A Message from the FINAL FANTASY XI Development Team (12/10/2010)

[Khamsin]

XI is thinking very short-term right now... but with reason. However, they are going to burn the game out real quick if they don't think of what to do about people hitting 90+ and having nothing to do but Magian Trials... which currently serve no purpose other than making big numbers appear on the screen.

I imagine the next boxed expansion (full deal, like rotz, cop, toau, wotg, not DLC add-ons) will be focused mainly on level 99 activities and events. Maybe even a new job or two to give people even more leveling to do.

[Hyan]

How come people are so sure there will be a boxed expansion? The game has like 200k subs..

[Calintzpso]

An example would be Lineage II. Instances and raid bosses are fun, well-designed, and unique, and give gear whose purpose is more than just to make PvE easier for people who are already good at PvE, but also fuel a PvP arms race where you can gear yourself and your clan out, take someone's castle, and then need to keep doing PvE to keep from getting the same done to you.

Contrast FFXI where the only point of PvE is to get better gear so you can PvE more efficiently. And post epeen screenshots. zzz

"Hun, Cancel the Credit Card on FFXI, we're moving to Lineage 2!"

You had me at "fun" and then again at "Take someone's Castle".

I want to annex some fucking castles, fuck yea.

[Hyan]

Isn't L2 getting a "makeover"?

[Fereydoon]

How come people are so sure there will be a boxed expansion? The game has like 200k subs..

How many subs does EQ have?

[Hyan]

Ehh, I dunno how much we can compare the expansions between the games, especially the "boxed" ones. To me they seem like abyssea add-ons that are just called expansions. But that may be just me.

[Fereydoon]

It was both a legitimate question and a set-up for the fact they have 17 "Expansions". I do really want to know though.

How much of EQ's add-ons is reskinned stuff like Abyssea though? I wouldn't rule out an expansion, though I doubt there will be any physical cd's. Downloading is just more cost effective. They could always do something like Abyssea but with new stuff. Have you pay for the expansion and have it updated piece by piece. Somewhat like CoP where you got zone access after certain missions. Though that was only a few zones compared to the many CoP gave.

The game has a lot of directions it can take, it depends on whether SE wants it to slowly dim out until it ends, or if they want to keep it strong with newer content. They have seemingly shown interest in keeping XI alive with the past years worth of content. But people will only do Abyssea like things for so long. The way I view it Abyssea is really just meant to keep us occupied til 99ish.

I do hope we get some semblance of an actual expansion. Vana'diel has so much lore it'd be a shame for it to go to waste.

[Dooom]

having nothing to do but Magian Trials... which currently serve no purpose other than making big numbers appear on the screen.

Isn't this the purpose of pretty much all gear upgrades? I mean c'mon, there's people arguing in Advanced that people were able to hit things like recast caps and capped acc on 75 content using pre-ToAU gear. It seems silly to complain that Magians (and Abyssea, and add-on gear, and AV drops, and HNM drops, and Sky drops, and +1 items, and food, and so on and so on - get my point?) all serve no purpose other than "big numbers" when "big numbers" is a sign of character advancement which is what FFXI is all about.

This is what people who've never played an enjoyable MMO actually believe

It's so nice of you to tell other people what is fun and what isn't.

Prishe is fucking irritating.

Thank you! I thought I was the only one who felt this way.

[Priran]

It's so nice of you to tell other people what is fun and what isn't.

It's only an invalid argument when the person saying it disagrees with you, amirite

Isn't L2 getting a "makeover"?

Yes, it's getting upgraded to roughly Aion's graphics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN-8Tc75oi8

[Dooom]

It's only an invalid argument when the person saying it disagrees with you, amirite

It's always an invalid argument, acting otherwise is stupid. You, nor anyone else, decides what is fun for others.

[ringthree]

I'm going to agree about Abyssea. It was kinda' fun to get crazy exp for the first couple times... but then it becomes obvious they are just pushing out faux content in the form of omg level caps rising, omg gear you can only get by killing the same fucking mob 5,000 times in rainy weather. Then what? CoP + ToAU were the golden years. New areas, lots of story, challenging battles, fun stuff.

Olive Garden breadsticks are fucking delicious... until you've had about a dozen of them and you realize you can't just live off of breadsticks.

I hope the guy heading XI tries to add something with actual sustainance, instead of just putting more miles at the end of the road. (However, it looks like that's enough for a lot of people)

I am sorry, I can't believe anything you say. You are like the FFXIV #1 fan boy and even SE knows that FFXIV sucks, that is the whole reason this thread exists.

[ringthree]

An example would be Lineage II. Instances and raid bosses are fun, well-designed, and unique, and give gear whose purpose is more than just to make PvE easier for people who are already good at PvE, but also fuel a PvP arms race where you can gear yourself and your clan out, take someone's castle, and then need to keep doing PvE to keep from getting the same done to you.

