Final Fantasy XIV 1.23b - Would you Play it if Available?

[Fayt1203]

I never really liked the old 1.23b era yes it had some nice features but the combat and a lot of the main msq where dull or boring. and remembering the black shroud makes me shiver to the bones

[Reynhart]

Its always fun seeing the nostalgia goggles come on. SE offered to keep the 1.0 servers running as long as people were still playing. They shut down a month later.
People say its because they would no longer transfer what you did to the new servers, but if it was enjoyable to you, then why stop playing? The data would have still been on the old 1.0 servers.

The servers were always intended to close for ARR launch, so what you did during that period would still have been for nothing in the end. That's why people stopped playing it.

But, on the initial topic, I'd love to be ablo to play 1.23b alongside SB, because, back then, there are lots of things I didn't do, and my computer was way to weak to bring justice to the magnificient engine. Now, that Blizzard is planning a Vanilla version of WoW, maybe we can ask for that

[Pinkie_Pie]

The copy paste of the zones killed me AND DON'T GET ME STARTED WITH BLACK SHROUD!

[Enkidoh]

The servers were always intended to close for ARR launch, so what you did during that period would still have been for nothing in the end. That's why people stopped playing it.

Except Yoshi himself then said that as far he was concerned "the game could remain operational more or less as is indefinitely as long as there was player demand for it" (paraphrased) - this gained official approval and thus 1.0 players were polled on the Lodestone a few days after the original shutdown asking pretty much this thread's very question (and before you pass judgement, I voted 'yes'). Over 30% said 'yes' (to reactivate 1.0), and so Yoshi complied, bringing the 1.0 servers back up on November 21 2012 (with the game's version restored to 1.23b, the state it was just prior to the final save maintenance, in other words, without the 'end of the world' features like Dalamud Answers BGM and the stormy weather). He also stressed that it was dependent entirely on enough 1.0 players logging in each month (at least 30% of the active account population - that is, accounts that were active at the original end of service), and that they would determine it's future on a month by month basis.

It didn't even last a month when they realized the amount of logins was falling far short of that amount, so they quickly decided it just was not worth bothering with anymore, with the axe finally falling on 1.0's head forever on December 31st 2012. Those are the facts - 1.0 could have kept going indefinitely, but players simply were not interested, and remained silent as the condemned was led to it's execution.

Given that this thread's very idea is exactly what SE offered back then, I'm going to once again state that 1.0 players had their chance, and squandered it. 1.0 thus is gone and is never coming back. Saying that 'oh, but 1.0 players had no reason to come back then' is irrelevant, because that would still be the case now, yet there are posts on this thread which blatantly contradict that despite being to the contrary.

Either way, once again I'm going to state that it was clear back then to SE that 1.0 is a lost cause - and that has not changed. 1.0 is gone and is not coming back.

[Singularity]

Given that this thread's very idea is exactly what SE offered back then, I'm going to once again state that 1.0 players had their chance, and squandered it. 1.0 thus is gone and is never coming back. Saying that 'oh, but 1.0 players had no reason to come back then' is irrelevant, because that would still be the case now, yet there are posts on this thread which blatantly contradict that despite being to the contrary.

This kind of relies on the assumption that original 1.x players would be the only ones interested. I for one have never played 1.x and I'd definitely like to try it. Now I know well enough that running a server is not at zero cost even without development of any kind, but that statistic regarding there not being enough players interested to pay for it is no longer necessarily accurate.

[Aylis]

Its always fun seeing the nostalgia goggles come on. SE offered to keep the 1.0 servers running as long as people were still playing. They shut down a month later.

People say its because they would no longer transfer what you did to the new servers, but if it was enjoyable to you, then why stop playing? The data would have still been on the old 1.0 servers.

I never stopped despite the data not being saved. I still logged in, rped with the friends that stayed, ran primals with the other ones that did and ran around taking all the screen shots I could. Those of us that did play that last month knew the data wasn't going to be saved, we didn't care. 1.0 to us was about spending time with each other and creating our own adventures. Not so much about worrying about quests, dailies and progression. Just having simple fun. That's what Final Fantasy meant to us. Our own world, our own sandbox.

[Vhailor]

Would you play it?

Yes. I'm not sure how much of a monthly fee I'd pay; it's been so long since XIV 1.x was available that nostalgia may be clouding my memory. But I'd certainly play it from time to time, if only to admire high-resolution, appropriately-proportioned character models again.

But, honestly, I'd mostly log in out of a sense of nostalgia. I similarly pop into FFXI every year or two, though I don't tend to stick around for long.

What I'd much rather see is a 'non-casual' version of the existing FFXIV. No ridiculously out-of-place mounts; no bikinis allowed in dungeons (hell, just get rid of Glamours entirely); more restrictions on teleporting and navigation so that the world feels larger; actually dangerous open-world monsters; adjusted sinks and sources for Gil to ensure it was actually worthwhile. I'd pay for that in a heartbeat, probably $20-25 a month.

Because, at the end of the day, it's the lack of so many 'frills' that made 1.x and FFXI stand out so much in my mind, more so than the current version of XIV does. It's what draws me back to them more than the specifics of the games themselves, both of which are very dated in comparison to modern titles (including the current iteration of XIV).

[IllyriaKnotfred]

Enkidoh summed up the entire story/situation perfectly. 1.0 servers aren't ever going to happen. Ever.

[Elkanah]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goKSqF9fldE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unpWwn00mJs

I decided to watch some videos of the 1.0 primals, because why not? Definitely would not have played 1.0. If it was your cup of tea, awesome! The gameplay looks absolutely boring to me. To each their own.

This is one of many reasons why this mmo was atrocious back in the day. Like I mentioned earlier, if this game went back to that direction (even though I complain about nothing to do atm), I'd honestly never think to resub again in the future. At least, with ARR+ I've still supporting this game longer, regardless of not having anything to do or enjoy doing at this time. The game was a jumbled mess. The story, yes, totally would play through again, but everything else from the battles and the battle system, gods no.

[Galka_Rock]

Just because everything was copy-pasted in 1.0 doesn't mean it would be now. 1.0 had a host of problems, and most of those problems were from a design point of view. Done by the current devs, large /seamless zones could be done very well!