Keys to enjoyment...

I want to first state that this is only based on my personal experiences. I do not expect everyone to enjoy the same things I do.

So I see a lot of people getting burned out quickly and are relatively lower in level. They don't seem to enjoy the journey, not the destination. So I thought I would post why I personally am enjoying things just as much now, as I was when I was brand new to the game.

Setting realistic goals
From what I have seen, a lot of people tend to get burned out with unrealistic goals. Such as being in top tier raid gear by their second week. While some people have done it, most haven't. I like to set goals for obtaining either a certain level or skill.

For example
At my 40‘s, leveling slows down. Clearing out a quest region will usually get me 2/3 to half a level with full rested exp. So what I do is only set the goal to level once that day. By doing this, I don't force myself to do something I don't want to, such as grinding to levels I can't reach quickly. I also learn my class better than if someone powered to 50 in half my time.

Enjoying the content
This part is not for everyone. I personally am a lore hound. I love reading all the quest text and descriptions. I read all the NPC dialog during quests and I even read FATE descriptions for why I am doing the FATE in the first place.

Example:
My FC leader powered to level 50 on his BM in two weeks. He never read any of the quest dialog and always skipped the cut scenes unless they were cinematic scenes with voice acting or CG. Now he is bored out of his mind with his class and has resulted to playing other classes on alts.

I understand that content is not his thing. He likes endgame content and while most of the FC is not 50 yet. He needs to find other things to do. But by skipping the awesome content Yoshi and his team have given us, he did not get a chance to learn why things are the way they are and loses appreciation for content and references.

Don't let bugs and bots get you down
I hate RMT Spammers as much as anyone. But I have just adapted by removing /shout from my General tab and Blacklisting and reporting any who PM me. I know SE is working diligently to fix it. They pull crazy hours working on lines of code that would fry most people who tried doing it. Bugs happen. Even big MMO's like WoW with huge dev teams still have them.

I don't let it bother me. I have been in far worse MMO launches. SE is very active about letting us know what's going on and that they are on it.

Not letting people get to you
As a Tank, I am always the first person to be blamed if a dungeon goes wrong. regardless if it is or not. Nobody likes to admit they are wrong. I try to admit any mistakes I make. I am not perfect and I try to communicate as much as possible to keep things from escalating. But some people get to personal and will do everything they can to get a rise out of me. I just shrug it off. (See the reoccurring theme here?)

You will also find a lot of people in their 1-20 range who like to complain about everything and give up before they have even given the game a chance. 1-20 is your first baby steps. By level 30 you are learning to walk. By 40 you can run and by 50 you strut. But 1-20 is why I like to call the "fat kid" stage. Meaning that you have a lot of people who want to run by expecting all kinds of special entitlements or unrealistic expectations. By 30, most of the fat has been burned off, leaving players who have decided to stick with it.

Always look for new challenges
By the time a player reaches level 50, many ask "What do I do now?" And get frustrated and leave because they think there is nothing to do.

By level 50, you have tons of options. More than you think. Artifact gear is just your first step of many. While not everyone enjoys raiding, it is a big part of the level 50 process. At the moment, the most difficult dungeon in the game has yet to be fully cleared by super hard core raiding guilds.

So you don't like raiding? There are tons of other classes to master. Including DoL and DoH. By level 50, you get a 50% exp boost to leveling any other class on your character. If you are smart, you can level an entire new class even faster than your main. Between Fates, Dungeons and hunting logs, you have the tools to become a super character if you so wish.

You also can always choose to pay a few dollars more and have 7 other characters you can level. Thus allowing you to have more diversity as well as seeing all of the main story variations.

More to be added later.

Thoughts?

Free Company
Some players are recluse's who only want to play the game as if it were a single player game and then stop playing when they reach level 50. For everyone else, there are Free Companies. Being part of a Free Company will help combat some of the monotonous aspects of the game. Having an active Free Company really cuts down on the isolation of soloing. Also, doing dungeons and raids with your FC is MUCH more enjoyable than puging. Your FC will usually be a lot more understanding when you have a hard time with a dungeon.

