May 2026 Version Update

I just noticed SE updated the format of the PoL website... are they slowly thinking about making a comeback with FFXI?

Maybe if we make it to 30 years they will give us Vana'diel: A Realm Reborn? lol

remember that time they deleted Limbus for two months so they could test in prod

Part of me wonders if they released an expansion as a "new game"* if it would be successful.

*basically port everything so the experience as a player is largely the same, but fix all the underlying stuff (directX, networking stuff, get rid of POL). Give people to option to transfer their characters (although maybe start some fresh worlds with no transfers)

Graphic models themselves could be updated (or not, or just slowly replaced with HQ versions overtime) just update some UI/QOL things (which would probably break windower/addons, but many could probably be integrated into the game) just having snappier / easier to use/navigate menus would be nice. Perhaps inventory could be designed so its not so fragmented (and loads faster!)

Doing a ARR style remake would be prohibitively expensive. Doing any sort of remaster would as well. I swear you people have no idea how expensive it is to develop games, especially one this large.

During this process they would almost certainly follow the model of every other fantasy MMO, not letting you change large amounts of gear during combat. It would fail because like 80% of FFXI is making and optimizing gear sets.

Have you ever worked on legacy code before, especially in the days before standardized NoSQL databases? Back when everything was statically defined and you explicitly stated which type you expected every time you did something with it?

You change the field value in the database, then you have to go through every piece of code that touches that value and make sure it's expecting the correct type. Otherwise really weird and unexpected things can start happening.

Does anyone remember the year 2000 issue and the sheer amount of money companies poured into development to ensure the two digit rollover didn't blow stuff up?

Yeah, there was that brief rumored Nexon mobile reboot like a decade ago, and I was cautiously hoping they were just gonna farm it out - give them all the necessary assets, like the animations and navmeshes and such, and be like "okay pay a bunch of people to implement these areas, you can just mess up the gameplay entirely, go wild" - and we could at least get a Fun Vana'diel Theme Park out of it.

But given that that withered on the vine, a proper remake is laughably far out of the question.