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#1 Mar 28 2015 at 9:34 AM Rating: Decent
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Simple question here, will Alla allow us to talk about private servers for FFXI when Square stop the updates in November?

For anyone that doesn't know, a private server is a server some FFXI fans setup that runs FFXI for free. Anyone can access it.
#2 Mar 28 2015 at 4:55 PM Rating: Good
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My guess is that'll remain a no-no.

Personally, I find the PS environment a mixed bag. Some deviate too far from retail while those that try to keep it close still mess up in some manner and are run by totally inflexible people unwilling to acknowledge their design mistakes. This also breeds an environment where some wind up too afraid to speak up because they don't want to get banned and lose whatever progress they made while others just flippantly defend the behavior, "Because it's free!"

In terms of actual content, though, anything after CoP seems bare bones.
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#3 Mar 30 2015 at 8:03 AM Rating: Decent
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You'd think it'd be fine, since while emulators/Private servers tend to be more on the moral ends of things, running for an essentially unsupported game has always been the norm. Ragnarok Online is a good example, it's still running and has some updates, but private servers tend to do the best. I would have said Maplestory, but the main reason people play those are to get around the insane cash grab and to relive the older client days.

XI PS's tend to go up to and through CoP story wise and anything after is mostly base content as it's up to the server owners to code in the rest. Most are also 75 cap based servers and introduced the new jobs in the 75 setting. So..honestly come november I expect to see it being "ok" in a general sense..but definitely not on here lol.
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#4 Apr 01 2015 at 8:06 AM Rating: Decent
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It was the people that made old FFXI good. I don't think a private server will ever have that kind of community.
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#5 Apr 01 2015 at 11:31 AM Rating: Good
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Zafire wrote:
It was the people that made old FFXI good. I don't think a private server will ever have that kind of community.


Not these days, no. MMO gamers took a severe shift due to games being designed for "just you" in a sense. Private servers can and does have amazing communities, but it's usually "in the good ole days" prior to the 'WoW is standard" type of MMOs, when you had to rely more on your community and actually cared about your reputation.
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#6 Apr 01 2015 at 2:29 PM Rating: Default
Zafire wrote:
It was the people that made old FFXI good. I don't think a private server will ever have that kind of community.


theres 1 such lvl 75 private server which has an awesome community even though thers less than 100 players on most of time, people are leveling, (in 6 man groups, no trusts or books available) doing af quests, getting there cop missions done (cop missions are caped even!) and participating in end game like dynamis, hnms and sky, even limbus and sea, people who say classic ffxi cant survive with a low population are completely wrong! a bug free official classic server up to aht urghan would be great.

Edited, Apr 1st 2015 4:31pm by jamiehavok

Edited, Apr 1st 2015 4:34pm by jamiehavok
#7 Apr 01 2015 at 6:44 PM Rating: Excellent
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Success is relative and I'd honestly be most interested in the rate of turnover for the server I think I know you're speaking of. I have no doubt there are some steadfast hardcores, but the gameplay and social issues of yesteryear just aren't going to poof because a server is privatized. No books, for example, tells me that leveling is likely to exploit level sync and key areas like colibri camps. Job discrimination may not be as harsh due to lower populations, but you can still bet there are cliques that do things with the optimum in mind, no exceptions. I'm also aware that server allows multi-boxing (and a likelihood of botting), which I fear detracts from community building in its own ways.

As is, the place was described in the past as a "no hand holding" type of server. My aversion to the flaws of "classic" XI aside, that was enough to put me in the mind of its host and tell me I wanted nowhere near the place because they perceived various QoL adjustments as "dumbing down" or just plain making the game worse. Things like that trigger my alarms of elevating exclusivity and the damage I feel it does and continues to do to the genre in other MMOs today. "It's not coded yet!" is just a convenient excuse for some of the private environments. "Is this fun?" is a question any given server's host needs to ask when they do something a specific way. And I mean actual fun for their players, not just their own idea of it. XI evolved as it has for a number of very good reasons. Ignoring those in the future is not for the long term benefit of the private scene, especially with more modern F2P ventures out there.
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#8 May 01 2015 at 9:32 AM Rating: Decent
Spoken like an intellectual.

I guess it depends on what you want to get out of it. For me, after a long and annoying day at work, I like to sit down, craft or xp some, and watch ls banter. I play on the private server that is focused on community and the 1-75. Sure some things aren't done, some balance needs work, etc. But development is pretty constant. If you want instant gratification, it seems retail is more for that. There also is a two box limit on the server, which encourages the community play, so you can't 6box yourself to 75 and solo everything.

To me, it's fun. I'm not really a hardcore player though. I do some parties here and there, crafting, etc. I have friends and work together with people. The scene definitely isn't for everyone, but it's for me. It's a bit shocking how many new to ffxi players we get, and how they actually enjoy the game.
#9 May 01 2015 at 5:58 PM Rating: Default
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Sent you a PM Pocket as I'd love to be on a server like that.
#10 May 06 2015 at 3:39 AM Rating: Default
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I don't get why the mods deleted the private server thread that was here yesterday.

