Content Finder

[Sylvari]

Invite your friends... Why not make new friends on the server where it matters. Instead of helping other people that you don't even know or won't see again.
It seems more beneficial to help the people you will be playing with or more of a chance to play with than random dumbies.

Who says i want anything out of it? Who says having a nice conversation isn't enough?

[Rousseau]

Who says i want anything out of it? Who says having a nice conversation isn't enough?

[Chardrizard]

Invite your friends... Why not make new friends on the server where it matters. Instead of helping other people that you don't even know or won't see again.
It seems more beneficial to help the people you will be playing with or more of a chance to play with than random dumbies.

I feel sorry for you if you thinks u can only make friends from your server and random strangers from other server is all dumbies to you? No wonder people ignores your posts in this forum.

[Sylvari]

Nice pic, But I'm content with the little things in life... I don't need to be the best.. I'm happy taking my time and enjoying my self. I like to have interesting conversations every time i log in. I've almost reached Euphoria.

[Choyi]

I can't help but feel I'm part of a dying breed of MMO gamers so I might as well phrase myself as such.

Back in my day in the dawn of MMORPGs, getting a dungeone run whats more of an adventure, sure the carrot in the form of shiny items where still dangling in front of us, but the goal wasn't the enterainment, the journey was the game itself.
To chalk it up.

10% was spent on gathering a comptetent group of players.
20% was spent traversing to the location of the dungeon in question, somethings this journey could itself pose challenges and hardships.
50% was spent actualy doing the dungeon, this includes party wipes and everything.
10% was spent focused on the actual loot.
The final 10% spent on chatting with eachother while the group disbanded/traveling back to the safety of a city zone.

Todays average MMO player seems very focused on just that carrot of loot, and will gladly accept any corners cut to reach that goal, to the where soon we just need to que for items instead of actualy have to fight or partake in any challenging content.

And yeah I know this is taken to extreme and sillyness on top of many scopes of nostaligia, but like I said I'll play the role of the old fart missing the "golden days".
Where MMORPGs actualy contained RolePlaying(and I dont mean the form of roleplaying as make-belief RPing a character) outside of stats and items, you know the type of RolePlaying that involves any sort of actual Adventure, like say forming a band and exploring a far away dark dungeon.

In this era of CoD instant gratification mindset I just wish at least one developer had the balls to actualy do their own thing instead of beign deathly afraid of doing anything that isnt considered mainstream, in a more then often feeble attempt to please as many as possible.

Oh well I've ranted enough, and I probably went off topic at some point there as well... Just had to get some of that out of my system I guess... ._.


Forget me for I am already gone

[Rousseau]

Nice pic, But I'm content with the little things in life... I don't need to be the best.. I'm happy taking my time and enjoying my self. I like to have interesting conversations every time i log in. I've almost reached Euphoria.

I wasn't talking about you. I was agreeing with you via sarcasm. :P

i.e. some people aren't content with just having good conversation or a bit of fun; they want it all

[Lior]

I'm an old-school gamer who (perhaps foolishly) clings to an old-school mentality. I don't necessarily buy into the modern mindset of games needing instantly-accessible content, at least not MMORPGs. MMORPGs, to me, are about persistent worlds with regular users who, over time, form a community, work towards objectives, and define the virtual space they play in. They're about a slow boil, and I think the subscription model ties into this - I feel more comfortable paying a sub fee when I expect to be doing something over a long period of time, rather than just jumping in when I feel like it to get a new shiny.

Easily-accessible content isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think that there should be opportunities for people to log in and get something done in the span of an hour, but I think there are a few flawed concepts in the current execution seen in games like WoW or Rift:

1. Content-Finder Content Shouldn't Be The Game's Core Feature
   

   WoW put way too much focus on its instanced dungeons. This isn't inherently a bad thing, but coupled with dungeon finder it became a scenario in which the only content worth doing outside of two, maybe three nights dedicated to raiding, was content that you never had to leave the city or get to know people for. For those who don't raid, which would be the majority of players, this meant that the entire game was played around this queue system, negating a lot of what I feel are the foundations of an MMORPG: world and community.
   
   If FFXIV introduces a content finder, the content it queues you for can not be the end-all be-all of the game for all but the hardcore. Bite-sized adventures are fine, but SE needs to be careful not to completely eliminate all need to remain grounded in the community and the world. Speaking of which...

2. The World Cannot Be Negated
   

   One thing I enjoyed about FFXI was the fact that even when other games around them were jumping on the bandwagon, they never went the instant-and-easy travel route and negated the world their developers spent so long designing. Even FFXIV manages to find a decent balance with its anima system. Why, however, would you spend resources and time creating a game world if that world exists solely to funnel people through levels until they wind up sitting in a city and queueing for instances?
   
   I understand that travel can be a time-waster for those with limited time to spare (though I'd argue that MMOs, by their nature, should require a greater time investment), so perhaps a middle-ground could be a free teleport to the nearest aetheryte? Something that still keeps you in the world, and makes some degree of sense in the context of lore, without turning the game into a lobby game.

3. If I Wanted a Lobby Game, I'd Play One
   

   I play MMOs for a specific kind of gameplay. If I just wanted to run some quick content with people, ignoring all sense of world and community, why would I pay a subscription fee for it? There are countless games that fulfill that niche, there's no reason to turn yet another MMO into one. Hell, if you insist on having levels and items tacked on so you can work towards an achievement with your dungeon-farming, why not play Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2? Final Fantasy doesn't need this. It needs to be its own game.

