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

[options]

What the hell is wrong with quests? I for one play jrpgs for their stories (even the bad ones). Whats wrong with starting off in a zone, starting with a story on why i'm there and giving me a fun ff story doing things within the zone leading up to a big bad arse boss or dungeon at the end of the zone, then leading me into the next area. Throw in the grind in the middle of it. Hell, throw in grp grinds. But give me a f'ing story. The ff sp games do this, why the hell can't it be here?

Thats right..... ffxi didn't do it.

[Tsukino]

What the hell is wrong with quests? I for one play jrpgs for their stories (even the bad ones). Whats wrong with starting off in a zone, starting with a story on why i'm there and giving me a fun ff story doing things within the zone leading up to a big bad arse boss or dungeon at the end of the zone, then leading me into the next area. Throw in the grind in the middle of it. Hell, throw in grp grinds. But give me a f'ing story. The ff sp games do this, why the hell can't it be here?

Thats right..... ffxi didn't do it.

You have got to be kidding me. FFXI has multiple massive main story quests with cutscenes. Together they're longer than any single player game in the series. One of the big draws of the game in its heyday was that it was one of the very few MMOs with a compelling storyline, and for a time the only one with in-game cutscene action. One entire expansion of the game essentially added nothing but story quests and dungeons to contain them, where you had to fight to the end and solve puzzles in a group, then fight a huge dangerous boss.

No one is saying no to quests or story. I even would like them to award SP (which they currently do, in massive amounts). People are saying no to solo quest-based progression being the most efficient way to advance in the game. You know what else was common to all single-player FF games? One character didn't fight through dungeons and destroy forces of evil threatening to unmake the world on his or her own.

[Murugan]

You have got to be kidding me. FFXI has multiple massive main story quests with cutscenes. Together they're longer than any single player game in the series. One of the big draws of the game in its heyday was that it was one of the very few MMOs with a compelling storyline, and for a time the only one with in-game cutscene action. One entire expansion of the game essentially added nothing but story quests and dungeons to contain them, where you had to fight to the end and solve puzzles in a group, then fight a huge dangerous boss.

No one is saying no to quests or story. I even would like them to award SP (which they currently do, in massive amounts). People are saying no to solo quest-based progression being the most efficient way to advance in the game. You know what else was common to all single-player FF games? One character didn't fight through dungeons and destroy forces of evil threatening to unmake the world on his or her own.

Yeah no one is against quests. However quests have been watered down so much in modern MMO's that I really think they are undeserving of the term. Repetitive task is more descriptive to what they have become.

FFXI did quests right, I don't mind that they give XP now but designing them as the primary (only) source of leveling in a system where people can level 7 jobs to 50 on one character invites those types of lackluster "kill 5 rats for no particular good reason" quests that we already have covered quite well with guildleves.

[Jynx]

Thats right..... ffxi didn't do it.

Not sure if serious...

[mysterytaru]

What the hell is wrong with quests? I for one play jrpgs for their stories (even the bad ones). Whats wrong with starting off in a zone, starting with a story on why i'm there and giving me a fun ff story doing things within the zone leading up to a big bad arse boss or dungeon at the end of the zone, then leading me into the next area. Throw in the grind in the middle of it. Hell, throw in grp grinds. But give me a f'ing story. The ff sp games do this, why the hell can't it be here?

Thats right..... ffxi didn't do it.

Sounds like MMO is the wrong genre for you....also: XI *did* do it.

[options]

Sounds like MMO is the wrong genre for you....also: XI *did* do it.

Sounds like your idea of an MMO is not the genre for me.

FFXI had cutscenes and they were done wonderfully. But you didn't progress through the zones doing those quests. There were no stories to the zones, you just moved there and camped the 1 spot till you moved to the next zone.

What i am saying is give us a story on why we are there. Right now we get a cutscene and for no other purpose then to lvl our char so we can get another cutscene. There's no meaning behind it at all. Why do we need to run to lvl 50 when their could be a journey reaching every lvl.

[mysterytaru]

Sounds like your idea of an MMO is not the genre for me.

FFXI had cutscenes and they were done wonderfully. But you didn't progress through the zones doing those quests. There were no stories to the zones, you just moved there and camped the 1 spot till you moved to the next zone.

What i am saying is give us a story on why we are there. Right now we get a cutscene and for no other purpose then to lvl our char so we can get another cutscene. There's no meaning behind it at all. Why do we need to run to lvl 50 when their could be a journey reaching every lvl.

The beginning of XI's original storyline for the 3 nations had little to do with how it turned out either until you were high enough to do them or had friends high enough to do them for you. It wasn't until the R3 and R4 missions that things started to get somewhere. That's comparable to the storyline missions in XIV that you get at R26 and R30, respectively. I just finished the R30 one and can't wait to see the next one. You can't comment on the story as early in it as you are based on your Ranks in your profile. You've just seen the 'go do this and keep busy til we think you're rdy for the real deal' missions.

[Galka75]

This is my opinion about ths matter:

The fact of rising thr sp rewards is not bad. But this will be an old school base MMO. And a grind party ALWAYS will beat any other method of ranking/level up. At the moments leves are ok becouse can make a good sp/hour compared whit grind partys. Meaby a little more of quest. Or adjust its sp reward will nit bad for ROLplayers and casual. Will lovely to see all kind of players meetng in a game. Casuals (not mindless wowtards, just casual but good players)doing leves and raids once or twice a week, rol players doing quest and focusing in the comunity, and of course hardcores doing it all a lot and grinding to reach fast all content.

[zaviermhigo]

Party grinding isn't about killing the same mob over and over again in the same place, its about learning the class you're playing, and learning strategies to do with others. If fostering better relationships with other players becomes boring to people then why even play an mmo?

[Wolfie]

Party grinding isn't about killing the same mob over and over again in the same place, its about learning the class you're playing, and learning strategies to do with others. If fostering better relationships with other players becomes boring to people then why even play an mmo?

Bringing up FFXI again, but sorry, nothing in FFXI's party grind taught me how to be a good player.

As a BLM, the only spells I ever cast were Blizzard and Thunder, and it was on magic bursts. I had no reason to cast enfeebling spells, the only food I used was INT food (marron glace was it?), and I only ever sat in one spot at the back of the party waiting for people to bring mobs to me. Enfeebling and everything else was brought by the red mages, white mages, bards, whatever. Didn't have to deal with MP or hate management because things died fast and couldn't kill me anyways. It wasn't until I was already at end game that I was forced to learn the intricacies of BLM, like kiting, proper enfeebling, using different spell elements, cookies vs MP food, full out gear swaps, hate management, etc.

There was never any real challenge thrown at people while leveling in FFXI. Grinds of any kind are always, always reduced to the easiest and fastest ways to do something. It's the complete opposite of challenge, sprinkled with a lot of tedium.