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

[Renathras]

...

Well, that's what I mean - I don't play private servers because I want to pay the company that makes the IP and does the creative work and I want something that won't be taken down.

WoW literally did this. They did a cease and desist order but then hired the team that had made a Vanilla WoW server and got them to help out with making WoW Classic. The main issue is that the original source code has been deleted/overwritten (MMO companies often don't keep backups of old versions of the game), but these players effectively (or somewhat effectively) recreated that, or at least something that could be used for a foundation to approximate that. Blizzard basically bought them out so they could use their work. They could have just issued a cease and desist, but then they wouldn't be able to actually get the guys to share their source code. By hiring them on, they could talk them into sharing the source code, saving Blizzard tons of time and money and giving them a ready or near-ready product for pennies, especially since the people who did it were more than willing to share since they wanted an official version.

While it is true that many people play private servers because they want to play a game without paying for it, many other people want the specific experience that offers, and WOULD be willing to pay for it but CAN'T since an official version doesn't exist.

[Ransu]

There was sort of an attempt in ARR, but all of that was basically thrown out, and nothing was really expanded on horizontally - in favor of railroading MSQ vertically. As we know. lol

Imagine if you could explore freely in XIV, and you had Story NPC trusts running around with you. Then split up the story into different series of events that don't need to all be linearly connected with each other.

You used to be forced to do side quests else you would fall behind the level requirements for the MSQ. They moved away from that and increased the amount of exp you earn for obvious reasons as the campaign got longer and longer.

[Atelier-Bagur]

You used to be forced to do side quests else you would fall behind the level requirements for the MSQ. They moved away from that and increased the amount of exp you earn for obvious reasons as the campaign got longer and longer.

it made sense in ARR since not only was the open world content like FATE grinding and combat leves more valuable but the ARR story in of itself was just one story to go through, so the exp requirement padding made sense to prolong the content. Understandably they shortened the exp requirement the more they dedicated the story aspect of the game by making the msq quest chains frequent and longer as the patches rolled on

[R041]

You used to be forced to do side quests else you would fall behind the level requirements for the MSQ. They moved away from that and increased the amount of exp you earn for obvious reasons as the campaign got longer and longer.

Yeah I know, I was there grinding it out like the rest of 'em. lol

That's not really what I meant though - The MSQ went full steam with the vertical momentum, we kinda expected it to split off at some point. The Exp evolved to match it just to get you through the story, but nothing else expanded horizontally like we expected it to in HW+ either, we even stopped getting Battle Leves altogether. The formula now is basically we get 1 alternate system for exp, otherwise you're just spamming roulettes, and you're always encouraged to keep the vertical train going. They gimped or removed all other exp and reward systems.

They kinda designed themselves into a vertical hole that can never stop.

[Amenara]

Well, that's what I mean - I don't play private servers because I want to pay the company that makes the IP and does the creative work and I want something that won't be taken down.

WoW literally did this. They did a cease and desist order but then hired the team that had made a Vanilla WoW server and got them to help out with making WoW Classic. The main issue is that the original source code has been deleted/overwritten (MMO companies often don't keep backups of old versions of the game), but these players effectively (or somewhat effectively) recreated that, or at least something that could be used for a foundation to approximate that. Blizzard basically bought them out so they could use their work. They could have just issued a cease and desist, but then they wouldn't be able to actually get the guys to share their source code. By hiring them on, they could talk them into sharing the source code, saving Blizzard tons of time and money and giving them a ready or near-ready product for pennies, especially since the people who did it were more than willing to share since they wanted an official version.

While it is true that many people play private servers because they want to play a game without paying for it, many other people want the specific experience that offers, and WOULD be willing to pay for it but CAN'T since an official version doesn't exist.

I could have sworn the story for WoW classic was a random developer had the original code for WoW hidden away on a hard drive somewhere as Blizzard had no copy of it left anywhere and to make classic would involve essentially remaking the game completely and that is how classic came about. That being said, SE has the same issue with the original FFXI code as it just doesn't exist anywhere and private servers use an open source rebuild of the original FFXI code. Development on it is the big reason you don't see many FFXI servers having complete content from WotG or ToAU as they are still working on it, last I heard.

it made sense in ARR since not only was the open world content like FATE grinding and combat leves more valuable but the ARR story in of itself was just one story to go through, so the exp requirement padding made sense to prolong the content. Understandably they shortened the exp requirement the more they dedicated the story aspect of the game by making the msq quest chains frequent and longer as the patches rolled on

I still remember when SE nerfed that fate chain in Northern Thanalan that gave crazy amounts of exp, sad day as it was crazy good exp in those last few levels up to 50.

[KitingGenbu]

There's no way to milk FFXI Classic so it'll never happen, regardless of what the devs say (not like any dev would be stupid enough to admit it).

Just look at WoW Classic. Sure they have a 'true' vanilla classic set of servers (if you want to call them that), but the expansion servers are another thing. For one, they didn't want to split TBCC from WotLKC (no, not everyone who liked TBC automatically like WotLK for a whole host of reasons). The second is them adding boosts and more recently the token (because everyone who left retail wow really really wanted those things in classic....).

The only extra monetization 11 really has is character slots and spaces (which wardrobes more than likely breaking the 'spirit' of 11 classic). Previous 11 producer said at most they'd consider a 75 level locked server, but the team has been gutted even further and they've publicly announced its in maintenance mode (again), so that's even more less likely to happen.

I'd say within 10 years they'll announce 11 as a single player game and probably finally shutter 11 online, but at least 11 is safe until that ever happens since its a main FF title.

[Shurrikhan]

Crazy as it may be... I'd really rather just see 7.x throw certain conventions from up til now to the wind and start experimenting in a more "Living World" approach to zone design.

More subtle and dynamic side-questing, more meaningful reputations and zone involvement, more community-driven and -centric open world events, and just far less of "Go there, do that; then find the next marker from which to acquire a thing that will again tell you where to go and what to do."