Just played Final Fantasy XI

[Corue]

Been meaning to try it but it just looks far too dated for me. Will definitely try it if that mobile reboot ever comes out.

[AnimaAnimus]

FFXI wasn't my first mmo, WoW was, but ffxi was and is the best mmo experience I have ever had.

When I was new, shortly after WotG came out, I ran around and tried my best to do things, the world was big and dangerous and I was having problems leveling and getting through content. So I made a ls and started /sh for other new players. Well that ls grew rather quickly, we leveled, ran content, camped NMs, got through the lvl cap quests together and on and on. We explored the most dangerous corners and slowly but surely evolved into an endgame ls, all the same ppl who were maybe lvl 10 when we met.

We worked on relics and mythics, we fought in the sky and the sea and mostly we became great friends. Then abyssea happened and everyone drifted and moved on to other mmos. I came here along with 1 other.

Best gaming experience ever. The only thing that even compares are the fun times we had in version 1 of this game after the final save.

[Bobs]

I've hardly played 14 for a year and already feel like it's time to move on.

I played 11 for years. There was always a goal to accomplish. Always a reason to make gil. NMs drop real gear, most bis. A relic weapon took literally years to finish.

I personally liked the UI, everything was a macro. It's dumb that macros in 14 don't really work. (like the RDM burst in 14 could easily be one button macro but I'm forced to use 4).

I remember playing ff14 alpha and telling them almost everyday "Just make it like 11 with better graphics." But you know, nothing on the NA side ever mattered.

The community was very tight. You would see and play with the same people for years.

But oh well, have to move on at some point. Not going to pay a monthly for an outdated game.

[AnimaAnimus]

I've hardly played 14 for a year and already feel like it's time to move on.

I'm still here I think because I literally started in version 1's beta back in 2010, saw it through all the way to dalamud falling and it has become habit. Although I can go for weeks without playing and not care one bit. Even cancelled my alt account and extra retainers.

But 2018 has a lot of new mmos and there are ones in development that seem truly innovative and are thankfully pc only or separating pc and console versions/servers so the can optimize and add content by platform (no ps w/e limitations yay!). So who knows how long I will stay, this game just doesn't have the same feel and I really don't care much about the characters or world, not anything like I did in XI, nor have I been able to make connections to any other player. Between pf and endgame being a big joke, there is no need.

Also the fact that they are western companies who have already sworn off the cutesy wutesy thing that eastern games are so fond of when they were specifically asked about it. So another perk. No lala, no kitties, no kawaii, no waifu for youfu

[Niqote]

Part of the reason is because in XI your hard won items were valuable for long periods of time.
In XIV almost everything is worthless if given a few months.

You were also forced to help each other in XI if you wanted to get anything completed, this fostered a good community.
In XIV you just sign up and never see the people again. Its super convenient and great for the lack of time we all seem to have these days, but it also means you need to put in real effort to find a piece of community.

XI had a lot of annoying, inconvenient things. But you got through them together and you appreciated the hard work that helpers gave because old content was not a face roll for the veterans (sometimes simple 1% RNG locked you out; looking at you Carbuncle's Ruby).

In XIV when I want to help people do things I am either an unsynched demi-goddess (most of the time), or a teacher willing to sit with the group for hours letting them gain the victory themselves (this is usually reserved for my small community of friends, as they would do so for me.)


Do you want to LFG for 2 hours to LvL for 30mins? Or do you want to Throw yourselves into a guaranteed roulette and come out rewarded instantly?

These are two very different situations and a real sign of the times. /pleasant nostalgia without rose tints

Edit:
Like a few here, I'm a 1.0 player, I've actually never unsubbed. I have taken breaks and tried other MMOs. However all these MMOs are just lacking a lot of things that XIV has, even BDO with its character creation hype proved to be really lacking for variety in the character creation department (basically you can chose 1 of 30 different flavours of the same model).

I can with confidence say that XIV is one of, if not the very best MMO out, flaws and all.

[Thayos]

I've been playing FFXIV since launch, and even I've mostly lost interest. I only usually log in once/week for my content static.

FFXIV's strength is also its weakness. It's a fantastic game for busy adults who don't want to be "left behind" because they can't spend hours per day gaming. On the other hand, this game doesn't require anything more than queuing up for roulettes every now and then. I've really liked the game's vertical approach, but I really wish SE would give me more reasons to spend more time in Eorzea.

XI had a lot of flaws, and it was way too much of a time sink. Even I think it's time though for this development team to really think about stepping outside of its comfort zone.

[Zeonx]

Part of the reason is because in XI your hard won items were valuable for long periods of time.
In XIV almost everything is worthless if given a few months.

That's because of Drop percentage from NM's eventually those items became Rare/EX because RMT ruined it for legit players and those items became junk.

Some were still good also we had a quick swap option which was helpful to keep items relevant.

As for game play the game took forever to do stuff which caused content to stretch out, here in ffxiv its done in a matter of 2 weeks then story is done with in the first day or two on release and content if you want to collect gear but you only have to collect the highest for next raid and then skip the tomes grind and do that when you are bored.

FFXI was a beast back when it was 75 once they went past 75 the game died 99 was pushing it.

Also making gil in FFXI was a pain.

The best thing about FFXI in my honest opinion was that they didn't give you the items you went out and had to farm them or if you wanted not from NPC hand outs.

Farming and NM hunting and saving up gil to actually wanting something from Auction house cause Market board in FFXIV is there only if you need something for a quest or glamour and thing I hate in FFXIV everyone is the same in gear nobody is different.

[Rufalus]

A few things that stand out vs FFXIV:

The art direction and attention to detail within the world was completely unrivalled. It had so many little flourishes and details that on the surface of things, were completely pointless yet mesmerisingly beautiful. It really did feel like a living breathing world in places with things surprising you even after you'd played it for years.

Imo the art of XIV is superb and one of its strongest points. It has to be something else. I think the way you interact with the world makes you miss a lot of the beauty in XIV. Linear instance runs that are more about speed and not stopping to smell the roses. You don't want to waste the time of the cross-world people you're randomly matched with, and there's no reward for exploration (well there's only one path anyway). The beauty and attention to detail by the artists is there but the game design is such that it can often be underappreciated.

XIV does a lot of things better, but it won't win on immersion since things are streamlined or QoL'ed down to an almost arcadey experience to satisfy a broad audience of people who don't have a lot of time on their hands. It's a lot of menu-driven stuff including that big catalogue of instanced battles, and people forget the geography of the world, forget the journey because they are just used to the world being a list of teleport destinations on a menu.

[Ilyrian]

Do you want to LFG for 2 hours to LvL for 30mins? Or do you want to Throw yourselves into a guaranteed roulette and come out rewarded instantly.

Was it really that's bad? I've heard that a lot. Frankly I wouldn't want to sit for 2 hours, unable to level my character if that's what I wanted to do. Not even nostalgia goggle can make that sound appealing. Did the positive points really outweigh these negatives?

[Clover_Blake]

It's not fair at all to claim that you dislike "old-school MMOs" with their grinds, and then brush everyone who speaks fondly of XI as simply having rose-tinted glasses. You have a strong bias, and it's quite dismissive of both the game and players.

The same bias as people who keep claiming that FFXI was "better" than FFXIV, or that FFXIV "should learn" from FFXI, merely based on their own good memories. And I don't see you complain about those.