Would you support a Final Fantasy XIV "Classic" option like WoW with 1.0?

[SilverObi]

I went ahead and hit Maybe on the strawpoll because I'd be interested in a 1.0 server but only if it was 1.2+ after they made it into an actual game, albeit one deeply flawed at its root. There are a lot of good concepts that existed in 1.0 and yeah YMMV but I'm still wistful for some of the things they threw out in the transition such as Hamlet Defense, the combat system, movement animations, actual danger in the overworld, open world dungeons, and the custom class system (though that's probably more pre-1.2 if I think about it).

Could those systems work in modern XIV? I'd argue yes with some tweaks and caveats but as stated in this thread already, the devs seem extremely hesitant to even entertain the idea which kinda smacks of Blizzard's "you think you want it, but you don't".

It would be a nice trip down memory lane though to walk through the old maps (flying over the Footfalls in Western Thanalan gives me vivid memories of actually walking up there and looking down before they changed the maps) and to soak in the lore and even see what parts of the tale got retconned or altered for 2.0 onward.

I don't know the technical hurdles that probably exist, but I can't imagine it's on the same scale as FFXI's dev team not keeping snapshots or previous version data archived and thus making it impossible for FFXI Classic. But I guess the devs here also might've just gone and said burn it all down and dumpstered anything serviceable for a 1.0 server.

[Lanadra]

the devs seem extremely hesitant to even entertain the idea which kinda smacks of Blizzard's "you think you want it, but you don't".

No, just no. That comparison does not fly here. The whole 'you think you want it, but you don't' is a showcase of Blizzard being out of touch. Of Blizzard blatantly ignoring the obvious.. that there has been, for years, a very strong demand for WoW as it was in the days of old. To the point where Blizzard regularly had to C&D classic WoW private servers. Blizzard didn't want to do WoW classic in part because they couldn't for the life of them imagine why people would want it.

WoW classic, the desire for it, was a desire for 'the good old days', people wanted, still want, WoW's golden age back. These are people who crave the nostalgia and who dislike where retail WoW is now.

You cannot compare any of the above with the FFXIV team not wanting to touch 1.0 with a ten foot pole. 1.0 was not a golden age of FFXIV.. we wouldn't have ARR if it had been a success. 1.0 was hot garbage, it sucked, it was absolutely horrible in all ways. It flopped, failed and died. ARR was created because 1.0 was considered beyond salvation, SE let Yoshida go ahead and rebuild the game from the ground up when he literally also gave them the option of 'i'll just try to salvage what's there', that's how bad it was.

FFXIV 1.0 classic won't happen because the very idea of it is complete and utter nonsense. What's next? They do as these very few people ask, get it up and running.. and then what? Do people actually expect Yoshi P's team to then try to start fixing 1.0 itself? I say again.. that is why we even have ARR, it was the chosen solution to the crisis faced.

Just about the only good idea I've seen this thread produce is for some way to perhaps include the 1.0 story into FFXIV as it is now, that, I would not mind at all.

[Cidel]

It would be such a gigantic downgrade with how much QoL features and proper UI you'd forfeit, even if you asked for ver 1.23.

The story wasn't particularly anything to write home about; I didn't even find the White Raven segment that engaging, and I swear there was some parts of the story (involving the Garleans, perhaps), that ARR might have even retconned.

At most, I would say seeing the world map, how big it was and how areas were connected and what it used to look like might be amusing (and nostalgic). How the Black Shroud was like a patchwork, lattice-patterned maze, how there were a handful of (mostly pointless, but interesting) "outdoor dungeons," and even what Coerthas was like before it got snowed-over. Mind you, the open-world was largely empty and unfinished (hey, at least they fixed one of those things, right?). There isn't much else a reason to go back to anything in 1.xx era.