If there were no FATEs

[Noahlimits]

First and foremost, I don't hate fates. I think they should at least take some skill as opposed to how they're currently set up (as opposed to time spent = pure exp), but I digress. What I'm wondering is how the game would be/have turned out if there were no fates.

I believe the 'shout for party' and putting a party flag up scenarios would just increase ten fold. While duty finder would still be the number one source of parties, I think the overall atmosphere for partying would actually be better for DPS. I'm saying this mainly because of the increase of 'shout for parties' and the availability of EXP/Dungeon parties. Overall DPS exp would drop and wait times would increase, but that's only because fates are so instantly gratifying.

Anyways, how do you think the game would be if there were no fates? Do you think everyone would quit due to the game being more grindy? Do you think it would make for a better overall attitude amongst players since they'd be FORCED to level with people in dungeons (like FFXI) after running out of quests? Do you think it'd have little to no effect at all?

I don't want this to turn into a e-peen flame war, I'm just wondering what the general consensus is of how the game would have turned out of there were no fates. Please don't resort to turning this into a "fates are fine, dungeons need to be buffed" thread.

Plus, I'm bored at work.

[HamHam]

I think fates are badly designed. There are fates that is just kill x amount of monsters and no meaning behind about why are we killing those say monsters. Where as there are fates that you can see have a meaning behind or a purpose for them. Such as NPC being kidnapped or part of a zone getting taken away by a bunch of raiders or fight an NM.

The fates need to have meaning, soul behind them. Not the mindless grind that most of them are.

[Noahlimits]

I think the fates are badly designed. There are fates that is just kill x amount of monsters and no meaning behind about why are we killing those say monsters. Where as there are fates that you can see have a meaning behind or a purpose for them. Such as NPC being kidnapped or part of a zone getting taken away by a bunch of raiders or fight an NM.

The fates need to have meaning, soul behind them. Not the mindless grind that most of them are.

That's not what I'm asking with this thread though. I'm wondering why you think the game would be like if they had never existed (for the better or for worse).

[Vactus]

Since we can't restart quests for our other classes, old school grind parties. They can be fast exp. However, this would hurt in the long run because mobs don't spawn fast enough to accommodate that kind of grind. So mob spawns would have to be increased.

Grind parties are always faster vs dungeons. It wasn't until recently that even big bad WoW increased the dungeon xp so much that you could just grind dungeons all day to level.

[Codek]

My guess:

For every thread complaining about Fate grinding that is lost, will be replaced with at least 3 threads crying about Duty finder queue's and lack of quests in game.

[Jermz]

Without them, there would be one less way to get XP, and i really feel people would be doing more hunting logs, dungeons, perhaps farm groups in particular parts of the world with AEs (similar to standing in the Mines in Northern Thanalan while fate grinding/waiting for Dark Devices. I think Dungeons would be a higher priority as they would be the big XP makers after Hunting logs are exhausted. I think the rest of the world would be a bit more populated....
I also think if fates hadn't have been added they would have made quests repeatable by class. If there were no fates, the lack of questing for alts would lead to only dungeons, hunting log, AOE farming. Might have even been Experience Camps!!

[Noahlimits]

Might have even been Experience Camps!!

Man, I miss EXP parties / camps. :3

Do you all thing the community overall would be better since parties would almost be mandatory for leveling? Or would most players still be jerks?

[PSxpert2011]

The fates need to have meaning, soul behind them. Not the mindless grind that most of them are.

One word: Campaign!!!!!!!!!

Bring the campaign system back.

FATEs in general was designed around NMs and the soul purpose of sharing the fight(and possibly a drop) with those who participated. This is back-firing with the masses wanting to take part in killing HNMs like Odin and Behemoth or Hydra.

If FATEs are going to be so bland, add challenge to them(and balance). FATEs need to last longer and they need to pose a challenge. There's NOTHING memorable about a FATE atm.

Man, I miss EXP parties / camps. :3

Do you all thing the community overall would be better since parties would almost be mandatory for leveling? Or would most players still be jerks?

Yeah, me too. A place where people can log in and kill(or be killed,lol) to gain seals and/or exp. A camp to hang out and talk sh!t and laugh, then plan the next move. So far I like the GC system and all the stuff we can get through GCs. With almost all classes to 50, i care about gaining seals.

[Maza]

I don't know if the smaller areas (and lack of enough mobs like Vactus said) would be able to handle it if everyone was hanging out all over the place in parties. It would be like going to the most popular place to eat in town, you would have to stand at the entrance and wait to be "seated" lol. Good question though, makes me wonder if that's why fates are here in the first place, because the areas are not big enough /shrug?

[Vactus]

Man, I miss EXP parties / camps. :3

Do you all thing the community overall would be better since parties would almost be mandatory for leveling? Or would most players still be jerks?

FATE grinding and exp parties/camps are the same thing. FATEs just give bonus xp at the end. How does no one see that? It's what everyone wanted. Grind parties. Which themselves are a terrible design. Why? They still don't teach you your class! You'd have to have FFXI all over again where grinding for hours got you one level. FFXI just a slower version because you couldn't solo a damn thing.