Surprisingly, The outdated MMO is WOW, not FFXI/XIV1.2

[ShanXiv]

*Because my English is not good, the words below may look weird. sorry*

I quit WOW during Woltk because I was tired of raiding,then started playing XIV from 1.0.
Came back to WOW last week, the game is almost NEW to me:Should I left click or right click the npc to fetch a quest?
I don't even remember how to move!lol
(love the "Legacy Type" movement control in XIV)


But I quit WOW again after 20 mins,because the gameplay is SO stale by today's standard:
1.Click a npc for a simple quest, of course I didn't read the text,because I don't have to.

2.The quest location is marked in the map, go there and cut something down in few seconds.

3.The enemies mechanics(behavior,aggro method,AI)are too simple.

4.I finished the first quest in 2 or 3 mins? went back to the npc,he gave me some cheap shoes,I know I will throw them away very soon.

5.Because I am a modern man,I don't want to spend too much time on just a quest ok?ok,let's play the next quest.

6.Same thing happened again,everything is simple,easy & fast.

7.After 2 or 3 quests,I started to ask myself: Where is the fun?
yes it's easy & simple, it's very "modern". does it save my time?not really.
because the quest quantity in WOW is huge.I need to do these endless,simple,meaningless,stupid quests until LV100?no sorry,thanks.
Quantity over quality is always not a good way to go.
How about buy a LV100 potion in the cashshop(or scroll?whatever),then start playing the endgame content:raid like a 2nd job, or queue for random dungeon with random people?no..no..I am sick of it already.

The super simple quest,leveling & game content are not satisfying enough by today's standard IMO.
The raid,on the other extreme,it's like a second job.
something in the middle would be nice for most people, isn't it?

I play MMO for an advanture,for social,community,for the massive multiplayer online gaming experience,for good memories,
The world,content & gameplay, should be RICH & have DEPTH in it(even a mobile game have more fun & depth than WOW & FFXIV)
the community should be fun, friendly & helpful.
WOW & XIV are just too simple & shallow..
Some important things are missed in these games.


On the other hand, I tried FFXI last year.the camera & movement control are awkward, graphics are very dated.
Leveling in FFXI is on the other extreme:Every quest is like a REAL adventure.
when I finished a quest, I felt I accomplished something, and it's rewarding(the npc gave me a pair of nice gloves).
The quest,weapon,weather,npc,enemies, everything have some unique mechanism in it. the town does have life.
I play XI for just 3 days, then stop playing it, because the graphic,control are outdated, because SE won't update the game anymore, the game & the community is dying.
if SE release a HD version,I would play it...!


Then I come back to XIV,I can finally create a new char in Balmung today.Wow so many player in the Ul'dah,
but most of them are just standing there for nothing,or just queuing for random dungeons.
Modern people DO have time(1-2hours everyday), but in WOW or XIV,there are just some trivial things to do(random dungeon,glamour, tomes,or simple quests).

The BIG problem is:No content for the midcore players in WOW & XIV.
How to solve this? how to balance it?SE have found the answer:You know what?...the XIV 1.1x-1.2x
Yes,1.0 was a DISASTER, the slow UI,copy & paste maps,the empty content.

but SE added some very NICE midcore content during 1.1x-1.2x, they are fun,memorable,I met many new friends during that period.
(random dungeons ,easy soloable content will kill the community,kill the core value of a MMO.)
XIV1.1x-1.2x community is the second best on the market (the best community is XI)
SE did capture the RIGHT feeling,
XIV 1.0 failed because it was far from finished,because some 1.0 developers are lazy?because SE want to sell their product and get back their money asap?I don't know,
not because the 1.1x-1.2x content design, it's fun.

I can go on,but I think I should stop here..

[Remedi]

There is a good documentary on youtube about how and why FFXIV 1.0 failed you might want to check out if you are interested, it's a 4 part series vid if I recall correctly

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Version 1 failed for more reasons than just being unfinished. There was no cohesiveness in the team, there was no real plan overall. And there were many design decisions that were downright awful.

[ShanXiv]

fixed some typo

[Hestzhyen]

Sadly I think the "old" MMOs of yesteryear (Everquest, XI, even vanilla WoW) are not going to be made again. There's more money to be had by recycling quick, disposable content than designing content meant to last. It also makes the barrier of entry for new players easier when they don't have to worry so much about all the old stuff that came out before they started playing. Trying to get into a long-running MMO is a NIGHTMARE even if you bite the bullet and get a skip potion of some kind- there are so many unique systems, terms, quirks, and content that you'll have to play for a long time to get them all. XIV definitely wants people to feel like they don't have to devote their lives to it if they don't want to, which means that content isn't relevant once it's been replaced.

