Game is in a desperate need of challenge.

[Rakashu]

Before every one jumps on the hate bandwagon and starts calling me an elitist or any thing like that, I'd like to let you know that I am casual in every way possible. I put in work on this game only on the weekends, and with maybe 4 hours a day. I am in no way shape or form an elitist, not any more at the very least.

That being said, I still recognize that this game is in desperate need of a challenge to bring to the players. I'm not talking just challenging encounters, or a one off event that's extremely difficult to obtain; I'm talking on the whole. A community can only live so long as there are things to do, goals to work towards, be it through solo or community content. With out those people begin to lose interest, and at the end of the day the only thing bringing them back is familiarity.

What I'm talking about specifically are items; items which can be extremely hard to achieve, and show that you've put in a great deal of hard work and hustle to obtain. Armor, accessories, weapons, mounts, companions, and minions. A whole slew of different challenging, difficult things which allows a player to stand out amongst the rest, and furthermore allows those who want to put in the effort to do so, to play on a regular basis and work towards something.

Back when I played World of Warcraft before any of the expansions came out there was plenty of this content; you had extremely rare and difficult to achieve mounts, either through rare drops or through grinding out faction content. You had epic gear which could only be obtained through raiding with a dedicated team, or rare (blue) gear which could be equally as hard if you relied solely on pick up groups. There were weapons with various degrees of drop percentages, even legendary weapons which required lengthy quests and a great deal of money; pets too, which could be sold for tons of money or shown off to every one else. Factions provided you the opportunity to work towards something, and really create a personality with your character, some easy to grind through, and some very difficult.

It kept people going, kept them playing. Even if you were a casual player you would still try to grind out the content and try to pursue the lure of obtaining these things, because it could mean that it would potentially make you filthy rich, or you could just show off. Currently, FFXIV lacks this severely. Every thing can be obtained simply by queueing up for a group and running around for an hour at most. There's nothing worth being crafted, nothing worth showing off as the guy right next to you has the same crap. Introducing harder, more difficult content, rarer items, factions, and the like will not only help keep people playing, but it would also possibly help revitalize the economy.

I've never played it, but from my understanding even FF11 had a ton of stuff like this. Weapons and armor that were exceptionally rare, to the point where maybe only 1-2 people on the server had them. Crafters were able to get recipes or produce products that only a few could or were willing to make that were highly sought after. These are the things that motivate people to keep playing, not ultimately just logging into a barbie dress up simulator.

Before any one complains or moans about how it isn't fair how some people can get stuff and others can't; get a grip. Real life is the exact same way, you put in the work, you have the motivation, and you get stuff done. The content that is currently out there, and will be released isn't exclusively for one group of people. It's for every one, even for the person like me who can only put in maybe 4 hours a day on the weekends. The point that's trying to be made is that there needs to be content beyond that, something that makes me wish I actually had more time to put in the game, something that makes you think about it all day while your slugging away at work or what ever it is you do. Not being able to finish up with every thing over a limited time on a weekend; that's just pathetic.

[TheUltimate3]

I won't disagree. But you have to really think about how you would go about grinding said rare items.

Because killing mobs with a .01% drop is not something people will want to do, and they will scream. Loudly.

[KiriA500]

I won't disagree. But you have to really think about how you would go about grinding said rare items.

Because killing mobs with a .01% drop is not something people will want to do, and they will scream. Loudly.

Unless you're playing XI, then it's great.

[TheUltimate3]

Unless you're playing XI, then it's great.

Actually bringing up XI I have a question.

Based on what I've seen people say, XI had recently (if such a word can be used) changed their play style and now it's far more casual friendly and what have you. Is this a true assessment of the game as it is now?

[Ecks007]

Actually bringing up XI I have a question.

Based on what I've seen people say, XI had recently (if such a word can be used) changed their play style and now it's far more casual friendly and what have you. Is this a true assessment of the game as it is now?

I quit playing long before the change, but I did play a solid 5 years (NA launch til end of '08) with minor breaks to play some other MMOs with friends but I was still on XI when not on those other MMOs.

XI has definitely changed to be extremely casual friendly. It still takes some grinding to get the best weapons in the game, but it's stupid easy compared to say, how Relic Weapons used to take years in order to obtain. Now you can get the best thing in days, you can level up to max level in days, maybe weeks at most, which is still a far cry from when it took me nearly a year to finally unlock and start leveling up the first Advanced Job I wanted to play in that game since I before I bought it (Dark Knight).

It took probably another year leveling it up to the max level (75 at the time). Getting max level was actually an achievement and people you knew in game cheered you on and congratulated you when they found out because it wasn't something you could just burn out in a few days or a few weeks even. No, it took months, several months even if you were getting powerleveled and speed leveling as fast as you could just to hit lvl 75.

I believe a great deal of players left after this change in play styles, sure they lost and then gained new players and probably have a steady baseline of players now. Nothing close to the number of players that were on during the period in which I played though, definitely.

One thing I can say about XI was that when you beat a hard boss fight it felt like a real victory and nearly every boss fight ended up being like this. Even making your way through a zone could be challenging, yet when you got to the destination with your party or alliance and completed the content everyone felt the same joy of completion and victory and 99 times out of 100 there wasn't even an actual reward (item/gear/weapon or even gil) other than that you beat it and progressed through the story. That simple thing was your reward and it was actually very rewarding. Nobody complained that they weren't handed some kind of uber weapon or armor for their troubles, we were happy to have progressed.

Sadly I doubt MMOs will ever go that way or feel that way again. Most people want instant gratification nowadays. That works for the moment, but then what after that? You're left wanting/needing to get more, more, and more without appreciating what you have or what you accomplished.

Added: Even when I was starting to get bored with XI, months before I actually quit it seemed a very difficult decision due to the time I invested in my character. I really didn't want to quit, but at the same time (due to some drama) things had happened and the game just wasn't the same for me anymore. I knew quite a lot of people that did stick with it though, some that still even play it after all the changes and expansions and updates. It's not the same game it was, not by a long shot and I at least feel it definitely went in the wrong direction when that direction was to make things a lot easier.

To be honest, if XI got updated with XIV grapics and went back to it's gameplay from 2008, I would totally hop back on it, make some new friends and enjoy the game all over again.

[TheUltimate3]

-snip-

Very detailed response. Much appreciated.

I asked because I have noticed in the past month the increase of "Add this thing from XI's glory days" when XI itself doesn't really do it anymore, at least as far as I could gather. Which led me to believe that since XI moved to more casual friendly, people want to add XI's more hardcore features to XIV.

I could very well be wrong, but that's what its starting to seem like to me.

[Huntington]

snip

*whispers* You know, I've been hearing an interesting rumor recently...They say there's a game out there called "Final Fantasy XI: A Realm Reborn" and it's available to play right now...Maybe you could find more info on the front page here? http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml
Specifically that first entry for the Collaboration Event...*stops whispering and walks off*

[Ricky]

Actually bringing up XI I have a question.

Based on what I've seen people say, XI had recently (if such a word can be used) changed their play style and now it's far more casual friendly and what have you. Is this a true assessment of the game as it is now?

yes because it's smart for business, nobody wants to play the old XI anymore when we see what MMOs can be now, and by nobody I mean not enough people to support the game

[Kule]

I think a lot of the achievement rewards would be considered pretty hardcore to get.

[Seif]

I think a lot of the achievement rewards would be considered pretty hardcore to get.

While that is certainly true. To most including me the metagame really isn't part of the core game at all.