A Summary

So after several hours of reading over the last two days I've come to notice some trends.

The reality is, most of the people who are still with this game are almost entirely people who originally played FFXI or are FF series fans. It seems to me that what most of those people are trying to say is, "What's was so bad about FFXI that you didn't take more from it." That's not to say everyone wants an FFXI clone but it goes to show what kind of things people are actually looking for. Whether many want to admit it or not, most of them are looking for something that is similar to FFXI. Myself, I loved so many aspects of FFXI. Don't misunderstand though, I have played a myriad of other MMO's ranging from the infamous WoW to Aion to Vanguard with a few others in between. Each game had something I loved but there were reasons I did not stick with it for very long and I did with FFXI.

I started playing back when the only expansion for FFXI was Rise of the Zilart and I remember the game being really hard to get into. Part of that was it was hard to level because you were solo. I remember dying a LOT, par for the course, i know, but a game that is easier to learn off the start and has solo or party game play for the first maybe ten to twenty levels would be a welcome change. The whole partying concept was what realistically kept myself and most others playing FFXI for a long time. There are a few reasons for that. When you have to party with others more often it teaches you how to properly play your class in a party setting. That means, when it comes to end game you are not inundated with people who don't know what to do when you group with them to kill a major boss/NM. Healers learn how to heal without taking hate and tanks learn how to maintain hate and melee learn how to kill things without getting themselves killed (there are the few exceptions of retarded people, i know that. I'm speaking as a whole).

That's not to say people don't want the solo playability, they most certainly do! There has been a massive outcry for it since the early days of FFXI. I agree with other posters in this forum though, it should be an option if you can not find a party but there should be huge benefits to the party aspect.

I personally find the current FFXIV UI very bulky. I hate that you can't just click on an Aetheryte and it pulls up that little menu. I really don't like that you have to open the main menu for everything. I makes me crazy that when I repair something in someone's bazaar and go to check it again to fix something else the "browse" option disappears briefly as my character stands up making it so I either end up inviting the person to a party or for a trade or to my linkshell. I liked that in FFXI you clicked on a person and a mini-menu popped up and allowed you to have the options from there. I miss the macros too, changing gear via macro in FFXIV is almost a 3 minute process if you are changing your class and gear to suit.

I also really liked the targeting system from FFXI. I played on PS2 and PC so I have used both keyboard and controller. The way it was set up was smart! I liked that when you were in a party on the PS2 you could use the up and down on the D pad to target party and alliance members and the F keys on keyboard. I hate that the current FFXIV targeting system does not let you sub target tab around properly. When I hit cure and have a sub target out I should be able to hit up or down on my D pad to target my party member. My sub target should also not disappear if the mob I am engaged with dies forcing me to hit cure again and find my target again to cure that person.

I think that getting around on FFXIV is not so bad. It will be better though when chocobos and airships are introduced. It's much better than the early days of FFXI where we had to run to Jeuno through aggro infested areas so we could find a new place to party and get our chocobo license. I think it would be nice to have a system introduced though in FFXIV to regain anima if you are totally out. Maybe something where you can talk to an NPC or Aetheryte and pay maybe ten thousand gil to regain 2 extra anima if you need to really get somewhere.

Anyway, I'm going to cut myself off there before I make this a three paged post. In summary, the FFXI fans are going to want a challenge. That's why they stayed with FFXI for a long time because it was challenging and that made the rewards so satisfying. The casual gamer is going to want something simple and easy to get into. Lets try and meet these needs without compromising the other to much. The fact is though that the FFXI fans are the ones who are sticking around through this tough remodel, and it really only makes sense to try and meet their desires first and work on the other stuff later.

Sorry for making this so long.