Message from actual new player

[Anapingofness]

Hmm...

I'm still updating for the patch but in about an hour I'll be able to see this difficulty that has a lot of panties in a bunch.

Personally, and speaking as an FFXI vet, I welcome the difficulty. If I overcome something that is hard then I feel more accomplished. I'm not saying make it bloody impossible, not by a long shot, but I think there should be some work involved.

I think far too many games simply hand things out on a sliver platter.

So much like the conversation between Savage and the Alpha in Brave New World, I prefer to go through hardships to get to my goal because otherwise it is meaningless.

In simpler terms- i don't want instant gratification because it has no meaning and it gets old real fast.

Therefore in my opinion new players should be more flexible. They should learn to play the game instead of having the game be dumbed down so that a trained monkey can play it.

I remember how awesome it felt to clear CoP when it came out. Yeah it was hard, gods it was infuriating but the frustration came from human error and not because the game was too hard.
I know that people who had cleared it back then know the feeling I'm talking about.

I think it's safe to say that it is that feeling that those of us who had beat CoP want to recapture.

Also, if you want something that is dumb and has no place in a game look at FFXI's AV or Pandemonium Warden, before the patches.

[Biggs]

You do know that the majority of the MMO demographic play MMO's on PC's, yes? The fact is that they released this game for PC first, which more or less invalidates your point. If they developed the game for PC then they were going after the PC demographic.

This game sold over 600,000 PC copies. Do you think it will come anywhere near that amount for PS3? I'm not Nostradamus, but I feel pretty safe saying that the PS3 launch won't see 600,000 copies sell. Yes, I do post a good bit, but that doesn't mean I hate the game. Frankly, you should address the argument in the post instead of the poster, but hey, to each his own. By all objective measurements, this game did fail a year ago. I came back after a year to see how they're doing. It's bearable to play now, and I plan to play, but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep quiet about all the problems I have with the game.

No, your definitly not Nostradamus, cause I am pretty sure that guy could read. You said in your first response to me that no one is going to play this once they start charging. You then turn around and say that you stopped playing for year but came back to try it out. So if your willing to do so, you don't think others are as well? I think this last patch was a significant improvement to the game as a whole and that, given a few more patches like it, this game could easily be turned around. The fact remains, SE has made 2 MMO's now that include both PC and Console players playing together, something that very few (if any) MMO producers try to do. This would indicate to me at least that they see BOTH demographics as equal scources of income. And a good indication that SE isn't trying to encourage new players would be the total lack of advertising as well as the producer saying, multiple times I might add, that the game is still in the process of being redeveloped. And yes actually, I do think this could sell as many copies if not more than the PC version did. I talk to players and see posts all the time about people still waiting for this to hit the Ps3 so they can play with their friends. Time will tell I guess, but just because I don't work for SE doesn't mean I can't deduce from blatant evidence what their current intention is.

Edit: And when I say advertising, I mean internet adds. I certainly don't have any delusion about this suddenly blowing up all over TV.

[ShiroNeko]

On the other hand, in my opinion all Final Fantasy games have been quite easy if you only do the storyline part. Sure, most games in the series takes ~40-60 hours to complete when doing the first run (not counting XIII). And such, I think even this games storyline should be fairly easy to follow through. And honestly, I do believe that the enemies should be hard so that parties have an effect, but in contrast, I want enemies thats supposed to be for your level or slightly below to be rewarding more, so that grind works again.
All Final Fantasy games I've played (VII, VIII, IX, X, XII) have been very grind-supportive, If you'd spend ~4 hours grinding before first boss in FFVII, you can run through 1 disk in no time at all, everything will die at 1 attack anyway.
So not allowing grind in a FF-game seems quite wrong . I do however as stated encourage harder enemies and higher sp gain when in party, I just think that solo should be an option.

Edit: I lost ~250 of 1000 hp with 1.19, as well as my equiped weapon dropped from doing ~150 dmg to doing 19 dmg, but I still play with hopes of improvements to solo capability later on.

