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FFXI Problems Fixed / Looking to Future
An Anonymous Reader alerted us to the fact that the FFXI connectivity issue reported earlier has been resolved. They finally acknowledged the issue and changed the ports used to collect and send data. Meanwhile, with the recent introduction of the game into Europe and the release of a new expansion, gamesindustry.biz sat down for an interview with FFXI producer Hiromichi Tanaka.
And this is what I like. When companies admit to having a problem and working towards a solution that benefits thier customers. Too bad we do not see this as often as we should.
The Galatic Freedom Force marches on! Defend!
I believe this is Square-Enix's outing, not Sony's.
"Do you suppose that's why God lives in the Heavens? Because he lives in fear of His creations?" - Steve Buscemi
It seems kind of dumb to me that they had to change the ports being used just because some ass-backwards isp was blocking them.
No, you only have to buy a new box if you cancelled your free, no-monthly-fee, PlayOnline ID. If you cancelled your Content ID (the thing you pay $12.95/month for), you can buy a new one any time.
Some advice: SE doesn't pro-rate your Content ID purchase, so whether you buy it Oct 1st or Oct 31st, you'll still pay $12.95 for October. The cost-conscious will reactivate now, or wait until November 1st.
The fellow above is right - the POL ID is free and doesn't get cancelled. You can cancel the Content ID, which is needed to play FFXI or TetraMaster, and that stays in the system for three months after cancelation.
In a sense it does, as I haven't heard of the horrid customer service horror stories of horror from Squeenix, but to be fair, I haven't really looked, whereas you hear about Sony's award* winning customer service everywhere.
*Hey, Suicide and and Worst Customer Service Ever! Awards are still awards dammit!
This joke stolen blatantly from PC Accelerator(RIP)
"Do you suppose that's why God lives in the Heavens? Because he lives in fear of His creations?" - Steve Buscemi
there's almost 500k NA players (500K JP players) and if you ask them, i think connectivity would not register as a problem at all, except for a few people using one specific ISP
there's almost 500k NA players (there's 500k JP players) and no one i know (having played for a year) has a problem with the connectivity. that only affected a few people using one isp.
/. community was gonna discuss FFXI, the minor problem about the ports should be put in the context of all the other stuff ppl are complaining about every day. personally i still like the game a lot :) (75bard, 60summoner, 40white mage, etc)
the MAIN problem that any serious NA FFXI player will tell you about is the latency problem. most of the endgame is camping for 3 hours in a room mashing a macro button as fast as you can (or using a bot *cough*) to win a "claim" on a monster by being the first to attack it. whoever claims it first gets the loot it drops (some monsters drop stuff worth millions of gil, real-world US$ value up to $1000 for something like nidhogg, serket, or king behemoth).
the problem is that all 30 servers (and apparently the 2 new servers they are adding tomorrow) are all in japan. this means the JP players have roughly 1/10 to 1/2 full second to claim a monster before the NA players. often for NA players it spawns with a purple name (meaning it's already claimed - unclaimed monsters have a yellow name). on my server, midgardsormr, the #1 NA guild (or "linkshell") has basically quit the game over this issue.
2nd to that there are balance problems (compare galka to taru, bastok to windurst, dragoon to whm), endgame content problems (zilart missions are about it), and economy problems (chinese players playing as employment, farming the same important items 24/7 non-stop and manipulating the economy).
personally i live with the problems and they don't affect me as much as other players but i thought if the