Contrast FFXI where the only point of PvE is to get better gear so you can PvE more efficiently. And post epeen screenshots. zzz

Lineage II? Fucking Lineage II? THAT is your go-to? THAT is your paragon of MMO excellence? What planet do you live on? Do they subsist on eating glass and nails?

[ronin sparthos]

Abyssea is merely just a gesture of good faith from SE to players.

It was a much-needed interlude from the grind-heavy nature of FFXI. The game had gotten so stale, people were refining colibri down to a science in a game where you had nothing more to do than crank out more relics so you can bot Fafnir for the 300th time to throw up on your respective LS site.

That was enough for the upper tier of hardcores but most people were just going through the motions at that point. FFXI needed desperately to give the average joe something to work towards. Abyssea filled that need. MMOs are all about the illusion of progress anyway and for most casual/average players, the illusion was starting to fade.

Abyssea helped make the game more casual and gives people reason to stick around for any future expansions beyond it. Even if they rolled out a new boxed expansion, people would bitch "oh boy, here goes WOTG2 again - see you guys in 2014 when it ends".

I await SEs next move.

[Priran]

Lineage II? Fucking Lineage II? THAT is your go-to? THAT is your paragon of MMO excellence? What planet do you live on? Do they subsist on eating glass and nails?

If you don't like the leveling curve you can play on a high-rate private server. I, however, think there is something to be said for a MMO whose leveling experience is not only more than just a speed bump between the character creation screen and endgame but completely fleshed out and enjoyable at any level.

It's always an invalid argument, acting otherwise is stupid. You, nor anyone else, decides what is fun for others.

Just sayin', you're the second person to make this stupid argument while 0 people have said anything about the guy who started this whole derail by calling me a moron for not liking Abyssea.

[Holly Short]

Hm. The ex-hardcore ffxi veteran in me dislikes some of the things I've heard about Abyssea.. But the very busy with fulltime school/work new me wants to give it a try with my old friends. I think most of us that quit right before or right as Abyssea was getting launched don't really have enough of a perspective to make a judgement. I know that doesn't make anyone wrong, I just have come to terms with the fact that I probably can't make an accurate judge of it in my position. All I know is my very old friends all say it "breathed new life into the game", so I figure maybe I should check it out when the semester is over. D:

[Hyan]

I am sorry, I can't believe anything you say. You are like the FFXIV #1 fan boy and even SE knows that FFXIV sucks, that is the whole reason this thread exists.

Wait, where does he mention XIV?

[Priran]

genetic fallacy'd

[Sagacious Sundi]

Wait, where does he mention XIV?

You're just mad at him for implying you're the FFXIV #2 fanboy.

[Hyan]

;_;

[Spira]

subscription numbers don't really say enough about whether a game could or should release a boxed expansion..

look at EQ2 for example... that game sees like one boxed expansion almost every year and its total subscriptions is less than half of what FFXI has. IIRC, EQ and EQ2's subscriptions combined do not exceed FFXIs... and yet they both have had boxed releases in the last few years (and EQ1 is a good few years older than FFXI too). That being said, they ARE developed by Sony, so their financial position is a lot stronger..

SE obviously knows they're making money out of FFXI. It is the company's biggest cash cow, but from their actions in 2009, it didn't seem as if they were doing enough to maintain its success. Contrasting Abyssea and the scenario add-ons, you can kinda tell theres a part of the team that is focused on pleasing the customer base more so as to retain subscriptions. it might have something to do with the new management direction.
Lost subscriptions due to FFXIV aside, Abyssea proved to be a rather successful effort at retaining and satisfying the current playerbase and if they take this one step further, we might end up seeing a boxed expansion in 2011, but who knows really..

another point to note is that quality content doesn't necessarily have to come from boxed expansions, and paying $10 doesn't only get you crap. Financially speaking, I'm willing to bet that the price of each add-on multiplied by the number of people who buy it to play easily allows them to break even on whatever addition resources they put into the game.. unlike boxed expansions which don't immediately due to the huge amount of content + packaging + marketing + distribution + etc, so practically speaking, dl-only content has better profit maximizing benefits than boxed expansions..

In light of that, and given that boxed expansions were truly only necessary in the past when broadband wasnt common, I'm hoping XI will come out with an in-between solution for 2011 and beyond. Something bigger than an add-on, smaller than an expansion.. maybe an expansion of 1 pricetag that covers 3 updates, like abyssea probably should have been... something that will benefit players in terms of enjoyment and true new content (and by that im hoping for new zones, not rehashes) and yet preserve a healthy profit margin for the company.