FFXIV Bitter Sweet

[Jeronlmo]

Good post. Though you have to remember that what may be perfect for you, may not be perfect for others. After being a 7 year vet of WoW, FFXIV is a good chance of pace to me and I am having a blast.

The difference is, even the "hardcores" from FF11 agreed that FF14 needed to be more casual friendly, but we were literally tricked via polls given by Yoshi, he asked everyone in 1.0 if we would like "quest leveling to be added" so we all said sure, the more you add to the game the better, give casuals more of what they want considering mob grinding already existed. They took this pole as "replace grind leveling with quest leveling" apparently and did so. People from FF11 were trying to bend over backwards, we fully believe a game cannot survive without casuals, just as 11 could not have believe it or not and we got stabbed in the back every single step of the way.

The game could have combined what FF11 had with a the far more casual friendly stuff, from what im hearing, this game is losing a lot of people sense they started charging, Yoshi apparently didn't know that there's a constant group of about 2 million people who have been game hopping to every single MMO in the last 10yrs or so, always complaining on forums and never happy, and he listened to them instead of FF fans.

[Litre]

I really agree with the OP, what really stood out to me was:

You only use a gear set for 2 hours then it's on to the next one, this is something I sorely miss from FFXI, and it's why I don't really feel like playing another job. If SQEnix doesn't make the after lvl 50 lvling more balanced they won't have my subscription for much longer.

Do you remember that awesome feeling starting a new job, knowing you could finally unbox those freshly cleaned lizzy boots and lvl 11 studded/bone set you were saving and those lvl 14 HQ rings? You got that feeling because they got you through some tough days, but now you're ready for it. Oh and hey, since you're spending more time in the lvl 1-75 grind, stats mattered - now they only matter end-game.

So fine SQ, if you want to cater to the mainstream and make lvl 1-50 in FFXIV basically what lvl 1-20 was for us in FFXI, fine. You get your "modernized" MMO, but please after lvl 50 do it properly.

[Souloni]

FFXIV isn't hiding the fact that the game is more expansive when you are level 50. Yoshi is preparing you for end game because no other game does. What did you expect? To be the hero of your nation at level 10? It doesn't matter if you are a casual or a hardcore player in this game; you will eventually reach the end. What everyone fails to realize is that Yoshi includes massively useful group based tutorials in order to get players accustomed to a group environment and battle mechanics -- GUILDHESTS.

Did you even finish all your Guildhests? I didn't, because I'm familiar with MMOs (as you probably are). I'm sure even if people weren't familiar, they probably didn't do them anyways. That's not Yoshi's fault, that's the player's fault. The game should not be designed to force itself to prepare you for content; then it wouldn't be a game it would be a script. It should provide you with options and leniency to follow through, which it does.

[MistressAthena]

Or perhaps it is because they are passionate about the game and want to see it still running and healthy well into the future.

Whilst I am enjoying the game even I can see the shortcomings SE have created with a number of the directions they have chosen. One thing I didn't see SE comment about when looking to WoW for direction was "why is it in decline?", to which there is a number of different answers, but for myself and all the players from my guild it was the fact that Blizzard made everything so accessible/easy it became utterly boring. To many games have taken the euphoric feeling of achieving something that takes some effort and replaced it with a very deadpan "well that's done, what's next".

The other thing that I would point out is how many other games have followed WoW's manifesto only to have a large fall in player numbers after a short period of time due to racing people to this supposed magic end-game. I sometimes wonder why have levels at all in MMORPG's and not just create a lobby game if the "real" game starts at maximum level. The entire game from level 1-50 should be something everyone wants to partake in because it's interesting and has at least a modest amount of challenge rather than skipping to the end, currently it's like an author telling you to read the last chapter of a book first because the rest doesn't matter.

Exactly! This is exactly the point I'm trying to get across, all of it.

[Steeled]

Um....no.

It doesn't prepare you for endgame. It is fully possible to go from 12-50, efficiently, as blm with one button.
Warriors can get there with overpower.
Paladins with Flash.

It's the fastest, most-effective, most profitable (seals+gil) way to level in this game.

And then some people get 50 and have no idea what to do.

Endgame is exansive? No it's not. It's grind 2, but really 1, dungeon. Spam ifrit, and nauseate yourself in CM. Once you're ready for coil/other primals, that's cool too.

I was a huge opponent of the AK speed runs, I begged SE to give us a reason to want to kill trash, the only reason they gave is that now trash will kill you if you don't.

As I understand it, most (all?) of these 4 man dungeons are from 1.0. Not a lot went into endgame, just tweaking what was already there. And yeah, at launch, level cap dungeons count as end-game.

