Welcome Back Campaign Fail

[Kiara]

I have to agree that this welcome back was a complete and utter sham, I invited 3 friends back, and all of them have the same opinion "Yep that confirms it, XIV is still as shit as it was when I last played".

Lets go through the struggles

Servers being Locked
Great, so they cant move to my server. They didnt have pre-50s, only 1 did, but he was merged to the Auto Server which I wasnt on, and he couldnt reroll on my server because its locked. So we was all forced to reroll as level 1 on another server.

Crappy low level content
There is just absolute nothing to do, they left doing leves, they come back "What can we do", "We can do leves!" /logout, but it is the only real way to level outside being PL'd, and because we rerolled on a new server, know no one, we cant be PL'd, so back to the old fashion crappy ways. We only have 10 days and we have to churn out this rubbish.

Yoshi relies on us (because he has mentioned it about 3 times) to tell our friends to come back, but when we do all we get is some dried up bread rather than a gorgeous cake, I know personally the game isnt where it is supposed to be, but I would have at least thought there might be something during the Umbral that ANYONE at ANY LEVEL could experience, but I was wrong. I also think these 10 days would have severed better later on, like during the 2.0 beta or something.

Hi All,

Seeing the positive and negative stories about people coming back during this "Welcome Back!" Campaign, I think that we can see that there *are* things for some players who left during the early Tanaka era (Month 1 - 3 (or even later)) to appreciate.

Certainly the Final Fantasy Job System; Class Revisions (dramatically changed); Self Combos for Combat; Better UI; Better Crafting System; More Side Quests, etc.

But viion, Reinheart and a few others do bring up some good points:

• Server Lockout: It would've been nice to relax the restrictions on Server Lockout *for Returning Players Only* (those turning on their inactive accounts, etc.) to join their Friends to experience the current FF XIV together. The fact that they come back (usually, at the behest of their friends who *are* playing the game), and they find themselves on separate Servers isn't really conducive to making them feel "Welcomed Back" during this time.

• Creating some Low-Level / Mid-Level 7th Umbral Era Content: While Yoshi P never promised anything "brand-new," I think there's something to be said about taking the time to create some Live Events (that are constantly running), or even Instanced, that Low-Level / Mid-Level Returning Players can experience for the limited 10 Day Free Period that this campaign is running under.
  
  I know the Dev Team is slammed as is with 2.0 (most important) and the PS3 Launch; and they're still making stuff for us (the dedicated) for current "End Game" Content (for 1.23, etc.). But I think if they took the time to create some small "Event" (like one of the Seasonal / Holiday Events even) that introduced returning Players to the dangers incoming to Eorzea that they could participate in, it'd go a long way to getting them excited about the game and wanting to see 2.0. Here are some ideas they could've tried:

• Re-Activate the Early, Low Level Garlean Empire Invasion Event (@ Camp Horizon): For those that remembered, Yoshi P had a cool Garlean Empire Invasion for *Low Level Parties* that happened at the Rank 20 Camps (like Horizon). The Garlean Soldiers that flooded the Western Thanalan Desert were ~Rank 25 or so IIRC, and it was an OPEN WORLD, "Live Event" (that anyone could participate in). I remember having a blast with it (and I was already Rank 50 at the time).
  
  That work already *exists*. They could've turned it on and had it running Multiple Times Per Day during this 10 Day Welcome Back Campaign, and it would at least provide something fun / different / interesting for Returning Players and inform them of the impending Garlean Empire dangers / situation surrounding Eorzea and 2.0.
  
  If you remember, they even had Legatus in his "Final Fantasy JUDGE Armor" Appear at the R20 Camps as well from time-to-time. A newbie player would've probably loved to have seen that!

• Create a New Low Level / Mid Level Garlean Event (or Instance / Quest) *Re-using* Existing Assets: For those that have seen it, how cool would it be to see the Garlean Imperial Magitek Weapons (those Mechs) storming across La Noscea, Thanalan and The Black Shroud? And Low-Level / Mid-Level Parties could participate in trying to beat one back?
  
  Maybe even mixing in some Garlean Empire Squadrons in the encounters (already existing assets).

• And while all this is going on, have Alfgar (or some other NPC) shouting in all Towns, letting returning players know that *something* bad is going on, would also be nice.

• New Low-Level / Mid-Level Side Quests to Beastmen Encampments: While I think having some way to encourage Returning Players to see Zaharak, Natalan, etc. (the Beastmen Fortresses) would be really cool, I understand that it might be too messy (since they're all populated for Level 50 encounters), but perhaps they could make an "Instanced" version of these Beastmen Fortresses where Low-Level / Mid-Level could visit as part of a Side Quest (or for Repeated Encounters) during this Welcome Back Campaign.
  
  Or at the very least, have Side Quests sending Low-Level / Mid-Level to the Beastmen Camps (smaller ones) around Eorzea.

