One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[kurokawa]

My soul is already possessed by the satanic corporation.

LOL, agreed.

They had me at hello. Well, they had me at 'FFXIV will be a seamless world full of adventure'. I believed 'em and all.

I'll be distraught to think that I'm going to be leveling to 75 in the Desert, but I'll do it, like a behest ridden zombie lover.

[Sorel]

There is a certain lack of "planting one's flag" in FFXIV. In FFXI, setting your Home Point helped fill the psychological place-marker of:

• "This is the furthest I have ever gone from home."

Remember the first time you landed on Kazham?? I remember. It was 2004. I felt like Christopher Columbus on the Island of Cat Girls!

I set my Home Point. Doing so marked that I had progressed to a point where there was no easy way back home. Now I was committed. I would learn the ways of the jungle AND die trying ... repeatedly. I would progress a little bit further each week. At first, I clung to the walls of the village like a child to his father's leg ... so I only saw stockades and cleared jungle. Then I progressed and saw lava tunnels and jungle so dense the vines were big enough for chocobos to run across. As I progressed, I was psychologically planting my flag further and further. I was psychologically progressing.

And that's what FFXIV is missing. Psychological Progression. Sure, your character progresses empirically. She was R38 yesterday and now R40 today. She can do something now that she couldn't do before. But does it feel like she's moved further along in the game??

And this is what this thread touches upon. The lack of variety in zones, the monster distribution, the Anima System, the Guildleve System, etc ... may not be directly responsible for the lack of psychological progression, but they each contribute.

• Why does the least dangerous part of a region look identical to the most dangerous part?
• Why do the most dangerous monsters in the game live in the same region as a beginning city?
• Why can I be teleported to an Aetheryte I've never visited?
• Why are the highest ranked quests in the game in beginning cities?

If the empirical progression doesn't place at least some demand for adjusting a players interaction with their world (even as little as seeing a different part of it), that players psychological progression throughout the game will be anemic at best. They will get bored quickly, because they are not required to see or do or fight anything differently from one week to the next ... or from one month to the next.

Psychological progression, Development Team! Make us FEEL like we are progressing in the game!

[Richard]

There is a certain lack of "planting one's flag" in FFXIV. In FFXI, setting your Home Point helped fill the psychological place-marker of:

• "This is the furthest I have ever gone from home."

Remember the first time you landed on Kazham?? I remember. It was 2004. I felt like Christopher Columbus on the Island of Cat Girls!

I set my Home Point. Doing so marked that I had progressed to a point where there was no easy way back home. Now I was committed. I would learn the ways of the jungle AND die trying ... repeatedly. I would progress a little bit further each week. At first, I clung to the walls of the village like a child to his father's leg ... so I only saw stockades and cleared jungle. Then I progressed and saw lava tunnels and jungle so dense the vines were big enough for chocobos to run across. As I progressed, I was psychologically planting my flag further and further. I was psychologically progressing.

And that's what FFXIV is missing. Psychological Progression. Sure, your character progresses empirically. She was R38 yesterday and now R40 today. She can do something now that she couldn't do before. But does it feel like she's moved further along in the game??

And this is what this thread touches upon. The lack of variety in zones, the monster distribution, the Anima System, the Guildleve System, etc ... may not be directly responsible for the lack of psychological progression, but they each contribute.

• Why does the least dangerous part of a region look identical to the most dangerous part?
• Why do the most dangerous monsters in the game live in the same region as a beginning city?
• Why can I be teleported to an Aetheryte I've never visited?
• Why are the highest ranked quests in the game in beginning cities?

If the empirical progression doesn't place at least some demand for adjusting a players interaction with their world (even as little as seeing a different part of it), that players psychological progression throughout the game will be anemic at best. They will get bored quickly, because they are not required to see or do or fight anything differently from one week to the next ... or from one month to the next.

Psychological progression, Development Team! Make us FEEL like we are progressing in the game!

FFFF hit so many good points in this post. A+

[Zanfire]

There is a certain lack of "planting one's flag" in FFXIV. In FFXI, setting your Home Point helped fill the psychological place-marker of:

• "This is the furthest I have ever gone from home."

Remember the first time you landed on Kazham?? I remember. It was 2004. I felt like Christopher Columbus on the Island of Cat Girls!

I set my Home Point. Doing so marked that I had progressed to a point where there was no easy way back home. Now I was committed. I would learn the ways of the jungle AND die trying ... repeatedly. I would progress a little bit further each week. At first, I clung to the walls of the village like a child to his father's leg ... so I only saw stockades and cleared jungle. Then I progressed and saw lava tunnels and jungle so dense the vines were big enough for chocobos to run across. As I progressed, I was psychologically planting my flag further and further. I was psychologically progressing.

And that's what FFXIV is missing. Psychological Progression. Sure, your character progresses empirically. She was R38 yesterday and now R40 today. She can do something now that she couldn't do before. But does it feel like she's moved further along in the game??

And this is what this thread touches upon. The lack of variety in zones, the monster distribution, the Anima System, the Guildleve System, etc ... may not be directly responsible for the lack of psychological progression, but they each contribute.

• Why does the least dangerous part of a region look identical to the most dangerous part?
• Why do the most dangerous monsters in the game live in the same region as a beginning city?
• Why can I be teleported to an Aetheryte I've never visited?
• Why are the highest ranked quests in the game in beginning cities?

If the empirical progression doesn't place at least some demand for adjusting a players interaction with their world (even as little as seeing a different part of it), that players psychological progression throughout the game will be anemic at best. They will get bored quickly, because they are not required to see or do or fight anything differently from one week to the next ... or from one month to the next.

