Quote Originally Posted by Preypacer View Post
Stop being ridiculous.

First, people did quests in XI plenty - they only avoided the ones that felt like too much effort for not enough reward (which is entirely subjective). Of course, considering how "reward-driven" so many MMO gamers are these days, it becomes a lot of them. We're talking about people who consider any amount of time/effort that stands between them and their "shinies" to be a horrible crime against humanity. That's an issue with the impatient and entitled gamer's mindset typical of "modern gaming", not with the game itself.

Second, FFXI actually played like an RPG, where you're encouraged/required to actually - you know - explore, investigate, talk to different NPCs, see what they have to say, see if they want/need/request anything of you. You actually do have to pay attention to what they're saying and follow-through on it. They actually required you to use your brain - which of course, in today's MMO market is tantamount to asking many to poke their own eye out with a hot stick. FFXI treats you like an actual Adventurer, not a helpless and hopeless idiot who needs to be shown the how/where/what of everything in order to complete it.

Quests in XI felt 100x more like actual quests than almost anything out of the "gaming on training wheels" nonsense to come out since WoW started dumbing down the genre and babying the players. I'm talking everything outside of FoV and GoV which were added much later and are not the core storyline, etc.

The biggest problem with XI was in how poorly worded or translated many of the quests were. That was a problem with the localization, not with the quests themselves. In those cases, yes, you would have to ask another player who may have completed it, or go online to figure it out. There were plenty of quests I did in XI, however, where I never needed to do anything but actually read what the NPC was saying to get through it. Then, SE did the right thing by leaving it up to me to figure it out and complete the task - which is what a quest should be. Killing 10 boars that all but have freaking neon-signs on them saying "Hey stupid, I'm right here. Kill me", so you can find them if you're not even looking, is not questing. It's mundane, repetitive, patronizing and frankly, insulting, BS.

Being given tasks where you are not even required to read a single word of what the NPC says because every. single. step. is clearly pointed out for you is not questing. It's derivative, boring, empty and shallow nonsense. It's lazy, uninspired design and it's something for which Yoshi-P deserves derision, not praise.

If this is the kind of brainless, repetitive, uninspired and boring crap some of you people consider "engaging and fun content", well then be happy... Looks like you're gonna be drowning in it.

I'm not sure what's worse, the way MMO developers these days treat gamers as though they're morons who can't tie their own shoe-laces without an illustrated step-by-step guide, or the fact that so many gamers actually like being treated that way.
No, you stop being ridiculous.

Questing in Final Fantasy XI was simply for fame. You earned 0 experience from them (aside from the few that gave you an EXP scroll, which was entirely random), so they were only there for fame. Once you had the proper fame, nobody quested.

Questing in World of Warcraft/Final Fantasy XIV is done to get EXP and money.

I don't see how any of the quests from Final Fantasy XI are any more engaging than the ones from World of Warcraft. Wow, you turned in 1,000 Yagudo necklaces, congratulations on your Norg fame. I'm sure your level 75 had no problem farming those off the level 10 Yagudo in Giddeus. Meanwhile, simply by following a quest chain in World of Warcraft, I gained 15 levels, and made 10 gold, got some pretty nice gear for my level, on top of building reputation with the faction of the area.

Then, SE did the right thing by leaving it up to me to figure it out and complete the task - which is what a quest should be. Killing 10 boars that all but have freaking neon-signs on them saying "Hey stupid, I'm right here. Kill me", so you can find them if you're not even looking, is not questing. It's mundane, repetitive, patronizing and frankly, insulting, BS.
Actually, not telling the player is all of those things. You are flat out lying if you say you didn't go to a single third-party website (allakhazam, killingifrit, etc.) for help on any of the quests in Final Fantasy XI. Simply because you want to trick yourself into thinking Square-Enix actually thought their players had enough "intelligence" to figure out their puzzles doesn't make it true. How would you know exactly how much fame is required to do the quest to get Utsusemi? Oh, someone figured that out...but at least we don't have an indicator in game to show what we've done!

I'm not sure what's worse, the way MMO developers these days treat gamers as though they're morons who can't tie their own shoe-laces without an illustrated step-by-step guide, or the fact that so many gamers actually like being treated that way.
No, the worst part is having to deal with PLAYERS who treat everyone like they're morons. Stop with this "OMG ONLY AN IDIOT NEEDS TO HAVE A BIG ARROW POINTING TO WHERE TO GO HURRP DURRP" crap. Nothing about Final Fantasy XI grinding/questing took any sort of intelligence. You stood around and hit stuff, and you looked up online how to turn the items in.