Cultural Differences, North American Strangers

[AridElf]

The problem with making people band together and form large groups is that people already do it for FATE zerging. I think that loading priorities need to be sorted first so that we no longer have invisible enemies or wait 3 minutes for the NPC right next to us to load while that dragoon on the other side of camp who has been afk for 5 hours loads first.

I would like to have a reason to form bonds with people more often, however I think we need to wait for the initial boom to pass and allow players to settle. I'm also tired of helping people in the field and have them abandon me when it's my turn to kill a quest target :|

[Naiser]

I disagree with "forcing" big party formations as the primary way to form group.

No one is forcing you to use the duty finder and you shouldn't be suggesting to force us not to.

Your primary mode of forming a party is YOUR choice, even now. If you like to group up with familiar faces, do it.

The duty finder benefits the casual player who wants to queue up, craft a little, pop into the dungeon when the party is formed.

Wanting to force players to spend time forming a group themselves on the fly, especially those without an active FC, is going back to the dark days of "JP-onry" and "monks need not apply" parties in FFXI. That system only brought out the worst in elitists.

As it is now, all players have a choice to form their own party or take a stab through the finder. No change needed.

[JT1]

I miss the XP grind parties they had in Final Fantasy XI. Fun times being in groups trying to chain as many mobs to get the maximum xp per hr. Many Linkshells were formed after establishing friendships with these xp parties. Final Fantasy XI was also a lot more of a challenge than this game is so far. I remember how hard it was just to break the level 50 cap barrier with the three items you had to get. Pretty much nothing was given to you in that game. Everything that a player got in that game took a lot of effort. Fates, well they weren't called Fates in FFXI, but NM were claimed by the person or group that hit it first and nobody else could take it unless the claiming group wiped. Here Fates are just one big mass with no challenge at all. It would be nice if maybe they did something of a cap on Fates. In other words say the first 10 or 20 people to hit a fate mob will have it claimed. Those would be the only ones who can complete the fate. It would make it more of a challenge.

[Vilhem]

Final Fantasy XI was also a lot more of a challenge than this game is so far. I remember how hard it was just to break the level 50 cap barrier with the three items you had to get. Pretty much nothing was given to you in that game. Everything that a player got in that game took a lot of effort.

Don't confuse challenge with mindless grinding and time lost. A lot of that "effort" was RNG, not any actual work on your part. XI has a lot of fun memories, but its time to let go of the idea that timesink=challenge.

Also, duty finder forming is pretty much going to be frustrating from Titan onwards (maybe Garuda too). By Primals you really do need to have some kind of FC or group going that you trust. Coordination is key, especially if you want to take on Coil. That one isn't even available in Duty Finder.

[Alhanelem]

I miss the XP grind parties they had in Final Fantasy XI.

I don't miss it at all. Quests, dungeons, and Fate offer a lot more variety than repeatedly pounding the same monster into mush. Not to say there wasn't any fun in trying to optimize DPS, but that was a part of the whole game, not just EXPing.

If you miss those parties, then maybe you should play XI and form one. You're going to have a hard time finding a full part full of people who want to repeatedly kill the same monster in some random corner of the world for several hours.

[C-croft]

I don't miss it at all. Quests, dungeons, and Fate offer a lot more variety than repeatedly pounding the same monster into mush. Not to say there wasn't any fun in trying to optimize DPS, but that was a part of the whole game, not just EXPing.

If you miss those parties, then maybe you should play XI and form one. You're going to have a hard time finding a full part full of people who want to repeatedly kill the same monster in some random corner of the world for several hours.

I miss it, but I don't want it to be the only way to get XP. Every now and then for shats and gaggles would be fine if it was viable enough.

[Yoko_Kurama]

Listen, when I made this thread I only wanted to point out one major thing and this is opinionated but no matter what you say, gathering groups of friends to progress through the story content of this game is NOT primary. If it were a primary mechanic, you would be almost required to find a party to get through the majority of the content. How many threads do you think i've read of people who made it to level 50 on their own (in the first week) only occasionally using the duty finder when it forced them to temporarily party with strangers they will never talk to again? I'm not saying it should be impossible to get through the game on your own, but it should be difficult, highly inconveniencing and require a lot of hardcore time on your hands. The mechanics as far as i'm concerned promote the lazy attitude of "I could find a party, or i can just finish the story on my own", the fact that you can finish the story on your own in what is classified as a massively multiplayer online game is the problem here.

The very basic mechanics of the game should steer people into needing to make friends and experience the story with those friends. To people saying wait until end game content, this is not a PVP based game where grinding to max level in a few days makes sense, it's a story based mmo (supposedly) and that should mean getting through the story (1-50) with people who you share many experiences with.

That is what i mean and that is why I say grouping based on the mechanics of this game, is deterred. Whether it is possible to form groups or not isn't the issue, but it isn't required to deal with people in what is supposed to be a massive multi player experience. Thus although it is impossible to change the foundation of the mechanics, I hope SE can implement more mechanics or areas in future patches that promote (i mean seriously promote) gathering groups, getting to know them and getting through content that otherwise would be virtually impossible without trust worthy comrades who understand their roles in your group.

[Yoko_Kurama]

Bumping because I feel this post is more relevant and obvious now than when I first started the thread.

[Alhanelem]

Bumping because I feel this post is more relevant and obvious now than when I first started the thread.

And I'll throw in a bump because the post is more not relevant and less obvious now than when you first started it. If anything, conditions are better now than when you started the thread.

I use the duty finder and form my own groups for stuff almost equally and I do not see any of the problems, and I don't see anything even remotely anti-american in any way. I have a free company formed entirely of people I recruited in the game, many after encountering them in a formed party. The DF does not discourage community. If anything, it strengthens it as a side effect of people who have bad experiences with it wanting to form more close-knit groups on their own server. Also, the wait times for the DF sometimes are such that you could even form a party faster by shouting or using your linkshells.

I have 4 linkshells, each with 80 people or more in them. How you think there is a problem here is beyond me. The community is just as strong, if not stronger, than it would be if the DF never existed.

[Ssuusshhii]

Bumping because I feel this post is more relevant and obvious now than when I first started the thread.

Citation? Sources? You're making blanket statements over a complex topic without any facts or statistics to back up your claims. Frankly, you don't seem to know a lot about either culture you're comparing.

People on my server regularly make groups and Linkshells to repeatedly farm Primals and AK/CM. If they find people they like (in terms of personality and playstyle), they'll form/join a Free Company together and find more like-minded people. That's how the community is growing right now and I see nothing wrong with it, and I'm fairly sure that that's how the community is growing in Japan right now.