Psychological progression, Development Team! Make us FEEL like we are progressing in the game!

just have to say...that was very well said, and im betting a lot of us were thinking the same thing. +1 all the way

[Perrin_Aybarra]

Just bumping the thread back up and saying that I agree with your post Sorel

[Jaide]

There is a certain lack of "planting one's flag" in FFXIV. In FFXI, setting your Home Point helped fill the psychological place-marker of:

• "This is the furthest I have ever gone from home."

Remember the first time you landed on Kazham?? I remember. It was 2004. I felt like Christopher Columbus on the Island of Cat Girls!

I set my Home Point. Doing so marked that I had progressed to a point where there was no easy way back home. Now I was committed. I would learn the ways of the jungle AND die trying ... repeatedly. I would progress a little bit further each week. At first, I clung to the walls of the village like a child to his father's leg ... so I only saw stockades and cleared jungle. Then I progressed and saw lava tunnels and jungle so dense the vines were big enough for chocobos to run across. As I progressed, I was psychologically planting my flag further and further. I was psychologically progressing.

And that's what FFXIV is missing. Psychological Progression. Sure, your character progresses empirically. She was R38 yesterday and now R40 today. She can do something now that she couldn't do before. But does it feel like she's moved further along in the game??

And this is what this thread touches upon. The lack of variety in zones, the monster distribution, the Anima System, the Guildleve System, etc ... may not be directly responsible for the lack of psychological progression, but they each contribute.

• Why does the least dangerous part of a region look identical to the most dangerous part?
• Why do the most dangerous monsters in the game live in the same region as a beginning city?
• Why can I be teleported to an Aetheryte I've never visited?
• Why are the highest ranked quests in the game in beginning cities?

If the empirical progression doesn't place at least some demand for adjusting a players interaction with their world (even as little as seeing a different part of it), that players psychological progression throughout the game will be anemic at best. They will get bored quickly, because they are not required to see or do or fight anything differently from one week to the next ... or from one month to the next.

Psychological progression, Development Team! Make us FEEL like we are progressing in the game!

I had to go register for the forums just to voice my agreement with this post. I feel like this, along with the missing familiar elements of the Final Fantasy series, are the two biggest things make this game feel mediocre to me. They are patching in fixes for the latter, so I really hope they don't overlook this issue.

I still remember my first airship ride to Kazham and my first run to Jeuno from years ago. There's no adventure in FFXIV that brings about those same feelings for me. The closest is Mor Dhona, but currently I have no reason to go there outside of the story quests.

[Reinheart]

On XI (before US release) - There was a idiot named Reinheart on Garuda server... he was WAR lv8 who had no gil, but wanted to see how far he can go... so the idiot starts from **Windurst** thinking it looks cool walks all the way to Mhaura, ohhhhh village! and what does the idiot find? oooohhhh damn Boat!! not thinking the idiot back then only had 100G and gets on the damn boat... sets HP at Selbina and gets stuck there for a week... finally making it to Bastok.... it was FUN...

Running to Jeuno for the first time with my wife (GF at that time) + friend at lv11 was fun also, died right before the gate by a tiger... and we're like NOOOOO then this WHM comes up and gives us raise... will never forget that too.

Doing rank 2-3 or was it 3-4... with 3 full alliances running through beucidine + xarc with 2-3 linkshells all together bunched up. First time conquering dynamis, then dynamis xarc.... etc...etc...

Did lots of stupid stuff but all have good memories, the maps and small stuff like the gate by... forgot the name area before you go to sky... remember exact spot where I first hit lv75 killing weapons, FFXI had lots of small stuff on the maps that becomes like landmarks, to remember stuff that happened there. FFXIV aside from the cities out in the open field... there isn't much since they all look exactly the same...

Still best memory is running in all areas with just subligar.... nothing beats that... even Shadow Lord with Subligar only w

[EdenArchangel]

If you started from Gridania, you're in the wrong game :P
Just picking.

I think I could travel the entirety of what I experienced in XI without using the map at all, even after three years...

[Reinheart]

If you started from Gridania, you're in the wrong game :P
Just picking.

I think I could travel the entirety of what I experienced in XI without using the map at all, even after three years...

lol as soon as I finished all missions on **WINDURST** I switched to Bastok lolol I was thinking **WINDURST** kind of looked like one of the areas from FFX forgot where lol. Even with Grid being hell, I still liked some of the stuff there heaven's tower music was good lol

[Zanfire]

My favorite memory, by far was also a traveling one, its one of the few examples i used to say 'ah the good old days of ffxi.
Me and 2 of my buddys had just started within like a week of each other, 2 of use started in sandy, my other friend in windy. What we had just realized at the time was that another guy from our HS that we knew happened to have been playing for like 3-4 months before us and we just so happened to be on the same server.

We wanted to go see our other friend so we could all level together, so we had him, a lvl 23 THF, take us 2, a lvl 11 and 12 WHM and RDM to Windy. it was a hell of a trip, going from sandy all the way to our first ride on the boat (which had ghosts attacking it) and trying to weave and dodge around agroing mobs from zone to zone, hitting up every HP we could get our hands on. Oddly enough we only died once. Ask me or my friends if we loved stuff like that, including The jueno run, or going to new zones in general (i remeber how impressed my windy buddy was with kazham), poking around those seeming "unused' parts to see if theres an NM there.

I just don't think FFXIV will ever give that same feeling, or ever come close to being as good, even with a full re-design, but the only chance it has IS with a re-design.

So when we getting a response? this things been up since last Tuesday and still nada.