Request: I don't want to solo the main scenario

[LillithaFenimore]

Problem is, one style can and will overtake the other. Just look at the replies here. "I don't want to solo the main scenario" NO GTFO YOU MASOCHIST! IDIOT! BEHIND IN THE TIMES! MMOS EVOLVED GO AWAY! NO ONE LIKES GROUP PLAY!

So on. If both styles can exist, why is it so wrong to not let the main storyline be unsoloable when you can already solo 90% of the side quests?

Not to mention, as much as the XIV community may mock those of us who like XI, they already did "both styles" perfectly:

Majority of the early missions are soloed, the rest required help, the final fight was almost always a group effort to take down before cap raises.

Then CoP came out and it was done in a way that even low levels can enjoy an amazing story thanks to level capping. In XIV, you can't even do some with people even if you wanted to because it forces you to be solo due to NPC additions, or in such a low group number you may as well be solo.

It isn't wrong to let the main story be unsoloable, but to ask for that solo option to be taken off the board completely is I believe doing a disservice to players who want that option, just like forcing you to solo is a disservice to you. SE when creating the core of this game, obviously didn't think things like this through.

Hence a very major problem in this game that could be fixed and IMO draw in many players and turn out to be a very very great game. They just need to think outside the box...but not far outside that we end up with a very awful game like it was at launch.

[Hyrist]

Problem is, one style can and will overtake the other. Just look at the replies here. "I don't want to solo the main scenario" NO GTFO YOU MASOCHIST! IDIOT! BEHIND IN THE TIMES! MMOS EVOLVED GO AWAY! NO ONE LIKES GROUP PLAY!

So on. If both styles can exist, why is it so wrong to not let the main storyline be unsoloable when you can already solo 90% of the side quests?

Not to mention, as much as the XIV community may mock those of us who like XI, they already did "both styles" perfectly:

Majority of the early missions are soloed, the rest required help, the final fight was almost always a group effort to take down before cap raises.

Then CoP came out and it was done in a way that even low levels can enjoy an amazing story thanks to level capping. In XIV, you can't even do some with people even if you wanted to because it forces you to be solo due to NPC additions, or in such a low group number you may as well be solo.

If I may be blunt, Elexia, what you are saying is the equivalent of this:

"Nobody will party with me if Square Enix doesn't force them to."

To which I not only disagree with heavily, but must also counter by saying that in no circumstances should multiplayer content feel forced rather than encouraged.

This can be done by creating multiplayer unique rewards, or difficulty unique rewards that players will desire, rather than imposing a lack of progress upon them.

Also, any conversation about Chains of Promithia should be discarded. The scripting of the fights were done well, but the difficulty scaling of that expansion was the subject of ongoing debate through its entire lifespan. If you have to argue your example, then your point loses strength.

[Hyrist]

Dragon, Cenders

Both of you need to get a room and make out with each other or something. There's enough tension between you to write a fanfic romance about.

You both have concerns, and where you get them from is rather irrelevant. The point of the matter is that we can really have it both ways, when the conversation is broken down to this thread's base subject matter. There's no point in attacks or posturing from either one of you - as all it really does is distracts from the questions that we should be asking, and the suggestions we should be making to Yoshi-P.

So, are the two of you just going to stand here all night fluffing each other's tails or are we going to have some constructive discussion?

[LillithaFenimore]

Dragon, Cenders

Both of you need to get a room and make out with each other or something. There's enough tension between you to write a fanfic romance about.

You both have concerns, and where you get them from is rather irrelevant. The point of the matter is that we can really have it both ways, when the conversation is broken down to this thread's base subject matter. There's no point in attacks or posturing from either one of you - as all it really does is distracts from the questions that we should be asking, and the suggestions we should be making to Yoshi-P.

So, are the two of you just going to stand here all night fluffing each other's tails or are we going to have some constructive discussion?

This post has so much I could say but won't cause it's the official forums and will most likely be blocked Thanks for the mental chuckle

[Hyrist]

Poll threads are completely irrelvant. The Threads are locked to those with active subscriptions.

Do you honestly believe the casual base would pay for the game in an incomplete condition?

There's a reason why it is called the 'vocal minority'. It is because those who are insecure about their position being in the minoity, often are the ones who speak the loudest to place themselves in the beleif that they are the majoirty.

Your poll, which I read and refused to vote on, is also laced with the same sort of pointed, biast speech that makes any sort of conversation towards choice or compromise so seemingly impossible, and the ongoing conversations so basely polarized.

Hardcore players are a minority of gamers, period. If we are to presume your poll is an adequate representation of our base, then we also much acknowledge right now that what we have in the game is a niche audience.

If you are proposing that FFXIV only appeal to a niche audience then I stand by my initial statement in counter: Why can it not appeal to both camps? The solutions are here, staring us in our face.

Zaaku, I re-posted and bolded for emphasis for you. Of course hardcore players who stuck with Square Enix would be here more than casual players who wouldn't want to pay for the game as it is would be on these forums. Try hosting that poll in Zam and see where the votes tilt. I'm sorry to say, but your pocket vote doesn't count for anything - this game should be designed for the players that will join the game after 2.0, not just those that are here now.

