This game has been ruined...

[Rustic]

Far as it goes- people do tend to think in terms of "I must go do GoV in the three narrow areas in order to level up!".

Then they fail to realize that from 1-24, Dangruf Wadi is easy to solo, 24-35 Maze of Shak, 36-49 Delfkutt's, and so on...you don't HAVE to be in those three GoV zones to do things exp-wise. They're just the spots where people found it easiest to AFK-leech off groups wrecking the place, and honestly, demolishing a steady stream of weak EP's isn't tough to do, even solo. /DNC it and you're self-sufficient for the whole thing. People gravitate towards easymode.

The big flaw was when FFXI gave up on making the journey worth something, versus jumping to 99 and rendering expansions the sole method of entertainment.

[Miradel]

Being good at a job is about being willing to learn and put forth the effort it takes, not grinding exp mobs until you magically become a pro.

I think that used to be the definition of being good at a job. Today, 'being good at a job' is way more dependent on what gear you have than any capacity to learn and put forth effort.

Intelligence and skill are no longer part of the game. It's more about having the exact right gear set, the correct gear swapping macros, and the most powerful weapon.

It's left a lot of us behind. People whose linkshells dissolved, or people who don't play consistently, every day, all of the time. I took a break from the game for quite a while, and when I came back I was without a linkshell and without a support system to get me through content.

Without the old time party setup, you don't have opportunities to make social connections that could land you a new linkshell. If you don't have the right gear, or macros set up, you're replaced instead of helped.

[Duelle]

I'll hope for it. This game's core systems are still top notch if you pay attention, it's the content designed around it recently that lets us down.

Anyone who finds themselves completely disagreeing with that, go read through the Assault Missions, you don't even have to do them, just read the strategies and the requirements and think about what that sort of content meant. You didn't even need 'the best' because doing it 'faster' didn't help, the success metric was different. You wouldn't have to shout for the 'strongest' jobs and take longer to make the party, just grab decent and intelligent people, go do the content, and win or lose.

I'm gonna disagree on that, seeing that I was that DRK that could not do assaults aside from excavation duty simply because I didn't want to be NIN/WAR/whatever else was "acceptable".

If you want to know what really hurt the game, it was the fact that they could not properly balance jobs. Stuff like BCNMs seem to be designed entirely around ideas without much mind being paid to job design and limitations, possible set ups and so on.

[Sarick]

