worst lore in history of mmo-rpg's

[Peptaru]

You're missing your own point when you say it is about lore. For the record the "flow speed" let's call it, of lore is not lore. I fail to see how the story was at all confusing, and you referenced playing it in its current state before I did.... so how's that on me?

I still say, like the OP, that FFXI was a much deeper story which I couldn't wait to see more of. FFXIV is not on the same tier as many other FF titles in this aspect. Is it better than most other Rpg titles? Yep! Is it better than some of the same franchise? Definitely not. I got more enjoyment out of the 1.0 ending story than I have from most of the story in 2.0.

[Drakent]

Remember i am not talking about the game play or how the story was accomplish, i am talking purely about the story it self, dialog and all and in ffxiv there isnt much interest on either of the story or dialog.

very small recap on ffxi, Heroes fight the demon king , the demon king comes back years later and when you confront him you find out at the end that he is not the same demon king that the heroes had defeated but actually 1 of the heroes turn into the demon king but wait there more his the best friend of the DK, omg!!!!!! and there's more!!!! the 2 ppl who help you in your quest to defeat the demon king are a forgotten race who use you to kill the demon king b/c his very existent was stopping them from doing there evil plans wow never saw that coming

[Drakent]

here so far on ffxiv,

a country call them self the empire when to war against then entire world ( star wars any 1) they where winning the fight so a old guy cast a spell that teleported every 1 out to save the good ppl , now here where the story starts going down hill, what
in hell happen to bahamut? he wasn't defeated so how is that 5 year later has pass from that great war that the empire was winning and now they starting all over.

here the next part of the story , avatars on this game are evil and they are being awoken by each beastman tribe and all nation are afraid so they want you so stop them and unlike ffxi where the avatars look all bad ass and they had a story behind but on this game they just act like bullies who just need a spanking

[Kirosuu]

snip

this...is fail
the lore is everywhere actually and there reason for everything if you know where to look
you are the type that need "silverspoon" on everything
also maybe you never care about sidequest/random npc chat

[Peptaru]

Some of, lots of?, sidequests and npc chats are there to add to immersion but not all of that adds to lore. It's easy to blend those areas together, but they're quite separate.

[KamikazeMan]

I am so disappointed with SE especially when GW2 has no monthly charges but they have spend time and $ to create a great story and SE charges $15 a month and they put very little effort

Yeah, but take into consideration that they had to rush the development of ARR. They've rebuilt an MMO from the ground up in record time, lol. Yeah they had assets, but going by the dev posts through the years, the workload was insane. Give it a few months. 2.1 is already adding a ton of content; granted content we should have already had at launch. 2.2 looking like it will be even better.

[WellFooled]

I'd have to say I've got the opposite view Drakent, FFXIV's lore is really what hooked me into the game. The main storyline took awhile to really get the hook into me, I'll admit, but not so with Eorzea as a whole. Every NPC has a history, every city a reason for being there, and every FATE tells a story. The amount of detail really sells the world as a real, living place--which to me is the most important part.

[Wolfandre]

Stopping in to say that those that say the lore is "bad" are those that are just waiting for the story to be told to them. This is a game that doesn't feed you the story through the main scenario. If anything, the main scenario is really just a welcome back to the game and some plot to get you going. The real lore, the real meat, is in exploration and the patches/expansions to come. The Lore team does an absolutely fantastic job making everything detailed and intricate. Read some quest dialogue or, Twelve forbid, your Journal for some insight into the game's excitement. Go beyond that and just watch NPCs.

I will level with you. I became emotionally attached to Lillisette and (especially) Aphmau, and I have yet to share that level of connection with a character in FFXIV. BUT! That does *not* mean the story is not well told or not told in a way that is meant to fully immerse the players.

TL;DR: Go play the game. Scratch that. Go live in Eorzea for a little while. Stop spamming dungeons, stop teleporting everywhere, stop everything and look around you. Good place to start? The U tribe is a fantastic glimpse into Seeker of the Sun culture and their relations with the other races of Eorzea and the Amalj'aa.

[Enkidoh]

To the OP, I don't mean to sound Miss nasty here, but you're falling into the trap again of comparing a game that is a five-month old reboot of a game which had barely 2 years worth of story development made (FFXIV), with a game that has been out for over a decade and has had it's story expanded considerably in many directions via expansions and add ons (FFXI).

You say that FFXI has a much deeper storyline - please elaborate. You simply summarized FFXI's story in very vague and generic ways ('demon king'?). How was FFXI's generic bad-guy #3 a better villain than say, the Ascians or Gaius in FFXIV? (At least until his big reveal as a misunderstood rebel who simply loved the wrong woman - yawn). Ditto with the evil brothers from another time, undead pirate used as a host for a summon, evil parallel-world twin, etc etc. See where I'm going here?

FFXIV ARR has only been out for barely 5 months now. FFXI was released in Japan in 2002 and has had five expansion packs and six add on packs released for it which all have taken the story in different directions, which as I said, simply cannot be compared. However, if you compare FFXI, at it's own launch to FFXIV ARR as how it is now, not even five months from launch, then, you would see a very different picture. FFXI's story at launch finished at the Shadowlord fight. That was it. No more storyline. Players didn't get more story for over a year until the Rise of the Zilart expansion was released (which the US version came with), which also continued the aborted nation storylines as well.

Compared in such a way, one might say FFXIV actually does things better than FFXI. FFXI's lore actually was good, but it was so subtle as to be there more for momentary narrative convenience and then handwaved away (this has led to story contradictions in later expansions and addons).

I mean, even now, eleven years after it's original launch, there still isn't a Lore section on the FFXI forum where players can discuss the storyline. It's as if the story doesn't even warrant examining. FFXIV however, got it's Lore forum just after the original shutdown of version 1.0 (thanks to head translator and lore writer Fernewalhes who actively involves himself in this section), and is being debated and examined constantly, and as a result, FFXIV's lore and setting just feels more deeper and immersive, something that I never felt sadly with FFXI's storyline.

Don't get me wrong - I love FFXI still, I've loved it ever since I first started playing at the start of 2005. But FFXIV I just feel for me at least, has a far better story of which we are just barely starting to scratch the surface of.

[Nahara]

I think it's also important that people remember XI has had 11 years to flesh out its world and tell stories within in. XIV not so much, especially when much of the original story had to be scrapped for the whole Dalamud thing and the coming of 2.0. There's still a lot more that can be explored, we just need to wait and experience it when new content gets added.

How can you say that this is the worst Lore in the history of MMos when WoW exists?

This I incredibly agree with. I got so mad at WoW's story around the time of Cataclysm's last patch, due to the plot holes created in the narrative and the utter ruination of the Jaina Proudmore character (not helped any by the off-screen plot-death of Cairn Bloodhoof and Blizzard all but pretending the Draenei and Worgen, my two favorite races, never existed outside of their starting zones), that I quit the game. The story was bad, has only gotten worse (Garrosh Hellscream needs to be hurled into the nearest sun), and I just can't take anything they do seriously anymore.

And above all else, SE's MMOs made me the hero, the central character of the narrative. In WoW, you're the nameless adventurer that only helps the important NPCs, who get all the credit for the work you actually do.