FFXIV shows what's wrong with MMOs (Not what you think)

[basketofseals]

??? It's not rare for mmorpgs to have a main storyline throughout the game and I am not sure if you can call the sb story great based on how generic and uninspired it's been so far compared to HW. Lastly just because one thing is better than another that doesn't make said thing "good:. It's like comparing wonder woman to batman v superman, is WW better than BvS? Yes. Then does that make WW a good movie? No.

I mean it's certainly better than WoW, who is its main competitor. That universe no longer runs on logic, and you can only "rule of cool" so many times before everything starts seeming normal.

[Zojha]

MMOs in the West are having a tough time. Mostly because it's all about ilvls and/or PvP ratings. FFXIV is about the story. And that's rare these days.

It's rare in general, because, well... story and MMO don't go very well together.

That's why the vast majority of the MSQ is solo only. The story is largely pushed outside the realm of multiplayer, with all the lengthier cutscenes playing after the group is abandoned and you've left the dungeon, because the one time they didn't do it like that, it went very, very badly. We know that as the Castrum/Praetorium issue. People even go as far as to disable chat to avoid spoilers and let's face it: That Lalafell jumping up and down in a pig suit is just immersion breaking.

Moreover, the story takes up quite a bit of resources, but is a one-and-done kind of deal, whereas the MMO genre lives and breathes repetition to facilitate group play. And the gating the story creates hinders meaningful player interaction, which is the core of MMOs. It's not a very good fit and creates an innate conflict of interest in the playerbase as well.

As such, single-player games and movies are simply far better suited to tell a story as neither have all that baggage and conflicts attached. The prior is superior if you want players to be able to alter the flow of the story, the latter if you just want to tell a fixed story without interaction from the viewers. And it's IMO a very sad thing that this game's story doesn't capitalize on the unique potential of the interactive medium (i.e. a video game) to make the story interactive as well.


Personally, I must confess I don't even care for the MSQ. The only cutscenes I watch are those in sidequests and I regularly find myself cursing when I skip a cutscene that looked interesting out of sheer habit from the MSQ. A long, mandatory story is a pretty meh affair if you dislike the characters and find the plot cringey. At least if that happens in job quests, it doesn't last long, so it's more tolerable.

[Lium]

??? It's not rare for mmorpgs to have a main storyline throughout the game and I am not sure if you can call the sb story great based on how generic and uninspired it's been so far compared to HW. Lastly just because one thing is better than another that doesn't make said thing "good:. It's like comparing wonder woman to batman v superman, is WW better than BvS? Yes. Then does that make WW a good movie? No.

FFXIV is not without its faults. No game is perfect. I dabble in about 10 MMOs casually. These are the games that have a large storyline that I've played: SWTOR, ESO, GW2, LOTRO, and TSW.

None come close to this game. But that's just my opinion.

[Remedi]

I mean it's certainly better than WoW, who is its main competitor. That universe no longer runs on logic, and you can only "rule of cool" so many times before everything starts seeming normal.

Oh boy if this is true, I've even read some of the books and frankly sometimes seems that charcaters go full retard when the plot demands it or just flip flop when the need arises just to create drama.
I felt this coming with the wrathgate event and should've seen what came after from there.

Anyway on OP: I agree that the story is done better than most but that let's not forget that they also need to back the rest of game with good content.

(besides they could trim the story of ARR a bit imho)

[Lium]

Snip

To each their own. You sound like the type of player that would be comfortably at home in a game like WoW. And that's TOTALLY cool. I played that game for 13 years. They don't care about story at all. It's all about raiding and gear progression. WoW players have long abandoned any care about story because they realized Blizzard doesn't really care about it. They just retcon and come up with nonsensical stuff because reasons. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. They know their playerbase.

Also, your idea about interactive storytelling in an MMO sounds dubious to me, precisely because of what you pointed out: some player in a pig costume jumping up and down screaming, "GO GO GO", with a name like Fleshsaberforyou. Again, nothing wrong with that. That's people. And that's exactly why I love the solo story where others can't muck it up for me.

[Synrin]

Hope you guys recognize that in between your constant complaining.

It isn't just the story though. It is the content. It isn't like ESO where you have to pay for a dungeon or 5 quests lines. It isn't like WoW that has been so stale that it begun to crumble and completely deter from what is used/could/should be. And since you mentioned SWTOR - I am currently gated from the Crisis storyline because of my item level. Like seriously, BW? Sigh As if that game had anything BUT the story going for it.

More appreciation and suggestions threads, less bitching as if you are entitled to all sorts of shit, thanks.

[Riardon]

As someone who played lots of Korean MMORPGS both F2P and B2P/ sub based it's the Lore and the story that keeps me interesting. It's one of the very few MMORPGS which are still honour the RPG side of their genre. Without the story, characters, writing, lore the game wouldn't have a soul and would be just like any other MMORPG I played. This one has a soul. It's both a good FF and a good MMORPG. There are many times that this game dissapoints me though. There are always large obstacles which prevent the game to achieve an even higher standard of quality and offer more things and features. XIV rekindled my love for both the FF franchise and the MMORPG genre.

[KisaiTenshi]

MMOs in the West are having a tough time. Mostly because it's all about ilvls and/or PvP ratings. FFXIV is about the story. And that's rare these days.

Hope you guys recognize that in between your constant complaining.

If someone comes to a game, and hates some core aspect of it (eg the story, the gameplay or the art style, the fact that it requires multiplayer interaction, all of which I've seen on this forum) What exactly is the point of playing it?

If Square-Enix had designed the entire storyline like Castrum Meridianum, where the cutscenes interrupt the pacing of the gameplay, I'm sure people would complain endlessly of being subjected to cutscenes they've already seen. That's a perfectly legitimate complaint, because people also skip cutscenes in single player games when they play them again, or fail parts of the game. That's why the solo instances exist in the job storylines, because otherwise people who are not on that job, would be spoiled. That's also why the solution for MSQ Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium, to force the cutscenes was not the right permanent solution. The right permanent solution would require breaking those dungeons up in the way Coil/Alexander/Omega is done, and letting the players skip the cutscenes they've already seen.

The fact that SE started putting more single-player+AI player cutscene sequences in, is recognizing the fact that it's impossible to herd cats to do content like Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium without players being jerks to people who want to see the cutscenes and enjoy the story the first time.

If all SE did was release content updates in the form of 24-man alliances, I would not object, because I actually like how the storylines were presented with them. But that doesn't mean I want to keep seeing them over and over again each time there is a new player.

[Tridus]

Oh boy if this is true, I've even read some of the books and frankly sometimes seems that charcaters go full retard when the plot demands it or just flip flop when the need arises just to create drama.
I felt this coming with the wrathgate event and should've seen what came after from there.

Wow had a reasonably coherent story early on. It was never terribly good, but it made enough sense that you could follow it and there was logical progression as to why things happened. There was a pretty strong RP community for a while and we had a lot to work with.

Then it went full on with "change the story to suit whatever we feel like doing this week" and ceased to make any sense whatsoever.

[Divinemights]

Then it went full on with "change the story to suit whatever we feel like doing this week" and ceased to make any sense whatsoever.

WoW's story are from their comic books, no the game.
It is same rip off like Destiny 1 and 2