Playerbase Mood

[azura84]

The whole gamut. Started in EQ back in 2001, then WoW in 2004, then after that I played EQ and WoW again a few times, then in no particular order: EQ2, SWTOR, Age of Conan, Star Trek Online, Wildstar, Rift, Planetside 2, Archeage, Black Desert, DC Universe Online, ESO, Defiance, Firefall, Guildwars 2, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Neverwinter, Warframe, and a smattering of Aion and Lineage 2 for like a day or two during their Steam release.

You didn't happen to mention FFXI in there, did you play it?

I ask because I didn't really have much interest in MMO's until FFXI came out and being a big FF buff I couldn't resist, after that my mind was changed about paying subscriptions to good developers. In FFXI they too had a rather horizontal leveling system that was based around the progression of gear, they released the game with a level cap of 50 and then raised it to 75 with the first expansion, leaving it at 75 for 8 years and producing new content and expansions based around the progression of some gear and the ability to modify that gear to suit your needs. From what I can tell I fit in the rather niche group of people who found this rewarding, it gave my equipment lasting usefulness and made the effort feel rewarding.

Some would say that the levels and gear levels are just numbers and that they dont really matter how much they scale differently from game to game so long as the equipment is utilized resourcfully and that's where i find XIV lacking. They have all these stats and they dont use any of them, they may as well just put 1 number on each piece of gear, the ilvl, and ship it out because nobody needs or cares what the other numbers say anymore. I wish they would use them.

The problem with Diadem and Palace of the Dead is that they are designed under this vertical leveling system where gear progresses through levels and ilvls faster than it's usefulness, they need to slow down the progression and work on utilizing the equipment more so that their content becomes relivent rather than making whole zones, dungeons, raids and quests useless. Deep Dungeon is essentially a watered down version of Nyzul from XI and it's pretty much made it so leveling in normal dungeons after 30 pointless. Diadem is a replica of what Dynamis was in XI but open to everyone and with shitty gear models and gear ilvl that can be obtained easier from elsewhere, completely pointless day 1 of it's creation. You would think they were high when they created it or something.

The relic quest is a remnant of all final fantasy games in that there has always been an ultimate weapon for your characters to build or grind for, and this one does that but the weapon has no purpose and everyone simply gets it because it's pretty and to have ready for the next patch.

Even Savage content feels hallow because the gear serves no purpose. Give us piercing, blunt and slashing relevance, elemental resistances and damages, create a proc system (that's MMO 101), let us do damage to parts of enemies that break off and increase drop rates. I dont really care if it all stays in instance because that is ultimately more fair but come on, do SOMETHING different with mechanics.