Are SE trying to wind FFXI down?

[Argettio]

I had a discussion with a friend about why SE are making some of the recent big changes in the game and here is my point of view:

SE are trying to wind the game down, by making it 'easier', this means more players will reach their goals and be able to quit the game happy that they 'competed it' to a satisfactory level. examples of this are
* Making EXP easier to obtain (FoV, Campaign)
* Making money easier to obtain (FoV, ANNM, Union)
* ACP and MCD offering gear close to (or exceeding) some top Tier armor
* Augments offering some previously non-existent items (eg. MND bow)

My friends point of view was:
Yes SE are making it easier, but he thought it was finally giving into the player base that have been demanding less time sinks and better rewards and not a deliberate attempt to get players 'competed'

Discuss...

[Hyan]

They're doing the best they can to keep us playing (for as little cost as possible). If it's enough or not, Idk.

I don't think there's any secret motive to what they're doing, really.

[Moosey]

MMO's do this sort of thing as their games start to age, like hyan said, to keep people playing. (WoW does the same shit)

Also, it's things they should have implemented long ago.

[The Stig]

Here's my view on it:

* Making EXP easier to obtain (FoV, Campaign)

For the smart people, yes. For the dumbshit people who fight FoV mobs 2-3 levels above them, and moan about WHMs not curing in Campaign (and so on), no. Basically, for the people already good at the game, the game just got more convienient. For the people who still wants ZOMGHUGELIKEXBOX numbers, no. They are doing it wrong.

* Making money easier to obtain (FoV, ANNM, Union)

I don't see much money in FoV, excluding all other drops from killing the required mobs it's 300-1500g/V.Day. Otherwise, ANNM is a good alternative. Not sure about Union yet.

* Augments offering some previously non-existent items (eg. MND bow)

I don't think 1 or 2 tiny stats will make the game that much easier. But it's a good "lottery" type of fun to see what you get at the end of it.

[The Q]

Option 2

[Seraphus]

I chose option 4.

"SE can differentiate between "is" and "are"."

[orson]

This pretty ridiculous, making the game easier actually attracts players. Most people do not have like 2-4 hrs to play a single video every day. The whole reason they added the 14 day trial, FoV, campaign, MMM, etc. is provide content for casual play and the thing is it doesn't take away from the main game. Seriously the Devs right now are focusing on getting more new people playing.

As for ANNM they aren't "easy" gil they're the BCNM, KSNM, ENM, ISNM system for WoTG remember there's 1 loot pool for 1 ANNM that might need 4 people. You theoretically could bring the same 4 people to ISNMs and get 4 Khroma Ore.

ACP and the other add-ons are a result directly of the survey SE did not to long ago when they asked what sort of merchandise we wanted. I bet a lot of people asked for useful ingame gear and storylines.

As for augments they're far too low drop rates for the good ones just as bad if not worse than regular good gear.

[eva00r]

Augments are extremely random, only a few hardcore of hardcore people are after them. ANNM did not cost nothing, if you are going to do it everyday you will need 9k AN a day 63k AN a week for 4-6 people depends on which ANNM you're after.

[orson]

Augments are extremely random, only a few hardcore of hardcore people are after them. ANNM did not cost nothing, if you are going to do it everyday you will need 9k AN a day 63k AN a week for 4-6 people depends on which ANNM you're after.

Exactly it's no different from spamming ISNMs for khroma for salvage bodies.

[rog]

Voted 2. Trying to get people to quit wouldn't make any sense. They'll likely charge the same, or similar fees for ff14 as 11, so they wouldn't benefit from people switching. Not everyone that quits ffxi is going to go play ff14, so trying to get people to quit would only lose them money.

[Argettio]

I chose option 4.

"SE can differentiate between "is" and "are"."

Is: Third person, singular and present tense

Are: Third person, plural and present tense

So the argument is over SE being a single entity or group/organisation.

From a legal sense SE is a single entity (limited liability company), but in normal conversation companies are typically refereed as a group, therefore using the plural is more appropriate imo. (gogo grammar Nazis)

@ the OP.
Making the game easier will make more people play. But they will also get through the content (leveling and gearing jobs) faster than before, and once you have leveled and geared the few jobs you are interested in, then what do you do?

[Kkel]

Option 4: Yes - Auto banning legit gardeners, LM-17'ing players who were double charged because they called their banks for charge-backs due to non-existent SE customer service, for silly LS names, ridonkulous GMs, etc, etc, yadda, yadda, and anyone who isn't flat out banned they're hoping will quit due to the inanity of it all.

