Make FFXI Free to play!

[Crimsonsky]

Free to play is a bad idea and brings in the wrong kind of people. Just look at when frre to play did to EQ2. There are less people playing the game now that its free to play then when it was paid to play. Its hard to build a community when the game is full of game jumpers.

[Prestorian]

F2P is a bad idea like other said. However a good point was brought up. The lack of new players will kill this game. Veterans are concentrating more on end game content and that leaves no one to level in gunmen mines and crawlers nest. People don't like others leeching in abyssea. People quit after a week trying desperately to catch up to mid level players.

Veterans quitting will cause a snowball effect and will lead ffxi to its grave.

The best way to avoid that is to make soloing easier up to lvl 75. By 75 you have a chance to be admitted to an abyssea party.

Make all previous missions easier such as Rise of Zilart and Promathia. I don't mean the nostalgic but the actual mission length. It took me a week and a half to get about 3/4 of Promathia done with a lvl 99 beastmaster. The running around is nuts.

Also making trial of magians weapons easier to get will also help. Eliminating the need to proc for areas would also be nice.

I know people will bring up well veterans will be upset.... We'll veterans played at a time when there were more people to team up with. You have to realize that there aren't a whole lot of people who need atma nm's. Leave SoA and beyond content the way it is. Make everything else attainable either by solo or duo.

[Prestorian]

F2P is a bad idea like other said. However a good point was brought up. The lack of new players will kill this game. Veterans are concentrating more on end game content and that leaves no one to level in gunmen mines and crawlers nest. People don't like others leeching in abyssea. People quit after a week trying desperately to catch up to mid level players.

Veterans quitting will cause a snowball effect and will lead ffxi to its grave.

The best way to avoid that is to make soloing easier up to lvl 75. By 75 you have a chance to be admitted to an abyssea party.

Make all previous missions easier such as Rise of Zilart and Promathia. I don't mean the nostalgic but the actual mission length. It took me a week and a half to get about 3/4 of Promathia done with a lvl 99 beastmaster. The running around is nuts.

Also making trial of magians weapons easier to get will also help. Eliminating the need to proc for areas would also be nice.

I know people will bring up well veterans will be upset.... We'll veterans played at a time when there were more people to team up with. You have to realize that there aren't a whole lot of people who need atma nm's. Leave SoA and beyond content the way it is. Make everything else attainable either by solo or duo. Make it like any other drop. Proc would give you a higher chance but I think killing the nm should also give you a chance to have the atma drop regardless of the proc.

I love this game so much that I want it to continue on a successful path. Getting new players is the only way to make this game like it used to be.

[Venat]

F2P is a bad idea like other said. However a good point was brought up. The lack of new players will kill this game. Veterans are concentrating more on end game content and that leaves no one to level in gunmen mines and crawlers nest. People don't like others leeching in abyssea. People quit after a week trying desperately to catch up to mid level players.

Veterans quitting will cause a snowball effect and will lead ffxi to its grave.

The best way to avoid that is to make soloing easier up to lvl 75. By 75 you have a chance to be admitted to an abyssea party.

Make all previous missions easier such as Rise of Zilart and Promathia. I don't mean the nostalgic but the actual mission length. It took me a week and a half to get about 3/4 of Promathia done with a lvl 99 beastmaster. The running around is nuts.

Also making trial of magians weapons easier to get will also help. Eliminating the need to proc for areas would also be nice.

I know people will bring up well veterans will be upset.... We'll veterans played at a time when there were more people to team up with. You have to realize that there aren't a whole lot of people who need atma nm's. Leave SoA and beyond content the way it is. Make everything else attainable either by solo or duo. Make it like any other drop. Proc would give you a higher chance but I think killing the nm should also give you a chance to have the atma drop regardless of the proc.

I love this game so much that I want it to continue on a successful path. Getting new players is the only way to make this game like it used to be.

