Congratulations on your level??

[Salvation]

I understand this. There are many old games with progression server or classic servers that use old school parties to group and level. One problem pre-books and pre-abyssea is that you had 20+ servers trying to pull it off with dwindling demand whereas classic lovers are requesting one consolidated server. It can and has been done on other older games; there is a large enough community looking for this kind of gameplay.

Perhaps the better question here is why do you require your own special server for this type of play? Having access to Abyssea, FoV, GoV, etc. does not necessarily mean that you have to use them. They are simply there as an alternative means to gaining exp. Surely if the demand is as large as some would imply, then all of these players could agree to congregate onto an already existing server and forgo using the previously mentioned tools.

All these arguments about how *insert change here* has ruined FFXI is baseless at best and absolutely asinine. Those of us that have been here from the beginning have seen this argument made a million times. Every time something new is introduced to reduce time sinks there is always a vocal minority that screams about how the new change is the harbinger of the FFXI apocalypse. Yet, the game still remains.

[Jaall]

I work hard all day. Ffxi is a stress reliever- It's a game and games are meant for fun. The last thing I want in a game is work. Trying to out lvl and out-item others is not fun to me. My character is well suited for the jobs I have with special thanks to my past and present LS friends and family (my brother helped me tremendously). But I don't play to brag.

I play for positive interaction with others. Some people think this game is a single player game to be beat. You can't beat this game... I help random strangers, not because I'm trying to show off my knowledge or skill set. But because its fun and rewarding to me. The day I boot this game up with the sole intention to get items will be the last day I play it (partial reason I quit before- the game was soured by selfish people using other people to get stuff). Could this be the reason ffxi is failing? Not because the game was too hard, but because everyone started racing to an invisible finish line. Some couldn't keep up, some didn't want to race in the first place, and others pushed people down just to get ahead.

If you remember my original thought, i married xp draining with putting others down if they aren't geared like you. I wish there were more argument on why that is acceptable and fun. I have a feeling, though, the players who lvl burn to get end game gear are the ones doing the bragging. If its not "you" then there's no reason to get defensive.

And this is all you will hear from me on this topic.

Sorry to say but FFXI has always been about who has the better gear to the majority of players, it's the reason they play. While there are a good amount of people who play for the casual side there will always be the "hardcore" types who play for gear. It's kinda just the way of any mmo, people understand that this is a game you can't beat but that doesn't stop them trying to be the best, it's their idea of "beating" it. Not many people put you down for having bad gear. Nobody has put you down for anything, only have pointed out that the game has always been this way only the content has differed slightly and there are new ways to do the same thing, such as abyssea being the new smn burn for example. It's not really meant as offensive to you, only as a way of saying everything looks good when you reminisce but in reality it wasn't any better or worse back then than it is now but the context has changed because the games content has changed.

[Horadrim]

I don't understand why they wouldn't make a classic or progression server. There are people who clearly want it and people who don't want to hear those same people complaining about how the game changed. Win win.

Because no one would play on it. Not nearly enough people who want to play the game the old way are around or else you wouldn't even have to make posts like these -- BECAUSE YOU WOULD HAVE ENOUGH OF EACH OTHER TO DO THINGS THE OLD WAY.

People aren't leveling quickly because they are forced to, people aren't doing missions at level 99 because they have no choice -- if there were people who actually wanted to do things the "hard" way outside of an overly vocal minority there would be no problem. If you want to form an old school part in ToAU zones or in an obscure old school camp, shout the level range and find someone with a job of appropriate level to sync to -- it is as easy as that.

if you can't find people for that, then dare I say you might be a bigger minority than you believe -- and it is not in SE's best interest to cater large amounts of time, energy, and money towards appeasing gross minorities.

Sorry to say but FFXI has always been about who has the better gear to the majority of players, it's the reason they play. While there are a good amount of people who play for the casual side there will always be the "hardcore" types who play for gear. It's kinda just the way of any mmo, people understand that this is a game you can't beat but that doesn't stop them trying to be the best, it's their idea of "beating" it. Not many people put you down for having bad gear. Nobody has put you down for anything, only have pointed out that the game has always been this way only the content has differed slightly and there are new ways to do the same thing, such as abyssea being the new smn burn for example. It's not really meant as offensive to you, only as a way of saying everything looks good when you reminisce but in reality it wasn't any better or worse back then than it is now but the context has changed because the games content has changed.

