Given that they're not making a FFVII remake despite the obnoxiously ridiculously enormous demand for it, I sincerely doubt that any amount of demand for an offline adaptation of FFXI would ever happen.
I'm with Omecle in that I've spent some time thinking about this. I'd love it so much. An official version will likely never happen which is too bad considering the depth of the story.
What we can expect is reasonable private servers at some point. Beyond that, let's not forget that technology might do things we're not expecting as far as private servers go. Remember when you first discovered emulation and how before that you probably couldn't have even imagined it?
Beyond just private servers, there may come a time where we can have it emulated very well locally with countless options.
That is a good point, Yeargdribble. Private servers would allow a group of friends to enjoy the game without having to worry about the various restrictions placed upon the community.
I imagine that there are parameters in the game that can be modified to exceed Level 75 and that one could easily edit HP and MP to become more powerful characters capable of taking out monsters by themselves without issues. This would allow a person to complete difficult missions by themselves or only a friend or two to assist.
I believe in the power of humanity.
Hmm, that'd be really interesting to eventually introduce private servers that buff things up (like exp gain, HP, MP, etc. etc.) for the purpose of being able to get through with just a few of your friends. In fact, I wonder if the server is set up properly, that you'd get a great influx of players based on the fact that things are easier.
"... and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written."
When I mentioned it I'd forgotten something that your post reminded me of, Roogle. The animations and level caps for spells are already in the game up to 100. I remember when I played a lot I'd browse through them and marvel at the amazing animations of really high levels spells.
Although there is no content for such, allowing the players to get to 100 on a private server would also allow them to do some of the hardest current endgame content. I'm sure being 25 levels higher would make even AV and PW a little easier.
I wonder if Omecle might be right about the influx of players under proper conditions. I'm sure at some point there would be people curious to see what the game is all about, but unwilling to pay and waste their lives away getting anywhere. Even Ultima Online has a bevy of servers all with different rule sets and system adjustments. No doubt there would be a private server set up just those wanting to get the high points of the game's story and having XP curves and such tweaked toward that.
FFXI has a relatively small, but some deeply dedicated community. I'm sure there will be more than a handful of community members who will care enough in the future to carefully tweak private server to the needs of different people to make the game entirely approachable.
Something tells me that Square Enix isn't the type of company to allow such a use of their product. Not for any particularly good reason, mind, but mostly because their attitude towards the player base isn't exactly what one typically expects from a developer of a MMORPG.
Pfft! Who said anything about doing it with their consent? WoW has private servers already even though they aren't allowed. There is a WIP private server for FFXI now, though it has quite drastic limitations at this point.
SE is a lawsuit happy company that might try to keep them down, but there must be a legal loophole that allows them considering the WoW servers aren't all shut down. In five years FFXI may be inconsequential enough that it's easy to get private servers running in the corners of the internet.
Yes, I remember seeing videos of unused spells like Death and Comet being cast by players in special environments as a demonstration of what can be done in the game, theoretically. If a private server allowed the use of better spells like Utsusemi: San and Death, it would be a lot easier to travel the world with a couple of friends and complete missions and quests on your own time rather than hope that circumstance brings everyone together.
I believe in the power of humanity.