Why was FFXI so great?

[Zumi]

Abyssea babies not knowing what skillchains and Magic Bursts are.

No that's not true. Nobody uses skillchains or magic bursts ever in the game even at end game. FFXI hardly had any new players when Abyssea came out it only had current players leveling all their jobs to 99. Well some people bought extra accounts so they could duo box all the best gear in the game but thats about it.

[Denmo]

Nobody uses skillchains or magic bursts ever in the game even at end game.

Another reason I'll never go back.

[Jocko]

Mostly, FFXI had a better sense of progression and pacing, with a variety of content along the way. Every new piece of gear you received, every new form of progression you hit, felt massive and important because you would use what you obtained for your accomplishments over a long period of time. In contrast, in FFXIV, you can power level to 50 in a week, and all of the crafted gear for 1-40, all of the open world NM's that drop level 25-35 gear, the level 25 raid...is all pointless and irrelevant because you speed right by the need for them. That's my biggest hope for 2.0, that it will slow WAY, WAY down, and fill the gap from beginning to end game with meaningful content

An MMO shouldn't be exclusively about endgame, with everything before nothing more than a grind to get there. It should be about the long term journey, with the bulk of the content spread through evenly. The end should be the climax, using everything you learned and obtained to conquer. And once an expansion hits, you start again with a new journey of sorts, following the same principles. At least, that's what I believe

...I suppose that went a bit off topic, though

[Holland]

That's my biggest hope for 2.0, that it will slow WAY, WAY down, and fill the gap from beginning to end game with meaningful content

I hope people realize 2.0 will still use the same game mechanics we have in place now. Server response should improve greatly, the UI will be overhauled to something we can be proud of, content will be more accessible because of cross sever dungeon finder, etc. But the actual mechanics is what we will keep seeing. I don't think theres anything at all that will be drastically different to how we have it now. If there is, I'll be glad to know.

[Jinko]

I hope people realize 2.0 will still use the same game mechanics we have in place now. Server response should improve greatly, the UI will be overhauled to something we can be proud of, content will be more accessible because of cross sever dungeon finder, etc. But the actual mechanics is what we will keep seeing. I don't think theres anything at all that will be drastically different to how we have it now. If there is, I'll be glad to know.

Perhaps, but Yoshi-p already said that the leveling speed will be toned down in 2.0 and he also asked for our opinion on the latest poll.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Power levelling removed or restricted in some way in 2.0.

and thats why i quit the day the cap hit 80. the only thing abyssea did was give the whole game a great big "Easy Mode" Button

Hehe in comparison this game had one from day one :P

[Holland]

Perhaps, but Yoshi-p already said that the leveling speed will be toned down in 2.0 and he also asked for our opinion on the latest poll.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Power leveling removed or restricted in some way in 2.0.

I will agree that anything can and might be changed based on feedback. The leveling curve are just some formulas, easily adjustable. But most systems in place (The core systems) will not see a drastic change like the one that happened from April 2011 to April 2012, I think... lol...

[Enfarious]

After 7~8 years of mostly ontime there was a ton, and even after that time there were things I hadn't done yet.
Once upon a time there were party dynamics, and people would actually talk during xp pts, I lost hrs back pre-CoP just working skillchains/magic bursts w/ xp groups. Of course that's gone now, the mechanic is still there, and some oldschoolers still use them cause they seem to grasp that free dmg just for lining up when we WS is FREE dmg. The good for me is really too vast to list w/o a short book.

Abyssea, awesome idea, great way to bring life back to the game, not a bad way to get old players to return. Inviting new players to come into a place where they could level 1~99 in a couple days and then come out of it w/ no clue about how to play their jobs, what being skilled up meant, why it was important that they have spells/skills/gear that isn't level 22.
If they[SE] had simply not let people into abyssea before 70+ it would have been fine, did I want to grind all my jobs 1~70 the long way, not really but I did most of them anyway even though I could have been PL'd while I slept.

In it's present state it's nothing more than either
A) An unskilled pack of narrow minded non-team players arguing about who knows how to play best.
B) An elitist group that knows how to play and is going to tell you every single time you do something that's not "right"
C) Solo or dualboxing your way through what you can.

And that is why I left, my L33T15T LS annoyed me, I don't want to hear about how gimp another player is cause they're full timing thier Iga+2 Body instead of Relic. I found my own variety of elitist coming out when I played w/ people that didn't know their dicks from sticks on the ground. I got sick of dual-boxing, even for LS events I brought my dual-box to cover heals/buffs, it was a little obnoxious. Last but not least, I didn't want to spend 2000 more hrs farming gear and drops to upgrade that gear.

Sorry it turned into an essay.

Sorry again, I left out, that at it's prime it set the mark for active players, I know I know WoW passed that, but WoW did not do that over night or in it's infancy. FFXI reached the majority of the FF fanbase that could play at that time, the problem is that most of them fell off and moved on just like EQ saw, which at one point was the biggest thing going, but now people don't even give it honorable mention for the precedents it set. Hell you want to look into the "real" roots of this shit look up some MUDs, if it still is out there http://www.mudconnect.com, never forget where we came from or we're doomed to go back ^^

[Dzian]

No that's not true. Nobody uses skillchains or magic bursts ever in the game even at end game. FFXI hardly had any new players when Abyssea came out it only had current players leveling all their jobs to 99. Well some people bought extra accounts so they could duo box all the best gear in the game but thats about it.

and thats why i quit the day the cap hit 80. the only thing abyssea did was give the whole game a great big "Easy Mode" Button

[Amage]

No that's not true. Nobody uses skillchains or magic bursts ever in the game even at end game. FFXI hardly had any new players when Abyssea came out it only had current players leveling all their jobs to 99. Well some people bought extra accounts so they could duo box all the best gear in the game but thats about it.

yeah no one skillchains why would you want to do more damage on the monster thats just stupid