@dev team ->> Thanks for bringing back party grinding, -really-

[Murugan]

It's not about the difference but about the presentation. It's all a mental feeling that those kinds of players get off on.
Repetitious grinding is actually horrific now, and we still need chains along with a few other things to spice it up (personally, i want this first).

My idea of a "repeatable quest" would be something like Fields of Valor or a town quest that you must farm a group of monsters for X of X item (only being able to obtain X item after the quest has been started).

It is a shame that it's either 1 or the other these days in MMOs. Mainly leaning more & more anti-social.

But it's not that people are anti-social they are merely responding to the deliberate balancing by WoW-clone MMO developers. They award more XP for running many solo, repetitive, pointless/joyless and grind-full quests at a time. MMO players, being human beings do what most human beings would always do in such a situation and they take advantage.

The result is that the only incentive to group would be to recapture that feeling of actually having to try and work with other people... only why do that when you can rush with everyone else to endgame where there is actually once again some reward for teamwork.

[Andrien]

I disagree with OP 110%

Variety is a great thing.

If I don't have time to seek for a party invite or to make my own party, I could just do some leves. Perhaps can also seek for a party invite while doing leves and quest. It is a win win situation.

If I were to grind for hours solo or in a party, I need some more motivational pumping music to keep me awake.

[Rhianu]

FFXI's camp-style grinding was terrible. Seriously, standing in one place for hours and hours pulling one mob at a time made the monotony almost unbearable. Please don't try to add that style of gameplay to FFXIV. It isn't any fun.

The people who liked FFXI's style of grinding seemed to only like for the fact that you were playing with other people, which is understandable, but you CAN play with other people in a WoW style questing system. In fact, doing so makes WoW's quest grinding much more entertaining. The people who don't know this probably either never played WoW, or never bothered to try playing with other people in it.

[captainpicard]

FFXI's camp-style grinding was terrible. Seriously, standing in one place for hours and hours pulling one mob at a time made the monotony almost unbearable. Please don't try to add that style of gameplay to FFXIV. It isn't any fun.

The people who liked FFXI's style of grinding seemed to only like for the fact that you were playing with other people, which is understandable, but you CAN play with other people in a WoW style questing system. In fact, doing so makes WoW's quest grinding much more entertaining. The people who don't know this probably either never played WoW, or never bothered to try playing with other people in it.

You can play with other people in a WOW style questing system in 100 other WOW and or WOW clone games. And frankly, having played Aion, WoW, AoC, Rift, and so on, the more premiere WoW clones if you will, the only people I see playing together in that type of system are real life friends, or people joining a group for 5 minutes to kill one thing and then disbanding it immediately once the enemy is dead without even a thanks or c-ya have the time.

I don't see how WoW quest grinding is "much more entertaining" .. lets do a compare

WoW - Get quest from NPC with minor story to kill 8 wolves, bring back 8 wolf hides. Get Gold, Armor, and Experience Points. (i.e. welfare)

FFXIV - Get quest from floating stone to kill 8 wolves (with the option for increased rewards for doing it with other people), or more recently, get quest from NPC to kill 8 wolves. Complete, get gil and experience points (i.e. welfare)

Since the guide-leve system has existed in FFXIV since day one, and creates the WOW quest / daily system which you embrace AND at least at some point encouraged grouping to complete them then all those players should have been satisfied. Since the game has lost players at an astounding rate (For a multitude of reasons) its safe to assume a portion of them left due to dissatisifaction with this play style.

FFXIV will never do WOW/Clone questing as effectively as those games do it.

There are plenty of WOW/Clone games available to satisfy that market.

FFXIV currently has an opportunity to differentiate itself from the swarm by going more towards the earlier gen MMO style (which WOW has effectively killed) as there is an audience out there who is hungry for that. If they weren't, then FFXI wouldn't still be running 9 years later, with a player base much larger than this game.

Finally - If you look at the actual design of jobs, they are built to be played with strategic position. The games mechanics lend itself much better to a camp and pull style party system, not a run around with a strategyless hack n slash zerg fest. That experience is available 100 other places.

Camp & Pull will save this game if its implemented in a way that
1. There are actually enough mobs to camp and pull
2. They don't run back to their house if they get 5 feet from it
3. Jobs are more specialized

WOW style play will never save it because
1. Instanced content has little longevity
2. This game will never do WOW style as effectively as WOW
3. They already tried it with leve's and look at where we are at.

Non instanced dungeons/worlds with other parties and risks introduced by other real people, is what makes existing content fun, keeps it fresh, and gives it longevity.

In short-

SE keep working on partying, its the bread and butter of fun
Add epic quest lines (Zilart style - now those are quests I can get enthusiastic about)
Focus on job diversity

For those that want a casual element in the game, then just let them solo for severely reduced experience points. There is no need for leve's. I can't stress how much that is just MMO welfare.

[Reika]

Having only mindless repetitive grinding of field mobs from R1-Rx will be no fun for anyone. Having more and more quests to do will be more fun. If you want to grind on monsters forever with little questing, there's a F2P game called 'Fly for Fun' you could play. No one wants FFXIV, besides you OP, to become like that.

[captainpicard]

Having only mindless repetitive grinding of field mobs from R1-Rx will be no fun for anyone. Having more and more quests to do will be more fun. If you want to grind on monsters forever with little questing, there's a F2P game called 'Fly for Fun' you could play. No one wants FFXIV, besides you OP, to become like that.

You must mean no one left playing since most people like me split along time ago. That would explain the dead game.

[Griss]

I do rather like the option to gather up some friends of the same rank and go out on a monster slaughter expedition. Mind you its never not been an option in xiv. just highly devalued during the mega leve link period.

[Reika]

You must mean no one left playing since most people like me split along time ago. That would explain the dead game.

A long time ago there were no side quests or dungeons, and you could have grinded on field mobs all you wanted then and you can now. Dont try to say all that has been added and all that is coming is the reason why people left. People left because there was very little to do and battle was not fun and unrewarding.

[Wolfie]

Mind blowing revelation for you grind-lovers: you will always be able to grind, regardless of whether the game promotes solo questing, group questing, dungeoneering, or whatever. But it doesn't work the other way around when a game promotes grinding.

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

OP makes no sense being that none of those other options affect party grinding. It's now the best way to SP when not soloing leves.