Service, Our Money, and You

[Camiie]

The sad truth is that even though we pay the same amount we have always paid, SE isn't getting as much revenue off FFXI as it used to, and that is why service has degraded. The amount of code they're able to write per update is more affected by how many people are paying a monthly fee than by how much your monthly fee is. Yes, it would be fair if I got the same service now I got 3 years ago when it cost just as much as it does now.

There's a lot that factors into what money they have available. The variances in subscriber income, income from expansions/DLC, operating costs, payroll, advertising, and things I'm sure I would never think to consider. I don't propose to fully understand how things operate at SE, and I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be sharing. All I can do is make my best guess which I will now do.

I kinda get this feeling from some mysterious place that the biggest limiting factor is the online division simply being spread too thin in resources and manpower between FFXIV and FFXI. That along with the corporate vision of the importance of FFXIV succeeding means FFXI is getting the short end of the stick. I'm reasonable enough to see the justification behind that. My issue is with the shortness of the stick.

But life isn't fair, so I'm putting the chances of that happening somewhere around 0. All the same, I liked your post because I want the devs to hear this. Not because I think they'll hit the magic "fix everything" button which does not exist, but because I want to light a fire under their ass and motivate them to find some sort of solution for the downward spiral. Well, that, and this post was much more even-toned and reasonable than other posts of this nature.

I appreciate it, Yinn. I too feel the chances of anything changing are really really low, but you never know unless you try. It seems though at this point if you want the best service SE has to offer you have to switch over to FFXIV (I can't believe I typed that). FFXI subscribers are just second class customers at best unless those drastic changes I'm wishing for come about.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

I love using overly simplistic math to make complicated issues easier on my brain, so...

r=revenue from players
x=all standard operational costs including bandwidth, electricity, customer support, server maint., etc.
y=leftover money for use in developing new content

Let's assume y = r - x and further we'll go on your assumption that r and x scale completely evenly with one another.

That's not quite what I said.

x = x1 + x2

x1 = population-driven factors (bandwidth, customer support)
x2 = infrastructure factors (maintenance, electricity).

x2 always goes down over time, pretty much regardless of population (or someone needs to be fired), so x overall will go down over time. The average XIV player probably has more computing power on their desktop than what's required to run an XI world.

Regardless, yes, the available profit for development will go down over time. But it won't drop like a rock overnight, and it won't "coincidentally happen" around XIV's launch unless there was a mass exodus of players from XI to XIV at launch.

[Riggs]

the main thing saving se is that while there are now hundreds of mmorpg's out there, there all so so bad, apart from eve online but that will generate a different player base

[Camiie]

the main thing saving se is that while there are now hundreds of mmorpg's out there, there all so so bad, apart from eve online but that will generate a different player base

While you may not like those other MMOs, it's a bit silly to call all of them bad. There's many things in life that I dislike, but I know have plenty of merit.

There IS some very legitimate competition out there for my time and money, and SE needs to realize that and act like it. They need to feel like they have to fight every single month to maintain my attention. They're too complacent, and maybe for good reason. They haven't been pressured nearly enough to get their act together. Maybe some people are right and we have to quit en masse to get them to realize that. I'm trying to get their attention before that happens, because my fear is that if the population starts dropping in huge amounts due to dissatisfaction they'd be more inclined to end support rather than make the wholesale changes that are needed.

[Anapingofness]

the main thing saving se is that while there are now hundreds of mmorpg's out there, there all so so bad, apart from eve online but that will generate a different player base

On the contrary, it's those MMO's that are showing people how much is wrong with FFXI and SE's QoS.
I can't speak for the quality of every MMO out there. This is a MMO saturated market.
However, of the ones that I have played I have noticed quite a bit that SE should pay attention to.

Namely that a great number of MMO's is F2P which means that those MMO's which can suck wookie balls for all I care will still get more screen time than FFXI by sheer virtue of being F2P. I mean really, FFXI didn't even have a free trial until very recently.

