SE Live Stream (3/19) CONCLUDED

There is definitely stuff they could sell as a F2P model

Instant level 30 item 5$/job
Unlock x job 2$/job
Chocobo mount unlocked 2$
Increase mog garden rank 2$/rank
Change gender/race/face item 5$
Double/tripple/quad exp/cp potions 2/3/4$ each, 1 hr charge
Unlock reforging without doing CoP missions - 5$
100 beitsu/plutons/boulders
100 relic currency
Devious die
Liminal residue
linen pouches
box of HP bayld

Add in an item = 1 month subscription, make it trade able, and let people buy gil legally in game like in other mmo. 15$ for 'chunk of crystal', trade able, on consume adds 30 days play time.

Thats not even mentioning other silly things they could add like trusts, unique mounts, unique lockstyle armor sets etc.

if you figure only 3000 active accounts per server, they're making $624k a month on subs

it's not going f2p or shutting down, it's probably just merges and the plan for this year

F2P would be the only thing they could do that would make me quit.

Winner.

Edit: I had the guide. Might actually be able to find it somewhere. I remember them preaching on making up for weaknesses, like going WAR/WHM so you can cure yourself.

Why not F2P? I wouldn't say they wont, because it is definitely possible. Larger, more successful games have gone f2p.

Just make it so f2p people cant list on AH/Bazar, only premium members can (aka people who buy the 30 day subscription).

Throw in things like
limit breaks cost 5$ each while f2p
5$ to unlock wardrobe

I can easily see them nickle and dimeing free to play people, and having a decent cash shop.

The bigger question would be if the in game ui/engine can even handle it.

Please, name a few. Really, from the top of my head I can't find any game that has run half as long as this game has which deserves the title "More succesful" and has gone free to play.

Eve and upcoming with WoW let you purchase game time with in-game currency. Could easily see the same for XI

Like what?

It doesn't make sense to go f2p.

Eve
Everquest/EQ2
Guildwars 2
DDO
Rift
Terra

It all depends on your definition of more successful honestly, if you go by number of actually active characters vs active subscriptions.

Everquest has been around longer, and has been f2p for a while. The rest all have about the same if not more population as ffxi.

As far as making sense, if they are pulling all developers from ffxi aside from bug fixers, then it might make sense. I just think you people have a false sense of how successful ffxi currently is to automatically assume it wont F2P.

Lots of mmo had 10-20x the active number of people when they switched to f2p.

I've been looking up on the EVE thing, funny concept but the effort needed to finally generate enough to pay for your in-game time deters me from it completely.

Farming in game currency so you can pay for time to farm more in game currency to pay for... never mind, I think you get the point.

Going into your list:

Eve: Named above and isn't completely free to play as in game currency is needed to "buy" game time and subscription is optional.
EQ: Subscription is still optional.
Guildwars: Was never pay to play to begin with.
DDO/Rift/Terra: I wouldn't call these even remotely succesful.
They've had succesful starts, maybe, but populations dropped faster than terminal velocity when people found it they were playing WoW clone #1513857

I approved a screenshot the other day, supposedly of a GM mentioning a server merge. How real it is or how a GM would know, I couldn't say. PS2 should've been terminated globally years ago, 360 is old, might as well terminate it too.

I doubt I'll ever play XI again, but I'd definitely like to see what they do and where they go with it if the drop PS2 support. PS2 has held XI back for years, even when PS2 was somewhat current but if memory serves, the 360 version was a PS2 -> 360 port, so it could be assumed there will be similar limitations.

Hence the episode of South Park.

Future of FFXI. Thanks for playing guys see you next year !

DDO once Turbine took over it and later LOTR. Turbine though is unique amongst the F2P providers in that they offer a hybrid system where a monthly subscription is an option. In DDO monthly offers all content and expansions free immediately upon completion while everyone else needs to either purchase it outright or earn it via points from in game content.

I hope it's free to play cause the drama that will ensue will be epic !

You thought the relic rage quit was fun. This will be even better.

*crosses fingers for epic failure*

A switch to F2P (mostly full-featured with cash shops for boosts/cosmetics/etc) with the paid accounts getting even bigger perks would be a shot in the arm for FFXI. Couple it with termination of PS2/360 support and I could see the old girl hang on for another decade or more. I don't see any reason to fear F2P if that's the direction SE wants to take the game to help it survive.

You don't understand people fear change !

FFXI F2P with 200 dollars starter kits. Another 200 dollars also for early access to iLevel 150 armors!

If they do a hybrid model where you get all the perks for a subscription fee, I would stay to see how it goes.

Incoming tons of vanity items for a low low price of 5 dollars each !

Wait a second this is happening on March 19 wtf am I doing here now !

Because you're addicted to posting?

I'm going to forum rehab I tells ya !

If they're gonna go FTP, why not just cut to the chase and just give our money to SE and have them send us Flintstone's chewable morphine.

There's an app for that.

Look at how happy she is to get those muffins !

It looks like you can just download the seekers edition from SE's website. http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/download/media/install_win.html

Maybe that's something new? It could've been there a year and I probably wouldn't have noticed, so not really sure.