This.

I've never been "hardcore" but I do like number crunching and the only way to be a successful, happy number-cruncher is to grind gear. FFXI has always been about end game and the hyper elitist part of the community that demands everything cater to them and keep them entertained -- frankly, every MMO has that set of players and they are perfectly correct in their demands because there needs to be something left to do to keep people playing.

Like it or not, but the evolution of FFXI over the last 10 years has followed that train, and the reason the game is still SE's biggest money maker is because it has worked. People may claim to hate Abyssea and the level 99 increase, but the fact they are still playing is proof that they enjoy it more than they'd like to let on.

[Karbuncle]

I've never been "hardcore" but I do like number crunching and the only way to be a successful, happy number-cruncher is to grind gear. FFXI has always been about end game and the hyper elitist part of the community that demands everything cater to them and keep them entertained -- frankly, every MMO has that set of players and they are perfectly correct in their demands because there needs to be something left to do to keep people playing.

Like it or not, but the evolution of FFXI over the last 10 years has followed that train, and the reason the game is still SE's biggest money maker is because it has worked. People may claim to hate Abyssea and the level 99 increase, but the fact they are still playing is proof that they enjoy it more than they'd like to let on.

And this is how i feel. I don't know intricaceis of dDex, or fSTR, I don't know the exact meanings behind them, But i know how they effect me, and i know how to gear in a way to cater to them. I may not know all the formulas by heart, But I still take the time to learn them, and Its always been about the gear.

Back when i was playing, during NA BETA mind you, I loved the game. I collected crystals even though i had no clue what they did, and when Beta was over, I played my brothers character for a bit... Got his RDM to level 30, Wore Centurion Scale armor, and Meleed with my sword. We camped Bune together for an Enhancing sword for him.

When i was level 50, I was in Gustav, and Bune spawned, a NIN and a RDM were doing it, I was on THF, and i offered TH2, they accepted. So i meleed and Put TH2 on it, now i couldn't hit it, let alone fight it... But I enjoyed helping. No, Unfortunately both of them died at some point, but since i was the last one to hit Bune never went unclaimed, so it went around Murdering the other 12 people waiting to claim it because they tried to cure-bomb the NIN to steal hate... I mean, I had no idea was it was still claimed to me, so i watched it kill the 12 people in there, then I just flee'd to the zone because i knew it would come for me.

In retrospect i laugh my a** off, but all these wonderful memories aren't going to happen again just because im on a Nostalgia server.. they're gone, they're always a part of me, but they're gone. I'm making new ones in Adoulin. I spent the last 2 days forming alliance of make-shift people.

We talked, enjoyed it... Hell, we made a plan, and we kicked butt. everyone followed directions, no one died (Except for a few final stings...) and overall we all bonded and really enjoyed ourselves. I quote one of them

"I love it when a good plan comes together"

We made a strategy to work with what we had.. THF's, NIN's, 2 BLU's, a couple makeshift DD, some not even level 90... But we still won cause we worked together, and i had a blast. Fun is what you make of it... You'll always have memories, but dont long for them, Find new ones, and enjoy the game for what it is.

Please continue!

V This little tidbit is just for Hercule, you guys can read it if you want but its whatev's V

You Karbuncle and Alhanlem with your 3000+ and 4000+ messages on these forums should really stop to post your opinions on everything that poping here, you always repeat the same thing tirelessly, you're always think you're right on everything and argue with other people that don't think like you as if you were at war, personaly I'm just tired of seeing you and I really think for most of the FFXI community you're just a curse who contribued to slowly kill this game and pull it down.

Hi! Google "Pot Calling Kettle Black" for me, I think it would really help us in our future conversations.

You make accusations at me, while i will not deny the legitimacy of some of them... then tell me to stop posting my opinion because of my post count, while all the while fighting for your own opinion... But my opinion is less valid because I have most post count? I'm not sure where you're coming from so maybe i'm not getting the full story, But when you do go google the Pot kettle thing, Google Hypocrite as well, these definitions are really one in the same though.

