What's square going to do now?

[Ritsuka]

Pretty much wondering myself what Square is going to do now sense they want to stop support for ps2 and 360. I know some people loved this idea saying something "its only bring us down" but whats the point of doing that if they don't up the graphics anyway for PC and just let the game die? Square isn't going to make free to play they done already said that. They would rather see the game die first before it goes free to play. I wish Square would make this game in HD. I'd be willing to help set up a fund to raise money to help support if they want to play "it would take up to much money". I would give the cheeck personally to the President if i could.

What I would like to see is this, A remake of the game in HD, if they want to port to ps4 and or xbox would be up to them, I wouldn't be hard to port to ps4 sense its x86 anyway. Don't turn this game into WoW please! Let us keep our hard earned gear just up the graphics. Keep all the quests. And a new expansion with it the new launch maybe? Or add it later on. Well the quest thing i guess some of the ones that nobody does doesn't have to be ported I don't know. I would always like to see Battle chocobo's. And It would be really nice to see them add 3 new playable race's. The Kuuluu, the Zilert and Male mithra. You could also add more functions to to making new characters and let older players remake there person or give them the option to keep it older style.

And no I don't want to play 14 I beat it fast its boring before anybody says that ^_^

[bungiefanNA]

PS2 support relies on Sony keeping the DNAS servers working, and FFXI is the only game still using those servers. They explained why they aren't doing this in the Freshly Picked, development of an upgraded client would cost as much as just making a new game, like FFXIV. Their priority at this point is to cut expenses, not increase revenue.

[Michae]

They said they crunched the numbers and its just not worth the expense.

The game is in its death throws, there is really no point for a company to sink the amount of money needed to do this in a game that has such a tiny player base. If they had more players, sure, but the gamer mentality these days of "I WANT IT NOOOOOW" doesn't fit with games like xi. So even a reboot would have to make it more player friendly and the game wouldn't be the same one we know today anyway.

As sad as it is and as much as I would love to see a Vana'diel reborn, nothing can last forever, maybe its time to see what else is out there beyond the narrow scope of wow and xiv, if those don't suit you. But just be prepared for not finding anything that compares.

[Stompa]

It would have worked if they had starting writing a PC-only shiny version around 2009, which would have taken a huge amount of time and effort to finish, would probably be hitting the market round about now. With enough advertising and positive media reviews it would have sold in huge quantities, new players who like easy games / non-teamwork games etc. would have been thrilled with the shiny HD Trusts that talk and dance and twirl while they help you clear content easily etc. I believe it would have been a far greater success than 14 was.

But in terms of the here and now, it is probably too late to start years of rebuilding FFXI into a bells-and-whistles shiny PC version. This enormous project should have been started while FFXI was still drawing large amounts of subs, and perhaps instead of 13/14/etc.

I like the old basic graphics in FFXI, I think they're cute lol. Besides I'm too busy fighting mobs and tweaking gear combinations etc., to stand around admiring my character's realistic tinted eyelashes. In the very shiny games I always seem to do that, stand around going "oooh lookit det pwetty face" / "oooh lookit me jumpin around!" and so on, while at the same time not really feeling that I want to do the battle/mission/quest content because it usually feels like the devs only added it because they had to, not because they had a burning desire to make it an immersive content-based RPG experience.

FFXI is the opposite, the amount of love and inspiration that went into the original content/lore side of the game is staggering, and the graphics are still OK but less important to me than the playable world.

[Adventurer]

FFXI is the opposite, the amount of love and inspiration that went into the original content/lore side of the game is staggering, and the graphics are still OK but less important to me than the playable world.

I agree with this completely. When FFXI was created we were in different times. We didn't expect and demand so much from a MMO. Much like cars now days, where if it doesn't have bluetooth connectivity, iPod hookups, towing capability and gets over 40mpg we don't want to touch it. Long ago people were so happy and excited just to have one of these motorized contraptions that allowed them to commute and explore.

