Make FFXIV more like FFXI and less like WoW

[CorneliusSavarin]

All i remember was, while FFXI was a good game for its time, i do not and cannot wish to experience it again. It made a lasting impression both good and bad, and while there will never be something like that again, i don't think many people could stomach it again in its entirety. As long as FFXIV has the best from both WoW AND FFXI, taking the most special and important parts, then the game will live quite long.

Also remember FFXIV 1.0? How similar it was to FFXI? Look how awesome THAT turned out...

[Vanidin]

FFXI was good for it's time, I played it for many many years and enjoyed it.

To those that said "there was always something to do" I'll say this: That's because it took forever to finish anything and drop rates were abysmal.

To those that wonder why they don't make XIV more like XI since XI obviously succeeded: XI succeeded in a niche market, and simply put that style would not attract enough players to make XIV a profitable venture. Keep in mind how much more expensive game development has gotten.


To the OP:
While I think that doing something like set bonuses with gear would be great (and I'm pretty sure SE has mentioned doing that in the future) OP's idea about events like dynamis, salvage nyzul etc. are retarded. People did those events year after year because they HAD TO. It was necessary to accomplish goals... but most people hated those places. Those events were a weekly chore for the most part... you can't recycle the same dungeon for 5 years and consider that good content.

Also: Sense of community has nothing to do with artifact armor. You could easily create that with difficult storyline roadblocks like primals (oh wait... SE did.) Sense of community is going to depend greatly on how the community reacts to challenges and content. How the community has acted since launch should clue you in pretty well as to what to expect from the community.

[Roaminggnome]

Question as I never played FFxi but how great was it two months in to the game. Or how much will be in this game six and a half years in?

I totally agree! FFXI was my first MMO and i have a lot of great memories from the 6 and a half years i played. And that's my issue with FFXIV. I don't see anything in this game that will make me talk or think about it years after i stop playing, like i still do about FFXI. I quit soon after the first Abyssea expansion, didn't like the direction they were taking @ all.

[Baneus]

Lol why does every single thread about this turn into people insulting each other over things the devs already said No to?

Because people basically don't like being told No. It's not something that happens often these days, so they don't believe it when it happens.

And, as someone who actually played WoW for 8 years (something that it seem very few people in this thread have actually done); this game has very little in common with its current iteration. The primary problem with MMO comparisons is that they evolve over the years, they aren't static. WoW today is as much like WoW on release as FFXIV is like EQ. There are similarities, but they are simply not the same game. If I were to compare this game with WoW, I would liken it to Burning Crusade - not super hard, but hard enough to make you feel like you've actually accomplished something when you advance.

[Redemption]

Because people basically don't like being told No. It's not something that happens often these days, so they don't believe it when it happens.

And, as someone who actually played WoW for 8 years (something that it seem very few people in this thread have actually done); this game has very little in common with its current iteration. The primary problem with MMO comparisons is that they evolve over the years, they aren't static. WoW today is as much like WoW on release as FFXIV is like EQ. There are similarities, but they are simply not the same game. If I were to compare this game with WoW, I would liken it to Burning Crusade - not super hard, but hard enough to make you feel like you've actually accomplished something when you advance.

I played a good bit of WoW, and I have to disagree... sortof. I find your end assessment to be about right as that is what I played of wow (launch-BC). However, I feel that people continually fail to see the comparison is on core mechanics. While I fully believe you mean and are accurate when you say wow is a different game today its core gameplay still exists and that is what I think most people mean when they say this game is like that. The way quests are handled, the combat system, the gear progression systems, instance dungeons being the meat of the gameplay is all done in vein with the spirit of WoW.

Note that I am not actually against wow, nor am I overly fond of it and would have rather that IF they wanted to start with the basics of wow to have built off of it significantly so that they ultimately had a very different game. I do not think they did this as the game stands now.

