Some additional thoughts/feelings after me playinbg some other mmos on this break...

[Andrien]

Somewhat relevant. Most people don't even read though the quest lore in 1.0

How many people knew that Necromancer is part of the THM storyline? Almost none because they didn't care to read.

[fusional]

OP called Tera and GW2 WoW clones. OP has clearly never played at least 2 of the 3 games... possibly all 3.

but thank god for another one of these threads, right?

if ARR turns out to be too WoWized and too commercial it will be done for me

since apparently everything is like WoW to you even when it's actually not at all like WoW, ARR will almost certainly be "too-WoWized" for you and therefore good riddance

[Aion]

if ARR is fun, Ill take it no matter how WoWized it is

[Yrusama]

Too bad SE said it first and recently stated they want it to compete and capture audiences or there's no real point.

See this is probably the best way you could have said what you normally say. When you say "it's going to be mainstream", you normally sound like you're saying "it's going to fail for lack of originality". It's very annoying, and your character's condescending expression makes it even worse. However:

While true, more MMOs are going down this path so one strength the FF MMOs had in originality is starting to slip away, especially since with XIV they're still going the 'open ended' route in a sense that most MMOs have. XI for example a good strength was the fact it played like a FF game, throughout the story you end up opening more options to yourself (like almost all FF game) and eventually unlock the "final area", again like almost every FF game. You unlocked Sky and Sea through progressing the storyline which unlocks a bit more content for you to do as well as additional leveling places.

Most MMOs push you out of zones through quest chaining so you don't really get a real "attachment" to areas since once you wear out quests you'll want to go to the next zone and rinse and repeat. FF games generally give you an attachment to many areas usually through backtracking but mostly through sidequests outside of the main path. So all they really have to do is make it more of a FF game in setup and execution, much like they did with XI, it was based on EQ baseline but they made it their own.

This I'll agree with, for the most part. Fortunately all of the lower level content in XI is still there for players to enjoy, even though their more recent focus is on endgame since they don't expect many new players to an old game. But what you've said about the progression of area accessibility is absolutely true. The Tavnazian Archipelago is an excellent early-game example. After 3 fairly difficult dungeons (recently made easier), you stumble on this beautiful and inspiring new land. It feels just as remote and abandoned as is appropriate for the plot. The same is even more true of Al'Taieu or Ru'Aun Gardens: abandoned, devoid of any NPCs except those who travel there during the plot. I should hope that we have similarly mystifying endgame areas in XIV.

This also reminds me that I prefer XI's setup to questing. I don't want to be told "go kill 6 mobs" over and over again. I want to have to get a random drop. This ensures people are less likely to have the exact same experience with each quest. "I got it in 1 kill" vs. "I got it in 5." No matter how much you all hate RNG, the luck (good or bad) and how we handle it builds character. It's probably too late for them to redesign this system, though, and in the end it's not really that big a deal. (I still play XI, intending to play both.)

[-S-a-g-e]

Most MMOs push you out of zones through quest chaining so you don't really get a real "attachment" to areas since once you wear out quests you'll want to go to the next zone and rinse and repeat. FF games generally give you an attachment to many areas usually through backtracking but mostly through sidequests outside of the main path.

As for this statement alone it is totally a matter of opinion. Majority of my favorites zones from MMOs comes from WoW where the quests take you all over the zone and you get to explore it while questing instead of never seeing said corner of any given map like in XI. Though I will have to say my favorite bit of exploring and attachment would belong to Everquest where areas were rich and worth branching out off the beaten path.

[strallaalaa]

As for this statement alone it is totally a matter of opinion. Majority of my favorites zones from MMOs comes from WoW where the quests take you all over the zone and you get to explore it while questing instead of never seeing said corner of any given map like in XI. Though I will have to say my favorite bit of exploring and attachment would belong to Everquest where areas were rich and worth branching out off the beaten path.

there isn't a inch of the game that ffxi doesn't take you too. between quests, missions, nm's, and everything else. fact just nm's themselves would of been good enough reason to see many zones. least for people who played the game and didn't just buy gil and played the same few endgames over and over again. there were tons of awesome looking places in ffxi to see that you would be exploring or trying to find a spot for something you need. even if you looked up the position on the web for the quest it probably still took you threw most of that zone. i'll agree quests weren't rewarding in ffxi, but they were quality in my opinion. i enjoyed all of them. majority of them had mini bosses. and they didn't have to be fast kill quests like other mmo's. and i've said it a million times but you can actually take your time and read them and watch the cs's this way. hopefully everquest3 will be like ffxi and eq1, never played any eq mmo but if everyone is saying they are what ffxi took some of itself from so ...here is to hoping it's great. probably be my last mmo i try to play.

[Reika]

Level 25 Ifrit and level 45 Garuda were pretty menacing man, of course it would have been better if they were level capped

It would also have been better if we had those contents before everyone had all lvl50 classes....

[Akubikumo]

I've been playing Secret World with some XIV friends and I've got to say, its truly an amazing game. I've tried SWTOR, WoW, Aion, Tera, that one about super heroes, but none of them have captured my attention like XIV did, until Secret World. If i could take XIV and overlay it on top of TSW it would be the GREATEST GAME OF ALL TIME. The things i wished XIV would do, TSW did and vice-versa. Though, if I had to choose, I'd still take XIV 1.0 over anything else out there. Cant even imagine how much more im going to like 2.0!

[Loggos]

I know Yoshida said he wants to bring XIV to mmo standarts but why does this automatically mean that he won't add anything beyond this that makes the game good or that going this route automatically eradicates everything positive that could possibly happen to the game?

To me the term "standardise" rather evokes the impression of user-friendliness, accessibility of content (I, too, found it really hard to get into FFXIV at the beginning. The beginning is vital - you have to catch people here and no I do not mean spoon-feeding!) and (technical) mechanics. For example the general audience was really unhappy about the complicated UI (and other things like the map), the restricting mechanisms such as the fatigue system and apparently the engine SE had programmed for the game was rather messed up.

What is so bad about making the outer construction of a game, or let's say the frame of it, standard at minimum?
Isn't an amazing story, a very deep fantasy world, and challenging and fun fights what sets final fantasy apart? That it is actually a profound world and not just a "I want to make quick money with an rpg, but crap, I need a story so I just puzzle a generic one to cover my game with it"-story?


What I hope will set this game apart is that this game holds a great story that is told and can be experienced in a fun way . Where the story is not only a make shift to do repetitive stuff but is what the game is about. (Note: I'm NOT saying that gaining awesome gear and stuff is bad but it surely becomes boring if there is no variety of content, huh?)
I have the feeling though that Yoshi and his team actually take the issue of a good story serious so if they want to do something that is not "standard" then they should fill XIV with amazing storyplay.

Furthermore I really hope that the fights will be fun and challenging and this is probably my only point of real concern. :/
Some people seem to fear that Yoshi wants to go on the "spoon-feeding" route. I can't really remember when this was said so if you can provide a link to the source or sth. similar then I'd really like to inform myself about it.


If SE can handle to make a really good fighting system with according content that is challenging and incorporate it fluently into a really good story - when you can feel the quality of it - then I don't care if whatsover is similar to WoW or to this or that game. Then it will be a good game to me.

Just my humble opinion though.

[SkyeWindbinder]

Suddenly get the feeling that this thread is being invaded by the "FFXIV should be FFXI-2" group.

I fear you're right. (sigh)

I'll go get the can of RAID.