Wednesday, April 22, 2009

This form of inflation is bullshit, Square-Enix!!!

So I log in this morning after the next door neighbor decides to wake me for the second time this week, and Square-Enix is at it again.

Square-Enix, in an obvious horn-tooting press release, has claimed a population (for the first time in the game's history) of two million players.

Bullshit.

Bullshit...

BULLSHIT.

The latest figures I've read, from neutral sources, would indicate that this would be a fourfold increase from the number of players in the game.

And, of course, I presume you counted all the mules as separate entities.

There is no way, especially with the aforementioned lackadasical attitudes of Square-Enix toward player misconduct and the rules of the game, that the population of all the servers on Vana'diel is even close to ONE MILLION, much less two...

So stop bullshitting us, Square-Enix. On a lot of different fronts.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Active characters, not players or accounts. Reading comprehension for the win...?

Kwatz said...

I'm sure your knowledge is top notch. Considering you totally work for SE.

Starcade said...

Grayson: Thanks for playing. Please try again when you think you have a clue.

---

roxya: The last neutral information I had put the number of accounts for FFXI at about 500K. Given they lose ~10K/month just to misconduct, I call bullshit on these numbers.

Kwatz said...

neutral info is srsly neutral.

I think its pretty funny that you THINK you know more about SE then... SE themselves. ZOINKS. Do you normally walk up to people and tell them they don't know what they are doing? DO you know the job requirements to be an employee at SE? Do you think they hire pieces of shit they see on the way to work? How can you sit in your little dark room, (I assume your also emo), and seriously consider yourself that IMPORTANT to think you know more then SE.

I am familiar with business environments, not like SE, but a retail store. People come into MY store, yes its MY store, and tell me and my father we don't know what we are doing. They tell us that if we had only done something a different way they would have been much happier. You know what we tell them? "There is a Wal-mart across the street, you can shop there." you know what we don't tell them? "our business profit grew 17% percent last year."

Everybody thinks they know something. Hopeless people think they know everything about anything. Like it or not, thats what your claiming.

I'd like to know what this 'neutral' information is and how you think it is better then the research of SE themselves.

Starcade said...

Grayson:

Do I normally walk up to people (who I believe don't know what they are doing) and tell them that they do not know what they are doing??

...

YES!Next question.

Let me put it back to you in the same terms so that you might understand what I'm trying to say here...

They see you (singularly and collectively) as the same type of piece of shit you see me as, if not worse!

You see, take a look around you in Vana'diel, and tell me that Square-Enix gives one damn about the players -- at all...

They don't, because those same players do not deserve to have said damn given about them. (which see the whole debacle surrounding the January 22, 2009 bannings, and their silence thereafter)...

And I'll tell you this: If you did what you describe in your store to me, you'd be calling the cops on me, because I'd stick a middle finger so far up your face, it wouldn't even be funny.

Just let me know where NOT to shop, bitch.

As for the source material I speak of: mmogchart.com Start there.

Kwatz said...

what does SE and Player relations have to do with the number of active characters?

I wasn't talking about SE and how they don't give a shit about you, I'm talking about their ability to count their subscribers their subscribers their subscribers their subscribers.

Truece said...

I was pretty sure the statement from SE said that they reached 2 million characters, not accounts.

This number doesn't seem inflated at all considering the number of mules that many accounts have.

Unknown said...

They said 'active characters'. How are they giving any kind of 'bullshit'? Considering FFXIAH.com notes 1.5million characters, and I'm not sure how accurate that is, is 2 million active characters really that unbelievable?

And where did you hear definitively that they lose ~10k accounts per month due to misconduct? Really, do you work for the company?

Goteyzero said...

Final Fantasy XI (Accuracy Rating: B)
FF XI was released in Japan on May 16, 2002, and then in North America on October 29, 2003. Square-Enix used to provide specific subscriber figures fairly regularly, but in recent years they’ve become much more reserved. Every year they release a census of the game’s online population; however, the figures from these reports do not always line up with other sources. For example, it’s unclear if FFXI passed 500K subscribers in January 2004 or April 2004. Recent censuses from Square-Enix will only confirm “over 500,000 players”, but the actual number could be closer to 700,000. For now, I’ve decided to go with 500,000 subscribers as the most reliable estimate, until I receive further guidance from the company.

