No Community

[Vidu]

I can see your point, Marcellus - thank you for sharing a different view on this issue and what people might seem to miss about XI
Your approach sounds far more reasonable and like something I can actually relate to than "It was so great to talk for 30 minutes while we were waiting for MP!"

Because I feel the same as you do - I dont want to commit to a static anymore and I cant imagine that any of the people that are talking about the good old times would actually want to give up on the convience that DF and PF are for the chance to might find a friend (something that can happen within both those systems aswell - well, PF is more likely, but yeah). Enjoying the game with your friends is great - but being able to just play the game when you want to, shouldnt be dismissed to easly either.

So yes, there probably has to be another solution - if enough people even want one. Diadem and workshops were supposed to go into that direction. Both were developed as FC-content, because people were asking for that...
...and then, when they got it, they realised "Okay, no, we dont want this - change it into solo-queues!"
Granted, the whole housing-situation totally didnt helped with that and the workshop is some pretty lame "group-content" (3 people afk, the last one putting in all the mats).
In a sense you might be able to say that treasure hunts and Aquapolis are the content thats closest to achieving something together?

At this point I'm not sure if they're really able to change their system though - looking at how they had to back down with diadem because people were complaining and how often I see people not wanting to join a FC or larger FCs that... well... dont know, dont provide any sense of community and dont care for their memembers (and they dont leave because: why?) I'm not sure if that can be changed now, being almost 4 years into the game again. Certain "standards" are established, certain aspects were choosen by the community to be important.
Having easy access to content seems to be one of those (seeing how people are having started several threads about "Please, put potd 100-200 into DF") - I'm honestly not sure how long content would stay FC-locked... and tbh: I dont want FC-locked content, seeing how I have friends from different FCs and would like to play with them too.

[Deusteele]

No. It's that simple. Stop trying to define MMORPG as anything other then Massively-Multiplayer-Online-Role-Playing-Game. Nothing you have said about "what a MMO is" is a part of that statement. Everything else is a personal construct bias.

There is nothing else to say about it.


Stop pushing a personal gameplay bias on other players, this game is still going strong after 5 years of this argument.

[NessaWyvern]

I think people spend the vast majority of their "free time" in game searching for social connections because the actual game doesn’t provide any. This game is suffering from a fatal lack of community. It sought thru mechanics to empower the solo gamer and in the process precluded them of ever making a real friend.

Well, I found my husband on this game, so I don't really agree. There's more options to make friends in this game than other MMOs I have played.

[Kazrah]

Character limitations is dumb, SE. Let me write my novel.

I wish I only ever said that once....



I do agree though that SE seems to be pushing more for subscription numbers over increased quality content, but I feel like there is just as much a factor of people being less social in general due to anxiety and other mental and social conditions as there is a factor of milk having a better shelf life than most patch content.

I'd also argue that it varies from server to server: the greater the server identity, the greater the sense of community you can find on it.

[HyoMinPark]

I think people spend the vast majority of their "free time" in game searching for social connections because the actual game doesn’t provide any. This game is suffering from a fatal lack of community. It sought thru mechanics to empower the solo gamer and in the process precluded them of ever making a real friend. Some of the prerequisites to a meaningful friendship are shared hardship, sacrifice, and trust - all of which have been meticulously removed from this game lest it be “too hard". I think in not forcing people to eat their veggies they've gotten fat, unhappy and restless - which does not bode well for XIV.

I know the post is old, and I may be missing your point here, but this is how I feel about the situation—

I think the tools are there for people to forge connections if they want to forge them. Not everyone wants to be a social butterfly, and I don’t particularly consider that a bad thing. I have my small group of friends (some I met on this very forum, not even in-game), and I don’t have much of a desire to have a larger group of them. I’ve never wanted to be in large, social linkshells. I’ve never wanted to be in large FCs, always preferring smaller ones. I’ve never seen the need to max out my friends list with people I rarely speak to. I prefer smaller, more personal connections with individual people, not an entire server’s community, and I don’t think that’s particularly “wrong”. I don’t agree with forcing interactions between players. But I suppose that’s the introvert in me speaking.

I’ve met some good people in this game. I met my best friend initially on this forum. So I wouldn’t say that it’s entirely devoid of ways for people to connect...they just have to want to connect. Again, I could be missing the point entirely. These are just the thoughts I had when I read this post.

[Gemina]

This isn't an issue for me. I'm here to play the game. I have a tight knit of peeps I keep close that includes FC mates, LS, and a couple of RL friends. I am always open to meeting new people, but in this day and age I'm surprised people meet at all. Both inside and outside the game. I actually don't blame SE for the lack of social interaction at all.

[XiXiQ]

I think the main thing missing isn't the community itself, it's the tools to find like-minded people in game. Even figuring out how to join a FC is a pain if you don't know anyone in it already. There's no way in game to find linkshells that might interest you either.

[Usho]

#Necrobump

[Seig345]

This still seems to me to be a conflict in what one wants out of an MMORPG.

The point in an MMORPG someone enjoys playing is not necessarily "The People", the point is whatever it is about the MMORPG that the player enjoys. I'm not saying people shouldn't criticize a game for lacking something they want, but that goes both ways; no one can simply lay down the absolute "Point" to any game or genre of games that objectively makes them enjoyable to anyone.

Personally, I like that there is in fact NOT always "another carrot" if I catch up to where I want to be in the game. I don't feel like it's an endless slog, I can take breaks and spend time playing other games with the limited free time that I have. But because it's an MMORPG, when I -do- play, I'm playing with other people who are playing the same game as myself. I still get together at a friend's house about once a month and we have pizza and play FFXIV together under the same roof, and often find ourselves playing together every weekend or so during the rest of the month. Meanwhile during the week I can still progress where I want to progress without my friends, but rather with other people who are playing at the same time as myself.

So again, I don't believe that FFXI or FFXIV can be objectively declared as "superior" over each other, they simply cater to different demographics of players.

[Elixirboy]

I played XI for a number of years, and when I look back at it, I tend to think of it as the golden age of my online gaming life. My friends, the two LS I was in, the zones, the music, the whole game. When I was actually playing the game, day-to-day life was very ordinary. Sure, there was the occasional outstanding moment, like killing a particular HNM for the first time, or helping a friend through a particularly difficult fight.

My feelings about that game changed drastically as time passed. When I started playing XIV, I felt that it paled in comparison. I stopped and thought - maybe it's because I'm in the middle of my XIV experience, and perhaps my feeling about this game will be very different ten years from now.

Many years from now, I may feel that both games were equally incredible - but I try to not think about it. It may be that the OP is looking for something that cannot exist, but that's not for me to say.