Thread: 2.0 in vain?

This is the second time I've given this game a chance. I picked it up for the hell of it about a year ago for $10, played a couple hours and quit. I started playing this game yesterday and played longer.

I guess it's gotten better and I have read the development plans for 2.0 but I'm afraid that it doesn't really add much to the game except bring it closer to XI. If we recall PC Gamer's review of FFXIV, the game got a score of 30 for these reasons:

http://www.pcgamer.com/review/final-fantasy-xiv-review/

-Shallow and slow
-Grind heavy
-Horrible interface
-Nonsensical player limitations

2.0 doesn't seem to address any of these complaints. The game still has a massive delay which is not present in modern (it wasn't even present in old) mmos, the game still sticks to its 90s roots of forcing players to grind mobs, only allowing a maximum of 8 leve quests in a 24 hour period (the leve quests aren't even that fun). The interface looks like it was developed for a console, I found it easy to look past this flaw in FFXI because it was a port from a PS2 game but seeing as how FFXIV was developed specifically for the PC this is unacceptable. The PC Gamer article describes it as "an interface that demands 12 clicks to change your weapon, robs this of any potential."

I don't know what the stance on WoW is on this board but I'm going to assume it's neutral. While WoW was simple, it was also extremely fluid and excelled at what it was supposed to excel at.From FFXIV's 2.0 mission statement it still feels like one big overambitious project. The zone design feels lazy, the leveling feels lazy, and it feels like the crafting was just tacked on as an afterthought to keep players busy. WoW may be simple but it did a great job at blending battles with the lore. I don't even know why I'm fighting monsters or doing guildleves, the two parts of the game feel so disconnected.

I am a bit confused. You are playing 1.xx yet talking as if you were playing 2.0?

Originally Posted by Zenaku

Wtf you talking about lol



2.0 fix the horrible interface also the heavy grind it's a mmo -.- if you want to play a game that give you everything then that be boring but in 2.0 they want to come out with a system if you do something long enough without getting any drop the game would reward you with something.

you playing 1.0 version you don't know how bad or good ffxiv 2.0 going to be too it come out.

They haven't said anything about the UI except making it more responsive. They didnt address the fact that there's a window for items and a window to use items as well as a window to equip items. As for the grinding, it's a remnant of old MMOs to artificially make the game longer. Guildleves (at least when they're available) make leveling a little bit faster but they still don't make them any more fun. It's absolutely unacceptable to copy and paste 2003 MMORPG features into a 2010+ game. They released a 2.0 mission statement. They outline all of their plans for the future of this game on that PDF file and it's not hard to get a realistic idea of what you're going to get. All I'm saying is it doesn't seem to be enough seeing as how Square is looking to release this game again.

Originally Posted by Enfarious

How long have you been playing RPGs? There isn't one on the market that doesn't have some grind aspects, even the "levelless" "classeless" systems of old MUDs(yeah I go back that far) require grinding. New FPS games require grinding. What you wanna log in on day one and say, "Ok opening CS done, EG CS and gear here I come." Of course you couldn't have to grind for those either, so maybe 100% drop rates?

Games involve grinding, not just MMOs, how that grind is masked is the only difference, in RPGs it's ALWAYS been through killing mass quantities of the same enemies for hours/days/weeks on end to level/get money/get items. That hasn't changed and won't.

A whole slew of recent MMOs (Rift, Aion etc.) as well as some old MMOs (WoW) have shown that an RPG doesn't have to be about grinding the same mob for hours on end. I was okay with this in FFXI but that was then. There's no reason why leveling in FFXIV should feel so sterile and uninvolved. The game became far more mundane than it already was when I ran out of guildleves that I actually wondered how people could play this without botting. Yeah, grinding is a part of games to some degree but the difference between old RPGs and new RPGs is that new RPGs actually try to disguise the fact that you're grinding. Square seems to be rather shameless about it.

Originally Posted by afk4life

A whole slew of recent MMOs (Rift, Aion etc.) as well as some old MMOs (WoW) have shown that an RPG doesn't have to be about grinding the same mob for hours on end. I was okay with this in FFXI but that was then. There's no reason why leveling in FFXIV should feel so sterile and uninvolved. The game became far more mundane than it already was when I ran out of guildleves that I actually wondered how people could play this without botting. Yeah, grinding is a part of games to some degree but the difference between old RPGs and new RPGs is that new RPGs actually try to disguise the fact that you're grinding. Square seems to be rather shameless about it.

Perhaps I am weird, but I would honestly go out with a group of people and slaughter monsters by the thousands if it meant I never had to do the quest based levelling from WoW people seem to love so much. People like to say levelling in WoW wasn't a grind because they quested, it's absurd! You just grind quests!

These quest based levelling systems which may hide the fact that you are grinding (which, I mean, do they really? I would think most of us can see through that) don't hide the fact that you are in a game at all. In WoW I never felt like I was a part of Azeroth, I just felt like a piece moving through a predesignated assembly line. It's designed to be a theme-park, it's just a really bad one.

Have you even played Aion? Its all grinding child.

Originally Posted by afk4life

They haven't said anything about the UI except making it more responsive. They didnt address the fact that there's a window for items and a window to use items as well as a window to equip items. As for the grinding, it's a remnant of old MMOs to artificially make the game longer. Guildleves (at least when they're available) make leveling a little bit faster but they still don't make them any more fun. It's absolutely unacceptable to copy and paste 2003 MMORPG features into a 2010+ game. They released a 2.0 mission statement. They outline all of their plans for the future of this game on that PDF file and it's not hard to get a realistic idea of what you're going to get. All I'm saying is it doesn't seem to be enough seeing as how Square is looking to release this game again.

This is what they have said regarding the UI:

"We have chosen to completely rebuild the UI system core in conjunction with the server system updates. The renewed UI will feature completely redesigned windows with improved functionality and expanded customizability.

We also plan to offer:
-Full support for keyboard and mouse users, including multi-window capability and stress-free drag and drop functionality.
-A specialized interface designed for game pad users."

They outline all of their plans for the future of this game on that PDF file and it's not hard to get a realistic idea of what you're going to get.

Indeed. Most apparent bit of info those PDF's provide is that 2.0 will be a completely different beast compared to 1.xx. Your expectations are not realistic- they are way below what the dev team is actually doing.