What XIV is and isn't

[alexi14]

indeed we don't want another cartoonish kidsgame like world of warcraft.

Every time I talk to someone who I end up dislikeing "without them knowing ovcourse" I ask them if they play WOW, and they always say yes.

I think what it is, is you take a shy modest kid who doens't really have a lot going for him or her, and you give them WOW. They get level 85+ or w.e it is now with super amazing armor, and all of a sudden they think SO highly of themselves. It gives them this unwarranted sense of confidence that drives me up the wall.

[HappyHimitsu]

If people didn't bitch and moan, this game wouldn't have progressed in any way and would still be that hunk of crap that it was a year ago.

It has progressed and that is my point, so if you agree why were you bitching?

I understand what you are getting at, I just believe there are more constructive ways of doing things.
Are you as stoked for Chocobos as I am??

Every time I talk to someone who I end up dislikeing "without them knowing ovcourse" I ask them if they play WOW, and they always say yes.

I think what it is, is you take a shy modest kid who doens't really have a lot going for him or her, and you give them WOW. They get level 85+ or w.e it is now with super amazing armor, and all of a sudden they think SO highly of themselves. It gives them this unwarranted sense of confidence that drives me up the wall.

I agree. A little e-peen isn't such a bit deal, I mean it IS pretty cool when you get high level with the best equipment and can pwn lvl 30 mobs in 1 or 2 hits, but many people forget that IRL none of it counts. It is a video game lol.

[Hasthur]

I started playing again after the disastrous beta experience. The game has improved its true. I would say that not as greatly as I expected seeing how its close to 1 year from release and thats quite a lot of time. Im not a FFXIV hater but I have mixed feelings with this game. I love some parts of it but some other parts just make me want to smash it.

Sadly I think that the parts I hate seem to be unfiaxable, they are in the very core of the game. The game is focused to be played in ps3 and pad and Im a pc lover and mouse+keyboard fanatic. So I find the slowness of the interface, the count in seconds delay of actions, the lethargic character conversation, the sluggish menu navigation insufferable. It has been slightly improved but still cant stand it is like going back to 1994 and the firsts O.S. slowness.

I play a couple of hours a day and it takes more than 30 minutes to talk to the guild vendors, the leve providers, the quest speeches, journal navigation, retainer interaction. So Im wasting 25%-33% of my time just with the interaction between machines and menu navigation and this is something that I cant understand.

I will keep playing casually to see if the new aditions make up for that great flaw I find in this game I really hope they make a great game and add some more user friendly functions to let the casual player as myself to enjoy to their most their playing time doing enjoyable things.

[HappyHimitsu]

I started playing again after the disastrous beta experience. The game has improved its true. I would say that not as greatly as I expected seeing how its close to 1 year from release and thats quite a lot of time. Im not a FFXIV hater but I have mixed feelings with this game. I love some parts of it but some other parts just make me want to smash it.

Sadly I think that the parts I hate seem to be unfiaxable, they are in the very core of the game. The game is focused to be played in ps3 and pad and Im a pc lover and mouse+keyboard fanatic. So I find the slowness of the interface, the count in seconds delay of actions, the lethargic character conversation, the sluggish menu navigation insufferable. It has been slightly improved but still cant stand it is like going back to 1994 and the firsts O.S. slowness.

I play a couple of hours a day and it takes more than 30 minutes to talk to the guild vendors, the leve providers, the quest speeches, journal navigation, retainer interaction. So Im wasting 25%-33% of my time just with the interaction between machines and menu navigation and this is something that I cant understand.

I will keep playing casually to see if the new aditions make up for that great flaw I find in this game I really hope they make a great game and add some more user friendly functions to let the casual player as myself to enjoy to their most their playing time doing enjoyable things.

It's funny how much we can all differ in opinions. I do have to agree that the menu is very tedious (I really can't understand why we can't use shortcuts for all of it) but other than that I actually enjoy the quest speeches and such. I feel they add to the game and should not all just be rushed through, though I am probably in the minority as such. That is why I do not enjoy 99% of mmorpgs out there, they all feel too rushed to me, too concentrated on quick gameplay and not enough emphasis on story line. FF has always been about the story, and I enjoy that.

The only other thing I can't help but pick at is the cut and paste environments. Maybe I am too early in the game and just haven't explored enough but I swear when walking through Gridania it felt like I was running in circles when I wasn't (I think SE wanted it to be maze like, but instead made it too redundant. This sort of thing only works when we don't have a full map of the area, otherwise it is pointless). They even had the same slab of stone graphic in the exact same place in multiple areas!
Other than that however, I am in Love with this game

[Hasthur]

Its not the speeches I dislike its that it takes me 3 seconds to read the chat and 3 seconds for the next sentence to appear. And all those transitions from one character to another that give black screens for 5 seconds (my pc isnt the best so it could be less for others). I love story in games but look at those quests how many words those conversations have and how long it takes. The chat window has like 2 lines of big letters text in the end its just a few dozen lines of script that take minutes to unfold.

And yeah I have to agree im playing at Gridania and everything is so repetitive that it gets boring corridor after corridor that look exactly the same.

[HappyHimitsu]

It doesn't bother me so much now that I have traveled to the other cities and can just teleport between them.

[Gennosuke]

I agree completely with OP. It is quite disheartening esp. if you have played FFXI.
I think it's obvious and that is why the whole team has been replaced and are taking it serious and going forward with changes.
So will have to give them credit for that and being a Square-Enix and an FF title.. have to keep hopes up.

So long as we keep expressing our thoughts and frustration and addressing the issues annoying us about FFXIV, hopefully they will be addressed one by one.

I as many others am inclined to bash the game hard and will probably do so out of frustration but i think it's important for us all to keep focus on offering solutions and ideas to improve it.. so it can move forward to what we all want it to be. a Classic unique enjoyable FF title.

[ReapKarmah]

Completely agree with OP in all aspects, thank you!

Another point I'd like to raise is how I can't stand grinding, and how this game forces you to do so in order to make any progress as a "war" class.
In any other Final Fantasy you were able to travel/adventure/progress in the story while at least maintaining the appropriate level of your character. In XIV this is not the same.

In XIV you must patiently kill the same monster over and over and over until you reach the appropriate level to do anything. This alone is EXACTLY like other MMOs and drastically takes away from the Final Fantasy feel; I may as well play those free MMOs out there...it's the same thing.

Do you see what I'm saying?