The truth is we need a remastered XI or a follow up

[Vyrerus]

I don't think I could trust them to remake/remaster XI faithfully. In order to update a lot of it, they'd have to rebuild the entire thing from the ground up, and the inevitably means that they will change something "small" which will ripple into changing other "small" things until at last the ripple spreads so far that it's different enough that it's not XI anymore.

Plus if they remaster it, will it still include Trusts and the like? It largely relies on Trusts these days, especially considering its old and grizzled playerbase are fairly insular for multiple reasons.

Even old players returning aren't welcomed into groups with open arms, patience, and understanding. There's a lot of, "Oh, we can play together after you catch up using Trusts." Or a lot of, "You should be able to handle that by yourself."

The old, old style of XI is something of a novelty, with people clamoring for it if they can get it for free (private servers), but not a lot of retail minded folks wanting it back.

Plus they'd have to deal with modern care about botting, a lot of old players bot the shit out of shit and use LUAs. It'd kind of be a nightmare.

[Ath192]

I don't think I could trust them to remake/remaster XI faithfully. In order to update a lot of it, they'd have to rebuild the entire thing from the ground up, and the inevitably means that they will change something "small" which will ripple into changing other "small" things until at last the ripple spreads so far that it's different enough that it's not XI anymore.

Plus if they remaster it, will it still include Trusts and the like? It largely relies on Trusts these days, especially considering its old and grizzled playerbase are fairly insular for multiple reasons.

Even old players returning aren't welcomed into groups with open arms, patience, and understanding. There's a lot of, "Oh, we can play together after you catch up using Trusts." Or a lot of, "You should be able to handle that by yourself."

The old, old style of XI is something of a novelty, with people clamoring for it if they can get it for free (private servers), but not a lot of retail minded folks wanting it back.

Plus they'd have to deal with modern care about botting, a lot of old players bot the shit out of shit and use LUAs. It'd kind of be a nightmare.

It's possible. But I'm mostly talking about a clean slate here. in other words, idk what would happen to XI in particular but like the VII remake this would be a new game. No character ports.

Here is what I think the great lie is:

The biggest lie is that the system and play style of old MMOs is something people don't want anymore. Imo there hasn't been a good game with the old style released in recent times to prove this though because anyone is too scared to release it. What I don't get is this: why are people scared to release something that has succeeded before?

People who enjoy fighting games aren't clamoring for a change to get rid of the complex combos and specials their characters do, likewise people who play strategy games had to ask Bill gates to re-release AOE 2 because they didn't want innovation in the style of gameplay, they wanted an update to the existing style. Seeing as AOE 2 was the pinnacle of RTS games what people wanted wasn't for the changes that followed after and killed the RTS genre.

So likewise, I believe the fans of old progression style MMOs are still out there.

[Vyrerus]

It's possible. But I'm mostly talking about a clean slate here.

There's definitely people who want to play the old style, but I'm not sure there's a sizable enough amount of people to support the necessary financial strain.

FFXI came off the cusp of Final Fantasy's huge success with 7, 8, 9, and 10. Along with their other games. Its development was spurred on by the creative team's vision, and it was something that was developed largely prior to Square's merger with Enix.

At the time, MMOs were nearly brand new, and in spite of Final Fantasy's popularity, FFXI was actually met with a lot of scorn by fans of the series. Its enormous price tag and unintuitive setup and systems drove a lot of people who had the balls to try it away.

Even in its golden era(for active player accounts) it never broke 3million subs iirc. And its zenith only lasted a couple of years. With its level 75 plateau lasting for 6.5 years, this came to be the game for many of its players, and when they inevitably raised the level cap to 80, that also drove many people to unsubscribe. Though it is true that its development costs were eventually outweighed completely, and it was Square Enix's lifeline for finances for the better part of the last decade.

So just like Final Fantasy as a whole, it has a largely fragmented perception of what it is, what it's about, and how it should be.

To bring it to modern graphics with better menus and less jank would require a rebuild. It would also require not letting people who've played it all this time down with regards to their decades of progress. Of course, that would immediately destroy game balance, so letting old salts have everything they have now in the new version while fair for them would be unfair for all new players and its Auction House system. So you couldn't feasibly do that. Which means the old base for XI would likely not pick up Nu XI.

FFVII remake happened because FFVII was very very popular worldwide, putting the series on everyone's radar. It holds a lot of nostalgia and a lot of childhoods and a lot of, "My first RPG" for many folks. FFXI is some people's first MMORPG, but it has a substantially smaller draw. FFVII is easy money, easy cow to milk. It has fan boys that will eat anything labeled FFVII. FFXI is pretty much its polar opposite. Fan boys that would die for XI and more XI, but only if it's, "The right kind of XI."

[Atelier-Bagur]

I want a remaster, although still keep the relatively colorful cartoon aesthetic (rather than the half-anime, half-realism we have with FFXIV), have a shared sub and to bring FFXI into modern consoles.