I do agree that we could use more MID-CORE content. The Savage raids are cool and I did them when I had time. Dungeons are okay the first time or so. But I love the 24-man raids and wish there was more content around that difficulty... now that I don't have the time to do Savage, I wish there was more content my friend and I could do together that isn't a snoozefest or crazy hard.

[IllyriaKnotfred]

1.0 was an absolute disaster on every single front except graphics. (Which even top computers struggled to run well)

[ShanXiv]

Sadly I think the "old" MMOs of yesteryear (Everquest, XI, even vanilla WoW) are not going to be made again. There's more money to be had by recycling quick, disposable content than designing content meant to last. It also makes the barrier of entry for new players easier when they don't have to worry so much about all the old stuff that came out before they started playing. Trying to get into a long-running MMO is a NIGHTMARE even if you bite the bullet and get a skip potion of some kind- there are so many unique systems, terms, quirks, and content that you'll have to play for a long time to get them all. XIV definitely wants people to feel like they don't have to devote their lives to it if they don't want to, which means that content isn't relevant once it's been replaced.

I do agree that we could use more MID-CORE content. The Savage raids are cool and I did them when I had time. Dungeons are okay the first time or so. But I love the 24-man raids and wish there was more content around that difficulty... now that I don't have the time to do Savage, I wish there was more content my friend and I could do together that isn't a snoozefest or crazy hard.

Yes, XIV needs more mid core content, and needs more content that require you to play with others.

During 1.1x-1.2x, my FC is very active：Faction leves, Hamlet Defense,job quests, dungeon keystones
the group content help us build a better community. now my fc is dead. because you can solo everything.
because there are better single player games to play.why bother to pay the sub fee for a single player game?

These XIV1.1x-1.2x content ARE NOT outdated,
the recent Valentine's Day & Halloween events are good example: they require a party to play, the mechanics are fun, they are memorable, but SE can do better than that

[Maeka]

The thing about WoW, is that I find that combat is far more interesting. It's faster-paced, and you go from enemy to enemy. Sure, each enemy gets cut down fast, but yet you yourself can get cut down if you don't watch it (though this only happens near max-level) until you get geared up.

XIV's combat is a lot slower and, dare I say it? Simpler. I rarely feel like I am in danger of dying in XIV, at least solo questing enemies.

It's fun to see the sights, the races, but it is definitely targeted at a different audience than XIV is.

I like XIV, though at times I run out of things to do in XIV. There's dungeons, but once you get the gear you need, then what? There's the easy raids that you can use Duty Finder for, but those tend to only get you like 10 more item-level -- once you kill the bosses a couple times, they aren't all that interesting anymore.

Crafting.... eh, I like the crafting system, but it just gets too complicated with way too many items that you have to go out and collect, where you need 20+ materials to make one piece of armor or something, and it takes quite a bit of time to do. I feel they could reduce the tedium a little, personally.

Both games are very similar in that if you don't raid, then there's not much to do, but yet raiding is boring. Killing the same bosses again and again and again hoping for that one drop that you need just isn't my style of gameplay to be honest.

But at least XIV is designed in such a way that you can take breaks from it and play other games in the meantime.

[Canopia]

Yes, XIV needs more mid core content, and needs more content that require you to play with others.

During 1.1x-1.2x, my FC is very active：Faction leves, Hamlet Defense,job quests, dungeon keystones
the group content help us build a better community. now my fc is dead. because you can solo everything.
because there are better single player games to play.why bother to pay the sub fee for a single player game?

These XIV1.1x-1.2x content ARE NOT outdated,
the recent Valentine's Day & Halloween events are good example: they require a party to play, the mechanics are fun, they are memorable, but SE can do better than that

so because your FC found other stuff to do outside of game, its the games fault for not requiring entire groups to accomplish even the smallest objective? youd rather shackle your FC members to your hips to do every quest and that sort of thing is supposed to build a community? I thought the pleasure of ones company builds community but forcing people at proverbial gunpoint to group up in order to do a single quest was the way to go. silly me.

[ShanXiv]

I know shouting and waiting for a group is not very fun,

How about this: remove Duty Roulette, or make it less rewarding.
Add an auto match feature for local server ,or each map/zone.
group size can be 2-8 people, the enemy strength & rewards are base on group size.

Bring back the 1.1x job quests, Faction leves, Hamlet Defense or something like that,
FATEs are boring!