Will there be additional Abyssea type zones?

[Arcon]

You sound like your mad cause all the noobs can get the good gear now. I will never understand why people get so upset cause everyone can get the good endgame gear now if they have the time to do it.

Because some people believe that good gear should take a lot of time and effort to obtain, which is a valid belief. This is a matter of opinion after all. Not everyone plays to be the best, but to feel an achievement for getting where they are, a feeling that is (for the most part) lost with Abyssea.

I can never uderstand how anyone can say any one video game is repetitve. They all are especially this one no matter what you do.

There's different degrees of repetition. This is a whole new level.

PS2 Limitations aren't 100% regarding HDD space, it's regarding actual memory allocation and XI iirc is nearing it's zone cap that the PS2 can handle, it's why we won't see the North, South, West or Far east lands more than likely, but instancing zones (e.g Bastok Markets, Bastok Markets [s] etc) seem to do well. So I'm expecting city abysseas soon.

That argument doesn't hold water, since the Abyssea zones have seperate memory entries as well as seperate DATs for the zones themselves. They're in every respect new zones. The only limitation is SE's resources to put more effort into it.

I would really like to see new census numbers. Everyone keeps saying Abyssea revived FFXI, which in my experience couldn't be more wrong. When Abyssea was initially released about as many people joined or returned to the game as have quit because of it. And when it was released it was considered a very new and fun experience, which is why many people praised it, and this includes almost everyone who blames it for destroying the game now. Lately all I see everywhere around me is people quitting, and all of them for more or less the same reason: "the game is no fun anymore". I wish I had actual numbers to back this up, but I don't, which is why I really hope some numbers regarding this are included in the next census.

I observed three stages to Abyssea:

1) After release some people were annoyed that all their achievements were basically annulled and quit the game. Others welcomed the new content and new challenge, while appreciating the eased level, but still to some degree rewarding old content.

2) People figured out Atma efficiency and Weakness staggers. AF3 and Atma kept raining in, while Empyrean Weapons became a realistic goal to many people. Old content was largely ignored, because more time was invested in new stuff, and with the next two level increases, it lost even more in its usefulness.

3) Empyrean Weapon grinding. Most people have what they need and just keep going on and on, for no reason other than having a better weapon, which makes little to no difference in the first place, since there's no content which requires it. This one may change with future updates (not really by a noticeable amount with this one). But at this point many people had enough, even some of the early Empyrean Weapon grinders.

By now I know a lot of people who quit. A few old players came back to check it out, some are quickly catching up to the point of being annoyed again, others have already quit as well. Again, this is just my personal observation, but I see it in such a large amount, I find the argument that Abyssea revived FFXI really hard to believe. I would really like to see official census data if this is a large-scale event or if it's only happening within my own environment.

Also, I know absolutely no one who bought a second account to play inside Abyssea, and, in fact, a majority of people with two accounts I know have quit.

Edit:
About inmates running the asylum, this place was made specifically for people to share their opinions with SE. While quite a large amount of suggestions are objectively stupid, I'm fairly certain the development team is smart enough to filter those out. Others are matters of opinion and should be regarded as such. And for that, this official forum is just the right place, because, as I mentioned before, it contains players from every part of the game, low end, high end, and everything within that spectrum.

[Ravenmore]

If it was salvage type event with salvage type sidegrade rewards that cost mils of gil to finish most people would not do it. Oh kinda like how salvage was before abyssea came out.

[Runespider]

Because some people believe that good gear should take a lot of time and effort to obtain, which is a valid belief. This is a matter of opinion after all. Not everyone plays to be the best, but to feel an achievement for getting where they are, a feeling that is (for the most part) lost with Abyssea.

I don't think thats the reason really, nobody really wants to work really long and hard for gear.. they just don't want everyone else to have it, devaluing the achievment. Hell almost all the hardcore gamers that make this argument cheated their asses off, so the difficult/earning mindset is nonsense. It's all about status and lack of it in new FFXI.

For instance it took me 2 years to get morrigans and 3-4 years to get dalmy/ebody, while I know of many top tier players that got these things in a matter of months. Did they feel angry because they didn't put in as much effort as me or did they see the same value in it and like having gear most everyone else could not have?

[Anewie]

Meh, I'm on the fence with this. Add more valuable endgame content and fix stuff THAT NEEDS to be fixed and sure, idm adding new abyssea zones just so the casuals don't start crying.

I don't think theres anything wrong with more abyssea zones as long as the hardcore base is catered too as well.

[Romanova]

I don't think thats the reason really, nobody really wants to work really long and hard for gear.. they just don't want everyone else to have it, devaluing the achievment. Hell almost all the hardcore gamers that make this argument cheated their asses off, so the difficult/earning mindset is nonsense. It's all about status and lack of it in new FFXI.

For instance it took me 2 years to get morrigans and 3-4 years to get dalmy/ebody, while I know of many top tier players that got these things in a matter of months. Did they feel angry because they didn't put in as much effort as me or did they see the same value in it and like having gear most everyone else could not have?

^ 100% this and it's sad really. I think the playerbase ruined much of FFXI more than SE ever did/could have. Because FFXI players seem to be the only mmo group that is obsessed with stagnant progression, but at the same time want enough hard progression so only 10% of the playerbase is on top.

