What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

[Gentoo]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

I'll have to echo what other have said; FFXI is a top rated MMORPG. That's not to say it couldn't expand it market share, and extend it's life. I think the key to this is making the game available in a fast and cheap manner, and offering free trials. In fact, I think this is more important than advertising in "traditional" media, or updating graphics capabilities.

Awhile ago, I would have jumped on the bandwagon calling for fresh graphics to entice new players into FFXI. After some consideration, I'm not sure this is at all necessary.. Sure it'd be nice, and I'd like to see it happen -- but if S.E. did spend the development time to do this, I don't think it would interest a significant number of new players.

My line of reasoning behind this is that other games with larger market shares (according to MMOGData) exist without offering a graphics systems signficantly better than FFXI's (e.g. World of Warcraft, Lineage 2, and Guild Wars). Although judging the "look" of one game to another is subjective, my conceit is that graphics only have to be good enough to trigger a sense a disbelief, and FFXI has that.

The one thing all three of the above mentioned games have in common, is really painless entry. For any of the three above games I mentioned, I can download a the client and play the game for 10-14 days free (Lineage 2 requires a trial key they give away with sporadic promotions). While this trial period doesn't even come close to letting me sample the games entire offering, it does allow me to get hooked (or not). Hell, even Lord of the Rings Onlines, in it's relative newness, allows me to download a trial client.

I know S.E. released the Starter Pack, but that doesn't go far enough. I (a) haven't seen one in the wild yet, and (b) don't consider driving/walking to Gamestop/EBGames to pay $2US for the starter pack as convenient, fast, or cheap as downloading trial software.

I think if Square really wants to try to grow it's market, offering the starter pack in downloadable format is a good start (and for cripes sake, make sure the downloadable starter pack is COMPLETELY up to date). Followed by adverts with online rags (e.g. 1up, mmorpg.com, kotaku, penny-arcade, vgcats) highlighting that FFXI can be trialed for free.

While I'm not niave enough to think that this would FFXI to WoW size, it would certainly make the game accessible to potentially new players.

[Feba]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

my conceit is that graphics only have to be good enough to trigger a sense a disbelief

Completely disagree. Look up MUDs sometime.

[Murphie]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

You completely disagree with the opinion that the graphics don't really matter, if the game is good enough? Wouldn't pointing someone to MUDs actually reinforce that opinion, since MUDs don't generally have graphics, but are still enjoyable to people?

[Feba]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

He's saying that suspension of disbelief is all that's important to make a game popular, I'm saying look at MUDs and the like, your character being @ isn't anywhere close, but people still enjoy it.

[Murphie]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

Exactly. Because they enjoy the game enough to suspend their disbelief. You're actually both saying the same thing.

Perhaps he should have said "the game in general" instead of "graphics", but it's essentially the same point.

[Nuriko]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

I think Gentoo was saying, "You only need so much in graphics," and Feba was saying, "No, you don't even need that."

[Ziero]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

Only thing I truly said was in my first post in this thread:

...to which I answered that they're not in any shadows, but are infact doing what they're supposed to be doing.

I don't see anything in my second post that relates to me thinking what it said

been in the shadow so long doing minor updates

they do major updates every three months

rarely the ones people would mostly request

they've fixed tons of long standing problems and introduced mini games and battle systems that have been specifically asked for by the playerbase

while delaying their biggest efforts

Anything that's been delayed has been so because they either can't get it to work right or don't know how to fix it, both of which they state when confronted about a problem


As for the graphics and PS2 support topics:

A graphics upgrade won't have a dramatic increase on the playerbase. Already being at number 3, beating out many other games with 'better' graphics, any superficial update wouldn't boost this game's standings much.

And the PS2 is the reason *why* this game is even around. Jp won't support a PC/Xbox only MMO and they make up the majority of this games player base. If the game wasn't made for and around the PS2 first, it would have never been as popular (see: The last MMO SE made). Unless FFXI can move seemlessly to the Wii, or Sony finally stops screwin around and makes a PS3 with useful backwards compatibility at a price decent enough to start being competition for the current PS2 dominance, the PS2 support is not going anywhere. And if it does go, you can expect FFXI to go with it.

