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How many people play FFXI
SgtTitch
Member Posts: 1
I'm thinking of buying FFXI but i want to know how many people play it so i dont go out and i buy it and the server are unpopulated
Comments
There's regularly thousands of people on each server, and we're getting a nice inflow of new players from the recent Xbox 360 release (nothing like the infamous deluge when it was released for the PS2, but more than a lot of people thought we'd get). Don't worry, there are plenty of people playing this game, probably more than any game other than WoW or Lineage.
Chris Mattern
yeah most server have an average of about 3500 people on at all times.
i know this number doesnt seem to convincing but concidering ppl aere constantly logging on and off so way more than that play.
Not sure on number of ppl who own accounts but its alot i garuntee that to you.
Thats so much bull, it use to be 3500 when the game first came out now a days the Avg. on off time is more like 1800-2100 if that and over half of those are over lvl 60 people. As for the new Players from the 360 version all it is people that still play the game heavly changed fromt he comp version to the 360 version for the better graphic's and interface. i am on Hades with a lvl 75 rdm on the Afternoon time 2-3pm after work i log in there is like 1200-1600 people online if i am lucky. and around the night time it jumps to that the most 2500 << 2500 is like a gift and hope most of those isn't all lvl 75 players doing pvp.
I'm sorry to hear Hades is so underpopulated; I don't play on it, so I don't have direct experience there. Remora, and most other servers, from what I hear from other players, have considerably more.
Chris Mattern
FFXI is forth among active subscribers for p2p mmorpgs.
1. WoW
2. L1 or 2 (don't remember)
3. L1 or 2 (don't remember)
4. FFXI
It's amazing why I don't hear more about this game.
We're all too busy playing it
Chris Mattern
FFXI is a very "niche" game... many people do not like that it has a relatively "slow" progression. Your character's progress is influenced by outside factors... mostly the availabilty of other people to group with, do quests/missions.. and it's a very slow-paced game overall. With so many gamers ever wanting "more and now", it doesn't suit as broad an audience as a WoW would.
The populations are still very healthy and there are still plenty of people to be seen all over.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
on average theres about 2,500/3,000 people logged on a server at a time, alot of these people are 60+ but there are a lot of new players to the game as well, i think it was about 2,000+ per server if i remember correctly, so, even though it doesnt come close to the like millions of players on WoW its still has quite a nice player base.
Some would say "OMG, only 500k? FFXI sucks!" .. but that thinking is just absurd.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
500k maybe a bit much, more like 350k i think. 350-500k is really good. 500k use to be the model, what blizzard has down is make a niche genre mainstream.
When people say, "That games a niche title" reality is, the whole genre was a niche until wow. IMO Brad and company invented the genre (well not really) but square enix took there model and made it better.
FFXI has its problems, make no mistake but it doesnt have the Mudflation that seems to kill every old and new mmo. The biggest problem in ffxi is
A) the gil buys/sellers, when i first started a sniper ring was 500k now its 3-4 mil.
and thats it, sure the game is hard, so what... deal with it or quit. Its a grind? so what, ever game has a grind, people who use the grind as an excuse are not hardcore... sorry its the truth.
For all those people who lust for a real EQ2... for the people who troll Vanguard forums looking for a second chance... to those, I GIVE YOU FFXI.
I would love to see ballista turn into more of a BattleGrounds type of pvp. or just a "Slayer" mode... open pvp will never work in this game BUT ballista slayer would be great.
Rites of the Four Horsemen
http://www.rotfh.com
The latest figures for FFXI (which are, admittedly, a year old) put it at 650K, actually. See www.mmogchart.com.
Chris Mattern
The latest figures for FFXI (which are, admittedly, a year old) put it at 650K, actually. See www.mmogchart.com.
Chris Mattern
are we going by subs? because any gardner is going to have at least 3 toons. shit, i have 8.
Rites of the Four Horsemen
http://www.rotfh.com
The latest figures for FFXI (which are, admittedly, a year old) put it at 650K, actually. See www.mmogchart.com.
Chris Mattern
are we going by subs? because any gardner is going to have at least 3 toons. shit, i have 8.
That would be the number of accounts, yes. Eight characters would still be one account, since you can have up to 16 characters on an account. While some people might want more than 16 characters, or might want to be able to play multiple characters at once (which would require multiple accounts), I don't think that's such a large number of people. It might be noted that at that time, there were well over 1.5 *million* characters.