Taken Directly from mmogchart.com as you can see he gets his information directly from SE.

On another note active characters does not equal active accounts. I alone account for 1 active account and 9 active characters since I have a main along with 8 mules all of which are lvl 5 or higher.

Starcade said...

Oh, for the love of God...

When I read this, I can understand why Square-Enix spits in the face of its players.

So much cluelessness, so little time.

Source for the misconduct numbers? The continuing STF reports over the course the last number of months, now (for the last three) on it's own section of the official FFXI website.

What does the player relations by SE have to do with the number of active characters?

Now I know your store is full of shit, Grayson, for comments like that -- and, on top of that, I can understand why people walk up to you and tell you and your dad that you do not know what you are talking about.

That's fundamental business sense to have some degree of customer relations which might give an indication that they give a damn about the customer. Square-Enix, apparently, does not -- and, given the customer base's conduct, shouldn't...

Here's a little tidbit for those who disagree about how I believe SE has badly inflated the numbers:

If you believe the report that Square-Enix has given, you then have to draw the conclusion that the average FFXI player has *FOUR* characters.

What, everyone has to have three mules to play the game? That it??? Come on, you know better than to fall for that, hook line and sinker...

I could see an average of _two_, but once you get above an average of three, then I start getting real suspicious.

That's either real bad execution on the part of SE, or more cheating on the part of players.

And this one joker has NINE??? What the fuck do you need nine characters (eight mules) for in the first damned place?

Goteyzero said...

Back when the starter cities actually had economies the first 4 mules were primarily for AH access and for storage. A typical way for me to make money as a low level player was to craft fishing bait and bazaar the bait in windurst on my mule there. Not to mention that my 4 original mules have less than 10 free slots each due to my cloth crafting materials and the massive amount of low level equipment I keep on them just in case I ever want to level a fourth job to 75. Also the most recent mule has 36 stacks of Automaton oil since I tend to burn through it on pup.

Now that the economies in the cities have died the mules are mostly for storage and gardening. All of my mules save the one in jueno have 10 pots and mog houses set up with Mog enhancement gardening.

Long story short i'm a pack rat and I like to grow pixelated plants.

Unknown said...

For many people, this game is an addiction, not just a hobby. As such, it is not unusual for these sorts of people to have multiple characters. Some, myself included, even have more than one account. I don't know why you seem to think more than three characters equates to cheating, but I'll explain the reasons I have the ones I do.

As I said, I have two accounts. Each account has a main character, and one main storage mule. The reason for the two separate accounts? Well, for starters, I had a really hard time trying to choose which race I wanted to play. Humes are nice and average overall as far as stats go, but tarus are just so freaking cute that I had to have one. I just couldn't pick between the two, and so I decided to have one of each.

Now I'm sure you'll ask "Why didn't you just make the hume and the taru on the same account?" Well.... have you ever spent hours looking for a party? It can get pretty boring watching your moogle spin while waiting for an invite. Having two accounts allows me to be logged on to both characters at the same time (and before you start yelling at me for Windower, I have no need for that, as I have two desktops, a laptop, and a PS2). I can look for party on both characters if I want, I can farm on one while seeking on the other. I can use one to teleport or d2 the other. Hell, I can even use one to PL the other while looking for a group.

Also, I don't consider one to be a "main" and the other a "mule". I play both characters equally. If someone tried to make me choose one over the other, I wouldn't be able to do it. I envy people who can be content with just one character, lol.

Anonymous said...

I personally have 3 accounts 1 with 10 Characters (9 Gear mules for 15 jobs 12x75 3x66 and 1 60+ and 1 character i am leveling its bard) 1 account is a 75 RDM I have and then my main account that is 1 mule + my main. And in total my friend has maybe 20-30 characters across his 4 accounts for crafting mules gear mules and stuff so to me those #'s seem perfectly believable.

Volkai | Alex said...

"If you believe the report that Square-Enix has given, you then have to draw the conclusion that the average FFXI player has *FOUR* characters."

I'd believe it.

Players that do gardening tend to have as many gardening (plus storage) mules as they can afford to pay for. I would bet that accounts for much of it.

Plus players that dual-box (which you do not need a PC to do).