I only have one question...

[gifthorse]

I bought the collectors box on day 1 and have been off and on, usually play for a week after every patch before getting burnt out. Honestly, I know that improvements are on the way and I am sure the game will be just as good if not better than FFXI in time, however I still have a question that either has no answer, or the answer will kill PR:

Why wasn't FFXI used as a base? I am not saying "Why wasn't FFXI copied and refined?" I am saying why didn't the dev team get together on day one, think about what made FFXI a success, and innovate those ideas for a new generation?

I just can't for the life of me figure out how SE justified the idea of pretending FFXI did not exist when they sat down to concept Rapture/FFXIV...

FFXI was a great MMO and they threw everything that made it a good game out the window when conceptualizing FFXIV...why?

Thanks for any insight.

Races are the same as FFXI.

Three starting cities and main scenario quests are tribute to FFXI.

All spells and what they do is basically copy-pasted from FFXI.

NMs are implemented the same as FFXI.

Guildleves are similar to systems in FFXI.


They tried to use FFXI as a base as much as possible without it impinging on their ability to cater to a new demographic (ones who don't like to camp and pull for ten hours straight. Boring!). I think they made many improvements to FFXI, but they just needed more time to make the content more robust (Open Ishgard, add chocobos, add airships). And I think being a Final Fantasy may have actually hampered their ability to make an impressive new game, now that I actually think about it, since FF games come with a lot of baggage (only so much you can do with traditional spell set).