Game Over ?

it's really too early for me to say

xi is in a state of anomie right now

i assume se has a goal in mind, a vision of exactly what the game will be at the 99 cap

what that vision is will determine how long i continue to play

one thing that i think is kind of an interesting point is how people keep bringing up diablo and original everquest as examples of games that are still going

it might be worth considering that those games are simpler, smaller, and less data intensive than ffxi

i would think that that means ffxi is going to take more players than those games to continue to turn a profit, because of their higher operating costs

i could be wrong about how hard it is to host an online game for fun and profit, and i hope i am, as i really know next to nothing about the requirements of hosting an mmo

one thing is for sure

i will not be playing xiv either way

ffxi was heroin and i learned my lesson

i'm not picking up a fresh syringe

People are going to rate me down for having this opinion, but part of the reason I decided to quit was because they DIDN'T have a goal in mind. They were just unsure of how to keep peoples' interest much longer. Since they already exhausted practically everything they could do at LV75, they had to increase the level, after already saying they were never going to do so.

For instance, look at Trial of the Magians. If they had honestly planned this out, they would know people don't want to be killing 1500 of the same mob over and over for new pieces of gear and weapons for the next year or so of their life. If they had planned this out, it wouldn't be making your old gear (That I might add people spent 4+ years on) obsolete. Rather, a good system would upgrade what you already did have. Nothing random like Augments, of course. Just select from a list like Trial of the Magians.

On the topic of Trial of the Magians, they couldn't have made it more interesting? Killing 500 mobs under x weather isn't interesting to anyone. It's freaking annoying. Before TotM, the most annoying thing in the game was unlocking the LV73 latent weapons (At least, in my opinion). Those weapons were useless to most jobs, and the jobs that did need them, only needed to do it once.

Now all of a sudden we have a whole game based on the concept of "kill mobs and jeopardize this area for anyone who wants to exp here." You spend 3 days killing spiders, only to have the next update make it all obsolete again, requiring even more senseless spider killing to upgrade it (In a best case scenario), or of course starting from scratch because you just learned your weapon path led you to a dead end that you weren't informed of beforehand.

Another good example is the addition (Or should I say, tacking-on) of AF3 gear. Yes, it's awesome to look at, and has some good stats (Good enough to make everything else obsolete, it would be no different if you just started playing FFXI yesterday or have been playing for 8 years, all of your previous gear will be obsolete). They're a welcome change of pace from the monotony of TotM. Or, they were, until you saw that you had to kill 10 NMs AGAIN. And now gear like this will be obsolete again at LV99! What's the point of doing anything anymore? Just wait until LV99 and then start going for new gear.



I'm sorry for the rant, the level cap increase killed a game I loved for 6 years, of course I have some opinions on it.

I tend to agree, I had no job or girlfriend or car when i started ffxi, and 3 years of my wife was wasted being hardcore and playing 14+ hours a day.

Finally I cut back, got a job, and at that job a girlfriend, then car... no i'm married, own a home, have 2 cars plus a delorean...

Yea I won't be starting a new mmo, I just don't want to devote the time it required all over again.

I have my CE of XIV pre-ordered and paid in full. That being said I still don't have a computer that can run it haha. But I hope to have that issue fixed in the next week or two. So I'll be keeping my XI account active through October because of that, and in case the starting content in XIV is a bit thin. That way I can go back and forth between the two games until the first update for XIV.

trial of the magians is pretty damned bad. i don't think it's a sign of some new grind-based philosophy or anything, coming from the company who wants you to catch 10000 carps to get a decent fishing rod, it's right in line with their philosophy

i've always been at odds with the grind, and that's what my bot is for, if i had to actually DO that assembly line ***i wouldn't play the game

that said in a lot of ways ffxi has become the game i always wanted it to be

my favorite thing in this game, the thing that has kept me playing, is when i get together with my 5-6 freinds and semi lowman an nm or mission

the shitty part has always been waiting for it to pop or not getting claim, which ruined your day

now, in abyssea, the pop times are super short, and if you lose claim there's always something else up

the experience has been concentrated, easy to plan

get toghther with a couple freinds, decide on something someone wants, grab stones, come up with strat, execute

it's something i enjoy and i hope to see them continue in that direction

that said i'm sad about the fate of my old gear ;;

It's an argument lots have made since the announcement of the level cap, and I'll admit I was pretty bummed when they decided to jump the cap after so many years of keeping it the same... but really, it's not THAT bad. :P

What's the point in playing if you have the "best" gear and all your merits are capped, blah blah blah. Is it really fun being such a bad *** camping Faf/Nidhogg everyday? (No I'm not saying this about anyone specific, just generally). Same damn thing day in and day out?

