Is FFXI still online?

[Flake]

Subscription costs have chased me off from a lot of games that I might otherwise have ponied up for, FFXI being a prime example and DC Universe Online being a more recent instance.

With the exception of a few titles like that World of Warcraft game, I think that the monthly subscription model is a bad choice for developers. It's anachronistic and doesn't have much of a place in today's over-saturated market.

[Betamax001]

I never played FFXI because of subscription costs. I paid X amount for the game, I should be able to not pay more to keep playing it. Thats BS. Plus it doubly sucks when the game goes offline. Lame. Forget MMOs. I wish FFXI and FFXIV were not part of the numbered series and instead called Final Fantasy Online and Final Fantasy Online 2 or something. Make the online series like a spinoff like Crystal Chronicles and Tactics or something.

[jfrost]

It's weird that you guys are using the phrase "free to play" to mean "no subscription fee after shelling out $50".

Free to play usually means that a game is totally free, getting money from advertising or microtransactions.

[Betamax001]

It's weird that you guys are using the phrase "free to play" to mean "no subscription fee after shelling out $50".

Free to play usually means that a game is totally free, getting money from advertising or microtransactions.

Would the term free to keep playing make it better jfrost?

[Runefaust]

F2P (free to play) is just the general term used to describe any MMO that doesn't require a paid monthly subscription. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean you won't spend money on the game... as most of these F2P games make bank with microtransactions.

[noiseredux]

It's weird that you guys are using the phrase "free to play" to mean "no subscription fee after shelling out $50".

Free to play usually means that a game is totally free, getting money from advertising or microtransactions.

free to obtain and free to play are two different things.

[neilencio]

I don't actually know any MMO that's free in the truest sense of the word, except for private servers (and even then, the only private servers that last long are those that resort to microtransactions or donations).

[jfrost]

It's weird that you guys are using the phrase "free to play" to mean "no subscription fee after shelling out $50".

Free to play usually means that a game is totally free, getting money from advertising or microtransactions.

free to obtain and free to play are two different things.

The expression is generally used to mean free to obtain and play.

[isiolia]

It's weird that you guys are using the phrase "free to play" to mean "no subscription fee after shelling out $50".

Free to play usually means that a game is totally free, getting money from advertising or microtransactions.

free to obtain and free to play are two different things.

The expression is generally used to mean free to obtain and play.

Free to play usually means pay to win. Plenty of the "oh it's free now" games still require money to access the entire game.

The subscription cost for an active MMO player is honestly not a big deal. Cost per hour of entertainment (such as it is) is exceptionally low, considering how much time is often dumped into them.

It's less a game and more a service. Consider how much cable TV costs, or Netflix, etc.


Also, FFXIV sucks because of design problems due to SE decided that tossing out everything and starting fresh would be a good idea. They learned the hard way with XI, which has been retrofit to try and keep up with other MMOs for years now. I could critique it for pages...but suffice to say it's a lot better of a game now than it was at launch.

If you want to see some player opinions, BG's FFXIV forum would be a good place to start.

[MrEco]

I wish FFXI and FFXIV were not part of the numbered series and instead called Final Fantasy Online and Final Fantasy Online 2 or something. Make the online series like a spinoff like Crystal Chronicles and Tactics or something.

Like it really matters? It's just a name. It won't change the existence or the content of the game at all.