Concerns about Content Patch 2.1

[Mariwanna]

This game after you beat the main story quest (which is fantastic by the way and certainly deserves credit where credit is due) is incredibly shallow ... Sorry Yoshi, but if the real game starts at 50, well then you've sadly missed the point of how mmos (and life in general) should be about the Journey and not the Destination.

1. The story was not fantastic. It was mediocre and boring and extremely disappointing for a FF game. It didn't even feel like a real FF story.
2. Yeah, you're right, it's pretty boring.
3. For the record, MMOs do start at level cap. That's just the way it is. Yoshi isn't wrong. It's you! If you really like the journey more than the destination, then you should count your lucky stars that you are able to level all classes to 50 on the same toon! Keep enjoying that journey!

[Aethaeryn]

1. The story was not fantastic. It was mediocre and boring and extremely disappointing for a FF game. It didn't even feel like a real FF story.

I enjoyed the story, but I think all of the fetch quests that were included for artificial padding kind of ruined it a bit. Castrum Meridianum and Praetorium felt pretty epic to me, but maybe that's because I did them with friends the first time through. I don't think this story was comparable to most of FFXI's story (especially CoP, but I don't think any MMO will compare to that), but it was lightyears ahead of most MMOs, and I was sad to finish the MSQ scenarios.

[Zantetsuken]

I think that endgame should have heavier requirements on cross-class abilities - thus requiring players to level multiple jobs.

Most of the 'hard-core hardcores' have a single job at 50 and the support classes at their min req level for that job.


On the larger issues of the game:

I think it was a big mistake to make the journey from 1-50 a practical faceroll.

When you look at it, the majority of content/dungeons/quests/crafted items/etc that was created for this game is for levels 1-49, and it is all rendered irrelevant in the blink of an eye as players rush past it to endgame.

I don't think an FFXI-style grind is an option either, but they should have split the difference so that people would have to spend time progressing and enjoy the wealth of <50 content.

This approach would buy the devs ample time for expansions as only legacy players/ultra hardcores would be able to plow through it all, while mid-cores and casuals would still have lots to do. From a developer standpoint, you have to accept that some people will get bored, it's unavoidable. But Legacy players will stick with the game long-term no matter what, they've already proven it~ Conversely, most hardcore MMO players are downright fickle, no matter what you do. Thus they tend to be unreliable as a steady source of income for MMO games. Keeping your generic hardcore MMO player as a subscribers depends largely on whatever the current MMO trends are and where they think they can show off their e-peen the most effectively.

The real danger emerges when mid-cores and casuals become bored. This happens when content is either insufficient (not a problem for ARR) or extremely difficult/frustrating (again, not a problem for this game), or too quickly/easily completed (see ARR leveling 1-50).




This is a difficult situation to rectify as players are highly resistant to any changes to content other than nerfs, and some will even complain about that...