Why does this game still cater to exploiters and cheaters?

[Vanguard319]

uh, no, my lv 50 miner is 100% legit, never botted once, my botanist and fisher are in thier mid~late 30s also not botted, same with my crafters. I will admit to getting PL'd on a few levels, but the majority were done through leves, and solo.

As far as Garuda goes, my ls and I are doing it legit, and while we haven't won yet, we can at least survive Aerial blast, wins will come with time and experience.

[indira]

easy money, but i think the ban stick patch will be 2.0 beta.

[Niqote]

If I made my husband get my fisher to 30 (as I dislike fishing very much) just so I could get the shiny gold subligar is that an exploit?

Is stacking Int on BLM an exploit?

Just because things are done in a different manner then intended does not automatically mean it is an exploit ^^;;;;; it's just thinking outside the box

[Ingolf]

You can't be completely AFK whilst getting PL'd (as far as I know).

[Ingolf]

So that's the excuse for PL'ing now, then?

What was it, then, when no one was level 50 yet?

Many people PL because for some reason they believe that MMOs are a race to the end-game. It's not just in XIV. It's in every MMO. Meanwhile, they can't figure out why they're bored and spend all their time repeating the same few dungeons over and over again while they wait for new content to come out.

Remind them that there's 50 (or more, depending on the MMO) levels of content that they raced past, and they say "yeah but that's just useless filler to slow you down. MMOs are all about end-game", or some other self-validating response. And that's not me making assumptions. I've seen many people defending PL'ing with that exact argument.

And every single time, without fail, you see the same people at end game complaining about not enough to do, the game not having enough content, the devs being too slow to add new stuff, etc.

Here's what I'm waiting for, and you can call this a prediction if you like.

2.0 launches and everyone who was in a race to get all the classes/jobs to 50 before it does will blast straight to all the end-game content, get through it and be in the same exact position they are now. Then you'll start seeing the complaints by all the level 50s, bored out of their minds, wondering why they don't have more to do. Oh sure they could go through all the lower level content, but they'll be so grossly out-leveled for it that it won't bring them any challenge, nor any reward that's even as good as what they already have. They'll be right back in the same situation they are now, and they'll blame SE for it, calling 2.0 a failure.

Anytime someone comes back and suggests that they not PL through everything and experience more of the content, they'll become horribly offended and indignant. You'll see further self-validating utterances as "just because you suck at leveling...", while the point and wisdom of the suggestion given to them flies completely over their head. They'll be too busy blaming SE for their own self-defeating gameplay choices.

"But they can make alts" you might say. Sure. They can make alts, with which they proceed to do exactly the same thing... skipping past most of the content to get the Alt to level 50 as fast as possible...

Again, call it a prediction.

For myself? I intend to have at least one, maybe 2 jobs to 50 by 2.0. I'm deliberately keeping most of my classes/jobs for after 2.0 so I can experience all the content, from level 1 up, at the intended challenge level instead of leaving myself with only high level/end-game content to do, then wondering why I'm so bored after I've blown through it all.

It absolutely is the players' choice on how quickly they level their characters. However, when they predictably find themselves in the same situation every time - bored out of their minds waiting for new high-end content to be added - they don't figure it out. It's like they can't help themselves, they get into a MMO and everything else disappears except "getting level 50 and completing end-game content as fast as possible".

Now, I personally don't care if people PL. If they want to trivialize the experience of playing a MMO and skip past all the content in some race toward a finish line that doesn't exist other than for their own ego... that's their business. I'm just waiting to be blown away the day someone comes out and, instead of blaming SE for their own choices and playstyle, says "you know, I've realized that by PL'ing past everything, I'm really screwing over my own long-term enjoyment". I just hope I'm sitting down when/if it happens.

Endlessly grinding mobs =/= new content. No matter which way you slice it, Grinding on mobs at 20 is the exact same as grinding on mobs at 40, with some slightly new abilities thrown into the mix.

I have no problem with people who want to be PL'd, I don't personally do it (apart from on classes I need to get to a certain level, and I don't enjoy at all).

If there was more interesting low level content, then people would feel more inclined to do things at a lower level. If there was a level sync system, then people would be more inclined to party up with a friend, instead of PLing them. You can blame players to a certain extent, but it all comes down to how much content there is, and as it stands, most of the content is for level 50 players.

