A remake of a zone that we loved in FFXI ?

[Zanfire]

First, when WoW was released, almost all MMORPGs became "niche" by comparison if we're only talking about numbers. There's "Most Other MMOs", and then there's "WoW".

That said...

Being niche and being successful are not mutually exclusive.

As for FFXI, it most definitely has been successful. It's been a cash cow for SE. It's only relatively recently, in the last year or so that the game's population has started to take a noticeable dive.

It kinda stands to reason that if FFXI had been unsuccessful for SE, that they wouldn't have decided to put the time and resources into developing another one. And on top of that, they've announced that they're working on a third one now.

But let's examine how "unsuccessful" FFXI has been...
1. FFXI maintained ~500k subscriptions for up to 7 years after its launch and succeeded at this despite having out-dated tech, breaking or ignoring almost every rule of what a "modern MMORPG is supposed to be like", such as being heavily party-centric, having very little hand-holding and having a much slower pace than newer MMOs that were cropping up around it.

2. FFXI maintained 32 servers for, again, upwards of about 7 years after its launch. This is a notable achievement when you consider that other, newer and shinier MMOs were dropping down to the 100-200k player mark and merging down to *maybe* a dozen servers worldwide after only a few months of their launch. Some were doing so badly - despite doing "everything a modern MMO is supposed to do" - that they were shut down.

3. For a long time, FFXI was, I believe, the 3rd most popular subscription-based MMORPG in the world. That's nothing to sneeze at.

4. No other AAA commercial MMORPG that launched around the time FFXI did managed to maintain the number of players it did, spread across the number of servers it did for as long as it did.

Those are details you can not dismiss or sneer at, however much they might not fit into someone's personal agenda. So, when people cite FFXI as a point of reference of how things could be done better in FFXIV - which is doing worse so far than some of the MMOs I describe above - it would be wise for people to not be so quick on the "stop talking about FFXI!" response.

Personal opinions aside, by any objective measure, SE should be paying attention to what they did right in FFXI, figure out the things that seem to have helped the game attain such loyalty and longevity with so many people, and find a way to translate that into FFXIV's setting.



You're free to not discuss FFXI all you like. Others are free to discuss FFXI all they like. Last I checked, there is no official moratorium on discussing it in these forums.



Do you know they're saying that? Or, are you just projecting that because it's what you're, perhaps, thinking when you see one?

FYI: SE has already said, a long time ago now, that they brought the races of FFXI into FFXIV to help maintain familiarity for the players transitioning over. They brought over the same style/design for goblins from XI. They brought over the same style/design for the Qiqirns from FFXI. And so on... Seems more reasonable to me that SE is not as opposed to drawing on FFXI as you'd like to think.

And no one is asking for them to "remake FFXI" in this thread. The thread is simply about discussing what zones in FFXI did you like enough that you'd like to see them (or something similar to them) in FFXIV.

Perhaps if you stopped exaggerating and misconstruing what the thread is actually about, you wouldn't be so bent out of shape about it. Or, then again... maybe not.

again....amen

[Leenk]

I think if you're going to create a zone to "harken back" to the days of FFXI, i dont see how you cant do valkurm dunes. That zone is the one everyone remembers, for better or worse.

[Jennestia]

I think if you're going to create a zone to "harken back" to the days of FFXI, i dont see how you cant do valkurm dunes. That zone is the one everyone remembers, for better or worse.

It is pretty much our rite of passage. You either zoned in and died to a zoned set of goblins, or you zoned in and died trying to get to camp, or you zoned in and died at camp only to remember you forgot to change your Home Point and died heading back to the dunes.

It was indeed good times.

[Suirieko]

Personally, I would welcome the zone, Tu'lia (Ru'Aun Gardens, etc). It is my favourite zone in FFXI.

[Wynn]

I vote for Diabolos' dream realm where you can all go wax nostalgic about all your memories of Vana'Diel while the rest of us play XIV in Eorzea.

[Khalus]

I think if you're going to create a zone to "harken back" to the days of FFXI, i dont see how you cant do valkurm dunes. That zone is the one everyone remembers, for better or worse.

True, but I'd also like to see Jugner Forest remade as well, as that is/was the primary zone of the dreaded trek to Jeuno that should have quite a bit of memory for us all. I recall back to my time doing it multiple times whenever I'd restart on a new world, or the best ones were helping a friend or random stranger make the trek. {I ran along side, outside the PT on my high level WHM and let them experience the dangers on their own and would even let them die if it came to that. I'd raise them though and let them begin again...at least they didn't have to restart from one of the nations like I had too}

Yes I know "evil", but it was fun for me, and it gave them a taste of things to come!

[Preypacer]

You live in a FFXI-lovers bubble and need to get out more. Lots of people played it and didn't really like it. I meet lots of people who hate it immensely and have only negative things to say about it, and many who liked it only because it was their first real MMO experience.

Lots of people have played WoW and didn't like it. I've met lots of people who hate WoW immensely and have only negative things to say about it and liked it only because it was their first real MMO experience.

That statement is 100% true in my case. I guess that means that, by your logic, WoW isn't a successful game.

You could replace WoW with any other MMO and it would be just about as meaningless as you stating it about FFXI.

"Well, no one I've personally spoken to likes it... so it can't be popular". Imagine if all the world ran on that "logic"?

FFXI: 9+ years running. Multiple countries. 3 platforms. Translated into 4 languages. ~500k players for the majority of its time in service. 4 full commercial expansions, 3 adventure packs and the Abyssea expansions. The game is still running. The game maintained 32 servers for 7+ years of its service before having its first server merge. It still has 16 active servers, 9+ years into its service. They are still adding content. They are still actively supporting the game. It's still profitable for them. Game has done well enough for them that they decided to invest in developing an additional 2 (FFXIV and one they recently announced is in the works).

But none of that matters, of course. That you, giftforce of the FFXIV forums, don't know anyone who likes the game is - by far - more compelling proof that the game isn't successful than any of those meager facts I cited about it proves that it is.

Of course.

What do they call this world you live in?

I liked it for the atmosphere (music, graphics, and art) but it was just an everquest clone at heart and I didn't really like the gameplay. It wasn't ambitious or inventive. So far I've played FFXIV for almost as long and enjoyed myself more.

Your opinions and you've every right to them. Many others have a very different opinion.

[Altanas]

Something weird like Promyvion or Walk of Echoes

Or maybe put the cities to better use with underground systems like Phomiuna Aqueducts

[Synfrag]

Just one zone! Like the funny apparison in other games like a big easter egg! .. I thinked this idea when i was reading on italian forum, the thread of the remake of Halo1 (that has same geometry, monster models, weapons, mechanics, etc in a new graphic dress!)

Please Dragonheart, stop saying thinked, thinked is not a word "thought" is the word you seek. If you see a red squiggly line under a word it means you spelled it wrong or it's not an English word.

Yeah I think this would be fun. My choice would be Al'Taieu or Valkurm. They could redo anything including story, theme and endgame but I would rather they tie it in than duplicate it. Al'Taieu is the "Celestial Capital" after all, this could tie the worlds of Vana'diel and Eorzea together.

[Shai]

I just spoke to the NPC (in XIV) guarding the Dragon's Aery.

Didn't we all love that zone?