Suggestion: Break the game, SE

[Aquilla]

Rare / expensive +1 gear is exactly that, rare and expensive. It's the Gucci of digital possessions and used for the exact same reason.

hey, I like that. I would actually really like to have fashion gear (not what you're saying, I get it.) I also have no problem with some gear being pretty damn rare. That's okay!

However, what I am saying is that endgame rewards should be better than non-endgame rewards. A lot better. If it takes me 3 nukes to kill a mob, going from, let's say, +50 int to +52 int will not make it 2 nukes to kill that same mob. To be even more pedantic: if a mob has exactly enough HP for my nuke to take away about 33-34% of its hp, me adding a total of +2 int to my set up, no matter how awesome it is, will not make my nuke do +50% of its hp. Because 2 additional int will not make a visible difference. Therefore, adding an endgame reward that is +8 str +8 agi haste+4% is not *Awesome*. It's not shitty, but it's not awesome. It's apathy-inducing.

However, that's not the point of my thread, or of my argument. I don't care if they add +50 int rings or if they make that +2 actually mean something.

The point of my thread, and my argument, is stated in the OP. Here it is, restated: This game needs to change. It needs to change a lot, drastically, and it needs to revise some of its mechanism. It needs to look at the systems that it depends on, the functional systems like linkshell and lfg. It needs to look at the sea of dead content. It needs to look at a real, viable way to attract new players.

A ton of people, on this very forums, have some great ideas as to how SE can do just that. I would like to see SE looking at some of those -- and I would like to see SE show that they are actually considering changing some things.

For example: they added chocobo racing to an overwhelmingly 'meh' reaction, including quite a few 'boo'. So they tweaked it. They added npcs that wander around and place bets. They added those fugly shirts. They never considered revamping the event because not a lot of people enjoy watching a cut scene of racing chickens.

Now, mind you, the shirts weren't bad. Heck, the choco-digging shirt is an example of a reward that is actually good, as it, actually, increases what you can do by a percentage more than 1.

But it's still not a fun event. It's still dead content, although I'm sure there's a handful of people who do it. It's still not something that I can show to a person and say 'hey, come play this mini-game. It's fun.'

If you could actually race your bird, would it scare away the people who have ground their way through cutscenes and cutscenes? Maybe. I say we try it, and see what happens.

Break the game, SE. Stop being afraid, and be innovative. Make this a game where there is fun to be had, and not just grinding for miniscule rewards. Bring back the spirit of exploration and storytelling.

That is my point.

[FrankReynolds]

No. Go on BLM, nuke something. Put on snow rings and nuke it with the same spell. You WILL see a difference, and that is exactly my point. I'm not missing anything. I'm being argued with by people who apparently have no clue what they're talking about, yet they're all patting each other on the back as if they're right.


Most people don't tend to just upgrade one item. It's a cumulative affect. Sure, if I was only adding snow rings without other INT gear, it wouldn't affect me too much. I can understand people in full AF feeling as though just a snow ring won't do much. If they actually upgraded all of their gear accordingly, it would. Even so, you will actually see a difference in damage if you buy the snow rings. Not by some huge amount, but you still DO see the increase.


However, the original statement was that AF did JUST AS WELL as all of that gear. Marginal or not (it was not as marginal in the 60's and you seem to think it was) AF did not perform just as well since AF tends to be horrible for a lot of jobs, with usually 2 or 3 pieces that actually have useful stats for how that job operates in a party setting.

lit·er·al/ˈlitərəl/
Adjective:
Taking words in their usual or most basic sense without metaphor or allegory.

gen·er·al·i·za·tion/ˌjenərəliˈzāSHən/
Noun:
A general statement or concept obtained by inference from specific cases.
The action of generalizing: "+2 of *any* stat is such a marginal increase that you cannot even tell the difference without a parser".


For future reference, any time someone doesn't show their math and or formulas, you should probably assume they are generalizing.

And yes. When you call everyone on this forum "whiners and doomsday spouters" (whatever the heck that is), you are by extension making the argument that nothing we (or you for that matter, seeing as you post here too) say should be taken seriously. You have now officially argued that you are not arguing, which is super high quality trolling, and I applaude you.

[Zinato]

Break the game, SE. Stop being afraid, and be innovative. Make this a game where there is fun to be had, and not just grinding for miniscule rewards. Bring back the spirit of exploration and storytelling.

On a slightly pesimistic note, I'm fairly sure that's what FFXIV was ment to do, Overhaul the graphic and mechanics of XI into something new so that XI could just fade away. Granted to be fair unlike this thread they chose to take those changes but, into the opposite direction. (AH -1, Mob lvl variance +20, etc.)

