I think I'm finished; a new player's final thoughts

[Xantavia]

Let me give you an example.

I recently went back and did the Rank 3 dragon fight as a level 33. The fight was easy to solo at 33, but it still felt pretty epic, since it used to be 25 capped. After all these years, the cutscenes have held up well, the story is good, and there is something satisfying about smashing a dragon in the face.

This is what I wish more people would be willing to do. You went for a fight without being totally overpowered for it. By being a level where you most likely couldn't attack then go AFK, I'm sure it didn't feel like a grind. But if you waited until 99, I think you may have asked yourself why did you even bother.

[Crevox]

This is what I wish more people would be willing to do. You went for a fight without being totally overpowered for it. By being a level where you most likely couldn't attack then go AFK, I'm sure it didn't feel like a grind. But if you waited until 99, I think you may have asked yourself why did you even bother.

It may have been an enjoyable fight. There were some fights I had to do (Avatar fights, etc) that of course WERE "difficult" and enjoyable. But, regardless of that, depending on the fight, sometimes you just don't want to be bothered. A lot of the time it's stuff you have to do just because you have to do it; and you feel like you're not getting any reward out of it. Besides that, yeah, sometimes the fights are fun even if you overpower them. But, the majority of the time, it's not a fight, it's a long string of running/warping/talking before you finally get to a fight, and often times it's not story important, it's just some random mob you have to kill in a field.

All those CoP battlefields/emptiness; they come at you periodically. None of them reward you with anything. You know that everyone has already done them, and in order to get to the content THEY are doing and be a good player, you have to get through them. You have to do them just to be able to play with other people, because you're essentially playing "catch up." This makes them feel like a chore (not to mention the facts I already stated, like that it's just hours of running). It's tedious; and when you complete one and you look at the mission list and you see there's still like 6 entire chapters to go (with no rewards), and some people say "upcoming chapter X is the worst, it takes forever"... yeah, that's not a thrilling experience. Especially when it's a solo endeavor, and no, doing it with friends does not make it faster or more enjoyable. Doing something that is extremely boring and then forcing a friend to do it too just makes me feel bad.

It basically comes down to this. I log in and all my friends are online. Awesome. I could play with my friends and go EXP or try something fun, OR, I can ignore all of them and for the sake of my character, go do a bunch of boring solo missions. We all know we have to do it, but if we're all online at the same time, and they don't always have that much time to play... why in the world would we go do something like CoP? And yeah, for those people that don't have much time to play, they're going to be logging in every day for 3-4 hours just doing CoP and not doing anything else in the game, because it takes that much time to get through all that (and good luck if Japanese midnight happens).

[Lithera]

Lol now I can see one of the reasons she quit XIV. All of the skip the CS or gtfo people running a non premade group through one of the two end dungeons of the original story part mentality.

Let's see games that have a ! Go here next X-2 had that a lot. Anytime you picked up a cieth stone quest once you were on grand pulse had a ! style quest system in XIII. Also was there in XIII 2 and will be in Lighting returns. Sure it might not be on the main screen and only on the mini map but it's there. He'll it's there in every Aassins Creed game in the map. Even sky rim to a point has it. Just it is hidden.

Wait you mean there wasn't any just spam enter on any server when it came/comes to voting on what to get next for each coalition house? Must be only shiva where this runs out of control.

[Lithera]

Yes there is and only when someone comes up with a good counter to your all or nothing pov you still go back to having everyone else is wrong because to you EVERYONE chooses one thing or another. You ask others to stop speaking for everyone else yet you do the same thing and treat it as absolute end all be all. That there are no other reasons or ways to do something except the examples you give. I am not disturbed by a person tossing everything else just to complete something but feel sorry that said person. Why, because they couldn't find a way to get to w/e they wanted without causing great loss in the rest of their lives.

Let's use the Olympics as an example to you the only people who should win medals would be Russians or Chinese because they literally eat, sleep, breath their sport. They start it when they're three, they get into the best training programs or schools, they get tutors for school, instead of going to the mall to hang out with friends they're training. Yet we all know this isn't true or people from other countries would never see the medals podium.

[bungiefanNA]

Hmm... I don't think Final Fantasy XIV has that "don't neglect your life" warning anywhere when logging in.

[Lithera]

Hmm... I don't think Final Fantasy XIV has that "don't neglect your life" warning anywhere when logging in.

It's the a word to our players bit right before you hit play for the last time.

For verbatim: a word to our players

Exploring Vana'diel is a thrilling experience.
During your time here, you will be able to talk, join, and adventure with many other individuals in an experience that is unique to online games.

That being said, we have no desire to see your real life suffer as a consequence.
Don't forget your family, your friends, your school, or your work.

Sorry it took a while to reply and post this response but I havent logged in since Wednesday.

[Mirage]

because that game doesn't have as many things that are designed to suck the life out of you

[Afania]

The player population that S-E is trying to foster and cater to by having their website linking to strategy sites and having their GM's promote them.

Even if I grant you that "most players" aren't like that, it's certainly what S-E wants most players to be like, which gets back to the "intent" you were so recently in favor of following.

You keep directing the arguement back to "FFXI is better with a !", but my arguement has been about "IMO, RPG is more fun without a ! and design the game based on the fact that there are no !"

If the game needs ! to know where to go next, then the goal is to make it NOT needing !(nor wiki). I honestly just can't understand what's so good about ! on the map and all that ! obsessions.

because that game doesn't have as many things that are designed to suck the life out of you

I know a tons of no-lifers in XIV, playing 12+ hrs a day.

How much time you spend on a video game per day isn't relevant to the title, but your own willpower.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

my arguement has been about "IMO, RPG is more fun without a ! and design the game based on the fact that there are no !"

Your argument is that any additional assistance is not strictly necessary (in spite of the publisher shaping the game toward that need and actively directing players to outside "community" sources) and that your opinion is "more correct" and shared by a non-negligible portion of the playerbase despite objective facts to the contrary.

If the game needs ! to know where to go next, then the goal is to make it NOT needing !(nor wiki).

That ship has sailed. I'd say that ship sailed even before FFXI got released in North America. I was halfway to Toraimarai Canal (try that before level 10!) before I used the Brady guide to find that it was another non-obvious secret passage I needed for my very first mission.

That's not going to be "fixed" without effectively writing a whole new game. Square-Enix has already done that; it's called "Final Fantasy XIV."

I honestly just can't understand what's so good about ! on the map and all that ! obsessions.

The official source of information, the Community Sites program, has stagnated, with the most recent additions being in 2009. The community itself has fragmented, to the point where the most useful sources of information aren't even a part of the Community Sites program, while participation overall has dwindled. What worked seven years ago doesn't work now. This is the biggest reason why S-E has chosen to do all this stuff in-house with XIV rather than again relying on the community, in spite of that community being larger and more vibrant than XI's perhaps ever was.

The simplest solution would be publishing useful information directly onto playonline.com. The most useful solution, however, the one that helps attract and keep new players to this old game, is to employ something in-client, even if it is unobtrusive enough to spare your precious sensibilities.

Even now nobody is forcing you to talk to a Merry Map Marker.

[detlef]

If I want brain-dead questing I just play 14. Spam enter and just look to the side of my screen to know exactly what to do, what to kill, and where to go. Teleport there if necessary, hop onto my chocobo and I'm done.

I feel bad for that game's writers, nobody even reads what they wrote.