A question for the people who want faster exp.

[Sephrick]

Too many people want immediate satisfaction.

Just don't take time to really experience the game because "grinding is boring".
You know how we fixed that in XI? We talked to each other. We built relationships in our linkshels and random parties. We enjoyed each others company and took advantage of the online aspect of the game. The game was too hard to beat by yourself, so you where forced to play together and work towards those long term goals as a community.

But whatever, I'm ranting about the old days I barely experienced. Point is, I like the struggles that bring us together.

Why does 1-50 have to be a struggle in addition to everything else?

Why can't actual events be the struggle and 1-50 just be a brief tutorial on how to play a class?

I know my LS has had a blast since Tuesday, and none of it involved slowly gaining levels at a snails pace.

Did you miss where I said "I get not wanting an arduously long and grueling grind, but to argue for a nearly non-existent one? That simply doesn't make sense within this genre, in my eyes."

That's my point. For a lot of fans of the RPG "the grind" is an important form of content. It's not even about teaching the basics of a class, it's a bout building your character. The excitement of gaining new abilities, the progression to more intimidating enemies, working your way through different landscapes. That's not just teaching the basics of a class, it's a part of RPG gameplay that has existed since the beginning of the genre.

And your argument about materia is flimsy. The increase in exp increases the speed it's produced as well since Spiritbond is exp based. Plus, you can buy it.

I did read where you mentioned that, but your whole premise is the assumption that it's all or nothing.

You're excluding every other grind in the game because you want leveling to be one very specific way.

You're right, you can buy materia. But what happens when someone drops their entire bank roll on materia and the gear in which to place it in just to have it blow up and result in all those items lost?

Guess what, then they're eiher grinding spiritbond to make their own materia or grinding their preferred method of making Gil. But again, that let's people play their way.

There are so many other ways to build your character in this game, and materia is a big part of it. Players can customize entire gear sets for specific situations. And they have to do it by grinding.

And I know some might say "what about Gil buyers, they won't have to grind for materia?" The answer is the same for when people would pay for leveling services in games with longer paths to cap: some people will cut all corners possible no matter the cost.

There are plenty of grinds in this game that involve making your character better than the runt-of-the-mill level 50 character.

What the current system offers is choice.

It bothers me personally, and I think others, for 2 specific reasons.

1) When you have the option to just jump to the level cap with little to no work, the people who would prefer an RPG style of gameplay are going to be relegated to using the quicker option out of necessity because too many other people are are choosing that option and there aren't enough people to support the traditional RPG style of gameplay, or because of peer pressure from people they'd like to play with. If the option for easy is there, very few people choose hard.

2) The morphing of RPGs and MMOs ever closer to hack-and-slash is contributing to the death of the RPG genre, as has been talked about above your post.

1) So what your saying is developers should cater to a niche minority instead of making something new? And they should eliminate they "player your own way" system of choice and expect people to want to play an archaic style of gameplay?

2) Thing is, that old RPG element is in all other games, which shows how shallow it is as far as content goes. Heck I level my character by grinding in Modern Warfare and Assassins Creed multiplayer but I never even notice because I'm actually have fun.

Could you imagine if Activision cane out and said "We have some really awesome multiplayer maps coming, but first you need to spend six months at a shooting range."

Gaming has evolved, and multiplayer with RPG-style character progression is the focus of most games. That's why leveling to cap can nonlonger be the game. They're no longer competing with just other MMOs, they're competing with all games. If you give the average player a choice of having fun with a grind hidden under the surface and grinding to get to the fun they'll choose the former nine times out out of ten.

That's not to say a developer can't choose to make a grind-centric old school game. But they'd also not have to sink more than 50 million dollars and now six years of major development time into it. Demon's Souls is a good example -- they set out to make something old school but developed it to be a "big success" at 500,000 units sold. To put that into perspective, XIV shipped just over 600,000 and was considered an utter failure.

tl;dr: You can grind materia, or grind the Gil to buy materia, and grind raids for drops. And those are all avenues of choice centered on the character building you mention. You even have the choice to level from 1-50 slowly. But if your main cause for concern is that there aren't enough like-minded people that want to play your way then guess what? The problem isn't with the game design, it's just that you have an unpopular opinion of what is fun.

Progress is a good thing. Do try to see the bigger picture, not everything in the game needs to be an arduous climb.

[Gramul]

Why does 1-50 have to be a struggle in addition to everything else?

Why can't actual events be the struggle and 1-50 just be a brief tutorial on how to play a class?

I know my LS has had a blast since Tuesday, and none of it involved slowly gaining levels at a snails pace.

Because effort and growth.

[Griss]

I cut my teeth on pen and paper rpg's. we treated character progression as an important afterthought of the adventures. Now i realize that does not exactly translate well into the modern vidyagame rpg's. But still to this day that's how i view it.