[CaZx]

Just curious if you dislike this game/direction it's going whats the point in continuing to play? I'm sorry if I'm misreading your stuff but from what it seems to me is you are not enjoying the game. I'm enjoying said magic tricks and I know others are but if you aren't why bother continuing to play?

I think the reason is fairly simple. You have to understand that many of us, even the ones that are a little disappointed with the game, have a strong desire to play an MMO set in a Final Fantasy universe. The final fantasy brand has drawn me to this MMO and I want so bad for it to be a game I could get into for a long period of time. However, if I take a step back and look at the game realistically..I am not sure it has what it takes to keep people interested for the long haul. That said some of us still want to give it an opportunity while we continue to have some fun in the game..and maybe just maybe it will come around with future content.

The problem is that if it doesn't deliver with future expansions/updates than I am not sure that even the most hardcore Final Fantasy fans are going to be sticking around. Sure some will, but there are already many people hinting at the fact that their simply not sure if they want to subscribe at all when their free time is up because they have bum rushed the majority of the content already...and whats left isn't enough to keep their attention...at least enough for them to keep throwing money at it.

[Litre]

As it stands though, think realistically, I doubt they will change the 1-50 grind much, it's there, there's a story line for the first time through which is decent (my opinion, to coin the OP) - it's enough to sell the game and get 2, maybe 3 months of subscriptions and the endgame will be updated through patches.

I just hope they:

1. Balance the FATE rewards with Dungeon rewards (already in the works I believe)

2. Add an optional large dungeon every 10 levels we can use to grind? It should be much harder, gear even at the lvl 20 dungeon should be extremely important, this is to cater to the high levels who are lvling a 2nd job and to give some accomplishment to collecting a good lvl 20 gear set they can re-use for the next DD/tank/mage

3. Following #2, add a good gear set every 10 levels-ish that is really hard to get - which you can get as a high level, so it'd be something fun to do, like oh hey I want to lvl a whm, but I only have melee DDs at 50

[Jeronlmo]

Or perhaps it is because they are passionate about the game and want to see it still running and healthy well into the future.

Whilst I am enjoying the game even I can see the shortcomings SE have created with a number of the directions they have chosen. One thing I didn't see SE comment about when looking to WoW for direction was "why is it in decline?", to which there is a number of different answers, but for myself and all the players from my guild it was the fact that Blizzard made everything so accessible/easy it became utterly boring. To many games have taken the euphoric feeling of achieving something that takes some effort and replaced it with a very deadpan "well that's done, what's next".

The other thing that I would point out is how many other games have followed WoW's manifesto only to have a large fall in player numbers after a short period of time due to racing people to this supposed magic end-game. I sometimes wonder why have levels at all in MMORPG's and not just create a lobby game if the "real" game starts at maximum level. The entire game from level 1-50 should be something everyone wants to partake in because it's interesting and has at least a modest amount of challenge rather than skipping to the end, currently it's like an author telling you to read the last chapter of a book first because the rest doesn't matter.

I've said basically the same thing many times to people... the MMO genre seems to be going in a cycle, they started with no levels, and some newer MMO's are getting rid of them again (I believe GW2 is the game that lets you do endgame at any level, syncs you or w/e). The first MMO to make their game level-less in the future will prob be called revolutionary and make a fortune, then the first game 10-20yrs after that to "invent" levels will be called revolutionary.

[Yoko_Kurama]

The problem with adding better gear sets every 10 levels is that the content itself is so easy that you would burn through those levels without feeling the difference. The first 30 levels you could probably get through naked if we are being honest...They would need to make the entire 1-50 experience much more challenging and immersing to warrant having gears at low levels actually mean something. I see that in the next patch they will have 3 pvp areas, level 30, levle 40, and level 50, this may help because people will actually go out of their way to make gear sets for those levels to pvp at...but it's still too easy to accomplish that. I mean, ok now you will make crafters a little more relevant but how hard is it to level a 30 crafter and HQ a gear set for level 30 pvp? The entire experience simply needs to be more challenging but i guess it's too early to tell, lets see how pvp is truly implemented, i wonder if they will still have the global cooldown on pvp skills *rolls eyes*

[danteafk]

End Notes:

This game is just a Bum Rush to 50, while when you get there, its 1 endless grind after another for "Better" armor, but nothing ultimately new. This alone makes End Game empty, as there is nothing truly "new" besides a new cosmetic piece with a few better stats, while you end up grinding the same exact thing again and again and again and again....

The Oxymoron thing here, is that most of these players complain about how FFXI was nothing but a grind in the same area on the same mob....

Sorry to break it to you.. But so is FFXIV, except instead of the same area and mob, its the same dungeon, over and over and over, and unlike FFXI where you can look forward to that new skill, new sets of armor, new quests, and new part of the main story, and loads of other things at your next 10 levels, you having nothing to look forward too, except yet.. More of the same dungeon...

Very well said.