What was FFXI like when that first launched?

[MarkH]

That update history link seem to tell me that FFXI was a much more fun and casual (if buggy) game before the developer decides they need to "fine tuned" it after the players have accomplished all of the content and ask for more.

Then instead of adding a lot of contents, they just decides to make the old content harder and a few new content that takes forever so they can say "There is nothing to do? Have you got all job at 75? no? then go grind some more!".

To me it seem that FFXI was a game with good and fun foundation that SE decides they can't be bother to make many new content for, so they enlarge the time sink and make doing anything and everything take as long as possible. That design philosophy culminated into FFXIV, where doing anything and everything is a time sink. Want to craft? Please play a repetitive and boring mini game. Want to gather item? Please play a boring and repetitive mini game. Want to buy items? Please search for your items, run to several wards, look from north to south of each ward to find the bazaar you are looking for, buy, repeat.

What they "fixed" early on in FFXI is to make everything harder and take longer to do, what they want to fix here is to add fun to the game. I like the current development team, they are making the game much less frustrating to play, but the game has not become enjoyable.

[Irana]

The first days of ffxi were nightmarish at best... btu the game WAS FUN.

FFXIV, decided to scrap all the good things ffxi and restart a train wreck...

Ffxiv is like being the dude with the vision of the catastrophe thats coming in Final Destination movies. Meaning that if you had stopped to WATCH you could have avoided all the messes.

[SuzakuCMX]

@Reika: I was going straight from memory, so my years got jumbled. Oh well though.


I don't necessarily believe MMOs at launch are 100% perfect, but they're certainly better than what XIV given out, just on content alone.

Really? What MMOs did you play at launch that makes you state such bold things?

Specific examples are better support for an opinion than just a statement of opinion.

[K0NIGWULF]

Even though I believe this topic has been answered correctly, I will put my input in and say that FFXI was definitely nothing special when it first launched. When the RoZ expansion was added it definitely added more for people to work with, but before that the game was really slow. Prices on everything were outrageous. The leveling, crafting, etc took forever and people hardly wanted to bother with it and pretty much gave up on things after a while. Don't even get me started about those who went to play FFXI on the PS2 back then. It was so much of a hassle it was unbelievable and the phone support sucked. One of the worst aspects of FFXI has always been and still is the PlayOnline phone support. Lastly, in the beginning of FFXI major 5 - 12 hour updates went off every other week, which seriously turned players off. I'm going to go right along by saying no MMORPG is 100% perfect when they first launch. In every major MMORPG, if you take note of it, you'll notice they're constantly changing how things are done and adding new features to attract more members.

FFXIV is simply new and needs more time to flourish. I'm absolutely certain things will start really moving once a few kinks are taken care of. Honestly one of the major things that bothered me about the game, as silly as it may sound, was the inability to change the walk buttons to the number pad and having to look around with the mouse all the time. Things like this you wouldn't think effects how people would perceive the game, but they really do. A simple little fix like that and tons of people would be ecstatic, no joke. The other thing bothering people is the payment method, one option is shady as hell and the other requires you to purchase more "Crysta" then necessary. While you could save the extra and put it towards payment in the next month, some people simply don't enjoy the idea of that because they don't wanna throw down $20 all at once. Why am I rambling on about these things? Because I feel like people should know why this game is seeing so many bad reviews, since the poster wanted to know if FFXI started like this. It did, but the problems weren't all that alike. I've only named a few of the points which have given this game horrid reviews, but no matter how shallow they seem, they're major aspects as to what keeps gamers from playing.

[Vahzl]

I remember it not having anything interesting, and being very difficult to play. No one had a clue what to do, level cap was 50, endgame content did not exist, many of todays zones weren't there, only 6 classes, no transport options.... does this sound familiar to you? And look at how awesome FFXI is now

[Teknoman]

True, but the reason why people are up in arms is that they were hoping SE would've learned from XI vanilla launch mistakes, not repeat them in some of the same categories.

[Neffie]

True, but the reason why people are up in arms is that they were hoping SE would've learned from XI vanilla launch mistakes, not repeat them in some of the same categories.

I think alot of the frustration comes from this point, logically the game should not have had so many design flaws on launch....mind you i think there was alot of weight from the higher ups to push the game out way before it was ready. Which is why we have this unpolished diamond in our hands.

Hopefully with some time and elbow grease they will polish it up to be something worth delving hours of your life into ^^;

[Vahzl]

It is obvious why it was released when it was. They wanted to compete with Rift, and hit a Christmas release. All those players wavering with their WoW accounts, it would be like plucking corn from a ripe harvest.

[Teknoman]

I think alot of the frustration comes from this point, logically the game should not have had so many design flaws on launch....mind you i think there was alot of weight from the higher ups to push the game out way before it was ready. Which is why we have this unpolished diamond in our hands.

Hopefully with some time and elbow grease they will polish it up to be something worth delving hours of your life into ^^;

Yeah you've got a point there. I think once the new system is implemented, they should be able to roll out content at a decent pace.

[Reika]

The first days of ffxi were nightmarish at best... btu the game WAS FUN.

FFXIV, decided to scrap all the good things ffxi and restart a train wreck...

Ffxiv is like being the dude with the vision of the catastrophe thats coming in Final Destination movies. Meaning that if you had stopped to WATCH you could have avoided all the messes.

However, crafting in FFXIV started WAY better than FFXI started. I didnt even bother with it in ffxi when I played it. There were SOME improvements over FFXI.