Let's have a round of applause for bringing grind parties front and center in FFXIV

[Neptune]

Now, nothing personal against my brethren who enjoy a good party grind, but I think we can all agree that camping in one place on the map and killing enemy after enemy for as long as we can pales, let's say, in comparison to real life activities like sports, exercise, reading, watching a movie, driving, going somewhere and having a conversation, etc. I know a lot of people enjoy it nonetheless but if you are one of them I'd ask you to ask yourself if you would still enjoy it if you had never done it.

People reading this forum must be asking themselves what the hell is going on with this game to see all these threads about party grinding popping up all over the place, like a bunch of kids crying out for joy once the grown ups have left the room. I understand it's just a refreshing bit of FFXI nostalgia but this isn't really directed at you, it's directed at the dev team.

So, dev team, what's wrong? Did you get a little overexcited in adding new features in this patch that you didn't take care with the leveling curve? I get it, you want to add and tweak as you go along. How about quests that require multiple stops, going back to the NPC, going out again, coming back, requiring something like 20-30 mins of time in some cases, for a reward of progress equal to maybe 6 enemies that according to your own reckoning should only take 4 minutes or so to defeat? What are you doing to this game??

And before anyone decides to pipe up and explain that they haven't noticed an issue - just stop to think for a second about the millions of other gamers out there who are not going to give this game a chance when they see stuff like this. And before you dismiss "millions of other gamers" -ask yourself how much longer this game will be around when it is universally panned in the press and only a few thousand people even play.. FOR FREE.

I suggest the dev team look into rewarding people for doing quests and not doing something monotonus over and over. Hell, I suggest the dev team read some books by B.F. Skinner. You don't want monotony in the gameplay? Simple, you adjust sp for quests and other content aside from free battle. Don't keep these bad habits up because you're continuing to embarrass yourselves in the gaming community. And yes, that is something you should be worrying about if you want a successful game.

[Sephr]

You're in between patches, they haven't implemented alternative content yet.

[Removed by Moderator according to the FINAL FANTASY XIV FORUM Guidelines.]

[Neptune]

blah, blah, blah. I can't read so I'm going to tell someone to deal with problems that don't even concern them in the slightest.

Also, I'm surprised you didn't notice that this patch was cooking for over 3 months and the next patch doesn't even have a release date? It doesn't matter to me at all but think about people checking in with this game. I'm sure thousands of people have been turned away already. The dev team can do better than that, starting with the next mini patch.

[Sephr]

Also, I'm surprised you didn't notice that this patch was cooking for over 3 months and the next patch doesn't even have a release date? It doesn't matter to me at all but think about people checking in with this game. I'm sure thousands of people have been turned away already. The dev team can do better than that, starting with the next mini patch.

People checking in with the game will look in, see some progress, then go away for a few months and check in later. I assure you the dev team isn't aiming to make the game presentable to get people back *right now*, rather they're working to make it good for the PS3 release.

They've even said they regard the PS3 release as their last chance, and that's what they're aiming for. By then we'll see a lot more content that deals with these problems.

Besides that, the quests do generally keep improving each patch when new ones are added, what with it being an incremental process and all that. I'd expect by PS3 launch we'll have a good mix of the generic filler quests you get everywhere and the better chains we've come to expect from Final fantasy.

[Jennestia]

So the gist of the OP is:

"Make the game yet another boring, monotonous quest grind for progression."

Am I getting warm? You can make quests "fun" but they're just as monotonous since you do them over and over and over again to cap your level, kind of like what you do with party grinding.

[Preypacer]

So the gist of the OP is:

"Make the game yet another boring, monotonous quest grind for progression."

Am I getting warm? You can make quests "fun" but they're just as monotonous since you do them over and over and over again to cap your level, kind of like what you do with party grinding.

Meh... It's Neptune being Neptune... again.

His entire logic is "I have ideas that I know for a fact would be the best for the game. And I know they'd be best for the game, because they're my ideas." That's every one of his OPs in a nutshell.

Two of his favorite retorts to dissenting opinion are:

1. "You obviously are happy with the game the way it is and don't feel it needs to improve". This is a classic false dichotomy, a logical fallacy Neptune resorts to in practically every single post he makes.
2. "You just don't understand how much better his idea would be for the game". In other words, you can't possibly understand his point and simply *disagree* with it.. no no.. Surely its brilliance is simply beyond your understanding, because if you did understand" it, you would certainly agree with it.

The problem with Nep is he's completely in love with his own ideas and assumes that whatever he suggests is "right". And so, when you respond to him, you can only fall into two categories: 1) You agree with him, or 2) You're wrong.

This is why none of his threads can ever develop into a normal conversation and typically result in people basically ripping his posts apart, pointing out the flaws in his logic, calling him out on how he twists or distorts the facts and generally making him look like a complete fool. Eventually, he gives up on that thread and wanders off to start a new one to complain about something else and start the process all over again.

Perhaps if people just all ignored him and stop giving him the attention he obviously craves constantly... he'd get the picture and give it up.

[Ekko]

The quests for now are : go there find that, kill those, walk for 1 hour for a low reward : no fun no thanks I really enjoy killing things with ls mates instead more.

[Felis]

The quests for now are : go there find that, kill those, walk for 1 hour for a low reward : no fun no thanks I really enjoy killing things with ls mates instead more.

"Go there, kill 2 wolves, go back and get 38k Sp" isn't enought? (R42 story mission)

[Kazai]

I'll admit they could sure increase the sp for quest, but I perfer party grinding to solo questing. I left to play Rift and hated it because all you do is solo level on quest, I went from 1-36 doing that with out partying with another player and I quit because of it. In grind parties you are always playing with someone else and meeting new people, that's why XI community was great the way it was because you were almost forced to play together and not be antisocial lol. Hopefully they can add content that will make you happy but I don't think grind parties are a bad focus for now. Grinding on mobs in a party is what you do in any Final Fantasy.

[Picoman]

I think we can all agree that camping in one place on the map and killing enemy after enemy for as long as we can pales, let's say, in comparison to real life activities like sports.

You complain about standing still other people complain about having to run around. Are you sure you enjoy playing computer games?