Yeah, NO question that SE only raised the capped, added the new areas and so on, simply to make more money and suck out a year or more of a product thats been out 8+ years. That's the whole idea of making the game in the first place. But at least they've given us new stuff to do. So what if you have a new trial to tackle after an update. I don't know about everyone else, but I welcome the new task. Even if it's just killing spiders in fire weather, or killing some NM I never heard about until today 3-times. Beats being bitched at to run to Dragon's Aery everyday because the window is open. (I have a hang up on that, sorry XD)

The only people that are upset about the new armor are those that think its destroyed their years of "hard work." I'll say this in the nicest way as possible...

IT'S A FREAKING GAME! ^.^!!!

If those pixels on your screen are that important to you as a status in your life, you really need to get a check in on reality. (again, not attacking anyone personally. Being general here!) Yeah, I want the best gear too, but I'm not going to whine and cry like a spoiled brat when something better comes out. Do you really want to be wearing level 75 gear at 99? I don't. And if I have to trade 2346734734 galkan sausages to a "Hungry" Galka to get some new rdm legs, SO BE IT >_<

/endrants D:

But, I see your frustration. <3

The problem isn't necessarily that I didn't like the idea of getting better gear for easier, or getting new WSs, better stats, or anything like that.

The problem is that I had already spent the last year or so before the announcement grinding my jobs to LV66 for Maat's Cap. Yes, I've never once Astral-burned but it seems almost encouraged the way the game is now.

My point is, a year grinding and doing no endgame, and then they just pile on more grinding, and I'm just not in the mood for that.

Staying with FFXI.

This opinion probably won't be popular with those who are eager for FFXIV, but I actually think S-E is taking a very large, very unnecessary gamble by producing FFXIV. The MMO market is very saturated, and the (at least USA) economy is in a very prolonged, very stagnant recession.

Furthermore, everything I've read and heard about FFXIV alludes to the game being very bugged and not particularly player-friendly.

Now, this is S-E, and the Final Fantasy name is its baby and cash cow. One could easily make the argument that everything Final Fantasy turns to gold, and it can do no wrong. However, all good thing do, at some point, come to an end, and I believe FFXIV may be where S-E finally flubs up and eats crow.

For those that are looking forward to FFXIV, honestly, I hope I am wrong. If FFXIV tanks, it will be a huge loss for S-E, and could potentially be a threat to the future of the series, and I don't want to see that, personally. I just anticipate that more people will be disappointed with FFXIV than will be satisfied.

Time will tell. Regardless, I'm sticking with FFXI.

i guess if you voluntarily ignored the fun part of the game to do something about as fun as an assembly line

and you for some unfathomable reason did it manually

i can see why you would be burnt out

I do agree that the grinding for leveling jobs again does stink a bit, lol. And you are right, trials have made it impossible to party in certain zones (I nearly got stampeded a few weeks ago by an alliance of JPN BSTs killing mobs in thunder weather in the mire). But, not like anyone seems to party outside of Abyssea anymore anyway.

Yes.
Yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
Thank you for speaking the truth.
+1.

That's really interesting, I don't think I've seen that map before :o As much as I would love more real expansions rather than just copy and pasted add ons I can't help but wonder if they did add a few more islands what purpose would they serve?

Most people grind in Abyssea these days, so would they really add a brand new place with brand new mobs? Unless they'll raise the cap again after 99 xD

Yeah, people need to try to keep in mind that 80, and 85, and 90, and 95 are just stepping stones. Of course if you're looking to upgrade, you should. But by no means you should rack your brain trying to get it all for all your jobs right now. We all know it's going to change.

As for trials, it's ok to take it easy, too. Same thing. I waited until 80 to even start any trials, and I am glad. I had a much better idea of which way to go. I'd imagine that people with multiple jobs would benefit even more from really thinking about which trials they want to do.

that map was fan-made

it's been getting false hopes up for years now

Two things:

Back a year and 2 months or so ago, when I quit, there were only about 900 people on my server at JP peak time, and 24 active servers. That's roughly 22,000 people online at any given time. 300,000 dollars made per month off that base, that's not even enough to cover wages for everyone working at SE, let alone turn a profit. That's opposed to already 300,000ish people that have FFXIV reserved, and hundreds of thousands that will buy the game once everything is established and maybe an expansion or two come out.