[Shadow_Sama]

[Nieshua]

Renen Level cooking or alchemy at the same time you level your fishing then you will see. its not hard at all...DoL --> DoH = Gil Simple your just missing a step

[Dusk_Shardveil]

Want some cheeze with your whine? Its okay to complain but perhaps actually make a positive suggestion somewhere instead. Make a contribution rather than drone on and on about the flaws you see.

I for one would like to see level sync make an early comeback. And perhaps a system of rewards for helping out new or struggling players?

[LuxLux]

I'll make this simple:

Crafting: lots of people botted + bot every day killing prices

Gathering: lots of people botted (like 90% of lvl 50 fishers) + bot every day killing prices

Leveling: powerleveling is essentially an exploit. Even if it isn't why bother even having levels then if SE's idea for the first 30 is to go afk while your friend runs around killing sheep

and then stuff like Garuda: Everyone that did it non stop and essentially exploited it before the fix ends up with 7/7 whereas people who try to do it legit can't get a single win.

And I'm leaving out all the nice little historical tidbits like months of 1-shotting coblyns to get to 50.

I've seen a lot of people claim to report those who are botting, SE justifies powerleveling, and there are never any consequences for exploiting systems before a fix.

I understand a lot of people will say "but if people didn't exploit this game would suck". But consider what will happen when 2.0 comes out. A bunch of people will join a game full of maxed out players who are pimped out in gear, crafting jobs, gathering, etc.

Further, since SE decided to make everything in this game 8-man and essentially require a specific set of jobs (ex. blm blm blm whm whm tank bard blm), new players will be at a massive disadvantage end game. They will be unable to compete gear-wise with ppl who botted for years prior to their arrival and amassed 100,000,000+ in gil. They won't be able to experience the 'hardcore' endgame for a very long time as most ls's seem to want at least 3 jobs to 50. And they will find that gathering + crafting is completely unprofitable, as prices for almost everything under what you can get at rank 50 have been undercut to death (and a bunch of new players only making a few 1000 as opposed to the old 10,000 + per leve, aren't going to buy-out gathering/crafting items in the wards).

SE can fix a lot of these problems, but in doing so they will just create new ones.

For example: Make leveling easier than it is and not require any good gear whatsoever
result: FFXIV becomes WoW and fails (unless you seriously think people want to do the exact same boss fight 20-times a day for 2 weeks in a row to get an item they want, since that is what the game would become)

Increase the amount of gil you get from leves back to launch level to balance economy
result: hyperinflation, due to instability in the markets people hold onto their items not sure about how to price things. People who legitimately crafted for months ragequit because their 100mil is now worthless (this happened in ffxi and resulted in a ton of people leaving).

etc....

So the main question i'm asking (and this is a question, not an argument):
Why does this game still allow the exploits, bots, etc, to continue? If there was an exploit like the blm thing in FFXI they usually fixed it within a few days and often banned people. Here, everyone openly rushes to exploit the game before its fixed. How is that sustainable in a competitive gaming environment when you are trying to attract 1000s of new people? Or is FFXIV supposed to be the new diablo 2 open battle net?

thank you Azury. I think you've explained in a very clear way the main problem of the game without being irrational and emotionally negative as many people here tend to write and reply posts. As you know, SE is reading every post, so you contribute to the growth of this game. Many people have talked about some of these things but in a way that looks very irrational and emotional so they are not really taken that much into account. You've presented the real problem SE has for 2.0. They did say they will not wipe any character data from the game. But the current population of FFXIV will be at 2.0 with all classes at 50 and a lot of money. New player will be forced to be in a game with expensive items that they could not reach unless they get money from the gold farmers, and with few LSs open to receive the noob people, so they'll probably leave the game soon anyway. SE wants to preserve their loyal customers, but they haven't found a way to balance that for the new ones.I've got a couple of friends that after trying the game for a couple of week left the game because, as they said, was unfriendly, everything was too expensive, people were very close and unfriendly and it was very difficult to find pt (they can't be all day long waiting for a pt or for people to join). The leves didn't give them any joy. FFXIV is stuck with only ffxi players and ff fans.

[ejiboo]

why are milk duds so delicious? some questions...we will never know.