Does anyone actually enjoy guildleves?

[Korbei]

Eh, not really. They all boil down to basic grinding, which I have no problem with at all. I just don't see the point of having to go way out of my way (twice) to facilitate it. I'd rather just go somewhere and start grinding against mobs of my choosing.

I only do them because the SP gains are ridiculous (and ridiculously easy) as compared to grinding elsewhere.

[Abriael]

Eh, not really. They all boil down to basic grinding

You know that this can easily be said about every single non-endgame (and most endgame) activity in a MMO? Questing is, 99% of the times, grinding. They send you to deliver something (grinding time), to kill some mobs (grinding mobs), to get a drop (grinding more mobs) and so forth. Then you rinse and repeat with the next quest.

Levequests are pretty much nothing else than repeatable quests, the only difference is that the text is condensed in a card.

[Nephera]

I would enjoy them more if they werent the only thing to do, and if aoe wasnt rather ineffective during them

[Sinzfeldt]

GuildZzzs

10char

[Linnear]

I dunno, I really liked the quests in Wrath and Cata from wow, I particularly liked the quest chains in Hyjul and Uldum. Having played all the warcrafts prior it was really nice to get a chance to help cenarus and the other aspects, and watchign the world change and the portals opening up was really nice. It seems a much nicer alternative to blatently kill 4 mobs, no real reason to do it, noone giving you any backgorund for it or anything. If you only playhed WoW to mash through quests and not reading anything then this isn't much different then that, but personally I liked the flavor texts and story lines. Whirts thrid leg and dwarven fishing pole (stick of dynomite) is gold and something that SE doesn't do well.

Granted the Missions were EPIC, except Zilart it was meh... but the others were really good, I just wish their creative team was a large as Blizzards, and could give me a reason to kill w.e it is they want me to kill, but then again it helps to have a massive player fanbase to fund this from.

[Abriael]

If you only playhed WoW to mash through quests and not reading anything then this isn't much different then that, but personally I liked the flavor texts and story lines.

Actually you're given the background of FFXIV levequests, they are on the card and they are actually quite well written. So if you read the (absolutely sub-par and based on an half-copied, kiddish, cheesy and fruity excuse for a fantasy world) quests in wow, you can sure read the background of guildleves.

Levequests are not much different than quests presented in a different way. They featured very similar mechanics, and both can be considered as "directed grinding".

Now, this doesn't mean that having both wouldn't be much better.

Whirts thrid leg and dwarven fishing pole (stick of dynomite) is gold and something that SE doesn't do well.

Considering that even minor quests in FFXI absolutely obliterate basically every quest in wow, both narriation and writing wise, I would find the "something SE doesn't do well" part pretty chuckle-worthy.

[Gicker]

When I only had a couple of hours to play every day I loved them. Now that I have more time to play I prefer behests and party play grinding over leves. Leves cater to the casual player more than the hard core. Either way I think their plans to add more content is good for both types of players, though I would like to see more emphasis on small party play... which I believe is also in their plans.

[notebene]

I'm ok with Guildleves. I like loading up crafting and combat tasks then planning out my route and the slowly executing it. Sometimes I only have time to make 2 of my 8 crafting leves, and not even turn them in. Other times I get to knock out the entire set in a single 2-3 hour session. Sometimes I'll look up a recipe to see if I can make it, then research where to get everything, then spend a day running around gathering the resources, drops or purchasing components from someone's retainer.

I really like that this game is a throw back to more of a UO 'sand box' type environment. Over time, modern MMOs became more of an amusement park than a sand box, and those are fun too (I've played many of them, and am currently playing Rift, which is fun, more or less like getting to explore a new WoW world without having to play WoW anymore, which I played on and off since FaF beta in 12/03, so I've done my bit for God and Country there ). So I play Rift, that's 'that' kind of game. I also play LotRO, which is basically that kind of game, though in some ways it reminds me of DAoC pre-amusement park MMO times, but it's really an amusement park. That game fills a different need for me, with it's elaborate and fun events, housing, the epic story and constant push to Mordor.

Then there's this game, which was more of a UO or pre-NGE SWG (though I admittedly had a weird burn out only 2 months into SWG, which I still regret in the short run, but don't regret in the long run...I wish I had enjoyed it from release to NGE, but I digress). Both UO and pre-SWG didn't have levels, per se. You had a pool of skills and you could slide them around (over time) and be whatever you felt like being. I was excited about 14 because it seemed to offer that same type of character, without the 'over time' part. I didn't have to spend months becoming one then, then spend the same time trying out something else while 'losing' everything I had learned. I could be anything I wanted, but not all at once. I rather liked the setup.

So overall I like the sand box, like the game as a whole. I think it needs polish here and there, more toys available to drag out to the sand box each day (right now it seems like there's a shovel and a bucket, I could use some different shape buckets to make different forms in the sand). What troubles me is all the jobs and specialization talk and not letting me where whatever I feel like wearing. I don't know what form that will ultimately take, but it doesn't seem very sand box to me. Seems more like how all those other games work, where I have to wear leather, or if I shoot a bow, I can't also learn some light healing spells, or have to spend points down a 'tree' and that's all I ever get to be. Very sad, but I guess we'll see when we get there.

It seems like everyone talks about innovating in the industry, but what's funny is it seems like people talk about it, but really don't want it. Over in the Rift forums, they complain about all the mechanics that make it a WoW clone, what about doing something new or different? In here, people talk about adding mechanics from those other types of games here, and that a big, open sand box is just silly.

I think the opportunity here was to take the original 'sand box' world design (which games like UO started with back in the day) and figure out how to make it fun and engaging 'without' making it an amusement park where all the classes are your traditional pigeon-holed characters, that had to walk, talk and dress a certain way. I really like that a character in this world is just someone that is thrown into the world, and can choose to learn as much or little as they would like to learn.

Well...this probably would have been better as a separate post, and will get buried, but that is ok

P.S. - ...and while this might be construed as anti-sandbox, I don't care! The one mechanic in your game I 'really' like and wish we could see more of (and there doesn't have to be voice over) is the cut-scene style quests for the story. I level 'really' slow and don't get to see those very often. I'd love to see a lot more of them, or even side-stories that have their own arc over time that you can start up that aren't even part of the main story, but are gated over time like the main story, then we could have 3,4,5 of those going at one time.

Well, thanks for listening. Hope the servers come back soon. Think I'll go loiter around spring festival in LotRO for a bit, get lost in the maze

[Shadowskill]

Guildleves remind me a lot of FoV in FF11, not intended to be main focus for ranking up. more an alternative, if SE put major focus on grouping like they did in FF11, can see the guildleves working.

As it stands now.. it would be like playing FF11 through the FoV cause no real other way to go about it. (I use FF11 as my example cause I jumped from FF11 to FF14)

As for the Leves I just look at the reward. pick the highest. have no real incentive to care for them other then SP and a nice gil reward.

They do work very well for the causal player base tho, just need find a method to work towards the other spectrum. If SE can cover both sides in this fashion, they will have a great foundation to work from.

We as the player base just need to show what we desire most from other games, this would give SE a huge advantage with implementing new avenues for us to work with. having a lot of options to grind through is never a bad way to go.

By the way love all the ideas I read on the forum so far. would be great if SE took a few of them if not all, then found a way to put their own little twist on them for us to enjoy.

[Zkieve]

They are okay, for the first week, or the first month.Depends how much you play daily.After that is just work and grind same old every day.