Leve links: antisocial design

[Majidah]

Recently I came back to XIV having after not such a long break from the game. I found out that the linkshell I was in had scattered.

No worries about that, I had never relied heavily on my LS anyway.

I tried doing some leves... to no avail. I asked around my remaining friends if they wanted to link theirs with mine and they were all signed up for leve static parties with their shells so none of them could.

This was the case with pretty much everyone.

I've been shouting with little success every time I need to do my leves. And it really feels like its going against the whole idea of get on, do your leves in a short and controlled span of time and go off to do your things.

Guild leves are good when they are linked, and logic dictates that people will always want to link them, thus the static groups. But by limiting said links to 8 a day (or even less if you only count the 'good' leves) socializing with strangers gets narrowed down to almost zero.

Leves being the main way of leveling on XIV, that poses a problem.

What do you guys think? Anyone else suffering the effects of this? I personally think its a hole in the design, being this a MMORPG, it should promote partying with strangers and not just private groups.

[Arcell]

Leve linking encourages partying if anything. I don't really see how it's the game's fault that people want to do leves in groups with their LS. Especially with the reduced party size most Linkshells have to split up their leve groups anyway so there's little room.

Leve-links do promote party play but most will only party with their friends or LS mates but honestly that's how most things are done anyway. I've seen lots of parties shouting for leve groups at the appropriate camps, not in town.

Honestly it just seems like you may need to find a better/more active LS to party with.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

From what I know, most people do leves within their own linkshells, this is true in my case, and many others in my LS. Mostly for reliability, and communication, since most of us use a voice chat program.

The bewst thing for you to do would be to find a new LS, and start linking leves with them.

[Majidah]

Leve linking encourages partying if anything. I don't really see how it's the game's fault that people want to do leves in groups with their LS. Especially with the reduced party size most Linkshells have to split up their leve groups anyway so there's little room.

Leve-links do promote party play but most will only party with their friends or LS mates but honestly that's how most things are done anyway. I've seen lots of parties shouting for leve groups at the appropriate camps, not in town.

Honestly it just seems like you may need to find a better/more active LS to party with.

Thats not really an answer, its a problem with the design. Specially when the main activity on XIV is leve linking.
On FFXI you weren't forced to be in a linkshell in order to get the most out of exping. People wouldn't tell you "oh, have problems getting a party? You need a better linkshell".

[gifthorse]

Hmm, I don't know.

It takes about an hour to get enough people to do a levelink party (strangers) unless it's around reset in which case it's easier. I agree that it should be easier to get a party to gether (an hour is way too long), but I find it hard to agree that leve linking is antisocial.

I hate guildleves as much as the next person, but I don't think theyre antisocial considering the fact that it would be even more antisocial if you couldn't link them. Consider the fact that everyone in a static leve party is socialising with those 7 other people every 36 hours and then you see that it's not asocial at all. It's just mildly exclusionary for people who are not so calculating and organised.

I like to be spontaneous, so i just join see what's going in LS chat or in /shout channel. Lots of people still do leve-link party shouts. I see multiple people doing it per day when I play.

[Vackashken]

I personally think its a hole in the design, being this a MMORPG, it should promote partying with strangers and not just private groups.

Simply put, I agree.

[Majidah]

Hmm, I don't know.

It takes about an hour to get enough people to do a levelink party (strangers) unless it's around reset in which case it's easier. I agree that it should be easier to get a party to gether (an hour is way too long), but I find it hard to agree that leve linking is antisocial.

I hate guildleves as much as the next person, but I don't think theyre antisocial considering the fact that it would be even more antisocial if you couldn't link them. Consider the fact that everyone in a static leve party is socialising with those 7 other people every 36 hours and then you see that it's not asocial at all. It's just mildly exclusionary for people who are not so calculating and organised.

I like to be spontaneous, so i just join see what's going in LS chat or in /shout channel. Lots of people still do leve-link party shouts. I see multiple people doing it per day when I play.

