Letter to the Producer, from an average gamer

[Jaimie]

I can't say I agree with you much...on anything really.

Too much twitch gaming and ADD gameplay permeat your playstyle. Nothing wrong with that...just not what I think makes a good MMO, I enjoy the slower more deliberate pace of combat focused on a single foe instead of 10.

Hmmm, I kinda like a mixture of both. Ever play a game called Final Fantasy XI ? It had a mix of both. It had this "event" called dynamis, and without going into too much detail, there were times where you and a few others (30+ lol), had to deal with multiple enemies. FUN times. It also had these soloable "events". Some were kinda boring, and simplistic (I musta gave that lady 1000+ flint stones, I hope she burns down her house). Others, were fun and rememberable. Are you a SOB ?

[ShellQ8]

Good read, welcome to FFXIV and FFXIV forums.
I hope FFXIV ARR gets better to the point where you'll want stay and keep playing it with your GF.

You did provide some valid points, I liked them. Specially the social-related ones. But mainly I didn't agree with many things you pointed, specially the ones about WoW.

Because, excuse me for saying this, but I still don't see WoW as a MMORPG. It's a MMO, but not RPG, I think it's more like.. an action game with a few basics of an RPG.
Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, with many key elements that attracted the casual gamer. But an RPG Online game isn't supposed to be for the casual gamer. It's supposed to be unique, hard to a certain points, and makes you feel like you can actually relate to its world, and care about your identity in it. It's supposed to show the difference between a player who gives it his all, and a player who logs in casually for 2-3 hours every week.

Customization

From the first image of 2.0 they added, i found the outlook of the UI quite amazing. And it hope it looks just like that.

Although I'm not a fan of addons, they usually make a crowded screen or a laggy one.

Targeting

Maybe it's because I was a XI player, but I found targeting very easy and works great, facing your target then pressing (the good ol' F8 key) then (enter) to attack.
As for party members, you go from F1~

The Mouse

I don't think the "original developers" screwed up, the mouse was originally made for light targeting, choosing options, changing camera angle, and auto running. And they did that just fine.

Excessive confirmation tabs

I agree with you here, (Video) the 2nd confirmation box was uncalled for, they could have just made the button we used to "change gear" turn into another button that says (are you sure) so we can easily just double click the same spot to change.

Monster engagement

Targeting works fine with F8, you can target any monster who attacks you quickly, then press enter to engage.
As for auto-targeting and attacking the monster right away, it's probably not the best idea, because it will only be the best for certain classes and situations. Some people who get aggro'd, don't want to counter attack and get hate, they want to wait for their tank to pull this monster off them. While mages want to run a distance and nuke.

Speed of battles / AOE

I really hope the battle doesn't get faster, we want better battle strategies, not faster battles. Every monster is supposed to have a weakness, ways to make it just stand there helpless, and ways for it kick newbies' asses when they don't pay attention.
I'd rather fight one monster for 4 minutes in a clever fight to get 1000 exp. Than fight 8 monsters in a quick (aoe them all + nuke/slash one after another) and get 1000 (125 exp each) for the same amount of time.
It sucks to have a lv.50 THM who thinks he knows it all by getting max level, then later tries to kill a Fire elemental by spamming the closest spells in his list, which are Fire and Fira)
Better, harder, more-rewarding, slower battles make people research monsters, which shows the value of every monster FFXIV made. What's the use of working hard on monsters, if we are supposed to burn them all as a group, with one spell/skill.

Mobility

True, standing still could be boring, but that's not the case here, many combos in the current version require moving to the side/back/front to be executed correctly. And hopefully we will see it in better colors in ARR.

Understanding the game

It's true that the game doesn't have everything explained. But I also like that about FFXIV. In order to find the shortcuts, to do things better: You need to interact with people, ask around, play with others. It might not be easy to find a LS right away at level 1, but it's also not impossible, there are countless of newbie-friendly LSs who are willing to do everything they can for new players. If a new player had joined one, they'd have learned about shortcuts like (Airships) right away, as well as stuff like (don't forget to add these camps as your Favored Camps, because you'll teleport to them a lot)

Mail system

Already confirmed to be coming in ARR.

