Out with the OLD, IN with The NEW -- A Look Back to Epicness

[Aussir]

This....

The reason XI "felt" epic is because it took so long to do anything that, it in itself, was an accomplishment. "OMG FULL PARTY!" or "OMG I MADE IT TO JEUNO" or "DING!" That game just took so damn long to do anything, it really sucked the life out of you.

That reminds me of Perfect World... blegh. Mind you, I don't like "one button win" but when something drags on for too long, I lose interest.
When I looked up all the drag involved in the relic weapons in FF14, it made me lose interest right there and then. Yes, let's work for something... but too much of a grind just makes it utterly boring, not rewarding.
I already find getting Sands of Time a drag... not because it's hard to get (unless one is extremely unlucky with rolls) but because with 1 item per week we take 12 weeks just to get all sands + all the weeks to get the soldiery thanks to the 450/week limit that someone thought was funny to implement.

Mind you I will say I am very subjective in regards to Everquest, my first mmo. I played since beta for 10 years. The problem is, MMO's as a whole have changed, the playerbase has changed. Most dont want to invest that much time into a game anymore no matter how rewarding and epic it was. I will agree that ARR doesn't have those feels like EQ did to me but I still very much enjoy this game.

I played DDO for 6+ years and I left it... why? Because of how much it changed to cater to one kind of player - the "EZ BUTAN PLOX!!11" people.
It went from great game to "brainless faceroll" with content going from... well... content to "LOOK AT our NEW overprice SHINEY in the ITEM MALL!!"

My only issue right now is there is so much casual content and hardly any (if any at all) hardcore content. I really wish there were more difficult things for us hardcores.

You guys are getting the last turn of the coil... maybe some more extremes in the future? Although I have to agree that even for someone outside the hardcore circle (I can only talk for myself here), it seems to me that there's too little hardcore content going on.

Aside from that, Im enjoying the pace at which they are releasing content (albeit im sure everyone wouldn't argue with more content faster but alas, it takes time to develop this stuff). Nevertheless, Im having a great time and have had some epic moments with friends.

I prefer they don't fall into the trap of releasing half backed, bugged to hell content just to deliver it faster.
I'd rather wait another month than getting chocobo manure... look what happened to the housing system because they caved into the pressure and released it earlier...

Another thing I would like to see changed is the danger in this game, there is none, and there needs to be. I want to feel that the world is dangerous, I want to feel like I need to be careful and my actions have consequences. Right now the only concern I have is if the heavy effect will prevent me from getting to my destination in a timely manner.

I actually like the peace. It gets tiring going anywhere and having to avoid 9999 mobs just to go from A to B and it would also become a huge nuisance for gatherers. Let's face it, not every animal has to be aggressive all the time.
What they could do is maybe make a few, different monsters come out at night and those could be aggressive since a lot of predators pop up at night.

[PandaPause]

Another thing I would like to see changed is the danger in this game, there is none, and there needs to be. I want to feel that the world is dangerous, I want to feel like I need to be careful and my actions have consequences. Right now the only concern I have is if the heavy effect will prevent me from getting to my destination in a timely manner.

I agree w/ everything you said. The last part quoted is spot on. +1

[jazo]

I remember when i was first able to play final fantasy xi, i was overwhelmed...
It felt Powerful and to this day i still remember those moments that made me fall in love with ffxi my first MMO and that was more than 7 years ago. Will ARR ever feel like that?

Think you're in the wrong forums. XI is somewhere down the hall.

Lemme tell ya whats wrong here : UR 1st MMO feeling is very subjective, let us ask those who say FF14 is their 1st MMO, shall we?

Here's the thing, Adbed. What you're feeling is nostalgia.
...
Let it go, man.

Well, I feel kinda the same way in the lack of epicnessand good memories on XIV on the level that they were in XI, and XI was not my first MMO, and yeah, I have good memories and nostalgia of my first MMO but that did not made the ones in XI less spectacular, the feel of adventure and discovery of XI was, by design, slow paced and that made even leveling 2 or 3 levels feel so epic and reaching more zones very rewarding cuz you have to sneak a lot. Of course, that sense of danger and discovery is less and less felt as you progress, you reach the endgame, feel great and all but eventually you dont have any more ways to feel the excitement as the first time because the game cannot span zones and zones and challenges that feels lithe that first step to Jeuno. People, thats natural, you cannot expect from games or real life to always have the same sense of wonder.

The problem I see with XIV (that is being exaggerated by people and denied completely by some more people) is that the super fast reaching to end game makes the epicness feel concentrated, you progress very fast and the first time you reach 50 feels great if you follow the path intended (doing quest, main scenario, etc) cuz you are discovering and having different stuff every time, but once you have a couple jobs o 50, no quest left and no other activities in game that genetare that feeling of acomplishment or exitement, obviously you get mad and try to blame the game, but thats something that happens EVERYWHERE, and sure, XIV feels like a fast roller-coaster that gave it all at start, and now you have to give it time to get more stuff to do.

