Thread: Game content is full of mistakes...much worse than FFXIV 1.23

Originally Posted by Almalexia

I maintain that there were a lot of things in 1.23 that were "done right" and will be missed, and a lot of things done wrong that will not. Altogether ARR is a net gain, even though I don't like all of the changes. At the very least, I understand, intellectually, why the changes were made. In many ways 1.23 scratched an itch left behind by XI when it, in the days of Abyssea, started to change trajectory. I'll wager most of the people longing for 1.23 feel the same way. Part of coming to terms with ARR is accepting that no, ARR not a love letter to XI and it will never, ever capture "that FFXI feel." It's not supposed to. The sooner people criticize ARR on its own merits the sooner they can make rational decisions about whether to spend their cash on a sub, instead of pining for 1.23/XI every goddamn day and feeling entitled to it because you're still a subscriber of ARR.

^^
This sums up exactly the realization I came to.

The 'itch' that you speak of is the 'core engagement' that the game provides.

FFXI and FFXIV 1.23 were both fantasy worlds. The mechanics were artfully hidden behind the lore, and both Vana'diel and Eorzea were designed to be grounded, immersive environments - full of exploration and danger.

ARR fixed the flaws in 1.23, but at the same time it reduced Eorzea to a mere theme-park, full of safety rails, gimmicks, and blatant and obvious mechanics.
Why do people need a 'Gold-Saucer' now? Eorzea itself is just one giant carnival.

It was because this radical shift in the player core engagement strategy that I canceled my subscription auto-renewal. This Themepark approach is just too dumbed down to keep me interested


I think the greatest disservice that SE did to the players was to move FFXI to a more casual game while showcasing 1.0 as it's spiritual successor... once FFXI fans had migrated to, and faithfully supported FFXIV, ARR happened and ruined that experience as well.

At the very least, they should have kept FFXI as it was.