It's strange so many people are against the game being like WoW. Yes, a clone of WoW wouldn't be anything unique so a direct copy is out of the question. But, can anyone deny that some of the mechanics such as gear progression, raid style and so on aren't partially responsible for making WoW THEE most populated game, even though its nearly as old as XI? WoW as of Dec 2011 reported over 10m subscribers, let me put that into perspective FFXI in 2009 shortly before the server merger reported for the first time 2m subscribers. Since then it has dramatically dropped as evident from x2 server mergers. November 23, 2004 was WoW's launch, North America got PC FFXI October 28, 2003 that's a difference of little over a year. Numbers don't lie WoW did something right, and from a directly business stand point, which is better 10m subscribers but less "unique" or barely 2m?

Oh and I wanted to point out in case I repeated something, I haven't read any posts by or about Shipp. They all seem to be post -> reply to every line of post -> reply to each reply. So if I missed something in those posts I apologize.

Short version: XIV tried to be the fresh XI, look where that got it. (Pro tip: listen to the buyers)
WoW has x5 the subscribers of what FFXI had at its peak despite being only a year younger, they are doing something right.

[Aquilla]

Zinato, you make a good, if dangerous point. Honestly, I am not an expert on WoW, but I did give it a shot for a bit, and yes, some of those mechanics I did like. For example, the tutorial was nicely done. The game was very good at explaining where it wants you to go and what to do. And, WoW did have mini-games. I particularly enjoyed the plants vs. zombies minigame and I enjoyed this.. thing where you go shoot at dragons with your dragon.. I don't remember the name for it, it was a repeatable quest. The point is, you get a dragon and you shoot down other dragons. That was kinna fun. Mainly, though, WoW tried to appeal to as many players as possible. The game struck me as something that the developers truly had fun putting together. There was much humor in it, for example, and a lot of fun.

I never got into WoW terribly -- mainly cuz I can't be paying for two MMOs, and I didn't like the community at all -- but yeah, you're right.

In fact, a ton of their proposed changes to XIV seem to be the stuff that WoW has. not that WoW has monopoly on stuff like dungeon finder...but yeah. XIV was too unique in certain aspects (We won't have any classes!) and not unique enough in other aspects (copy-paste terrain, copy-paste races from XI with a different backstory, so it made no sense) but that's neither here nor there.

FFXI's major problem has been -- and remains -- is that it's damn hard to get into. It's unfriendly to new players. It takes too many hoops to start playing it, and that probably turned a ton of people off. They never took a long, hard look at their shortcomings. They never said 'Yeah, the LFG system has sucked for years. Let's go change it.' In fact, they seem downright unwilling to make major changes like that.

That's mainly where I want innovation. I dont' care if they take my ideas, or not. I'm not a game developer. But I would like to see that someone at SE is looking at this game critically and saying 'Here's something new to this game, something we didn't have. Here's events which are designed to be enjoyed by a lot of people. Here's how we plan to attract new people. ' Instead...hell, I've no clue what they're doing instead. Spinning their wheels in the mud, it seems, creatively.

[Duelle]

And, WoW did have mini-games. I particularly enjoyed the plants vs. zombies minigame and I enjoyed this.. thing where you go shoot at dragons with your dragon.. I don't remember the name for it, it was a repeatable quest.

Probably Defending Wyrmrest Temple.

There was much humor in it, for example, and a lot of fun.

The pop culture references and the fact the game in certain aspects never took itself seriously is why it was a lot easier to digest. I mean, we have an NPC in Shattrath that's called Haris Pilton who has a dog named Tinkerbell that sells a 24 slot bag called Portable Hole. We used to have a Battlemaster called Adam Eternum going on about how he found a magical loincloth (and some guy coming after him for stealing his "Gray Skull") and has a battle tiger and a short sidekick that's there for comic relief. The PETA parody known as DEHTA. Characters like Lunk, Mylune, Linken (and his Sword of Mastery). Recurring characters like Harrison Jones, and the immortal Captain Placeholder.

They never took a long, hard look at their shortcomings. They never said 'Yeah, the LFG system has sucked for years. Let's go change it.' In fact, they seem downright unwilling to make major changes like that.

Indeed. I don't know if it's due to staff or budget limitations or just downright stubbornness, but a lot of aspects of the game do need to be looked over, fixed where possible or redesigned when all else fails.

[Aquilla]

yes! exactly!

This game needs a breath of fresh air. Yet, I don't see that. The last few updates that they gave us were either minor nerfs (certain empy weapons, Dipper yulu) in the name of balance, or grinds (1500 heavy metals, for one). no lightheartedness. No innovation. Just.. nothing. Yeah, i've mentioned it a few times -- but the straw that made me make the original post was the 'These stats are nuts!!!' on the red body piece from legion. Dear heavens, why was that exciting?

There is funny things in this game. Certain story-lines are funny. Missions are funny. Finding 300k in the library in windurst is funny. Heck, clicking on the dyna-CoP cutscene is funny..but recently, none of that has made it down the pipeline. the only minigames are the seasonal events, and Mumor's starting to make me see red.

More creativity, SE! Hire some new peeps, or something. College students tend to be pretty creative, and they'll work for peanuts.