Power-leveling is absolutely BROKEN

[AmyRae]

One of the downsides of Producer/Director Yoshida elevating "powerleveling" to an actual feature of the game is that it is more expected by lower-level players that higher-level players provide this "service" ... just like a non-crafter would expect a crafter to repair his equipment for a price.

[nostalgic sigh] Level Syncing was just so much better and well thought out. [/nostalgic sigh]

Is there really all that much between 1 and 50 that you need to slow down for to begin with?

My feeling is the next year is going to focus on endgame material, anyway, so you may as well level to your heart's content before it's all thrown away.

[Majidah]

Is there really all that much between 1 and 50 that you need to slow down for to begin with?

My feeling is the next year is going to focus on endgame material, anyway, so you may as well level to your heart's content before it's all thrown away.

All I hear is end-game material while there is close to no low mid level material.

[darkstarpoet1]

One of the downsides of Producer/Director Yoshida elevating "powerleveling" to an actual feature of the game is that it is more expected by lower-level players that higher-level players provide this "service" ... just like a non-crafter would expect a crafter to repair his equipment for a price.

[nostalgic sigh] Level Syncing was just so much better and well thought out. [/nostalgic sigh]

at least as a crafter they would offer me something in return for my services. they expect you to power level them for free.

[DeadRiser]

All I hear is end-game material while there is close to no low mid level material.

Quoted for truth. Low level content is so much fun because you are limited to what you can do and usually requires just as much skill as higher level content. Just in a different way

[Issac]

I feel like I need to edit the OP to reflect where the discussion went and what the current state of affairs is.

Any suggestions?

[Jynx]

I feel like I need to edit the OP to reflect where the discussion went and what the current state of affairs is.

Any suggestions?

All I know is one of the larger arguements against PL (That I agree with) is that rushing everyone to 50 is asking them to leave.

You hit multiple jobs to 50 in a matter of days

-Do darkhold
-Kill Ifirit

....?

People can contain what takes people playing at a normal pace months to do...in a matter of days.

[NoctisUmbra]

All I know is one of the larger arguements against PL (That I agree with) is that rushing everyone to 50 is asking them to leave.

You hit multiple jobs to 50 in a matter of days

-Do darkhold
-Kill Ifirit

....?

People can contain what takes people playing at a normal pace months to do...in a matter of days.

There's a solid counter to that argument, too.

What's the alternative to rushing? Taking your time and doing what? Shposhae and Toto-Rak?

At the end of the day the fact of the matter is there are more things to do at 50 than before it. Even more things to do at 40 than before it, when you include the strongholds. Add to that that they are adding more and more content for level 50s.

Why are they doing this? The answer is simple. They are putting in content to keep the current playerbase happy, seeing is how a vast majority has a capped class or two, while they simultaneously work on 2.0. They are limited in the amount of content they can provide, and thus have to prioritize high level content vs low level content. My bets are they are working on more low-mid level content alongside high level content for 2.0 while they focus on high level for the current game.

Thus, allowing players to make use of an expedited path to 50 makes sense. It's primarily popular at lower ranks but at higher ranks, especially above 40, regular xp parties are the standard. The reason PL parties are more popular at lower levels goes hand in hand with the reason they allow PL and focus on high level content: there are not a lot of players right now that have no capped classes.

Were there more new players coming in then PL wouldn't be an issue since people would find regular xp parties. Most of the arguments I see against the existence of PL stems from this very lack of xp parties. Other arguments are purely opinionated.

To each his own.

[AmyRae]

Quoted for truth. Low level content is so much fun because you are limited to what you can do and usually requires just as much skill as higher level content. Just in a different way

Normally, I would agree to have plenty of casual, low-level content around. I play casually myself, after all, so it would be natural to give in to those selfish desires.

But, the writing is on the wall. With subscription fees being charged and 2.0 on the horizon, we're not going to see much in the way of new players being brought into FFXIV for the next year.

No, the majority of people who will stick around to pay fees are the hardcore, die-hard FF players who are more interested in collecting the limited-time-offer endgame gear before it all goes away when 2.0 arrives. For that reason, I don't mind that there's powerleveling, because there's no point, really, in catering to a casual base that won't be around.

Keeping what community the game can is the best thing it can do, in my opinion. Entertained hardcore players is definitely the best bet. Bring back the casual players in 2.0.

[Jynx]

[COLOR="navy"]What's the alternative to rushing? Taking your time and doing what?

Leveling, and perhaps that rank 50 content can act like a goal for people to reach for. I agree there is little content prior to 50 but powerleveling isn't the answer.

If SE is that adamant about only designing rank 50 content why not just let people be rank 50? I don't get the point of the leveling system if it's going to be 100% pointless until at least 2.0 and perhaps even beyond that.

The "Grind" has a purpose of killing time, and keeping players in the game for a longer period of time. If SE wants to run around this all the power to them, I'm just saying don't expect alot of those people who rushed to 50 to bother sticking around when they finished all of the 2 (3 in the future) things they can do as Level 50 characters.

[AmyRae]

The "Grind" has a purpose of killing time, and keeping players in the game for a longer period of time.

The scheduled rewards of a grind aren't as addicting as the random rewards of endgame content. It actually makes more sense to short-circuit the grind so people can get to the slot machine that is endgame gear production. That is, if the goal is to keep people around longer. The more level 50 classes you have, the more gear you want to collect.