I have to admit, I was bawling like a kid earlier, when I read the news that FFXI is going to have one final storyline to wrap up by November, after which content updates will cease and it'll go into maintenance mode, just balance changes and bugfixes. They're going to release a mobile spinoff game (Japan only), and (weirdly enough), they're going to work with Nexon of all companies, to port FFXI to mobile as well (presumably making it F2P). But I have no clue how that would work because, it's not like the game is getting new content or anything so playing the game on an ipad sounds... less than promising.
For me personally, this is heartbreaking (especially as I returned to the game like 5 days ago!). Good things can't last forever, and one would expect an old MMO like this to start dying eventually, but it's still really sad. At least the game will not be offline for a few years, and they're going through this about as well as you could hope for (no Star Wars Galaxies or City of Heroes fiasco, luckily). The consensus seems to be that it's really sad that it's happening, but one of the better ways to do it. Though for me, I really didn't see this coming. There have been fairly sizable updates to the game monthly for a while now, the game just had a new expansion come out a couple years ago that really mixed things up, there have been a lot of quality of life improvements and the game has been made a lot friendlier for new people. I would've expected them to switch to smaller updates every 3-6 months for another couple of years before starting the beginning of the end, but what do I know.
The real sad part for me (and probably for many other people who still want to play MMO's), is there's no where to go really. I mean people like myself who played on and off for years still have plenty of existing things to do, storylines to go through (FFXI expansion storylines were actually really enjoyable, and I usually dislike FF stories), more weapons and gear to get. The game has a very complex gear swapping system which lets the progression be very horizontal as you do content from years and years ago for situational pieces of gear. No 2 people really look alike (except for the people that have been hardcore since the beginning and they're rare). The community is older and more mature than that of most MMO's. Most of them aren't really hardcore gamers, many only play FFXI. The majority of players played FF games growing up and transitioned into FFXI in their teenaged years. Eventually more and more people are going to get just about everything you can get (hell, some people have practically done that now on the game's 22 jobs), and it'll become a ghost town.
I know someone's going to say "well hey man, if you like that game so much, you can go play a really new FF MMO, FFXIV! It's great, and a lot of people play it!" The problem for me is that it's a really, really different kind of game than FFXI. I played a decent portion through FFXIV 1.0 (ugh), and a good amount of FFXIV 2.0. In my own opinion, 1.0 was a good idea executed terribly. 2.0 was a poor idea executed really well. At its heart 1.0 had a lot of systems, and a style of combat that was similar to FFXI, but a bit too fast, and the game ultimately ran like crap. 2.0 is very much the post-WoW MMO, where instead of grouping up with people to go out and get something done, most of the time it's faster to just do it solo. It's hard to find shout groups, and while the dungeon finder thing is convenient, it's cross-server so you'll never see the people you meet again. The combat is very fast, and you have a bajillion hotbars across your screen and gameplay consists of setting your face on one side of the keyboard, and rolling it to the other side. Oh yeah, also the game is so fast paced that if you play on pad as a healer or tank you're probably at a disadvantage. It's also impossible to strategise during combat unless you have voice chat since it's so fast. I don't hate FFXIV or anything, but it's very much a post-WoW MMO where you want to hit a ton of buttons all the time. Not to mention the hard content is hard not because you're good at your job, but because everyone managed to dodge the red circles successfully. But I digress.
EVE Online sounds to me like the closest thing in terms of combat pace. It's slower, more methodical, the community isn't your typical modern MMO crowd, and it's been around for a long time. However the real heart of the game seems to be about this kind of metagame that I'm not incredibly interested in, and also I don't like the setting as much. I think I have a plex sitting in my ship though so I might try it out.
Also the kind of personal reason I ended up liking FFXI so much was the Puppetmaster job. Always broken, always lagging behind other jobs. But it was really unique in MMO's and really fun to play. The idea of having this customisable puppet that can act as a white mage, a black mage, a ranger, a paladin, or a monk is really incredible. My Comedie was my companion through a lot of stuff as I did what you could solo.
For me now I want to see the end of Vana'diel, but at the same time everything I accomplish in the game in the traditional MMO sense of getting better gear to get better, seems less meaningful. If anything I want to finish the major expansion storylines and do random stuff with people to make some more memories. FFXIV or EVE are the most likely places for me to go from here (or just devote all my time to fighting games lol), but nothing can really replace FFXI. For all I know I might just run around the world using the game as a virtual chat room. Who knows. Maybe I'll stream randomly.
I think in the coming months a lot of players are going to quit early because they won't have much to look forward to, but also a lot of players that haven't played in months or years will come back to see what is pretty much going to be the end. If you ever played FFXI before, and want to see it with people, now would be the last chance. My character's name is Lisotte, and my world is Sylph, so if you want to join me in seeing the beginning of the end you can join me.
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