Will you quit if this game becomes raid-centric?

[Azurymber]

Well, I didn't read many other posts, but I would like to ask.

Does the OP even play FFXI anymore?
HNMs in the "main world" are now popped with items you get from instanced KSNMs, the highly camped sky NMs that you need pop items from are pretty much manually popped now (and have been for a long time), just about every NM/HNM in abyssea is manually popped using KI you can usually get solo very easily through gold chests.

Also, even if the main world NMs were like the USED to be still. Who the hell camps NMs outside abyssea still? lol
All that gear is so very outdated. Even Ridill is bad compared to the 3-4 hit trial sword that has MORE dmg which you can get for FREE and SOLO.

Most things in FFXI are not instanced, but them being instanced would solve many complaints. I mean, which makes more sense to you, having an NM in an instanced area, or needing to make THREE ??? locations right by eachother to help popping congestion? I just don't understand the complaints by the OP.

A lot of players hate ffxi now due to it turning to one big Abyssea instance. I don't want to see FFXIV go the same direction and never succeed. So i made this thread to see how people feel. I haven't complained anywhere....

[Nvr]

A lot of players hate ffxi now due to it turning to one big Abyssea instance. I don't want to see FFXIV go the same direction and never succeed. So i made this thread to see how people feel. I haven't complained anywhere....

I have never heard anyone complain about not being able to spend levels 55-75 killing the same damn birds, and I have never heard people complain that they can't wait durring a 3 hour window for an NM they need to kill with 4+ other groups of people wanting and needing the same thing. Anyone who complains about the changes to FFXI, which make it way more accecable to people, are either people that botted and did not have to worry about HNM claims, or are simply looking for something to complain about. If people want the old FFXi back, they can print out a picture of a Colibri, tape it to their wall, and stare at it for 3 hours. Keep in mind, these mindless xp camps were very often overcamped.

Are things easier to get in FFXI now? For sure.
But the reasons it was more difficult in the past are reasons that should not exist in games really. 7 day respawn timers with 5% droprates for the whole server to share. I really find it hard to believe that "A lot of player" miss that. Going by a % of FFXI players that dislike the changes to FFXI, I am sure it is a very small % of people that are just upset because they spent years doing mindless camping etc to get their gear and are now upset that people are getting better things easier. And I don't really care if those people are upset.

[Azurymber]

I have never heard anyone complain about not being able to spend levels 55-75 killing the same damn birds, and I have never heard people complain that they can't wait durring a 3 hour window for an NM they need to kill with 4+ other groups of people wanting and needing the same thing. Anyone who complains about the changes to FFXI, which make it way more accecable to people, are either people that botted and did not have to worry about HNM claims, or are simply looking for something to complain about. If people want the old FFXi back, they can print out a picture of a Colibri, tape it to their wall, and stare at it for 3 hours. Keep in mind, these mindless xp camps were very often overcamped.

Are things easier to get in FFXI now? For sure.
But the reasons it was more difficult in the past are reasons that should not exist in games really. 7 day respawn timers with 5% droprates for the whole server to share. I really find it hard to believe that "A lot of player" miss that. Going by a % of FFXI players that dislike the changes to FFXI, I am sure it is a very small % of people that are just upset because they spent years doing mindless camping etc to get their gear and are now upset that people are getting better things easier. And I don't really care if those people are upset.

A lot of people have complained about it.... Abyssea made the game into easy-mode and took out the exploration and wonder of ffxi.

One of the great things about FFXI was that nothing really came easy. Even at high levels getting through some areas was a challenge. When you got to a new zone or managed to sneak/invis past mobs to sky when the game first came out, you felt like you achieved something. When you got your AF armor by doing difficult quests that often required people's helps you felt like you earned it. Lots of agro mobs, interesting maps, the difficulty of levelling, rare gear, etc, made FFXI great. Even the missions felt more epic, like the 3-2 dragon or w/e. When you beat that you felt like you actually accomplished something. Also there were people in every zone in ffxi usually. When i quit last summer, most zones were dead because of abbysea (things may have changed since then)

FFXI is now easy-mode. You don't get the same sense of adventure you once did. Is that bad? not really, since it isn't attracting a whole lot of new players who would be the ones experiencing the adventure.
However FFXIV has gone the easy way from the start. There aren't really any mega-rare pieces of gear, there is almost no challenge, levelling up doesn't feel overly gratifying since its so easy, the world you actually utilize is really small. And if the game becomes raid centric the world won't really matter much, people will just care about going from Ul'dah to the raid spot. The world will stay empty like it is now.

[Raze]

However FFXIV has gone the easy way from the start. There aren't really any mega-rare pieces of gear, there is almost no challenge, levelling up doesn't feel overly gratifying since its so easy, the world you actually utilize is really small. And if the game becomes raid centric the world won't really matter much, people will just care about going from Ul'dah to the raid spot. The world will stay empty like it is now.

I'd recommend seeing a doctor and requesting an initial dose of 20-40mg Prozac daily.

[Tsukino]

I have never heard anyone complain about not being able to spend levels 55-75 killing the same damn birds, and I have never heard people complain that they can't wait durring a 3 hour window for an NM they need to kill with 4+ other groups of people wanting and needing the same thing. Anyone who complains about the changes to FFXI, which make it way more accecable to people, are either people that botted and did not have to worry about HNM claims, or are simply looking for something to complain about. If people want the old FFXi back, they can print out a picture of a Colibri, tape it to their wall, and stare at it for 3 hours. Keep in mind, these mindless xp camps were very often overcamped.

Are things easier to get in FFXI now? For sure.
But the reasons it was more difficult in the past are reasons that should not exist in games really. 7 day respawn timers with 5% droprates for the whole server to share. I really find it hard to believe that "A lot of player" miss that. Going by a % of FFXI players that dislike the changes to FFXI, I am sure it is a very small % of people that are just upset because they spent years doing mindless camping etc to get their gear and are now upset that people are getting better things easier. And I don't really care if those people are upset.

I'm going to make two completely separate responses to this.

First of all, I camped Aspidochelone once in like 2005 and decided it wasn't for me. Yet I think FFXI has been nothing but utter shit since they started raising the cap and doing nothing but Abyssea add-ons. It's not for any of the endgame stuff, but for the fact that there really is no point to any of it anymore. There are no new areas, just thrown-together rehashes of old ones. There are no interesting storylines, just a couple cutscenes after massive amounts of endgame content. They reduced the amount of grinding to do, but ironically now the only thing to do in the game at all is grind because they haven't added a new story or area in years. To top it off, they didn't even know how to solve a problem they created with magian trials, so things that would aggro at 75 still do so at 90 and you consequently can't even explore old areas with impunity. They added a bunch of levels, abilities, and equipment, and nothing to do with any of it.

As for the idea that no one could possibly want such low drop rates and ridiculous camping times all you need to know is: scarcity = accomplishment. Like I said, it wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean it wasn't for some people. The only thing really wrong with it is the way people bring bots into the equation. If that could be eliminated, the rest would be fine, because there are people who are willing to sit through it for a chance at rare loot not just anyone could get. And if they want to, let them, especially seeing as open world NMs are one of the easiest things to implement in any MMO. If you don't like low drop rates, then that's fine too; there should be other options for your style, like instanced dungeons.