idk if SE is purposely tanking the game or not, and I make no such claims. But the majority of the game has been rendered irrelevant by the introduction of abyssea and now Adoulin and it really doesn't seem this game has much steam left in it unless the devs make an amazing turn around and basically relaunch the game. So here is my idea for a relaunch with comparatively minimal work.
Launch a version of ffxi that is offline and single player. You can control a pt of 6 chars that are possibly interchangeable much like any other ff title, and only take it up to the point of the 3 mini expansions and lvl cap of 75. Graphics can stay the same, music can stay as it is, yada yada yada idc. But I would, as many many ppl I know, buy it in a heartbeat.
A few adjustments would have to be made, mythic and relic requirements for instance, exp gain rates, battles would have to be set for 6 manning, as would zones such as dyna, jp midnight and spawn timers requirements reworked or removed, etc etc etc. And lets not forget the UI. Keep it a challenge but make it doable.
This would reduce the need to maintain servers, you could pay your staff for a final kaboom and likely make a decent coin of it and if you want to release new content you can do it via dlc.
I love ffxi and would like to be able to pick it up and play in 10 years much like I currently do ff1, ff4, ff6 and so on.
Let ffxiv be your mmo mainstay if that's what you wish but please don't make us loose Vana'diel
Thoughts? Ideas? Flames? Love?