FFXIV has lost it's magic

[Hyrist]

Relieved. Probably not the psychological state you want a player to be in when they finish some content. I think my exact words were, "Thank &*$ing god that is done with."

I said something similar myself.

Let's be honest. Up until the storyline ended, this game hit the high notes. It's not having that rapturing story and walking the gear tredmil is what's nailing people. And again, new game means shotty endgame. Has for every MMO before FFXIV and it was folly to think FFXIV could be an exception.


I seemed to manage to dodge all the bullets here though. I've multiple characters to play through the storyline, that keeps me occupied a good while to level and rank up at a fair pace. It will enable me to bypass the Mythology and participation lockouts to a degree that's more than satisfactory to me.

I don't agree with the idea that FFXIV ruled out alts by the way it was designed. It simply changed the advantages and disadvantages to having them.

FFXI had a lot of flaws with their storyline content, not the story itself, but the way they gated the content. Waiting to Japan midnight to hit the next quest, gating content behind boss fights with very narrow margins for error that forced Level Caps back before the time there was such a thing as Level Sync. Meaning newgearset(s), new macro set for everything, even before getting a group together (if it was possible to get people to be willing to help, if you weren't on a princess class for that run.)

In the end, when I did complete CoP, I did not say it was worth the three years, four statics, and two servers it took to get there. I was just glad it was over with.

[Orophin]

I would love a FFXI-2, Square should think about going about making that. Make it open world also then I'm game.

It would have to cost like $50.00 a month to justify the development cost plus the paltry amount of people that would actually play it for it to probably even break even.

[Evangela]

LOL No, It's XI that lost its magic. XIV has more subscribers than XI at its peak LOL XIV is full of magic(k).

[Sunarie]

So getting to 50 in less than 2 days is a challenge? Saying that its a time sink therefore it is challenging doesn't make it so, you are correct about that. But being able to achieve something in a very, very, very short amount of time isn't a challenge either. Where is the challenge in being end game ready, such as it is, in less than 3 weeks? Even on WoW it takes a few days to ding 90, it used to take longer before WoW got nerf happy.

Where do I say it has to be black and white, or that FFXIV is challenging? I don't.. and no, I don't think getting to 50 in less than 2 days is a challenge. Nor do I think mindlessly killing mobs for 12 months straight to get to max level is a challenge (or fun). It really isn't either or, and time has nothing to do with it. As I keep saying. Short does not equal challenging, long doesn't equal challenging.. time does not equal challenge. That was all I was saying. I see a lot of people claiming that just because something doesn't take an arbitrary amount of time it means it's not difficult.

As someone who claims to be of the old-school, it's a shame that you don't understand one crucial thing about MMORPGs. They're not for everyone.

I would disagree entirely. I think most anyone designing a game wants it to be fun for as broad an audience as possible while still maintaining their vision for the gameplay. People want their games to sell, they want them to be successful. Old school gamers don't necessarily get to define a genre (or industry for that matter) that is constantly changing and gaining popularity.

I would apply your same mindset to yourself. In that if the way the MMORPG industry is going is not fun for you, and you don't find it enjoyable, then perhaps MMORPGs just aren't for you anymore (if we're going with your "they aren't for everyone" statement), or you should find one more to your taste (they're out there, but they aren't at all popular). It's a different animal than it originally was, and it will continue to change with time. Instead of just not playing a game that they don't find enjoyable, I find a lot of these "bring back the old grind-fests!" thread in any new MMO. When given options though, the large majority of people don't want that, it's always the same niche group.. and even they don't really seem to prefer it or you would see them grinding away at mobs instead of questing and such here. My FC did a whole week of that, just as a side note. Grouped up and killed things at least 5 levels higher than ourselves to level instead of doing fates or dungeons. It worked pretty well.

I hold Shadowbane in high regard, so high that I doubt any MMO ever will live up to it. I am not so high and mighty though, that I expect everyone to like the same thing I do, play the same way I do, and force a certain playstyle down the entire genre's throat when it's painfully obvious they don't want it. I also don't think my playstyle is superior, or more fitting of the genre as a whole. It's just how I have fun. Instead, if I feel like grinding away at some mobs, I will find an MMO or game that fits that playstyle..not try and change a AAA title into what I want. There are quite a few F2P games that have a pretty steep grind to them, and there are grind options available in game currently. People just choose not to use them most the time because it's not the quickest. That part isn't new to the industry. Everyone always wants the quickest way to level, be it a certain spawn the grants more exp per hour, or a dungeon that gives more/you can run faster.. that isn't anything new.

[Phe]

face the facts.
FFXIV has more subscribers than FFXI ever had and there's still the PS4 version coming.

FFXIV is obviously more popular than FFXI for a reason.
i played FFXI for 6 years but i can live with it and enjoy ARR.

[ashikenshin]

blade and souls is a pretty MMO that is also a grind fest. The massively website has a lot of MMO news about different types of games. You guys should look there for your grindfest game and leave us our FATES alone

[Blarp]

FFXI was released a long time ago when the demographic of players was much much smaller to draw from. It's not a valid comparison.

[Sunarie]

FFXI was released a long time ago when the demographic of players was much much smaller to draw from. It's not a valid comparison.

Shall we compare it to WoW then? Because technically the same could be said about when it was released...

[Evangela]

FFXI was released a long time ago when the demographic of players was much much smaller to draw from. It's not a valid comparison.

It's the XI fans who always start the comparison with threads like this.

[Blarp]

Shall we compare it to WoW then? Because technically the same could be said about when it was released...

No, but it's still a stupid comparison. Saying that this game is somehow more successful than XI because it has more subs now than XI ever did is not a sound argument because the two games are separated by more than a decade.