Couple system + Carry one another

+1
I would love to see those added in ARR.

Flying

Flying, wings, weirdly-shaped fly mounts = No thanks.
If anything, I'd rather have airships for free companies.

Small stat boosts for leveling a lot of different classes

I'm all for being unique for having other classes leveled, but to have bonus other than (other classes' skills)? I don't think it will be a good idea. Although I welcome a merit-points system for Max'd players.

[Jynx]

Hmmm, I kinda like a mixture of both. Ever play a game called Final Fantasy XI ? It had a mix of both. It had this "event" called dynamis, and without going into too much detail, there were times where you and a few others (30+ lol), had to deal with multiple enemies

Remember that time when in Dynamis or (Almost all group content with multiple enemies) it was broke down into two groups, avoid pissing everything off take them one by one, or split your group up and fight them in your groups...one by one?

FFXI had a massive focus on Many vs One (PvM) increasing the ammount of players just allowed you to fight multiple monsters at once in split groups. If you can tell me when 30+ people were fighting more than 30+ monsters I'll concede but considering you can't/wont (Only thing I can think of are astral burns and even those weren't really content per-se) I'll just leave it at that.

Please don't try and bring up a point (And a apparant insult with the SOB) when you are wrong anyways.

[Jaimie]

Remember that time when in Dynamis or (Almost all group content with multiple enemies) it was broke down into two groups, avoid pissing everything off take them one by one, or split your group up and fight them in your groups...one by one?

FFXI had a massive focus on Many vs One (PvM) increasing the ammount of players just allowed you to fight multiple monsters at once in split groups. If you can tell me when 30+ people were fighting more than 30+ monsters I'll concede but considering you can't/wont (Only thing I can think of are astral burns and even those weren't really content per-se) I'll just leave it at that.

Please don't try and bring up a point (And a apparant insult with the SOB) when you are wrong anyways.

LOL

I was a BLM in 11 MANABURN FTW Guess you never got to the GRIND stage in 11 where you had to kill the exact same mob over and over and over...

I never said aoeing 30+ mobs at once

SOB Star Onion Brigade You should go do those quests they were a lot of fun

[Jynx]

LOL

I was a BLM in 11 MANABURN FTW Guess you never got to the GRIND stage in 11 where you had to kill the exact same mob over and over and over...

I don't even understand what point you are trying to make, even Manaburns rarely killed more than a handfull of monsters at a time with a very exacting and well timed setup as well.

It's a far cry from the type of AOE gameplay the OP is talking about.

For the record wether you actually care or not or are just being a instigator, I was also a level 75 blackmage in FFXI primarilly through solo-duo play though. I did the "OMG TEH TERRIBLE GRINDZ" on my Thief when the game launched, with my limited playtime took me a year of "Killing the same mob over and over" (But really I changed camp often and rarely killed the same thing for more than a few levels) I don't see how killing 10 of the same thing over and over....would be any different.

So again...what's the point your trying to make? You tried to call me out and say FFXI had AOE spam-fests and outside a few situational (Very few) times it was a focused group vs one (Monster) game.

I'm a tad ashamed I didn't catch the Star Onion Brigade comment, but considering your posting style I don't think it's a stretch me assuming what you meant with that acronym. So unless you have something more usefull to say or counter my point with some valid evidence then I'm not sure what your trying to accomplish here.

[Taika]

I'm really not into the idea of new MMO(RPG)s having to meet "the current MMO standards". I'm failing to understand why every single MMO out there should have the exact same features - isn't that boring? People keep using the WoW playerbase and all the money it makes as an argument, but how many games have you seen succeeding using the same WoW patterns ("the standard") in their design? In short: why do some people want all the MMO games to be identical in their game (especially combat) mechanics?

