Alpha First Look: Video 5 - Quests and Combat

[Ruisu]

Because why would I bother playing an MMO if you don't have others to enjoy playing with?

You don't have others to enjoy playing the game with? I didn't know you needed to do EXP parties to make friends.

[Reika]

You really dont need to do any of the content with someone to be their friend. The normal party size is 8. I'm sure If I am doing something with 7 other people, the other X people that aren't in my party that I am friends with before are still my friends.

[Jinrya-Geki]

You don't have others to enjoy playing the game with? I didn't know you needed to do EXP parties to make friends.

I do. I like experience grinding because it gives you something to do and it takes a while. Therefore you get have conversations while exping, versus a quest/event where maybe people don't want to talk. It happened in XI and WoW alot so I didn't have a large social/friend list.

The few people I actually talked to alot, I met through exp parties which is why I find exp parties superior than quest leveling/soloing.

[Shurrikhan]

Oh yea, that was my point, lol. Many games have these unique quests that people dreadfully want so bad. I was going to say that Guild Wars 2 actually has those type of quests as well.

You're agreeing to the parameters that are quoting you. Hmm... I wonder if the Elexia had the same inference as to what she meant as you when you responded to her... I get the feeling this at some point left the whole back-and-forth thing one expects when calling the opposition wrong. ...Why do straw-men come to mind at a time like this?

Wow, words coming from a hypocrite. You have not yet said anything substantial as to how the questing system is better and, in fact, did exactly what you claim others against your argument have done, and that's jump to a conclusion.

It's not hard to defend. It's plain and simple. These are quests that are not intricate and can be done on a solo basis. It doesn't require 11 hours to do, like the quests you dream of, so you can get something accomplished if you have some to little time to play.

I can't remember the last time my progress in an intricate quest was reset each time I logged... In fact, outside of instanced dungeons, I don't think there ever was one. It is really so bad that I get 15 minutes of progress towards a quest versus 15 minutes of progress towards a quest-chain (where I can turn one in every 15)? If it's the triggers that bug you, we already have quest continuations 'on-the-go' in 1.0.

And how was spiritbond leveling fun? Seriously? You're opposed to repetitive quests, but you will grind the same group of monsters for 10 hours for some self-accomplishment? Hypocrites.

Let's, just for a moment, assume that both are equally fun, after all they're both mostly killing. And killing is fun, right? Incredibly fun. Like... let's say... a really great party, or sex. Would you rather have a good long party, or stop every couple minutes and restart?

Also, "self-accomplishment"? Normally spirit-bonding is the point of all the spirit-bonding parties I see. Though, I suppose have gone to a couple just for fun.

Let's consider it in the other light. Both tasks suck, questing and things like spirit-bonding. Would you rather have the task that's done in a continuous block of time long enough to get better at the actual combat or mechanics involved, joke about it, make friends while you're at it, or simply see if you can talk, ride, kill, ride, talk faster than the next guy?

Call me a casual (or is it hardcore because it takes more time per event) but I like to be able to sink into doing something, and that was largely what made FFXIV special for me, be it gathering or grinding or whatever else.

I doubt this is so much a hatred of all things repetitive as a hatred of things that don't have enough time or depth to even recognize intricacy when its available. (That said, a good quest design may well skip that problem.)

[KoujiGeki]

Personally they should keep grind as a good way to level for people who don't like to spam quests. Instead of doing it the old SE in screwing someone over why not go the route that will make everyone happy?

[Mortechai]

This is how you make level progression, repetitive, mindless and boring if you have no imagination and have decided instead to just copy almost every other MMO for the past 8 years with the same repetitive "kill x of y" crap.

Talk about uninspired and derivative.

And why even have the quest dialog in there at all? Hell even the person in the video isn't taking the time to read it. And why bother? They have *3* different indicators showing you exactly where to go for the kill quest, and 2 showing you where to go for the "moist depression".

"Well, we have all this dialog but, you probably won't read it anyway. But, in case you do, you're probably too dumb to figure out where we're directing you to. So, we'll show you on the mini-map. And because you're probably too dumb to realize the circle on the mini-map indicates where you should be, we'll put markers for the mobs on the mini map too. Now don't panic... We know you're too dumb to figure it out even then. We've accounted for that by also putting large markers over the mobs' heads in-game too. You don't even have to know what the mobs are called or what they look like. Just look for the big, intrusive golden markers walking around."

