Hiromichi Tanaka: "we're not sure" on FFXI future...Follow

Source: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=19384

The article above is about FFXIV but the last question is about the future of FFXI:



Sorry to create a new thread, but I thought it be best to separate this from the FFXIV talk.

I currently have no plans on going to FFXIV and plan on playing FFXI for quite some time, so I find this news a little disheartening. I like the job system and am not really interested in a weapon based game. I personally feel XIV will end up as an Everquest2 type of game where the bulk of players will stay or return to FFXI. I wish they would just say "Don't worry FFXI we haven't forgotten about you. One more big expansion at least".

Edit: Grammar

Edited, Aug 24th 2009 2:55pm by mkriss

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That is absolutely terrible news. Shantoto is only, what, 2 months away? And they do not even know if they are going to do anything past then.

I would have preferred a "We can't comment on that at this time" to that. "We might not." Really?
Wow.

That really gives the impression, to me, that they have just kind of given up on XI for expansions and actual new content.
Really depressing if that's his current attitude.

What's to say, in 2017, the same won't happen to XIV in favor of FF XVII online.
He gave a plain terrible answer that is going to cause nothing but distress to the players and confirm their worst fears.


I think I would have liked a lie more in this case. What a terrible time to start being completely honest with us.

Edited, Aug 24th 2009 11:56am by Uchitoru

On a positive note, it is a very Japanese thing not to "speak out of turn". They might have something brewing but it isn't his place to say. He'll save it for the PR guys.

Like Star Wars Episode 7, 8, & 9. We kinda had plans for them.

Edited, Aug 24th 2009 10:05am by mkriss

This comment kind of explains the recent two-finger salute to players with the indiscriminate bannings.

They simply stopped caring about retaining the customer base. Its just a job to them, if its to smash the RMT then so be it and the big numbers make me look good to upstairs so its a win-win situation either way to the corporate executive tasked with maintaining FFXI's content and STF's continued existence.

Yeah. I guess that's what it really boils down to. My favorite hobby of the past few years is coming to an end. I still have a lot of missions to do, but it's sad to think when I'm done that's it. It might be time to look into a new MMORPG.

Didn't Everquest keep going with new content well after Everquest II came out? I had a friend that played both but I never really got into it myself.

I really don't see why SE would drop XI when they could easily keep both going. World of Warcraft is going to basically recreate itself for its own sequel but SE seems to adamant in killing this game off for XIV.... seems like a huge gamble to me.

Ive always heard older MMOs staying around for 8 or 9 years but the way that XI plays, you'd be hard pressed to play this game in a low population environment given how things work here (forced partying etc). Guess SE wants to set a new standard in pulling the plug.

It's not that they're giving up on FFXI that gets me so much, I always knew it would happen sooner or later. ALL MMO's have a lifespan, it's the way the genre works. A MMO relies on having a large enough player base to support the gameplay, and eventually people get bored with the same thing and move on. Every MMO ever released from the days of Everquest has had its ups and ultimately downs. WoW is HUGE now, but eventually even it will suffer the same fate, it's just a matter of how long.

A MMO will have several phases in its life. The "birthing" phase, where upon its release it gets a public audience. If it has potential it grabs a strong and loyal fan base and moves forward. This is followed by the "growth" phase where new content is added and the game gets bigger than before, often accompanied by expansion packs and many updates to improve in game mechanics and add new content. Eventually the game will reach a plateau of interest where there aren't going to be new players coming into the game like the initial two phases, and the customer base has more or less peaked, this is the "middle ages" of the game. At this point you'll have a duration for a while where it's more or less stable and happy, with new content arriving and people enjoying themselves. However while the population is not decreasing, it is also no longer increasing. This is followed by the "decline" phase, wherepon more people begin to leave the game than join, and very slowly the playerbase declines in population. A byproduct of time. During this phase people slowly get tired of it having done most of the events, and at some point people feel they have accomplished all they wanted to, be it getting all jobs leveled or acquiring most every piece of gear they wanted or whatnot. The final phase is the "death" phase, where even if the game does not truly die and the servers remain active, it's just a mere shell of its former existence. The majority of the playerbase has had its fill of entertainment and is ready to move on to new frontiers. They either move to a new MMO or stop playing mmos entirely and revert to console games or persue other ventures in real life.

Everquest, Halo, Lineage, Everquest 2, FFXI, WoW, Diablo, Diablo II. They are all in the same boat and will all experience this trend, it is the nature of the mmo genre. Everquest is among the oldest of the titles listed to ever hit it BIG, but while its servers are still alive (only a few) it's nothing like it used to be and only the most hardcore players remain. After 6 years of fun filled entertainment FFXI has finally reached the "death" phase where people are ready to move on, and this is only going to be hastened (rapidly) by the announcement of the "birthing phase" of FF 14.

But S-E REALLY is NOT handling this well at all. When you allow a game to die you should try to do it gently. We've spent the past 6 years of our liives in here, and the way they''re handling it and just turning their backs on us after all we've spent with this game is not just disgusting and appalling, it's demoralizing and heartbreaking. They don't care, they REALLY just DON'T CARE.

Birthing --> growth --> middle ages ---> decline --> death

the phases of a MMO. The TRUE potential of a company's dedication to its playerbase doesn't happen until they handle the final phase, and only THERE do you see what you REALLY mean to them. S-E isn't faring well with that at all. And that will have an impact on every game the company produces thereafter.

Edited, Aug 24th 2009 11:02pm by Melphina

I saw this coming from the time they mentioned they were going to the mini-expansions. It's very sad to see my suspicions realized.

Why is it so hard to understand that SE is using all of their limited resources for FFXIV? Why would they spend more money and resources on FFXI when there's no reward? Addicts will continue to play with or without new content, it's not going to draw in new customers, and every user that leaves FFXI for FFXIV is another subscriber they can flaunt on their way to the bank.

If you've been around in XI since the birthing phase, one thing you know for sure is they do not care for the most part about our major concerns. All that complaining about kings? The game will shutdown and kings will still go unfixed and the botting going to hell with the servers. Beastmaster? SE's given up on that class, maybe next MMO they'll put some effort into that. RMT? We'll kill them and possibly you but don't fret... you can still play XIV if you get autobanned.

SE has alot of pros that on paper could have them beating Blizzard at an MMO in raw amount of users but time and time again they stumble on the simplest of things: player-to-developer concerns and feedback. This is yet again another example of SE just not handling a situation well and putting the players into an awkward situation.

Perhaps it's all just an elaborate game to them and when XIV comes out that they will have a new stance on listening to player concerns since they wouldn't want the game to fail but for XI? Just more of the same.

Hopefully you're right. I'd love to see mini-expansions with a few new missions and new maps. Mini-Expansions like Far East, Far South, Far North, Far West.