Not everyone is a fan of the fast action combat. It's not because they can't do it (at least not for everyone) but because they prefer slower, more strategy oriented combat (I'm not claiming XIV combat is more strategic than WoW combat here, I'm just saying that's the direction some of the XIV players would like it to evolve). Many others have written about this in this thread so I don't feel the need of repeating everything they have said.

Here's a good thread about this subject.

[Genz]

Less than 50 thousand players and still these minority gamers come out of the woodwork to defend the game as it is

Yeah, actual players are defending 100% of the game, sure.
... what?

Nobody (I guess/hope) is defending the technical problems, the lack of content or the lack of a proper mouse/keyboard interface on a PC game. But when talking about game design, it's not black and white.

PS : dont ridicule yourself by putting "noob" everywhere.

[Jaimie]

Sorry if i upset you

my posts were in response to this:

" I enjoy the slower more deliberate pace of combat focused on a single foe instead of 10."

I understand some people like to fight ifrit over and over and over again

Some people like to SB in natalan and take on 12+ wolves at a time scarred included

I guess there are people who like to farm sheepskin from Lost Ewes one sheep at a time as well

muhahahaha

[Jynx]

Yes because farming is the same thing as endgame content....got ya.

[Jaimie]

I appreciate that some of these responses are well thought out. To be honest I thought I would be replying to mostly narrow minded hardcore FF fans. But, it seems that a lot of the negative response aren't very well thought out. They insult the original post because my preferences, which I stated are just preferences, are different from their own, without understanding their own incredibly biased and illogical opinions. So please let me shed my "nice guy guy voicing his opinions" skin and express my true thoughts.

I had thought that this game had at least a few million players until I googled it. Are you serious? Less than 50 thousand players and still these minority gamers come out of the woodwork to defend the game as it is. 2.0 won't save the game if its testers are you people, unwilling to give up your little niche and adopt popular gaming concepts. You know who likes slow gameplay? Noobs. You know who doesn't like pvp? Noobs. You know who prefers less options to more options? You guessed it. This is what the rest of the gaming world thinks of you. Slow gameplay and less skill options doesn't make a game more challenging. If you are worried about making mistakes with aoe, then you are bad. If the development team listens to the close mindedness of the "loyal players" that stuck with this game, then it is doomed to fail.

This is not an insult to those who obviously understand that its current mechanics don't work. The game needs to meet global standards for the rest of the gamers who are not hardcore fans to want to play the game. You may want to keep your small like-minded community, but SE needs to get paid. They can't develop new games or new content for you if FFXIV is a money sink. I couldn't care less what most of you think, if it didn't harm the success of 2.0. But the game needs testers that are more forward thinking than some of this population can manage. Both FFXI and FFXIV were "unique" and gave developers the freedom to implement a lot of crap ideas. It didn't work. The ~12k players of FFXIV can cling to this failed game all they want, but there are millions out there like me that are waiting for a WoW killer. If you fell through the cracks and didn't enjoy WoW, good for you. But 10 million subs, and $150,000,000 per month say that Blizzard is doing something right. If WoW updated its graphics engine, then there would be no competition. That isn't just my opinion. Sheer statistics will back up that claim. But I don't want to play a game that will consume my life. I want a playable game that my girlfriend will also enjoy. I'm even willing to throw money at SE for it. But it's players like me that FFXIV needs to be successful. You will probably stick around regardless.

I really do believe there are fanbois out there who want this game to fail (see one of my other posts). ie. Let's kill FFXIV, the SE will focus all it's attention on a remake of VII.

SE released a POS game, the beta testers knew it, the reviewers knew it, everyone but SE + the fanbois knew it. Now that, players have abandoned the game en masse. Se has decided to "fix" it. Unfortunatly, the fanbois don't care about the players who left. They are content to play their "unique" game on their low population servers.