FFXI vs FFXIV Difficulty

[Zaaku]

I disagree with you OP. While I agree on some levels that XI had a harder difficulty than XIV--leveling as you have highlighted should not be the main focus of making thing difficult: bosses and end-game encounters should be where challenges lie.

Do you know what the difference between XI and XIV leveling was? You couldn't beat anything by yourself and this situation became progressively worse as you leveled; even matches were a 75/25 at level 5, eventually raising to be a 50/50 shot by your teens, and by the time you finally reached that long journey of 75--you were lucky if an easy prey didn't kick your ass. Where was the fun in that?

Of course there a few exceptions to this rule: as long as you had a ninja subjob or had some means of throwing extra layers of protection (Red Mage, for example) your chances of soloing increased.

The other reason was capped EXP--for the longest time. When your exp bar reaches 5 digits and you're still receiving the cap you did at level 15, it's no wonder why it took people several months to a year to get to cap. Getting there twice? Not many people wanted to go through that tedious grind again, let alone once--this is the main reason why people are more likely to level several jobs in XIV.

You need to get out of the Everquest-Era mentality; MMO's are mainstream these days and no one is going to want to play a game where the fun does not begin for them until 6 months into the subscription, and yes...for a game like XI and XIV, end-game is essentially where the fun is for a majority of the people. The old type of model does not sell, at all--and this is EXACTLY what SE (Wada) needs, especially after the original XIV launch fumble.

P.S. Emperor Palpatine shot lightning out of his fingers, so your point is moot.

Here is my view on it. Everyone is trying to be like WoW or pandering to casual play or free play with micro transactions. FFXI was set apart from the crowd because of its incredibly difficult game progression. True it did turn off COUNTLESS possible players. Hell I remember getting frustrated just trying to install the damn game. In the end though that is what made FXI unique and those players who did last a month, stayed for years and years and years. Sure the model is not going to net as many subscribers as an easier client but the ones you do get will pay out the nose until you shut down the servers.

FFXIV tried to go the way of the casual and look what happened. They already have a die hard core player base in FFXI who would just kill for a FFXI-2 plus whatever new blood they would lure in with this new shiny games challenging difficulty. Without a doubt they would be in much better shape then we are right now. It is only because SE is stubborn as mule this project didn't flatline 2 months after launch.

Going back to what they know, what their fans like, and at this point is the safest route is to make this more like FFXI. A fact we're seeing with each new patch as they begin to move back to the original design.