Restoration of Final Fantasy Online.

[Xaivere]

Although it may be a long shot, I would hope that this topic would reach the eyes of the producers and distrubtors of Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI.

I would also hope that the very people who play this game could agree with my feelings on this, especially after reading the update and sacrifices that are being made in order to make this possible.

I'm sure that everyone is aware of what has happened recently in Japan, and also as to what calamity and damage it's done to the whole country and it's citizens. To be perfectly honest, although I do love FFXIV, I was hoping that the game would be shut down in order to help provide whatever is needed to give aid in that power lack that is continually stressed.

For someone who doesn't see color, ethnicity, belonging of region or however you wish to label it, that many use to separate the people of the world from one another, it actually broke my heart when I first heard about the devastating occurrences in Japan. And I've been watching the news, every time I get the chance to, for hours on end for any possible updates.

And for what I'm about to say, I do not underestimate that there is a chance a lot of people might not agree with me on this. They may even out number those who do agree. But in my honest opinion, I do not think the Final Fantasy Online games should be restored at the moment. At least not until the situation is a bit more recovered, and also so that the very people who control, continue to create and run fourteen and eleven, will not have to go without small luxuries such a sufficient lightening and air conditioning.

For those of you who may see a negative in all of this, think about this. Obviously, the Square Enix Team has not stopped working on trying to perfect the makings of Final Fantasy XIV, despite not being able to run the game for our enjoyment. Perhaps, when it's finally restored (if my suggestion is taken into consideration), we'll see quite a few updates, yes?

As I've said before, I wholly enjoy the game, despite a few bugs here and there. And that's why I've continued to monitor the Lodestone and the letters from the producer. But I do not love it so much that I'd rather it be put before those who've worked so hard on it all this time, and those who are in need in Japan.


In ending, I hope that no one was offended.

[TonyF]

Xaviere,

I agree with your thoughts. I've talked to a friend in Tokyo who had told me about the rolling blackouts they are having to manage the power deficiency. In the midst of the crisis, I feel it is justified to keep the server down until the power problem is 100% recovered.

Also, we had been playing on a work-in-progress game for 5 months now. I am about to hit rank caps on core skills and feeling lost on what to do next.

I never had this issue in FF11. whenever expansion was released, I had ways still ways away from the cap and I felt the timing was just right and was never lost. Comparing how many rank 50's are around now and imagining when the first expansion was released for FF11, I feel the game require expansion or they need to realize the ranking difficulty was nerfed. I don't think people wanted the ranking to be quicker, I think everyone like me just wanted it to be more fun. Anyway, if all the development team is focused on fixing problems, this will become bigger issue soon. I think they should have taken advantage of the break.

I actually enjoyed the time off from FF14 and would have welcomed the longer suspension of service with a return with certainty of the Japan's safety and with more game features and expansions.

Tony

[mbncd]

I agree that services in Tokyo should be suspended until the issue is fully resolved. There is one other thing that I wish to bring up though and that is the concept of multiple servers on an international scale. I expect multiple locations of servers in the various regions would decrease lag, increase stability and provide backup support in the events of technical difficulties. In no way am I trying to minimalise the damage that has been done to Japan and even to other countries in that catastrophe but I do think that multiple servers should have been introduced long before this and that this incident has highlighted a reason of why, under the technical difficulties umbrella. If there's a lightning storm in Tokyo next month, there could be a black out and we could be facing server issues again. When the servers go down for maintenance, different regions could even go down at different times, while the others pick up their players so no game time is lost. I'm not even saying this for my own benefit (as I haven't actually logged into the game for at least a month before this all happened), I just think it would be better for the whole game.

And lastly, just to clarify, I don't mean regional segregation, I mean have a server in each major region for each named server and have each of the servers for the named servers talk to each other and interact as if they're one. For instance, I play on Selbina server and live in Australia. I'd log onto my character and automatically be assigned to the best invisible server to play on (an Australasian Selbina server maybe) and I'd be able to party with someone on an American Selbina server as if they were on my own server but I would not be able to party with someone on a Gilgamesh server in any region. If my server went down for maintenance or due to technical difficulties, my logging on would be automatically transferred to (for instance) the European server while my own server was down. When my own server came back up, I'd maybe get an in game notice to let me know I could log into it or I'd just log back into my own server the next time I logged in.

[Thallis]

Restoration
I totally agree with you Xav. Not just electricity is the problem there tho. I would say to give it more time to be down so they can start getting their lives together again aswell. This was a huge disaster and they will need time and our prayers with them to help get things in order first. On the subject of the servers being based in the other main nations I think that would be a good idea. I wouldn't have each country in their own server, but tie them all together and take more stress off the main server to work as a whole. Square Enix has allot of money I am sure, so it would not hurt them to put time into getting Japan more support and get back on their feet. FFXI and FFXIV will still be there when all is said and done. We will still be here to back them in their efforts. People before programming is what should be practiced more nowadays, to quote our last presidential campign "It's time for a change"!

[Dreamer]

While I agree with the spirit of the post...I understand why SE is bringing the servers back up. Even though FFXIV is free, and FFXI is not, neither of those situations actually matter. The real issue is that every day the servers stay down leads to more players leaving for other games. Every day the servers stay down cuts into their future profit once everything is restored to normal. Therefore it's in their best interest to get the servers back online as soon as possible.

As I said, this applies to both games. For FFXIV, the fewer players who are lost now means more possible paying customers once the game finally starts charging.

[Zamana]

I enjoy Final Fantasy XIV a great deal and look forward to the appropriate time to play. If keeping the servers down were to aid the relief effort in Japan there is no second guess in my mind to make this small sacrifice.

[WinterSkyblue]

As a part in the world, i agree the spirit of this post, yes, I don't mid to wait for more time until Japan recover, at least to have 100% power supply. I am sure staffs in SE's Japan office also like to have more time to take care their family in this hard time too.

But if you think as a business owner, you will understand why SE make this decision. Player may be about to wait for 1 week without playing any OLG, but 2 week or more? Their should be more players looking for other OLG and leave SE.

Dreamer's view is quite true, SE is business unit, they have to make sure that their staff can earn their living via their game in the future.

[mbncd]

As a part in the world, i agree the spirit of this post, yes, I don't mid to wait for more time until Japan recover, at least to have 100% power supply. I am sure staffs in SE's Japan office also like to have more time to take care their family in this hard time too.

But if you think as a business owner, you will understand why SE make this decision. Player may be about to wait for 1 week without playing any OLG, but 2 week or more? Their should be more players looking for other OLG and leave SE.

Dreamer's view is quite true, SE is business unit, they have to make sure that their staff can earn their living via their game in the future.

Partially hence my multi server idea, which would result in virtually no down time unless the entire planet ripped itself apart all at once. If something happens in one region, it's unlikely to effect other regions, so if people could go onto one of those other servers then the down server could take it's time in dealing with any issues and players could continue to play normally. Just dedicate a few computers in the London office and the American branch and you've got yourself integrated multi regional support for all servers. Yes, some coding would have to be done to make sure that all branches of each server integrate correctly as single servers across all regions but I think it would be of great benefit in the long run.