Infographics Pros & Cons Of Pserver Vs. Retail

Because a private server can do whatever they want, and lie and cheat as much as they please. If you have a system where they can do anything and there are no restrictions at all, why would they not do it? Especially when you understand the lore of AerecP and Horizon and how much of an ego project it is.

Ultimately lying about player numbers works incredibly well to people who want to believe it, because they have every incentive to do it, because every private server for every game averages around 400-500 people so why is this so different, because it's very easy to do and because there is no common sense argument you can make where a game with such boring and slow content with masses of downtime has player numbers and retention that beat almost every other private server (and even many official mmorpgs) for every game that exists.

Old XI was appealing in 2002 because it was genuinely exciting to be able to play with other people and talk to them, and that is what propped the game up. Now it's nothing exciting at all and indeed for many people in 2025 constant forced social interaction for everything is a massive negative.

You will have a better social interaction with people on discord, reddit or a forum, than on there. What party based social interaction actually boils down to, is just saying when you're gonna pull, when you're gonna skillchain and hi and bye. That's your social interaction in a party for leveling, it's souless and forced when you have done it for years unless it is with people you like and not just randoms.

The era game is awful and that includes socially (the server doesn't even have a friend list cause they are too tarded to make one lmao), so the only people who are gonna be there still are going to be a tiny minority of extremely hardcore people. The level of social interaction you get in a normal exp party is mildly above what you get in a group finder dungeon on XIV, there is no ongoing conversation on random topics and it's going to boil down to functional typing you repeat in every party.

If /sea all said 400 players would you actually like it as much as if it said 2k? No. that's why they do it.

Did you know that when a new store opens in a mall or shopping center, very often they will pay for people to stand around in the store in the first 1-2 days? as it encourages more to come in?

Its widely accepted that lying about player numbers works, because people are sheep. Even XIV does it constantly by saying they have 30 million "players" on the Steam Store, when everyone knows it's nonsense and at best are around 800-1m. The difference is that a company can confuse the meaning of words (players = anyone that ever made an account since the game first launched), and a private server can just straight up fabricate a number in the game and pretend it's real people online right now.

So you don't have any proof I said that (which I already said I almost 100% doubt as I have never made a call to action other than retail is better) and are pulling that out of your ***.



Another thing you are pulling from your ***, I was never temp banned for botting. Another anon troll sock account who thinks they know me. It's almost weird too, you confess to reading and viewing so many comments from me to the point you are cataloging them to use in these debates later. Every single post you have here on this sock account is about this server too and attacking people that don't like it lol.


LOL, you can't make this up. You are saying they can't be compared while literally giving the description of leveling from 1-75. Standing in the same spot ( a camp) and spamming a macro every 3 seconds. You don't find it fun, yet you literally claim its one of the strong points of that server, leveling from 1-75 lol. Nobody finds EXP fun, nobody has ever found it fun.

Those silly social interactions that are literally forced on you are so vapid and pointless. "HI party ^0^" then tons of silence until maybe a death or weird pull, "LOL nice" and continue. So dumb, you aren't getting those same exchanges we got back in the day when we were all kids. The best is when the dad has to go afk to deal with his kids and then ditches the party without finding a replacement, so they spend 40m just sitting there not even talking to search for a replacement (have seen this happen so many times on videos for that server.)


Who doesn't use or have access to voice chat in this day and age? This game is not on console anymore. The game is not that fast for almost 80% of the content you are doing. Just look at sortie, you are running most of the time.


Wait, are you really saying that modern day EXPing is too fast to type? Wat, who even cares about how fast you are getting exp these days, if you wanted to type you could, nobody is gonna care that you WSd past 1000 TP.


You can make friends and new people without having to be FORCED to exp with 5 other people... Just read the things you are typing. Back in the day I didn't make most of my friends EXPing I made them doing LS events... The opinion thing can be directed right back at you, look at all the energy you are putting into trying to stop people from posting a negative opinion here. I at least don't care who leaves a comment, or try to stop them. I just simply leave my opinion just like them.


