Clearing Confusion - MMORPG differentiation

[Velhart]

Beautifully written Jen. While I do not want a copy and paste of FFXI, I still want the elements that made FFXI successful. I could really care less if this game ever becomes the top MMO or not, I just want it to be enjoyable. I don't recall needing a ton of players to run a game like this successfully. FFXI was like this, and I still believe FFXI has the strongest community I have ever seen in an MMO. I do believe it was the size of the community. Where not a large amount, but a fair amount, keeping it hardcore kept in the dedicated players and kept out the players you don't want to associate with.

I already see this happening in FFXIV, maybe because a lot of players are FFXI vets. Of course you will see your run of the mill idiot once in a while, all MMO's have it. But, due to the hardcore nature of FFXI, it forced people to get good at what they were doing, and knew the only way to get anywhere was to behave and focus on team work. Small, but a fair amount of people that rely heavily on party play does this, and that is the community I enjoy. I can tell you, trolling in the game wouldn't get you far, reputations can die quickly in these type of games.

This is one of the various reasons I want FFXI's hardcore aspect back. I don't want it to the point I am up all night and morning going through claim windows, or events that take hours to get done. I want that casual gameplay they promised, but in a hardcore aspect. Make it convenient, but make it hard. Make me pull my hair out every time a boss doesn't drop my item. I want that feeling of accomplishment, I want to feel like my time has been rewarded.

FFXI was able to keep all of it's content fresh because it never raised the cap by 75. It was a smart move, before they decided to raise the cap and make 7-8 years worth of content obsolete. Not raising level caps and making a wide variety of useful gear in many areas kept the game up and running and making people come back for more and more. I want FFXIV to find it's niche level and keep it there. I want to do content today I see myself still doing 4-5 years down the road. I want to see the world expand and not any previous lands forgotten, this is something I really hate in MMO's. I loved Burning Crusade in WoW, but raising the level cap, no one ever goes there anymore unless they want an achievement. It is sad really. FFXI's concept, which debatable, I believe was the best way to distribute content in an MMO.

We all agree that FFXIV was in a horrible and uncompleted state when first released. With it's horrible interface, laggy and unbalanced battle system, no content, and so on. With each new patch however, I see it transforming into FFXI's concepts, which is how it should have been to begin with. People need to remember that even if the interface and battle system turn into FFXI, we keep forgetting that we all loved FFXI. While you can type on here that you don't want FFXI in FFXIV, you are all thinking in your heads that you do. You want what FFXI gave you in this game, and when FFXIV didn't deliver that to you, your high expectations kicked you in the ass. So please don't say you want something different, because in reality, you would take the same damn thing over what FFXIV initially was going to be, a game that you could only enjoy ever 48 hours and punished you for liking the game too much.

Like I said, I don't exactly want copy and paste, but I want FFXI's success, I want FFXI's elements, I want what kept me going for 8+ years. Maybe this is just me, but I just want the same damn thing with a new world and storyline. Something fresh with familiarity.

That is what I want.

[AsterBarnivere]

Yea, what the hume said.

like, I totally agree

[Reaujien]

Like I said, I don't exactly want copy and paste, but I want FFXI's success, I want FFXI's elements, I want what kept me going for 8+ years. Maybe this is just me, but I just want the same damn thing with a new world and storyline. Something fresh with familiarity.

(emphasis added)

You read my mind.