To: Mr Akihiko Matsui

[Eyeballed]

In fact, many of my friends quit before Abyssea came out because they WEREN'T looking forward to grinding on crabs and colibris again from 75-99. All of our previous level 75 jobs now had to be recapped off and lost their sense of achievement because there was more grinding to be done, or so we thought. Many of my friends who quit eventually came back after Abyssea was figured out and they realized it wouldn't take months to get those new levels.

So in saying this, what was the real point in increasing the level cap? You do remember they increased it by 5 every 4-5 months? Is that not enough time to cap a job again using the old methods?

[Plasticleg]

What I'm saying is that there was an actual playerbase, a fairly large number of people, that enjoyed this game the way it used to be. Those of you that remain are just a small percentage of that. It only makes sense that anyone that would support me is long gone.

It's hilarious how that same playerbase overlaps with my favorite sub category, "terrible players".

People who don't understand the advantages of cleave parties amaze me, still.

[Eyeballed]

This is an excellent point, and it fits many of the old friends I had in the game who came back for and after Abyssea. They quit because they did not want to level 24 levels the old way on multiple jobs. In fact, on forums and in game, when the level cap was announced I never once read or heard excitement about leveling again. I heard moaning about having to do it again.

@Eyeballed
Further discussing that the new way be forcibly removed for everyone poses the "flat earth" problem for me. Normally I'd hear someone out if their position differed from mine. But some stances are so off-the-wall collossally ridiculous that it's a waste of time to continue. It's like entertaining someone who's claiming the earth is flat. Or you might as well suggest everyone's car be taken away because you like the smell of horses and felt more accomplished taking longer to get to work. It's preposterous.

Some old friends immediately got into an Abyssea burn party when they came back after a break and were horrified that this wouldn't actually even be an engaging game anymore but just an AFK or button mash fest. Then after they reached 99 and started to participate in the new end game activities they saw the point. All of the teamwork, thought process and challenge that you may have gotten from old exp parties is still there, it was just moved to level 99 content. That content has cooler looking mobs, more variety in fight strategy and location, and more interesting battle design than any old leveling method ever did.

SE didn't actually take your old game away in concept. They just moved it to a different place and you're still looking in the same place for it. Now you can enjoy it fighting monsters that look like monsters instead of household pets. You can enjoy it while you not only get xp, but gil and gear at the same time instead of three separate processes. And in the switch to end game focus they made a way for you to quickly enjoy it on a variety of jobs instead of 1-5.

As far as skilling up manually, people find ways to make that enjoyable. For me, I did it while doing magian trials, which I had to do anyway from systems set up long ago. Instead of blasting through them as fast as I could I took the opportunity to multi-task and would pick the job for them where I needed skills, then pick harder mobs than the EP required for the trial. I got used to the macros for the new job, skilled up, got some xp and in many cases good drops.

Not everyone who likes AFK or fast xp is a lazy player. For me, I got bored of the game because it lost variety and interest pre-Abyssea. Getting a job to 99 fast avoids what became a very mundane and boring, unchallenging process, and lets me quickly get to the part of the game that actually does require thought and teamwork and has the variety I'm looking for.

I find your horse/car analogy a bit flawed in that, why take a car when you could fly; why fly when you could take a rocket; why take a rocket when you could teleport? Where would it end? Start the game at cap so that it's NO LONGER AN RPG? Wake up!!

[Plasticleg]

I find your horse/car analogy a bit flawed in that, why take a car when you could fly; why fly when you could take a rocket; why take a rocket when you could teleport? Where would it end? Start the game at cap so that it's NO LONGER AN RPG? Wake up!!

You're thinking of a single player RPG; this is an MMO.
The real "leveling" (in the sense of your gear) begins after you hit your cap.

[Eyeballed]

You're thinking of a single player RPG; this is an MMO.
The real "leveling" (in the sense of your gear) begins after you hit your cap.

Absolutely my point. You sir get the golden prize.

[Volo]

Good lord the OP was hard to read. If you want to be taken seriously take 30 seconds and proof-read your posts in the future. This isn't Facebook.

[Demon6324236]

I find your horse/car analogy a bit flawed in that, why take a car when you could fly; why fly when you could take a rocket; why take a rocket when you could teleport? Where would it end? Start the game at cap so that it's NO LONGER AN RPG? Wake up!!

Leveling does not make a game an RPG, leveling fast does not stop a game from being an RPG. Just because my pizza doesn't have 1 of the standard toppings on it doesn't mean it suddenly isn't a pizza anymore, its just a pizza without that toping. Not every game has the same things, not everygame should have the same things. If this game levels fast, and gets gear as its main source of progression, then so be it. Other games do it other ways, as they should. You said a few posts/pages back you like grinding, well I assure you, go do VW, you will LOVE it. Its just like old xp parties, you spend a few minutes killing the same thing over and over again, get nothing amazing, and by the end you might actually get something good. In leveling's case it wasn't so luck based, but good for you that VW sucks in its luck and you will likely be there for days or weeks.

[Demon6324236]

Absolutely my point. You sir get the golden prize.

What you just said, made no sense.

[Trisscar]

I find your horse/car analogy a bit flawed in that, why take a car when you could fly; why fly when you could take a rocket; why take a rocket when you could teleport? Where would it end?

Slippery slope fallacy spotted.

Start the game at cap so that it's NO LONGER AN RPG?

False dichotomy spotted.

Wake up!!

Poisoning the well spotted (again). By the way, you wouldn't happen to be a conspiracy theorist would you?

[Eyeballed]

Leveling does not make a game an RPG, leveling fast does not stop a game from being an RPG. Just because my pizza doesn't have 1 of the standard toppings on it doesn't mean it suddenly isn't a pizza anymore, its just a pizza without that toping. Not every game has the same things, not everygame should have the same things. If this game levels fast, and gets gear as its main source of progression, then so be it. Other games do it other ways, as they should. You said a few posts/pages back you like grinding, well I assure you, go do VW, you will LOVE it. Its just like old xp parties, you spend a few minutes killing the same thing over and over again, get nothing amazing, and by the end you might actually get something good. In leveling's case it wasn't so luck based, but good for you that VW sucks in its luck and you will likely be there for days or weeks.

Just asked a vet friend ingame what it's like in Voidwatch, and I quoted you as saying "It's just like the old grind parties". His reply was "Lies."