20th Anniversary Reddit AMA

I'm not someone that thought that Abyssea was bad for the game. It really reinvigorated my love for it, actually.

That said, I think that marks a turning point for XI. FFXI's culture of camps, parties and levelling were replaced almost overnight. 75 gear was made obsolete by Crour gear.

Part of why FFXI worked for someone coming into it for the first time was that you could join at any time, and the events might still be useful. I joined around ToAU. I still did Limbus, Sky, Sea, Dynamis, and all the other new stuff that ToAU added.

The other would have been to improve things like Skill Ups, improve on exp rate, but retain that social experience. Because gear swaps are really neat, but the core of the game sub 75 was a social experience. Without that it's tedious busy-work. It was sorta tedious busy work with that. There was a way to make the early game easier without killing the charm of it, but they instead just removed it.

Joining FFXI today would be an absolutely awful experience. Half the world is now filled with weirdly incongruently high level mobs. The world feels so empty. And it has some cool story stuff, but like, the bits in-between are just .. not good.

So I find it really hard to see how you could get new people into XI now. I tried a new character once, and I just.. I couldn't get into it at all. And I don't think that was the lack of the charm of new things, I just think without seeing people mill around, or joining a party for the first time at 10, or having to unlock Kazham to get the next party.. It's just dull.

I can just picture some of the faces my friends would make if I told them they had to spend an hour trading corn to an NPC just so they can unlock the quests to upgrade their bags.

It was already hard enough explaining why we had to make detours to get Kazham keys. They quit before the airship arrived, by the way.

As a customer voicing your opinion is fine. Doesn't matter if this project is making little money. Customers can complain because they are paying, period.

But your complaint has to be reasonable. Or else of course you will be disappointed.

You guys made a thread a month before the anniversary with 50 different wishes came out of nowhere, then expect SE to fulfill them ONE month later? That's unreasonable. They probably need 2 years minimum to make something after they receive opinions on the internet IF they decide to do it.

2 years ago before I quit I saw people asked for empy upgrade content. And we are getting exactly that this year which was announced in the anniversary. 2 years ago I didn't see endless "FFXI remaster please" comment. Suddenly they ALL pop last month then cried and whined because it didn't happen this month. Wtf.

If you want to see a new expansion, new jobs, new zones, start posting about them on SE forums. If enough people ask for the same thing maybe 5 years later you'll see it.

If you want this "FFXI remaster", I think it will take longer than 5 years to make after they receive the comment IF they even decide to do it lol.

If nobody ask for "new expansion" "FFXI remaster" 5 years ago, because apparently nobody want them bad enough back then, what makes you think they'll suddenly happen now only because you asked for them last month out of nowhere?

So instead of complaining about other people aren't complaining hard enough, maybe start gathering people spamming SE forums about this new expansion now Draylo! Worst case SE will reply with "no it's not going to happen" 6 months after they receive your opinion. Then you won't be THIS disappointed anymore.

SE hyped up a big announcement for the 20th Anniversary. They used it for years as a carrot on a stick.

Nobody reasonable expected a big FF Remake, or classic, or anything even like that. That thread was very clearly about what people given an unlimited amount of hopium would want.

They failed to meet even reasonable expectations. That's sort of the problem.

Then what were you expecting then? New battle content with empy +3 or something? That's exactly what we got no?

It seems like all the disappointment expected something bigger because empy battle content isn't good enough.

Firstly, some kind of content to be released on the actual anniversary, like a big version update with something to do.

Secondly, some teasers of things like Empy stats, maybe stats for a SINGLE Prime Weapon.

A new zone.

Job Adjustments, even if that was probably them referring to Master Levels.

People bave been asking for an expansion for ages... 10 years since our last one.

The game doesnt need to be advertised to your average gamer. It can stay a niche game but it needs an expansion to bring back older players amd to retain its current ones. The plans they have atm will only slow the bleed a little but it will bleed subs without anything substantial to look forward to. And most complaining about the things you have to grind to get fame etc... have they never played rpgs? The problem we have these days is everyone wanting a minecraft or candy crush, then they get burnt out on gaming and wonder why. Not everything has to be fast fast fast.

Like it or not, Voracious Resurgence is an expansion.

I’ll take VR for free over paying $50-$60 (per account for some!) for a boxed expansion (would be download only at this point, let’s be real) that launches with 20% of the content active and the rest drip fed over the next 2-3 years (remember WotG?) in buggy patch after buggy patch.