I really enjoy XIV, liked XI a lot, and the memories of epicness are there, but I aswell remember why I left, XIV gave me a way of freedom in exploration as the danger is non existant, and that I like too, as I dont have to feel stressed to do some thing or another, sure, needs more things to do but it will get them eventually, I for one am waiting for the expansion, and If I would like XIV to take from XI is the constant updates, seriously people, I read a lot of complains in this forums, and examples on how another game does something more convenient/easier/better but... why are they not playing that game then? well, cuz overall, XIV is a better game, it has better controls, constant support and updates, looks nice, etc.

I tried to play another MMO that a friend is playing, and time and time again I was thinking "XIV did this better" and now I am not playing that game, as simple as that.

Nowdays I am burned out from XIV and jut log to do some stuff every other day, but I am not complaining that I am not interested in leveling a tank, or try extreme fights, there they are, and good for them, maybe another time I will try them

What I want to say and it will be ignored cuz people like to complain (it is fun to argue after all), is that don't take extremes

XIV is not broken, is a great game, but also, the flags that something could be better cuz other game did are ok to point out but don't mark the game as a failure cuz you found/remember something was done more to your tastes elsewhere, and people could be more comprehensive and dont demerit the comments of others just saying is because some nostalgia googles or fanboyism for another game.

[Amberion]

Lemme tell ya whats wrong here : UR 1st MMO feeling is very subjective, let us ask those who say FF14 is their 1st MMO, shall we?

Doesn't work that way for everyone. I'm sure some have good memories of books, movies or whatever that wasn't their first one. If it where like you describe, people would not look forward to new things.

[Black91CRX]

Lemme tell ya whats wrong here : UR 1st MMO feeling is very subjective, let us ask those who say FF14 is their 1st MMO, shall we?

Yep. This was my first MMO and I love it. It's not perfect of course. But most of the complaints I find on these forums can be chalked up to nostalgia over prior games.
Take FFVII, a great game. But alot of people who were obsessed with FFVI hate it. It's like they can't enjoy something for what it is because the feel they are betraying their first love lol.

[Fizzy]

Lemme tell ya whats wrong here : UR 1st MMO feeling is very subjective, let us ask those who say FF14 is their 1st MMO, shall we?

This is my first paid MMO and only the second I've ever played (played Guild Wars when it first came out). I'm no stranger to them or games in general but after a year playing ARR, I'm a little curious about the where they are taking this game. With each patch of limited content and repetitive gameplay, my enthusiasm drops a little. I'm still managing to have some fun but the gameplay and unrewarding grinds are starting to wear me down when its made the main focus. It's certainly a beautiful game to run through though. Unfortunately, many of the most interesting places about it are unreachable or cannot be explored.

My biggest gripe though would have to be lack of immersion through gameplay and game design. The open world doesn't seem very big or open to me and lacks any sense of danger that an open world full of monsters should have. Teleports are nice but take away the immersion in the open world and reduces the overall size of the game when any point in the game can be reached fairly quickly, especially when the large aetherytes are close together. Combine that and the instances that dungeons are played through and I do feel like I'm playing an arcade game rather than a mmorpg. Basically, there's no adventure to be had in the open world. Opening it up is the peak of adventure right now and everything that follows is just repetitive play. I'm hoping that future content will change this.

[CGMidlander]

The open world doesn't seem very big or open to me and lacks any sense of danger that an open world full of monsters should have. Teleports are nice but take away the immersion in the open world and reduces the overall size of the game when any point in the game can be reached fairly quickly, especially when the large aetherytes are close together. Combine that and the instances that dungeons are played through and I do feel like I'm playing an arcade game rather than a mmorpg. Basically, there's no adventure to be had in the open world. Opening it up is the peak of adventure right now and everything that follows is just repetitive play. I'm hoping that future content will change this.

Running around in FFXI and XIV 1.0 was annoying, not fun. The zones were big, but mostly empty.
It's "immersive" in theory, but it's really just a novelty that one can easily get tired of after familiarization.

[Amberion]

Running around in FFXI and XIV 1.0 was annoying, not fun. The zones were big, but mostly empty.
It's "immersive" in theory, but it's really just a novelty that one can easily get tired of after familiarization.

Not really sure what you mean with empty. Not many mobs? Very little trees and other things? Few players around?

To me it felt like a world in itself. And that for me in a RPG is important.

[CGMidlander]

Not really sure what you mean with empty. Not many mobs? Very little trees and other things? Few players around?

To me it felt like a world in itself. And that for me in a RPG is important.

Have a gander at Black Shroud 1.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti2AIhEoH9Y

Lots of copy-pasted blocks and very low monster density

[Fizzy]

Running around in FFXI and XIV 1.0 was annoying, not fun. The zones were big, but mostly empty.
It's "immersive" in theory, but it's really just a novelty that one can easily get tired of after familiarization.

Watching that video I certainly got the feeling of running through a forest. I didn't see any camps or establishments until reaching a final destination on the other side. Just because they didn't put anything in that space doesn't mean it was bad and you shouldn't have it. It means they had bad vision and bad game design as far as making good use of that space. You can have that exact same problem with a condensed area that looks great but has too much repetitive gameplay. I envisioned all sorts of possibilities and adventures with traversing a wooded area like that. But it's the interactions with the environment that create the immersion. I don't really get that in 14. I wish I did because there's a lot of places that look great and are well designed but fall flat in purpose and interaction. Running to an area like a dungeon entrance once to unlock it then revisiting the area each time after through an instance just isn't that immersive.