A shout out to the 1.0 players still here today

[Shurrikhan]

For me 1.x had a lot of very interesting, yet flawed, concept. It saddens me that in order to "fix" them, they were almost all dropped, ending in a very straightforward though enjoyable reboot.

This.

I respect Yoshida for his reported work ethic and team-driving, but that's it. I can't give the man a sliver of credit for anything creative when his solution to every interest concept was to remove it in favor of mechanics copied directly from other MMOs.

"Build your own job?! Without talent trees?! Just toss it. We can play the saint who returns their beloved jobs to them directly, rather than through a deeper system allowing for personal construction.

"A soulmancer (Thaumaturge) and an elementalist (Conjurer)? But, but, you'd have to somehow take elements from each to create a Black or White Mage! Heresy!"

"Building and sailing ships?! A menu could do that!"

"Side-quest story-lines pursued primarily out of interest for the stories themselves? But then how do I guide people linearly?!"

"Large, rolling zones that can feel like hiking in the wilderness? We're playing video games because we don't like doing outdoors-y things like hiking!"

"Meaningful grinding experience that might award open hunting and personalized questing? But what of the linear route of quest hubs?!"

"Crafting that actually has a commensurate number of steps and therefore grants experience proportionate to complexity, step by step?! Who would dare?!"

"An experience bonus/penalty system that encourages leveling multiple classes?! But surely people only want to play one thing! Exploration is for the slow!"

"Making something including (synergetic) rather than excluding (rock-paper-scissors) out of element systems? Who has time for that?"

"A large set of damage types, geometries, and mechanics and open arsenal construction? Surely no one would like experimenting even if we gave them reason to!"

"Mob AI? Give them an inch and they'll ask for a mile. What would be next? A living world?!"

...So on and so forth...

Don't get me wrong: there's a lot I like about ARR, HW, and SB. But apart from the hotbar size, it'd be nothing I can't find in other MMOs if not for the graphics and the spirit of the aesthetic, which has done well (especially after the cramped zones of ARR, moving into the often perfectly blended direction, imo, that was Heavensward) despite some great things from 1.x's aesthetic lost to time. Almost everything that has been uniquely XIV apart from certain parts of its MSQ has also always felt either unpolished or poorly aimed. Luckily, a lot of the parts that are most important to me in those core, never-unique centers of gameplay are done well enough.

[InuraBera]

Am still here, after joining on day 1.
What I miss most is that sense of unlimited potential - the building of your own class / adventurer was interesting, but things didn't last long enough for people to really work it.
With that said, the systems by 1.23 were perfectly acceptable to me. A nice build between old school, and todays constant button pressing.


If it wasn't for 1.0 I don't think I'd play this game - not on a 'sunk cost' thing, but because the world was so interesting to me, as far as Lore.
I definitely miss just being an adventurer who had some special abilities, along with the much more...low fantasty aesthetic.

Open world dungeons, and just...being able to do things without specific groupings or waiting in queues too. I think about it a lot.
But, nothing we can do now. The Levequest system, though laughed about now, could have been amazing if they had thousands and thousands of them, basically a pick your own adventure for the day type thing.


Ah well!

[AdventZero]

Helion Advensten, checking in!

Me then,


and me now. (couldn't find the same spot, since the landscape was changed to much from 1.0 to 2.0).


Been playing from 1.0 till present.

Been a PLD since 1.0 till present.

And, oddly enough, I'm even wearing mostly the same outfit as back then, too, right now. The gloves and boots are different, but the body is still the one from the Grid GC. I made it a few weeks ago without even realizing it was the same as back then, only noticed when this thread caused me to look through my 1.0 picture folder.

[Altera]

Legacy player signing in
Played XIV since July 7 2011, and I was actually surprised when my 30day free trial was over and my VISA was not charged, and I freaked out as I thought I would be unable to play xD Little did I know of the original 2010 Launch, but by the time I had joined, Yoshida had already worked his magic.
And when I saw the roadmap going forward, I KNEW I wanted to be a part of this journey and I am so glad I did ^^

The Goobbue wall, Aetheryte monsters, and ofc the final hours before servers shut down for good, people on TS3 was starting to choke up and cry hehehe. That Answers and End of an Era trailer was just amazing

Hoping Hamlet Defenses returns, Chocobo Escorts, and even 8man dungeons to help reduce the queuetimes

Looking forward to see what Yoshida has in store for us in the future

Some old Screenshots

[Canadane]

I liked 1.0, and get insulted when I admit it online, still.
I must have forgotten to sign the hive-mind contract that was going around back then.

Sure, it had it problems, but so does the current version.

I'm with you here, 1.0 has always held a special place in my heart.
If it wasn't what it was, I wouldn't have ever played.

[Gemina]

Very insightful post.

When I initially read your post, I wanted to respond in defense of current FFXIV and Yoshida with comments pertaining to him having very little time to salvage the mmo, and had he been chosen from the get go, he would have had more time to develop his own templates that we could be seeing today instead of having to reuse so much from 1.0 and other mmo designs.

But then...

A good portion of today I've caught quite a few videos from the "Remnants of a Realm" series from the same YouTuber. OMG! They scrapped so much! In addition to the things you have mentioned, there were also Hamlets, underwear and belt slots, Behests. What's the relation/connection of the mysterious conjurer and the encased dragon in the Black Shroud. That poor soul who wants to venture beyond the Twelvewoods, but the elements won't let him? And what about poor Dawn Vigil?

I really love this game, but I can also admit that despite still being a different experience from other mmos, it does use a lot of copy/paste methods. But the templates that I thought were not there in fact, are/were. It could potentially be even MORE different from other mmos! Now I know where some of you are coming from when waiting/wanting something different with new patches. You seek that which would truly make FFXIV a unique mmo

Some things just wouldn't work though. Such as the interactive travel. This is a concept from FFXI I do not miss. However, it was a great element of realism when you're waiting for your airship, and you see it in the skies arriving to the port as you make way on your chocobo. These things are really cool, but very underappreciated with today's gamers who are very fast paced.

I do think some things would work great though. *cough* Hamlets *cough* Dawn Vigil *cough*

[Canadane]

In the credits under *K* you can see my name "Kitty Of Quetzalcoatl" which is my Final Fantasy XI character and world (still active).

Did you happen to know a Meilin?
You probably didn't encounter Canadane but...

[Gemina]

more contributions!

Hellooo Altera! Thanks for sharing your screenshots.

I am also really hoping they implement some of the things that were scrapped from 1.0. I've only just learned of some of the things that did not make it to 2.0. If they're out of ideas, they could start looking there!

[Gemina]

Helion Advensten, checking in!

Been playing from 1.0 till present.

Been a PLD since 1.0 till present.

And, oddly enough, I'm even wearing mostly the same outfit as back then, too, right now. The gloves and boots are different, but the body is still the one from the Grid GC. I made it a few weeks ago without even realizing it was the same as back then, only noticed when this thread caused me to look through my 1.0 picture folder.

One of the most drastic changes I've seen is Coerthas. It's so crazy that the frozen wonderland I've grown to love used to be so lush with vegetation and life. That must have really been something going to the zone for the first time in 2.0, and seeing such a contrast. Mor Dhona as well before the Garleans decided to piss off Midgarsomr.

Amazing pics. Thank you!

[stardrifter]

Ahh the good ol days. It's hard to believe sometimes I've been playing this now as long as I played FFXI. Time flies!