And by stagnant, SE fell into the trap when people complained so much about their ridills/relics/dalms/etc. being so hard to get that they didn't want them to get outdated by other gear. So SE went back into some weird circular gear progression that took about 6+ years to break (6+ years of fighting the same hnms where new hnms gave little to be excited about).

I have never seen any MMO like this. Even ones like EQ1 which started out way harder than FFXI. But somehow this community can't handle the idea of progression for all. It's a 9 year old game, I don't think it should be that serious anymore.

[Arcon]

I don't think thats the reason really, nobody really wants to work really long and hard for gear.. they just don't want everyone else to have it, devaluing the achievment. Hell almost all the hardcore gamers that make this argument cheated their asses off, so the difficult/earning mindset is nonsense. It's all about status and lack of it in new FFXI.

For instance it took me 2 years to get morrigans and 3-4 years to get dalmy/ebody, while I know of many top tier players that got these things in a matter of months. Did they feel angry because they didn't put in as much effort as me or did they see the same value in it and like having gear most everyone else could not have?

Well, I agree that may partially be true, I know it's not for many people. I camped KA for eight months, and I think that's perfectly fine. Not because I have something that others don't, but because I honestly believe it's ok to work long to get something. Same with Dynamis, I still don't have everything I want from there, and I still do it. The reason people say FFXI followed the WoW path, is because FFXI always put quality ahead of quantity. Dynamis was an extremely balanced system, no matter what people say. Yes, it may have taken over a year of dedication to get THF AF2 hands, but it was worth it, because there was no better item in the game (for that purpose). And it didn't prevent you from getting other items either, even in points-based systems if you stacked enough points for a year you got lot on other things while maintaining a respectable lead on other items. And it was like this with other things too. Certain Kings abjurations were nearly impossible to obtain, and the solution to this was simple: Einherjar. Now everyone had a respectable chance at those again. Even many social shells with ~20 people could do enough Einherjar to deck many people out with rare items every year (Odin once a month was standard in many LS with only weekly runs). Some may argue that's too long, but again, that's a matter of opinion. I think it was just fine, and I'm sure most people agreed because, after all, the game did survive for years and did exceptionally well in the MMO spectrum with non-Abyssea content only.

The reasons many people left lately (before Abyssea) were rather simple. For one, the game was old, many people grow up and find other priorities in life, or simply wanna experience new ventures. But also, and that's what I think many people overlook, it wasn't the old content that turned many people off, but rather the lack of more (not new) content. The (then) new content, WotG, was a disappointment, because it provided nothing new, valueable. The (extremely well done) storyline was provided in long intervals, and gave no incentive other than a semi-useful earring. Even those people who did it just for the story found it a disappointing experience, not because of the actual story, but because it was so easily forgotten between those long intervals. I'm a story buff myself, and I can hardly recall the details from the storyline. Even CoP, which took me over a year to complete, was always present and kept people trying, so it wasn't nearly as hard to follow (and WotG took a lot longer than that too). This huge lack of any content made the game boring to some, especially those who did everything else there was on a regular basis for years.

Abyssea simply provided something to do for many people who (almost or entirely) gave up before. But I can see that effect fading all around me. And I just find it weird to believe that I play with people who defy the majority in such staggering amounts, which is why I find some of these statements hard to believe as well. But then again, maybe I just play in the ghetto part of Vana'diel.

I have never seen any MMO like this. Even ones like EQ1 which started out way harder than FFXI. But somehow this community can't handle the idea of progression for all. It's a 9 year old game, I don't think it should be that serious anymore.

Again a matter of opinion. This seriousness of progression is one thing that attracted me, and was, in fact, something that people praised over other games. That feeling is now fading, I noticed I don't play nearly as much as I used to I just hang out and wait for people shouting for help, because there's hardly anything that feels worth the effort (I'm on here a lot more than the actual game lately).

[Mrbeansman]

I would love to see a casuale social LS beat tier 3 einherjar back in the 75 era.

That aside I would like to ask what people would think about more abyssea zones if they came along with new endgame content cause thats the only reasonable complaint I ever hear about abyssea.

[wish12oz]

What? You think we should just up the dosages of our medication, while they dish out more hypnotic repetitive trash for us to be enamored, whilst being sucked deeper and deeper into a garbage pit?

It's obvious you hate the game, why are you even still playing? You should really go play some other easy MMO that conforms to your standard, it would probably make you happier.

[Teraniku]

I like Abyssea, Abyssea is fun, but 9 zones is more than enough of it. Going into Abyssea and having the Atmas and Empyrean Armor etc is cool, but I don't want FFXI to be All Abyssea all the time... and it almost is right now.

[Eeek]

If SE does not release more Abyssea content, and I don't think they will, I hope the new content embraces the same inclusive spirit as Abyssea. There's truly something for everyone there, and it's remarkably inclusive and accessible.

I'm a big fan of the newer content where it's possible to make a little (or a lot of) progress whenever players log in ready and motivated to get out and do something. While they're sometimes a drag to do, I love Magian weapons as well as the process to acquire AF3+1 and AF3+2 armors. The further SE moves away from the 0.5% drops from highly contested NMs or in highly congested content (THF and RDM AF2, for example), the happier I will be as a player.

FFXI has improved drastically since early 2010, and I hope the game remains on this trajectory.