//Regards

[Blarp]

No, your definitly not Nostradamus, cause I am pretty sure that guy could read. You said in your first response to me that no one is going to play this once they start charging. You then turn around and say that you stopped playing for year but came back to try it out. So if your willing to do so, you don't think others are as well? I think this last patch was a significant improvement to the game as a whole and that, given a few more patches like it, this game could easily be turned around. The fact remains, SE has made 2 MMO's now that include both PC and Console players playing together, something that very few (if any) MMO producers try to do. This would indicate to me at least that they see BOTH demographics as equal scources of income. And a good indication that SE isn't trying to encourage new players would be the total lack of advertising as well as the producer saying, multiple times I might add, that the game is still in the process of being redeveloped. And yes actually, I do think this could sell as many copies if not more than the PC version did. I talk to players and see posts all the time about people still waiting for this to hit the Ps3 so they can play with their friends. Time will tell I guess, but just because I don't work for SE doesn't mean I can't deduce from blatant evidence what their current intention is.

Edit: And when I say advertising, I mean internet adds. I certainly don't have any delusion about this suddenly blowing up all over TV.

I exaggerated that point. I'm not delusional. I know people will come back to the game, but if you're expecting this game to have a big turn around, I think you're going to be sorely disappointed. I've seen many bad MMO launches, and the general consensus in the industry is that a bad launch is crippling. That's notion has held true for XIV so far. SE finds themselves in a peculiar situation in that they have an opportunity to have a "relaunch" of sorts, and I'm very curious to see how that goes because it's not happened in the industry before.

You honestly believe this game has the ability to sell 600,000 copies on the PS3? Personally, I don't think this game has the ability to retain 600,000 players across both platforms. I don't think FFXI, even when it was popular, had 600,000 subscribers. That doesn't mean the game is a failure though. An MMO doesn't need to have millions of subscribers to be a success. Games like FFXI and EVE Online are perfect examples of that.

[Pyrix]

This patch did more harm than progress.

[Bled]

Yes, your post IS ignorant. Ignorant to how the game worked back in the day, having friends or not having friends had absolutely nothing to do with having the occasional bad dunes party. Why do you think Valkurm Dunes had the negative stigma it had for years, because no one on any server had friends? Ignorance, son. Just stop talking about FFXI, you clearly don't know much about it.

lol Valkrum had its negative stigma for being the new players next stop for leveling after soloing to 10, everything after that was a result of new players learning their job roles, avoiding mobs, and leveling spots. If you truly had a hard time in dunes it was because you were not very good at developing friendships with decent players. Was every EXP party golden? no, but i never wiped countless times resulting in losing more exp than i gained from the group. I also never raged at new players that were learning their job and for the most part they would do fine in the group. You can easily see by your posts that you are an unpleasant person, and if you conduct yourself anything like you do in your posts in a party i can see your problem.

You just seem to be a bitter person which probably lead to you having such a difficult time. Of course when the game got older it became increasingly difficult to find parties in Valkrum because the main player base moved out. However originally if you made friends, had a ls, and conducted yourself well you wouldn't have had problems.

"Yes, your post IS ignorant. Ignorant to how the game worked back in the day" i generally don't say this because it causes more harm then good. However if that's how the game worked for you, "you were doing it wrong".

[Aion]

test creating new char in new server, yes the fight took longer, but it is not hard. the leveling feels worthy now. get rid all your habit from pre 1.19. learn to find which mob to kill, and how to improve your char(play-wise and gear wise)

[Lavani]

The game is balanced around gear with one Materia attached. While the beginning will not be pretty, let two weeks pass by when Materia'd gear is in the market. It should be easier for all of us.

Assuming new players like myself can afford such luxury.

[Sylvari]

Assuming new players like myself can afford such luxury.

Take your time, learn your way around... like I'm sure most older players will have to again...

[kensredemption]

I don't care...I've never played with them and I would probably never meet them even if you mention them so why would I care?

This guy's got a troll face...oh wait, that's a tumor caused by his over-inflated ego, perpetuated by his constant face-plastering into the monitor trolling people.

Herp-derp-derp.