Why not create a new FFXI-2 MMO

[GAbrielKross]

I feel it necessary to contest one point. FFXI isn't a dead game, it's a completed game. While player base is diminishing, it's ultimately still an active game. The problem is the Trust concept practically turned it into a single player game. Also, while FFXIV may be going strong, there is still a market for a new story in Vana'diel. I'd say only about a third of retired FFXI players went to FFXIV: ARR, but that's just a personal estimation.

[Nefario]

I feel it necessary to contest one point. FFXI isn't a dead game, it's a completed game. While player base is diminishing, it's ultimately still an active game. The problem is the Trust concept practically turned it into a single player game. Also, while FFXIV may be going strong, there is still a market for a new story in Vana'diel. I'd say only about a third of retired FFXI players went to FFXIV: ARR, but that's just a personal estimation.

Thought i'd pop in here being as a returning player who last played the game in February 2013 ... just before ARR launch. XI is and always will be my true love. I am coming back to it once again after all, and nothing of the last 4 years in XIV convinces me that it will ever be as great as this game... and i still do love XIV for plenty of things.

In any case, i actually think that the dev choices over the last 4 years have been really intelligent. I mean, perhaps this game will still have the servers online in another 15 years, but the game itself will never suddenly boon in population such that it can sustain the old model. I treasured every moment in Valkrum, masochist that i am, but i doubt very much the game could sustain the classic shout box in town for exp party system the way it did. Certainly in trying to shout for party to do (insert random 10 year old story mission here) it would get messy.

So two things i do love. The trust system #1. Yeah, it essentially turns the main game into an offline entry in the franchise, but as polished, it (you got the word perfectly here) presents a COMPLETED masterpiece (UI deficiencies aside). The servers could go offline tomorrow and given a couple months of final tweaking, the game could be sold on steam as an offline entry to the franchise and be arguably the best FF in the entire series. It is that, even online, of course.

#2, Rhapsodies and all the mega boons granted by completing it. It's perfect. Take a new player gets the game in offline mode and one of the first things they will do is walk into the mog house as they explore their starter city. The storyline starts automatically and works in parallel to all the other story in the game as a whole, Rhapsodies incrementally progressing as all the other tales unfold. Brilliant. All of it comes together to form an incredibly polished package of a game that one can absorb in a couple hundred hours or a few hundred, which is still exceptionally high by offline standards, but not MMO standards, and yet the entirely of the thing is still there, with all the countless more content.

As i understand it, the end game is still online for now, so long as the game itself remains online. Of course i yearn for the days that were, but i appreciate all that is the complete and safely enduring legacy of a masterpiece that can now exist without expiration.

Yeah, i'm a little bummed to think the story is over... i mean, i CAN see this game staying online for another 15 years. It has a sort of enduring power... maybe not to the extent of Eve ... but then again, maybe. Everywhere you go, you hear the same things over and over how this game never leaves you. It's hard to imagine how 5-10 years could pass and this game sees no story extension despite still being online...

I think, for now, maybe it just exists like the wait for any offline franchise to maybe put out that next entry one day. So long as the game lives on as a functioning online community and earns SE at least a bit of coin to their bottom line, it is entirely plausible that the choice will be made to tell another story. Not necessarily an expansion, although hey, who really knows, but at least the announcement of a new add on scenario or something eventually as a thank you? I can see it. But i can absolutely see opening up bing one morning and seeing on the news feed 'Ancient MMO announces new expansion to celebrate 25 years! '