How well do the following statements relate to you about this game?

[PallasLloyd]

Joking aside, it's true. Almost all mmos nowadays don't require you to group up with someone to tackle the journey to becoming a hero... only what's after.

But most MMOs, including WoW, don't make you drop party and solo every single thing like ARR does, and then to add insult to injury, make you do the instanced fight with gimpy NPCs that just get you killed. That was one of the things that makes this game suck especially hard, IMO. You can barely play it with someone else even if you WANTED to.

[Sangcreux]

But most MMOs, including WoW, don't make you drop party and solo every single thing like ARR does, and then to add insult to injury, make you do the instanced fight with gimpy NPCs that just get you killed. That was one of the things that makes this game suck especially hard, IMO. You can barely play it with someone else even if you WANTED to.

I enjoyed those fights. But then again it's a matter of opinion.

[PallasLloyd]

I enjoyed those fights. But then again it's a matter of opinion.

Whether you thought they were enjoyable or not is beside the point.

[Sangcreux]

Whether you thought they were enjoyable or not is beside the point.

I dunno man. There were around 30-40 instances fights. Most of those were main story quests, which isoverbylevel50. The endgame is very sociable.

[Mohamed]

But most MMOs, including WoW, don't make you drop party and solo every single thing like ARR does, and then to add insult to injury, make you do the instanced fight with gimpy NPCs that just get you killed. That was one of the things that makes this game suck especially hard, IMO. You can barely play it with someone else even if you WANTED to.

Haha, you made me laugh IRL. I actually died to the sylph storyline cut-scene challenge where there is this ugly monster looking thing that comes (with the four tainted slyphs). Let's just say that Papylamo (however his nsme is spelled) should try to be a little bit more quick with his heals!

I agree that it points back to game design. Sometimes I truly question the original intentions for final fantasy 14. Here is another question: Do you guys think that some aspects of FF 14 were originally intended to be played as a single-player RPG from the start? (I know this is really asking you to think outside the box and stuff...but I mean... the bare backbone of it... not the intricacies).

I dunno man. There were around 30-40 instances fights. Most of those were main story quests, which isoverbylevel50. The endgame is very sociable.

There are a lot of instanced fights (so far I have experienced more instanced fights than dungeon group content). Do you think that if there was more group based content than instance story line fights, that some people would feel differently about this game feeling like a single-player RPG?

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It sort of is, but that's not intrinsically a bad thing, nor does it need to lead to the game lacking in social contact.

I agree.

I've always preferred to play online games 'alongside' other people.

Me too. :P

Or to be more specific, we do the same content, helping each other, but are not really reliant on their presence to complete it. PSO was the first online game I played, and it really set the bar for what an online game should be in my eyes, and that game literally had a single-player mode.

Best of both worlds :P

As far as I'm concerned, the biggest issues, as I've stated before are guilds, and the type of group content being offered. The first causes a problem due to the tendency of those in guilds to become insular and distant from the community as a whole. As for the latter, when you have a linear-progression style of content with all of the rewards at the end, and necessitate that everyone is reliant on everyone else, it leads to a situation where other players are just regarded as necessary tools for people to get what they want; any time spent socializing or chatting is time not spent expediting the journey to the reward.

I find that guilds can be either supportive or a complete detriment to your playstyle. It really...though... depends on both the player and the guild (not one or the other). Do you think that the focus on "raiding" is partially to blame to the "tool" mentality often expressed by large free companies? (By tool I mean what you mean - just means to an end... and by large free companies I mean free companies in which you have the potential to feel like you are just a number).

As far as the game being soloable goes, the only major thing I see with that which might conflict with being social is that you're not allowed to do the story/class duties while in a party. Other than that though, it's not an issue in itself.

Which, for the most part, intensifies the feeling of this feeling more like a single-player RPG than an MMO. It's fine to include it, but like you said... the conflict is that you don't have the option to do it with a group. I think that it would be way way way more fun and exciting if Papylmo and Nda were replaced with two other players. :P

To me, at least, its not a good situation if the type of 'socialization' a game fosters is merely talking about strategies to succeed in group content, nor is it good if people are social only because the game has forced them to group to do something they really don't enjoy doing.
Socializing should be something laid back that happens amongst the entirety of the community as you play; not something super-serious, nor something you have to try and force people into.

I agree.