Suggestion: Break the game, SE

[Anapingofness]

I couldn't agree more with the thread starter.

FFXI has the potential to succeed... Even in this MMO saturated market. SE simply needs to open its mind to other possibilities/ways of doing things. They really need to start paying attention to what works in other MMO's and see how they can apply it to FFXI to make it a better game. They also need to start paying attention to what their player base is saying.

There is a reason Abyssea was such a success. For the first time in the history of FFXI players could sign on, do an event for a relatively short amount of time and still walk away with something. It's sad that it took doubling everyone's stats in Abyssea to make the game both refreshing and fun. For the first time in FFXI history I was able to freely cast my WHM spells without running out of MP after x3 spells! It was as if Abyssea allowed players to play jobs to their fullest potential.

The problem now is that SE is regressing to their old ways. They know that players enjoyed Abyssea immensely and that it cut the unbelievable grind down. So why regress?

This isn't 2005 where the only competition FFXI had was EQ and Ultima. Right now what we have is a very MMO saturated market. There are F2P MMO's that work a lot harder to retain their players and more importantly attract new ones. The fact that they are F2P means that those games have an instant head start on FFXI. That means that FFXI and SE need to work doubly as hard to attract players. People are cheap, nobody wants to spend money when they don't have to. Therefore, SE really needs to focus on the fun factor of the game. Yes, balancing the game is important but they're taking it too far. They're focused so much on balancing the game that they're killing the fun.


Like the thread started stated, the nostalgia train will only go so far. SE needs to see this as a serious problem and change accordingly. They have to stop relying on nostalgia because that will not attract new players.

[Elexia]

I couldn't agree more with the thread starter.

FFXI has the potential to succeed...

Uh...XI already succeeded lol..did you forget about the 2002 - 2012 time frame it's been running?

[Anapingofness]

Uh...XI already succeeded lol..did you forget about the 2002 - 2012 time frame it's been running?

Ahem-ahem.


FFXI has the potential to succeed*

---> * After surviving for ten years.

[Camiie]

Uh...XI already succeeded lol..did you forget about the 2002 - 2012 time frame it's been running?

It did OK, but never garnered the numbers a game with the Final Fantasy (+roman numeral) name attached to it should have.

As for the topic, I'd be more than thrilled with more Abyssea style content. I don't know that making the entire game "broken" in the sense of universal atma or flying chocobos is a good idea, but send us to different areas in a rebuilding Abyssea or to other alternate dimensions where we can have similar experiences.

[Michae]

The Forums killed XI imo.

Aby had potential at first but all the QQ of the forum posters about how 'hard' everything was caused alot of 'fixes' dumbing down the game and nerfing it to hell. Now that its nerfed ppl QQ about how easy it has become and they are loosing alot of us long time vets and the newbies dont stay long cause between the ease of getting everything and completing everything there is not much to hold ppls attn

canceling my 6 yr account today in fact, sad days

[Shipp]

The Forums killed XI imo.

Aby had potential at first but all the QQ of the forum posters about how 'hard' everything was caused alot of 'fixes' dumbing down the game and nerfing it to hell. Now that its nerfed ppl QQ about how easy it has become and they are loosing alot of us long time vets and the newbies dont stay long cause between the ease of getting everything and completing everything there is not much to hold ppls attn

canceling my 6 yr account today in fact, sad days

All the QQ... like you mentioning canceling your account?

Guess what, I'm a vet that was doing endgame while most NAs were still fiddle-farting around on their AF1. I enjoy Abyssea far more than old-school FFXI. The fact that I could come back after a 3-4 year hiatus and get geared in an acceptable timeframe, as well as participate with old and new friends, is what brought me back. There is plenty to do in XI. Nobody is going to complete everything there is to do in a short amount of time, as you suggest.

[Glamdring]

The Forums killed XI imo.

Aby had potential at first but all the QQ of the forum posters about how 'hard' everything was caused alot of 'fixes' dumbing down the game and nerfing it to hell. Now that its nerfed ppl QQ about how easy it has become and they are loosing alot of us long time vets and the newbies dont stay long cause between the ease of getting everything and completing everything there is not much to hold ppls attn

canceling my 6 yr account today in fact, sad days

I'm on board with just about everything said here. The only reasons I still play are the desire to tie up some loose ends I've left dangling for years and to spend time with some in-game friends. There is NOTHING challenging in the game anymore in terms of difficulty, the only difficulty is finding enough people to do things that require multiple bodies (Assault, etc.). So as far as any of the feeling of accomplishment that I used to get in here... nope, not happening. I mean seriously, I can solo a third of the end-game stuff on my BARD, wtf is that about?

Trials? well, I solod 1-75 as a bst/brd (before the introduction of dancer), grinding is no problem for me, but the CHALLENGE is gone. The only real risk of death is if the random number generator that governs hit/miss/damage calculation hits one of those periodic times when every "roll" is against me. How is that "fun"? The only other challenge is trying to see a difference in drops between TH3 and TH4+, and I'll be damned if I'm going to get my satisfaction from a game by reading a 2k kill parser report.

[Shipp]

Trials? well, I solod 1-75 as a bst/brd (before the introduction of dancer), grinding is no problem for me, but the CHALLENGE is gone. The only real risk of death is if the random number generator that governs hit/miss/damage calculation hits one of those periodic times when every "roll" is against me. How is that "fun"? The only other challenge is trying to see a difference in drops between TH3 and TH4+, and I'll be damned if I'm going to get my satisfaction from a game by reading a 2k kill parser report.

RNG is how every MMO has ever been, including XI. This is not new from abyssea. If you don't enjoy the game, quit. Just don't pretend as though this wasn't how XI always was, to a much worse degree in the past.

[Glamdring]

RNG is how every MMO has ever been, including XI. This is not new from abyssea. If you don't enjoy the game, quit. Just don't pretend as though this wasn't how XI always was, to a much worse degree in the past.

didn't say I had a problem with the "dice" (not going to use RNG since that's also the abreviation for ranger), just pointing out that the only real risk left is plain old dumb luck.

[Shipp]

didn't say I had a problem with the "dice" (not going to use RNG since that's also the abreviation for ranger), just pointing out that the only real risk left is plain old dumb luck.

RNG stands for Random Number Generator, which is more accurate than "dice" in this case.

Please tell me what "real risk" there was in the past. EXP loss? Yep, that's about it, or losing a BCNM and your seals going to waste.

There was never any risk in FFXI, aside from the risk you would have to spend hours to gain back that XP that you just lost from one mob. That's not risk, that's artificial padding.

It's an MMO, not a banana. They don't go stale after a few days and the slowly rot off for no reason at all. If there was a will to change, there could be a change and new players and epic lewtz to be had by all.

Sorry, but are you just trying to troll now?

The game is nearly a decade old, and yes, MMOs do wind down. No amount of polishing and tweaking is going to make XI ever have 1m+ subs again. It's the way MMOs work, I'm sorry you don't understand.

Riddle me this, batman: which part of their outdated code was responsible for the fun I and a lot of players had in Aby, and why has it vanished off the matrix? Which bit of code is responsible for the inability to have your own personal chicken in northlands or WoTG?

How about you quit being a smartass and use your brain. Our point is that no amount of polishing and tweaking the game is going to make it appeal to a massive amount of people who have not already played it. Yes, more aby-like things being added would probably bring back old school people, but then again, aby also was the reason why a lot of people quit, so it would be a fool's errand trying to argue that it would be the thing that revives XI. XI is past that point at this stage. It's surviving, quite well, and will remain to do so until enough people leave that everyone is on one server.