Quote Originally Posted by Lior View Post
While FFXIV does lack in this area, Tibian is right in that many of the inconveniences from FFXI weren't really the kind that Mr. Koster (or myself) would want to see again.

Some examples of bad inconveniences:

- Overly-specific party mechanics and poor methods by which to form said parties.
- Content which has been de-incentivized to a point that it's more of a barrier than an interesting element of the game.
- Lack of diverse gameplay choices shoehorning players into dull and monotonous activities.

Inconveniences should create adventure, and none of the above do this. By contrast, here are some inconveniences from prior MMOs which I feel worked well:

- Quest objectives not being displayed on a map. Granted this one is pretty irrelevant with today's internet consumption, but developers have resorted to lazier quest/mission instructions because they no longer need to inform the player in order to guide them. As a result, players don't even have the choice of not looking up the objective location.
- Travel times. Requiring a time investment for travel keeps the world relevant and gives developers another area to design content, such as the FFXI boat encounters or the island chains in EverQuest.
- Dangerous areas acting as barriers. This is even less problematic in the age of miniscule death penalties, so why can't we see areas that require stealthy maneuvering? Kithicor Woods in EQ1 was a fantastic zone, becoming a literal death trap at night. I also enjoy that hybridization of high level and low level content, where you aren't guaranteed your safety because a zone is specifically designed for levels 1-5. It also causes high level players to cross paths with low levels more often, and makes the leveling-up game seem more lively as a result.
My apologies, but all these posts really make me want to do is say, "If you have no motivation, no initiative, no drive to experience a (MMORPG) game and all of its inconveniences/timesinks/challenges, then please save yourself the headache and play an offline RPG".

Nothing that is worthwhile is, nor ever should be, easy in any respect.