FFXI Interview August

[Garret]

Maybe I'm just too lazy to do the math, but what % of the of the player base do gilsellers/gilfarmers even make up?

While I agree they are a problem people speak of the 'value' of their accounts to SE as though SE is making millions off them.

From what I can tell each server has a varying amount of RMT groups. Typically one set up in Sky nowadays, a few for the baby HNM camps, then others for farming random other items. And each group also likely has some 'backup' levelled characters to take over their roles should the primary one get banned or something.

My point is each server has a relatively 'finite' number of actual RMT accounts and while SE obviously receives monthly payments from them I don't think it would break the bank for them if all RMT were suddenly gone.

While it's obviously not easy to eliminate them, or SE is just plain lazy, either way, I just can't buy into how SE is making all this theoretical money off of their monthly payments, they have to pale in comparison to the amount brought in by standard players & their mules.

[½pint]

At least 100 players per server. 100 players per server x30 servers = 3000
3000 x $13 = $39,000 per month at least. In other words, a lot.

[Garret]

Yeah but I am talking about in comparison to the rest of the server population.

For instance, $39,000 a month is a lot of money if their entire revenue is $390,000, not if their revenue is $390,000,000.

I just think people artificially inflate the actual number of gilsellers, as well as how much money they are theoretically paying to use their content ID's.

Like I said though, it's obviously a problem, but that doesn't mean there's 500 RMT accounts per server which SE is making a few hundred thousand a month off of either.

[Groovebox]

At least 100 players per server. 100 players per server x30 servers = 3000
3000 x $13 = $39,000 per month at least. In other words, a lot.

$39,000 x 12 = $468,000 /year

Half a million dollars almost... Is it a lot? Yep, but when SE netted $157.9 million last year (check out: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_i ... story=9456 ), it's a small fucking price to pay to fix a huge problem in a subscription based game. RMT pisses me off so much, I just wish SE would ban all chinese IP addresses

[epigram]

The problem a lot of people had with some hnmls's is the same problem a lot of us have with gil sellers. It's just that monopolization over content and items is possible and easy due to lack of enforcement.

SE needs to add in methods of enforcement such as hate systems where ulli and all other hnm will go postal after a certain amount of engagements with a long cool off time, or they need to create alternate and non-competitive methods to attain the same goods. That's why ks99 is a good idea since most people besides solo beasts aren't going to be making 30 KS a week. So most hnm ls's will get a shot at a ridill/D.ring/abj maybe 4-5 times a month which isn't ground breaking.

So I guess around 40 KS99 orbs on each server each month which is about the same as the number of king pops per month. More importantly from a production standpoint it reintroduces content to a lot of people who have not had the ability to engage in it before.

What they really should do is just strip abj off all the current ground kings so just people who want ridill and D ring can waste their time away without hurting sales of cursed items and preventing others from attaining desired abjurations. Still collecting 99KS seems like a hell of a lot more work to me than standing around voking/botting a wyrm, at least it's engaging and you get some merits/exp from it.

[shihei]

Am i the only that sees the same shit regurgitated over and over?

maybe its just me... im bored...drinks wont stain this biiiiiiiiiirthhh

[Don Katsu]

Am i the only that sees the same shit regurgitated over and over?

Maybe...

Who ever had the post with the tally just added a bunch of X's on RMT and King HNMs. That's if they are still keeping track.

[epigram]

I love the short limbus instances, add more variable terrain, add some more rewards af +2, af +1 weapons?

Add competitive content that isn't about out voking/botting each other such as an online and ingame listing of best times to defeat a BC, catagorized by party or alliance make-up. Give out awards and titles to those who perform well or uniquely. So the movement of skill and epeen become closer together as opposed to who cheats the best.

SE just tends to kill off content, even good content. Hopefully we still see some more limbus additions, bc's, and enms. I doubt this content is all that hard to add and is still quite fun and rewarding. I like assault a lot, but it's all luck or a trick usually and doesn't take very long to do.

[Eaglestrike]

As we all know, there are 5 assault stations and room for a final 6th station.

There also happens to be 6 sets of cursed armor. If SE were to put abjurations into assault points, I think a lot of end-game could be 'fixed'.

Ask about that. I'm going to go fill out a feedback form about it.

Also, I had a friends account that was paid through this month, after RMT outpulled my LS to Ulli I got onto it, sent SE a letter saying I was quitting only because of the RMT problem, and cancelled every single content ID on their account. So there's one >.>

[Alathar]

Maybe I'm just too lazy to do the math, but what % of the of the player base do gilsellers/gilfarmers even make up?

