Reasons Why FFXI is Declining

[Rustic]

Well, for one thing, you could eliminate (or at least provide an end-run around) the often frustrating and alienating XP grind that limits people from experiencing the content already in place.

Not only did they eliminate it, they managed to eliminate most of the reasons the zones said levels existed for in the process. And the reasons people even hung around in the starting cities.

I mean, I regularly have to explain to newbie people capped at level 50 why fame matters or how to get to anywhere save Gusgen Mines and Crawler's Nest. The incentives to explore, to actually be in the game world were obliterated with Abyssea. Because little blue boxes and a L30 entry limit.

[Daemon]

Not only did they eliminate it, they managed to eliminate most of the reasons the zones said levels existed for in the process. And the reasons people even hung around in the starting cities.

I mean, I regularly have to explain to newbie people capped at level 50 why fame matters or how to get to anywhere save Gusgen Mines and Crawler's Nest. The incentives to explore, to actually be in the game world were obliterated with Abyssea. Because little blue boxes and a L30 entry limit.

And the way I see why these areas were eliminated was because people complained they weren't getting invites to 6 man parties and failing to exp was killing the game so in order to keep leveling interested was to expand the limit to 18 man alliances which would make certain areas popular and full bringing the majority of the player base to certain areas.

Just the same as I mentioned before the rope has 2 sides, if the adjustment is made for a good cause a sacrifice is always made.

Speeding the leveling phase to less than half a day made most auction house gear irrelevant.

Allowing 18 man alliances and GOV pages sacrificed leveling at old maps and 6 man Skillchain groups.

Adjustments are made based on a general view of what can benefit the majority.

Most events today is based on keeping big groups and the majority of the playerbase together than fall apart.

[Daemon]

They could have easily brought back the six man party system by adding a point system that revolves around killing things outside of abyssea

Frank as I said before, the interest is focused on the majority of the playerbase. Certain things are implemented for a reason. If only 2,000 players existed on the entire server and 200 of the players are duel box, bazaar, mules and most of the day ranging from 500-800 people, do you think directing people's attention away from popular areas is going to help if the goal is to keep everyone interested in the current event?

How does that help you find parties to do things like Abyssea, quests, missions, trials, events if there are too many things added on to your to-do interest list?

How would people get things in Abyssea done if several hundred players decide they want to level outside of it?

That's why I said it doesn't make sense to implement REM and draw everyone to do that after SoA expansion was released. Then how will people find enough people interested in Delve etc?

This is the thing about analyzing results over time and making adjustments according to the moment.

Which is why I said Game development is about shifting the crowd from one area to another.

[Daemon]

Now to conclude everything I've been explaining in my responses:

I just think the DEV TEAM intentionally decided to kill off all other content to shift the crowd over to SoA fully by adding in over powered items and gear to make the new expansion a success than lose face by charging almost $40 to every single person who bought it which would make the crash of this game worse than when FFXIV was released.

Atleast now they can continue to add more on top of it and fill in the gaps along the way.

People were bound to quit anyway, atleast their strategy kept the crowd that's left over. And that's why you have as many people as you do now.

Magic is about drawing attention to a specific thing with the intent of distracting you to accomplish the success of the trick you are doing.

Its obvious the items of the game would draw everyone's interest like a magician wowing you with the glamor of the illusion being performed.

And this is why I see the game different than you.

If you guys weren't so busy focused on a single task arms flailing in the air sky is falling run to the forums and let everyone know the world is ending thinking only about simple things like "How do I get my item" then maybe you would see things beyond the box rather than be left stuck in it.

My last 2 cents I leave for you on the table.

[vienne]

Great news! XIV sucks i'm comming back here and i'll forget about all the flaws this game has cause its still 9999999999 times better then that monster which is XIV.

[Daemon]

Great news! XIV sucks i'm comming back here and i'll forget about all the flaws this game has cause its still 9999999999 times better then that monster which is XIV.

Lol I'm waiting to see how many others are coming back when that free one month ends and when others realize that FFXIV is not FFXI leaving behind a game they already spent so much time building their characters earning their items which is enough reason not to drop the game entirely.

Which is also a good reason to "analyze" things over time before making adjustments right away.

[Kuvo]

Great news! XIV sucks i'm comming back here and i'll forget about all the flaws this game has cause its still 9999999999 times better then that monster which is XIV.

Just wondering why u feel that way and what u don't like about it? I've heard that from a few ppl but imo I am having fun playing xiv. Its fast, there's a ton of things going on, lots of people, and it is beautiful. I like the controls and the game play customization. My only complaint right now is that it seems way too easy, not just leveling but everything I experienced so far hasn't proven to be a challenge. But yet im only lvl 14

[Daemon]

My only complaint right now is that it seems way too easy

This is why i lost interest.

I understand making the game easy to understand. Making it too easy as if the game is doing everything for you is a different story.

Part of playing any RPG game is about exploring. This game shows you where NPCs are telling you where to go just by looking at the map and in 1 hour you can finish talking to several quest npcs and complete things with the impression of "go talk to this NPC, go pick up this off the ground in front of me, walk over there and examine this, go dance in front of these people"

I just think they went overboard on the easy mode.

In a way it just felt as if it was done intentionally to avoid the problem that happened on the first release. Lose customers who don't know how to do simple things on their own.

Sort of like someone nagging you that the Internet doesn't work when they didn't even type in the web address. So they expect you to do it for them.

That's how easy the game seems.

[vienne]

My only complaint right now is that it seems way too easy

That^ i lvld MRD to 34 LNC to 22 and a couple of things more, i tried crafting (and in 1.0 i did quite alot of botany which i really liked doing but they dumbed it down in ARR) and its just... where's the challenge. I want a game where i can play for longer then 3 months. The fate thing is a copy of GW2 and badly implemented. crafting is pointless since almost every quest hands you a piece of gear, gathering is pointless since that marketboard is just hilarious. i said it on the the xiv forum and i'll say it here too, they're trying way to hard to make xiv not be like xi so they also didnt implement anything which was actually good about xi.
in short, its a shiny game with little content.
Its like a really nice looking bra, but the moment you put it on you notice it doesnt fit well and is made of only 5 parts instead of the must have 50 parts

[Afania]

That^ i lvld MRD to 34 LNC to 22 and a couple of things more, i tried crafting (and in 1.0 i did quite alot of botany which i really liked doing but they dumbed it down in ARR) and its just... where's the challenge. I want a game where i can play for longer then 3 months. The fate thing is a copy of GW2 and badly implemented. crafting is pointless since almost every quest hands you a piece of gear, gathering is pointless since that marketboard is just hilarious. i said it on the the xiv forum and i'll say it here too, they're trying way to hard to make xiv not be like xi so they also didnt implement anything which was actually good about xi.
in short, its a shiny game with little content.
Its like a really nice looking bra, but the moment you put it on you notice it doesnt fit well and is made of only 5 parts instead of the must have 50 parts

SE's broke, they can't no longer afford to make another mega sized MMO and take risk of failing again. So they have to focus on 1 single aspect, make it small, make ppl satisfied, so that buy them time and money, at least they got some box sells.

I agree with what you said though, I want more than just "go to dungeon and fight the boss, beat it, so I can do next dungeon" MMORPG. But I guess no company is ambitious enough to make anything more than that.