Quote Originally Posted by Eldaena View Post
I guess people just need to weigh how little you care about people getting power leveled vs how much you like being able to invite someone on the fly, even in battle (or oust for that matter). Personally, I don't care if people power level this way, and why should I? Levels are not what make players good in this game, and the players getting power leveled and just standing there are going to be at a disadvantage in the long run because they do not know how to play their classes. I do, however, enjoy being able to invite someone that d/ced right away or add them to the party when they log in, etc. I could kind of care less what others are doing unless they're botting, and even then there isn't much anyone can do about that either.
I could understand a longer experience if it was done through storylines and epic quests.

But I just can't find the logic in grinding the same few months being seen as a "journey."

It's not at all. I did it in XI and it was insanity. If a developer isn't going to put gameplay in their game they shouldn't bother.

It doesn't even have to be a series of quests. Tell me I'm a private first class in a Grand Company and need to prove myself. Then give a system like Assault in XI accept the reward is mostly exp.

Save the open world fodder mobs for soloing and getting over the hump of "those last few exp" that sometimes happen. That's what I had hoped leves would be but, alas, SE pushed a fragment of a game to market.

XI-style Grind Parties are neither challenging or engaging. So that's why I believe Yoshida has it right. He had to make some tough decisions to achieve the most good. I hope the exp grind is a really journey in 2.0, so when they do raise the level cap (note: when they raise it to 60, with the current rate of exp curve growth, 51-60 will require as much exp as 1-48) we have an experience befitting the Final Fantasy name and not an XI-style staring contest with our screen.

My memories of Final Fantasy aren't of grinding. The leveling occured on the way to the next piece of the story. Just because it's an MMO doesn't mean it can't also be that way.

Darkhold is a good example. It'd be a great place to level from 45-50 if there was no time limit and we were encouraged to explore it. Then the leveling curve could be a hell of a lot longer because the player wouldn't be focused on leveling. They'd be playing the game while getting exp in the process.