Ultimately, I think there are many wonderful things that Yoshida-san and the current Team have done to change XIV for the better (from the early days) (like the Battle System, Class Revisions, Job System, etc.) and while Cutter's Cry / Aurum Vale and Garuda are fun fights (the Drop Rates are terrible though ), I can see the issues that viion and others are bringing up: Those fights are for Level 50 only, so those returning players that aren't 50 can't appreciate that stuff.

It *would've* been nice if the Dev Team did something like the above Events, just to show the Returning Players some of the "impending doom" of Eorzea and what's leading up to 2.0.

Ultimately, I hope those that did return do find some things that have improved, and I hope they stay for 2.0, but I think Yoshi P and Team could've done a few more things to really make the 10-day Campaign feel more "lively" outside of the normal things going on day-to-day currently.

Thanks~

[HiirNoivl]

Lots of people are coming back. some of them people I liked to play with.

I am honest about the game. "Hey welcome back. There's lots of new stuff to do. But fair warning, primal battles mostly have all the same patterns, as do dungeon raids. If things start feeling the same after awhile that's because they are all the same. That's because the content is handicapped by the crappy server system. But there's so much to do you'll probably not get to experience everything enough to get bored by the time 2.0 gets here so this is probably the perfect time to come back! Welcome back!"

There's no reason not to hide the truth from people coming back, but then again, are they really going to get to do everything before Dalamud hits (once in a life time!) Probably not.

[Skinwalker]

I bet Shosasosa just didn't get his Darklight gear last night and had to fire his anger to something else... I just don't see the point in all this crying. Hammering against the wall because you get mad about something that wasn't actually made for you (still playing ppl) ... I just don't get it ... <.<

[Shosasosa]

I bet Shosasosa just didn't get his Darklight gear last night and had to fire his anger to something else... I just don't see the point in all this crying. Hammering against the wall because you get mad about something that wasn't actually made for you (still playing ppl) ... I just don't get it ... <.<

since BLM is my main and all of the gear is useless for BLM... NO i dont care about darklight and getting drops is not an issue.

[Nero]

I had a couple weeks full of work.. so i kind of wasnt playing. Now i came back right when that campaign is happening and i enjoy all the new Stuff. CC was kinda fun the other day, same with the quests i missed. AF Fights are also fun and worked out really well so far. Only Hamlet i would like to do more often, but it doesnt really look like people wants to do it.

To be honest, personally i cant find any reason to not like the changes. I heard about the Garuda Glitch, but i have to say im kinda dissapointed by the people which are all about "Oh Hell no.. this needs Skill now. I dont have Skill.. i just ride the Train on other Peoples back.. bla bla". That is some kind of "Generation"-Thing i dont like... Kids these days dont want to put effort into something.. they want handed everything over, without having to do anything. That also goes for Real-life, not only for a Game. THAT and only THAT is the Reason why new MMO's are having a hard time.

And by that.. this is not 2.0.. why do people expect BIG Changes for FFXIV, when SE announced the BIG Changes for 2.0?

[Aceofspades]

LOL!!!

so you dont like to play FFXIV? So you dont want to pay for FFXIV? And you think this game is gona be a big fail?
Well you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but just like anyone else's opinion , we all have one , and they all stink.
I can however offer some recourse, granted its not much of a option but its currently your only one. If you do not like to play FFXIV and think this game is stupid, lame, fail, blah blah blah, the answer is quite simple realy...QUIT, hahahaha.

[Meleena]

Stupid thread, everything in the game right now IS actually content that you will do onne in a lifetime just because there will not be there when 2.0 comes...

[Vingtdeux]

From May 9 to May 20, former FINAL FANTASY XIV players are invited to experience the vast changes made to Eorzea for free!
During this ten-day period, we invite holders of inactive service accounts to experience the once-in-a-lifetime Seventh Umbral Era content and try out new additions like the job system and the inn rooms that were introduced in Patch 1.21.


SO where is this once in a lifetime content? the battles that have been here since 1.21?? The Raids that have 1/1000 chance of dropping anything worth wearing??? the new Primal that no one fights cuz its "too hard" and no one wants to bother doing cuz anyone who wasnt too stupid or proud got all the items they needed/wanted from it?? I wonder how many people actually came back to check it out, and how many of them are impressed enough to stay

So many constructive arguments, thanks for sharing.

The game will be better now, all thanks to you.

[NoctisUmbra]

SE designs a campaign targeting players who gave up on XIV or stopped playing for whatever reason at whatever point to come back free of charge and try out the current build for 10 days.

OP, who has been paying and playing and thus isn't part of the target playerbase, expects something out of this as well.

lol...

/thread

[AdvancedWind]

OP is mad.

However, Premium has a point: There's absolutely nothing to do till 50 other than leves and what few fetch quests we have. Sure, there's toto-rak and caravans at 25 and Shopshae at 15, but what about the other levels?

IMO, the devs should have added a few new low level areas before making the campaign. I can see the current campaign bringing back some people that already had a level 40+ class or with enough friends to level with, but everyone else is stuck doing the same thing as 2010: Grindan dem leves.