What does Heavensward actually bring to the table as an expansion?

[Fendred]

Look at 1.0. That was done with the spirit of XI in mind and look how difficult it was for casual/midcore players. So much so that 1.0 flopped HARD.

FFXIV 1.0 wasn't a finished game. It was an alpha product released as a finished product. Trying to compare the FFXI to the broken state of FFXIV 1.0 is comparing a mustang to a half built car.

Also, FFXI actually managed to get people to play with one another and develop relationships as they leveled. That is something FFXIV:ARR simply does not do as well. People aren't any more distrusting of others now than they were when FFXI came out. It was just that FFXI was built with Everquest as a role model. Everquest still has a healthy player base despite being incredibly old. Such is the staying power of the community it created.

[DreameR7g]

FFXIV 1.0 wasn't a finished game. It was an alpha product released as a finished product. Trying to compare the FFXI to the broken state of FFXIV 1.0 is comparing a mustang to a half built car.

Yes but only problem: The director for the years of XI before Abyssea was the same director of 1.0. It was pretty much FFXI 2.0 and designed that way.

Edit: Oh yes, it did. And XI can still sustain itself from the players still playing it. Only problem: That number WILL dwindle with no new blood infused in it and thus, it'll die.

Everquest and FFXI were designed with different eras in mind. Nowadays with how hardware has upgraded massively, it takes nothing at all to sustain these older games but to depend on them as a prime source of profit? Sadly, you just can't. Yeah, they were designed to get people to play with one another, develop relationships a lot more but the era of MMOs and communities has changed. It won't be like that again.

[Daralii]

Definitely not new player friendly, especially later on when the content kept piling on and leaving new blood in the dust. It became a game where it was more attractive to the hardcore than new players.

You're right that people are more rebellious nowadays, untrusting towards their fellow player and why systems like the duty finder are required. Because of their change in policy, they are actually making more of a profit now than XI ever did.

Look at 1.0. That was done with the spirit of XI in mind and look how difficult it was for casual/midcore players. So much so that 1.0 flopped HARD.

1.0 had plenty of issues aside from that, but you're right. The structure was designed to really just be appealing to the people that played XI and other older MMOs, but I imagine most of the people that wanted a game like XI were still just playing XI.

[DreameR7g]

1.0 had plenty of issues aside from that, but you're right. The structure was designed to really just be appealing to the people that played XI and other older MMOs, but I imagine most of the people that wanted a game like XI were still just playing XI.

Haha! Pretty much and would you rather play XI 2.0 and start all over again with new systems, new world, everything or stick with the game you know, you love and your built up character with all the achievements attached?

[Gilraen]

Look at 1.0. That was done with the spirit of XI in mind and look how difficult it was for casual/midcore players. So much so that 1.0 flopped HARD.

It flopped hard because the game was full of systems designed to limit your ability to enjoy the game, like Fatigue and Surplus, and the director refused to pay attention to criticism. He's been quoted as stating that people 'just need time to come and appreciate his vision'. He was very inflexible and noone batted an eye when Square took him off the project and assigned Yoshida in his stead. The only thing about 1.0 that was even remotely like XI were the races, and even then we wanted something, anything, else. Hence male miqo'te, female roegadyn and female highlanders. 2.0 has taken off because Yoshida listened to criticism and asked us what we'd like instead of trying to force-feed us his idea of what the game should be.

[Evtrai]

That was part of it. The difficulty of the game also made it non-player friendly. Losing exp when you die, leveling up seperate weapon skills in order to be proficient with a weapon, no map until you actually got the key item for it, etc. It required tons more work and in order to be a good player, you had to do TONS more grinding than in XIV. Definitely not new player friendly, especially later on when the content kept piling on and leaving new blood in the dust. It became a game where it was more attractive to the hardcore than new players.

You're right that people are more rebellious nowadays, untrusting towards their fellow player and why systems like the duty finder are required. Because of their change in policy, they are actually making more of a profit now than XI ever did.

Look at 1.0. That was done with the spirit of XI in mind and look how difficult it was for casual/midcore players. So much so that 1.0 flopped HARD.

1.0 failure was built around the plain and simple fact that the engine SUCKED it used an engine designed for a console non mmo game, there's no other explanation, people instantly turned away the moment that when you opened a map, it took forever to load, the maps were copy pasted of one and another the areas were barren the maps bland, it took like 6 seconds to unsheathe your weapon, and if you sheathed it by accident, well crap. It was such a chore of unresponsiveness just to sell items They have ABSOLUTELY NO relation that they tried to copy FFXI, what they did copy about FFXI, was the core game release on japan, and they thought they could get away with all the issues, when nowdays the market isn't as forgiving when a company makes mistakes or a game has technical issues. And well sadly in the case of 1.0, first impressions matter, people quickly quit after just the first day. Along with some other problems, but these, were the ones that made people abandon the game since day one.

[Daralii]

1.0 failure was built around the plain and simple fact that the engine SUCKED it used an engine designed for a console non mmo game, there's no other explanation, people instantly turned away the moment that when you opened a map, it took forever to load, the maps were copy pasted of one and another the areas were barren the maps bland, it took like 6 seconds to unsheathe your weapon, and if you sheathed it by accident, well crap.

The infrastructure was also terrible, and parts of it are still there. Couldn't the entire server hitch when someone changed zones?

[DreameR7g]

Snip

Exactly! That was the same guy who was the director of XI. It was like XI on how punishing it was to the players for little reward. 1.0 was also like XI in that it took so much time invested to get anywhere. That isn't attractive anymore in this new era of gaming.

I would prefer people critique the game. Unfortunately, critiques are far different than opinion and that is what most of this thread is. It is major opinion because the game is doing extremely well according to SE. A major problem I see, though, is some people are simply bored of the game now. This could be because they rushed to get to 60 and expected the game to start there when it doesn't.
This also could be because they only have one part of the game they like (Crafting, Gathering, Raiding, Combat, etc.) but a lot of time to invest thus completing that section of the game and then they feel like they have nothing else to do.

SE is doing what they can and they ARE listening to everyone here. But theres only so fast you can design and implement concepts.

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

Haha! Pretty much and would you rather play XI 2.0 and start all over again with new systems, new world, everything or stick with the game you know, you love and your built up character with all the achievements attached?

Because it's so much better to play a FFXIV that is just about the same as 90% of the MMOs out there in the market...
FFXIV could've taken things that FFXI did right, it didn't have to be a same exact clone. Right now, the only things that this game has taken from FFXI are the monsters. Everything else, taken from other "modern" games and while it's not bad to be inspired by other ideas, it's also bad if you forget your roots completely. I mean, all those people complaining about SE not making the same FFs anymore (mainly pointing out the linearity of FFXIII, no open world to name an example) and that they wanted more games like the games they fell in love with years ago must say something.

[DreameR7g]

Snip

Oh yes and there was no difference between 1.0's crappy release and XI's crappy release back in 2002. There WAS a difference in regions it was released in. XI was released in only Japan until Rise of Zilart came out where it was released in NA with the expansion already attached. XIV 1.0 was released all across the world that way.

Again, same director, same problems. Same director, same type of vision.