Will you quit if this game becomes raid-centric?

[mysterytaru]

I'll just leave this here for people to chew on when defending XI as-it-is versus XI as-it-was.

In March/April 2010, XI was 8yrs old. They announced closing of 8 servers, first Level Cap increase to 80 with 99 being the goal, and Abyssea. Flash forward almost exactly one year. April 2011. All Abyssea expansions have been released, level cap increases still coming, again 99 being the goal, and another 8 servers closing.

It took 1yr of population loss to match 8yrs of gradual loss. You know what changed? 8yrs of content made useless. Abyssea was added and *almost everything* outside of that became irrelevant. If this had been added even 4 yrs ago and level cap upped then, this may not have been an issue. As it is, it took 7yrs to raise the cap beyond 75. 7yrs of stable content and stable population wiped out with Abyssea and a cap increase that came too late. The difference in population between two announcements almost one year apart tell the story all too clearly.

You know why you don't hear people complaining about Abyssea so much now? Most people left silently. Said goodbye to old friends w/o making forum drama, said goodbye to the game...and left. Just like that. It was easier. The people who were so vocal about how SE ruined XI? Most of the ones I knew of who did that are still playing. Vana Fest 2010 made it clear where they were going with XI. I shrugged. After six months of slowly dwindling ability to get anything done outside of Abyssea, I left. I gave it a chance and it didn't work for me, all the fun was gone. There are more like me who just let go quietly, than were vocal and shouting form the rooftops. In the end, the server merges this year were our "we told you so" moment.

Anyone who says Abyssea was good for XI, might might want to think about these things. I imagine there will be another server merge in March/April 2012 too, if not sooner. Will Abyssea still be the best thing since sliced bread? Or will people finally admit it was a mortal blow? Time will tell, and to be truthful, already is.

If they can work that kind of content into XIV early in its life, things have a chance to be different this time. Being planned from the start makes a world of difference than dropping it in seven years later. We shall see.

[Jennestia]

7yrs of stable content and stable population wiped out with Abyssea and a cap increase that came too late. The difference in population between two announcements almost one year apart tell the story all too clearly.

You know why you don't hear people complaining about Abyssea so much now? Most people left silently. Said goodbye to old friends w/o making forum drama, said goodbye to the game...and left. Just like that. It was easier. The people who were so vocal about how SE ruined XI? Most of the ones I knew of who did that are still playing. Vana Fest 2010 made it clear where they were going with XI. I shrugged. After six months of slowly dwindling ability to get anything done outside of Abyssea, I left. I gave it a chance and it didn't work for me, all the fun was gone. There are more like me who just let go quietly, than were vocal and shouting form the rooftops. In the end, the server merges this year were our "we told you so" moment.

Anyone who says Abyssea was good for XI, might might want to think about these things. I imagine there will be another server merge in March/April 2012 too, if not sooner. Will Abyssea still be the best thing since sliced bread? Or will people finally admit it was a mortal blow? Time will tell, and to be truthful, already is.

So the tl;dr version is you hate Abyssea, as my server still peaks 4k+ at prime time post merge. XI is a 9 year old game, it's bound to lose a lot of population eventually, just like Everquest did. Anyone with a brain knows Abyssea was the best thing to happen to FFXI:

1. It removed a VERY pointless grind to reach end-game. Grind is all good and fun but XI's main problem it didn't have content to compliment the grind, as the content didn't begin till 75, especially since they've removed the cap to CoP areas due to cry babies.
2. It introduced a control system -- You directly affect what gear and items you get. Who hates controllable drop rates? Not smart people.
3. It introduced some of the best job specific armor.
4. It introduced Trial of Magian which lets you customize a weapon to your liking (on a certain elemental path) or a 100% easier to obtain "ultimate weapon."

That's just part of it.

Abyssea is very love/hate with people (you obviously hate it) but we can't deny that it did change FFXI for the better in certain ways.