The Journey - Is It Still Wanted?

[AtryxEtair]

For all those naysayers telling us "nostalgia is blinding you" and "it was a pain you're just remembering it wrong." The fact is that the events in the past experiences brought about emotions in us because of the difficulty, exploration, challenges, and what have you in the first place. Otherwise the nostalgia would not exist. We will not feel nostalgic about playing XIV in this state in any positive way but except the idea that we be able to make fun of ourselves for playing it. But that isn't the game itself. We are asking for an experience that offers a wide spectrum of activities that appeals to a wide spectrum of emotions. Sometimes that includes frustration and anger. You can't appreciate the sunny days if you don't have any rainy ones.

[Fuma-Kotaro]

there will be no journey until 2.0 (and that is not guaranteed), it is simply leveling in a forest, coastline area or desert at different levels.

This right here is the major issue the game has right now...you pretty much have 3-4 types of areas to grind in and they all feel the same...no matter what lvl you are. Also in several cases you are just fighting the same mobs but higher lvl.

I remember the first time entering crawlers nest and saying to myself wow i really want to explore this place. XIV currently has nothing that stands out from the zone you were just in.

So i cant blame anyone that has seen it once on their trip to 50, trying to shorten the grind on another class....After my 3rd 50 the last thing i wanted to do was kill another raptor at the same boring camp i had been to countless times. There is something XI had that XIV had failed to reproduce.

Sadly showing the diversity of XI landscapes in this thread ...makes XIV look so vanilla.Think its SE that made ppl not want the "Journey".

[Dragonhaven]

/rant on (sorry i gotta)

I do miss the diversity of regions, mobs, and that at the end of the long journey things were not soo bloody difficult to kill. I get that they want us to be able to get to 50 as fast as possible, but for what? To die to iffrit all the time because the fight is retarded. Ill clarify for the person who's about to troll me... when the battle's win depends on luck, random ability spam from a mob that does crazy dmg and how many other parties are doing the battle adding lag to the fight... thats retarded.

Sorry for the small rant but I am soo tired of fights and areas that seem like they haven't been properly tested with a balanced party. For a director to be mad when his fight was taken down in 4 days.. seriously?! We just finished our 30th run and still die from lots of lag etc, and I have yet to see any ("we are looking in to this and are going to fix the fight") I hope that the next patch makes this fight possible for the rest of us who enjoy playing the game and for some reason have not been able to best this beast (we usually get him to hellfire but are unable to recover because he usually does plume and eruption before we can regather).

For everyone who is able to do this battle now np congrats I'm happy you have had soo much success I would like to enjoy the rewards as well.

Here's hoping that the next patch doesn't make this fight impossible (oh and for the "chill its still free" person I have an xi account I don't use, however, I pay for to show my support for this fail game.

/rant off (ty for skipping over if you did :P less your a director in that case wtf srsly?!)

[Afkam]

Aah nostalgia... FFXI was my first MMO and I treasure every memory of the experience! How can I ever forget that first journey on the ferry in Mhaura where I was smote down by an enormous Sea Monk?! Yeah, it was embarrassing reaching the shores of Selbina for the first time DOA, but there was a Raise waiting for me on the dock in the form of a gracious White Mage. Good times! Remember the excitement of earning your Chocobo license? Back when I did this quest you had to feed a chocobo gausebit grass every hour for four hours at exactly the same time. Well, my last feeding was scheduled at 3 in the morning...zzz I dozed off, missed the timing and had to wait another hour to complete the quest! Now I can look back and laugh, but at the time it seemed harsh.

The point is, the love of that world brought me here and I want to make it to endgame and beyond. FFXIV has gone through a lot of growing pains since its premature release last year, but it has transformed into a breathtaking and immersive world that I always enjoy exploring.

[Kymusashi]

For me and most of the members of my LS, the journey is badly needed. Everything in FFXI seemed to exciting and rewarding, and I got to meet hundreds of players that way.

This game, in its many forms, has made leveling more of a routine than anything else. First it was leve cycles, and not its aoe spam grind, but at least the random pick ups now exist.

[FilthyDisco]

I totally agree here. It's too easy to get to 50, and there's way too little diversity in camps and places to exp and sites to see. The journey isn't there, the only decently enjoyable thing is the end game content, which right now is sub-par.

I really want to see the character and enviroment evolve and progress more throughout levels.

[charlemagne]

Most enjoyable thread I've read on here in weeks. I loved xi and still rank it as the best game I've ever played. Yes the journey to cap is too quick at the moment, but we also need to remember a part of that is because its a journey to 50 and not to 75.

[SniperRifle]

Didn't even read. I agree w/ the first paragraph.

It's been said to death, but for the billionth refreshing reminder that the original producer was a complete idiot to have Lv1-50 done in the same zone.

Now I suffer minor nostalgia from the pics.

[RahJah]

All of the wonderful adventure in FFXI is absent in FFXIV. FFXIV is just like sprinting through a really cool art gallary.

When stepping out of the nation into the wildland, it should be dangerous! There should be a 4th nation that we slowly progress to on foot much like jueno. Being able to out-run mobs takes the challenge of traveling. Furthermore, a travel without challenge is not an adventure. Adventure must have that danger component. The hazards should increase as you travel outward.

I would wager that the major majority of all of the people sticking around to play FFXIV through all of this mess are the ones that got hooked to FFXI. That is the only reason I am still here...

[Fendras]

My two gil:
I don't powerlevel. I worked my way up to 50 with a close friend at a fairly gradual pace. Now I'll be doing that all over again with a new but similar class. That's cool with me. My biggest complaint (which will be fixed in 2.0) is the fact that it feels like I've been in the same three places the entire time. Imagine if 1-60 in WoW took place entirely in, say, Elwynn Forest, Dun Morogh, and Durotar.

Exploration is a huge deal to me, and while I like this game, it's sorely lacking in that aspect.