Time Machine: FFXI JUN 14 2003

[Impulse]

As others have stated abyssea took all sense of accomplishment out of playing the game.

Grind/solo til 30 then spend 6 hours in abyssea and you are at the level cap.

That's awful, no matter what.

Hell, it's not even just the going from 30 to 90 via Abyssea. It's everything.
I returned to and played XI for a couple months recently, got my DRG from 62 to 73 in Abyssea, 73-75 solo on regime pages and the rest via Abyssea due to lack of outside, non-level sync parties. Even that felt cheap.
After that? Merits. The process now is cap out merits in a matter of 2~3 hours or less, go dump them into whatever you feel like, go back to zone, rinse, repeat. For those who don't know, they upped the unspent Merit limit from 10 to 20. Even as a DD who was actually killing things rather than leeching like a good third of the alliance, it all felt shallow and effortless, something that I never felt while leveling before.
People are getting jobs to 90 with the respective AF3+2, just because they can and have nothing else to do. Best shout I've seen post-Abyssea? "I just got BRD90 what instrument should I use?"
MP management inside Abyssea? Gone, thanks to Minikin Monstrosity (10MP/tic refresh). Got a RDM in the group? Enjoy an extra 10ish/tic via Refresh II.
Some people might say "Oh! Abyssea NMs are hard!" but really, they aren't. The only reason they seem that way is because you're essentially letting them beat on you until you proc whatever weaknesses you need. Just because you're holding back from killing them doesn't mean they'll be doing the same for your party. After you proc? The NM is dead within a minute in 90% of cases. End up wiping somehow? That's fine, just zerg it with Atma of the Apocalypse! Permanent RR3!
Simply put, yeah. The current XI isn't the XI we knew and loved. It's over simplified and way too easy now.

[Kaizlu]

Hi Cendres,

I think you quoted the link to the video you were looking for. (^_^;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARghlVjBab0

Loved that video about FF11. ;_;

I never played FFXI. And that video sums up all the things I've wanted to do while playing a MMORPG since I watched .hack//SIGN. Sadly, most people just want to level level and then level some more. I really doubt FFXIV will give me something like that, but I don't lose anything by trying.

[Cendres]

Hi Cendres,

I think you quoted the link to the video you were looking for. (^_^;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARghlVjBab0

Loved that video about FF11. ;_;

Rofl.. way for me to fail. I thought the white mage was a hume for some reason... Such a great video <3 <3 Now I'm bookmarking it. ^^

[Fated]

Not really the casual. But single player. there is a difference.

It doesn't matter, the terms go hand in hand for the most part. Less time spent in a group, viability of logging on for an hour and then logging off, doing content on your own terms, etc.

[Galoot]

I agree with pretty much everything in here except the person who likes Abyssea. FFXI was a challenge in many aspects, ranking up for airpasses and divine might, CoP, Sky gods, etc. The threat of failure was always there so it made accomplishments that much greater. I remember failing "a moogle kupo d'etat" so many times and then finally getting a pick up group and winning...and getting that equip for my RNG was amazing. Hoping there will be content like this in FFXIV in years to come.

One of my all time favorite videos (music is amazing too): FFXI Recollection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov3-K2aRwQY

[Khalus]

After all this reminiscing over FFXI and watching several dozen videos on YouTube, I think I'm going to get back into FFXI starting in Aug once the account merger is avail/complete and there are finally new payment options. Stupid 3D Secure has kept me from playing for the last year, and SE won't do anything to bypass and accept my money...I don't get it. Still though, XI is an amazing game even with the rushed mode changes. {I have 10,000 Crysta collecting dust from when XIV launched}

I just wanna get my Blue Mage to 90 then go back and solo/duo all the storylines I've never been able to start or complete due to not being able to find help, or friends not at the required level/part to help! The story and lore is the most important part of FFXI to me ~ I don't really care about having the best gear or merits capped out, even though I'd like to someday, but my main priority is working through every storyline as I've sadly enough never finished any of them yet.

All of these storylines are on YouTube, and I could have watched them at anytime already, but I just can't do that. I want to earn the right to see them...its more fun for me!

[Drogyn]

Ive seriously thought about going back to XI but didn't want to have to do it all over again. I thought to myself that I'd just wait for XIV so I can stay on top of the changes.

I had no idea being on top of the changes/new content could be so ... exciting...

[Roaran]

This is precisely why I'm staying. FFXI started out like pure total and complete crap. But after a year or two the game finally had the basics, and it continually got better from there. Likely it was Tanaka's plan all along, yet perhaps he didn't take into account the audience's changing expectations.

Eitherway, FFXIV will be good if we allow it to be and will be better if we help contribute as well.

[Ferth]

Granted I wasn't there for the what... 8 months the FFXI was out before it released in NA? But even at the beginning of the NA launch the problems the game had were pretty minor in the overall scope of the game. The combat was balanced, the UI was great, there were plenty of quests and things to do beyond leveling up jobs. The game was mostly fun and engaging.

The one real thing that needed to be fixed was Travel times. And that one did take about a year to do.

FFXIV has so many, so so many minor problems that shouldn't have survived this long. Part of that can be explained by the whole crew shift... it's not easy going through another team's coding.

But I don't think anyone would plan for this amount of mediocrity. Whatever past merits Tanaka may have had, I think the biggest problem was that to him FFXIV was too personal.

Like with the game Too Human. Denis Dyack had too much of an emotional investment in the game to realize that alot of his ideas were bad ones.

Tanaka wanted things to work a specific way, and instead of realizing that not all of them were ideal, he instead wasted time and energy trying to make them work.

I do agree that FFXIV can be great. And I think the condition it launched in was unfortunate. I just hope the new team can get the worst of the kinks out before everyone loses interest.