[Redemption]

All i remember was, while FFXI was a good game for its time, i do not and cannot wish to experience it again. It made a lasting impression both good and bad, and while there will never be something like that again, i don't think many people could stomach it again in its entirety. As long as FFXIV has the best from both WoW AND FFXI, taking the most special and important parts, then the game will live quite long.

Also remember FFXIV 1.0? How similar it was to FFXI? Look how awesome THAT turned out...

1.0 really was not that similar to ffxi and tbh I feel was almost entirely botched because the game was nowhere near ready.

Also, take it from someone who restarted on ffxi 4 times all pre-abyssea that it could work again (not to say it couldn't be improved in any way but it could still work). I had a lot of fun even just party leveling in that game.

[Malamasala]

Calling someone ignorant because they don't feel the same way as you about FFXI and FFXIV? Hmmm, what kind of name could we give a person like that? I guess i'll leave that to others to decide. But i agree with a lot of what the OP said, NM's sure would be nice to have added into the game. Would be nice to have other options.

Ignorant, for stating their child hood experience is better than their current one. I could praise DOOM all I want, because I like it. But you don't see me trying to claim they never should have made Quake.

[Baneus]

@Redemption
The core mechanics aren't exclusive to MMOs. They're the core mechanics of the majority of RPGs; past, present and future - you kill something, you gain in power, you get better gear to kill more stuff that gets you more power and more gear to kill more stuff..... The difference between a MMO and a single player game is that in a MMO there is no true end goal as that goal is moved over time requiring you to keep going on the level/power/gear treadmill. In some MMOs it's easier to "advance" and in some it's harder, the trick is to find an MMO that fits your personal Goldilocks Scale.

What irritates me with WoW comparisons is that most people doing that comparison don't know what the hell they're talking about. I mean did the OP even play WoW? Or are they repeating something they saw someone else post? I swear, "this game is becoming WoW" is the MMO equivalent of the "Arrow in the knee" meme.

[Redemption]

Ignorant, for stating their child hood experience is better than their current one. I could praise DOOM all I want, because I like it. But you don't see me trying to claim they never should have made Quake.

You seem to be implying that something in the past could not possibly be considered better due to progress. That is simply untrue. FFXIV is more advanced than xi in a number of ways, but the content design PHILOSOPHY is somewhat timeless and considering it to be an advancement is quite subjective (some would say it is a step backwards and from a number of perspectives would be right).

@Baneus

Some of the features are infact core to the rpg genre yes, but the manner in which many systems in this game are presented are distinctly wow-esque to me. I have played tons of rpgs and tons of mmorpgs and if I were to pick 1 game out of them that this is most like I would go with wow 100%. It is just the closest comparison as far as I can tell... though I might have a small bias towards thinking that since Yoshida is quoted frequently referring to blizzard and wow.

[VahnValbosce]

Harking back to FFXI continually will severely limit the scope and draw of this game.

Many people fail to realize that the OP is not talking about completely overhauling the battle mechanics of XIV to be like XI's. Hyperbole seems like a common thing nowadays so let me elaborate.

FFXI Had great, I repeat GREAT endgame tiered content (which had nothing to do with Battle Mechanics). There were a Multitude of things to do that were all worthwhile. (Pre-Abyssea Expansion) Many of the people here who bash XI probably saw videos of the combat system and said "Oh, that looks boring and doesn't appeal to me. The whole game and everything about it must be complete garbage"

If Yoshi-P is smart, which we know he is, he will draw on inspiration (keyword there, don't skim over it) from FFXI to design endgame content. Things like Nyzul Isle, Sky and Besieged are great forms of content that can be implemented in XIV if Yoshi wanted them to be. Not looking back to draw inspiration from FFXI, WILL actually severely limit the scope of this game, so if anything this quote is backward in it's intent.

On a side note: Many of you probably don't know this, but BlueGartr, the FC that worked their butts off to get World First kill on Twintania have their roots in FFXI. They wouldn't have stayed for so long if XI was such a crappy game as most of you seem to think so.