Let's have a round of applause for bringing grind parties front and center in FFXIV

[Neptune]

Man, I really wish people would stop saying that grind parties promote skillful play. There was nothing demanding about FFXI's grind parties. All you needed was the right items, right job, and following a guide someone posted on Campistarus. All of the mobs picked for grinding were the least dangerous mobs, in the least dangerous camps. TP skills were spammed at will, few people used utility/enfeeble spells, and people stocked up on bard, red mages, and other buffing classes so that they wouldn't have to deal with MP management and whatever.

People had that s*** down to a science. Ironically, the only time leveling in FFXI demanded skill was when you were playing one of the solo classes.

Exactly man. It's just a myth invented by people to justify the things they regret doing deep down.

Stop misrepresenting your opinions.

Stop misrepresenting my opinions? How? Why don't you stop misrepresenting English? At least give me a decent reply and I will reply to it.

What the hell is wrong with quests? I for one play jrpgs for their stories (even the bad ones). Whats wrong with starting off in a zone, starting with a story on why i'm there and giving me a fun ff story doing things within the zone leading up to a big bad arse boss or dungeon at the end of the zone, then leading me into the next area. Throw in the grind in the middle of it. Hell, throw in grp grinds. But give me a f'ing story. The ff sp games do this, why the hell can't it be here?

Thats right..... ffxi didn't do it.

Thank you, thank you so much. I'm with you. What's wrong with story progression? That's what you're saying. That's what every other FF has, and what FFXI would have had if Tanaka hadn't been one to simply copy Everquest instead of making an original game based on Final Fantasy gameplay.

You have got to be kidding me. FFXI has multiple massive main story quests with cutscenes.

He's talking about progressing through story.. Imagine an FF game where you go through new areas and beat bosses.. but are awarded no exp.. and instead, to gain exp for your character, you have to go to someplace else and grind. You would be imagining FFXI, not FF1-10.

Sounds like MMO is the wrong genre for you....also: XI *did* do it.

XI didn't have character progression through story, as stated above.

Sounds like your idea of an MMO is not the genre for me.

FFXI had cutscenes and they were done wonderfully. But you didn't progress through the zones doing those quests. There were no stories to the zones, you just moved there and camped the 1 spot till you moved to the next zone.

What i am saying is give us a story on why we are there. Right now we get a cutscene and for no other purpose then to lvl our char so we can get another cutscene. There's no meaning behind it at all. Why do we need to run to lvl 50 when their could be a journey reaching every lvl.

Exactly man. Even WoW gave you a sense of progressing through different zones and there was a trivial story to every little thing. It was nice. FF should be doing it on a grander scale.

Party grinding isn't about killing the same mob over and over again in the same place, its about learning the class you're playing, and learning strategies to do with others. If fostering better relationships with other players becomes boring to people then why even play an mmo?

It only takes a few hours to learn your class.. not months. It's just ridiculous that you think you learn anything important over that huge stretch of time. The truth is you could be building relationships just as well without the grind as with it.

Bringing up FFXI again, but sorry, nothing in FFXI's party grind taught me how to be a good player.


There was never any real challenge thrown at people while leveling in FFXI. Grinds of any kind are always, always reduced to the easiest and fastest ways to do something. It's the complete opposite of challenge, sprinkled with a lot of tedium.

Exactly. You learned it all at endgame. Just like everyone else. Even if they imagine myths to justify something Tanaka pushed on them from Everquest.