Character Growth: Leveling is part of RPGs

[Churchill]

My signature makes my pants move.

[ArkNova]

I think more then just the forum community took the poll but whats the total percentage? No doubt when someone sees only 3% of the player base uses the forums one would think only 3% took the polls, it does look a little misleading. Back when the poll was done I think the player base was 20k subscribers? If it's true that there was 20k subs around that time then we can almost guarantee at least 600 people took the poll survey which really doesn't seem like a lot. Again the 20k sub is strictly going off of posts made by this forum.

[Achtzen]

Level grinding... punching ourselves in the balls since 1999.

[Jeronlmo]

Kinda late in this thread i guess, it was the first responce, but they linked this http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/46535 .

But if you would read down just a bit... like the next few lines of text.

"50% of you thought the pace of leveling was just about right, while 20% felt it was too fast. And then there was the 10% who had more to say on the matter.
For most MMOs, you might expect around 60-70% of players to respond with “too slow”, but as the current leveling speed for FFXIV is intentionally set at a higher pace, I’m fairly satisfied with these results."

If nothing else, he admits its set at a higher pace than normal.

[Alhanelem]

Endgame I feel like there is no more progression, and I feel lost.

I found this statement, and it seems contradictory. If you feel like there is no more progression, why are you lost? It seems to me like you already know what there is to do and where to do it. At any rate, there is a reason for the lack of progression, and it's they've been spending more time working on 2.0 than developing content for the old version. This one of the things I expect will change the most from the current system to 2.0 and beyond.

[Ganbachi]

Character development could be done the same way as the advanced class quests method, where you obtain a skill or AF from each quest. While each quest unfolds the story and exploration and develops your fighting skills. Just imagine those 5 quests be done into 100 quests just to get all your skills from 1 - 50 and gear up your character in between every 10 quests. Some quests through the line should open up access to raid instances and ranks with your grand company. All of this could be done with story progression instead of leveling.

It's just an opinion and I'm sure it's too late now.

[StubHub]

I don't have too much of a gripe in either direction at the moment.

However, In my opinion the game had a better balance around 1.18. I had started at release. Quit, and came back at 1.18 and enjoyed the game again at that time because it had seemed partying and group leveling was back in effect. I would see shouts all the time starting at nanawa puks. Camps were developing for all level ranges. Took me two months to get two 50s. While like I said, I don't mind the pace as it is now. I restarted with a new char in April and will soon have all 50 dom/dow with a very minimal amount of pl'ing.

Won't pretend to have an answer for how to strike a better balance at this point. Just wanted to say I thought 1.18 had it ideal to me.

[casker]

This idea that people who don't want a long leveling curve are just FPS-playing-instant-gratification-wanting-ninnies is bogus.

Have you dudes played ANY games besides FFXI? GW1 gets you to max within a few hours. UO didn't even have levels but skill levels. Doesn't mean there was no effort involved in those games, or no community, or no exploration, etc.

In fact, this entire argument is pretty much pointless. What matters is not how long it takes but whether there is enough content to sustain however long you want the curve to be, and these days, massive grinds is NOT going to fly unless they want to cater only to the shattered remnants of FFXI players. Grinding monsters all day for one bubble of exp is not a premium experience worth a subscription fee.

I agree with these notions like "it's about the journey, not the destination" but after your first job in FFXIV there is no journey, just massive grind. It's a huge design flaw and making it longer isn't going to make it a journey it will make it an even bigger waste of time than this game already is.

[Jynx]

UO didn't even have levels but skill levels.

I'd just like to point out that skill levels in Ultima Online were pretty much levels in themselves unlocking skills and stats that you didn't have previously.

And they took a extremly long time to master some of them. Animal Taming was insanely long but one of the best skills you could have.

[Hyrist]

*headdesk*

The numbers don't lie. Even if you take "Some other answer than above." As completely behind "Leveling is too fast." Camp, it's a straight 70/30 ratio in favor of leveling staying the way it is or going faster.

Again, this thread is the vocal minority screaming louder because their position is threatened same as the upteen million other "Nooo! I'm not wrong! SE don't listen to the current bulk of your player base!" threads out here made by the same thirty people.