Kind of like saying, hey lets go back to a dinky fake copy of an era of FFXIs life to play pretend and EXP. Nobody is forcing you not to group up on retail, its like you enjoy being forced to do things and don't like choice.

Here's my experience doing the content listed in just the past few months. At first glance I thought most of this stuff is out of date/not efficient or I already have all the gears from the content, but I found that I ended up doing nearly everything in the past few months for some reason or another. Lots of different things to do in retail, I enjoy this game!

-Sky - Spent some time farming god seals for escha aa/kirin pops
-HNM - x
-Limbus - x
-Einherjar - Occasionally spammed whenever I've felt motivated to stock up ichor for mythic
-Dynamis - Farmed up some relic pieces to upgrade to 119 +3
-Voidwatch - Farmed some Fajin Boots for quick/easy +18% movement to send to mule and some accidental Heavy Metal Pouches were nice
-Campaign - I changed allegiances so I had to earn 2 medals to get back to Medal of Altana so I ended up doing a few campaign battles
-BCNM/KSNM/KCNM/etc. - Always spamming K club 60bcnm fights from login points
-Salvage - Did some trials there after completing mythic
-ZNM - Had to farm some ZNM pops to complete the mythic as well
-Voidwalker - Had to kill some VNMs doing Empy wep trials
-Assault - Speedran through Assaults while making Mythic
-Besieged - Doing Besieged whenever I can catch it to stock up the new points in case something good comes out later
-Delve - Spammed Delve during the recent delve event to stockpile plasm to save gil on mats when upgrading armor to +2/3
-Unity NM - Helped friends farm up gear, stockpiled misc. mats used for pop items in other content
-Sinister Reign - Help friends get some gear upgrades while chasing some perfect augs even though I don't need
-HTBF - Spammed Cloud of Darkness fight until I capped
-Ambuscade - Ambu 4eva! Great memories gathering friends together to kill stuff and all benefit together
-Dynamis [D] - Got more midboss clears for relic+3 access, rp farmed some necks, and money farming whenever possible
-Omen - Card or crystal farming solo on cooldown. Also did some occasional boss runs with friends
-Skrmish - x
-Gaes Fete - Made an aeonic, also farmed a few nm to help friends get some random stuff
-Vagary - Farmed mats for money from the RoE on a few occasions
-Odyssey - Every day, money and segs
-Sortie - Yes


-Incursion: capped KI to max lv143 for fun/completion, also helped new player get max CP cape
-Abyssea: Solo'd on NIN empyrean weapon mats
-EXP: Farmed some master levels with friends smacking mobs to death, also did some peach power runs
-Kathwacked: Got kathwacked 1000x in aman trove

ITT: this content sucks.
Also ITT: this content was peak ffxi.

isnt an argument for what? everyone gauges or has some criteria that must be met for them to decide whether or not they do it. if something provides me with no enjoyment, im not going to do it. if there is however a reward that provides enough joy i can overcome the monotony of said activity and be swayed to pursue it. that threshold is different for everyone. most of that list however had either zero reward AND provides zero enjoyment thus i have ZERO interest in doing. i dont understand what you mean by that is not an argument. that is how everyone pursues everything in life. thats why people keep shitty jobs because they pay well, or keep shitty paying jobs because they enjoy them.

pretty funny you quoted me saying learn to read and youre still struggling to comprehend what im saying. despite having repeated myself countless times now. i didnt say content isnt worth doin if there is no reward. if said content is not fun and simultaneously provides no reward, there is zero incentive for me to do it. that is my position. i dont know how to be any more clear on it.

"You also criticize me for disregarding your statements about 1-75, while you literally do the same for Maletaru." please at least quote what it is that youre referring to as im genuinely having an incredibly hard time trying to figure out what point youre trying to make here.

