The lack of creativity: Dev or US?

[Abriael]

An open mind is one thing.. Some of the more drastic changes I love.. Market wards, retainers, the armory system, the crafting system..

Like I stated in another thread though, even with all those differences that are unique to XIV, there is alot missing from the game that really needs to be in any MMO coming out now. I'm not talking about things like a dungeon finder or pvp instances, we're talkin about things like better linkshell management, improvements in mob ai, or features that allow us to interact more closely with the environment. Would I be happier if the linkshell interface was more like WoW's guild interface? You betcha!! Would I be happy if it were an exact copy of WoW's guild interface? Yup. It is better than what we have and it works. No need to be super original when there is something adequate already out there that can be utilized.

There is nothing wrong with being original and different when doing so brings value to the game. There is nothing wrong with "cloning" part of another MMO for use in yours if it fits the purpose (ie Better linkshell interface).

There is plenty different and original in XIV, what we need now is some good ol fashioned MMOness pumped into the game for us to enjoy the different and original.

I agree with most you said, but you will see a LOT of people complaining about those thing that you said you love, simply because they stray from the "canon" of post-wow MMORPGs. That's the closed mindedness I'm talking about.

Of course the game is very far from perfect, it needs more content, more features, more streamlining, more intuitiveness and the original mechanics need to be further polished.

The problem is that many people don't ask for that. What they scream is "Burn this! Burn that! Remove this! Remove that! Implement an AH!"
And when I ask them why they respond "because it works! Don't fix what's not broken!" Yeah, I'm sure it works. That doesn't mean that viable alternatives don't exist, and that viable alternatives, when polished and properly implemented can't be *better* than the "not broken" one.

If developers always went by the "don't fix what's not broken" philosophy, we'd still be playing wow clones in 2020, if a comet doesn't wipe us out sooner than that.
if there's one thing I appliaud to the FFXIV developers is that they *dared*
Some of it may have backfired, but thanks to that we have a base for a MMORPG that's much more interesting, in a future perspective, than anything I've seen since DAOC.

I dont see any reason not to have a jump, if people are worried about bunny hoppers then ask for a jump cooldown or stamina bar consumption from using it.

I do. A roegadyn in full armor jumping around looks ridiculous (and that's just an example). Even here, there are valid alternatives. Just increase the level difference a player can climp up/down when walking normally, and you're done. No need to create, sync and implement completely new animations to make people jump and look like fools..

[Wolfie]

Sometimes, you have to sacrifice creativity for practicality (and fun).

[Abriael]

Sometimes, you have to sacrifice creativity for practicality (and fun).

You assume that creativity and practicality/fun are alternatives.

Too many seem to use familiarity as a synonim of practicality and fun. It isn't.

[Verecund]

Hey there fanboy, still killing coblyns and dodo's ?

I lol'd.


Seriously... it's sad when someone criticizes SE for unnecessarily complicating simple, mundane, and repetitive actions with yet more simple, mundane, and repetitive actions, and is then accused of trolling for simply pointing out obvious said flaw.

Fanbois.


Putting the Eeyore in Eorzea since gamma testing.

[dantheman]

An open mind is one thing.. Some of the more drastic changes I love.. Market wards, retainers, the armory system, the crafting system..

Like I stated in another thread though, even with all those differences that are unique to XIV, there is alot missing from the game that really needs to be in any MMO coming out now. I'm not talking about things like a dungeon finder or pvp instances, we're talkin about things like better linkshell management, improvements in mob ai, or features that allow us to interact more closely with the environment. Would I be happier if the linkshell interface was more like WoW's guild interface? You betcha!! Would I be happy if it were an exact copy of WoW's guild interface? Yup. It is better than what we have and it works. No need to be super original when there is something adequate already out there that can be utilized.

There is nothing wrong with being original and different when doing so brings value to the game. There is nothing wrong with "cloning" part of another MMO for use in yours if it fits the purpose (ie Better linkshell interface).

There is plenty different and original in XIV, what we need now is some good ol fashioned MMOness pumped into the game for us to enjoy the different and original.

Exactly! Being original and making new things just because you CAN doesn't mean it will be any good.

[Vesper]

Why do people request things that other MMOs have. Well because most of the things we wan't are basic staples of MMOs. SquareEnix made some things different for the sake of being different and looked what happened? Even Yoshi-P came out and admitted things were made different not because they were better but because they wanted to try something different. Then he said that was the wrong approach. It's time to start adding the basics of MMOs.

There is no reason to not do things in a game because WoW did it, or EQ did it or Rift did it. You can take functionality of other passed MMOs, current MMOs and add in your own twists in ADDITION to that and make a unique game. Simply throwing things out the window because someone did it before is moronic.

Let's throw out hit points and magic points, killing monsters, ranking up, traveling across landscapes, starting cities, equipment etc. All these things have been done before, hell WoW did them, that's reason enough to toss em away. Let's have a new MMO and call it black screen, we can all stare at a black screen all day, no other MMO's have that feature.

[Abriael]

Why do people request things that other MMOs have. Well because most of the things we wan't are basic staples of MMOs.

Basic staples of MMOs haven't been basic staples forever. They became basic staples only after someone dared to innovate introducing them. The whole CONCEPT of a MMO has been, at one point, an innovation (that was initially considered idiotic by a large part of the gaming community, by the way).

[Xzen]

What we have now is pretty much on par with an Auction House they just need to fix the crashing. The thing this game suffers from the most is lack of content.

[Wolfie]

You assume that creativity and practicality/fun are alternatives.

Too many seem to use familiarity as a synonim of practicality and fun. It isn't.

I think the expression you're looking for is "mutually exclusive". And no, I was not assuming that they're always mutually exclusive. Only sometimes. Sometimes. Key word. Sacrificing practicality should never happen, even if it means sacrificing creativity.

And no, I'm not confusing familiarity with practicality either. Just because a practical system happens to be well known does not mean that people are asking for what's familiar. They're asking for what's practical.

You should stop assuming what other people are assuming.

[Abriael]

What we have now is pretty much on par with an Auction House they just need to fix the crashing. The thing this game suffers from the most is lack of content.

I would say that adding stability and a centralized search system, it's actually better than an auction house. Auction houses lack a very important element of any realistic/prosperous economy: Impulse purchases.

Also, it's definitely superior in terms of eyecandy and the ability to actually preview the look of a piece of equipment before buying it.

And no, I'm not confusing familiarity with practicality either. Just because a practical system happens to be well known does not mean that people are asking for what's familiar. They're asking for what's practical.

Just because a familiar system is practical, doesn't mean that an alternative system cannot be practical as well (or more)