Abyssea And Its Effect On Players.

So lately I have been having some thoughts and wanted to share it with you all. So ever since Abyssea has been released it has basically changed this game completely, including people. I don't intend for this post to be a "abyssea killed ffxi!" but generally about its effect on players and what you have noticed changed. I find that a lot of people have become more hardcore than ever... It seems SE's general idea was to make the game more casual friendly, not requiring a giant LS to do everything (not to say a giant ls doesn't accomplish things faster) and more laid back about items due to insane ease with blue proc and low AH costs. I also find there is a lot more cutthroat activity amongst people in regards to popping NMs through the ??? system and how people generally treat each other.

I find in my observations that people aren't being more casual but hardcore.. Spending upwards of 9 hours+ a night in the same zone to "cap" people out on items and emperial weapons. What are peoples thoughts on this? When you look at a LS's web page or accomplishments and see they have something like, "tonight we got all 50 of x items in 9 hours farming, great job and congrats to the upgrader!" What goes through your mind? NINE HOURS in a single zone doing one activity over and over? Does this sound like a game or a job to you? Did we see this in the past?

I don't even think this was that much of a widespread issue until Abyssea was released. I know there were sects of people doing this on a normal basis but now it seems very widespread. Abyssea has made people more hardcore and spend a lot more time playing the game, maybe the allure of how easy it is or overpowering enemies with atma or something I can't think of. Sky or Sea were never typically this time consuming, people didn't want to spend 9 hours a night farming triggers for the gods or JOL and such, they typically farmed one or two pop sets for the LS. Kings/HNM didn't take that long either, afk until a window and claim > kill > leave. It just seems there is so much focus on completing so much so fast with Abyssea and the amount of time spent inside is alarming.

So any thoughts on this? I think the game is starting to change for a good majority of players and it's pretty evident with how long they spend in Abyssea. These are just my thoughts and I still have fun with the game, but I just ask how can some of you out there enjoy the game when you treat it like a job? Clock in 9 hours and finish x items so that you can clock another 9 hours to finish y for MR z?

This was deff there before abyss.

In FF11 you have people who play, Hardcore. Even more Hardcore and then insanely hardcore.

Casual players pop up once in a while but 80% of the time will either Quit the game or become hardcore themselves.

I know it was there before Abyssea, I commented on how it seems more widespread now more than ever. Have you ever seen people spend 9 hours+ every night regularly in sea or sky or dynamis or einherjar or any of the previous events people did doing the same thing over and over?

It's probably the feeling of accomplishment, even though it's just a game. Playing this game, I'm sure, is probably generally more enjoyable than most people can say their daily chores or jobs are.

Yep, more Sea than Sky though. Along with HNM all day everyday. This isn't new. I do think more people play longer than before, but I'd guess it's because Abyssea added a level of fun in that you do something, get rewarded.

I agree that this has always been around with crazy hardcore runs, but I think there is now the thrill factor of breaking ground on something brand new every 3 months as SE is creating new limit breaks, new zones, etc. The game, while constantly updating, had been static for the most part for so many years that this is like a crazy adrenaline trip for so many hardcore ffxi gamers that they all have the chance to be the first at something and show it off, etc and it drives them to not see this as a job but a race to be first (whether first in game, server, in ls, amongst friends...).

People aren't spending (or in the case of kings wasting) any more time now than they were then. Now they're just spending it while getting something out of it.

As far as treating it like a job, log on, grind x hours of merits, cast haste x0000 times for 3 hours in Dynamis, farm pop items for x hours pops only to come back and spend x hours killing the pops, craft x hours for gil, show up every night on a schedule to play a job you hate to get your ls leader gil so you can get some points...

FF has always been treated like a job by the majority of players, probably never going to change. The only difference I've really seen is that people are far more divided by their like or dislike of Abyssea than any other content in years.

Yeah I agree with the general sentiment that people have always spent crazy amounts of time playing this game in 1 sitting, all abyssea did was consolidate it into one event.

That being said, its made the game a lot less entertaining for me. I miss doing a different type of event every day or so to keep things fresh. Am I still striving to get gear and such, yeah...but after getting Ukko's Fury and all these atmas, and taking huge hunks of hp off mobs...its kinda like ok...where do I grow next?

My entertainment in this game post abyssea came in becoming an ls leader out of nowhere, and managing the logistics of running it all. I most certainly am not the best leader out there, but at this point in time I'm finding value in learning management.

But yeah 9 hours in abyssea, multiple times a week, no thank you.

People do in game whatever they think there time is worth, if the prize at the end is not worth obtaining, generally people won't bother with it. If when salvage first came out you could farm it for 9 hours a day, i'm sure there would have been alot of people that would have.

I think the biggest change(as far as abyssea) to the players is that anything that is a challenge most people just brew, which is kinda a joke.

This and the fact that it's much easier to actually accomplish something. When you went to sky, sea or dynamis with your LS before how often did you left with an accomplishment?
Unless you were leader or a holder not so often probably.
Now with Abyssea it's possible to get something out of it almost every day or at least every second day.
This does give a much better feeling to most of the players more frequently. It's like a high to gain access to a powerful item e.g. and the more often you can get it the more often you will want it. ^^
Like with a drug :x

tl;dr? OP is wall of text.

true...

However I now have all my 4 top jobs to 90, and can do skill them and do w.e now and have the feeling of being " caught up" now.