A content-finder can work, sure, but it really shouldn't take over the game like it does in WoW. My ultimate preference? Look at LOTRO's skirmishes or Rift's chronicles. Small 1 or 2 man bite-sized content with interesting stories and mechanics, and rewards that don't overshadow the main content of the game. It's enough to satisfy the casuals, and can be used safely with a cross-realm model, while still leaving those who have more time to invest firmly grounded in their world and community.

[Jinko]

Back in my day in the dawn of MMORPGs, getting a dungeone run whats more of an adventure, sure the carrot in the form of shiny items where still dangling in front of us, but the goal wasn't the enterainment, the journey was the game itself.
To chalk it up.

10% was spent on gathering a comptetent group of players.
20% was spent traversing to the location of the dungeon in question, somethings this journey could itself pose challenges and hardships.
50% was spent actualy doing the dungeon, this includes party wipes and everything.
10% was spent focused on the actual loot.
The final 10% spent on chatting with eachother while the group disbanded/traveling back to the safety of a city zone.

Chiyo back in the day people used to grow their own food, raise animals and make their own meals. (of course some still do)

These days people prefer to go to a supermarket in a "Queue" buy produce and ready made meals.

Times change and things evolve.

In this era of CoD instant gratification mindset I just wish at least one developer had the balls to actualy do their own thing instead of beign deathly afraid of doing anything that isnt considered mainstream, in a more then often feeble attempt to please as many as possible.

Tanaka tried this and see where it got him.

Forget me for I am already gone

You'll be back.

[Jinko]

Content-Finder Content Shouldn't Be The Game's Core Feature

WoW put way too much focus on its instanced dungeons. This isn't inherently a bad thing, but coupled with dungeon finder it became a scenario in which the only content worth doing outside of two, maybe three nights dedicated to raiding, was content that you never had to leave the city or get to know people for. For those who don't raid, which would be the majority of players, this meant that the entire game was played around this queue system, negating a lot of what I feel are the foundations of an MMORPG: world and community.

If FFXIV introduces a content finder, the content it queues you for can not be the end-all be-all of the game for all but the hardcore. Bite-sized adventures are fine, but SE needs to be careful not to completely eliminate all need to remain grounded in the community and the world. Speaking of which...

I don't see why you can't make friend and get to know people in a town, You suggest that the majority don't raid in WoW yet I would beg to differ.

The World Cannot Be Negated

One thing I enjoyed about FFXI was the fact that even when other games around them were jumping on the bandwagon, they never went the instant-and-easy travel route and negated the world their developers spent so long designing. Even FFXIV manages to find a decent balance with its anima system. Why, however, would you spend resources and time creating a game world if that world exists solely to funnel people through levels until they wind up sitting in a city and queueing for instances?

I understand that travel can be a time-waster for those with limited time to spare (though I'd argue that MMOs, by their nature, should require a greater time investment), so perhaps a middle-ground could be a free teleport to the nearest aetheryte? Something that still keeps you in the world, and makes some degree of sense in the context of lore, without turning the game into a lobby game.

Final fantasy 11 had plenty of instanced content, Nyzul, BCNM, storyline boss encounters etc.
Travel time has no issue for me, since the addition of Chocobo and airship nobody should have an excuse to complain.

If I Wanted a Lobby Game, I'd Play One

I play MMOs for a specific kind of gameplay. If I just wanted to run some quick content with people, ignoring all sense of world and community, why would I pay a subscription fee for it? There are countless games that fulfill that niche, there's no reason to turn yet another MMO into one. Hell, if you insist on having levels and items tacked on so you can work towards an achievement with your dungeon-farming, why not play Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2? Final Fantasy doesn't need this. It needs to be its own game.

A content-finder can work, sure, but it really shouldn't take over the game like it does in WoW. My ultimate preference? Look at LOTRO's skirmishes or Rift's chronicles. Small 1 or 2 man bite-sized content with interesting stories and mechanics, and rewards that don't overshadow the main content of the game. It's enough to satisfy the casuals, and can be used safely with a cross-realm model, while still leaving those who have more time to invest firmly grounded in their world and community.

You suggest that lobby games don't require a fee to play PSO2 is one such lobby game which requires a fee to play just like all its predecessors.

Sure that kind of game is not everyone's cup of tea but just saying.

SE has designed this game with casuals in mind from day 1, both Tanaka and Yoshida seem to agree that this is where the game should be headed.

All I ever see on these forums these days are ex FF11 players being nostalgic and reminiscing on things they wish were in this game, it seems silly and pointless to even bother when it was clear from the start this game was going to be nothing like that.

[Choyi]

I don't know what a "Chiyo" is, but it somehow sounds familiar...

Theres a diffference in doing something that isn't mainstream and something thats just opposite of whats proven to work, Tanaka did the latter.
And I'm not sure how going on an exciting adventure a'la LotR style being evolved into instant teleport> dungeon> boss fight> loot, is comparable to the evolution of grocery shopping xD

Look at another genre; platform games, remember all thoose 3d sonic games, compare them to the Sonic games that are considered "good" which mostly boils down to the 2d ones, evolution in the sense of video game development doesn't always mean its a step up, and its also subject to taste.
Another example is FPS games, where cover based shooters are very populaur nowadays, some people very much enjoy them while others prefer to play more old school style shooters.

For me a lot of what made MMORPGs fun and different from other game genres is slowly being peeled away and its no longer fully what I used to love, but sadly I have no other alternative since every MMO is nowadays pretty much the same.

Oh and I never left, its just a quote ^__^