Alpha First Look: Video 5 - Quests and Combat

[Geesus]

You sir can shut it!

Yours Truly,
Davy "Sing Bitch" Jones

LOLOL

Don't make us have you log into TS with another embarrassing ID name Davy :P

[Reika]

In contrast, I met all of my In-game friends and got invited to all of my Linkshells from people acknowledging how good I was in a PUG.

Personally, I don't trust someone I've never partied with. I would not invite them to my Endgame Linkshell. I certainly would not put them in a situation where they could Ninja my Linkshells drops.

Only thing I can think of that is worse than inviting people you've never played with, is inviting people you've never played with after making them fill out an application...

I had this discussion with someone I work with who plays MMO's too. He likes to have statics and doesn't really converse with anyone he doesnt consider good at the game, but somehow calls the people he statics with 'Friends'. Thats not being a real friend, and if the people who you place the term friend on think the same way, they dont think of you as a real friend. They are simply party members. Conversing and partying only with skilled people means you simply want some tools to help your character data progress. You are all just useing each other for your own personal gains, thats not something friends do to each other...

I tell him all the time "They aren't your friends, they are just your business partners", and the stories of needless dungeon party drama over this drop or priortizing who gets their weapon crafted first proves my points with him.

The only real friends are the people who talk with you about things other than game related discussion, and will talk with you regardless of your skill.

[strallaalaa]

personally i love player interactions in my mmo's ...the more forced party play the better. its not about small groups, intimate 2player thing though. i don't really like small parties where it's me and another running around. i'm more like the "it's a party!!" college, full house of peoples you don't know kinda thing. i like it large and tons of people together. anything less then 6party kinda feels dull to me doing anything other then farming and the jollies i get curing someone when they are fighting and have a nice chunk of hp down. i consider them friends even if i don't know there real names, and i don't need to know squat about them. it's as intimate as i want it in a mmo. i want the grouping and fun and then the one day cya later, hopefully 5years later when the game gets stale. i don't want to meet you or talk to you on phone or give you my number or anything like that. typing and having fun is as far as it goes and i luvs it. i frigin hate solo play, gw2 was an all time record in how fast i quit an mmo. 2 weeks. fuk that game and fuk all mmo's trying to copy it.

[Psykotsu]

gw2 was an all time record in how fast i quit an mmo. 2 weeks. fuk that game and fuk all mmo's trying to copy it.

Shoulda made some friends. We did everything in a party.

But seriously though, your argument is kind of an insult to people who share the same opinion as you. I mean..think about..

You are in love with party play, I respect that. But it sounds to me that you will only play in a party if the game forces you to. Do you just not have the incentive to play in a party on your own? Or do you only play in a party when you have to?

[Jinrya-Geki]

Jin, I love ya bro. You're a fun guy to play with and chat with. I'm just saying this because I'm going to have to disagree with you here.

It's cool, I know everyone is different. It's just that the two MMOs that I have been very open with knowing alot of people was this and EQOA for the ps2. Because I exp grind partied alot.

In FFXI and WoW I wasn't as social. FFXI since people took that crap as seriously as a job, which brings me to the point that people may not be too social during an event. I ended up soloing to 75 as Paladin and didn't have any social linkshells. WoW, I joined and did quest after quest alone because the only friend I had in the game said that's how people level and that party grinding sucks, so I soloed.

[Sanne]

Nice video!
Can't wait till I can play it

Helping this precarious conversation along to the Tangent Lands...

I have made friends in monster-slaying grinding parties. I have made friends in quest-slaying parties. But the only reason I ever did was because I bothered to do so. I engaged the other players in dialogue and became friends with them -- often times I wasn't talking to them about what we were currently doing - but whatever my silly brain could think of to say.

And I've made even more friends in towns or walking along in some zone. I just see people passing by or doing something and I wave - I start emoting, sometimes roleplaying - I compliment people's appearances or I follow people around because I want to figure out what nefarious deeds they are up to (they are usually doing something innocent like buying or crafting stuff and wondering why this little guy is following them around). I make a lot of friends by being helplessly lost despite a map (navigational issues, me).

But the point is...I make friends because I make friends. Sure, certain systems might facilitate friendships more, but inevitably it all comes down to me. Do I speak? Am I friendly wherever I go? Do I explore the world and the people in it? We must use whatever system we are given to our advantage to make friends to grind or quest with. We can't expect some magical string of code that will do it for us.

Yeah.

/speech

So true. I couldn't have said it better myself

Also in a silent party you can feel more alone, then when you solo.

In Ultima Online I played 90% of the time solo, but I have met with so many people on my way. Somehow I talk with more people when I am just walking around alone. Now that I think about it, in FFXI I also have met most of my friends when I was playing solo.

Playing with other people doesn't have to mean you need to be in a party together.
However it mostly does end up in a party together

I really like it more that way then shouting for a party.

[strallaalaa]

Shoulda made some friends. We did everything in a party.

But seriously though, your argument is kind of an insult to people who share the same opinion as you. I mean..think about..

You are in love with party play, I respect that. But it sounds to me that you will only play in a party if the game forces you to. Do you just not have the incentive to play in a party on your own? Or do you only play in a party when you have to?

that is funny cause i went threw many guilds and every one of them were dead silent no matter how much you talk. most the time they don't even reply back even when you talk let alone keep convo's going. i assume you were on vent with people where lets face it is the only place people gather and talk in for these types of mmo's.

in ffxi on the other hand i was in multiple endgame linkshells that were full, many socials and a handfull of static shells for small game endgame like salvage. along with that everyday i partied with new players and it wasn't 5mins so even if it was quite most the time you still had some very enjoyable jokes and covo's here and there. and made good friends when you realize that 2-3 people are still the original players from when you first started the party 6-10hrs ago lol.

as for forced play yes most likely it has to be, i'm not gonna do it if it's easier and same exp solo'ing. i'm not gonna spend an hour putting a party together to get the same exp. one it would be hard to get a group 2. then i just waisted my time while others speed threw solo. don't get me wrong in ffxi i played tag and hid and seek in jueno with my one linkshell lmao. was boring and i quit very soon after but i just can't get into stuff like that. doing a suicide with poison pots in jueno was entertaining but it wasn't like an everyday part of the game. i like progression and party, it's a good mix

on a last note, by the end of ffxi if you did every type of content you probably could play 16hours a day and always have something to do and all of it was with groups, with the same players for most and lots of stuff to do with shouts and small man stuff with new people. so yeah forced grouping is where it's at on the fun factor for me.

[HiirNoivl]

I just remember when I was monster grinding (the fatigue system was still in place) I did get to meet some nice people. But they all ended up quitting the game later. In the end all I did was stay up late grinding and losing sleep for levels. Later on, it was for no reason since you could hit 50 in a day grinding as long as I did.

It's like what someone said before about regional servers breaking "friendships": Friends are temporary, lag is forever. I'll apply this to the "long slow boring grind" leveling system.

I want a fun quests system to play with in ARR, I want to level up as I'm having fun. If I make some "friends" a long the way, if I don't make any at all, it doesn't matter because it'll be good times. And if those friends all decide to break up or go some place else, I'll still play and people will still play and I'll just find some new ones.

[syntaxlies]

Why is it hand holding if the npc tells you were to go and what to do. People can't expect you to do favors for them if you don't know what your doing.

Some guys son has been kidnap

[syntaxlies]

Why is it hand holding if the npc tells you were to go and what to do. People can't expect you to do favors for them if you don't know what your doing.

If some guys son was kidnapped why would he give s