Game not about the exping anymore. This game does need improvements on traveling to next spot toget next cutscene. Found that most cutscenes in the game dont need you to be actually in the room. Alot of older content needs to be done much easyer and newer content needs major improvements aswell. Abyssea... think we need to remove travel stones, (raise timer cap), entry unlimited, and add double/tripple the chance of getting procs.

SoA needs better designed content, not unbeatable content for 1 year+.
Graphic upgrade is very important.
UI & Character Animations need major improvements.

FFXIV will probably just replace this game if FFXIV combat becomes more like FFXI.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

S-E doesn't have the money to do so, and it doesn't have the capacity to make F2P appealing other than re-establishing the grind for F2P- which is about the only way I'd appreciate it. Let them sweat it out the old-fashioned way and we'd actually have a low-level game again. No books, no Abyssea exp bonus effects, having to 6-man it in the fields and dungeons.

I recall another thread that suggested the (little-known) 14-day free trial be extended indefinitely. It's hobbled to prevent RMT's by only including core game (i.e. pre-Zilart) content, a level cap of 30, and no shouting/trading/bazaaring/auction. Find a way to get these people into a linkshell in spite of the "no trading" restriction, and that's pretty much what you've just described.

[Demon6324236]

I recall another thread that suggested the (little-known) 14-day free trial be extended indefinitely. It's hobbled to prevent RMT's by only including core game (i.e. pre-Zilart) content, a level cap of 30, and no shouting/trading/bazaaring/auction. Find a way to get these people into a linkshell in spite of the "no trading" restriction, and that's pretty much what you've just described.

Don't forget you cant invite people to parties either, you have to be invited to a party... wonderfully stupid.

[Mirage]

Yeah, it is too limited. Should probably level cap you to 50, and allow trades to some extent. Like one trade per day.

Should also be allowed to tell people who are on your friend list, and create parties.

[Demon6324236]

I honestly wish there was a way to simply allow it to be a real trial rather than having to work around stupid assholes who would abuse the damn thing, without it there is hardly anyone who would try this game out, let alone with it when it makes the game look like its dead, abandoned, and terrible.

[Alhanelem]

You know you can reactivate characters for up to a year right?

Actually you can reactivate characters forever now.

[sc4500]

After reading all the post there is one thing no one brought up. There are more then one type of free to play systems that can and do work, but i doubt square will even attempt to look into it, since one them could make them even more money.

One such system is just keep the subs base model as is. You get a discount on any add on's if any come along if have paid enough months on a subscription. and if need a content code same price as currently and server swap same price. for those on subs model nothing will change and get all updates for free.

Next you allow anyone to play up to lv99 , but only in the old areas for free and there gear is cap at lv 65. unless they pay 5 dollars get one week weapons unlocked. or are on a subscription. gear is back to normal.

Mules will be 10 dollars under this free to play model and be locked same as main account for gear and access. if you have no subscription and then it will become unlocked: example max lv99 and lv65 gear or where ever your main account content you got, if monthly subscription then same as always.

Next you charged for each expansion + , Example You charge people like 30 dollars for zilart and if subscription runs out still get access to zilart all the time for life and lv cap be 99 and gear be cap at 70 with no subscription. You have all expansion +'s then they will cap at lv 99 and lv95 gear if buy all the expansions pluses and no subscriptions will be needed. And if they do it right that could make them about 300 bucks, and that be like 2 years of subscriptions fees. and allows a influx of new people. And the rest of us wouldn't notice much beside alot of new players and shouts.

You still get the codes from the registration works fine for the way it is if paying monthly, but the areas become locked if not paying the subscription and if in a area when the subscription runs out it warps back to starting city unless got expansion + bought or subscription fees working.

This help old players returning and for them to bring along new players. To get there friends to try the game and become addicted to the game. Since the money from them not even coming to square since they have been afk for years or if it a new player never played this game. Also if someone get a use copy then they got to pay through the teeth. For the registration codes.

You do not need a registration code to start the free to play element. Just a copy of the disk rest stuff be on square account manager. This way people can just jump in and install and play the game and forces square work on there account management system to be more casual friendly.