Is anyone else concerned about the recently released Q&A excerpts that have shown up on a few of the more official FFXI sites out there (I've found this on Stratics, Warcry, and IGN so far). These two Q&A's bothered me the most.
I don't know about everyone else but I was under the impression that there were going to be new servers (supposedly located in the U.S.) for the U.S. release, I know a few others believed this as well.From the PlayOnline.com's Q&A database
Q. Will there be any new Worlds [servers] created in FFXI for subscribers to the North American version?
A. Currently, we have no plans to do so. When service begins, it will be possible to create characters in the already existing worlds [servers]. FINAL FANTASY XI is a cross continent game where players are able to communicate and play with/against other players from around the World. We will be creating new Worlds [servers] however as needed to accommodate our customers and provide an appropriate player to World balance.
For more information on the Worlds currently in service, please refer to the Server Status pages on the Official Website of FINAL FANTASY XI ONLINE (http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/server/index.html).
Q. Can we create characters on both the new servers and the already existing servers?
A. At this moment, we are not planning to open any new Worlds [servers]. New characters will be allocated randomly in the existing Worlds. If you received a ¡ÈWorld Pass¡É from a friend in another World [server], you will be able to create a character in that world.
Without the new servers I see more than a few problems arising. The first and foremost is communication. Square has created a system that will allow simple and common preprogrammed phrases to be auto-selected while typing. For example, when typing "Hello" or "Hi" or "Greetings" or something else similar, the game will bring up an auto-complete entry that if selected will be automatically translated to the appropriate system. This will help with simple tasks such as party forming and basic communication. The problem arises when you try to coordinate complex actions such as weapon or spell chains (which become pretty much necessary at higher levels), you simply won't be able to communicate things this complex or detailed. This will limit (at least at higher levels) people to grouping only with people who speak their language. I would also think that it would make the first few U.S. players feel somewhat isolated even when surrounded by other PC's because of the language barrier. I see this as being the largest issue.
The next two issues are almost one in the same. Since the price of a World Pass is mathematically calculated based on the server population, this means that new players will find it difficult to purchase a World Pass in the beginning. This will then result in real life friends being unable to join the same server initially until one can retrieve a World Pass for the other (and thus making that player create a new character and lose anything he had accomplished so far.
There are other smaller issues such as connectivity and out of game community issues related to this but I feel these are the biggest issues/problems to be anticipated. I'm curious what other people think about all this.
Leighton
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. I don't want to play on a server that already got high lvl caracters and not be able to understand a word of what half the server is saying.(but I guess what I want doesn't matter
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