There's a lot of irony in the guy who hasn't figured out how to quote posts, asking for someone else to quote properly

so basically you're saying that they CAN do it, and since it fits your insane narrative youre choosing to believe they are lying absent of any actual evidence. got it. your position on the subject i see hasnt changed at all in years. you do realize by the same logic anyone could argue SE is lying about retail numbers as well. because i mean who wants to log in to a game they play and see a dwindling population. so obviously SE is lying to us because they have incentive to keep us paying....

"The era game is awful and that includes socially (the server doesn't even have a friend list cause they are too tarded to make one lmao), so the only people who are gonna be there still are going to be a tiny minority of extremely hardcore people. The level of social interaction you get in a normal exp party is mildly above what you get in a group finder dungeon on XIV, there is no ongoing conversation on random topics and it's going to boil down to functional typing you repeat in every party."

somehow i can believe that for being as insufferable as you are not many people wanted to talk to you. i however did not have that experience leveling. for me xping 1-75 was the most fun part of that era. again. im sorry you have a different opinion on the matter or that maybe people didnt like you enough to engage in chatter with you. but that simply wasnt the experience i had. most of the people i played with for many years both in and out of ffxi were people i met during an xp party.

are you really this dumb or are you just trolling? you literally quoted what i said and still lied about it. i didnt ask him to quote properly i asked him to quote whatever hes referring to because i dont know what hes talking about. some of you are beyond insufferable

Silk Road invalidating progression in HXI anyways. Constantly seeing LS pivot to mercing, with plenty of people wanting to pay for full gear sets for their job rather then actually run content… the printing got out of hand.

how much money do you want a bet that i can prove you said it?

The funny part is when these larpers pretend the servers are actual era, they aren't at all in any way. The lolHNM endgame is especially easy and busted up, nobody ever wipes to anything no matter how bad they are, they are all using modern overpowered addons on this old easy content that was solved 20 years ago. Imagine pretending the plastic ridill they got in 2 kills has any emotional value at all, why even bother with all the jank and boredom when there isn't even any emotional payoff from getting something rare or overcoming some great challenge?

They have this self image where they are playing a hard version of the game and look down on others, when it's a complete joke and made easy for them on purpose. When they comment on retail, all they know is leveling to 75 and think that's all it is cause that's all they have.

Not only do these servers suck in every actual way as a video game and gives a terrible impression of what XI is/was for people from XIV who may try it, it's not even what it pretends to be.

cringe larpers

Why dont you post on your actual account? Why hide behind a mule/sock? All your posts are on this server... weird. This whole "i know this guy" chip on your shoulder is weird, you can debate thr topic without dragging every bit of the past to try and devalue others opinions. You just know you don't have much to go on when you claim exp is fun.

what sock account? wtf are u talking about. you said the same thing about my youtube account when u claimed i made a burner account to "stalk you" when u were crying on every horizon video every day. meanwhile its the only youtube account ive had since 06. this is my only account. its the same one ive had for 20 years. you can literally click on my profile. like why are u not capable of not making ***up.

"how much money do you want a bet that i can prove you said it?"

Draylo living rent free in "ur" head forever.

Protip: nobody had a serious problem with private servers before the shi7heads who run H spammed everywhere, and made a nuisance of themselves.

Eh. Everyone finds accomplishment in their own way. There’s some stuff I grinded for where I felt accomplished for doing it.
. I still find it quite fun to play regardless, but I do find a lot more to do in retail. I also by no means think it’s a hard game, and laugh when some of the community starts to meta game it/say how game changing a whole +1 att is going to be.

Their only goal is to get the thread de-mained. They will go to extraordinary lengths to troll as hard as they can until they accomplish it. Private servers are just a way to play a social MMO for free. People don't have nostalgia for the 75 era, they just don't want to pay a sub fee. They take the 75 era because its whats available. That's all it is.

idk how many you've played on but ive been on quite a few and my experience says otherwise. most people ive met play both retail and private servers, myself included. either that or they used to play back in the day and quit after x update. they are nothing alike. its like saying people play rocket league because they dont want to pay for forza horizon (whatever number they're up to now)

"you aren't actually having fun playing the game you're playing all the REAL fun is in the game im playing" is this whole topic every time, aren't y'all tired

can i get banned from the horizon section so these stops showing up on my home page lol

Sorry Toeknee. The reason I made this thread is because I previously knew this forum existed already before I got into the private server scene.

