Interim Report – Sorry to keep you all waiting!

[Eyeballed]

Sounds alot like xp, killing 1 crab to get a little stronger to kill another crab and so on, nothing really getting done along the way except more of the poor crab people dying at the hands of adventurers.

...And that's the real kicker: This new mindless grind is your endgame. It's all you have to look forward to, but as I've said before, for some reason the lot of you embrace it as something new simply because you're not going to a particular point on the map and killing the same mobs over and over again to progress. It's different! Gotcha!

[FrankReynolds]

...And that's the real kicker: This new mindless grind is your endgame. It's all you have to look forward to, but as I've said before, for some reason the lot of you embrace it as something new simply because you're not going to a particular point on the map and killing the same mobs over and over again to progress. It's different! Gotcha!

It's different in that you get to use all the abilities that your job has to offer and the strategies that come with that, versus using a limited set of abilities and strategies for no reason other than to have limits.

[Demon6324236]

...And that's the real kicker: This new mindless grind is your endgame. It's all you have to look forward to, but as I've said before, for some reason the lot of you embrace it as something new simply because you're not going to a particular point on the map and killing the same mobs over and over again to progress. It's different! Gotcha!

Wait, is it the same, or different? I cant help but read that in a sarcastic tone, if its not different, then why are you complaining in the 1st place?

[Eyeballed]

Wait, is it the same, or different? I cant help but read that in a sarcastic tone, if its not different, then why are you complaining in the 1st place?

Just to clarify, sarcasm was intended. With regard to your question, two words: Open world. What would be the point/purpose in it?

[SpankWustler]

Just to clarify, sarcasm was intended. With regard to your question, two words: Open world. What would be the point/purpose in it?

Has anything in FFXI ever really made use of the open world, other than maybe Ixion and Sandworm that used it to better annoy the general populace?

Most camps for experience parties emulated instances as best as they could, because it was more efficient that way. They were stationary. They were in a part of the zone that had only one kind of monster, within one small level range. They were near a zone when possible, to provide a simple exit. They were in places specifically chosen for their lack of surprises, such as wandering Notorious Monsters.

People were out in the open world, technically, but everything that made a camp ideal for experience points also made fighting in that camp far less of an open world experience. It was an open world experience relative to Legion or making a huge sandwich while hiding in a Martello in Abyssea, but it still never felt like exploring the world to me. It was a long line of similar camps in sometimes similar-looking places fighting similar monsters.

Running around and killing stuff to complete a Fields of Valor page in today's FFXI can be more of an open world experience than many experience camps were, because at least a big chunk of the zone needs to be covered to get the one Weiner-Looking Worm a page might require along with its seven Bong-Water Pugils.

[Eyeballed]

Has anything in FFXI ever really made use of the open world, other than maybe Ixion and Sandworm that used it to better annoy the general populace?

I'm sorry, but you're joking me right? Stationary is fine by me - it's the instance itself where I have no other contact with the outside "world" as long as I'm in it. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be secluded for 90% of my play experience. Square-Enix does about as much justice to the term "Massively Multiplayer" as the USA does to "Land of the free" these days.

Hell, while I'm literally playing FFXI I'm locked into an actual instance, and without getting into some real Matrix-type shit, I don't need that self-imposed seclusion capitalized on. Unfortunately, this game is (was) my social life, and that's just the reality for a lot of geeks. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Your last paragraph is fine in theory, but do you know who does FoV outside of soloers? Nobody. The game makes use of 2-3 caves before Abyssea. And even with that, you're far more likely to find that soloists will be found deep inside a cave somewhere pounding out GoV. Out of the light and out of sight where SE doesn't have to look at your sorry faces.

[SpankWustler]

I didn't think you were referring to "open world" in the social sense so I just addressed the literal open world, as in exploration and monster variety and stuff. Read as a response to something social, my post would totally seem like the weirdest response ever.

In regards to the social atmosphere, I'm apathetic. I play to spend time with my best friend, after we moved apart from each other, so I'm pretty indifferent to the general atmosphere. I don't pay enough attention to know how it was or how it is, or really care, or know how anybody else feels.

Don't worry, though. Somebody else will pop up who cares enough to keep this argument going until somebody else mentions "Beastmaster" in the same sentence as "Dynamis" and that argument gets a chance to start like a fire at an orphanage for the blind. Matsui will never know the true pain of reading these forums without being exposed to both of these...uh..."issues".

[FrankReynolds]

I'm sorry, but you're joking me right? Stationary is fine by me - it's the instance itself where I have no other contact with the outside "world" as long as I'm in it. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be secluded for 90% of my play experience. Square-Enix does about as much justice to the term "Massively Multiplayer" as the USA does to "Land of the free" these days.

Hell, while I'm literally playing FFXI I'm locked into an actual instance, and without getting into some real Matrix-type shit, I don't need that self-imposed seclusion capitalized on. Unfortunately, this game is (was) my social life, and that's just the reality for a lot of geeks. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Your last paragraph is fine in theory, but do you know who does FoV outside of soloers? Nobody. The game makes use of 2-3 caves before Abyssea. And even with that, you're far more likely to find that soloists will be found deep inside a cave somewhere pounding out GoV. Out of the light and out of sight where SE doesn't have to look at your sorry faces.

Perhaps you would have a better "Social" experience if you did events that other people are doing instead of trying to get people to do things that 90% of the populace don't like?

[Eyeballed]

Perhaps you would have a better "Social" experience if you did events that other people are doing instead of trying to get people to do things that 90% of the populace don't like?

You mean like jumping over cliffs just because everyone else is? No thanks. I know what's valuable to me, and that which is also valuable to them, but they seem to think adrenaline and extremes are the meaning of life and therefore trying to drag us down with them saying "You're too lame!"