Make FFXIV more like FFXI and less like WoW

[Duelle]

That it changed from having a strong hold on a niche market to turning into something almost no one wants?

"No one" as in, "Me, me, me, me, oh and me"? You could at least own up to it being your opinion, much like how I'd prefer this game to stay as far away from FFXI as possible.

There is plenty Square Enix could have done to save that game, the game still had massive amounts of potential, even if they did want to over hawl the game I don't believe it would have been impossible to keep the playing style. Instead of doing what they do best they just took the cheap easy way out, sad to say but all I see is a quick fix to get a quick buck.

You're veering towards "different for the sake of being different". That's the undertone of your entire post, regardless of whether you meant to or not.

1.0 at launch was obviously incomplete. I figure it would have played out like The Secret World's system with weapon abilities and traits that when combined a certain way become Decks (Jobs) -- nevermind that specific custom builds far outclassed decks. What that would have done in the long run is really anyone's guess.

Yea it sucks so much it is still active and producing expansions. EQ and FFXI have stayed around longer than WoW has been around. You know why?

The reason people stick to those games is their inability to let go of something they've put hours into. Old school MMOs that required a ton of time to progress counted on this unhealthy attachment as part of their formula for retaining players.

[NovaUltimatum]

Of course it wouldn't happen, but I often wonder if FFXI got remade whether it would boom or bust and more importantly why it would do so.

I'm assuming the reason most people have left the current servers is because of a host of reasons including depopulating servers, old graphics and repetitive designs. If all those problems were fixed would it be enough to keep the game going strong?

Some people have said that in the present era we have now, we have less time to dedicate for one game than when FFXI launched. Is that true for everyone or just those who had lots of time in the previous decade? Also, if it's the case that everyone has less time to put into things they enjoy then why is that the case? Global recession causing people to work more? Or does today's gaming community just not have enough patience / attention-span to stick to one game?

[Lord_Zlatan]

awesome post!

great question.

I think a lot of it comes from the fact that in the early days of hardcore mmo-ing, you had the haves and the have nots.

I started FFXI in late 05. I was very jealous of everyone at the level cap. I had no idea what was going on or how to even get my sub job. I loved the game but in the beginning it was incredibly frustrating to not have the necessary information, and even more frustrating to learn how much time it took to acquire what you wanted. Take the level 30-35 race specific gear. there was no way to learn how to get that, you had to acquire it piece by piece, level by level, and it took a while. I would have loved to just get it now.

I don't think that it is fair or good design to give people stuff on a platter like FFXIV does for the most part, but at the same time, not everyone derives pleasure from working for something in a game where it is supposed to be fun, not necessarily work/strenuous, frustrating. I had all the time in the world back in 05 as I was a lazy bum in college who was either drinking, banging, or playing FF. I work full time now. I didn't want to super grind then, and i don't want to now. Time has little to do with it for some of us.

[AlexionSkylark]

I already said this on another thread some months ago, so I'll just copy+paste it from my memory:

There was a time when FF14 was like FF11. It's called FINAL FANTASY 14 1.0
And it was so "well received" that its producer was fired and they had to spend a whole year programming the game from scratch to fix that mess.
So yeah... REALLY GOOD suggestion there, mate.

EDIT:

Ask people who played 1.23 what they thought of 1.0 and they'd tell you it was broken. However once the flaws were fixed, it seems 1.23 was a really solid game.

OK, fine, I'll rephrase it: Final fantasy XIV 1.x
v1.23 was made by Yoshida, and was just a hold-up to give people something to play, and also to close-up the storyline, AFTER the decision of scrapping the game was already made.
I say he did a decent job giving the game a last breath before coming down, but still wasn't well received.

My whole point with this post was to point out that if you have a FFXIV that looks like FFXI, you get FFXIV prior to ARR. And we all have seen how that turned out.

[Magis]

I already said this on another thread some months ago, so I'll just copy+paste it from my memory:

There was a time when FF14 was like FF11. It's called FINAL FANTASY 14 1.0
And it was so "well received" that its producer was fired and they had to spend a whole year programming the game from scratch to fix that mess.
So yeah... REALLY GOOD suggestion there, mate.

Ask people who played 1.23 what they thought of 1.0 and they'd tell you it was broken. However once the flaws were fixed, it seems 1.23 was a really solid game.

1.0 was broken due to rushing the game out, not because it was more like FFXI. I remember the main thing that made me quit.... the god awful server side UI (what were they thinking!).

[ApolloGenX]

I played 1.23... the UI was complete garbage. It wasn't fixed. It probably seemed that way to someone that had been playing the mess that was 1.0... but I refused to do that.

Once I saw that changes had been made, I was convinced to come back by the people claiming it was "fixed". No it wasn't. Those people had shown they would accept ANYTHING that was thrown at them, so their bias overwhelmed any sense of objective judgement of a completely unplayable (by most standards) game.

[Doo]

There was a time when FF14 was like FF11. It's called FINAL FANTASY 14 1.0

1.0 was like 2 percent completed.

My whole point with this post was to point out that if you have a FFXIV that looks like FFXI, you get FFXIV prior to ARR. And we all have seen how that turned out.

FFXIV does look like FFXI, it just plays more like WoW. Of course it didn't turn out well since the game barely had anything in it and was broken which is why it's a terrible point.

[AlexionSkylark]

I already edited my other post, but I'll repeat here so there isn't any confusion:

Ask people who played 1.23 what they thought of 1.0 and they'd tell you it was broken. However once the flaws were fixed, it seems 1.23 was a really solid game.

OK, fine, I'll rephrase it: Final fantasy XIV 1.x
v1.23 was made by Yoshida, and was just a hold-up to give people something to play, and also to close-up the storyline, AFTER the decision of scrapping the game was already made.
I say he did a decent job giving the game a last breath before coming down, but still wasn't well received.

My whole point with this post was to point out that if you have a FFXIV that looks like FFXI, you get FFXIV prior to ARR. And we all have seen how that turned out.

[ApolloGenX]

You know, to be honest... if they are going to go this repetitive dungeon route- the least they could do in this day and age is to use some kind of dynamic dungeon generator. EQ did that back in first gen gaming... there's no reason why the maps and layouts of dungeons couldn't be dynamically generated to keep them somewhat fresh.

[Gramul]

"No one" as in, "Me, me, me, me, oh and me"? You could at least own up to it being your opinion, much like how I'd prefer this game to stay as far away from FFXI as possible.

"Almost no one".
As in: their subscription rate plummeted with the changes and additions like abyssia.