Are we getting a server merge soon?

[Diavolo]

The community isn't falling apart. It's growing, taking new shape.

Taking new shape, yes, but growing? No, the FFXI community as a whole isn't growing at all, nor are the server-specific communities. I assume you're playing on Asura which might explain why you might have such an opinion, but many of those returning players aren't sticking around very long and there is good reason for it.

I don't have anything against the more solo-friendly environment the development team has bred with FFXI over the last two or three years, but at its heart this will always be a massively multiplayer online RPG that rewards players for coming together and it would be nice if the new director kept that in mind going forward. It would also be nice if, after all was said and done, this game could be laid to rest without having sacrificed that which made it so appealing in the first place.

[Hyrist]

Again, the 'traditional' idea of a massive multiplayer game is dated and, frankly obselte.

Masively Multiplayer really just means multiplayer at this point when you have games series such as Halo, Call of Duty, League of Legends, DOTA 2, etc, pulling numbers that flat out dwarf anything even MMO's golden child, WoW did in its hayday.

Put bluntly, the 'traditional MMO' is dying a slow death and it's being spotted in everything from the inability to reproduce WoW's one-off successes and the continual change of even modern MMOs into a more laze fare style. Games that pitted on the idea of a hardcore multiplayer mindset, switched its model quickly (Wildstar) or never even got to finish taking shape (EQ Next, VtM MMO). Most of the old guard that are sticking around have adapted or are adapting more accessible playstyles to match the changing gaming environment. Simply, MMOs are no longer competing with just MMOs anymore, but with the entire Multiplayer market.

Meanwhile more and more 'single player' games (with a few exceptions) continually adapt more multiplayer elements. The pull is to find that happy medium that encompasses many players of differing styles, and it's rubbing a subsection of gamers on both sides of the plate the wrong way. But it's happening, it's been happening and it's wise of game developers everywhere to find their place in the wake of it all. That's not to say completely solo content, but things like Ambuscale? That's about where it's at - more effective with a group, but comparable to do solo if desired or necessary. The idea of a mandatory party, especially one manually made, is becoming more and more unappealing by the playerbase.

So no, the heart has changed. Time to get with the beat.

[Pixela]

Taking new shape, yes, but growing? No, the FFXI community as a whole isn't growing at all

Do you even play other mmorpg titles? These games do not grow, this is as odd as saying you aren't a year younger today than you were last year. No kidding!

There is no mmorpg that is bigger a year later, it does not happen. I think this odd idea is possibly comng from companies releasing registered player numbers? It doesn't happen.

There is nothing anyone can do to make this game grow, it's not about growing it's about retention. Keeping most players longer than would normally happen, I can guarantee you that if this game was anti solo they would have massive losses in a very short amount of time now.

Also it's funny how the people who are so concerned about the community are almost always the ones that have very little to do with it, they just play with their linkshell friends.

[Diavolo]

There is nothing anyone can do to make this game grow, it's not about growing it's about retention. Keeping most players longer than would normally happen, I can guarantee you that if this game was anti solo they would have massive losses in a very short amount of time now.

Well, there is your mistake, assuming I have any interest in making this game "anti solo." The argument here isn't to remove options, it's to foster a healthy environment that can keep both the hardcore and the casual players happy. It's not difficult, but it does require a bare minimum of effort which, as this Ambuscade ordeal is showing us, may indeed be asking for too much.

[Jin_Uzuki]

<_<

[Courtelise]

What I see? Are the loads of people coming back to the game because they can finish their bucket list solo, who are excited about new content without dealing with old problems like the high-level,high-gear elitism that still mires a lot of groups.

I just reactivated after a year and a half away. Just one of many breaks since launch. My first day back there were less than 300 players online. If there is one thing I've struggled with, it's coming to terms with the fact that this game will never be what it once was. Then again, I don't have the time for it to be what it once was, so I think that's a good change. I'm back this time with the goal of finishing what I started either with my husband or alone. My LS is gone. My friend list is empty. I'm hoping my new attitude helps me to enjoy what's left solo.

[Alhanelem]

The landscape of MMOs, and even all gaming in general, is changing. People have to accept that what once was won't ever be again. We can look back to the good ol' days fondly, but we can't get them back even though we all want to. As much as all of us have loved this game for years and years, times change and today's gamers for the most part aren't looking for a game that will bust their balls. As was noted by another poster, any other game that has attempted to bring back the ultra hardcore style has failed miserably- there just isn't a large enough audience for it anymore. It's adapt or die in this world.