I'm not saying FFXI should go F2P. What I'm saying is that because FFXI is a P2P game the QoS should be a lot better than a F2P one.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

I mean really, FFXI didn't even have a free trial until very recently.

Um... wrong.

[Alhanelem]

They did have a free trial, then rmeoved it because RMT were abusing, then they brought it back later after putting lots of limits on it so it couldn't be abused.

[bungiefanNA]

Free trial without buying the game launched after WotG. That's pretty recent as far as this game is concerned. It was also short-lived until its recent return.

[Camiie]

On the contrary, it's those MMO's that are showing people how much is wrong with FFXI and SE's QoS.
I can't speak for the quality of every MMO out there. This is a MMO saturated market.
However, of the ones that I have played I have noticed quite a bit that SE should pay attention to.

There are so many great ideas out there they could borrow the fact that they don't is just mind-boggling to me until I remember who's in charge of the game now. So many things have been brought to their attention over the years and summarily ignored it's just sickening.

Namely that a great number of MMO's is F2P which means that those MMO's which can suck wookie balls for all I care will still get more screen time than FFXI by sheer virtue of being F2P. I mean really, FFXI didn't even have a free trial until very recently.

I'm not saying FFXI should go F2P. What I'm saying is that because FFXI is a P2P game the QoS should be a lot better than a F2P one.

It's funny that F2P game makers don't really have to try very hard, and most don't, but some do a rather remarkable job. But you know SE is supposed to be one of the big time operations, and they certainly are a big name in the gaming industry. Square-Enix... Final Fantasy... Dragon Quest... They even have Tomb Raider under their umbrella now. While maybe they aren't the monstrous behemoth they used to be, they are not small fries by any stretch of the imagination. Unfortunately their online division with FFXI makes them look like they are just 5 guys in a garage who work on the game in their spare time. It's really kind of sad.

Unfortunately, they game is priced to compete with the real big boys like Blizzard and universally known names like Star Wars and price is about the only thing they compete on. Now I know those games have plenty of issues as well and as unprofessional as Blizzard can be at times I'd still rate them higher than our devs here. Their success, however, one cannot question. While 10-12 million players is too much to ask of a single Final Fantasy game, it's pretty obvious SE should have been far more successful with a Final Fantasy branded MMO than they were.

I can only attribute their relative mediocrity to their ineptitude and stubbornness. FFXIV isn't the only MMO they dropped the ball with, and though they picked it up for a while with XI, they've now dropped it again. They can do well, they just don't or won't. Please stop failing us SE. We know you can give us better if you'd just put forth the manpower, make available the resources, and open your minds.

[Anapingofness]

They did have a free trial, then rmeoved it because RMT were abusing, then they brought it back later after putting lots of limits on it so it couldn't be abused.

bungiefanNA

Free trial without buying the game launched after WotG. That's pretty recent as far as this game is concerned. It was also short-lived until its recent return.

While I appreciate the both of you pointing out the details where my post was wrong I would like to point out that your effort in that is unnecessary. The fact that the both of you are arguing semantics over a statement that is mostly true is quite disappointing.

Out of everything that I've said that is the one thing you decide to latch on to? Why? To what end? Don't answer. I don't really care, they're rhetorical questions anyway.

FFXI should have had a free trial from the get go, uninterrupted. The fact that it was in limbo for so long is enough to validate my statement. They used RMT as an excuse to remove it and then took ages in returning it. That is unacceptable. I realize that at the time RMT was a much bigger problem than it was today but it still doesn't allow for how long they took in bringing it back. So yes, for all intents and purposes they did only recently add the free trial option. You cannot tell me that the features they added to the current free trial took that long to implement.

Lastly, this is as far as I'll take this argument. If you have to have the last word then go ahead and have it but I will not be responding to it. I refuse to get into a debate and derail the subject even further.