Reasons Why FFXI is Declining

[Damane]

There has been a 50% drop in NA player logins within the last six months. Several factors are likely to be at play:
* Aging-game syndrome
* Developmental decisions (including the horizontal-to-vertical progression switch)
* The presence of competing games (like FFXIV)

I think that it is not wise to underestimate either of the last two factors, though the first factor cannot be ruled out totally. Based on some data from a mysterious source, I would be unsurprised if the majority of the effect was due to Dev decisions and if FFXIV was a minor effect.

FFXIV had a rather huge effect, considering over half of my LS is gone playing it scathered around different servers :/

[Byrth]

I am not so sure. The decline looks fairly linear here:


There is a bump for the login campaigns and it tails off a bit early at FFXIV's release, but FFXI was already headed downhill pretty dramatically in June (right after the horizontal-to-vertical switch in May).

[Damane]

I am not so sure. The decline looks fairly linear here:


There is a bump for the login campaigns and it tails off a bit early at FFXIV's release, but FFXI was already headed downhill pretty dramatically in June (right after the horizontal-to-vertical switch in May).

yeah that looks like the decline started when delve hit the shelves it seems, basicly when RMEs got useless and all other previous gear got pritty much bombed due to Delve. I hope the RME update and the hardmode update bring some players back in november, but I really doubt so :/. Seems like the vertical gear progression really was the thing that killed it.

[geekgirl101]

Forget it, my 2 cents would get dissected and criticized anyways.

btw we are all part of a big experiment. All the ideas we came up with to improve this game were taken on board by SE, instead of applying them here they decided to make a new game with all the ideas we came up with and thus created.... FFXIV :P

[korn16ftl3]

Opinion:
It would appear to me that around the time that FFXIV (NOT REALM REBORN) was about to release and during the duration of that year they started doing things to make the game more soloable, in theory this is fine due to the fact some of the XI population would obviously like to at least check out the new FF MMO, completely expected. Now in the process of preparing for the new release of XIV they were also trying to keep people engaged in XI (perhaps to collect $25 a person for those that wish to play both games?) and thus adding or building up the releases of aby the way that they did (if i recall corectly and feel free to correct me if i am wrong the last aby add on was released during beta phase of XIV original).

In the attempt to make the game soloable they completely nullified a lot of what the game revolved around...community, there still is a great community but look at the economy in your server...you cant even sell that good low lvl gear you have because of how soloable the game actually is. Some how on the journy to 99 as soon as we hit level 30 people jump into aby and are just lazy and level to 99 (i wont lie i myself am guilty of this just for cretin attributes of X job)....This further hindered the player base by adding a bunch of 99's that haven't even been to kaz yet.

Further more they removed things such as CoP level caps and things that made the game a challenge....its fine if they want to remove the caps and perfectly acceptable in given situation...but what about us that might WANT the level caps there to relive the experience or have a different one all together? I myself never got to experience the CoP with the level 30 cap even being an on and off player since about 07, tho i wouldn't mind playing it capped at lvl 30 just for a more challenging experience.

In addition to the above old end game is freaking soloable....me as PLD/DNC and an LS mate as BLM/WHM duoed the Ark Angels....WHY?

When i started playing i dreamed of the day i could fight gods and be a lvl 75 in an alliance fighting dragons for an hour only to be wiped out....it was something i had looked forward to for a long time...i have only recently been able to reach that goal (due to my on and off game play as i stated previously) and was HUGELY disappointed when i did a CoP dragon fight as well as the Ark Angel fight....mostly because i remembered my firs BCNM for the nation missions...it literally gave me chills i was so excited and the fight was intense even with a full party, it was something i enjoyed the heat of the battle and the pressure to defeat the dragon...i have been robbed of all of these experiences due to the 99 cap and every thing being dummed down

Conclusion:
Adding choices appeals to ALL players as you allowed to choose a path to take and inevitably your own experience. The way i would best resolve what i have stated has disappointing me the most...make caps an option...make some of the old beaten content repayable in a HARDER mode or with an alternate mode (perhaps just no rewards aside from XP to replay it?). At the beginning of CoP offer the option if you want to be capped or not, either beef up the gods and end game of the older content to give the players the experience back they desire, offer a cap option do something make them gods again dont just let the aby zone boss's be better than something thats supposed to be a god...where is the logic behind that?

