Some additional thoughts/feelings after me playinbg some other mmos on this break...

[Darkhaund]

I took this time to finish some console games that were in my backlog, such as Xenoblade, FF6 (GBA) and am currently playing FF3 DS and will tackle on The Last Story...

I also took the time to revisit some old mmos like WoW (wanted to see the new stuff)
FFXI ( I wanted to to finish the windurst storyline that is left undone) among other things.

I did not got that deep into WoW, as i personally felt it was the same thing OVER again. Raid, get gear, rehash... period.

FFXI well, for it Abyssea ruined it, so I just came back to finish my windy missions, Wings of the goddess missions) and end it there! The game (at least in my server) does look very very empty now and it is clearly on its final years, but there are still around 1.6kish people on server at any given time.

I do admit that I had a more pleasant time in my return to 11 that in WoW. Watching the Windurst storyline and Cs and the Wings of the Goddess one as well, reminded me how well done the story was -and still is- told in FFXI.

During this time, i had the chance to see Tera, GW2 and SWTOR and well, those games are indeed WoW Clones.

I was not selected for alpha test, but from the videos that have been released, i do hope that FFXIV keeps true to itself, with powerful storytelling, amazing CS, rich in lore and not tooo commercial. I think that as long as ARR keeps true to the Final Fantasy tag and elemets, the game will strive and be good for us the fans, and also interesting for new commers.

Any thouguts?

[yukikaze_yanagi]

incoming elexia with her "since they're making this a steamlined game..."

[Lady]

I jumped back on FFXI after a 5 year hiatus. More for a walk down memory lane then to actually play it. Sadly the game is pretty barren in the starting cities, which I found to be odd since there is an event going on, but I figure just visiting the zones and testing some of the new content will keep me occupied during the time between the betas.

As to ARR stuff
I don't think any quest-driven content in any game could avoid being attributed to WoW, so have to rely on the depth of the story/lore to keep it feeling fresh (quest-wise).

[Darkhaund]

Yes indeed! And I agree Lady, but I cannot hide my feeling that in order to grab as much potential subscribers as porrible, SE will make ARR too commercial and not-so original

[Lurex]

My feeling is that FFXIV ARR will offer alot compared to what those games that you mentioned have to offer. The Development team has been hard at work to make this game great.

I also have played FFXI again, and felt the same sentiments that you did about it. I also started playing Aion. I really like some of the features that Aion has like right clicking a name in chat to invite to party.

I think that ARR will keep true to the Final Fantasy tag and elements, and that the game will strive and be good for us the fans, and also interesting for new players.

[Lady]

Yes indeed! And I agree Lady, but I cannot hide my feeling that in order to grab as much potential subscribers as porrible, SE will make ARR too commercial and not-so original

I think there are quite a few original, non-commericial elements already involved in FFXIV, and more to be implemented after ARR's release.
For starters I don't know many games where all classes can be obtained on one character. With the exception of a few, the Jobs are very unique to the FF genre.
And one thing that FF does better than any other game is give that feeling of accomplishment to their content. WoW no matter what I did in it, always felt that I'm just a face in the crowd so to speak. FF, even if its doing something that 1,000s of other players did, I felt like i reached a new lvl of existence lol.

[Merc]

I really hope it stays true to the Final Fantasy name too. I like the exp grind to be a long one, end-game content to be ridiculously hard, and drop rate at a low %. There is a reason I never played other MMO's and it's because everything was spoon fed to me.

[Darkhaund]

Yes,, in WoW i NEVER felt attached to any of my characters. I am very glad that is being kept in ARR. However, from the few videos I have seen of alpha footage the game does seem much more commercial...

[Elexia]

incoming elexia with her "since they're making this a steamlined game..."

Too bad SE said it first and recently stated they want it to compete and capture audiences or there's no real point.

For starters I don't know many games where all classes can be obtained on one character. With the exception of a few, the Jobs are very unique to the FF genre.

While true, more MMOs are going down this path so one strength the FF MMOs had in originality is starting to slip away, especially since with XIV they're still going the 'open ended' route in a sense that most MMOs have. XI for example a good strength was the fact it played like a FF game, throughout the story you end up opening more options to yourself (like almost all FF game) and eventually unlock the "final area", again like almost every FF game. You unlocked Sky and Sea through progressing the storyline which unlocks a bit more content for you to do as well as additional leveling places.

Most MMOs push you out of zones through quest chaining so you don't really get a real "attachment" to areas since once you wear out quests you'll want to go to the next zone and rinse and repeat. FF games generally give you an attachment to many areas usually through backtracking but mostly through sidequests outside of the main path. So all they really have to do is make it more of a FF game in setup and execution, much like they did with XI, it was based on EQ baseline but they made it their own.

The one mistake they're likely going to make is unlike other MMOs, FF games being turned into an MMO needs to follow the one principle that the game starts when you start, not start at end-game like so many MMOs the past decade. in XI you had quite a lot to do as you're leveling especially in terms of storyline content and misc activities like Assault and the like (it's why there's level cap options, to let people not at end-game partake in it) and why end-game was the ultimate goal but not only goal where the devs will want to rocket you to end-game asap. They need to balance the beginning, middle and ending. XI in late years was top heavy due to them focusing on end-game, with ARR if they do that they're just making the same mistake so many others have been making lately with their game and we seen the outcome.

[Darkhaund]

As I have mentioned on past times, if ARR turns out to be too WoWized and too commercial it will be done for me. I will probably quit MMOs or in any case check the new XI expansion. I have to admit I am not a fan of "modern" mmos. And your made a PERFECT example of zones... in modern MMOs you get pushed out of zones as you level, and they do not have any mayor meaning to you.

I still have very strong and fond memories of places like SKY, SEA, boyada tree etc