Then there’s the question of who the expansion is tailored to. If you want new players it needs to be easy enough for whatever new players it brings in, else why would they even bother? At the same time, if it is for anyone to enjoy, established players will be salty that it’s not worth the effort since it’s not challenging.

New jobs? Going back and adding 99 levels of skills, merits, job points, gifts, AF/relic/empyrean quests, adding new shards to Dynamis-D seems like an awful amount of work for something that won’t be better than a Naegling DD. And none of that armor will be in the game at launch, which will cause more complaining after people bot it to master level in a week.

You’ve seen what the dev team has created in the last 7+ years, why does anyone believe that an actual retail expansion would be the holy grail this game is in need of?

A roadmap and a master ring would have been good enough for me.

Man you guys are just now figuring out that SE is a terribly ran, self-destructive organization?

They produced literally nothing except a chocobo and a shirt. They took 3 years of subs and used it to fuel a cheap website and a nostalgia fest. This game need game content, not websites. You can say they added Odyssee and it's true but I think it's inaccessible for too many people and for a few different reasons.

THEY hyped the 20th, NOT US. They literally said they were going to be producing less content for the game because they would be working on the 20th anniversary Suprise. What was it? Not even a single f**king image or preview. NOTHING.

Stop apologizing for them.

What's the real difference between having the version update on May v.s June or July? The difference isn't huge.

We had v20 and ml 30 recently and that kept me busy. Releasing the update in June or July doesn't matter. I wouldn't be able to do them all.


This is reasonable, and actually a good idea PR wise. Too bad for an missed opportunity SE! But personally I wouldn't be "disappointed" @ Draylo level without it.


What's the reason to add a new zone? New battle content or new story? Expecting a new zone for "hype" isn't reasonable to me. If new story or content needs a new zone then that would be more reasonable to add it.



But was it only a few person asking for them or many? If it wasn't a popular demand then I wouldn't expect SE to do it that easily then get disappointed. SE said they are lacking PS2 dev kit atm so adding new expansion will be a LOT more difficult than before. You really need a LOT of people asking for it to have a chance to see it lol.

Tbh the only expection I had this anniversary was only empy battle content. Because that was the highest demand content that I see on forums all the time 2 years ago so I felt it's about time to see it.

Then I got exactly that. Not on May but not that much later anyways. So it wasn't a huge disappointment to me.

Hopeful posts about "FFXI classic" "FFXI remake" that ALL popped last month though, I think it was ridiculous to expect it to come true.

Because when they hype the 20th Anniversary, and then the version update post is just "We will be changing ambuscade to an ambuscade we already released.."

I mean, I just fail to see how you can't understand why people would be angry about that. Banhammer is right, they hyped it. And they flubbed it.

Years and years and years of {Please look forward to it.} Just for the anniversary to be more of that.

What if... it's the NA 20th and not just in general?


right?



... crickets

Well... yes. It's hard to get excited by the prospect of yet another laggy instanced battle through dark, repetitive rooms.

The dev team has limited time and resources to work with, but they had two years to prepare for the big reveal; They could have cloned and recolored a few Abyssea zones instead, and the player base would be losing its mind with excitement right now.

It's not that I can't understand people's disappointment, it's more like I think it's many people reading SE announcement incorrectly. To me it's all PR bluff. So I ignored the bluff words.

They said things about having special events for anniversary on playonline. They never actually said "we'll have new big battle content on May exactly". So I read exactly that.

I expected streams, dev interviews, physical item release, empy battle content, upcoming schedule for future plans. All based on what I read on forums and their announcement.

And I got exactly that. Okay maybe empy battle content is delayed a little more than expected. But I can wait cuz I have no time to play now anyways.

So I'm not really defending for SE because I love SE or something. I just legit got everything or nearly everything that I expected.

As far as special misc items like master ring or prime weapon previews. Those are very reasonable. But you guys gonna let SE know that's what you want 6 months earlier lol. If you post those ideas in April then I wouldn't expect to see them in May.


I actually did expected Abyssea zone for empy...

Okay I guess that's one more disappointment add to the list for me!

Oldschool runescape is incredibly popular.

They've talked in the past about cycling down their developments in order to prepare for the 20th Anniversary. This happened at least a year ago, possibly more.