Regardless of either case, you don't ignore one or the other camp - you find a medium. In this particular case, you can have your cake and eat it too.

But this trend of so called "like vote" polling needs to stop. It's horrible misrepresentation of the numbers this MMO should have had this deep into a normal life cycle.

[Zaaku]

Zaaku, I re-posted and bolded for emphasis for you. Of course hardcore players who stuck with Square Enix would be here more than casual players who wouldn't want to pay for the game as it is would be on these forums. Try hosting that poll in Zam and see where the votes tilt. I'm sorry to say, but your pocket vote doesn't count for anything - this game should be designed for the players that will join the game after 2.0, not just those that are here now.

Regardless of either case, you don't ignore one or the other camp - you find a medium. In this particular case, you can have your cake and eat it too.

But this trend of so called "like vote" polling needs to stop. It's horrible misrepresentation of the numbers this MMO should have had this deep into a normal life cycle.

We don't matter really? I suppose we don't after all. I mean we are the ones funding their little Lazarus project while they build the game in the background. We are the ones keeping FFXIV at the very least semi-relevant instead of hoping people will fall for FFXIV's relaunch. We are the ones who are going to be recruiting friends and recommending the title to people who are otherwise going to steer clear of a once disaster.

Yeah we aren't important after all I suppose. Let's all just keep pinning our hopes on that big fat lottery ticket casual crowd that will swell our ranks when 2.0 hits!

What pisses me off most is I can't even explain to you fully how much you are ruining your own expierence by bowing to the casual mindset. I can't impose the feeling of triumph and the self assertiveness a harder game forces you to adapt. I have no doubt if they made this into FFXI-2 our population would plummet. However after the ones who can't cut it leave those who remain will be better for the change and when new players join and face this giant wall of adversity we'll be there with an outstreched hand saying, "LS {Do you need it?}"

Those are the kinds of players that will stick with an MMO for years and years and years. What we have now is going to be a constant hit and quit fest as the casual crowd wanders off or loses interest when they can keep pumping out end game raids fast enough to keep up with their insane leveling ability.

[Duelle]

Those are the kinds of players that will stick with an MMO for years and years and years. What we have now is going to be a constant hit and quit fest as the casual crowd wanders off or loses interest when they can keep pumping out end game raids fast enough to keep up with their insane leveling ability.

Contrary to popular belief, boredom is not what drives casuals away. It's asinine decisions and changes in design that drive casuals away. I eventually got sick of FFXI's snail-paced progression. I spent close to 3 years in WoW, then WoW made very stupid design choices that caused me to start looking around. Then abyssea came out, which prompted me (and many others) to return under the hopes of finally being able to progress. When the jobisms facilitated by the proc system and RDM's standing at the time became apparent, I started looking around again. WoW had made their apologies for their earlier stupidity with patches 3.2 and 3.3. So I returned again.

Believe me, none of my switches were because I got bored of content. I just chose to not stick around like a battered wife.

[Zaaku]

Contrary to popular belief, boredom is not what drives casuals away. It's asinine decisions and changes in design that drive casuals away. I eventually got sick of FFXI's snail-paced progression. I spent close to 3 years in WoW, then WoW made very stupid design choices that caused me to start looking around. Then abyssea came out, which prompted me (and many others) to return under the hopes of finally being able to progress. When the jobisms facilitated by the proc system and RDM's standing at the time became apparent, I started looking around again. WoW had made their apologies for their earlier stupidity with patches 3.2 and 3.3. So I returned again.

Believe me, none of my switches were because I got bored of content. I just chose to not stick around like a battered wife.

You just said you were not driven away by boredom yet you left because of something inherent to the game design. The slower leveling progress. How was that an asinine change in design?

Thank you for proving my point.

FFXI drove away all but the dedicated. They stayed in most of the cases for years upon years. FFXI: Abbeysea's more causalized content attracted a player back whom ultimately left once again when some other game came beckoning.

[Duelle]

You just said you were not driven away by boredom yet you left because of something inherent to the game design. The slower leveling progress. How was that an asinine change in design?

Slower leveling had nothing to do with it, but thanks for failing to read between the lines. Built-in timesinks, community issues when it came to who got to party and who didn't, shoddy rarity-based economy, that's not even getting into my prior-mentioned anecdote of me being stuck at Windurst rank 9 for close to 3 years. I hit a point where I said "fuck it" and left.

Abyssea's problem was the fact that, again, people abused the proc system in a way that parties were largely what I have already called the official Abyssea party. I wasn't getting into those between RDM's lack of procs and where the job stood when not in posession of Almace and Chant du Signe.

FFXI drove away all but the dedicated.

I already addressed this:

stick around like a battered wife

Nice try, though.

[Akumu]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm playing a MMORPG.

I've come to the conclusion that MMORPGs are dead. The only RPG thing that's left is the leveling, so it's just MMOs to me now.

I liked your post though.