Back then, when FFXI was created it was done so with such heart, feeling and emotion. They set out to make an online world, some where that completely removes you from reality and puts you some where else. I agree completely with the notion that the difficulty also had a big part to play in it. It made you appreciate the friendships you made and the hardships you overcame, much like we do in the real world, whereas games like FFXIV just feel like some pretty 3D environment where people can play dress up doll with an online persona. These games like FFXIV will never feel like FFXI.

I personally think at some point people will realize what's going on. I hold onto the hope that some day people will once again change what they demand so that they can experience a true online adventure. I really hope that they keep FFXI hanging on for this reason. I hate people who say things like "Everything must come to an end." While it may be true for each of our own lives, look at how many things have lived through so many generations and have been passed down for so many years and will most likely continue in such a way. 15 years is nothing, it's a tiny spec of time so small in the cosmic realm that it's almost impossible to even calculate. We just entered into this electronic era of computers and internet. Why in the world could Vana'Diel not be expanded and enjoyed for hundreds if not thousands of years? Look at the Olympics, did those come to an end? No, people continue to expand on it, perfect it, participate in it and enjoy it.

I think by letting Vana'Diel wither away humanity is losing something truly unique that it may not produce ever again or for a very long time. A True online world of adventure, something that makes you feel like the story of your life is more real in a virtual land than in reality. Again, to me FFXI was much more than just a game with a lot more heart and creativity put into it. It was one of the first of it's kind and I believe that's what they set out to create when they made it, where as the new MMO's like FFXIV have been created solely for profit, to tickle some one's fancy just long enough to get some quick cash and move on to a new project. What's the fun in that?

I still am confused about the future of FFXI. I hear a lot of people saying it is about to die, yet SE said they are just going to stop making major updates but that they will continue to maintain the game. Perhaps this is a sign that they do want it to hang on. Why couldn't it be here hanging on for many many more years? As others have said, if they're making a good 20 million or so a year off of this game, that's more than enough to pay some programmer's salaries, office space, equipment, utilities and still turn a good profit.

[Stompa]

..............................I still am confused about the future of FFXI. I hear a lot of people saying it is about to die, yet SE said they are just going to stop making major updates but that they will continue to maintain the game. Perhaps this is a sign that they do want it to hang on. Why couldn't it be here hanging on for many many more years? As others have said, if they're making a good 20 million or so a year off of this game, that's more than enough to pay some programmer's salaries, office space, equipment, utilities and still turn a good profit.

I liked this post, thankyou for writing it.

On the whole "dated graphics" thing, I have been forming a theory of why I like FFXI graphics better than the shiny new games. In FFXI the characters and NPCs look a lot like dolls and toy soldiers, they have a simple and pure doll-like quality, which is very charming and attractive.

Its like in real life, I think actual real dolls, toys and manga characters etc. are often more beautiful than real people, even though real people are in super-realistic high definition. I still prefer my clunky old Motoko Kusanagi films from decades ago, even though she looks nothing like a real person, she looks like a doll. And I like that, there is a certain simple gracefulness to dolls that isn't the same when we look at a human being, with all their complexity and details.

So I'm starting to think that the FFXI doll-like simplicity of character graphics, is actually like the "Goldilocks Effect" of videogames. It is not "too cold" like the old 2D stickman games, but not "too hot" like the hyper-realistic shiny new games. It may be that FFXI-era graphics was actually the perfect sweet-spot inbetween too simple and too complex graphics.

So its like, where do we get off the Realism Bus. I've been on this computer-graphics bus since 1981, when I was running home from school to load my cassette-tape games with their 2D graphics. Do I keep riding this bus until games look more realistic than real life, or do I get off the bus at the point in time where games have a certain magical doll-like charm, with toy soldiers and dolls, which are elegant in a simple and pure way, like all the best dolls and manga always were.

Speaking for myself, I've been on this computer-graphics bus for a long time, and this place here is my stop. The FFXI level of graphics is where I want to get off the bus.

[Adventurer]

I liked this post, thankyou for writing it.

On the whole "dated graphics" thing, I have been forming a theory of why I like FFXI graphics better than the shiny new games. In FFXI the characters and NPCs look a lot like dolls and toy soldiers, they have a simple and pure doll-like quality, which is very charming and attractive.