Square have given up on FFXI and at this point are just milking the players with the utmost contempt for them, private servers should be promoted when a company goes into the gutter like this.
#11 May 06 2015 at 6:56 AM Rating: Good
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You're advocating piracy on a site with official ties to SE. Whatever moral high ground you think you're standing on pales in comparison to the threat of their lawyers. You know they're out there. Find 'em yourself.
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#12 May 10 2015 at 11:39 PM Rating: Decent
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I always thought the game was more coherent when the level cap was 75. Just my 2c.

Most, if not all of Mithra Pride and Emerald Arcanum on Phoenix left once the level cap was raised and level caps were removed from CoP. Only 2 members still play FFXI on the retail server. The rest have either tried 14 and stayed there for a small time or have moved to a 11 private server.

The community is the core of a MMO and what makes it special. When a game tends to shift to more of a single player solo mind set, the community suffers a bit I have found. I am no stranger to MMOs and gave been GMs in 2 of them (Allegiance and Jumpgate). Jumpgate is a good example of this scenario. The game became more single player friendly, so players didn't need each other to accomplish many goals they had to before. While many rejoiced for a time, people started leaving the more they felt less needed. We as staff had to reverse that trend and went back to the core principles of the game. We brainstormed for months giving feedback to the developers and after a while came to a consensus on what needed to be done. After several patches that undid many of the changes that were done (and a massive nerf as well), yes, many players left, but lo and behold after 6 months we had an upturn of 300% subscription rate (mostly from vets) and the game was saved from bankruptcy. It gave the game another 2 strong years before the company pulled the plug however to make a sequel and work on another MMO game (which flopped).

Mithra Pride and Emerald Arcanum were always mid level linkshells that took in new players as soon as they hopped into vanadiel. The loyalty to the LS was strong and many of us still talk via facebook. The joy in running a LS like that was to be a mentor to others and see them grow into vets who where very close friends. 3 members of my shell met in real life and married (including myself). The general consensus among them is that FFXI is now just an empty shell... however they have not abandoned it in their hearts even though they have quit. They wish to relive the game how it was when such ties were made, so many choose a private server to do so. One of the married couples are a member of a retro private server as I speak.

This phenomenon repeats itself over and over again it seems with veterans I know. For some reason FFXI doesn't seem like home anymore, nor do they feel 14 is a home as well. However they seem drawn to the retro private servers like a moth to a flame. They even rather remake a new character.

BTW the game allegiance is still alive despite its small initial run by Microsoft (about 2 years if memory serves me and was developed in 2000-2001) It is now run by a dedicated community (private server) and has evolved with every patch and kept up with graphics changes throughout the years. http://www.freeallegiance.org/

Maybe SE could learn something from this, but it is probably too late...

Edited, May 11th 2015 1:41am by Prrsha
#13 May 11 2015 at 5:37 AM Rating: Default
To be honest, I wouldn't mind SE allowing this kind of thing one day when they pull the plug on XI.

Had our own Minecraft server and have to say - loved it. A few of us would be on it every now and then but there enjoyment on being able to play the game and get a lot done on your own. Something XIV has won over XI, the pace of solo stuff is just ridiculous in XI.

Although I understand the community feel and I will admit, XI has won that over any MMO I have ever played. The only reason why it's won that over is because it forces you to do it. And that result also gave the arguments and LS shutdowns, mass kicking and all sorts with it. I can remember the big fall out me and Tidian had over a previous LS Leader because we decided to go and get Sky access instead of organising a day to do it with everyone. And by everyone that includes those who struggled to get to VD without the mass train and wipes (which again I do miss).

I still hope one day to return to XI when its free, the ability to spend a week (not hardcore or even remotely close) levelling because the EXP rate has been increased by a mile. Being able to do that on EP mobs and solo. I had kept an eye on one place and the settings they had certainly looked good. I just didn't like the idea of playing with my client and killing XI on my machine.

Since I subscribed to XIV and quit XI I have not looked at it again though.

SE should have learnt something, this isn't just about the monthly fee, it's about the EXP rate, it's about DROP rates, SPAWN rates, STAT increases, you essentially can alter a lot from the character, to the gear, to the mobs. Massive amount of work doing that which is why it takes forever getting that to work. They also tend to be behind miles on updates and have a huge amount of bugs - this was the off putting for me.

F2P would be nice, even if I had to pay SUB to access a server which gave the above.
#14 May 11 2015 at 6:37 AM Rating: Decent
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Seriha wrote:
You're advocating piracy on a site with official ties to SE. Whatever moral high ground you think you're standing on pales in comparison to the threat of their lawyers. You know they're out there. Find 'em yourself.


I accept what you say about it being piracy I suppose, which kinda sucks because companies will close a game down forever before they let someone else run it, even if it's for free. This is a form of piracy I'm behind and I hope it never goes away, the only way to play games like Phantasy star online now is via these private servers and that's a great thing. I will find other forums that allows us to talk about it to get around that I guess.