Chris Mattern
Now, over time, SE might realize certain jobs aren't as effective as they'd intended and make changes as they deem necessary, however, inherently, SE has given the playerbase a very diverse and open-ended game system to do with it what they will. The players do just that, which unfortunately means reducing it down to a cookie-cutter approach to parties, to gear, to where to level/when, etc. etc. That's all player-driven. Instead of experimenting and seeing what *else* works... perhaps even better.. they stick to the tried-and-true formula.
You can see over time that some players are learning a bit more about their characters/jobs. Different party setups are coming out of it.. the all monk setup.. the mana-burn setup and so forth. People are learning... slowly, but surely.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I've said this for a long time, and I still say it..
Too many people come to a MMO with a console mentality. You can beat a console game in the matter of weeks, sometimes days, or even hours. MMOs are not like that. You never truly "beat" an MMO because it is always evolving (well, ideally). So when people say "it takes too long to level" or "it's too slow", in my opinion, they're missing the point entirely. If you're someone who needs to reach max level as fast as possible, find doing quests "boring", or even hate the fact that you have to work with parties to make progress and can't be a "one man army" - in a *multiplayer* game.. then I have to ask.. what the hell are you doing playing a MMORPG?
You do not play a MMO to "beat it, master it and move on" in a short time frame. The pacing is slower deliberately, to provide more to do over a period of months, or even years. Do you think even older MMOs like EverQuest, Asheron's Call or DAoC would still have a player base if they were designed with console gamers in mind? No. They wouldn't. That's why MMO's have, traditionally (until WoW anyway) attracted a different type of gamer than console games. It's a different mindset. Quick/Instant gratification generally has no home in a MMO, where it does in a console game.
And, in the case of FFXI.. thinking of the fact that people could beat FFX (for example) in maybe 50 hours.. but then go on and play it for hundreds more (I know someone with 400+ hours clocked into FFX) unlocking all different aspects of the game.. even beyond defeating Sin. Take that kind of depth and apply it to a game in a genre that has no end - no "final boss" - and you have Final Fantasy XI.
The depth of this game is mind-boggling. Every aspect of the game, even right down to the constellations in the sky, has a purpose.. a reason for being there. And much of it is left up to the player base to figure out.
Some examples...
How long did it take people to make the connection of the constellations' association with the elements.. and further, their relation to crafting where facing the appropriate constellation, and thus element, would have an effect on your crafting? At least 2 years?
How about how every item in your Mog House has some significance and alters some aspect of the gameplay.. right down to your moogle itself (the mog safe expansion quests)...
Has anyone truly mastered gardening yet, learning how to get that best possible yield most every time?
An NPC that you've run past a hundred times and who never had anything particularly intriguing to say - or did they? - suddenly becomes a key part of a quest? The Galka and the bell-tower in Jeuno comes to mind.
The goblin footprints all over Vana'diel.
The strange apparatus found hidden in different areas.. how long did it take people to figure out what *those* do.. and then how to use them?
Edit: They just announced Chocobo Raising. Different types/colors of chocobos will have different abilities, including some very rare ones. Players can match-up their chocobos and try to produce off-spring... that's yet *another* layer to the gameplay.
... the list goes on.
All that is depth and detail and it's all there for a reason - to *experience it*.
Where players of most MMOs compain about all the quests being "kill x number of y".. how many quests/missions in FFXI are best completed by *avoiding* aggro as much as possible and have nothing to do with killing anything but, in fact, are parts of an unfolding story.. often in the case of quests, and especially in the case of rank missions.
That is what SE has delivered us with FFXI.. and that is what so many people I speak to, and whose posts I read, are clearly missing when they reduce the game to nothing but a "grind-fest" in their description of it. That is why when people say "FFXI is just grind, grind, grind".. I say "BS... it's only that way because that's all you're making of it". None of this is content that is designed to be "power-leveled" through. It's there to be explored and completed, folks. It's not a race to 75. There's no pot of gold waiting for getting there faster than anyone else.
If you come to Final Fantasy XI, or any MMO, with the "more, faster, more faster" mentality, you are going to be disappointed. It's a different type of game and a different style of gameplay. Either try to adapt to it or you are not going to enjoy it. The game doesn't need to change to make it more enjoyable to the individual. The individual has to alter their approach/mentality toward it. Or, find something else to play that better suits their style.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Actually, there's a NPC in each starter city that'll explain the constellation/directional associations with the elements. :-) There's another one who explains the basic principles of elemental dominance and what enfeebles are related to which elements, and third who explains the principles of monster type dominance (that last is mostly of interest only to BSTs, though, although knowing what monster type X is is useful when you get an "X killer" effect). Working out the relationships with crafting (and also the Moon phase relationships with crafting) took a lot of work, though
All over though, an excellent summation of FFXI's strength and a good explanation of why a "gotta race to 75" attitude does not fit it. Very well done.
