Will you return to Final Fantasy XI?

[Sephr]

Whenever the subject of Abyssea comes up, you're always going to get the butthurt people who played an incredibly unhealthy amount of time, only to have the rug pulled out from under them and force them to realise that it actually didn't mean anything.

I like Abyssea, it's great to log on, meet some friends, take down a NM and come away with something for your efforts. FFXI was unique back in the day because of it's incredible time sinks, matched only by the grindiest of korean MMOs, and some people miss that. However, I think your 400k estimate for population pre-abyssea and 190k post is totally stupid. The fact that the first server merge announcement came before Abyssea is evidence the population was dropping, and there was a good year at the end of WoTG before abyssea where the version updates were awful and hardly anything new was coming out.

Comparing that to now, where constant small patches are coming out and the devs are genuinely addressing player concerns, I'd say the game's in the best shape it's been in years.

I'm loving it whilst they're sorting FFXIV out.

They made the game playable for more casual players, unforgivable. We all know mmos should be only playable in full and perfectly organized groups of pro players, for all the rest it should be unplayable. I mean why did they allow casual players to be able to achieve something in game? SACRILEGE!!! I ragequit right there ....*sarcasm off

This sums up a lot of what I was saying, albeit in a more anti-hardcore way. People treated FFXI as a second life, and then were shocked when all their effort came to nothing.

[Fensfield]

Kinda trying.. it's really hard.

Pitiable character generation, gameplay feels kinda stodgy.. maybe if I knew more people there but..

Kinda having a hard time seeing how people keep saying XIV's worse at this point, trying to get into XI as well (for the third time) as I am >.>;

[Shika]

Whenever the subject of Abyssea comes up, you're always going to get the butthurt people who played an incredibly unhealthy amount of time, only to have the rug pulled out from under them and force them to realise that it actually didn't mean anything.

I played FFXI for 5 years, and stopped playing on the release of FFXIV.

Before I left (getting two jobs to 85 and two to 80 with others still at 75) the game actually felt like more of a grindfest to me with less to do (but that is just my opinion).
Everyone only partied in Abyssea and wanted to do parties for hours and hours on end to cap out their jobs in as few sittings as they could. Partying in other areas was pretty much killed off. On my server anyway, levelling didn't seem to be as laid back as it used to be and everyone seemed to be rushing to get all of their jobs to the new cap as quickly as possible.

There were a lot of things that I did not personally like which they introduced to FFXI so many years after its release.

Level Sync- I can understand why they did it, but I still hated it all the same. So many players with uncapped skills. Good for low levels but it was abused too much in my eyes (people going to 50+ in Qufim for example...) and not being able to land a hit or spell at 75+ because they hadn't bothered to skill up after.

Hard-earned gear at 75 becoming pretty obsolete- yes this is where the "butt-hurt" bit comes in. Obviously they had to introduce new and better gear after raising the level cap, but it would have been nice in some way if they could have increased the stats on some of the gear that was at the time hard to achieve at 75. After all this was the cap for so many years and a lot of players strived hard to have the best gear possible for thier jobs- and this took time.
Magian weapons - yet more grinding of mobs - became better than Relic weapons... Would it have hurt to put better stats on some of the endgame gear with a level pre-requisite to open up so that a lot of the playerbase didn't immediately feel kicked in the nuts?

I don't think anyone does Dynamis, Einherjar, Sky, Sea or Salvage anymore. Checking in with my old "Endgame" LS on their website all I see on their calendar is Abyssea, Abyssea, Abyssea- that's a lot of content and areas that appear to have very little use anymore.

So, as much as I enjoyed playing FFXI for the time I did and achieving the gear (which at the time was good) for my jobs, I don't have the heart to go back to it. It is probably better now for more casual players just starting out, and I know a few people that are determined to keep playing regardless, but it's not for me anymore.

[Rhomagus]

I've thought about opening it back up for nostalgia reasons, but like others, I've moved on with my life.

[Zantetsuken]

Probably not.

Most (if not all) of my favorite experiences in online gaming were from FFXI, but I don't have the time commitment for it any more and I feel I've accomplished most of what I wanted to in the game.

Now, if SE ever releases an offline FFXI-2, be it a sequel, prequel or side-story. I would buy that game in a heartbeat.

[Shika]

However, I think your 400k estimate for population pre-abyssea and 190k post is totally stupid. The fact that the first server merge announcement came before Abyssea is evidence the population was dropping, and there was a good year at the end of WoTG before abyssea where the version updates were awful and hardly anything new was coming out.

Oh, and there have been two lots of server mergers in less than a year. The most recent on the 16th March 2011, taking the number of servers from 20 to 12.

Source World -> Destination World

Ramuh -> Bahamut
Alexander -> Shiva
Titan -> Phoenix
Gilgamesh -> Carbuncle
Unicorn -> Fenrir
Ifrit -> Odin
Diabolos -> Siren
Caitsith -> Ragnarok

[Apricoth]

I enjoyed FFXI for the few years I played it. I tried to pick it back up before FFXIV went live - just couldn't get back into it like I had. Not enough time. I am of the same sentiment- FFXI had it's time in my life and that time has been done for quite awhile. There are other games out there I can jump into if FFXIV turns out to be the game not for me. =)

[Anty]

Probably not.

Most (if not all) of my favorite experiences in online gaming were from FFXI, but I don't have the time commitment for it any more and I feel I've accomplished most of what I wanted to in the game.

Now, if SE ever releases an offline FFXI-2, be it a sequel, prequel or side-story. I would buy that game in a heartbeat.

i think i would have agreed with you in the time before the ffxiv release... now i would look at the sequel perhaps 1 year after release AT THE EARLIEST!

[Zantetsuken]

i think i would have agreed with you in the time before the ffxiv release... now i would look at the sequel perhaps 1 year after release AT THE EARLIEST!

I think you missed the 'offline' part of my post

[Zahak]

Quit after level cap raise and abyssea. Tried to go back twice. Time for something new