However I wanna comment on the official ties bit. Lets be brutally honest here, this site has taken a massive hit over the past 5 years or so. Having official ties means nothing to this website anymore, that only mattered when they did interviews and stuff. They don't even really have much of a staff left anymore.

The FFXI portion which used to be huge and brought in a decent amount of ad revenue is barren.

The FFXIV portion never really took off at all, this same thing applies to FFXIAH and KI too. All of these forums are on life support.

The golden age of these sites was when ffxi was popular, now that square is killing it and ffxiv never really took over that spot with these sites none of them really care too much about staying on Squares good side I would think.
#15 May 11 2015 at 9:29 AM Rating: Decent
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I won't argue with the current state of "ties" being poor, if not virtually non-existent. Zam, nonetheless, is arguably for-profit in its upkeep, paying employees likely frugal wages, and general evolution as games come and go. A stray post here and there may invite a C&D at worst, but were the site to turn into a hub for illicit promotions relative to the game? That's blood in the water. People making money off SE's intellectual property isn't cool, and I'd even extend that to third-party apps that have sprung up over time.

When/if the servers are cut off for good, I'll agree, the gloves pretty much come off. When a service isn't being provided that people desire, it's not unusual to find whatever means to satisfy that. The super-duper-not-often-seen optimist in me would hope SE would be all, "Alright, here's all the code resources. Enjoy!" My more realistic side realizes we're pretty much left to hoping the reverse engineering process takes satisfactory strides with a side of the people behind that not being tyrannical crybabies incapable of processing reasonable feedback from users. Official resources are the only real hard counter to that, but if they don't exist, whatever private scene arises is at their mercy. Put another way, there are people who think because they have a particular skill, in this case code ability, that they can then lead. Some 18+ years of playing various non-mainstream games has taught me that people with actual leadership ability and skill are rare. We can only hope a few of those make it into the private scene eventually and not just cling to the CoP era because that's when they thought the game was best. Call me greedy, but I would want all of XI before you start putting personal spins on it.
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#16 May 13 2015 at 1:10 AM Rating: Decent
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Seriha wrote:
The super-duper-not-often-seen optimist in me would hope SE would be all, "Alright, here's all the code resources. Enjoy!" My more realistic side realizes we're pretty much left to hoping the reverse engineering process takes satisfactory strides with a side of the people behind that not being tyrannical crybabies incapable of processing reasonable feedback from users.


Crazy as it sounds, 5 years after Allegiance servers plugs were pulled, a developer from Microsoft Studios named Solap (head of the game development team at Microsoft) came over to the private servers, saw the game was still alive, and handed the community the source code. Since then leaps and strides have been made and the game has so much new to offer now... it is unreal.

If Microsoft can do such a thing (and hand over the source code to the prototype of DirectPlay as well), so could SE. But I fear the company has lost most of the staff that created the game and the company is more Enix's now then it is Square's. As much as I hate to say it, SEs interest is now more in the creations of other forms of games and no longer as focused on the Final Fantasy franchise anymore. They have many more games to worry about now. Final Fantasy no longer carries the company solo on its back like it did in the days before the companies merged. Heck, back in the day, the companies were bitter enemies. Remember the tombstone in FF1 that read "Edrick is dead" in the town of elves? It's in the NES/Fancom version... it was changed to "Link is dead" after the companies merged lol.
#17 May 13 2015 at 4:36 AM Rating: Good
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Aside from stubbornness, I think the biggest hurdle to them actually releasing the source is the mobile venture. I'm not inclined to believe the two versions will be terribly similar, but if it turns out someone could play the PC version "for free" then they'd see it as short-circuiting possible mobile sales. That in mind, I think the best compromise we can hope for is actual F2P once the PS2/360 support is cut. But again, I'm not terribly optimistic there even if I think it is something SE should do as a thanks to fans.
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#18 May 14 2015 at 11:36 AM Rating: Decent
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Seriha wrote:
Aside from stubbornness, I think the biggest hurdle to them actually releasing the source is the mobile venture. I'm not inclined to believe the two versions will be terribly similar, but if it turns out someone could play the PC version "for free" then they'd see it as short-circuiting possible mobile sales. That in mind, I think the best compromise we can hope for is actual F2P once the PS2/360 support is cut. But again, I'm not terribly optimistic there even if I think it is something SE should do as a thanks to fans.


Well, it's not stubbornness - They still own and have rights to the Final Fantasy copyright and unless you're partnered with them, you will never have the rights to the source code, much like how they gave the code to the team that did the FFX/X-2 HD remasters. XI may be ending but they still own the copyright until at least 2020, but XI going Freemium I could see and was rumored to do so prior to ARR, but it wasn't possible due to the POL infrastructure.

So in the long run they could likely be working on that system. The mobile streamed game will likely be the same as the early era FFXI (Vanilla - CoP) but we just simply won't be able to import our current characters to it. With it being Nexon..well...

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