Stop the Grind-to-the-Endgame madness!

[Jynx]

Seems we wont ever be able to see eye to eye, considering I think the community can and will do a fine job of policing itself and you obviously don't.

Oh well I respect your difference of opinion I just don't agree with it I guess. From the sounds of your posts though you never seem to have had a group of friends to fall back on, you should really think about making some bonds in a MMO before you go on about how a MMO needs to only be friendly to PUGs.

It's a shame you think tighter restrictions are the way to go where I think more freedom is the way to go. Again no offense just pointing out how I think we both are seeing things.

*edit*

On that note I never had issues making parties in far out places even with "Princess" jobs like bard and Redmage being resistant to it. They either got with it or they got out, we survived and flourished without them while they went back to idle in town waiting for that "Perfect camp" that never came their way.

[SuzakuCMX]

I really hope in 2.0 we do not get the Aion/wow type quests. That would make me sad.

I don't really care how progression is done as long as it doesn't feel like I'm grinding to get more content. I'd rather level up while doing content at my own level.

[Hyrist]

Jynx I want to give you a full respectful reply, but I'm out of time.

But I did want to note that you're extraditing the current and possible future leveling speed of the game. I've been playing the game casually, pushing my levels up on Archer for a good month now and I've not yet reached level 30.

I think we need to define what exactly constitutes 'normal' play here. Because what you are implying and what I am experiencing are heavily contrasted right now.'

I'll answer some of your questions and elaborate more once I get to my second job today (Luckily, it's at a computer.)

[Payadopa]

The problem with adding a lot of lower to mid end content is that such content is already only used/enjoyed by the player for a relatively short period of time (e.g. in the course of doing it, you'll level out of it and not have a reason to go back). This means development resources are being invested in something that already won't get that much use, and as level caps get higher and more people progress past the content level, will become obsolete rather quickly.

So, according to this, the devs shouldn't focus on low-/mid-level content because it can become obsolete?
What about new players who come in periodically?
What about people that want to level a 2nd and 3rd job?
What about the so glorified end-game content that gets obsolete?
Once you have all weapons/ gear of a certain kind?

Oh, and why not just shut down the servers now. I mean, sooner or later this game will be dead anyway, we just don't know when! lol

That logic, at least for me, is fundamentally flawed.

[HiirNoivl]

OP seems to be wanting more content. That's understandable.

Right now the ratrace to the end exists because a lot of contents will become unavailable this winter. There's little content to do, so most people just want to do the content they haven't finished, like CC or AV or Garuda. This creates "newbie discrimination" because newbies can't do that content and other players just won't want to play content that they're already finished with.

Whether or not it creates "fascistic behavior" is another thing. Some folks want to run a tight ship even if PUG. Others are more flexible. But some folks are never flexible and you'll just have to deal with that, content or no content. However, that doesn't make the people that (example) reject a WHM for not having any AF fascistic. You're way off base with your "slacker vs. lifehaver" comment. It just opens up that Hardcore vs. Casual thread topic again. Not having enough time is part of the reason that I won't accept everyone who sends me a /tell into a party. Other days I can I have time with new folks and help them do content/play their job. Some days I have precious little time and won't be bothered. Show some respect for others and their time, please.

[Neptune]

Speaking of an end to grinding, what I find funny is how the casual player community adjusts their play style to the difficulty level of the content. Instead of focusing their time and effort, they react to the challenge of coordinated gameplay by turning around and running back to level 1 where they can grind up again, as if that is accomplishing anything. Rinse and repeat.

To me this is, like, certainly not a healthy situation. I blame both sides for that, but what's nice about the concept of this thread is that it would knock that problem out, regardless of change on either side.

[Deathmask]

This will be a short one. I long for a game in which the steps forward are packed with excitement and opportunities for fun. Not a rat-race to the end; the end being the only place where you will be considered someone by your fellow-players. End anti-newbie discrimination, make every level count. Slow down the pace of advancement. Smell the flowers. Struggle with difficult mobs at every level. Enter awesome events at every step.

This is actually more casual-player-friendly than accelerating and stultifying the game, so that almost anybody can get to the "fun-filled end."

End-obsessed game design fosters fascistic behavior in the community. Plus, it rewards the slacker that doesn't want a life, whereas it penalizes the player with the regular life. Making the advancement mechanics super-easy, the way the developers of this game sometimes seem to believe they should, does not improve the chances for anybody: The "Über" get to the end and get bored too early, the casuals never catch up, and are still discriminated.

Fill the world with one thousand Shposheas, only more complex and more attractive; make getting to level 10, 15, 20, 30 real challenges away from the repetitive levequests, and gratify us with oportunities that open up at every stage: Environmental puzzles, mysteriously coded scrolls, incomplete maps, a bit of Myst in Eorzea.

R

Bravo! I too long for a game where i can feel that leveling is a huge satisfaction and not a chore to be bypassed and getting from level 7 to level 8 will make me sleep dreaming about it. FFXI was like that at the beginning.

[Griffster]

OP seems to be wanting more content. That's understandable.

Right now the ratrace to the end exists because a lot of contents will become unavailable this winter. There's little content to do, so most people just want to do the content they haven't finished, like CC or AV or Garuda. This creates "newbie discrimination" because newbies can't do that content and other players just won't want to play content that they're already finished with.

This. Since returning to this game after and "extended break" My focus has been trying to level quickly, and do content that will disappear. The GC quests among others are a priority when I am not trying to level like crazy. I am fortunate that my LS has a group of folks that will help me finish content they are long since done with. If not for that, I am not sure how I could have accomplished a few things.

[Velhart]

I don't know, maybe it is just me, but how do people enjoy killing the same mob over and over all day in comparison to actually experiencing content to progress to 50? Like Yoshida said, this is an MMORPG, meaning....there needs to be RPG elements in here, and quests are very RPG friendly. This is a Final Fantasy game, we need to be engaged with it's story the whole way through. Yoshida sees this and wants to make sure it still retains Final Fantasy's elements of success in an online game. I believe his ideas will make that a reality.

[Andrien]

I have to agree with everything Duelle said in this thread



The thing about FFXI is that I had to solo mostly on BLM, and BLU killing the samething for hours because most prefer speed and that high exp chain number, and if I'm lucky my friends will let me kind of leech on PLD when level cap went up. Still they wont take PLD to do events even though its my preferred job to play on. I didn't even bother myself with leveling most of the jobs because I kept with what was most useful to xp, and to do contents with, and that is bad.

The direction the dev team is going with in FFXIV is the right track in terms of freedom of choice in my opinion. I can make a fair prediction that with content finder, and questing no one will be forced to play a certain role they don't enjoy because we'll have options and can take on challenges at your own pace.