Suggestions: Quality of Life Stuff and other suggestions

[Alhanelem]

First off, they didn't increase anybody's subscription costs. They added a completely optional service So do not tell outright lies.

And what I mean by maintenance mode is that they aren't adding anything big or new. No new zones. No new monster types. They're using existing monster types and increasing stats, adding new moves, and changing colors. It's all low effort stuff.

"new zones and mosnters" is expansion level stuff. Not simply updates. "Maintenance mode" means simply "keeping it running." And no updates whatsoever aside from keeping it working. Your opinion about the amount of effort put in (by a team of a handful of people) is irrelevant to this.

[Tarmarkvar]

"new zones and mosnters" is expansion level stuff. Not simply updates. "Maintenance mode" means simply "keeping it running." And no updates whatsoever aside from keeping it working. Your opinion about the amount of effort put in (by a team of a handful of people) is irrelevant to this.

My point is that they had the big grand finale in 2016 and scaled back operations, so that means they just don't have the stuff to do big stuff like expand the auction house or the number of slots per inventory box and such.

[Alhanelem]

My point is that they had the big grand finale in 2016 and scaled back operations, so that means they just don't have the stuff to do big stuff like expand the auction house or the number of slots per inventory box and such.

Operaitons had already been "scaled back" before 2016.

And lest you forget, we got yet another new storyline in The Voracious Resurgence, which was also never orgiinally planned. Have you not been playing this game for the last couple years or something?

And "expand the auction house" is your idea of a high effort task?
They can make the AH sales limit whatever they want it to be, the reason they don't do it (according to them at least) is because of the load a greater item and sales volume puts on the AH and delivery server. And there are similarly technical reasons they can't simply increase the number of slots per box which is why they gave us more boxes instead. Is it really that much better if had 2 fewer storage spaces that held 100 items each? I'm really not seeing the point to this.

You've really got me confuzzled here. Your definition of "not maintenance mode" seems to be "Do things the devs said ages ago they had no plans of doing for specifically provided reasons."

To overcome those limits would reuquire a total overhaul of the game engine to accomodated higher network transfer rates and enterprise hardware. That's not something that would have been in the cards even 10 years ago, well before your "maintenance mode" date.

[Pixela]

The people who decide the future of FFXI are not game developers who work on the game, they are accountants that work for the company.

The producer has to goto these accountants and show them the finances and ask for more money, in advance (for the next 1-3 years) to keep the game running. Those accountants have to decide if the PROFITS the game will bring in is worth spending that money. It's that simple, they don't care about covering costs they care about returns on an investment.

If they give 1 million dollars to run the game for the next 1-3 years (idk how much they spend, random number), they want 2-3 million back minimum. If they won't get that, why bother spending money? close it down. It's that simple.

[Zenion]

If they give 1 million dollars to run the game for the next 1-3 years (idk how much they spend, random number), they want 2-3 million back minimum. If they won't get that, why bother spending money? close it down. It's that simple.

I think it's a little more complex than that. If this were, say, Runescape or Everquest, where the MMO is the brand, sure. It's all about the raw numbers. But Final Fantasy is a franchise that, at this point, trades primarily on the power of its brand. Having a mainline member of the series disappear just because it was an MMO that stopped being profitable kind of hurts that brand a little. I doubt that would save FFXI if it ever cost more to run than it brought in, but I suspect it'll keep the game afloat as long as it can just break even.

[Alhanelem]

I always seem to have to point out that just because it was $12.95 in 2002, the equivalent today isn't $12.95 plus inflation.

I stopped reading here. Yes, I know that different people place different values on their money and their game experience.

However, I would disagree with your implication that we're getting less for the technically smaller amount of money we're paying them. The structure of updates was changed considerably a long time ago, instead of big patches a few times a year that have tons of stuff, we get small updates on a monthly basis with the ocasional bigger thing thrown in. It really isn't that far off in the end from how things used to be.

We've gotten not just one but two new storylines that were never planned. We've gotten multiple new progression systems, multiple new and/or improved battle contents.... I'd say for the most part, im about just as happy with what I get for paying as I was back in the day. Maybe a little bit less because of certain ongoing issues with botting and the like. but not way off.

Ultimately, my point remains, I don't need those extra mog wardrobes. Sure, if you do, you might view it as a sub fee increase instead of an optional extra, but it's little different than XI's system of paying $1 per character slot (which I agree is silly and outdated though)

[Uriah]

I mean that's cute, but it's literally the opposite of what they want. Why on earth would they purposely hinder their most valuable customers.

[Eth]

I mean that's cute, but it's literally the opposite of what they want. Why on earth would they purposely hinder their most valuable customers.

RTMs do a lot of damage to SE's business. SE creates content that could keep players busy for literally years, and thanks to RMTs, people complete the content quickly, get bored and quit again because there is nothing to do. Their activities are really not in SE's best interest.

[RagingAvatar]

I play on multiple PCs - it'd be great to have a setting that automatically uploaded my macros etc. to the PlayOnline server on logout/shutdown and automatically grabbed them on login on another PC, like modern cloud saves.

[Divinas]

I play on multiple PCs - it'd be great to have a setting that automatically uploaded my macros etc. to the PlayOnline server on logout/shutdown and automatically grabbed them on login on another PC, like modern cloud saves.

I believe Blizzard has that going on for WoW, actually. Correct me if I am wrong. But it'd be a nice addition for sure as I juggle between PC and WinGDP.