Exploring
Back when SWTOR was still in it's beta phase, I remember a dev log stating how they charted what was the most used function of their game. To their surprise, the Map was the most used function. I know I have my map up about 75% of the time when soloing. Save for Dungeons and fighting. So I don't get a chance to appreciate the beautiful scenery in the game.

I like to take time to explore And just enjoy the sights. I have had several times where I was surprised to see something I missed even though I had passed it a million times.

I must say I agree with your post. My goals tended to be either on level per day or now that I'm hitting 40 probably no more than half a level. Even though the story is trying to pull me forward I'm enjoying my time. I still like rerunning the older dungeons. Hell I'm annoyed I can't get a group for sunken temple from my FC... most active members are 50 and are doing the endgame stuff.

Nice post!

I kinda play like you. I always read every Story related Quest or Dialog, and take my Time to lvl up. I could rush to lvl 50 - i did it on Guild Wars 2 and missed so much Game Content.

1 Lvl per Day, 3-5 lvls at Weekend Days. Works fine like that and is fun :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ruskie

I must say I agree with your post. My goals tended to be either on level per day or now that I'm hitting 40 probably no more than half a level. Even though the story is trying to pull me forward I'm enjoying my time. I still like rerunning the older dungeons. Hell I'm annoyed I can't get a group for sunken temple from my FC... most active members are 50 and are doing the endgame stuff.

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I highly suggest doing Sunken Temple with your Free Company. I puged it and it took my three trys to find a group that worked together. The first and last bosses require coordination and being in top of your game. The final boss has a lot of mechanics to it. Its easy if you are working together. Otherwise, if you have any hair you will quickly lose it after you have pulled it all out.

Yeah. I tend to moan at them every day when I logon for that. We did get a group once but after 2 wipes at the first boss the healer got DCed :( I guess I'm mostly waiting for some other low level to reach it so I can join his group. And of course still haven't mapped all the other dungeons anyway - but plenty of time for that... maybe I'll do it with one of my other classes eventually hehe.

I like this thread. I may not be a lore hound but I do like reading the dialogues. I take time to level my DoL/H to the point I spent an entire day without even killing a single mob. Exploring for fun things to do in-game is the hardest part when you only have two goals (5 and 0). Not only you miss out nearly 80% of the FFXIV experience but you also miss out ways to sustain yourself at end-game.

FFXIV is the first MMO that taught me that rushing to end game won't give me the satisfaction I've been looking for. Of course, this is my personal opinion and may or may not work with other mindsets. I'm taking my time to learn a new play-style which I have never done before in my previous F2P MMOs. It's hard but the road is fun especially in this fantasy world.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rivaru

I like this thread. I may not be a lore hound but I do like reading the dialogues. I take time to level my DoL/H to the point I spent an entire day without even killing a single mob. Exploring for fun things to do in-game is the hardest part when you only have two goals (5 and 0). Not only you miss out nearly 80% of the FFXIV experience but you also miss out ways to sustain yourself at end-game.

FFXIV is the first MMO that taught me that rushing to end game won't give me the satisfaction I've been looking for. Of course, this is my personal opinion and may or may not work with other mindsets. I'm taking my time to learn a new play-style which I have never done before in my previous F2P MMOs. It's hard but the road is fun especially in this fantasy world.

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Final Fantasy is a long running series that has been around almost as long as I have. So I can say I grew up with their games. I find XIV is very worthy of calling itself a Final Fantasy game.

Added a couple more additions to the list.

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Originally Posted by Jaminos

Final Fantasy is a long running series that has been around almost as long as I have. So I can say I grew up with their games. I find XIV is very worthy of calling itself a Final Fantasy game.

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I'm well aware of that. I joined the series starting from FF-9 (Sad, I didn't get to start from FF-7. Heard a lot of story that it was such a good game to miss out. Also skipped FF-11 since I couldn't sustain an account back then) until FF-13... which I haven't really played yet >.< Kinda hard to get off my keyboard to play my PS3. Nevertheless, I have my own experiences with FF as a series and every change in the roman numerals is a great experience no matter what others may say.