For the other quest.. "go to the clearly marked, pulsating markers on your mini-map and look for the moist depression. Okay, you're too dumb to figure out the purple hazy looking spots that just happen to be exactly in the same spot as the mini-map markers are likely them, and you're probably too much of a mouth-breather to figure out that targeting those spots will tell you what they are. So, don't worry. We'll make sure to have the words "moist depression" hovering over them as well. Hopefully it's not too presumptuous of us to assume you can read big words like "depression".

"See? We have your time in mind! We know you don't want to be bogged down with boring stuff like interesting content that actually requires your participation, attention and, you know... usage of your brain (I mean, pfft.. who wants to use that?). We realize what you're really interested in is getting all this boring gameplay stuff out of the way so you can get back to serious stuff... like jumping up and down on tents."

Give me a freaking break already with this patronizing, hand-holding "we will show you exactly where everything is so you don't even have to try" crap already. Seriously. Gamers are far smarter than this nonsense.

What a cop-out.

You should TOTALLY go back to your D20 system/LARP group where all your "imagination" and "inspiration" belong. I mean seriously....what "intellectual" comes TO the mouth-breathers and cries to them about how the game they all like and enjoy is nonsense and a cop-out? Go away little boy and leave us to our entertainment.

[Genjuro]

So what is the something special then? If all experience is a series of triggers and killing, what could make it unique?

The directorship? The interconnectivity? How interesting the plot points and fights are by themselves?

I don't disagree that be it mob grinds, leve grinds, or quest grinds, the only difference to the xp-expedient is amount of time between killing ex-reward triggers.

I don't know if such a thing as unique will be accepted by the majority of the population. I have stated in other posts before that we tried different and unique and that went down the crapper in 1.0.

I believe that having multiple methods would allow for people to explore their characters to the fullest extent in much the same way that you have had your experiences. Some may want to just grind as I have done in the past and am used to. Some may want levequests and the "WoW Method" to mask the monotony of grinding.

This is a game therefore the concept of "having fun" should be embedded into it's soul somewhere. What "having fun" means is personal to each person, therefore presenting all avenues would temper the water for everyone to explore the methods of each.

[Mortechai]

How are you forced to read the quest dialog? You don't have to read a word of it. You can tell even the person in that video isn't reading it - unless they're a speed reader (not likely).

You can choose to read it, just as you can in WoW, or LoTRO or Rift or any other MMO based on that template over the last 8 years. But by no means are you "forced" to, nor is it even necessary. Every step of the way is clearly pointed out to you. Just follow the glowing map markers and huge golden icons floating around on your screen.

ARR is doing nothing different or better than any of those. It's a copy and paste of those same quest systems... and I use the term "quest" extremely lightly.

What this video shows are nothing more than mindless busy work, making you run around doing mundane tasks for a reward. They could just as well cut out the "running around" part and just give you the reward for managing to successfully click through all the dialog screens.

Did it ever occur to you that maybe they were skipping through it ON PURPOSE? Developers sometimes do that when they're showcasing something and have limited time in which to do so. Get over it. I'am 99.999999% positive that this is not an actual player going through this content, thus to make the observation that "Oh hey, even they're skipping through the dialogue lolololol" makes you look rather lobotomised.

[Shurrikhan]

You should TOTALLY go back to your D20 system/LARP group where all your "imagination" and "inspiration" belong. I mean seriously....what "intellectual" comes TO the mouth-breathers and cries to them about how the game they all like and enjoy is nonsense and a cop-out? Go away little boy and leave us to our entertainment.

Am I now grouped as a 'mouth-breather' because I'm part of the forum Prey posted for? That kind of hurts.

[Rhianu]

Personally, I have to question the intelligence of anyone thinks players should be FORCED to read quest dialogue. What ever happened to personal choice and individual play-style? Just because YOU like reading quest dialogue, that doesn't mean everyone else does. An intelligent game designer realizes that different people have different play-styles, and that not everyone is interested in story. Some people just want to get out there and kill shit, and couldn't care less about the story behind their monster slaying. Making quest dialogue skippable in no way detracts from the gameplay experience of people who don't want to skip it. If you don't like skipping quest dialogue, then don't. Problem solved. Seriously, stop berating people just because they have a different play-style than you, and stop insisting that the gameplay be designed to force everyone to play your way.