Reasons Why FFXI is Declining

[Frost]

My only comment is on the speed at which content is released.

We got the new expansion, and it had a few things to do; skirmish, reives, etc, coupled with some new NMs/HNMs they gave us some new gear options. Then they added whole slew of crafted items and new crafting materials that you had to get 'the old fashioned way' that were relevant and interesting. All these things added were and upgrade, but still within scope of the original content. You had options. Gear was creeping up to the pinnacle gear, not surpassing it, but it started to blur the lines between top gear and the next best thing.

I was cool with that.

Then in less than a month... Delve made ALL content irrelevant...

And I would be ok with this. If it was spread out over a couple months, to the point where we're at currently was anchored somewhere in November with a "Christmas Surprise" right around the corner.

But in less than a month of the new expansion, all the content we worked on, or were working on, or in the queue to work on, was all irrelevant. INCLUDING all the stuff that was just released: no reason to do Reives, Skirmish, Mine, Craft, Naakuls, etc.

Abyssea was released on a relatively condensed schedule as well, but there were a few differences:

When you got geared up in Abyssea, you still could use some situational pieces from the past events. The added boon was that you no longer needed an alliance of 18 people to get them. The content was all reduced to something doable by an intimate group of close friends, and you know it could get done in about fifteen minutes to an hour. This dynamic is good. It made the less accessible content that had been done exclusively by the leading linkshells accessible to the 'common man' and a couple of their buddies, once those leading linkshells were done being on the bleeding edge and reaping the benefits from it.

Currently the new content requires large groups of folks (with the exception of crafting and gathering). However, if you don't give an incentive to do them, worse, you took the incentives to do them away. it's hard enough to entice one person to do stuff, it's infinitely harder to entice a group when there's no rewards (Though I could easily see why the devs would think that, thanks to Voidwatch). It should be noted that a simple 'repeat old content, but harder' strategy doesn't work, give or take, SE's done a decent to good job mixing it up (Yes there's exceptions).

So my request is simple:

Think of the long game.


New content: Leading linkshells jump on it, beat it, recover 'losses' by reaping the rewards from it, dare I say profit from it. (Just make it doable, no 24 hour fights etc...)

Then: Lower restrictions on that content. Give intermediate players a chance to gear up, maybe prove their chops to a leading linkshell, or make their own linkshell in time for the next wave. Leading linkshells are doing 'cleanup' at this time, filling in the gaps, getting those last few pieces, helping friends of friends.

(Small intimate groups of friends do 'catch up'. One or two heavily geared individuals helping 'the less fortunate'. Collectibles like Dynamis coins, Alexandrites, etc. work as incentives. (SE got that part right.))

THEN: New content: The leading tier players are geared and up to date on content, some intermediate players are geared and up to date on content, and a smaller contingency of casual players are geared and up to date on content. People are folded in to the top tier based on their merit, newer linkshells form from the chaff, and the cycle continues.

(With every subsequent wave of content it should only really phase out about 10%-15% of the 'old gear', and reduce another 10%-15% of the 'old gear' to being "situational". While providing a 5%-7% increase in potency to a 'top geared' player.)

This doesn't mean you can't drop a bomb once and a while. Go ahead and pepper the game with things like the new Delve weapons, Ridill, Kraken Club, Defending Ring, Relic Weapons, etc... But do so sparingly, like Ridill/Klub/Dring, or make them earned, like Relics. Make those items the bar that all other gear reaches and eventually SURPASSES. A player should grow 5%-7% per update, not double their potency like with the Delve weapons, but if they do, make that really rare.

On that note, when something is THAT HARD to get (Ex: Mythics). make them really worth it; the player is sacrificing new content to repeat content, generally helping others in the process. Those people deserve to have a real 'game changer' item. They've repeated old content for 'x' cycles of new content, they should be able to store that growth when it comes to fruition. Four cycles of 5% growth? Make sure the item adds a good 15%+ above what they would normally do.

[SpankWustler]

Opinion: People are buying tacos instead of paying for FFXI subscriptions.

Reason:12.95$ is enough money to buy roughly ten to thirteen more tacos a month. Tacos taste good because they are greasy and fattening and thus appeal to same demographic of greasy, fat people as the typical MMORPG.

Conclusion: TACOS.

Solution: Burn down every single Taco Bell. As a bonus, the flames fueled by molten nacho cheese and burning Taco Bell employees who have absorbed the signature "Taco Bell meat stench" into their hair and flesh will make the world smell delicious.

[Vizzer]

Opinion: People are buying tacos instead of paying for FFXI subscriptions.

Reason:12.95$ is enough money to buy roughly ten to thirteen more tacos a month. Tacos taste good because they are greasy and fattening and thus appeal to same demographic of greasy, fat people as the typical MMORPG.

Conclusion: TACOS.

Solution: Burn down every single Taco Bell. As a bonus, the flames fueled by molten nacho cheese and burning Taco Bell employees who have absorbed the signature "Taco Bell meat stench" into their hair and flesh will make the world smell delicious.

