future plans at FFXI's launch went about as far as ToAU. It's pretty obvious in the large amount of recycling that started with Wings.

Every game has a lifespan, and perhaps at the time these decisions were made, they thought the lifespan was spent. (Obviously as the years went by, it's obvious that they were wrong)

Just as long as the XIV players had to wait during 1.0? I was one of those players,

I was one of those players as well. The difference is FFXI is long out of the media's eye, so there is far less potential for attention and recovery. Admittedly, part of the problem with SE has always been marketing, and if they really tried in this area, they could pull something off. The hardest part by far would simply be convincing the corporate bigwigs that this investment is worth their time (which it is, I want to always be able to come back to XI and relive the memories; I'm just cynical I suppose about anything really going somewhere.)

As I said early in the thread, the biggest thing stopping me from staying back is money. XIV costs me less to play (with a legacy account) and it's sitll fun (for me, at least). XI is fun too, but it costs more for me to play. A dual discount would likely put me at paying only a little more than the cost of one MMO. And then I'd happily be able to keep both subs active and bounce back and forth as I feel like it.

[wildsprite]

what would make me stay is a lower/better subcription model. but they already made it pretty clear we wont see that happen any time soon

my idea would be pretty simple
$9.99 USD(whatever this equates to in your own currency) per month and include the first 4 characters with that.
I'm certain that sub model/price change would get more subs and it would help SE get more money in the long run.

[Omen]

What would make me come back long term?

1.) reboot all old content to 99+ (Sky, Campaign, Besieged, Sea, etc. etc.)
a.)Create an NPC that gives the best rewards in the game. (THE BEST) and all the rewards require the same currency to buy. This currency can be acquired from doing all the rebooted content and from the new content as well. (Motivate players to do different things!!! instead of just what the latest update pushed out like every other MMO out there) And the most important part of all this is a necessary evil....you have to make EACH item cost a butt load of currency so that a large portion of the population doesn't get all the gear in just 3 months or less.

2.) Bridge the gap between veteran players and new/returning players. ( the cancer of this game )
a.) The death of any game is when there are no new players entering a game. You have to make it so old and new players can PLAY TOGETHER EASILY to ACHIEVE THE SAME GOAL. Find a balance so new players aren't turned away at the gates from doing any content because they haven't been playing for the past year. This problem is usually remedied by having enough people in the same situation group together to leap over this hurdle. But if your a very small minority then finding each other can (and will) lead to rage quitting the game because you can't DO anything unless a veteran player extends a helping hand.

b.)How do you fix this? Have to motivate people...thats how. Maybe a large currency bonus on completion of content if someone is in the group that has never done the content before. 5x the current rate. Could even make a 2x bonus rate if you go complete the content with someone who hasn't done the content in a week or two. I'm sure a professional game designer can come up with something even better just as long as people are motivated to play with everyone and not just their small list of friends....and you know play online with people at a massive level...

[Ulth]

Okay story time. I left ffxi a long time ago and only came back some time around when artifact was being reforged. I left because i wasn't having any fun. Nobody wanted to do anything, and I couldn't solo anything. What I really wanted at the time was the thief relic hands so I could be more useful on thief, only I didn't have any dynamis clears. When I asked about getting them done I was more or less told to level bst and solo them like that. Last thing I did in the game was the level 95 limit break quest. I had worked hard and solo farmed the items to make the rarab tail, but in the end I didn't get to use it and instead some bsts from my linkshell did the fight. They had me stand below the stairs and wait. I didn't even see the fight, it was a rather pyrrhic victory. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin that made me quit.

When I came back, I finished getting to 99, got myself the Espial set from RoE, and with that could solo all the stuff I couldn't before. I got all my dynamis clears, finished CoP and Zilart. Farmed sparks for chapters, and Sky for 109 reforged items to use and sell for gil. I made enough gil like that to buy the crafted artifact upgrade items, and then I had a set of 119 armor. Since then I've done all sorts of things finished WotG, ToAU, gotten all the delve clears, made a relic, made a mythic... I guess what I'm trying to say is it's not actually that hard to catch up, and they have added more to help since I did it.

[Alhanelem]

2.) Bridge the gap between veteran players and new/returning players. ( the cancer of this game )

Which is why I thought it was asinine to give active players a permanent 150% cap bonus ring and not give players that return from being inactive the same thing.

[Draylo-]

Yes, I have no idea why they got rid of the discount for playing both games. The fact FFXI cost most is very silly, with the legacy discount that is.

[Igi]

Which is why I thought it was asinine to give active players a permanent 150% cap bonus ring and not give players that return from being inactive the same thing.

This is exactly why I'm not playing right now. I was all set to pick up the expansion while it was discounted and start subbing again, but then I found out about all these temporarily available items with permanent cp bonuses (moghancement, kupofried trust, rings, etc). I'm far enough behind as it is without making a fraction of the cp active players get going forward. Just totally killed any motivation I had to play.

[Draylo-]

Uh that ring barely lasts one pull of anything. You can get the one from sparks and its just as good and you can keep rebuying them. That's a silly excuse.

[Vold]

The ring isn't so great that it should turn one off from even playing again. It lasts all of 10 minutes before it wears off and then you're waiting nearly 2 hours to use it again. It's a measly 30k exp. There's another 30k exp ring for capacity called capacity ring. It's got 7 charges 50% bonus and costs 5k sparks which are earned very easily with minimal effort. I wont bring up the one ring 11 charges that is only gotten once per year. There's bonuses to CP through RoE to boot. There's a mantle you can buy on the AH that provides 25-30% CP if you don't have a betterer mantle from incursion or whatever. You are upset over 1 extra measly JP every two hours, during double xp month. Just think about it for a bit and get back to us how terrible it is you missed out on it.

Right now this very second if coming back and earning exp is your thing, there is a double exp campaign going on. It seems to be a perma thing every 2 or 3 months or so. It's better than any ring bonus ever will be. I suggest you bring it and worry alittle bit less about 1 measly JP per two hours when each job has a 1200 JP cap. A 1 JP beef every 2 hours is an insignificant complaint compared to the 100+ you are sure to want. If you can find a group or form one then it's REALLY an insignificant complaint.

[Igi]

The ring is only one bonus among several that are no longer available.

And sheesh, apparently the community has degraded quite a bit as well. You people are sensitive.