How PL'ing killed FFXIV.

[Sephrick]

The notion that PLing is some rampant issues is just total bs. I've leveled three classes to 50 via pick up groups and not a single one even mentioned the desire for a power leveler. This whole thing is being blown out of proportion.

XIV isn't like other MMOs. MMOs that fail are either given the F2P microtransaction treatment or just laid to rest. But SE wants subs, because it's a matter of pride to not let a numbered iteration die.

So their situation is this: they have people who spent a year doing nothing but grinding with the promise that changes were coming. They're designing a new version of the game but need an additional year to complete it. In the mean time they have a bunch of people who have been capped since before 1.19 now wanting something to do other than grind more, especially if they're going to be charged subs. With so many resources tied up in 2.0, options are limited.

They made the choice to make enough capped content for their capped community to keep them busy for a year. But what about new people? Capped players won't give a shit about mid level content, so why waste the resources to develop content few will play? Just look at the chocobo escort and level 30 GC leves. The only reason they're in the game is because they're carbon copies of the high level versions. Very little is needed to add them to the game.

So a decision had to be made, if the focus of v1 is going to be that capped crowd, then new players need to reach cap at a reasonable pace, especially since all of the v1 events will be gone or altered in v2.

If it takes someone 6 months to a year to cap their first class, what would be the point of starting prior to v2? Sure, they'll get a head start. But without a character at cap they'll miss out on most of the incentive to pay the sub.

Clinging to the idealism that "MMOs should be about leveling" just isn't a reality for XIV, and that realization has to come from looking at the bigger picture. They have to design for people who already earned their grind stripes but still not alienate potential new players in their "one-time event."

Power leveling or a brief grind won't be the death of XIV. The decision responsible for that was and always will be the 2010 release date. Everything after that is just a valiant effort by a dedicated development team to either salvage the game while covering all bases or to go down swinging.

In an ideal world, XIV would have been released with fully-realized content for all level ranges, functioning party search and linkshell management tools, a complete storyline, stats that mattered, group events, a reasonable method of navigating the market wards and a myriad of other concepts that should be the bare bones basics of an MMORPG at this point in gaming.

But that's not what SE did.

The original idea was for XIV to go against the grain of its predecessor. Now Yoshida and crew have no choice but to commit to that notion in their own way.

[darkstarpoet1]

The notion that PLing is some rampant issues is just total bs. I've leveled three classes to 50 via pick up groups and not a single one even mentioned the desire for a power leveler. This whole thing is being blown out of proportion.

i have to disagree. when you have a level 48 con in the party that doesn't have chainspell nor raise II on their bar because and didn't know they had it nor what they do then the power leveling issue is major. people complained that leve groups were bad because you could get 100-150k in a night in an actual group, but at least then they knew what abilities they got.

getting 500k+ in a few hours while sitting on a chocobo causes those issues to happen. power leveling leads to horrible players that don't have a clue of what they are doing on the class they just capped.

[Baxter]

i have to disagree. when you have a level 48 con in the party that doesn't have chainspell nor raise II on their bar because and didn't know they had it nor what they do then the power leveling issue is major. people complained that leve groups were bad because you could get 100-150k in a night in an actual group, but at least then they knew what abilities they got.

getting 500k+ in a few hours while sitting on a chocobo causes those issues to happen. power leveling leads to horrible players that don't have a clue of what they are doing on the class they just capped.

I'm not saying I don't think PL'ing is ridiculous, but i also feel it is not my place to tell people how to play. Bad part is you run into people like that. Good part is it is usually a one time experience then you can write that person off. There are also people who have had a level 50 and came back to the game recently, and they are getting reacquainted with the system and adjusting to all the changes. I think it is kind of hard to say if this is a product of PL'ing or drastic changes to people who haven't played in a long time, most of them since before 1.18.

