Do You Want Revisions or a New Game?

[Fawkes]

Back in FFXI it started to feel like any major changes were being saved for "Rapture". Then XIV 1.0 came out and it was obvious they had learned nothing. Now FFXI is being run by a skeleton crew who are implementing quality of life changes that were "too difficult" for the full team back when the game was in its prime.

I don't want a new game, at least not any time soon.

[Gemina]

Yes, this is a Final Fantasy title, but it is also of the mmo genre. It remains a single installment into the franchise regardless of how many expansions come out. SE very likely, and very hopefully learned a valuable lesson from when they released ToAU for FFXI, which changed the whole way the game was played. They lost a lot of subs, and I do mean a lot. Mine included. Each console installment was vastly different from the previous because you can do that with console games, as each one is a new and different game. It is also highly favorable as most console players don't want a sequel/prequel to be a copy/paste from the game they've already played and beaten.

Even amongst the console games, some FF titles felt more like Final Fantasy than others. From the job systems of FFI, FFIV, and FFIX; the materia system from FFVII; the junction system from FFVIII, or the progression grid from FFX, each title had a different engine that drove those games. I like FFXIV. I want to continue to play FFXIV. Of course I want them to continue to improve the game, and even take some risks here and there. But I want them to do absolutely nothing that jeopardizes the integrity of this game.

I didn't start FFXIV until well into 3.0. I always knew it was out there, and I would watch videos of the fights against the primals. I was reluctant to sub because of SE's grave mistake with FFXI. Yoshi's tears when he was talking about reviving the 1.0 failure is what won me over. Two years later I am far more invested in XIV than I ever was in XI. I, along with many, many, many other subscribers have placed a lot of money and trust in SE to not make another fatal error and I am sure they are quite aware of this.

[Dyvid]

It's 2018. There is always going to be a small, loud percentage of the fan base that is going to complain about anything and everything.

Other companies say they are going to create a revolution in MMO but end up just collapsing under it's own promises. I'm not saying FFXIV doesn't have it's problem or that it's current template doesn't become stale over time, but huge changes can be disastrous for a well established fanbase. Star Wars Galaxies tried and failed.

Having said that though I don't feel SE has capitalize well on new feature they've added; both flying and swimming are more gimmicks that actual required game play systems.

[CainCrimson]

I do not like discussing ending the game, several years in or not it is still heavily supported by consumers and retailers new and old.

Every MMO dies and leaves us with ideas we never see fleshed out, I know this.

In my opinion they should start working on these quality of life improvements from a small scale, things known internally to not effect too many other systems when changed. Working their way up from there. I know these games get caught up in the need to produce 'fresh content' for thirsty consumers and the list of bugs or UI changes falls further and further down the list of easy improvements.

Edit: Forgot to say that if and when the next game is created, I would stress they stop attempting to appeal to numerous genres of players and stick to the RPG crowd. the attention span of gamers from other genres dont mesh always, and trying to pull in those groups for a few extra subscriptions can hurt the games direction.

[Talraen]

It's 2018. There is always going to be a small, loud percentage of the fan base that is going to complain about anything and everything.

Other companies say they are going to create a revolution in MMO but end up just collapsing under it's own promises. I'm not saying FFXIV doesn't have it's problem or that it's current template doesn't become stale over time, but huge changes can be disastrous for a well established fanbase. Star Wars Galaxies tried and failed.

This is why I doubt they'll even seriously consider a new game until FFXIV is well and truly dying. But I do want to make clear that I'm not so interested in the general complaints about this game, as much as the requests for something new. I want to know whether the people who want something new want something totally new, or just new features.

Having said that though I don't feel SE has capitalize well on new feature they've added; both flying and swimming are more gimmicks that actual required game play systems.

I think this is kind of indicative of the problem. The game is not designed to make it easy to implement entirely new systems. And I think that's in line with the Final Fantasy design for the past few decades. Square Enix creates huge games focused on a lot of specific ideas. A game that tries to be everything to everyone isn't really in their wheelhouse.

[Tanathya]

Back in FFXI it started to feel like any major changes were being saved for "Rapture". Then XIV 1.0 came out and it was obvious they had learned nothing. Now FFXI is being run by a skeleton crew who are implementing quality of life changes that were "too difficult" for the full team back when the game was in its prime.

I don't want a new game, at least not any time soon.

Barely true, it didn't affect how FFXI was managed.

Yes, this is a Final Fantasy title, but it is also of the mmo genre. It remains a single installment into the franchise regardless of how many expansions come out. SE very likely, and very hopefully learned a valuable lesson from when they released ToAU for FFXI, which changed the whole way the game was played. They lost a lot of subs, and I do mean a lot. Mine included.

ToAU made people unsub? It introduced a whole lot of new things, without devaluing the older content one bit. You might be biased, as it was regarded by a huge portion of the playerbase as the best expansion to come out. Me included.

[Gemina]

ToAU made people unsub? It introduced a whole lot of new things, without devaluing the older content one bit. You might be biased, as it was regarded by a huge portion of the playerbase as the best expansion to come out. Me included.

I am biased. Why wouldn't I be when a game I loved playing is no longer enjoyable to play? It doesn't change that subs were lost when it came out. I didn't say it killed the game, as it is still played today. However, it changed the way the game was known in previous expansions RoTZ and CoP. That is what I'm talking about. That is what several people are talking about in this thread. When you change things up drastically, it can potentially be very harmful the playerbase, even if it isn't necessarily harmful to the game itself.

Older content devalues all on its own. It's the nature of an mmo. It is next to impossible to say that an expansion does not devalue older content. But that isn't really either here or there.

[Talraen]

I am biased. Why wouldn't I be when a game I loved playing is no longer enjoyable to play? It doesn't change that subs were lost when it came out. I didn't say it killed the game, as it is still played today. However, it changed the way the game was known in previous expansions RoTZ and CoP. That is what I'm talking about. That is what several people are talking about in this thread. When you change things up drastically, it can potentially be very harmful the playerbase, even if it isn't necessarily harmful to the game itself.

Older content devalues all on its own. It's the nature of an mmo. It is next to impossible to say that an expansion does not devalue older content. But that isn't really either here or there.

So, given that you were turned off by major changes in FFXI, how do you think they should handle FFXIV? I don't think the game can remain the same forever (though hey, I could be wrong). But I don't think FFXI would have lasted much longer than it did if they had stopped innovating. There needs to be change at some point, doesn't there? And I'm not saying the time is now or even soon for FFXIV, just that it will eventually come.

[Mahrze]

Why not simply encourage them to update it? Yoshi got promoted to the board of directors so we can assume he has much more say on budget assigned to this game than before. But hey, that's just a thought. :/

[odintius]

I enjoy the story still other than that it pretty easy to put this game down and play something else burn out sets in pretty quickly and often for me with with this game compare to other. /shrugs