While I agree they are a problem people speak of the 'value' of their accounts to SE as though SE is making millions off them.

From what I can tell each server has a varying amount of RMT groups. Typically one set up in Sky nowadays, a few for the baby HNM camps, then others for farming random other items. And each group also likely has some 'backup' levelled characters to take over their roles should the primary one get banned or something.

My point is each server has a relatively 'finite' number of actual RMT accounts and while SE obviously receives monthly payments from them I don't think it would break the bank for them if all RMT were suddenly gone.

While it's obviously not easy to eliminate them, or SE is just plain lazy, either way, I just can't buy into how SE is making all this theoretical money off of their monthly payments, they have to pale in comparison to the amount brought in by standard players & their mules.

However, GS are not the only problem. If SE eliminates RMT, then there will be some BUYERS that say "having to farm sucks, I quit." Of course, all of the people that looked ahead and lvled a craft shouldn't have that problem, but they're a minority. This is especially the case since many of them are too dumb to know how to make a profit crafting after PLing anyway.

My point: eliminating RMT gets rid of not only many of the sellers, but also buyers. I don't know how many buyers there are out there, but I expect there's a LOT since RMT seems to move a lot of money and I doubt most people don't buy more than 10 mil at once (I hope).

[zoobernut]

[quote="epigram"]I love the short limbus instances, add more variable terrain, add some more rewards af +2, af +1 weapons?
quote]

I think thats a great idea.

Ask him why they added AF +1 sets but did not add the AF1 +1 weapon it would be great to turn in your AF weapon and get a new lvl 74 or 75 one in return.

[Garret]

I think one excellent idea for additional Limbus areas would be many of the level capped CoP zones. I would imagine SE spent a lot of time designing these zones & they really see little use outside of people working on the missions & the occasional ENM.

Riverne, for instance, I find to be one of the more nicely designed areas, at least for looks, but I have no real reason to go there outside of an occasional Ouryu or Bahamut fight.

Why not create instanced Limbus' to areas such as these and get some use out of all that design time?

[ponskun]

I love the short limbus instances, add more variable terrain, add some more rewards af +2, af +1 weapons?
quote]

I think thats a great idea.

Ask him why they added AF +1 sets but did not add the AF1 +1 weapon it would be great to turn in your AF weapon and get a new lvl 74 or 75 one in return.

I tossed my wonderful Casting Wand.........

[othellojr]

I fail to see how even asking would be any good, any prospective AF1+1 weapon would fail as there already would be something better, so why fucking waste time asking or even thinking about it? Some of these questions are starting to sound like the fucking dipshits that asked during the last Q&A questions where you could tell the questions came from allnoobs, lets not waste time on them.

Btw, show me how any af1+1 weapon would be better:

Blm: Casting wand is a piece of shit, there are wands that give +int and +mnd that are more useful at its level attained, then at 51 ele staves (hq only though) blow them away, and stand back and cast then rest, don't try to melee.

Smn: at 51 you get -3 perp from hq staves, then you have Bahamut's staff that was introduced for the same effect, -2 perp from nq staves and from Astral signa, next. (see Blm, Rdm, Whm as well, no melee, get back to the back)

War: the af1 fails as there are better alternatives when you can get it, endgame, you have Maneater, Juggernaut, Woodsvilles, and for that very lucky 1% that get Ridill, and also there is Joyeuse (the last two for off hand selections, though ya know, some use both rid and joy)

Pld: who cares they tank, but they get Joyeuse, Justice Sword, Company sword and others, but last I checked pld was not a real DD (no, don't care that you have all them merits Ryko, just get back on War and you will do even better, Pld still is not a DD)

Whm: wtf stand back and cure, who gives a shit.

Mnk: Destroyers...'nuff said (Well for the few that have it, Spharai of course)

Well, not bothering with the other jobs, as you can see with just a simple sample, there already are superior weapons at even the levels that af weapons can be used, so any effort in improving them as +1 versions of them would be pointless.

[epigram]

I think one excellent idea for additional Limbus areas would be many of the level capped CoP zones. I would imagine SE spent a lot of time designing these zones & they really see little use outside of people working on the missions & the occasional ENM.

Riverne, for instance, I find to be one of the more nicely designed areas, at least for looks, but I have no real reason to go there outside of an occasional Ouryu or Bahamut fight.