[Gergall]

Nothing new is going on. SE has been making the game easier ever since it was released. The game was never more difficult than when it first came out.

[Spira]

I think they are indeed making the game 'easier'. Its not just easier, but also more casual/solo friendly. It seems like natural progression for an aging MMO. As fewer people play it, the game population drops, and in order to make the game remain playable and comfortable in terms of EXPing, these steps have been taken. At the same time, some things have been introduced that really should have been there since day one, but its an improvement no doubt, and at the very least we know they'll be taking the concepts (FoV/Level Sync) over to FFXIV.

I get the feeling FFXI is trying to tone down the difficulty/long-term commitment involved with certain quests, such as Relic and Mythic weapons as well. Although those quests were meant to prolong players interest in the game through various timesinks, they've also tweaked the game to make such goals seem more accessible for the hardcore who want to achieve it but aren't looking forward to take over a year to get them.

This will definitely be a problem when less people will be doing dynamis, salvage and other middle-man/large-scale (7-18m / >18man respectively) events in the game. Already, we can say that the upcoming ancient currency being obtained from Campaign update is a sign of this shift. But at the same time, it also attempts to spur more people to play in Campaign, or to start upgrading their relics, thereby prolonging their play.

in this sense, I think that SE is making things easier in the way that people will want to spend more time in the game / more casual time, than just give up because anything harder than a certain point, people are just not gonna bother. They can go spend their time in XIV or another game instead.

[pchan]

I had a discussion with a friend about why SE are making some of the recent big changes in the game and here is my point of view:

SE are trying to wind the game down, by making it 'easier', this means more players will reach their goals and be able to quit the game happy that they 'competed it' to a satisfactory level. examples of this are
* Making EXP easier to obtain (FoV, Campaign)
* Making money easier to obtain (FoV, ANNM, Union)
* ACP and MCD offering gear close to (or exceeding) some top Tier armor
* Augments offering some previously non-existent items (eg. MND bow)

My friends point of view was:
Yes SE are making it easier, but he thought it was finally giving into the player base that have been demanding less time sinks and better rewards and not a deliberate attempt to get players 'competed'

Discuss...

As far as easy XP is concerned, it's a good thing. Back when I started soloing past level 20 was incredibly hard task (5 min to kill an easy prey dropping 36 xp ..?). Also FoV and Annm are crap money, you have to use all tags on one BC and the droprate is shit, so I wouldn't worry about that.

[Eldelphia]

I think they're testing our concepts for their new game in XI.

[Xavier]

The intent behind making the game more accessible to casual players is to increase (or at the very least retain) the playerbase, not alienate it.

If you really wanted to shut down FFXI in favor of FFXIV, you'd quadruple the time commitment, not cut it in half. Patience is rarely found to be someone's strongest virtue.

------

As for the grammar, that is debatable. Depends on whether you are using Square to reference the behavior of a single company, or of the individual employees within it.

Are the employees of Square trying to wind FFXI down?

Is the development team (Square) trying to wind FFXI down?

Or, the difference between this: the staff was working diligently; the staff were working diligently. The first implies the staff as a single entity, the latter notes the actual people.

The staff was working diligently, but was disbanded due to budget cuts; the staff were working diligently, but were let go due to budget cuts.

In any case, a group is not intrinsically a plural entity. At least, that is my take on it.

[Tsavi]

I agree that they are making it easier and testing concepts they will likely utilize in FFXIV as they stated they wanted to focus more on casual gameplay. Since AU came out they been trying to streamline and make it easier. Probably due to the two leads from CoP going over to FFXIV.

[Xavier]

I haven't been keeping up with the community very much at all, so I don't really know how a lot of you feel about FFXI right now, but from the little I've played lately, I actually enjoy the more casual approach the game has adopted. If its any indication of what to expect from FFXIV, I will actually be pretty excited.

[Stiker]

If anyone thinks SE wouldn't try to do anything to keep a monthly charge rolling in from a single player playing 2 different games, you are seriously deluding yourself. They've said it themselves several times.

If you can make content, and more importantly progression, easier on the player, especially in the time department, the better chance you have of retaining that player more often than not.

I would wager SE has been looking at the "big picture" for a year or two now regarding FFXIV and FFXI being online at the same time. They've acclimated the dev team to supporting two games at once, implemented the SE account system, and released security tokens. All of these were done with "future games" in mind, namely FFXIV.

And of course you have the bottom line. SE makes more money from a player playing FFXIV and FFXI at the same time and handing over more monthly fees than just a single one.