MOST IMPORTANTLY RAISE THE ABY ENTRY LVL CAP, make players at least learn the core basics of their job and have a weapon skill of 200 in their jobs weapon proficiency before being able to enter aby, may the entry LVL 50 so there is a bit of experience and skill behind a player......make us reunite as players again and get to know each other...rather than go to work and come back a 99 X job.

as a final note why in the world is so much gear rare/ex....how are we supposed to make any gil or keep some kind of economy established when we cant even sell the good treasure we do find because its rare/ex? Its not bad enough that almost no other older gear sells on the AH (at least on fenrir its a terrible economy there) the spells are getting crazy low (I bought about 10 spells for whm from the AH ranging from lvl 30+ spells for under 200K) how are we supposed to even attempt to survive or buy any thing when were only making 10K a crack...and that stupid phalanx spell has yet to drop for me on royal jelly BCNM in at LEAST 15 runs......it just does not make sense....if something is mine in RL can i not sell it? I also ABSOLUTELY HATE the 7 items on AH limitation...if ure going to rare/ex every thing at least find a way to lift the 7 item limit from the AH so we can sell 10000 things only worth 10K

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Some how on the journy to 99 as soon as we hit level 30 people jump into aby and are just lazy and level to 99

People skip leveling wherever possible because it's not fun. It's never been fun. The game was enjoyable despite the soul-crushing grind, not because of it.

I'm at the point that I think it's ridiculous to call these newer players "lazy" for wanting to actually be entertained by a game they are paying for.

Further more they removed things such as CoP level caps and things that made the game a challenge...

Nobody actually liked the level caps. Nobody.

Want to know how I know? Beastmen's Seal battles, ENM battles, ISNM battles, Expeditionary Force, Garrison, Eco-Warrior... they all still have level caps. And nobody does them any more, because they still have level caps. Hell, we wouldn't even have seal storage NPCs at all if people actually wanted to do the fights, but even back then people hated level caps enough to drop Beastmen's Seals as fast as they got 'em.

Level caps were a cheap kludge thrown into CoP shortly before its release and it shows. S-E recognized that nobody would go through that nonsense at low levels if they didn't have to. The end result were a whole mess of players stuck at Chapter 1 because they didn't have exactly the right job and exactly the right gear (which is certainly a theme that hasn't gone away).

In addition to the above old end game is freaking soloable....me as PLD/DNC and an LS mate as BLM/WHM duoed the Ark Angels....WHY?

Why the hell not? Are the stats on the Divine Might earrings too game-breaking? There's a whole new expansion out there for "teamwork" and "strategy," complete with relevant gear as rewards.

I personally welcome changes like this because so much of S-E's philosophy with older content is "abandon in place." So much content was and still is broken since its inception (e.g. Ark Angel EV's Spirits Within), but S-E focuses on replacement rather than repair, so having the opportunity to "throw more levels at it" is the only opportunity for many players to experience the expansion pack they paid for.

When i started playing i dreamed of the day i could fight gods and be a lvl 75 in an alliance fighting dragons for an hour only to be wiped out...

<Wildskeeper Rieve> <You can have this.>

make caps an option...

No real reason not to do this, so long as you ignore the fact that nobody will use it. Level Sync works just fine in Promyvion and, while you can't use that in the mission fights in the Spires, there's still ENMs in those same zones with the same old level caps that nobody is bothering with.

MOST IMPORTANTLY RAISE THE ABY ENTRY LVL CAP

Aside from the fact that that ship has sailed, in case you've forgotten S-E still charges money for the Abyssea add-ons. There are apparently enough people who haven't bought them yet to justify a months-long free-access campaign. Nobody will spend money on an add-on they can't actually use.

I also ABSOLUTELY HATE the 7 items on AH limitation...

The problem isn't that you can only sell 7 items at a time. The problem is that 99% of drops are completely useless to 99% of the population to begin with.

And to try to shoehorn at least one constructive comment in my wall of text, what S-E needs to do is have a dedicated team go through all the old content, all of it, and make sure the challenge-to-reward ratio for it all actually makes sense. For example, why are there still level caps to begin with? Why is Ark Angel EV's Spirits Within damage uncapped (unlike players)? Why is the Seed Crystal... well, still the Seed Crystal? Why must it take so long to climb Mercenary Rank? etc. etc.