That would be fantastic, I love those areas.

If they do add AF+1 weapons they should make it cost about 100mil in coins and add some serious buffs to it. Not tripple damage or anything like that but utility like refresh while engaged with +enfeeble skill.


Just read the post in front.

RDM:
MP + Enfeeble skill + refresh while engaged.

BLM:
MP + (+20 MAB on MB)

WHM:
MP + Occasionally removes more than one negative buff with erase.

SMN:
Massive chunk of MP like +80 and lowers blood pact timer.

WAR:
lower reuse time on provoke (hey not great but it's definitely usefull)

BST
light staff property for charm

DRK
sizeable mab and dark skill bonus

DRG
large chunk of wyvern hp

THF
Increases flee duration (seriously what thief wouldn't want that)

BRD
Increases movement speed while not engaged
+acc when engaged

PLD
Increases duration of cover

NIN
Decreases chance of being detected

RNG
Increases scavange results

These things aren't bad, it's all about adding utility not stats.

So 1000 coins aren't impossible to obtain and it gives people a bit of a goal that they can actually obtain instead of relic. I personally would rather have something with +enfeeble skill and refresh when engaged then excalibur.

[zoobernut]

I guess for alot of jobs AF +1 weapons would be useless your right but for thf for instance it would be nice if there was an endgame dagger that was obtained in a way that was feasible for thfs.

Please correct me if I am wrong but endgame dagger options for thf right now; mandau (way out of reach for most people), blau dolch which is dropped from an ENM that everyone says thf are utterly useless for and wont bring thfs along, P. Harpe which is ultra rare drop from xolotl which for me has been tough getting friends to help kill it, martial knife which is reasonably priced but low base dammage and really mostly useful if you are doing shark bite skillchain.

[layoneil]

blau dolch which is dropped from an ENM that everyone says thf are utterly useless for and wont bring thfs along

it's not Ex, so that complaint is stupid.

if AF+1 "was an endgame dagger that was obtained in a way that was feasible", the stats should be worse. if it had better stats, it shouldn't be that feasible

they shouldn't make good weapons that's better than current stuff that's significantly cheaper/easier to obtain.

weapons for melees is very different from other gear, you can't macro swap them, there's usually only one "best weapon after relic".

there are tons of new mage weapons they can make, they just don't.

[Ryko]

no, don't care that you have all them merits Ryko, just get back on War and you will do even better, Pld still is not a DD)

Hey wtf did I do <_< I'm like too lazy to blast out the last 20k to get PLD to 75, mostly becasue, yeah, my warrior's that much better <_<

[epigram]

For melee though there are a lot of times where your doing something that doesn't require you to keep tp, or situations where a sizeable bonus may mean a lot.

Like take soloing. If monk af+1 gave a serious chakara bonus then despite having lower damage than destroyers it would be a very nice weapon to have.

A serious increase in flee duration would also be very nice to thieves, and most of the time they use flee they aren't engaged in combat. Hell it might save them a lot of exp on sac pulls if they could logout.

Even something like a reduced provoke time with war af+1 equipped could allow your mages to nuke a little more if you use war's to kite or tank.

You don't want to know how many beasts would kill to have an axe with the light staff property for charming, not having to reset your tp every fight is priceless.

A large increase in wyvern hp for a dragoon would be quite useful for solo and harsh environments.

Increased souleater duration or blood weapon time would be nice for drks, if a drk only needed to have it equiped when the ja was used for the full effect it would be absurdly useful.


Moving in stats isn't where the game is going, nor should future gear move in that direction. Utility is vastly more important than stats in many situations.

[zoobernut]

Very valid points. However to me there is a difference between feasible and easy.

As for the blau dolch yes its not EX and yes it can be bought on the AH but personally I enjoy going out and obtaining my gear/weapons rather than just buying them. I think it makes having the item more special in the end.

I dont have limbus access yet so I may be wrong on this but I have been told that thf are useful for limbus and my thf friends get to go on limbus runs regularly with their ls. By feasible I meant a situation such as this where thf were regularly included in the event. This does not mean easy as they might still have to farm for weeks to get enough ancient beastcoins and the right rare/ex items to upgrade the weapon.

These weapons could be time consuming and difficult to get but be in a situation that was more open to a variety of jobs to get. Not something like an ENM where the only jobs that are welcome are Monks and Mages. at least on my server.