Fighting Desperately...

[Sasagawa]

This is for everyone who is saying, if you like FFXI so much why don't you go back. One reason being that Abyssea ruined it, another being...I have faith. Look at FFXI updates and what was missing from the beginning: http://www.eosun.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5009

Nothing wrong with a little nostalgic conversation, and I still don't know why people get so mad when it's brought up. You don't have to read the threads and no one forces anyone to do so. In the end I believe this game will grow and evolve and I will stick with it.

Sad thing is reading through that list I remember the game from 02 as I imported a copy and found a patch to translate before the EU release in 03.

However let me reassure you it was still a better structured game even with those flaws.

I remember riding through dunes on a chocobo and being pawned by a goblin, at the time not fun and irritating, but now quite funny. :P

[Lux_Rayna]

I appreciate this point of view. Yet, I rather think of XI as a widow, and myself as a longing necrophiliac.

Lol! I hate you for adding the visual

[Sasagawa]

I'm always surprised that people associate FFXI's model with difficulty, challenge, and skill. When I think of challenges and immersions I don't think of standing in one spot pulling an identical mob over and over. I'm also always surprised that the developers [original XI and original XIV] never seem to understand that story and adventure are major appeals to Final Fantasy games in general; they're certainly not something that begins only after you've maxed out your character level, and certainly not something you progress through only a tiny fraction of the time.

Agree to some of the above

especially the idea of story being an integral part of FFs

Saying that though the gret thing about XI was that because it was a long haul to level jobs you often took breaks to go quest or help a lower level friend or do bits of story quests you could do which consequently made you want to level further to find out more about the story, to then take another break.

Either way XIV its different

Level to max level - Do Story (what little there is has been good)

XI was more interactive

an example of the difference would be like comparing these two pictures

FFXI

http://www.atpm.com/7.03/images/insp...instorming.gif

FFXIV

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...artExample.png

Personally I would prefer ny adventures to be more like a brainstorm than a flow chart.

I hope this makes some obscure sense :P

[Enfarious]

You can tell people this all day but they're not going to stop until they cause MMOs to go out of existence. I've seen it in other types of media, things are made to keep you on the hook and take a while, then something comes along that makes that experience instantly gratifying. Then everybody tries to copy, quality of the whole genre goes down and everybody gets sick of it then BAM the whole genre is dead.

It's sad but your all too right, I just wish that SE would hold onto what worked for the last 25 years rather than feeding the world more watered down garbage that appeals to 13 year olds w/ no patience.

[Enfarious]

Exactly this sentiment that I believe is going to become a reality that resulted in my OP. Specifically, the first paragraph. Anyone who has any appreciation for anything in life knows that the journey is not just a means to an end. It is the defining characteristic of those ends.

Also a very sad truth, the sheer volume of people that never stop to enjoy the ride but complain when it's over.....

[Xoo]

Also a very sad truth, the sheer volume of people that never stop to enjoy the ride but complain when it's over.....

Fact of the matter is, those who say mid-game play should take a backseat to end-game play are only out there for the thrill of victory over others and apparently care little about the journey and adventure it takes to get there. They make games such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter for these kind of people. They don't belong in RPG's at all in the first place.

[Enfarious]

Killing one enemy repeatedly is not difficult, given you come prepared.

When I say 'prepared', I mean your tank has to do his best to keep hate off the Black Mage, Samurai, and Ranger (difficulty); Your Thief has to be quick with SATA and use status bolts (depth); Your mages have to monitor their output closely so as not to pull hate (difficulty); Your Red Mage should employ every applicable debuff to the mob while also serving as a backup healer and nuker (depth); The experienced Bard should be able to keep the action going without interruption (gameplay).

If you do not have a majority of these qualities in your group, then killing crabs over and over is going to be a long and painful process. Of course, killing the same mob repeatedly is what we do in this game now, so I'm not sure what point you're digging at.

Yeah other than repeating the same ~4 leves for grinding now there is 0 variety, the grind style of all games follows that model. Hence the name "grind" aka "work" aka "tedium" this is the price of progress.

OMG someone other than me talked about team strategy, that's awesome, sad really that this game still has none at all, button mash your way to the end. Solo-Combos do not show strategy, just an ability to mash buttons in order ...

Can we get some "team play" back?

Yes I know there's tanks/healers/DDs but they really don't perform as a team so much as a pack of ppl doin their own thing. Someday maybe ...

[Enfarious]

Fact of the matter is, those who say mid-game play should take a backseat to end-game play are only out there for the thrill of victory over others and apparently care little about the journey and adventure it takes to get there. They make games such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter for these kind of people. They don't belong in RPG's at all in the first place.

Agreed, don't leave out every FPS on the market though.

[ArnoMorley]

Just stumbled upon this:
http://thechive.com/2012/03/30/if-su...oday-8-photos/

Thought it was fitting

[Xoo]

Just stumbled upon this:
http://thechive.com/2012/03/30/if-su...oday-8-photos/

Thought it was fitting

I'm so glad it wasn't developed in this day and age. The enemies would glow red to tell you they were dangerous; Mushrooms, fireflowers, super stars, etc. would all have glowing arrows bouncing over them; The right side of the screen would have a persistent arrow pointing to the right; You'd get an achievement for every coin you picked up; The GAME OVER screen would be replaced with PAY 1000 Goomba Points to Restart at World 8-3?;

I really dislike what video games are coming to.