Free hand-outs?

[Stompa]

The problem is that they're only using feedback from a tiny fraction of the players if/when they do that and there's no way of knowing how well those posting on this forum represent the general population. You won't catch me speaking on behalf of others, claiming that a large number of players agree with me in order to sway an argument one way or another because there's simply no way to validate such claims. My mistake (and theirs) is not taking part in the discussions here sooner.



That is indeed a problem and I've made my opinion known in the last server merge thread that came up.

Well, as I see it there are two main points here really.

You don't like UNM Dial, because you feel that it will damage the Unity system, in that you will be shouting for a UNM and you need a WHM, and the WHM will not join because they got all their UNM stuff from the Gobby Dial.

I think this is very unlikely. Number one, most people will prefer to use Linkshell members, as they know they can trust those players more than random PUG players. Number two, the WHM or w/e job you are shouting for, has to be online when you are shouting, they can't be doing other events like Ambuscade etc. They have to be online, and free, and wanting to farm that specific UNM. And for your theory to work, that person also has to have obtained the drops from that UNM already, via Gobby Box. I would describe the odds of this situation occurring as microscopic. The odds of it happening so often that it affects the UNM system, are basically too small to even compute. Especially as the Gobby Dial seems to give random junk instead of gear, around 99% of the time. I still haven't got a single piece of gear from the UNM dial after many attempts.

The second point is that you have to balance the Pros and Cons. The Cons I have detailed above, are incredibly tiny and unlikely. The Pros of having "fun mini-games and timed events with random lucky stuff" are that MANY people really enjoy that kind of fun. People even pay $$$ for extra content IDs, just to do Login Points and to spin the Gobby Dials. People enjoy it. People pay extra subs for it. Paying extra subs keeps the game online.

I think complaining about things that other people enjoy, and they are paying subs for it, is actually missing the big picture, which is that the game needs all the subs it can get, and SE are adding fun mini-game / event content because they know that a lot of people enjoy that kind of stuff. I think it is good that people enjoy FFXI, and pay subs. Anything else is just opinions, opinions which would mean nothing at all if the game was offline due to lack of subs.