Yoshi-P on Character Growth

[Nama]

This is quite depressing news. Maybe its time to reevaluate if "modern" MMOs in this day and age are really what I'm looking for or at very least readjust my expectations of where this game is going.

[Vaer]

This is quite depressing news. Maybe its time to reevaluate if "modern" MMOs in this day and age are really what I'm looking for or at very least readjust my expectations of where this game is going.

Seems like a lot of games are going down the simplifying route recently. Just a sign of the times really. Most of the ones with the balls to attempt/advertise customization and depth are the crowdfunded ones.

[MomomiMomi]

This is quite depressing news. Maybe its time to reevaluate if "modern" MMOs in this day and age are really what I'm looking for or at very least readjust my expectations of where this game is going.

Adjusting my expectations is exactly where this has led me. I expect the game to continue as it has, and so I am less interested in it. I still like what the game is, I just don't like where it's going.

I've been hoping for them to give me a reason to play for more than a few weeks after a patch. Yoshi-P has spoken; there isn't going to be one.

And so as he has suggested, I will only sub a few months out of the year and focus more on playing other games.


Now please get rid of that damn 45 day house reclamation and extend it to 95. Thanks.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Now please get rid of that damn 45 day house reclamation and extend it to 95. Thanks.

So you can only log in once every three months to binge the patch, but not lose your personal house? It's meant to both incentive you to stay subbed and to ensure people with houses are actually using them. Don't like? Sell your house and get an apartment.

[MomomiMomi]

So you can only log in once every three months to binge the patch, but not lose your personal house? It's meant to both incentive you to stay subbed and to ensure people with houses are actually using them. Don't like? Sell your house and get an apartment.

We can't sell houses.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

We can't sell houses.

You can't sell them for bloated prices. And even that rule is scarcely enforced.

[Sandpark]

I may not like everything Yoshi does but he has made a solid game within the frameworks of a modern mmo. Modern mmos cater to the casual to midcore. You can see it in most other mmos. Account wide perks, world battle scaling, easy to jump in and out of. Yoshi is not the devil.

The pickings are slim for the other style of game usually relegated to playing older mmos or the few old fashioned mmos coming out. I used to bash my head against the wall when I 1st realized the reality of the genre. But fighting it is futile, so I learned to only play when I am feeling the desire and hop to and fro between games.

[Thayos]

Yeah but Wildstar was just some no-name MMO. Old Gen + No Name will only draw in just the MMO-scene.

I've seen this rebuttal a few times, and I profoundly disagree with this line of thinking.

The Final Fantasy franchise clearly isn't the invincible juggernaut it used to be. Yes, the name still carries weight, but not so much in the MMO-sphere. MMORPGs are perpetually competing for a niche demographic of gamers, and those of us in this sphere are greatly exposed to the upcoming titles. Wildstar got TONS of press and publicity as a cool new game that would cater to our old-school needs. Heck, back when ARR launched, it seemed like half the posts in the forums were about how Wildstar was going to crush FFXIV.

We all know how that worked out.

Would more people have tried Wildstar had it been a Final Fantasy game? For sure. But not as many as you'd think if the game still had a weird cartoony art style and grindy old-school mechanics, because today's core MMO demographic doesn't want that... and, to them, Final Fantasy isn't a sacred cow.

Wildstar failed because most MMORPG players don't want to return to that kind of gameplay.

[Reynhart]

The Final Fantasy franchise clearly isn't the invincible juggernaut it used to be.

The brand is very strong. So strong that even if one of the games was absolutely wrecked by critics and players alike, its next version was one of the most successful launch of the decade.

[Welsper59]

This is quite depressing news. Maybe its time to reevaluate if "modern" MMOs in this day and age are really what I'm looking for or at very least readjust my expectations of where this game is going.

Now you're getting it! lol

It's next to impossible to be a "successful" MMORPG these days by designing things identical to the struggles of the past. People want the community we had back in the early XI and vanilla WoW era, but they can't comprehend sitting in a queue that's longer than 10min. They want their content difficult, but will complain the very moment someone new joins or messes up. They want rewards to be meaningful, but expect to be assured its acquisition within a week or two at most. They want to play an MMORPG, but don't want even a remote hint of RNG or "grind" aspects involved (goes side by side with the meaningful rewards comment). This is the majority, where even a good number of people who post here are guilty of comments that prove this mentality is ever present.

That first comment about community is where a majority of players will not fully understand. One would (probably) had to have actually experienced and reflected on the matter to get why negative points actually helped create the positive nostalgia people have. Our encountering people today in dungeons/raids, for example, is mostly a shadow of its former self. You're simply meeting people that you'll likely never see again. You got your positive/negative experience, but that's the extent of it. If you do pre-mades or run stuff with friends, then you're getting that old school experience, but I'd say nearly all of us don't use that as our primary means of experiencing the game.

How often has it happened for someone to have done a DF solo queue, then wound up befriending someone to the point that you get invited by them to do stuff? I think it's safe to say (almost) never, simply because of our need to have a cross-realm/server function. You'll meet some cool people, but the moment you all leave the instance, is the moment your connection has essentially been cut. It's a good and somewhat mandatory thing we have it, but it came at the cost of losing a significant part of that former social perspective. Some people still get that, which is great, but most of us won't "just because."

I'd even go so far as to argue that the regulars on the forums have a greater lasting social connection (good or bad) than most of the DF people we'd encounter lol.

But not as many as you'd think if the game still had a weird cartoony art style and grindy old-school mechanics, because today's core MMO demographic doesn't want that... and, to them, Final Fantasy isn't a sacred cow.

Wildstar failed because most MMORPG players don't want to return to that kind of gameplay.

I disagree on the graphical appearance bit to a small degree, as while there are a large number graphically shallow players, it's not too big of a deal as to whether or not they'd stick around for at least a little while. They'd complain or count on it as a negative, but when have we never complained about things lol.

I do absolutely agree however about most people not wanting to return to the old format of gameplay. Some very much so are willing to, but most can't/don't share such views. As an old time player still playing MMORPGs today, unless I had a static already formed for most/all group content, there's no way I'd stick around for the old format beyond a short period of time or for the nostalgia of it. XI's current form is about as close as I'm willing to get to experiencing old games solo... but that's not saying much as an MMORPG. It's more like I'm playing XI as the single player game many of us wish there could have been (optionally).