[darkstarpoet1]

I'm not saying I don't think PL'ing is ridiculous, but i also feel it is not my place to tell people how to play. Bad part is you run into people like that. Good part is it is usually a one time experience then you can write that person off. There are also people who have had a level 50 and came back to the game recently, and they are getting reacquainted with the system and adjusting to all the changes. I think it is kind of hard to say if this is a product of PL'ing or drastic changes to people who haven't played in a long time, most of them since before 1.18.

i'm not saying i think all power leveling is bad. i don't mind for example a con that needs an ability from thm to be able to get another class ranked up via power leveling to help their main class out. what i do mind is when people power level each class to get all classes to cap and put in no work for them and have no clue of what they are doing. if that person ranked up pre-1.18 they have a clue of how to play their job because at least leve parties taught you more about your class than you learn now.

[Baxter]

i'm not saying i think all power leveling is bad. i don't mind for example a con that needs an ability from thm to be able to get another class ranked up via power leveling to help their main class out. what i do mind is when people power level each class to get all classes to cap and put in no work for them and have no clue of what they are doing. if that person ranked up pre-1.18 they have a clue of how to play their job because at least leve parties taught you more about your class than you learn now.

not really, all i remember is spamming aoe healing and buffs to get a piece of the pie.

[darkstarpoet1]

not really, all i remember is spamming aoe healing and buffs to get a piece of the pie.

which is more than you do sitting on a chocobo now. if you tossed a single heal in one single leve party from 1-50 it's more than you do the entire push from 1-50 now.

now besides that. i remember leve parties and each time i got a skill i had to test it out to see what it does. that's whether it was cure, cure II, shadowsear, or anything else. you could see the ability coming because you did not go up in ranks at this break neck speed. you learned not only what skill you got, but what the skill did when leveling slower. at this point you don't look forward to any ability because you are a few levels past them before you even realize you got them.

[Issac]

So their situation is this: they have people who spent a year doing nothing but grinding with the promise that changes were coming. They're designing a new version of the game but need an additional year to complete it. In the mean time they have a bunch of people who have been capped since before 1.19 now wanting something to do other than grind more, especially if they're going to be charged subs. With so many resources tied up in 2.0, options are limited.

They made the choice to make enough capped content for their capped community to keep them busy for a year. But what about new people? Capped players won't give a shit about mid level content, so why waste the resources to develop content few will play? Just look at the chocobo escort and level 30 GC leves. The only reason they're in the game is because they're carbon copies of the high level versions. Very little is needed to add them to the game.

So a decision had to be made, if the focus of v1 is going to be that capped crowd, then new players need to reach cap at a reasonable pace, especially since all of the v1 events will be gone or altered in v2.

Clinging to the idealism that "MMOs should be about leveling" just isn't a reality for XIV, and that realization has to come from looking at the bigger picture. They have to design for people who already earned their grind stripes but still not alienate potential new players in their "one-time event."

In an ideal world, XIV would have been released with fully-realized content for all level ranges, functioning party search and linkshell management tools, a complete storyline, stats that mattered, group events, a reasonable method of navigating the market wards and a myriad of other concepts that should be the bare bones basics of an MMORPG at this point in gaming.

A compromising argument, Sephrick. This is an angle that I refused to acknowledge, but the way you presented it left me no choice but to accept. However...

The notion that PLing is some rampant issues is just total bs. I've leveled three classes to 50 via pick up groups and not a single one even mentioned the desire for a power leveler. This whole thing is being blown out of proportion.

I already dropped one linkshell because of PL. And I'm considering dropping another because there's constant PL requests/offers at least once an hour. I can't give a certain number, but ballpark figure, about 55-70% of parties I partake in start talking about bringing in a PL within given time. Maybe I'm just unlucky?

The thing is, I don't understand it. It is beyond my comprehension why anyone would even want to overuse PLing. To me, it nullifies the entire point of a MMO. Endgame, in any MMO I have ever played, wasn't all that important to me. What was always the best part is the progression to achieve the ability to partake in endgame.

I don't understand the hype about getting to endgame as quickly as possible. To give an analogy, the concept of that style of gameplay (In my opinion) is like trying to ride a carriage with square wheels. Bumpy and not very enjoyable.