Even without Taco Bell, there is still Jack in the Box.
Taco Bell has Pespi though and Jack in the Box has Coke.
For me tacos: Jack in the Box > Taco Bell, but Pepsi > Coke, so I am torn.

[Daemon]

Opinion Updates like the one we just got today gave us a sense of false hope thinking urgent details we were concerned about would receive first priority attention ends in disappointment after finding out minor tweaks, and focus was given to things that did not solve the bigger problems the community has been sharing with the DEV team.

Reason That's all you Dev Team. We've shared our concerns, posted and left you information on how we are experiencing your creation. How the new direction is not working out for all of us.

Conclusion It seems our concerns are not being addressed properly. Instead of attending to what needs to be fixed such as inventory issues, we are left in an even worse state than before the new update. Adding more gear and not giving us ways to carry them. Adding new adjustments rather than fix things such as REM complaints that the good portion of the community has been concerned about leaving us no road map or no official word to gives us any hope is the reason I see FFXI declining.

Solution Dev team needs to pay attention to the bigger problems people are having and focus on working this out first before adding new monsters, items, weapons, armor, area etc. we don't need new content to keep us entertained. We need the content we already have fixed. Jobs, inventory, balance, Character adjustments such as Merit points, Zones such as NNI, Salvage, Assault made solo friendly. While its nice to see adjustments be made to Reives, elemental adjustments, these things are not as important as the other things that were listed above.

[pretre]

because the game used to be about having fun with friends, these days its about getting best gear you can not the adventure. I too am guilty of this but I doubt you will find a player from meripo days and earlier that wouldn't say its a diff game these days. I think its because the challenge has gone from the game and everything these days is endgame as in very 1 directional, GEAR GEAR GEAR, I remember I used to turn on and just chat to people sometimes, it was more like a chat forum with games. this just my opinion an I don't think this issue is fixable

[Daemon]

because the game used to be about having fun with friends, these days its about getting best gear you can not the adventure. I too am guilty of this but I doubt you will find a player from meripo days and earlier that wouldn't say its a diff game these days. I think its because the challenge has gone from the game and everything these days is endgame as in very 1 directional, GEAR GEAR GEAR, I remember I used to turn on and just chat to people sometimes, it was more like a chat forum with games. this just my opinion an I don't think this issue is fixable

I agree with you 100%

[Oddwaffle]

Going to chip in before we're all doom and gloom and dead with the current game direction.

Problem/Opinion: It appears that the developers fail to understand what their customers really desire and just go ahead and try to make the game fresh again without even consider the aftermath. I understand that the game has been stagnating ever since reaching lv95-99. Matsui knows the problem and he wants to refresh/reset the game. However, what he failed to see is that people are responsive to options and hate being forced to do something.

Reason: People hate being forced to do things. You can't tell people "18 people alliance will be the end game, do it!". That's not going to work. You need to give your customers options. The more options the better. By definitions, having options means all choices are roughly equal in terms of reward vs time and effort spend by a single player. If you have bad and good options then the only actual choice is the good option and no body will pick the bad one.

Solution: Make contents for EVERYONE. Alliance, large linkshell, small linkshell, group of friends or 1-2 buddies, the guy who only plays solo or that gal over there who only log in to chat with her friends or that power player with 10 characters running around doing everything. Obviously that's impossible as people play their game at different pace. So make a few content with similar rewards and different approaches. Also, you need to keep the similar amount of reward vs effort with these approaches.

Don't make too many 'ladders'. Don't make too many contents with "you must do this content before you can do that content". You will keep getting players being left behind and give up on the game. If you have to make them then you must ensure that everyone can climb those 'ladders'. I repeat EVERYONE. If you see a large gap between top players and the bottom ones then close it quickly by speeding up those who left behind. Don't sit around and wait cause those at the bottom will just quit and the game is lost.

[Eijii]

Eorzea welcomes you all.

[Ravenmore]

Eorzea welcomes you all.

So in 5 years we can go though all the same BS again. Thanx but no thanx I learned from the first time. Have when SE starts diverting resources from 14 for their new MMO since you are rewarding the very thing that people are here complaining about.

[Demon6324236]

So in 5 years we can go though all the same BS again. Thanx but no thanx I learned from the first time. Have when SE starts diverting resources from 14 for their new MMO since you are rewarding the very thing that people are here complaining about.

So since they made 1 MMO, and are now making a second, you think they are going to do the exact same things with it? Also, this game has been around 11 years, not 5, if they do the same thing in a decade then fine, but ya know what, at least I will enjoy that decade probably, and when the time comes, Ill be complaining just like I do for FFXI, but at least I enjoyed the 11 years up to that point. Sorry but I refuse to think that FFXI must be a permanent example of how Square Enix will always do MMOs, for all we know FFXIV might not be stuck like FFXI, they might actually take it off PS3 when the console is to far behind to support it, that way it can continue to move forward. They could do it very differently than FFXI has been done, but if you give them no chance, you will only rob yourself of the potential experience. Now if this was their third or fourth, and it was a continued tradition for how they handled the games, then yes, I would understand, but since that's not the case, I completely disagree with how you see things.