Mog Wardrobe 3&4 feedback.

[Avina]

I completely understand your position on it, and that's a fair statement. With that being said, however, I think it's the wrong way to go about it-I think by this point the people left playing XI have proven over and over they're pretty loyal to this type of game, and this announcement just feels...wrong. So what then, would have worked better? Personally, I wouldn't have been bothered in the slightest by an announcment that was something to the effect of:

Adventurers of Vana'diel! (insert fluff here), while we have long supported FFXI, budget problems have forced us into a regrettable choice for the future, and the base subscription will be raised from 12.95 to 14.95 for the forseeable future. However, we have been hard at work trying to find a way to reward such loyal customers for their contributions and we are happy to announce Mog Wardrobe 3 and 4 will be available for characters!

As most of us have said, it's not about the money. It's about how this feels and the way they're doing it that just feels....slimy. Something that doesn't belong in an old MMO like XI. "Let us all contribute!" vs "Hey if you have extra cash you can have more stuff instead".

The route you suggested (admitting that financial hardships have necessitated an increase) would never fly by any PR or marketing department. Such a thing would be an open admittance of "we have a problem here" and that just doesn't happen, because it decreases faith in the brand's viability. It also isn't a good REASON to charge existing players more. They have no justifiable reason to raise the monthly rate when content is being churned out as slowly as it is (because the dev team has obviously been slimmed down). You can't justify raising your sub price because you've lost subs elsewhere.

What you can do, is try to get subs from other means that will enhance the experience. If I buy a ticket to a concert, I have options and choices that I need to make. What seat do I want? Do I want food while I'm there? Do I want to pay for valet parking? This is how the rest of the world works. It's really wonderful that XI dodged this model for so many years.

I know it feels like milking the users. I don't think that's the move they are trying to make. You talk about how loyal this player base is--in May, FFXIAH showed 115,000 active player characters. Today, it shows 86,000. Some of those players may be not playing but still paying the subs, others may have left for good. But that's a 36% decrease in active player characters according to one source in about a month's time.

There is absolutely some minimum # of active subscriptions that this game can hit before it goes away for good. Matsui said last year that a F2P, cash shop model had been considered but rejected. The fact that we're seeing something like this now suggests that they've had to go back and revisit some aspects of that plan. But the point is, the game needs to pay for itself.

This is not some attempt on SE's part to just price gouge the consumer. It's more that they are trying to plug a hole in a ship so it doesn't sink. Why else would they do this now?

[Cesil]

From what a lot of my friends tell me, they unsubbed for now and waiting for server merges. Idk if that's why there was a 36% decrease or what.

Most of them don't want to pay for a game with such low populations :/

And it seems others feel the game isn't getting enough new content and said they feel SE is letting the game die. If that is the case that is sad ;;

[Avina]

From what a lot of my friends tell me, they unsubbed for now and waiting for server merges. Idk if that's why there was a 36% decrease or what.

Most of them don't want to pay for a game with such low populations :/

And it seems others feel the game isn't getting enough new content and said they feel SE is letting the game die. If that is the case that is sad ;;

I agree that mergers would do a lot--there are a lot of nearly dead servers out there. I'd almost want one mega server for all players but that's likely a technical mess and competition for drops would be crazy.

I don't feel like SE is wanting to let the game die. But I also think it's wrong to expect something wild and different to come down the pipeline. There just isn't enough people anymore to justify something major like an expansion, unless you can get a few more hundred thousand people to come back.

[Seiowan]

I have absolutely no problems adding a little bonus to my monthly fee for the convenience of extra wardrobes. I have way too much equipment, and not nearly enough room as it stands.

[Cesil]

I agree that mergers would do a lot--there are a lot of nearly dead servers out there. I'd almost want one mega server for all players but that's likely a technical mess and competition for drops would be crazy.

I don't feel like SE is wanting to let the game die. But I also think it's wrong to expect something wild and different to come down the pipeline. There just isn't enough people anymore to justify something major like an expansion, unless you can get a few more hundred thousand people to come back.

Yeah It's just whenever I tell or suggest one of my friends to come back...because of that one big announcement SE made 2 years ago I think it was that there will be no more expansions/updates..they are all stuck thinking the game is dead and getting 0 updates. And that Rhapsodies is the "end" and thats it.

I try to tell them noo its still gettin stuff added in just no expansions lol...but I guess to them that is "dead" >.<

[Castanica]

Almost all mmorpg titles don't get expansions, they get updates.

[Jile]

I agree that mergers would do a lot--there are a lot of nearly dead servers out there. I'd almost want one mega server for all players but that's likely a technical mess and competition for drops would be crazy.

If they merged all the servers we might have enough population to fill one server like we had when XI was hot but.... we'd all hate that too because of the competition for every aspect of the game being slammed.

There are days I miss thousands of ppl on Phoenix...... and then I go out and farm mats for crafting and I'm glad I don't have to compete with everyone and their grandma even for elemental clusters in sky lol.

[Cesil]

Almost all mmorpg titles don't get expansions, they get updates.

Yup, that is what I try to tell them...but they won't have it lol. Oh well, their loss!

[Paridise]

With paying monthly I won't be adding $4 to my account. Or the 2nd account from same bank account. Not worth it. One time fee like lockers(and with token) was... Maybe. When you look at the players jobs. Who plays 3-6 jobs in same day or few hours of play time. Only player flipping jobs that much ... Very few if any. No reason to pay for 160 spaces. This is for player flipping jobs on the fly in a hurry. Se keeps saying they want players to have time to do events not spend time in travel. Ie. Hp. Ok cool. But to save time flipping job they want money and slow the group down... Wtf.

[Immortta]

"We're currently looking into how to distribute the Ark Angel alter egos so stay tuned for updates!
Thanks for your feedback concerning alter egos you'd like to see in the future and please keep them coming! "

Does this scare anybody else?