Why I quit FFXI.

[Pixela]

Because everyone is multiboxing.

No, trusts exist.

[Sp1cyryan]

Because everyone is multiboxing.

I'm not multiboxing.

[Alhanelem]

Nor am I. And frankly I think anyone willing to pay for 6 accounts to do content without other players is insane, but that's just my opinion.

[Pixela]

I have multiboxed for a long long time, I even did it when I was in a large HNMLS (but that was mainly for scanning or camping windows) so it's not an anti social thing.

Some people don't understand the appeal of multiboxing, for many it's because it feels good and is a unique feature of FFXI that sets it apart from other mmorpgs (the lack of rotations and strict job roles makes multiboxing so much more enjoyable on xi than any other). It's almost a JRPG feel (I've been playing some star ocean the divine force and the character swapping feels very similar), where you have multiple characters in your party you can swap between them during battle. I don't use automation, I do it manually over my multiple characters. This means I'm not anywhere near as good at it as some you see on youtube, but I enjoy doing it and that matters more to me.

I like swapping between my characters, I like being able to play multiple roles in the fight, I like the little strategy element where I have to plan the fight more before I start, I like gearing each one up, I like making progression on more characters at once, I like the party mindset when you have alts.

A lot of people multibox because they really enjoy it and it adds a massive amount of satisfaction to the game for them.

I actually find it boring when I go play another mmorpg because it's so limiting, you just play that one character all day and that's it.

Most people who multibox play 2-3 characters and not 5-6, trusts have been a major boost to the multiboxing scene on XI since they basically support you playing multiple characters in a way that wasn't really possible before.

[Edelfelt]

I think most ppl quit FFXI because...

Other than the outdated UI and graphics and existence of better MMO's...

The game is probably the most RMT infested, 3rd Party tool is so rampant its mandatory, Bot filled game I ever played lol. And I played Lost Ark.

Not to mention new players(if any) and returning players have to gear up to extraordinary levels to even do anything like Sortie D + E or 9000 Segment C Farms. Pretty much if you don't have an REMA RP15 weapon with max RP gear, you chances of progressing is almost NIL unless you find a group in this limited playerbase or resort to RMT.

Best to play the game to reminisce , not for the Endgame.

[RichLester]

I agree & that's why I don't mind playing casually and taking my time with it all. I've got plenty of old quests to be getting on with & watch the cutscenes but high-level gear helps to do these old quests much quicker. I think SE are running too fast, just to please the hardcore base so not many casual players can catch up. The market changes too, which doesn't help with old skool synthesis.
I see a lot of RMT going but as long as they keep outta the way then there's nothing we or SE can do about it. Maybe SE can ban stupid default name creations or keep an eye on people's time of anything over 5 hrs gameplay in one session. SE needs to keep an eye on global shouts for RMT messages & ban them immediately. The messages seem automated so should be easy for them to set up some spam messages report on their side & ban the accounts, along with the accounts they are levelling up. Skillups should've had a lot bigger effect at higher levels in order to control power leveling. When it comes to multi-boxing, I think SE can't do anything about it but they tried to correct that when creating FFXIV like retainers for selling stuff, instead of sitting there in Port Jeuno.
I am also lucky I found a good linkshell with a good bunch of veterans to help me out . Finding one of them is very useful & I recommend asking around for one.

[Alhanelem]

Some people don't understand the appeal of multiboxing, for many it's because it feels good and is a unique feature of FFXI that sets it apart from other mmorpgs

It's not a feature of FFXI. The game was not designed to allow this, it's just something people did. You can multibox in any MMO, it just might not be quite as easy.

I'm sorry your reasoning behind this doesn't pass muster.

The game is probably the most RMT infested, 3rd Party tool is so rampant its mandatory, Bot filled game I ever played lol. And I played Lost Ark.

I played maplestory for a long time. It's worse.

[Pixela]

I think most ppl quit FFXI because...

Other than the outdated UI and graphics and existence of better MMO's...

The game is probably the most RMT infested, 3rd Party tool is so rampant its mandatory, Bot filled game I ever played lol. And I played Lost Ark.

Not to mention new players(if any) and returning players have to gear up to extraordinary levels to even do anything like Sortie D + E or 9000 Segment C Farms. Pretty much if you don't have an REMA RP15 weapon with max RP gear, you chances of progressing is almost NIL unless you find a group in this limited playerbase or resort to RMT.

Best to play the game to reminisce , not for the Endgame.

The UI makes no difference, this is bs arguments especially with all the addon support. What do you even want from the UI that's different, it works perfectly fine.

There is no better mmo if you like what this game offers, they are only better if you don't like what it offers or you specifically want something different.

There are also not more RMT on XI than any other game, you just have more tools on XI to see them and a system to make gil that they use that puts them under your eyeballs (they make most of their gil via low level chars). On XIV for instance they move around under the maps, or in the sky or just in places people are less likely to goto.

FFXI is what it is, it's pretty much progression crack with million pieces of gear you can collect. If they make these things easier they will kill the appeal of the game, or just allow players to burn through it too fast and have nothing else to do and they will still quit anyway.

[Alhanelem]

"addon support"
Well... it's not really supported and has at least slight potential to get you in trouble depending on the addon.

I remind everyone that there were originally plans for a new and improved mouse+keyboard friendly UI but it was abandoned at some point after we got to try out a very early version of it on the test server.

Oh and edit for spicy: BG's "FFXI history" (which has a little too much opinion injected into it for my liking but hey, its still informative) was highly critical of the extremely early test version of the UI we got to see. It should be worth noting that it was stated to still be very early in development and did not contain any art assets like the standard UI has. The finished version probably wasn't going to look anything like that visually- and what functionality was present was a step in the right direction like moveable windows and such. But the page makes it sound like the stripped down art-free thing we saw was final and looked like an office program (i dont remember the exact words) and it wasn't even close to that. Just saying. I still wish they'd go back and finish it.

[RichLester]

I don't think SE making this easier so we can get gear cheaper, quicker & kill faster will lose the appeal of the game. Spending so much time on this you'll have nothing left to do would make people lose its appeal to some. For veterans of the game like me, we just don't have time for this anymore. Life moves on.

Regarding UI, this game wasn't designed for any "add-on" stuff. I thought that was banned by SE, I dunno. Regarding RMT, they are now nowhere near as bad as they used to be. It changed when SE realised they can utilise the Rare/Ex system to make the best gear obtainable only by doing stuff & not paying for it. It was bad years ago. Now it is mostly ignored, so long as SE makes the really good powerful stuff Rare/Ex.

To stop power-leveling, SE could do a general thing like "If you play for longer than 6 hours in any long gaming session, your character will start to lose master levels, job points, etc. every 10 minutes", which is in effect for the next 6 hours. Sometimes on weekends I do a 5 hour stint but 6 hours is a bit too long so you then go do something else.