Classic Servers

[Lortheron]

No, there were definitely things I legitimately enjoyed doing along the way. But most of those were one time things. I don't have any desire to do level 30 BCNMs again, for example, I already did them 2 dozen times 15 years ago. Same with the missions. I enjoyed them thoroughly. I enjoyed doing crafting along the way, but I also don't want to level the crafts over again. I did garrison once and that was kinda fun, but I have no desire to do it again, particularly for irrelevant rewards.



I hope you can understand that not wanting to do certain things today doesn't mean we didn't have any fun with them back in the day.

The only thing I really truly miss from back then is the early days of Ballista when there were like 2 dozen people on each team, that was crazy fun. But since there was no incentive to participate other than entertainment (and maybe taking some gil from your friends), it went from being a wild crazy thing to just being enjoyed by a small cult following. I can still occasionally do it today but usually just the bare minimum number of people.

When FFXI was new, the whole idea of being in an entire other world was thrilling and exciting. But over time, it gradually shifted towards enjoying the contents rather than simply being immersed in a world. Participating in a virtual world as if it was one was extremely time consuming. There is no way I could do that today, idling around town, chatting people up and that sort of thing. When I started I was in college and had lots of free time. Now, I have multiple hobbies, a job that keeps me busy, etc. So while I love logging in to vanadiel and smashing some BCNMs or doing whatever have you, I simply do not care to return to the old days of taking forever to get from one place to another, chatting up everyone i see along the way, grinding XP for hours, etc. because I simply do not have time to enjoy the game the same way I used to.

I understand but most new players want just that, and by making everything bellow 99 steamrollable as currently is and leveling as insanely fast and broken as currently is (if your RPG game giving XP faster than FFXIV, it's just way too fast and broken, aking to private servers of old): you're just removing this experience from them.

Most returning players want to experience the game as a whole again, want the challenge (or at least some challange) and want re live the world, as new players. It's only some veterans like you, and I can respect that, no problem with it, that only want to enjoy new 99 content, and it's all great, but don't steal the low ~ medium level experience from players starting now or returning players that want that.

There is a way to make all that whole experience of being immersed in a fantasy world believable to new and returning players without taking as much time. There is a middleground to be found here. Something not as crazy spartan as back in the day, but not as broken and fast as is today. That is what should be pursued, because that experience IS FFXI core.

[Lortheron]

While I don't know how successful classic servers would be, I think it would be in their best interest to actually update the game to not run on 56k, and actually have it load inventory instead of having to sit and wait 30+ seconds every time I zone and run on modern connection speeds.

They should also consider updating the graphics.

I dunno though, I have a lot of LS and we do a lot of stuff, but lack of amount of players, or maybe its the changes made in the game, but the social aspect feels like its long gone and that is what made this game so wonderful a lot of the times.

That would be a good start to catch up with game a bit. The game has been given basically zero real attention from Square Enix since 2016.

How many subscribers, active, the game currently has? At the very least ~7'000, and probably something around ten thousand players with active subscriptions given that Asura has around ~4K characters registered in it, and both Odin and Bahamuth more than 2K each, plus numbers from other servers. That's around 100K USD$ per month now (and I bet it was much more than that around 2015~2018, and a whole lot more before that). I trully do not believe even half the current game income goes towards improving it and they probably need just a small fraction of said income to keep servers running. So it's a business decision and not a lack of actual resources to keep the game as is ever since 2016. They prefer to invest the money elsewhere, and not back into the game, that's the truth.

[Alhanelem]

I understand but most new players want just that,

New players don't know what they want nor do they know what to expect, other than the basic elements of any MMO in existence.

This isn't intended as offense to you in any way but you need to stop pretending that you speak for every new or returning player. We all have different wants, desires and expectations.

In particular a new player that isn't a returning player does not know what the game was like 19 years ago and, given MMOs today, doesn't expect it to take hours to gain a single level (unless they're a veteran of a game like MapleStory, perhaps...). And further, most people in an MMO today don't seem to care that much about the journey, they just want to be max level as fast as possible and do endgame content, because... reasons. I still don't fully understand the rush myself but that's just the way it is.

[Lortheron]

New players don't know what they want nor do they know what to expect, other than the basic elements of any MMO in existence.

This isn't intended as offense to you in any way but you need to stop pretending that you speak for every new or returning player. We all have different wants, desires and expectations.

In particular a new player that isn't a returning player does not know what the game was like 19 years ago and, given MMOs today, doesn't expect it to take hours to gain a single level (unless they're a veteran of a game like MapleStory, perhaps...). And further, most people in an MMO today don't seem to care that much about the journey, they just want to be max level as fast as possible and do endgame content, because... reasons. I still don't fully understand the rush myself but that's just the way it is.

I understand what you're saying but even FFXIV takes longer to reach max level than FFXI now a days, that's just sad... Something like 4~5h to reach level ~25 and after that maybe ~50h to reach lvl50. And around ~350 hours after that to reach lvl99 sounds good. It would still be much, much faster than back in the old days, just not the broken rush it is now a days, where one takes a few hours (less than a day) to max out any job : (

[Alhanelem]

In defense to FFXI, leveling up is now just the beginning- when you get there you still have to build up to i119 and then grind job points, which takes much, much longer than the leveling process, and yet is still basically leveling.


FFXIV still doesn't have any sort of meta-progression other than gathering tomestones to keep gear up to date.. When you reach max level, the only thing to grind is gear. so FFXI still has a far longer growth process.

[Lortheron]

In defense to FFXI, leveling up is now just the beginning- when you get there you still have to build up to i119 and then grind job points, which takes much, much longer than the leveling process, and yet is still basically leveling.


FFXIV still doesn't have any sort of meta-progression other than gathering tomestones to keep gear up to date.. When you reach max level, the only thing to grind is gear. so FFXI still has a far longer growth process.

You are actually right about that, FFXI has a much more fleshed out sideways progression system for it's jobs, way more enhanced than anything FFXIV does. That is true.
I just wish SE valued all the content before lvl99 better and gave it as much attention as post 99 content.

[Alhanelem]

You are actually right about that, FFXI has a much more fleshed out sideways progression system for it's jobs, way more enhanced than anything FFXIV does. That is true.
I just wish SE valued all the content before lvl99 better and gave it as much attention as post 99 content.

It's the same for any MMO. Players want to be max level so that's where the focus is. Anything that isn't specifically max level is stuff you can do anytime, rather th an some particular not max level level.

[Alt0167]

They do. You just weren't around when that content was revelant to the community. That's not our fault. There has to be a ls somewhere that will get you off these boards.

[Lortheron]

They do. You just weren't around when that content was revelant to the community. That's not our fault. There has to be a ls somewhere that will get you off these boards.

Glad to be of service and bring some life around this parts : )

[Lortheron]

It's the same for any MMO. Players want to be max level so that's where the focus is. Anything that isn't specifically max level is stuff you can do anytime, rather th an some particular not max level level.

Yes, keeping old areas with some life and "old content" always relevant is a huge challenge to any MMO. There are ways around it and many MMOs try to fix this problem some way or another with varying levels of success, indeed. That's a long discussion into the genre itself and an old one at that, quite an interesting topic nonetheless.