How will we stand out?

[Gramul]

The community is what drew me in back in FFXI, instead of playing with a bunch of kids slinging insults at everything that moved, 90% of the players I met were friendly married or soon to be married couples.

I met many friends who became RL friends over the years. For once I was the youngest one around and that has kinda been passed on to FFXIV.

I'm not so sure about the community of this game.
In XI, you where forced to play together, in this you can get to 50 without even touching a party or learning how to play your job. For all the flack the grind-heavy party-only nature XI had, it really helped to refine the community.
Some might have labeled XI as elitist, but if you where willing to play along and learn, you'd find a helpful, intelligent, and friendly group of people.

[Preypacer]

I'm not so sure about the community of this game.
In XI, you where forced to play together, in this you can get to 50 without even touching a party or learning how to play your job. For all the flack the grind-heavy party-only nature XI had, it really helped to refine the community.
Some might have labeled XI as elitist, but if you where willing to play along and learn, you'd find a helpful, intelligent, and friendly group of people.

I don't think there was anything elitist about FFXI itself. I think there were a population of elitist people playing it, particularly at high level/end game stuff. But among the people I hung out with, there was very little elitism. If it were that prevalent in the game, I would never have stuck with the game at all, nevermind for over 7 years. I can't stand elitism. I find it ridiculous.

What I personally find to be the case is, while FFXI's party-centric set up was fine in itself, it was at odds with the very common "me first" attitude many Western gamers have. And I saw that attitude come out constantly. Daily. All the time. Even among people I knew and considered friends in-game.

I'd say 90% of the time I was unable to get help with things it was because people were more concerned with making progress on their own character, and felt that if they were spending the time help me or someone else, that they'd be "falling behind" on their own character. And, that's when that "me first" attitude would come to the surface.

Every time I ever took a break from XI, it ws due to being sick of the self-centered, "me first" attitudes of so many of its players. I'd spend time, happily, helping others out with tough or lengthy missions or fights they had to complete (Promys, major storyline missions, etc), only to have those very same people blow me off completely, or make a ton of ridiculous excuses, when I asked them for help later on.

A lot of people say "well that's because of how SE designed the game". No. I don't believe it has to do with the game design. It has to do with the attitude of many Western players clashing with that design.

Japanese players, in my experience, never had a problem with helping others. I've had them hang out for several hours, even through multiple wipes, to make sure someone completed what they needed. And they were happy to do it. Never a complaint. Never a concern. They were there to play the game and wiping and having to re-do something was just part of playing. That's the attitude I always brought to the game, personally.

So, I don't blame SE or FFXI for "forcing people to be that way". A game can't make people behave like self-centered, self-interested jerks. People (again, primarily Western folks) are already that way. XI's setup just brought it out in them, in the ugliest possible way.

People won't help others unless there's something in it for them. People won't help others because their own progress is far too important (to them) to ever put it on hold to help someone else out.

Sadly, from what I've seen in-game, and from remarks made here on the forums, it sounds like that attitude has already taken hold in XIV, and on a much broader basis. That's unfortunate.

By the by, I'm very much a "Western" player. Born and raised in the US, so it's not like I'm from some other culture, shaking my finger.

That said... What it would take for FFXIV to stand out is to bring that unique Final Fantasy flavor to the game. The FF Series has always had a bunch of quirks and qualities that made it stand out from other games. I mean in terms of aesthetics, topics, themes, etc. Not just the physical things like chocobos, Cid and moogles. There's always a certain feel to a FF game that, by itself, makes it feel different from anything else out there.

I would caution against people asking too much for "what's standard in the genre" - which is an argument I see accompanying a lot of requests from people for this game. "SE needs to do "x" in this game. It's the industry standard". It's a very "careful what you wish for" situation to me. Because if SE were to implement everything because it's "a MMO standard", in the end what you could end up with is simply another very standard MMO. And that's exactly what we don't want - presumably.

[DrJackal]

i dont think the game needs to stand out
just provide good game all around and people will stick with it
it doesn't need millions of players in order to get constant updates

[MrKupo]

The deepest crafting and gathering I've ever experienced with a rehaul of how it works coming in ARR

[Kallera]

My point is this: When I play Skyrim, it is not "So that the game can succeed and thrive", when I play Virtua Fighter 5, or Melty Blood, or Castlevania: HD, or Fable III, it is not for the game, it is not for any future game. I play it because there are aspects of the game that I find fun and appealing.

What do you find fun and appealing in this game to play it?

[Gramul]

My point is this: When I play Skyrim, it is not "So that the game can succeed and thrive", when I play Virtua Fighter 5, or Melty Blood, or Castlevania: HD, or Fable III, it is not for the game, it is not for any future game. I play it because there are aspects of the game that I find fun and appealing.

What do you find fun and appealing in this game to play it?

Okay. I see what you mean.

Well, the difference is that this game is an MMO, and as such, it needs subscribers to stay intriguing, updated, and more importantly, Live. You can play Skyrim, Castlevania, or God forbid Fable 3 any time you want without hassle, because they don't rely on a party system to be playable and wont die or fall into ruin if un-played by the masses. Single player games are designed to be a full experience (cheap DLC tactics aside). MMO's need to be worked and updated constantly to meet the needs of the playerbase and to ensure expenditure so the servers can stay up.

If you're asking me what draws me to this game, it's a combination of things.
Originally, I was all: Oh awesome, I get to play something like 11 again. But that turned out to be bull, so I decided I'd give the game a chance and test it out. I enjoyed the history packed lore, the soft natural aesthetic, the fact that the armor looked fairly practical, the company system when it was introduced, and the promise of 2.0 just before I start to get sick of the game and unsubscribe. When I heard a new director was taking over, especially one who worked on the Dragon Quest series, I decided to stick with it and see how it developed into 2.0.

Hope that clears things up.

[Jokerz]

I would say a sense of community/rivalry is what could draw people to the game. The fact that every nation is sorta in a friendly competition with each other, but ultimately are working together for the same cause which is of course saving the world. It's not like other mmo's where pvp draws a pretty solid line between factions, your free to party with anyone you want. That was the main thing that drew me to ffxi over other mmo's

I hope to see more instances or partying and grouping in the future to promote this aspect.

[Rokien]

I would say a sense of community/rivalry is what could draw people to the game. The fact that every nation is sorta in a friendly competition with each other, but ultimately are working together for the same cause which is of course saving the world. It's not like other mmo's where pvp draws a pretty solid line between factions, your free to party with anyone you want. That was the main thing that drew me to ffxi over other mmo's

I hope to see more instances or partying and grouping in the future to promote this aspect.

ya but with all the instances, the only competition is pvp. What about the pve competition!!

[Jokerz]

ya but with all the instances, the only competition is pvp. What about the pve competition!!

Server first are competitions, speed runs are competitions, bolstering once nation's presence in the world is a competition you can make a competition out of anything really. When I played psu players would always have speed run competition through the missions to see who was better geared and better organized. There are ways for indirect forms of competition, idk why people have such a obsession with killing each other-.-

[Aion]

Dragoon....in Drechen set