Suggestion: Break the game, SE

[Runespider]

canceling my 6 yr account today in fact, sad days

I'm very close to it myself, 7-8 years uninterupted subscriber and only what they have done the last year or so has lead me to not want to give them anymore of my money.

I log in only to be bored, the stuff they add is horrible, the goals they offer are out of my reach, the content they are adding in the roadmap look to be trash (lollegion).

I think the thing is, because of Abyssea people no longer like working or playing with others outside of a few friends or a clique, not even in an LS at times.

So its not that "new FFXI is boring", its that it's back to where people have to play together, but abyssea spoiled the hell out of everyone, made everyone lazy and unwilling to do anything unless you're showered in rewards for almost no work (Abyssea.)

They did it, it's like a parent giving their child sweets and candy for a month then trying to go back to carrots and potatoes, with a slap across the face for desert. Most people didn't really like the old big shells but there was no choice, points, drama, guilt trips (you got your drop now stay forever to get everyone else theirs), the drop you want taking a year+, favouritism etc and people don't really wanna go back to that again when they have jobs/responsibilites..or just cba with it.

I did the old HNMLS stuff, I had shells and schedules for every event, worked my butt off for points...big scale events were cool but the negative aspects of it were far worse than the tiny amount of enjoyment you got from any of it. How often did people complain about having to leave their friends and join some big LS because only the serious shells that devoured your playtime could achieve anything, that's what we are going back to.

Players want to be able to do stuff with friends and not have to join a behemoth of a linkshell which they don't even like half the people in, that's why games like Tera are looking so appealing.

[Aquilla]

This is precisely why the game needs a shake-up.

Vets have done it all. Vets leveled bst to 75 solo-grinding, did the sc+mb stuff, did the land kings, etc. Newer people may not have experienced that, but they did aby/VW and played that way.

Nobody wants to go back to the bad old days, but SE is the embodiment of inertia. If everything was working beautifully, we wouldn't have a shrinking populace -- and it is shrinking. Now isn't the time to pussy-foot around with tweaks -- it's time to give the game something groundbreaking.

What I'm worried about is that the recent additions to the game -- Neo-Nyzul, specifically and this:

Mocchi: Oh snap! These stats are nuts! STR and AGI +8, attack, accuracy, subtle blow, haste +4%, DOUBLE ATTA…

Those stats are not nuts. They're okay. -.-

[Shipp]

If everything was working beautifully, we wouldn't have a shrinking populace -- and it is shrinking.

Every MMO that's this old has a shrinking populace. These "tweaks" are not going to bring in any substantial amount of new players.

[Aquilla]

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.

[Glamdring]

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.

no, they DON'T go stale after a few days, but they do after a few years. The root code of the game is just that, the root code. MMOs die because the tech they are designed for becomes obsolete, see any of the 1k+ threads on here about ending PS2 support for that argument.

This game was BEAUTIFUL when it was rolled out, especially compared to WoW, its main competitor. But that was in the day when most players still had analog, not HD, MIGHT have had surround sound and connection speeds were rarely over 768kbps and usually alot less. Any new player looking at FFXI these days will at best describe it as "quaint". There is no way that SE is going to rewrite everything down to as basic as the graphics engine or make servers robust enough to handle modern connect speeds, etc. and without that FFXI is what it is, an antique. THAT'S why we aren't getting new players.

[Aquilla]

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?

Code limitations are a stupid excuse. There's nothing wrong with how the game looks -- and I highly doubt that your own admitted lack of challenge is tied to the ability to display glowy bits on your armor.

I've said it before: I am not a game developer, and I don't know jack about developing games. However, forums here and other places on the interwebz have a ton of suggestions how to simplify and add more fun to the game that doesn't require a new graphics engine or overhaul of the servers.

If it was just graphics engines/shiny new tech, then XIV would've ruled the world by now, and not become the epitome of failure in the MMO world.

Squeenix isn't some indie developer without a dime to their name. I am willing to concede that there are hardware limitations. For example, they explained very nicely why we can't have raisega. I don't see how that justifies thinking that str+8agi+8 haste+4% is pants-wettingly amazing by any definition.

[Glamdring]

simple, the stuff you are asking for is for keeping current players of a certain mindset. I'll grant you, SE needs to do something to retain players, and for your type maybe setting players to de facto god-mode is it. Me? I'd like an upgrade to risk/reward in content and as some others have commented something where my efforts are rewarded instead of just dumb luck; if I grind it out the drop SHOULD fall, and more than 1% of the time, I simply find that more appealing.

I still maintain that anyone looking at FFXI for the 1st time is just going to look elsewhere, maybe even at 14. 14 seems most lame to long-time players of 11 but if you've never seen what SE can do when they do a GOOD job on a game it doesn't look nearly as bad. Still, there are better games out there than 14, and if I was a person looking at starting out in a fantasy MMO I probably wouldn't be looking at anything in the current SE catalog, no matter WHAT they choose to do here.

[Aquilla]

simple, the stuff you are asking for is for keeping current players of a certain mindset. I'll grant you, SE needs to do something to retain players, and for your type maybe setting players to de facto god-mode is it. Me? I'd like an upgrade to risk/reward in content and as some others have commented something where my efforts are rewarded instead of just dumb luck; if I grind it out the drop SHOULD fall, and more than 1% of the time, I simply find that more appealing.

I still maintain that anyone looking at FFXI for the 1st time is just going to look elsewhere, maybe even at 14. 14 seems most lame to long-time players of 11 but if you've never seen what SE can do when they do a GOOD job on a game it doesn't look nearly as bad. Still, there are better games out there than 14, and if I was a person looking at starting out in a fantasy MMO I probably wouldn't be looking at anything in the current SE catalog, no matter WHAT they choose to do here.

hey, we're more alike than you think^^ for one thing, I would like risk/reward changed a lot. I dislike the utter randomness of drops. I dislike that there are no intermediate rewards -- nothing you can do at 90% of the content if you aren't going for the absolute epicness.

I'm not looking for god-mode. I'm looking for fun and excitement. So are you, and so is everyone else who comes on here to complain.

I think if SE cared enough to try, they could bring in fresh blood and reinvent this game. Will they? I don't know. it ain't exactly the roman empire.

[Malamasala]

I'd love more atma content. It was the first time I enjoyed FFXI, and I haven't enjoyed it since. Of course it has less to do with being "overpowered" and more to do with it being the FIRST content that boosted avatars, which have been utterly behind since they were added.

[Aquilla]

Atma was a great idea. Especially synthetics, which rewarded completing old content. I concur!