It is ruined and i find it funny se trying to lure back the players that quit over R/M/E issue , i used to love this game from the day i started and now its getting worse and is not fun at all.

~~~

That how i truly feel about this game and forgive me english is my second language

Perfect song for this topic.

You Ruined Me.

I've never heard this song before and I don't know the artist. It just fits how a lot of people feel.

[Ritsuka]

Part of me misses the 6 man groups simply because I met tons of ppl and made quite a few friends through them. Now if ppl are even present they seldom talk.

The only real issue I have with GoV pts is that there are only 18 spots open for ppl in each of the 3 lvl ranges that make up the GoV pts making it increasingly difficult to get into a pt. Lvl 50+ is even more difficult due to ppl joining the GoV in Bostaunieux Oubliette who are lvl 75-99 simply for skilling up.

It is true that these pts are not always full but during peak times there usually a good 5-6 ppl sitting with their flag up, sometimes for hrs. At least back in the day when you were on one of those hard to get pts jobs you could form your own or have multiple choices of camps. Now its so limited if we ever did get an influx of new players things would get quite tight.

But I don't see SE doing anything about this anytime soon since the ppl who do have to wait are comparatively small as is the influx of new and returning players

there is a very simple fix for that..... You know all those people who are not in a party sometimes its quite a few of them..... why don't you form a 6 man party because i know you can i seen the right jobs just with there flag up and form a party? But oh ya.... they rather wait to get into the "alliance" party instead. You only have yourself to blame if you want to party make one Its not hard i still do it.

[Randnum]

I'm gonna disagree on that, seeing that I was that DRK that could not do assaults aside from excavation duty simply because I didn't want to be NIN/WAR/whatever else was "acceptable".

If you want to know what really hurt the game, it was the fact that they could not properly balance jobs. Stuff like BCNMs seem to be designed entirely around ideas without much mind being paid to job design and limitations, possible set ups and so on.

I don't know who you knew, and I definitely won't disagree with this for a particular reason. When you read the 'optimal strategy' for any Assault, for example, there's usually this specific set of jobs that people consider 'the way to win' and a pickup group will try to get those, but this is part of human nature within the game, not necessarily the game.

But it's hard to find an Assault where going as, say, DRK, will make you lose (maybe a few of those heavily focused around killing Undead). It's hard to even find any where it would significantly affect your performance in clearing it. What it affects is your method, which was the point.

As a player, sometimes what is affected is your subjob, or the role you play. If people only see 'DD' on DRK, or you don't have /THF or /SAM for certain ones and no one can figure out how to adapt for you, then this happens.

You can't fix the tendency of people, especially less creative players, to do this, no matter how well you balance the jobs, because the jobs do different things in different ways. The content we have now, though, tends to make it far 'clearer'.

The next statement is pure opinion. I can only think of 3 assaults out of the 24 I've done multiple times (I won't speak on the ones I've only hacked at once or twice) where I would have any reason to go "DRK, no thx", but I might ask that DRK to focus on something other than swinging a big weapon around for max DPS.

Many players might then go 'well why take the DRK at all, that's what they do, take X which does Y better'. My point is that I don't have to. The content design would nearly never require me to do that to win, and making DRK 'better' in most ways would, on the other hand, never solve the problem of people who consider it required.

Unless your original point was 'every job should be approximately equally suited to every type of content/mission', you're really talking about human nature a bit more than their admittedly lackluster job balancing.

[JackDaniels]

I don't think this game has been ruined. Quite frankly it has made it wonderfully laid back, with exception to the highest tier content which you couldn't pay me to play until people get over themselves and let filthy casuals play with them. I'm having a lot of fun going through all of the expansions, and if I really want a challenge, I can easily force myself to try the content on a lower level job.

[RalphTheGalka]

Here's a little history lesson for the people who are going to say FoV/GoV/Abyssea/whatever-content-I-don't-like ruined the game. Back in the WoTG days well before Abyssea was announced, I was trying to level BRD. And many a days there were only 4 people total looking for group on my server during prime time, most of which were 70+ and only wanted a meritpo.

Those days weren't exactly fun times and I sure as heck am glad things are more opened up now. Things had to be changed, it was the only way this game was going to survive. There simply isn't the population to support mandatory 6 person groups for xp.

[JackDaniels]

Here's a little history lesson for the people who are going to say FoV/GoV/Abyssea/whatever-content-I-don't-like ruined the game. Back in the WoTG days well before Abyssea was announced, I was trying to level BRD. And many a days there were only 4 people total looking for group on my server during prime time, most of which were 70+ and only wanted a meritpo.

Those days weren't exactly fun times and I sure as heck am glad things are more opened up now. Things had to be changed, it was the only way this game was going to survive. There simply isn't the population to support mandatory 6 person groups for xp.

It's funny you say this because BRD was one of the most heavily sought after classes IIRC.

[Rustic]

Here's a little history lesson for the people who are going to say FoV/GoV/Abyssea/whatever-content-I-don't-like ruined the game. Back in the WoTG days well before Abyssea was announced, I was trying to level BRD. And many a days there were only 4 people total looking for group on my server during prime time, most of which were 70+ and only wanted a meritpo.

Those days weren't exactly fun times and I sure as heck am glad things are more opened up now. Things had to be changed, it was the only way this game was going to survive. There simply isn't the population to support mandatory 6 person groups for xp.

FoV/GoV wasn't the problem. The problem is that what you see now are people parked in Abyssea leeching exp 30-99, often still in their newbie gear. Because it literally doesn't matter, those groups can function with two active players and 16 leechers- and do. At least GoV alliances, you're needing people to go out there and wallop stuff and remain active. Abyssea exp alliances can be some of the most INactive experiences ever.

I heartily approve of GoV/FoV by comparison. It means even a single player can go out there and find something barely-EP to cycle pages on and gain exp at a respectable rate, and still encourages people to play together, rather than sit AFK while someone with a twoboxed healer spams Fell Cleave.