FFXI End Date?

[Dragonsword]

Re: FFXI End Date?

Doesnt seem likely at this moment. ToA is gaining momentum and with new zone with new combat rules (e.g. besieged) and contents, SE can create new settings for adventures to participate into. Just build up on what has been established and further develop it.

I can foresee some new jobs breaking lvl 75 in some new continents one day ^^ , just my wild guess XD

[eticket109]

Re: FFXI End Date?

As long as the game is making money, they'll keep it running. Look at EQ and AC; they've been playing far longer than FFXI and they're still going.
As for the graphical updates, maybe in a couple of years we'll see one. Then again, if they are going to do that why not just create a new game, call it FFXI-2, make it so all FFXI characters are transferrable, give all the players a free 30 days, and turn a naked population out into the new world to whack mobs at will.
Even then I'm betting people would still play FFXI. Just look at the fiasco that happened to SWG and people are still playing it.

Not only that but with the Progression servers, EQ has kept members and even seen a few people return. If they aren't going anywhere, then I doubt we are too.

[Rai-Jin]

Re: FFXI End Date?

Its def gonna go a few years seeing that they released it for xbox 360 too

[Herrisa]

Re: FFXI End Date?

As long as the game is making money, they'll keep it running. Look at EQ and AC; they've been playing far longer than FFXI and they're still going.

As for the graphical updates, maybe in a couple of years we'll see one. Then again, if they are going to do that why not just create a new game, call it FFXI-2, make it so all FFXI characters are transferrable, give all the players a free 30 days, and turn a naked population out into the new world to whack mobs at will.

Even then I'm betting people would still play FFXI. Just look at the fiasco that happened to SWG and people are still playing it.

[Maju]

Re: FFXI End Date?

About the graphics all I really ask for is for a better emulation engine that would take more advantage of more recent videocards, 32-bit color high res textures and longer drawing distance (in that order of importance).

Actually, the longer drawing distance (up to 25x) can be arranged with a 3rd party tool that I don't have of course. /whistlesinnocently

I agree with the rest, though. FFXI barely uses your GPU at all and we would see huge (and I'm talking massive) frame rate improvements if the engine was modernized.

Other than that I think the game has aged really well and looks better then many "modern" MMOGs that only use a crap load of particle effects to cover up the crappyness of their art department.

So true!

[Loial]

Re: FFXI End Date?

EQ1 has been online for 7.5 years now (I think it started in april '99). At some point a year and a half ago, they started with some server mergers to keep the population on the surviving servers high enough to keep an active community.

I'm not sure how successful FFXI is vs. EQ1, but as long as the game remains profitable, they probably won't be going anywhere. Some of it depends on how other MMOs develop. I know WoW took a lot of FFXI players and still is.

The day you see server mergers is the day you "might" want to consider the survivability of the game.

[Kitalrez]

Re: FFXI End Date?

I dunno, it's entirely possible to do a graphical update without seriously screwing with the harddrive footprint for PS2. Look at what Everquest did with the Shadows of Luclin expansion. During that, they completely redid the model system for every character type. To the tune of where you could remake your character's face and appearance completely. But, in order to play with any of the new models, you had to go into the setup program and actually turn each of them on or off. So, if you had hardware limitations, you could easily just use the old models. I see something like this being feasible for the PS2 if they ever update graphics for PS3, Xbox360 and PC. Everyone with the PS2 version would just not get the graphical update and could continue playing with things like they are now.

[Ziero]

Re: FFXI End Date?

Ya know, this kinda topic seems to spring up at least once a month every month for the past 2-3 years now. Besides unfounded rumors, what is there to make someone think this game is even remotely close to closing down? Subscriptions have remained near consistent, new content is being added and updated regularly as usual with no signs of stopping, there is still a LARGE amount of the world that has gone unreleased and unexplored, a ton of different potential new jobs that could be added, and on top of all that, the most sure fire way to know if the game is dieing or not, is that not one server has been closed down due to low population yet.