Chris Mattern
Actually, there's a NPC in each starter city that'll explain the constellation/directional associations with the elements. :-) There's another one who explains the basic principles of elemental dominance and what enfeebles are related to which elements, and third who explains the principles of monster type dominance (that last is mostly of interest only to BSTs, though, although knowing what monster type X is is useful when you get an "X killer" effect). Working out the relationships with crafting (and also the Moon phase relationships with crafting) took a lot of work, though
All over though, an excellent summation of FFXI's strength and a good explanation of why a "gotta race to 75" attitude does not fit it. Very well done.
Chris Mattern
Ahhh.. good point. I really mis-typed that.. my emphasis was on how facing the constellations and, thus, the appropriate element, could have an effect on synthing. People were trying for the longest time to make that connection. I think alot of people knew about the elements > constellation connection. I know I spoke to that same NPC. Though, if you think about it, the "race race race, grind grind grind" mentality would prohibit many from ever taking the time to talk to many NPCs to begin with... especially one propped up on top of a roof, if I'm thinking of the correct NPC.
But.. it seems many didn't put 2 and 2 together for a while. At least I know I saw all kinds of theories about it, and all kinds of charts designed trying to illustrate it.. still people I saw still weren't seeing a notable difference in their results.
Must have been fun to be a FFXI Dev and see people scrambling about, creating their own theories, etc... and all being wrong.. or close, but not quite "there"...
I also wonder if there are other aspects of FFXI they put in and are bewildered that players haven't caught on and realized them to their full potential. It wouldn't surprise me.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Now, over time, SE might realize certain jobs aren't as effective as they'd intended and make changes as they deem necessary, however, inherently, SE has given the playerbase a very diverse and open-ended game system to do with it what they will. The players do just that, which unfortunately means reducing it down to a cookie-cutter approach to parties, to gear, to where to level/when, etc. etc. That's all player-driven. Instead of experimenting and seeing what *else* works... perhaps even better.. they stick to the tried-and-true formula.
You can see over time that some players are learning a bit more about their characters/jobs. Different party setups are coming out of it.. the all monk setup.. the mana-burn setup and so forth. People are learning... slowly, but surely.
Theres only one way to put it, its kinda broken. Fact is, some jobs have gotten stronger while others have become less. Case in point, the SMN class. sure its an amazing job at end game, ever HNMLS will want you... but no one will xp with you. So, big deal? so go into a Astral Burn? Yeah, sure. for every smn you have 10 warriors (maybe more), the population simply will not allow it.
As a DRK i am forced to sub ninja, mind you in new stag points, i do amazing damage no matter what i sub, kinda like a mnk... it just doesnt matter shit dies really fast. But what about my smn friend? we are close friends, but we have the hardest time building pts 2gether, people dont want smn, they want that brd / rdm setup. Heck some pts dont even want me, why a drk? invite a war or a mnk.
Fact remains, FFXI is a Warrior game. PERIOD. I was in a PT last night with a drg and a thf, and i can see how as a DRK with my jse and new tp change that ive become stronger but thf and drg have become weak... not weaker... WEAK.
Normally, when you have to much of 1 class, the game filters people out,(like how end game guilds filter out War in WoW). the fact that end game guilds will over stock that class. It sucks, that me being maybe the best DRK on my server has to join the third best HNMLS. why cant i join the best clan? Cause I'M D-A-R-K. bottom line, some of us suck it up and soldier on cause we really like the game, have allot of time invested in the game, most of us just roll warriors... and the rest of us just quit and goto WoW.
so, now we are playing a game where theres like 8+ jobs and we can only select idk... war,mnk,brd,rdm,cor? We go from a game that was all about the SC to a game that you just spam a WS macro... and it shows. the warriors flat out suck in this game but who cares, just hit the rampage button.
Rites of the Four Horsemen
http://www.rotfh.com
You bring up some valid points, FFxi doesnt suffer from mudflation, even with the third expansion pack out... all the old zones are still packed as ever. In Fact new expansion has made allot of zones less crowded (Jueno). You cant name too many mmos that have pulled this off... normally mudflation kills every mmo.
the community is "ok". lots of emos, lots of elitists and fake wanabe JP's... you have your share of morons.
Rites of the Four Horsemen
http://www.rotfh.com