7.0 MMO to a Single Player Game

[OM3GA-Z3RO]

MMO's are just a shadow of it's former self.

Not that I have an issue with solo play it's just that XIV focuses TOO much on solo play, making things brain dead and too easy.

[Absurdity]

MMO's are just a shadow of it's former self.

Not that I have an issue with solo play it's just that XIV focuses TOO much on solo play, making things brain dead and too easy.

That makes little sense, solo play does not equal whatever this current chase to make everything as simplistic as possible is.

[Eorzean_username]

That makes little sense, solo play does not equal whatever this current chase to make everything as simplistic as possible is.

It's pretty simple, they don't want fans of the MMO or RPG genres because there's not nearly enough of those people on the planet Earth to drive Growth™.

Therefore they are targeting everyone else, launching harpoons in every direction to try to spear as many passing sea-creatures as possible while chumming the waters with the most inoffensive and encouraging content they can manage to engineer. The game is being laced with pellet-dispensing red buttons like a building being rigged for demolition so that all the lab mice squeaking and running around the maze in Bulbasaur T-shirts will stick around through every 6.45 yet to come.

MMORPG fans were the base agar plate that SE needed to get their ARR lab experiment growing, and Yoshida-san now bows politely and thanks you very kindly for providing the game with seed money and nutrient materials for those shaky early years.

However, your purpose has been served, thank you very much! Now please step aside, there are many more promising customers in the queue behind you.

[IkaraGreydancer]

MMO's are just a shadow of it's former self.

Not that I have an issue with solo play it's just that XIV focuses TOO much on solo play, making things brain dead and too easy.

Do you play Extreme, Unreal or Savage at all?
Dungeons have never been super difficult or anything close to that. Variant Savage (or is it Criterion) is there for this very reason. Normal content is generally designed to be more accessible, not braindead (the hyperbolic term many like to use).
Even with that I'd say the trials we've gotten are a step up difficulty wise from the norm. Then there's also the fact many ignore that what's "easy" is subjective.

[Osteichthyes]

I'm really confused by this whole thread. The game has barely changed how it does pretty much everything. It's hard to go a week without another "FFXIV is stale" thread (which I partially agree with).
People warned that FFXIV is unfriendly for newer players as queue times were getting longer and longer just because of how many dungeons that had been added, so they had to spend more and more time waiting to prog the MSQ and unlock content.
As several people have said, there is a lot in this game that requires a group. All current content excluding Variant and Deep Dungeon absolutely requires a group, it's just that MSQ dungeons can be ran with AI. Not the trials, normal, or alliance raids.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I really don't feel the whole "this game is becoming a single player game" aspect.

[Nighthawky2010]

I don't mind it provided it is stuck exclusively to the main story - However, if the elements of solo-play branch out into the non-main story elements, e.g., the 8-man raids then I think it is going too far.

The thing to keep in mind is that it is currently:
a) Stuck exclusively to the main story-related instances.
b) It is entirely optional for the player. If a player wants to progress through the story with NPCs then they can do so. Equally, if players want to go through the story whilst queuing up regularly then they can do so.

The game is hardly telling you that you must progress solo, but rather you can progress solo if you want to.

Edit: If I'm being brutally honest, I don't think this game ever was a 'true' MMO, just a co-op game masquerading as an MMO.

I totally agree.

[TheNight]

It's pretty simple, they don't want fans of the MMO or RPG genres because there's not nearly enough of those people on the planet Earth to drive Growth™.

Therefore they are targeting everyone else, launching harpoons in every direction to try to spear as many passing sea-creatures as possible while chumming the waters with the most inoffensive and encouraging content they can manage to engineer. The game is being laced with pellet-dispensing red buttons like a building being rigged for demolition so that all the lab mice squeaking and running around the maze in Bulbasaur T-shirts will stick around through every 6.45 yet to come.

MMORPG fans were the base agar plate that SE needed to get their ARR lab experiment growing, and Yoshida-san now bows politely and thanks you very kindly for providing the game with seed money and nutrient materials for those shaky early years.

However, your purpose has been served, thank you very much! Now please step aside, there are many more promising customers in the queue behind you.

What an excellent description. Thank you.

[Silver-Strider]

7.0 Patch Notes
"We've added auto play to the game"

Will be the day the game is officially dead.

[Nighthawky2010]

FF14 was my first MMO I ever played. I started in ARR 10 yrs ago & it has been the only MMO I played. I enjoyed the first 15 levels being solo until I got to the first dungeon. Didn't really know how to communicate with the other players so it was a learning curve. Now I know almost all ways of the FF16 community I have enjoyed it but I still love playing alone.

I believe Yoshi stated in a log past interview that FF14 was like a single-player MMO.

Personally don't mind it. Outside of the extreme/savage content, the 24 alliance raids, and 8-man trials/raids, it's basically single-player. Now that the squadrons, trusts, & duty support have been implemented, you basically solo the MSQ.

So in 7.0, it won't surprise me if they have trust & duty support assistance with the 8-man trials. I know that experimented with it in the Hydaelin trial. I loved it.

[Heroman3003]

I'm really confused by this whole thread. The game has barely changed how it does pretty much everything. It's hard to go a week without another "FFXIV is stale" thread (which I partially agree with).
People warned that FFXIV is unfriendly for newer players as queue times were getting longer and longer just because of how many dungeons that had been added, so they had to spend more and more time waiting to prog the MSQ and unlock content.
As several people have said, there is a lot in this game that requires a group. All current content excluding Variant and Deep Dungeon absolutely requires a group, it's just that MSQ dungeons can be ran with AI. Not the trials, normal, or alliance raids.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I really don't feel the whole "this game is becoming a single player game" aspect.

Because some people think that game is being ruined because people who never want to engage with anything social/MMO in parts of the game and only do that once when story demands them to and then never again being allowed to not do that at all somehow will destroy the game forever. Its not like option of doing content together is being removed, and doing stuff with NPCs is still, overall, slower and more tedious experience. But, old MMO players are very much "back in my days we SUFFERED through content and its unfair that these filthy little casuals get to NOT SUFFER", so that's to be expected.