Now, analhelm is right here, He's mostly pretty docile when it comes to his opinion... I'm not sure why you're even attacking him, maybe its because his post count as well as you really seem to hate big numbers... But when it comes to posting opinions/docile thing, usually so am I, but like any human on this planet, sometimes i feel very strongly about my opinion, and sometimes i also get a little ranty and can result in me making it feel like I'm attacking a person, rather than a point. I admit this, and I know I've been wrong in the past about plenty of things... I've made a lot of mistakes like a lot of people, But I'm going to echo Anlhamlehelm here and ask:

What the heck business is it of yours how many posts other people have? And what right do you have to slander others?

I will however move forth to say, While i don't always think i'm right, you're on the same side of the fence, You're so sure you're right in this subject it boggles you how i can think I'm right. You're literally expressing the exact definition of hypocrisy. I'm sorry you feel this way, but its not my fault, and as I've said a before, I'll post my opinion when i want, and as often as i want, same as you.

PS: I know I'm not perfect when it comes to making points, But I do often edit my posts a lot to make them far less mean/inflammatory because I know its easier to get a point across when you use logical tones... but its difficult sometimes when you deal with people, no offense, like you, who look for hostility wherever they can find it and have some odd lusting hatred of my post count.

Its like hating the popular kids in school because you're not one of them. Its something psychological but i don't know the exact term for it, But i used to suffer from this in Highschool so don't feel bad man, just means we got something in common.

[Caketime]

Sorry to say but FFXI has always been about who has the better gear to the majority of players, it's the reason they play.

I always thought it was about having fun. Does this mean I've been doing it wrong for 10 years?

[Luvbunny]

I always thought it was about having fun. Does this mean I've been doing it wrong for 10 years?

Your definition of FUN may be different from others - which is totally fine. Abyssea let you do whatever you want on your own time and your own leisure with just a few people. It's a great farm spots, good zone for blue mage to do some blue magic hunting, some great areas to skill ups, heck you can just afk and chit chat while gaining tons of xp

[Caketime]

But I wasn't talking about Abyssea.

[Jaall]

Luvbunny is completely right, don't really need Abyssea but that's just content that can be fun for a lot of people. Fun has a very wide definition. While you might find it fun to run around large areas exploring the land, someone else might find it fun in enclosed areas killing all the mobs and dislike exploration. Same goes for pretty much everything in game and reality. Fun can also be found in everything, it's kinda what a games for and the job for SE is to make a game that appeals to everyone or at least everyone in their target market. Being a final fantasy game, and an MMO, they do end up having a fairly large market, players which may come from number crunching MMO's etc and players that like tackling formulae to work out exactly what will happen next and to them that is fun. I think SE do a pretty decent job at making the game fun and granted when they go and produce new content it wont be fun to everyone because of what I said before, fun has a wide definition and is pretty much different for every single person, but they aren't removing old content and you can still make what you want out of the game. You can still find 5 other friends, and go make a lvl 55 exp party in Wajaom for example and it will be exactly the same as it was 6 years ago.

[Caketime]

Obviously fun has a wide definition, long winded explanations aren't required, and often miss the point. What I'm saying here is that from ToAU until this release the game has had a distinct lack of fun activities, the only entertainment available during these boring hamster maze sessions is joking around with friends. That does not make events fun, it makes them tolerable. We also have that wonderful timer attached to every event that guarantees only certain jobs may participate in most cases because of the gross imbalance between jobs and their potential damage output/overall worth to a group.

Some may say that the solution is to level and gear a job that the player may not necessarily enjoy, just to complete an event and get gear for a job they actually like playing. Getting to the actual event and completing it is most often an exercise in running around looking for an exit or a particular monster or beating down a horde of trash mobs. This is not fun content, it is designed to be the opposite to give players a false sense of triumph when they're finally done slogging through it.

Now we have content that's fresh, accessible, and has visible progress in multiple forms. You can take your Abyssea and ToAU and shove them both straight back up Tanaka's colon where they came from. Playing with someone's fecal material never struck me as entertaining, but diff'rent strokes I guess.

[vienne]

Win / lose.

Those who want it know full well that they are very few in number nor are they the best of players. Putting them together on their own server would just create a ghost server where nothing gets done. The great part is they would be gone from the regular servers and we could all continue on without their incessant hypocritical b1tching. The sh!tty part is they would quickly realize how lonely / fail their new server is and move back to pester us all over again.

You sound like a nice person to know.