Its like in real life, I think actual real dolls, toys and manga characters etc. are often more beautiful than real people, even though real people are in super-realistic high definition. I still prefer my clunky old Motoko Kusanagi films from decades ago, even though she looks nothing like a real person, she looks like a doll. And I like that, there is a certain simple gracefulness to dolls that isn't the same when we look at a human being, with all their complexity and details.

So I'm starting to think that the FFXI doll-like simplicity of character graphics, is actually like the "Goldilocks Effect" of videogames. It is not "too cold" like the old 2D stickman games, but not "too hot" like the hyper-realistic shiny new games. It may be that FFXI-era graphics was actually the perfect sweet-spot inbetween too simple and too complex graphics.

So its like, where do we get off the Realism Bus. I've been on this computer-graphics bus since 1981, when I was running home from school to load my cassette-tape games with their 2D graphics. Do I keep riding this bus until games look more realistic than real life, or do I get off the bus at the point in time where games have a certain magical doll-like charm, with toy soldiers and dolls, which are elegant in a simple and pure way, like all the best dolls and manga always were.

Speaking for myself, I've been on this computer-graphics bus for a long time, and this place here is my stop. The FFXI level of graphics is where I want to get off the bus.

I've also noticed that when you look at the worlds themselves you see the same effect. Look at Eorzea. You look up into the sky and there are about 50 trillion stars visible to the naked eye. You can see halfway across the very world itself and there's less of a sense of "What's around the corner or over the hill." Not to mention they DOWSED the world in CRYSTAL GOODNESS instead of making crystals these mysterious things that appear seldom in long forgotten places. I loved how in Vana'Diel it felt like a world that could really exist, with amazing beauty and TRUE diversity but then you had certain areas that were slightly different, more on the fantasy side and maybe a crystal or odd structure every here and there. To me, Eorzea just feels way too overdone, but it's not just FFXIV, most newer MMO's have that feel. Trillions of crystals, being able to see the next closest planet in detail, being able to see every single monster across the what feels like a limited horizon. To me, Vana'Diel stretched your imagination, it let you ponder what was out there, beyond that hazy horizon or through that labyrinth. This is why I believe Square Enix had something truly special and artfully made with FFXI, something that will be impossible to recreate. I wish dearly they would have just concentrated their efforts on what they already had, especially with such a loyal core instead of just wanting to put out the next shiny iMMO.

[bungiefanNA]

I'd say 2005-2006 would have been better to do that, when the global release with the EU client and the Xbox 360 were getting the game attention, and they still had a lot of the original dev team available.

[Stompa]

I'd say 2005-2006 would have been better to do that, when the global release with the EU client and the Xbox 360 were getting the game attention, and they still had a lot of the original dev team available.

I agree with that you are saying, I just picked 2009~ for the reason that after six years they knew that this game wasn't a "flash in the pan" and that a lot of people were still logging in, even just to do campaign battles and pixie weapons etc. lol.

In 2005 the game was still quite new and they couldn't be sure if so many people were just playing it because it was new. By 08~10 they must have seen that this was a popular long-term game which many players from all ages and walks of life were happy to spend most of their gaming time on. And therefor that it was a good business decision to revamp it into a deluxe modern PC game, for the existing players and the wider gaming community.

[bungiefanNA]

I agree with that you are saying, I just picked 2009~ for the reason that after six years they knew that this game wasn't a "flash in the pan" and that a lot of people were still logging in, even just to do campaign battles and pixie weapons etc. lol.

In 2005 the game was still quite new and they couldn't be sure if so many people were just playing it because it was new. By 08~10 they must have seen that this was a popular long-term game which many players from all ages and walks of life were happy to spend most of their gaming time on. And therefor that it was a good business decision to revamp it into a deluxe modern PC game, for the existing players and the wider gaming community.

Remember, FFXI launched in 2002. If was 4 years old a month or so after Aht Urhgan released. After Aht Urhgan, they started churning development members out, because Promathia was the original end of the storyline they had written. At least moving the development tools to Windows then would have been feasible, because they still would have had enough people with knowledge to do it.