So when that approaches, and they have a 5 hour stream, and they don't show ANYTHING. Any content, at all. The idea that they'd even think it acceptable to hype it so much to show an ambuscade update, without sufficient explanation. Without any explanation.

The idea that I'd have to say "Oh I want you to show me something" 6 months prior for them to get the idea? It's bad. It's bad for you to put the onus on the community to have to say "I want you to do the bare minimum."

And it's bad for them for not realising that it's obviously the bare minimum.

Delays due to covid are acceptable, I think. It's the complete lack of transparency about it. That is why they will get hate questions. I don't think people will be unreasonable for asking "What the hell was that?"

Not very versed in RS(tried it for maybe a week way back when) but wasn't it free to play with cash options? And going back to advertsing I kind of remember runescape being fairly advertised through ads back when it was still newish too.


That's the other thing SE has been abhorrent in improving, even with the JP side theyre cryptic, you had a brief stint during the opening of the official forums and the test server where they looked like they might be fixing that but then it just vanished

Yeah, they cycling down their development order to have 20 meetings working on designs of their cute gob and Mandy for sell. Then spent next 5 months contacting factories to produce them.

Because they thought players would like those things. It's cute!

They hyped players endlessly because they legit like their newest work, or PR tried really hard to sell them. But hardcore dedicated players on FFXIAH thought they meant battle content. Because they give 0 *** about cute gobs and Mandy to buy. But they very much care about next set of gears with 2% DPS increase.

THAT, is how I see this wave of disappointment has happened. It's more of a communication problem to me.

General disappointment with SE is one thing, but even if you dig through every single quote, there's nothing firm to indicate we would be receiving anything major on the anniversary itself. The people with reading comprehension said this prior to anniversary, but reddit posters and others worked themselves into a frenzy and built hopes on conversations between themselves.. while losing touch with what SE actually promised.

Don't disagree with you, but also think it's perfectly reasonable to be very annoyed with that. How absolutely blind to your player base do you have to be to think that an active player is gonna be ok with a goblin plushie.

I will be buying the Goblin plushie.

Also, for real, devs do not spend hours in meetings about plushies. They could have still had dev effort. And designer effort. Marketing is not Game Design nor is it programming.

These apologetics are just sad.

If you have the numbers for people leaving WoW or XIV to become full time RuneScape players, please link me the source.

Then let’s ask why people choose one over the other. I know nothing of RuneScape, but I assume it’s comparable in some way?

Because it's not XIV, just like XI isn't. I haven't played it myself, but through testimony I've heard it's even more grindy than XI is.

That's what I was saying: there's a market for this game.

Nothing has to be done to XI. It can do well as it stands. But people don't know it's still running.

Different games can appeal to different audiences.

to those asking for an FFXI Classic, we'll get the 75 cap server for the 75th anniversary

since most players, likely in retirement homes at that time, will fall asleep 10 minutes after arriving in Dragon's Aery, Fafnir will spend most of his time unclaimed. it'll be exciting to see how 2077 shapes the HNM meta

The market for this game is already subscribed. People know this game still exists. It’s plastered on the XIV launcher last time I checked. Ninja of all people advocated for the game. You can’t claim people are ignorant of its ongoing existence when one of the biggest streamers in the world was playing it.

People that are talked into trying XI from XIV very often think it's XIV but older, and it very much isn't. They are near nothing alike and so it's not surprising if some of your friends might not like it (just as many of your XI friends won't like XIV) and it has nothing to do with the age or ui. I know a handful of people that came from XIV to XI as new players and are still playing a year later. Your friends just didn't like what XI has to offer, that's ok.

Ultimately it's all about the mindset going in and liking what the game has to offer, if you know what it is and like that kind of game then the age and other things are a minor issue. Some people would hate XI if it next gen graphics and a perfect UI, that probably applies to your friends.

The 5 hour stream wasting peoples time + the yoshida interview stating some unsavory things + the info mentioning the game has a very high profit margin annoyed a lot of people.

There are so many ways they can add more content but they don't even want to try, paid expansion or crowd funding..anything.

As for VR they are dragging the crap out of it, they didn't even show off the new zone they are supposedly working on.

I can’t imagine how upset and angry all of you would be when you drop $50 on this new expansion and it proceeds exactly the same way as VR has. Why do you want to be upset?