I would only say that I on y days off spend 5-6 hours, but only if I FELT LIKE IT... not hardcore, im more of a casual type.

While I agree that the ??? pop system can be pretty cut-throat, I think whether or not Abyssea has an adverse effect on players (in general) depends on the individual.

Hardcore players will be hardcore players. Casual players will continue to remain casual players (if they choose to be).

Despite the 120 min. time limit in Abyssea, it's really a fake time limit since it's fairly easy to farm time extension chests. Whereas in Limbus/Einherjar/Dynamis/Sky/Sea your time extension is limited to fixed rules, or the pop window for the NMs you're after.

Speaking for myself, Abyssea hasn't really changed my play style. I've managed to collect some choice Atma and Armour seals without too much trouble thanks largely to support from awesome linkshell buddies.

I've had to cut back my "main" jobs from six to two, but the ease of levelling through Abyssea has allowed me to keep my favourite jobs up to date with people who have more time on their hands.

So I guess the trick to not letting yourself get caught up in 9 hour gaming marathons is to be happy/realistic with what you can achieve in the time you've got, and finding a linkshell full of like-minded players you can team up with.

Second part can be a challenge. There's a lot of players out there who don't understand the concept of life-outside-of-game...

I for one love what abyssea has done to the game because of the accessibility of items by low man groups. I agree with op about a ton of ppl spending assloads of time farming time and +1 +2 items. I think this is because most ppl want instant gratification, and well, if your paying for a game, why not? I really don't think it has changed the playing habits of your average gear ***, just made their lives easier. I love it because I don't have to wait a year to earn points to earn the right to lot a .00001% drop. Suit up, grab a friend, get shyte done, fun times.

The whole emp things. They're quicker than both relics and mythics, so with a realistic goal being set, more people are out to get these than either of their 2 counterparts, which is why we see all this new grind.

OP is Draylo, that says it all.


People spent hours and hours at merit parties before Abyssea though. I was in a party one time that lasted close to 20 hours last spring.

Only real effect I see abyssea has had on players, is it makes dumbshits like the OP post threads like this.

Abyssea effected me greatly! Everytime I kill a monster outside abyssea and a chest drop, I automatically say TE.

A couple weeks ago, we paid a visit to Dyna-xarc and whenever someone took out a mob via weapon skill, people would be like "OMG STOP GETTING RUBY!"

Implying what? If you don't like reading maybe you shouldn't be on forums.


lol

To be fair, you've done your share of trolling so you shouldn't be surprised that some posters don't care to read your posts.

As for the OP itself, I do agree that some casual social shells are starting to head to that route since it's so easy to get nice things. I find my shell spending a lot more hours doing Abyssea as opposed to other events in the past.

Some people being more hardcore in a video game than others? This is brand new?

Seriously. I'm not trolling here. Have you just never played any other online game ever before?

I'm really not a hardcore gamer anymore, but I remember when I played PSO waking up at 6/7am on a Saturday just to play c-mode with JP players in their prime time.

This behaviour is not new or even interesting.

I'm really dumbfounded here.

Jp good at an MMO? I'd have never known

PSO is not an MMO you black man D:

Ah, just googled it
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra


Fair enough

You must be HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE or unable to read then.

or both

So explain to me how this behaviour is new to even FFXI? Or if you're feeling even more stupid, new to games as a whole? I just fail to see your point.

I think it's comical that anyone thinks Abyssea has been a negative influence on FFXI.

There were people who take the game too seriously before Abyssea; there were noobs and retards before Abyssea;
there were insomniacs and social outcasts before Abyssea, and there still are all those types of people.

What Abyssea has done is drastically improved the effort vs. reward ratio. Also, it has enabled players to have a more direct impact on drop rate of loot, using the !! triggers. Also, S-E has lowered the respawn rate of "???" for forced-spawn NMs from 15 minutes (see: Kirin, Alastor Antlion, etc.) now to 60 seconds inside Abyssea.

Clearly, Abyssea is the new & improved FFXI version 2.0. I think anyone who seeks stuff to complain about in Abyssea is just simply looking to complain about anything.

That said, I did have an experience yesterday that came to mind when I read the OP here. Was leading a 4-man pick-up group for Nonno to farm seals. Another 3-person group showed up and popped Nonno without saying anything. No big deal I thought; par for the course. The kicker is that I consider 2 of the 3 people in this "rival" group to be FFXI friends. So, I figured, no big deal, it'll be understood that we can just alternate pops. But no, they just went ahead and continued to spawn Nonno again, without even saying anything.

I went over to their group, asked politely in /say if we could alternate pops. After a lengthy delay, 1 of the 2 people I consider friends in this group replies "whoever has pop item." I asked politely in /say for clarification, and he replied "whoever pops the NM gets it".

At this point I'm laughing in real life. Later, by /tell I reminded this person that I considered him a friend, told him I thought his behavior was out of character, and asked him why he acted that way earlier. He replied that yes we were friends, but he "didn't like the crew I run with". Again, I'm laughing aloud in real life now. "The crew I run with?", I asked, pointing out that it was a pick-up group of 4 strangers. "Yeah, I spend a lot of time in Abyssea now, and I dislike all pick-up groups".

So, tl;dr?
Abyssea made/makes FFXI far better than it used to be. But, the OP has a point, some players are spending too much time on-end in Abyssea, and have developed some unjustified elitist behaviors as a result.