Your thoughts on the direction of this game?

[Krr]

Eco-Warrior, Conquest, BCNM, NMs, HNMs, Quests and Missions (people say this is content in XIV so it counts for XI as well.) Expeditionary force (early form of campaign/besieged/reive), treasure hunting (open world required gaining keys.) So comparatively, it's basically the same as XIV on Launch - ARR however had the benefit of borrowing 1.0-1.23 content for its launch content while throwing in a few new things...but a lot fo XIV's content is one time throwaway content, to put it into perspective:

If BCNMs were in XIV ARR, you'd do each one once then never touch them ever again for the rest of the game unless SE forces you into them. That's taking into consideration none of the updates just before zilart as well.

Thank you. More constructively: Yes. S-E absolutely needs to stop making content throwaway. They have no idea how to design their gear curve in ARR and it's honestly killed my interest in a lot of the endgame.

[Velhart]

So from the answers I have seen, it looks like both games are on the same boat in terms of how much content available from launch. It isn't fair to say that XI has so much more content when it has 12 years on ARR. You can compare FFXIV's 12 year period with FFXI's sure, but we haven't gotten 11 years into the future yet. Listing areas doesn't really count unless there was actual content to do in there besides leveling or at most killing mobs to get a item for a certain quest. XIV also has multiple jobs and crafts to level on one character.

[Mcshiggs]

Listing areas doesn't really count unless there was actual content to do in there besides leveling or at most killing mobs to get a item for a certain quest. XIV also has multiple jobs and crafts to level on one character.

So you could say Primals in XIV don't count, since that is just a zone you go in to kill a monster to get an item.

[Velhart]

So you could say Primals in XIV don't count, since that is just a zone you go in to kill a monster to get an item.

Going into a area to get an item for a quest in XI is the same as going to an area to get an item for a quest in XIV. Questing itself is content that both share. You can just as easily list areas in XIV and say that is content (which it is actually). Also I would compare Trials to BCNM's. Instanced content for one particular battle. So both are counted as questing content, the one you like more is up to you.

[Barimu]

Going into a area to get an item for a quest in XI is the same as going to an area to get an item for a quest in XIV. Questing itself is content that both share. You can just as easily list areas in XIV and say that is content (which it is actually). Also I would compare Trials to BCNM's. Instanced content for one particular battle. So both are counted as questing content, the one you like more is up to you.

You had variety and different ways to tackle a fight in XI, in XIV you rarely have this variety.

[Mcshiggs]

Going into a area to get an item for a quest in XI is the same as going to an area to get an item for a quest in XIV. Questing itself is content that both share. You can just as easily list areas in XIV and say that is content (which it is actually). Also I would compare Trials to BCNM's. Instanced content for one particular battle. So both are counted as questing content, the one you like more is up to you.

Random enemies in those zones in XI could drop gear and spells, some spells that was the only way to get those spells, killing trash mobs in certain zones, or buying them from people that got them that way. So if you don't want to count killing random enemies in zones as content, well then you can call it spell or gear hunting, and I guess it becomes content in your eyes.

[Alipoprocks]

, how long did people wear the leaping boots?

I wore those boots at 75 on my thief until I got the salvage ones because Simmy was mean to me.

All of the things you mentioned and what everyone else has mentioned about XI are what I terribly miss. I loved that game. Leveling your character took work. Getting good gear took effort (or gil, but gil took effort too). And before ppl say "game still running, go back," it no longer is that game either.

But the one big problem it had and probably why it changed was that it was not new-player friendly. FFXIV can be picked up by anyone at any time and that person could easily be caught up around a month, more or less depending on time and play style.

[Mcshiggs]

But the one big problem it had and probably why it changed was that it was not new-player friendly. FFXIV can be picked up by anyone at any time and that person could easily be caught up around a month, more or less depending on time and play style.

That's the thing, the ones that figure out how to build a game that can hold onto players like XI and EQ did, while still being new player friendly will be the game to beat. Part of it is the community, but getting players to halt everything they are doing to spend weeks or even months catching new players up to them is asking quite a bit.

[Alipoprocks]

So from the answers I have seen, it looks like both games are on the same boat in terms of how much content available from launch. It isn't fair to say that XI has so much more content when it has 12 years on ARR. You can compare FFXIV's 12 year period with FFXI's sure, but we haven't gotten 11 years into the future yet. Listing areas doesn't really count unless there was actual content to do in there besides leveling or at most killing mobs to get a item for a certain quest. XIV also has multiple jobs and crafts to level on one character.

You really can't compare the two games. Leveling in FFXIV is stupid easy, even crafts. I had one craft at 50 when 2.0 launched. It took me two months of casually working on crafting to get the rest to 50. FFXIV takes minimal effort, including relics.

But I guess you could say that the amount of content is about the same. It just feels like less content because everything is instant.

[Fendred]

We would have died before 2.1 if this was true.

Rapidly inflating item and character levels created tremendous strains on all forms of content, from leveling to raids. By the time Cataclysm was released, an attempted revamp of the old areas was completely wasted because people easily out leveled the areas before completing all the quests, so much of the content was never seen by most players. Also, all old dungeons and raids were rendered obsolete. There was literally no reason to do them. The vanity system was an attempted solution to rekindle interest in older content, which really didn't do much at all to accomplish that. You can already see it happening here. Labyrinth of ancients is becoming abandoned. The first coil will be history once 2.4 is released. By expansion all of this early content will be history if he continues to do it the World of Warcraft way. And yes, the game is losing subs. Some vertical progression is okay. Rapid upwards vertical progression is like taking shortcuts to build a skyscraper... it all comes crashing down in the end.