LBR Breaks Down the Bannings, Part IV

Let's see if I can get through the rest of this. We pick it up right at about the 90-minute mark.

We pick it up at the discussion of perhaps Square-Enix, in the name of regenerating interest in the game, re-releasing it to the public -- perhaps a hi-def version for high-end computers.

Again, this assumes that they want FFXI to continue, and that is a matter of some apparent question, given the attitudes and apparent limitations (hardware and economic) the game is running into, as previously discussed. The discussion of getting older players to tell their friends to join them in this kind of an effort relies completely that Square-Enix wants FFXI to continue.

We can't know that right now. There is zero confidence in the players for the FFXI brass -- and there may be only little more than zero the other way. This game can't continue under those circumstances.

Aneiro referred, then, to a site (http://www.mmogchart.com) which charts the different populations of the different MMO's.

FFXI is still relatively stagnant at 2006 levels, and that's down from mid-2005. It is no higher than 5th in population now vs. the other games (WoW, Runescape, and the two Lineage titles all beat it, and another title appears close).

Under this environment, does Square really want to pull the plug? The opportunity Aneiro speaks of to reinvent FFXI is only valuable if Square-Enix really wants to continue, and there is not as much confidence of that belief as one would want.

Aneiro then hits it on the head: If Square-Enix wants FFXI to survive, it has to have long-term goals to make the game viable. Period. There's no other way to put it. Of course, now, you have to look at both clauses of that sentence...

Of course, there is one trap: If you go high-end, you might fall into the same trap that Rockstar has, in telling players they need a gaming computer (and a high-end one at that for 2009) to be good enough to play their game of GTA4. You do that, and you'll lose customers for your company.

I make no secret: I can play FFXI on this laptop, but it has limitations. I accept those limitations. If they try to make me update this computer, they're making me buy a new computer. At that point, they lose me as a customer, not just as a game, but as a company. And all the talk which ensues about updating for the new high-end computers and video cards and the like really makes me squeamish, after my experience with Rockstar (which is still going to get a complaint to the BBB once that comes to the top of my queue).

I think, in all the discussion about fan community and art and all that stuff, I do have an issue with Aneiro's belief that the fan community really wants to work with Square-Enix. They, in my mind (by reading a lot of their comments in many different fora) have one interest: themselves. They have no merit for Square Enix, no merit for each other -- they just feel that if you aren't as good as they are ("People who have never killed Kirin or have had trouble doing so have no place crying like little bitches..."), you aren't even worthy of being in their game.

(Another reason end-game needs to be seriously neutered.)

At the end of the day, they want to have Square-Enix communicate with them.

First off, prove you're worthy and not going to undercut them.

Second, do they even want to talk to you, or do they care less whether FFXI has a future? Communication shows you care, yes. But do -- they -- care?

Third, would one side even listen to the other at this point?

I think those are three really salient points. I don't think a lot of the community would help Square-Enix out (see above: whose interests are they operating for?). As I noted to Aneiro earlier in the Flamage series, there is NO unity in this community. None.

One great example is what they discussed next: Square-Enix' chasm between their Japanese operations and their American players. Why is the Japanese dev-blog not translated, except on rare occasion? Why not bring the Japanese heads out to say that some of this is patently unacceptable and brings the game down and the game into disrepute?

I would think that things like this make Square-Enix, as a Japanese construct, lose face -- and that is the most important thing to the Japanese.

And that basically gets to where the rest of the show appeared to go: Are they really interested in dealing with us at all? And, if not, why bother continuing? Your player-base is cheating your ass off, stagnant, and shows no real desire to work with you, nor you with them. So why, Square-Enix, do you bother, if it's clear that you don't regard us that well? (And, again, we don't really deserve it as a player base -- see the recent bannings as a great example of why!!)