WoW had the luxury of a built in fan base centered around PC online gaming, add in the ease of playing in the early lvls, with many simple quests and high soloability, and it's able to reach out to people who may have never even considered playing an MMO. No other MMO has even come *close* to 8 million subscriptions, and it's not because it's a better game but because it's a more accessible game. But FFXI is still one of the most populated MMOs of all time, peaking at 7-800k users and dwindling to a steady 500k, which is considered great by MMO standards. The only way to get FFXI into more people's hands would be to advertise more, release the game in a downloadable fashion or lower the price per month...all of which would have neglible effects at best.

[Rain_Blade]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

...to which I answered that they're not in any shadows, but are infact doing what they're supposed to be doing.


they do major updates every three months

they've fixed tons of long standing problems and introduced mini games and battle systems that have been specifically asked for by the playerbase

Anything that's been delayed has been so because they either can't get it to work right or don't know how to fix it, both of which they state when confronted about a problem


As for the graphics and PS2 support topics:

A graphics upgrade won't have a dramatic increase on the playerbase. Already being at number 3, beating out many other games with 'better' graphics, any superficial update wouldn't boost this game's standings much.

And the PS2 is the reason *why* this game is even around. Jp won't support a PC/Xbox only MMO and they make up the majority of this games player base. If the game wasn't made for and around the PS2 first, it would have never been as popular (see: The last MMO SE made). Unless FFXI can move seemlessly to the Wii, or Sony finally stops screwin around and makes a PS3 with useful backwards compatibility at a price decent enough to start being competition for the current PS2 dominance, the PS2 support is not going anywhere. And if it does go, you can expect FFXI to go with it.

WoW had the luxury of a built in fan base centered around PC online gaming, add in the ease of playing in the early lvls, with many simple quests and high soloability, and it's able to reach out to people who may have never even considered playing an MMO. No other MMO has even come *close* to 8 million subscriptions, and it's not because it's a better game but because it's a more accessible game. But FFXI is still one of the most populated MMOs of all time, peaking at 7-800k users and dwindling to a steady 500k, which is considered great by MMO standards. The only way to get FFXI into more people's hands would be to advertise more, release the game in a downloadable fashion or lower the price per month...all of which would have neglible effects at best.

I'm just gonna apologize lol You're right. I'm wrong. I'm bold enough to say it. lol At least you replied normally rather than saying stuff like "THEY DO MAJOR UPDATES EVERY THREE MONTHS!!!! WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?" Anyway, any update is "the more the merrier" to me. ^^

[Murphie]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

I think Gentoo was saying, "You only need so much in graphics," and Feba was saying, "No, you don't even need that."

Semantics. The intent was the same, I think.

[Raydeus]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

Not to mention watching Feba and Murphie argue is always entertaning, gotta love tarutaru fights.

[Murphie]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not a Taru in real life?

[Raydeus]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

Like I'm gonna believe you.

You will always be a taru in my mind, the same way Feba will always the taru in a teddy bear costume.

[Feba]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

Semantics. The intent was the same, I think.

I highly doubt he would've said "Graphics only have to be this good" if he meant "The game only has to be this good".

There's kinda a big difference there.

[Murphie]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

My god.

[Telera]

Re: What do you think FFXI needs to bring it back to a top ranked MMO?

Hard Drive Space is a pretty crappy excuse when $50 or less can get you 160+ GB of space.

Might be a crappy excuse if I was trying to excuse myself from anything, but I wasn't.

I don't *care* enough about the game to upgrade. Even if it was $5. To be making an excuse, first I would have to have the desire to upgrade, but lack capability in some department. Neither are true.

Anywho~

Murphie isn't really a Taru? My bubble is burst.