FFXIV Bitter Sweet

MMO's are a different animal now, and while some do still hold true to the old grind-it-out-fest mentality, there is a reason the MMO genre saw a huge participant spike after WoW's successful model. Sure I loved the old games that got me hooked into MMO's to begin with, but games like XIV are all about I can handle what with all I need to do in real life these days.

However not one of us can have our cake and eat it too. We will never have a balance, because you can't balance out a player base. In your opinion what you desire in the game is not what someone else will want. You must realize they designed this game to attract a type of player and that is what they will aim for.

Some of those issues aren't really a fault of the game, but of the players themselves. Most of the difficulty in this game comes from the fact that it's so hard to find people that can actually complete certain things. Some players aren't really learning from their mistakes or move slowly. Maybe some of these people aren't very experienced at gaming in general, but you still can't really say it is the fault of the game.
And about the game being a bum rush. You actually don't have to play it that way at all. You can explore, do leves and dungeons, spread out the main quest across classes, and craft. No one is making you fate grind. Once again this is the fault of the player base.

I've been disappointed with SE for a long time. I feel like as a company they haven't been able to make good decisions at all, as far as the customer is considered. Everything they make is plagued with sequels and spinoffs across mutiple consoles and hand helds in order to make a quick buck, which alienates fans. I agree with you on those things, but I think Yoshi P is actually the first good thing that has happened for them in a long time. The content of FF14 is basically a love letter to the series, and is always clear and candid about his intentions. He does everything he can not to sell out to whiners, or do something harmful to the integrity of the game like make it free to play.

Very well thought out post though, and good reading.

Don't bother with Ufufu MisstressAthena, dead horse, no she isn't wrong,

Xi was in fact a horrid grind at times, however it did feel like a real world, not some garden you passed through babysitting NPC's, the combat system in this game has no depth.

The economy is just as bad, an attempt at the player controlled economy no MMO can live without (rolls eyes), while actually being indirectly controlled by RMT's/bots which never get banned and whom have SE artificially controlling mat prices over by beastman tribe daily vendors.

I will agree that many players crash level to 50 and really have no one to blame but themselves, however it's SE's game design that ultimately makes this possible, which is what she meant, and her definition of opinions is spot on fact.

Sadly it's the new generation of gimme gimme I want everything now gamers, who don't want to earn anything that have brought MMO's so low.

Inb4 this isn't my second job.

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Originally Posted by MistressAthena

Yes, your missing the point where its a simple comparison a game which is unlike FFXIV, but could be used as a good catalyst for balance. My ultimate point was that a balance between what we have now, and FFXI would have been a great medium.
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Well said.

I think the better game would lay somewhere between those two models as well.

FF14, though solid and enjoyable and certainly not a bad game - is ultimately little more than a WoW clone. I would have liked to see more innovation too.

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Originally Posted by Mags

MMO's are a different animal now, and while some do still hold true to the old grind-it-out-fest mentality, there is a reason the MMO genre saw a huge participant spike after WoW's successful model. Sure I loved the old games that got me hooked into MMO's to begin with, but games like XIV are all about I can handle what with all I need to do in real life these days.

However not one of us can have our cake and eat it too. We will never have a balance, because you can't balance out a player base. In your opinion what you desire in the game is not what someone else will want. You must realize they designed this game to attract a type of player and that is what they will aim for.

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The real life argument doesn't stand valid with the new gil grind inherent with housing, I see it as pandering to the gimme easy mode right now children of the real life parents who toss them a credit card to shut them up.

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Originally Posted by Lamentations

Don't bother with Ufufu MisstressAthena, dead horse, no she isn't wrong,

Xi was in fact a horrid grind at times, however it did feel like a real world, not some garden you passed through babysitting NPC's, the combat system in this game has no depth.

The economy is just as bad, an attempt at the player controlled economy no MMO can live without (rolls eyes), while actually being indirectly controlled by RMT's/bots which never get banned and whom have SE artificially controlling mat prices over by beastman tribe daily vendors.

I will agree that many players crash level to 50 and really have no one to blame but themselves, however it's SE's game design that ultimately makes this possible, which is what she meant, and her definition of opinions is spot on fact.

Sadly it's the new generation of gimme gimme I want everything now gamers, who don't want to earn anything that have brought MMO's so low.

Inb4 this isn't my second job.

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Thank you! When I first wrote this I was sure I was just going to get flamed for speaking out. I'm actually very happy (and surprised) to find so many do feel the same way I do, and understand what I'm trying to say and point out.

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Originally Posted by Lamentations

The real life argument doesn't stand valid with the new gil grind inherent with housing, I see it as pandering to the gimme easy mode right now children of the real life parents who toss them a credit card to shut them up.

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I don't really think the real life argument stands valid at all. During FFXI I had school, jobs, chores, etc. as I was growing up, and yet I still took the time to sit down and enjoy FFXI despite it being all about parties, and taking a very long time to do anything. I still highly enjoyed it to a huge degree regardless, even if I didn't get all the way to the end, or only had 1 character at level 75, and still half the game story to see. It was fun, and immersion, and had alot of depth to it, and that's what made it count.

It's the gimme gimme gimme of todays generation wanting to see and experience the whole thing regardless of how shallow in a month and no later, that's made MMO's fall so hard. Is it really so bad to truly experience, enjoy, and immerse yourself in a very deep game even if it takes a long time to get from point A to B?

XI vet here, you make a couple good points, but I take issue with some of what you've been saying. First off, your comment about grinding dungeons every day with the same rotations. Don't you remember RDM? RDM was a Refresh/enfeeble bot, aka same spells (Refresh, Paralyze, Blind, Dispel, Refresh, etc.) every fight. Yes it could pinch heal or nuke, but the aforementioned was its BNB rotation.

Leveling was the same way. Sure Yhoator Jungle was fun for awhile, with people getting lost/dying to goblin trains. In the end though, it turned out to be an annoyance, especially when Yhoator was full.

Also, I'm getting tired of seeing comments comparing XI and XIV. Someone commented on XIV's 'mindless endgame grind', XI's was the same. You logged in, farmed triggers for sky/sea, kill gods, rinse and repeat.

All in all, you're comparing a game that had a solid 8 years before falling off, to a game that's 4 months old. Give it time, some of your grievances may be addressed in the future.

i agree with most of what OP stated. I "wish" the game was a bit slower on the leveling side of things. I never felt the need to buy gear on the AH or even craft anything for that matter to progress my way to 50. Seems like a lot of wasted potential for the game. Never really got to be social with any fellow players like i have in other MMOs…the most I saw "strangers" talking and being enjoyable with each other (being playful with emotes and such even) is when we were all trapped in a dungeon with each other and waiting for that 4th person to final join (usually a tank lol) but this is just my experience.

All those disagreeing are most likely the whiners about the housing price. You cannot deny that basically every zone will never leave a good story to tell your friends because it's all teleport, quest, fate, df, repeat. All the monsters are a joke. FFXI for example, i have many stories from valurm dunes, traveling to jeuno, getting airship pass, missions, demon and beastman strongholds, could go on and on about how impactful every ffxi zone is due to the dangers. Ff14 = mount and run away, teleport, turn in quest. Nothing worth talking about because the game does not force you to go over any hard hurdles. I like the boss fights and dungeons, but the rest of Yoshi's world was made with a casual fate grinder in mind who never experiences true fear.