Dev Tracker - Discussion

XI is not the only MMO that retains it's subscription fee despite inflation so it's not really worth highlighting. You would have to pat the other options on the back as well.


Also, while not implicitly stated, inflation is the likely cause of the deflation of our development team. Providing less service for the same cost is an indirect way of dealing with it. It's also less jarring to customers than paying more for the same service.

The only thing I'm going to bother saying is it would be nice if they would stop wasting the only dev time they can afford on pointless ***like ambuscade 2 and mounts.

I'd much rather see those hours doing something of value, if they're charging for said value.

There are 100 mounts and 200 v2 and no one sees any of it.

It's not that "it only takes like 5 minutes" It's that if they're only going to spend 5 minutes on something, let it be a worthwhile something.

What difference does 8 dollars really make to make you want to resub? You won't even if the subs are bundled lol but it would be nice. I just don't get the hang up or maybe is just me

more and more gear is needed to play the game well, and in the past, expansions in inventory were free

it is absolutely a contradiction

$8 is subjective person to person. In a vacuum it might not seem like much but when you add it to the growing amount of monthly subscription bloat the world is going through, it definitely is more than just $8.

I just got done playing Diablo IVs open beta and I am underwhelmed. FFXI is still safe for a long time in my book because it doesn't play like a clicky phone game. New games just kinda suck. At least with XI you can pay for something you'll enjoy wasting your time on.

Pretty sure this year is going to be FFXI, Elden Ring, new Zelda, and whatever Switch games my 4 year old wants me to drag them through.

Idk this debate is as old as time. I just never understood it, even as a kid. When people complained about the sub fee, you get a lot for the price you pay which is practically nothing. I've always found that those exact same people waste money on things like cigs, lottery tickets and subs to platforms they dont even watch. They just like to complain and make excuses, if you really wanted to play then 8 dollars wouldn't be stopping you

Idk, when I was 4 boxing it felt like more than $50+ a month to me.

As someone who can only work part time rn, the $ kinda hurt.

Well said.

Again, your perception of the value of $8 is going to differ from every other human being on this planet. Just because you don't see it as a big deal doesn't mean others won't.

$8 for me is almost as much as my daily transit cost to get to my job. $8 is a cheap breakfast or lunch these days. $8 is dry cleaning for my work clothes. I could go on and on as to what $8 is and I do not fault or deride anyone who says it's a deterrent for not subscribing to a MMO, not just XI.

XI is a great bang for your buck, but once you start drying up the well of things to do, perhaps that $8 is better spent elsewhere.

I just spent 8 dollars on two red bulls... I mean, whatever lol. I just think it's worth it as long as you having fun, it has a lot of value. Also multi boxing shouldn't be included there because that's not part of the design, more pay to win.

Dang, $8 bucks for redbulls, just make coffee lemonade for $0.75.

Costs me $16 (wife and I) to take my toddler son to the pool to swim for an hour. We seriously bringing up the cost of FFXI like we're not all grown *** *** adults that can't afford it again?

Yes, seriously in the most serious sense of the gamer serious mindset sense of not reading the most adult serious wordplay to keep up. Seriously but how bout them Yankees? I bet they each have 6 characters, 16 mules, maxed wardrobes 34 streaming and monthly subscriptions for $14.99 apiece and are seriously fine with ffxi.

If your only hobby is to shitpost here, I sincerely feel sorry for you.

I had a family member who was stilled subbed to something for AOL.. finally convinced them to get rid of it a few years ago. There are worse monthly expenses I guess. Some people don't even know they are spending precious 8+ dollars a month on something.

The ppl here complaining about sub broke af :/

Still missing the point Firedemon. I'll give you that I responded to your ***post shittily.

Also missing the point. Noone here really cares about $8 a month or $50 or whatever, its the devaluation of the product where in this specific example SE essentially is finalizing abandoning ffxi like they've been steadily doing for like 10 years or more.

Luckily the players have kept it alive but certainly the writing is on the wall.

Like, you act like SE is holding a gun to your head to force you to pay the cash for the game. Don't agree with it? *** off then lol. It's simple ***. 20 bucks is next to nothing for a month, which ironically is about as much the content is worth as well.

Chill out. Overreacting.

We can agree to disagree. Content not worth $20 and has less value every day.

I get that point, as in it feels a little bit of a burn to keep paying the same and they are outright saying they are going to do less. That just seems to be the MO this last year though, with the inflation and companies just cutting back on literally everything. We getting screwed from every angle as consumers, not much you can do except hold out. Literally everyone has risen prices, lowered services offered for the same price or cut back in some fashion without giving up anything.

You would think with covid years where people were at home video games companies made more money yeah?

Just looked it up. Covid gave about a 27% increase but will settle down to about a 13% increase over the next year or so.

Not if people were making a fraction of what they were normally.

To be fair, with the current conversion the sub is $3495039485 a day CAD atm lol

People generally get paid more per hour in 2023 than they did back in 2002, so while the sub fee has never changed, the value of money has. Technically, the fee should have risen to coincide with our higher wage packets, but SE didn't because they knew any rise would have killed subs. Instead, it decided to cut back, and cut back, while pumping profits into more lucrative projects like FFVII Remake, FFXIV, FFXIV, FFXV, and all those remasters of other older titles.

It's true that we have gotten to the point that the sub fee is basically paying for the maintenance, and that sucks. I was one of those saying a year ago that we were being ripped off. I unsubbed for a year and saved over £120 ($146), which I put toward Xmas/Birthday presents and other games I played and enjoyed very much. I resubbed yesterday because I missed the game and the folks I ran events with, and I know what I'm paying for because I had a year to miss it. But when it comes time to unsub again, I'll be happy knowing I contributed something to prolonging the life of the game, even if it is trundling along like an OAP with a walking stick.

At least most players know at this point that... if you unsub for 6-12 months, you won't miss out on much. I can promise you that. But if you love playing this game and want to contribute to its continued running, then stayed subbed and find things to do. If you have literally nothing left to do, or have no motivation, then it's time to find other things to do with your time.

If SE ran the store where you got the Red Bull, the next time you return the old clerk is replaced by some punk kid named Fujito. He only sells the smaller Red Bulls now so you're stuck paying $12 to get the same amount you used to get for $8. Except now that you have so many cans to carry you have to purchase the wardro... er, I mean bags to carry them all.

Next month you will go back and they no longer stock it cold because refrigerators cost too much...

But! The can would totes be bedazzled. And half empty. And flat. but looked cool, that matters.

.... and a thousand mannequins in the parking lot "drinking" them.

and 500 people in the store screaming they open cans for another dollar.

Are you getting less for your money? Absolutely.

Do you have the choice to not spend your money on FFXI, and pay for a different subscription service game, or even play a free game? Yep.

If you care about the price, even a little bit, you either want to play FFXI or you are so invested in hating a game you don't want to play that you should seek counseling. If you still want to play, then that means it's offering something the other games you have available to you aren't, so maybe the sub isn't actually so unreasonable after all.

Wardrobes are a different story. Can't fault a company for taking money that customers will happily throw at them, though I do fault them for sacrificing user experience to do so, since as I've said in the past, there are much better ways to address the inventory situation(and they could still charge for them).

Dudes coming out of the woodwork from their 18 year slumber yelling "I TOLD YOU THIS GAME WAS DYING"