This is how FFXIV should have launched.

[Chezen]

Before FFXIV 1-year grace period, I was a nice person that everyone liked lol.

We'll still like you, Zeref. ^^ It will just cost you a cookie now.


To OP:

For me, watching the game change and unfold has been an adventure of itself. Sometimes it's been frustrating and sometimes it's a lot of fun, but I've enjoyed most of it and I'm glad I have not missed the past year.

It's nice to see posts like these though.
I'm glad you feel that way.

[TheVedis]

Yep, this is how it shoulda launched

which is why they started charging now

[Seif]

I think the sloppy battle system and the overall quality of "quests" would still get the same reception they did a year ago. It's good that 2.0 is still so far away there's yet a whole game for se to build in here.

[Yumi_Hibiki]

agreed i also feel like its in a good launching state now, maybe include 1.21 thou for jobs to finish the picture a bit more

[NefarioCall]

Some of the updates are an ongoing process that will continue seamlessly into 2.0,
but i think it is important to remember that the majority of 'improvements', which include most of the content
is 2.0 based. of course this has a lot to do with 2.0 being built on a new engine/server etc.

So i think a bit of perspective is also necessary.
The game is coming along as we see and play it,
but the leap forward when 2.0 goes beta (August-November) will completely dwarf the entirety of improvements from launch until now.

[popdai]

For a new player, the game offers lots of things to do. Leves for casual players, lvl15-20 public dungeon, lvl25+ instance, mid -high level NMs, lvl50 raid + 2 "hard" fights + strongholds. Storyline and companies quests, (useless) sidequests, craft, gathering, achievements, materia melding.

This is how the game should have been at the release more then 1 year ago :P

But the real problem is:

i don't see new players at all. I always see the same faces from day 1, and this is terrible. I hope SE will do a great impression to people during E3 in June....
A lot of players have capped the fight classes, and the only thing we can do is waiting for the 2 dungeons promised with 1.21.

SWTOR is a great single player game till 1.21 release btw <.<''''''

[viion]

FFXIV circa January 2012 is miles ahead of FFXIV June 2011, and is an entirely different game from FFXIV September 2010.

This though, is completely a personal opinion and a matter of tastes, I dont think the game has changed much, as to what I can do its the same thing I had to do 15 months ago, grind. There are some visual differences, its smoother and cities have flags everywhere, but that doesnt make it a good game, for me at least. SWTOR looks fugly compared to this, even FFXI, but both have hundreds of thousands of players because it has content XD

Doesnt matter, GW2 will rule all XD it just has way to much content in at release.

[Blitz0309]

I'm still hurting for things to do. I'm one drop away from getting the last Ifrit weapon. I'm already working on my moogle drops. Right now my only goals are to start seriously getting materia melds on gear as well as work on Luminary Tools. But that's half hearted. Since I already defeated everything that needs defeating, even if I get triple melds on everything I'll feel like I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go.

You rushed to end game on a game that is being "relaunched"... of course you are going to run out of things to do.

Even when the game is relaunched... you're still not going to have tons of things to do. A ton of content isn't going to just magically appear at any point, hell when they release something new you see people posting that they've already done it X number of times..

[Blitz0309]

I think the sloppy battle system and the overall quality of "quests" would still get the same reception they did a year ago. It's good that 2.0 is still so far away there's yet a whole game for se to build in here.

Leves and quests are still a bit lacking. The battle system is actually pretty decent.. though it would be nice if you were in active mode and something attacked you, you would swing back... whats the point of having my weapon out being ready if i'm just going to stand there and take a beating till i give an input?

[Lurex]

It maybe good for new people, but for me, who has been around since day one, I find it incredibly boring. I find myself with nothing to do or any motiviation to even log in. As of this moment, I have started playing Rift again, (which btw don't even mention you play FFXIV there unless you want to be a laughing stock lol) waiting for something to do here. I am very upset about the Moogle battle, I think this idea was absolutely ridiculous and I hate the weapons, I don't even want them, and now Gobbue mounts? I hope this is not the path we are heading down.