They're multiplying their previous MMO base by 15x or more. Sure, some people will quit but that will be countered by people that are also starting to play.

Was it a gamble? Probably. Is it going to pay off? I give it about a 97% chance, unless everyone cancels their preorder TODAY.




Second: If FF13 didn't kill the future of Final Fantasy, nothing will.

Shotzie's false hope rises .5

;___;

Yes, it's fan-made, but it's based on continents mentioned ingame already, so while the land masses don't necessarily look like that, they can still potentially exist.

No one told you you had to level-grind all your Maat jobs to level 66. You did that of your own accord. You got a nice reward for it, Maat's Cap. If that isn't adequate reward, then you shouldn't have undertaken the task to begin with. No sympathy.
You choose to play a MMO, and in particular a Final Fantasy MMO, and expect not tons of grinding? What drugs are you taking currently?
You're not in the mood for Magian Trials and Abyssea EXP alliances? Then don't do those things. Do missions, do quests, do Fields of Valor, craft, tele-***, cyber, etc.
What exactly are you in the mood for? Standing in Dragon's Aery for 3.5 hours daily? 5% drop rate from your favorite Salvage NM? Clearing out your inventory to make room to make lots of soul plates for Zeni? Perhaps camping Leaping Lizzie?

Give me a break.
Abyssea kicks ***. Magian Trials kick ***. Leveling to 99 kicks ***.

Go play chess.

If you don't want to grind to 99, just use assist bots and PL bots. You'll get there eventually.

Man = my computer
wine = FFXIV
steak = FFXI

In all honesty, I've enjoyed the changes being made to XI, ToTM is helping to make decent NEW weapons for my mage jobs, gg 3+ years of totting the Elemental Staves around, im welcoming the new staffs (which are more powerful btw), and the Empyrean Armor is just awesome in itself. (Hell, DNC can easily get 25% Haste now, without having to get stuff like V.Belt/G.Belt and HQ Dusk). Crafts may have pretty much tanked, but then again, if you're in the supply market, its awesome, you're making mad gil because people need consumables! Besides, the way SE is doing the Level Cap increases (5 levels per) is actually been really smooth, they're limiting the power of subs like /SCH on jobs like RDM. Yes, Refresh II would've been 10x better if you could Accession it, but meh, I'll live. I've actually been leveling another job in the process with Abyssea too (gogo RNG!), and I know friends that still play the game trying out new jobs (BST in particular), it's really up to you to find stuff to do in XI. It's not just about Magians and Abyssea (I spend my fair share of time there too, its awesome)

EDIT: To add, they still are making Relics/Mythics/Maats Cap some of the best stuff in game, yeah they pretty much killed Salvage with Empyrean armor, but we could still see them change it next update. TBH, im kinda glad they killed Salvage.

Hypocrisy. You like the extensions because you can get the gear this time around, therefore you like pixel too, don't you ¿

I'm staying with XI 'till the servers shut down.

I think that XI will be around a very long time. The fact that you can max 18 jobs out leaves room to keep moving. The events are pretty fun, and if you low man it's still got challenge left.

But beyond that, FFXI survived before the new content with even less endgame to do. Now that there's more to do, why would it stagnate? It didn't die years ago, it's not gonna die for years.

That's my prediction.

Abyssea and ToTM killed XI for me. I find Abyssea boring because it's the only endgame anyone does now, and I find ToTM boring because... Well It's obvious lol.

I don't see the difference between endgame focused in the 6 abyssea zones, and endgame focused in Salvage/Nyzul/Sea/Sky. It's all the same stuff. All endgame content is Go to an area > Pop/Kill NMs > Repeat. It's the same thing.

I've had enough of the aesthetics tbh. I much preferred things like Ein, sky and Nyzul.

Haha!! That's awesome! Me too, me too! 8D

I enjoy Einherjar and Nyzul too, but the freedom Abyssea adds being able to go XP/farm (even at the same time) is much welcomed in my opinion. The older instances were more restricted through requirements/manpower, Abyssea has me not sitting in my MH all day, though I agree I hate trials.