[nyheen]

People skip leveling wherever possible because it's not fun. It's never been fun. The game was enjoyable despite the soul-crushing grind, not because of it.

I'm at the point that I think it's ridiculous to call these newer players "lazy" for wanting to actually be entertained by a game they are paying for.

and this is one of the reason why it declining because everyone is burning to 99 at super sonic speeds because of lvl 30+ abyssea. it what killed the whole low/mid lvl pting as you can see, and on top of that SoA killed off all the older events with it broken easy to get skirmish gear. so is this what you wanted? because at this point it started to be unplayable. things was at the safe zone before. now it just broken. loging in with just 500 people is just sad and it gonna get worst;;

[vienne]

Although yes its a horse thats been beaten to death a gazillion times, but I'll give my two cents.
Yes I enjoyed the game more pre-abyssea, the idea of abyssea was ok, the idea of lvl 99 was fine, SE just implemented it wrong (again, they're really good at having a good concept and messing it up)... But that was when? 2 years ago, to late to turn back now right? asking for a lvl cap in abyssea wont fix the real issue.
On the other hand, Back in ye olden days when you were forced to team up with a group of weirdos you totally didnt know, Although a grindfest it did have its advantages.
Most of the people on my flist (the very short one atm, I'm in need of more people to talk to so I can whine less on the forum) are people I met during old school pt'ing, I got my one and only serious long time linkshell (which sadly enough doesnt exist anymore since FFXIV ARR, yes doomsday is comming) through old school pting...
Then came abyssea, SE's idea of opium for the masses. I can honestly tell i never met a friend in abyssea pts, just people trying to lot what you need or stealing your NM's, at the end of the road our ls split up in these kind of cliques (or w/e the english word is) and they all worked with 3~6 on what they wanted/needed and even the group feeling of being in an ls got extremely vague at that point.
So to summarize: abyssea wasnt the carrot on the stick, it was the carrot straight up your derrière.
Lets forget about it, its the here and now, give us R/M/E, give us challenging content, give us a playerbase to buy our goods, gimme someone to talk to gdmi, I want the old community feel back!

[kylani]

People skip leveling wherever possible because it's not fun. It's never been fun. The game was enjoyable despite the soul-crushing grind, not because of it.

Yes it was fun. It was made better by level sync. It's not necessarily 'FUN' for everyone, but it is FUN for some.

I made many friends in exp parties, and we had a good time. Those that left don't talk about missing Abyssea, and in fact most left AFTER Abyssea. They miss the fun we had partying, accomplishing things as a group. Not sitting in a party getting exp while AFK.

Nobody actually liked the level caps. Nobody.

Want to know how I know? Beastmen's Seal battles, ENM battles, ISNM battles, Expeditionary Force, Garrison, Eco-Warrior... they all still have level caps. And nobody does them any more, because they still have level caps. Hell, we wouldn't even have seal storage NPCs at all if people actually wanted to do the fights, but even back then people hated level caps enough to drop Beastmen's Seals as fast as they got 'em.

Hard to believe anyone would even say this. The BCNMs are great fun. If anything, the people I know are wanting more seals. It was always fun even if it was sometimes annoying to get to the fights, but now that gear level syncs and after the 95 fight you can teleport to the battlegrounds it's better than ever.

There are good things about the new content too. FFXI has so much variety of content, it's amazing to me. But the old content was good and has improved with time. If the initial content were 'so bad' that no one would want to do it, why have folks kept playing this game over 11 years.

More has been added so more playing styles can enjoy the game, and I enjoy Abyssea and Adoulin, etc. But it doesn't mean that no one enjoys the old content. I was fortunate enough to enjoy COP with friends and that's probably what we remember fondly more than anything else, but it doesn't mean I don't understand how frustrating it was for others. People are different, but that's why this game is so awesome. Things improve over time, and new stuff is always being introduced. It may be hit and miss at times, but I think it's better that content is added then tweaked vs. not changing at all. Mistakes may be made, but hopefully, SE will fix them. Folks may leave, but many come back after realizing no game has all that FFXI does.

[detlef]

Leveling may have been fun sometimes, but the sheer amount of time spent XPing to level a single job took the shine off of it for many.