[OmnysValefor]

I'm sure that we'll never see another popular MMO with a grind like Relics, let alone Mythics or Ergon.

That said, I refuse to believe that group-centric MMOs have to be failing so miserably. I genuinely believe that it's how these games are handling grouping that is the problem.

When I played FFXIV 1.x, groups would pull a pack of mobs, claim them all and the an outside person would aoe them down, at no penalty to experience. Noone learned a thing about their class play in a party.

In 2.0, people would FATE grind to level cap and then be tossed into endgame where grouping was a must with again, no idea how to play their class (Example, as an Arcanist/Summoner/Scholar I equipped AOE-flash for fast claiming in fates, because that was the key to success in fates). I'd run into tanks that never figured out that that game's flash was centered on the caster rather than the target, so they'd just be spamming flash til dry on MP and it's doing nothing. I'd find tanks and DPS spamming their single hardest-hitting ability, without the buildup combo doing severely gimped damage.

The random dungeon finder had such a long wait period for damage dealers, and you couldn't use it while in a group (fates) unless everyone in the group wanted to. You couldn't use it while soloing with your chocobo out (an adventuring fellow/trust basically). So if you wanted to use it, you had to be doing something solo. Further, FATE'ing was far and away the faster experience.

There were training leves, both for your class and general game mechanics but they didn't teach anything. The level 10 one could be tanked by a DD just fine and so they did. I get it, wanna get in and get it over with, but nobody learned anything. You might be laughing "Yeah, that's just level 10", but the first dungeon was level 15.

There were class/job quests that kind-of had you perform your role via clunky interfaces. As a healer, you'd heal/-na others, but you had to tab-target to each person. There was no party-interface for the NPCs in these quests. I always kept my baby-tank in current gear and I found the bosses in some of the quests overly punishing if I did taunt off my NPC big brother.

The tank quests often teach nothing about enmity/hate/threat/whatever. You either melee away like a weak DD or you taunt and the NPC tank never really tries to get it back. And since most of the tank quests don't have an NPC healer or DPS, you never get the chance to learn anything about aoe-tanking.

I strive to be a strong tank in every MMO I play, so watch things like enmity and aoe tools closely but not every player gets it and so they get to level cap, are suddenly thrust into groups that way-outgear them, and they're helpless. Some of these games make the first fights you experience at level cap intense DPS races, which causes a lot of strife in the new community. Players that have never been taught how to DPS must DPS like a pro (hi Tonberry King, Demon Wall).

Another thing. Dungeon finders are poorly conceived. They often launch with the basic bonus (finding a dungeon from anywhere in the world) with few of the necessary protections or benefits. People being able to Need gear they can't use, being unable to blacklist/kick rude troublemakers, being unable for form cross-server friendships and most irritating of all: When I would find a good cross-server group, I couldn't go again with the same group. We had to disband and all go at it again. The next healer may be trying to heal in DPS-mode (Like XI's Light Arts/Dark Arts) because it's what his overgeared buddies at level-cap can do. The next DPS may pay no attention to markings or party chat.

---

I agree that the world of MMO players is changing but I 100% believe the reason party-centric multiplayer games are failing is because of how the game as a whole is designed. You start out and they throw you in a canoe on a calm river. You get to level-cap and you're given freight ship to command. "What? It's basically the same thing, it floats and keeps you dry.".

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Once the group-centric MMO is gone, <3 XI, I feel like the best communities are gone. Games where you don't need any help for 90% of activities seem to have awful communities. It sucks.

[OmnysValefor]

Stompa, I concede that the majority of MMO players want instant gratification and soloability any time they desire. The majority of FFXI vets, no matter how much they loved it, would admit that seeking for hours sucked, because there was little you could by yourself aside from crafting.

Still, every game seems to be flocking to a model that ELEVENTY MILLION PEOPLE tried. SE is not the only company that moved on from previous working models (FFXI) to follow something closer to Warcraft's, and it's all for the allure of more players. Other games' successors or sequels (not saying 14 is an 11 sequel) have also done this.

I feel like every modern MMO is a student of WoW's lessons and not their own lessons. It makes sense, they're businesses and want a slice of the big pie, disregarding the pie they had all to themselves.

[Diavolo]

Cerberus' online population at 6:00pm pacific time tonight, a large portion of those being AFK bazaars. How low must a server's population go before those running the game do something about it?