Usually private servers are marketed and advertised purely positive and without any warnings of risks.

I was not informed fully.

There's no other safer platforms to post this type of thread without the risk of it getting removed or orchestrated massive attacks.

I asked permission of the FFXIAH mods and they gave me permission and Ok'd it.

I do plan on making a guide for women/minors next because I don't see this type of needed information. It could save someone's life of all kinds of troubles.

I would have wanted this and I need to do this for my own moral obligation and to other victims.

Not your fault at all, I thought the info graphic and breakdown was actually solid and fun to read from someone that was coming to the different versions of the game fresh. It's the spiral that followed that folks just can't help but yell the same things ad nauseam until the topics get closed

I don't even know where to begin with you. The level of rose tinted glasses combined with making ***up that isn't true at all is creating some kind of vortex of "what the hell are you talking about?!" that I am struggling not to have bits of my brain leak out my ears even thinking about it. Whatever game you think FFXI is or was, you are hilariously incorrect and really need to just shut up and go away. I can't take you seriously at all.

rose tinted glasses? because i like something you dont? what did i make up?

Yea I can see that. I think the last thread about a private server was three months ago.

I plan to have this one and another one, and then leave them as a permanent imprint for years so people can always be informed and reuse.

I don't intend to stay on this topic forever. It's like my final wrap up of goodbye to private servers. Kind of like Frodo when he moves on from the Middle Earth.. it's like for me departing this and fully giving my all to Retail..

I needed to write this to heal my own soul.. it pained me alot that I fell in love with a game and community only to be dehumanized by people I thought I could look up to. I was failed and left with only disappointment.

(It's meant to be a humorous take, though!)

"i like water"
"how can you like water when iced tea exists"
"i like iced tea. but i also like water as well"
"yea but iced tea has so much more flavor, and it has water in it too, so it doesnt make sense that you like water when iced tea exists"
"well sometimes i drink iced tea, and sometimes im just in the mood for water"
"yea but it doesnt make sense for you to like water if theres iced tea"
"it just depends what im in the mood for"
*head explodes/reality collapses.

this is exactly what its like trying to tell someone you enjoy retail and private servers.

Because what you fondly remember never existed in the first place. EVERYONE here who ACTUALLY PLAYED during that era has told you so. So either you are not remembering it correctly or you're lying. Either reason is grounds for dismissing you as a clown. But let's take it a step further shall we? What was your retail account name? What servers did you play on? Who knew you back in the day? There are enough of us old-timers around that if you actually played during the "golden era of 1-75 level grinding" that SOMEONE would remember you.

Nah dude, if anything you are the type of homeopathic nut who claims water has memory and that means that it simultaneously tastes like both water and iced tea at the same time because it's so superior.

But again, you are so full of ***I doubt you ever played the original game in the first place.

theres no way you're seriously telling me i dont enjoy that game ive been playing for 20 years. what is wrong with you? what do i stand to gain from lying about saying i like something? you can literally click on my profile and see my acc? like youre actually insane. how can you sit there and tell me its impossible for me to like something because you dont like it???? ive had the same 1 account since 05. i started on kujata, moved to phoenix before it merged several years later, took a break came back to a dead server and moved to asura. i cant think of anyone that i remember playing with at that time that still plays. but what an asbolutely absurd thing to accuse someone of lmfao. who made you the arbiter of fun? how are u gonna tell me what i like???? do you not hear yourself?

again what did make up?

show me a single instance where i claimed private servers are superior to retail. ill wait.

you literally just proved my point with how angry you are over me stating i like retail and private servers. go touch grass dude