The Decline of FFXI: Forums, Gameplay and Nostalgia

[Seriha]

We should also take note that several suggestions are stupid. And to be fair, Square Enix representatives have come into a handful of topics and explained that while yes, the development team thought it was a fascinating idea, they don't have the man power/time/money/resources to pull it off. Or, if they did like it and did have all the resources they needed, the idea would be considered and possibly added at a later date.

This reminds me, while we'll eventually be getting access to the test server, giving players the tools to actually create content for the game could be an insanely successful maneuver if done right. Back in the day I worked with a few others on a Diablo II mod that ran on a private server. We'd pretty much redone the entire equipment progression, loot tables, mods, skills, and while somewhat restrictive earlier in D2s life, we'd also made custom areas and monsters.

Understandably only the most savvy and dedicated would actually be able to create things of quality, but with the players basically working as free labor in this case, they gain the ability to pick and choose additions they'd like to port over, be it as is or with some tweaks. Aside from some possible community recognition, successful mods could grant the creators free subscriptions, names on possible equipment tied to whatever, the mobs themselves, and so on. Repeat successes could possibly lead to actual hiring to the dev team.

The downside, and perhaps why this would never happen, is this level of control and creation would give players access to knowledge we can only currently estimate or believe we've reverse engineered. In effect, some of the "mystery" they cherish would be lost even though so many things could be looked into or problems solved.

As is, I haven't been particularly hyped about this update. Sure, there are some creature comfort perks to look forward to, but those range anywhere from "Should've been that way from the start." or "Too late to really care about it." for people. Other things are simply too much in "wait and see" status. NMs don't excite me much, for example, without knowing what they drop and their overall difficulty. And if they're designed so you have to kill them dozens upon dozens of times, they'll lose their charm pretty quick, especially if they're more on the annoying side (and I differentiate this from actual difficulty). The VIT thing could maybe be interesting, but I just can't see it ushering the return of blood tanking in situations where Atmas aren't involved. Maybe they're hiding some doozies like a Part II to job updates? I dunno, but holding back on such things aren't what I'd call beneficial this close to patch time.

[Akujima]

This reminds me, while we'll eventually be getting access to the test server, giving players the tools to actually create content for the game could be an insanely successful maneuver if done right. Back in the day I worked with a few others on a Diablo II mod that ran on a private server. We'd pretty much redone the entire equipment progression, loot tables, mods, skills, and while somewhat restrictive earlier in D2s life, we'd also made custom areas and monsters.

OMG if they gave us this much to play around with, I would be in there everyday, tweaking Throwing and improving it for NIN...

...(waits for Karb/Wish/GG to come into this thread and bash my skull in)