Maybe there should be a sticky topic or something exclaiming to all that the game is no where near dead. Maybe in 4-5 years from now things might start happening, but we still got a long road ahead.

[Raydeus]

Re: FFXI End Date?

I also think this game will be around for at least another 3 years, and it better be, I still have way too many jobs to take to 75.


About the graphics all I really ask for is for a better emulation engine that would take more advantage of more recent videocards, 32-bit color high res textures and longer drawing distance (in that order of importance).

Other than that I think the game has aged really well and looks better then many "modern" MMOGs that only use a crap load of particle effects to cover up the crappyness of their art department.

Now, even though a higher poly count and more detailed animations would be nice too I'd rather see that effort going to XI-2 or some game like that, specifically designed for next gen consoles.

Remember that tech demo they released last year? That's what I'm talking about.

[Caspian]

Re: FFXI End Date?

I heard that English version of FF XII is going to be released soon, does anyone going to try it? ... sigh, I don't have PS2 =(

Already reserved and payed for. Just waiting for the release now. Also heard people are complaining that using the scripts for the game is cheating. My argument to that is:
A. how else are you going to accurately and quickly control however many characters at the exact same time (its essentially the FFXI battle system, only one actual player controlling everything at once, from what I understand)
B. You're the one who wrote the protocols, so its not like the game is truly playing itself. It just makes it so you don't have to bounce from character to character making decisions and hitting buttons at light speed.

As far as FFXI's life goes. I've hardly seen any drop in server population on Fairy since I started playing in February of '04. Maybe 1 or 2 hundred decrease in people at any given time. This game still has a LOT of life left in it.
That being said, its possible SE has thrown around a possible date to kill the servers or make it open source for private servers. Like, I don't know, 2012?
Its not going to happen anytime soon, short of SE going bankrupt.

[Ameroth]

Re: FFXI End Date?

Though I know this game has a lot of time left in its life.... The thought of ffxi dying makes me pretty sad. That's not something I'd like to think about.

[Celeal]

Re: FFXI End Date?

IMHO, graphics is not an major issue. I believe the game content itself is the first priority.

There are games with top-notch graphics, but very poor game design.

For PS2, as long as it does not hinder the growth of the content, there is no reason for stopping PS2 support.

*Off Topic*
I heard that English version of FF XII is going to be released soon, does anyone going to try it? ... sigh, I don't have PS2 =(

[Kaickul]

Re: FFXI End Date?

Was it PS2 limitations?

The ones SE keeps telling us hold them back from implementing better features into FFXI. Like a better menu system, better graphics for status icons, better display options... the list goes on. Every interview involving an SE developer where people ask about this stuff the response is always 'We cant due to PS2 limitations.'


I doubt they could phase out PS2 support for this game before FFXI starts to die off, and by then such improvements wouldnt matter.

[Maju]

Re: FFXI End Date?

And no, I don't play on PS2, I play on a 27 gig, 192 MB of RAM laptop that's C drive is 76% full.

I'm sorry, but this made me giggle.

[Lilani]

Re: FFXI End Date?

Why would them wanna close down FFXI anyway?

lolgrammar

*cough*

But really, they were messing with you. As someone else said, you don't just shut down a game when it's at its highest number of subscribers--especially when it released on a whole other console less than a year ago (give or take). Really now, where was your head during all of this

And you PS2 haters obviously haven't seen the previews of FFXII. Just shut the freak up (yes, I censor myself). And no, I don't play on PS2, I play on a 27 gig, 192 MB of RAM laptop that's C drive is 76% full. If there is anyone playing on a sucky system, it is me. Get over yourselves. SE is far too smart of a company to invest something that brings in so much money on a system they didn't trust in the long run. And by long run, I mean the entire life expectancy of the game, whatever that may turn out to be.

Most of the JP players play on PS2, because that was the first system it came out on there. SE would never ever ever cut out or limit (or be limited by) such a large portion of their playing community. They'll never dump the PS2 and force their players to either quit or buy another version of the game. Likewise, I believe they have proved with FFX/X2, ToAU, and soon FFXII that the PS2 is not limiting them in any way. At all.