The way I see it, a good, social design is getting more SP for each member you get within rank range in the party.
Also the new groupping bonuses they give for having 4-7 and 8 members groups.

I'm proposing no solution here, but I'd like for leve linking to be redesigned in a similar manner. I don't really want to have my real life schedules revolve around a mmorpg anymore. The basic concenpt around XIV is guild leves, they shouldn't require the same organization as linkshell events if you ask me.

It feels like the whole system is contradicting itself: a design for casual players, for quick groups, but promoting seclusion and the need to look for a linkshell (being this a private group).

[Shiyo]

What? Leve linking is the complete OPPOSITE of anti-social, it encourages you to play with other people. I pugged 33-50 on my archer doing leve links every reset with complete strangers. I made friends with some people I'd invite more than once, and just made friends I'd talk to as well. I'm sorry you are too anti-social to figure out how to /shout for members or make friends. I'm in a LS and I have done 0 leve links with them, I've picked up 2 people out of 7 when I was shouting for members(who contacted me from my shouts and not via LS), but that's it. I get more people and more things done with complete strangers than with my LS when it comes to leveling. My LS is for end game events and chatting.

Stop it, your complaint is completely wrong. If I level again I'll do 1-23 solo, then 23-50 with COMPLETE strangers. It is not anti-social, you are anti-social or bad at paying attention to the chat, finding people to play with, or something idk. I contantly see shouts for leve parties be it nophica/nanawa 20-25 23-28 25-30 27-33 or BW/halatali 33-38 38-43 43-48 44-49 etc etc. I see many shouts every day, i see ONE RIGHT NOW AS I'M TYPING THIS.

Complaints like this is what leads to instant dungeon queue systems that auto-find people for you and auto-group you, stop requiring to be spoon-fed for things other normal people can do without any problems.

[Majidah]

What? Leve linking is the complete OPPOSITE of anti-social, it encourages you to play with other people. I pugged 33-50 on my archer doing leve links every reset with complete strangers. I made friends with some people I'd invite more than once, and just made friends I'd talk to as well. I'm sorry you are too anti-social to figure out how to /shout for members or make friends. I'm in a LS and I have done 0 leve links with them, I've picked up 2 people out of 7 when I was shouting for members(who contacted me from my shouts and not via LS), but that's it. I get more people and more things done with complete strangers than with my LS when it comes to leveling. My LS is for end game events and chatting.

Stop it, your complaint is completely wrong. If I level again I'll do 1-23 solo, then 23-50 with COMPLETE strangers. It is not anti-social, you are anti-social or bad at paying attention to the chat, finding people to play with, or something idk. I contantly see shouts for leve parties be it nophica/nanawa 20-25 23-28 25-30 27-33 or BW/halatali 33-38 38-43 43-48 44-49 etc etc. I see many shouts every day, i see ONE RIGHT NOW AS I'M TYPING THIS.

Complaints like this is what leads to instant dungeon queue systems that auto-find people for you and auto-group you, stop requiring to be spoon-fed for things other normal people can do without any problems.

Too antisocial to shout? The whole point is I'm social enough to not want to be in a private group, and that I end up shouting for over and hour because of how leve linking is designed (ie. limited in leve quantity).

[Shiyo]

I see tons of people shouting for them all the time, and I shout as well. Sometimes it takes an hour to get a full 8 people, but it's not that bad. It also depends on the time of day, if you're shouting at like 5 AM EST then yeah, you're not going to get anyone. What you should be complaining about is something I complain about as well, CLIQUES. People get so cliquey and refuse to group with people outside their clique/LS, and it's completely retarded and annoying. It's not that hard to find random people to group with for leves, even now when the game is dead and servers are really low pop though. But yeah, I hate how humans get so cliquey and refuse to play with people outside their clique, it disgusts me and angers me.

Leves are deisgned to be social, so your complaint is wrong, you should be complaining about how humans refuse to leave their little "comfort zones".