Is it time to Sunset FFXIV?

[AnimaAnimus]

and FFXI is still going relatively strong at a higher sub price too.

FFXI was created with a lot of care. Content was thought out and designed to be engaging. Gear lasts a long time so even the heavy grinds are worthwhile since you will use that piece for years. Basically they put a lot more love and thought into XI and it shows. And its because they were trying to make a good FF game and not babies first mmo and a dress up manga.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

FFXI was created with a lot of care. Content was thought out and designed to be engaging. Gear lasts a long time so even the heavy grinds are worthwhile since you will use that piece for years. Basically they put a lot more love and thought into XI and it shows. And its because they were trying to make a good FF game and not babies first mmo and a dress up manga.

That's kind of disingenuous, because most FF games are not like FFXI, in terms of grindy and needing to spend months playing them to get anywhere. Also, Its an entirely different style of gameplay. A lot of XI is sitting around waiting. Its more comparable to EverQuest than modern MMOs. It reminds me a lot of Lineage II, which was also incredibly grindy.



Also, those same devs are the ones that made XIV 1.0 so...

[AnimaAnimus]

That's kind of disingenuous, because most FF games are not like FFXI, in terms of grindy and needing to spend months playing them to get anywhere. Also, Its an entirely different style of gameplay. A lot of XI is sitting around waiting. Its more comparable to EverQuest than modern MMOs. It reminds me a lot of Lineage II, which was also incredibly grindy.

Also, those same devs are the ones that made XIV 1.0 so...

Well of course its not going to be 1:1 with VI or VII, it is an mmo after all and not a single player game, so the grind needs to be there. And it makes sense that it was like EQ since XI is literally an EQ clone, even SE will tell you that. But it's heart is FF through and through and they just added the veneer of an mmo over it. But at it's heart it was a FF game. It was full of tragedy, stakes and flawed characters. They showed us things instead of telling us everything. It had moments of levity, but they expected their audience to be emotionally mature enough to accept what happened instead of making huge moments small and followed by hours of happy bunnies doing silly things. Yes we had to farm 30k alexandrite instead of just beating a single boss for our bis weapon, but thats the mmo veneer. Things have to take time in a game designed for you play for thousands of hours intstead of 30. That doesn't take away from it's world and it's characters being carefully thought out. That content was designed to be engaging and fun and not hindered by the incessant need to do the same thing they did before. Do you think XI would have been successful with every expansion bringing dynamis clones as content while making the old ones obsolete? Or Temple of Uggalepih, Garlaige Citadel, Beadeaux and Quicksand Caves being clones of each other? No, instead they went into it with the same mentality as other FF games and made each location it's own thing. Because it was about creating a story and a world, not following a formula.

As for the same devs that made 1.0, yeah it was. And you know how FF games often tell us that hubris and apathy is always the downfall of the once greats? 1.0 was a real life example of that. XI was an amazing game that was extremely loved by it's community, even today. And most of us that tested it were XI vets and we took time away from that game to test 1.0 for months and were screaming for changes. Internally at SE ppl were screaming for changes. But hubris won out in the end, and we know how that goes. Now history is repeating. A small success caused SE to believe they know better. They ignore everything we tell them, everything we are screaming for them to change or add. Their hubris, apathy and their idea that they can simply rest on their laurels is again the actual big bad of the game.