A month or two ago I was just starting to tell my friends that FFXIV was shaping up. With the info about Ver2.0 with release dates, I started telling friends they should consider returning at that time.
"They are really making sweeping changes. Battle is fun, targeting is fixed. New content is here with more and more on the horizon. The materia system is cool!"
Good stuff.
But then, the PL'ing debaucle.
It seems this game is going in the direction of, "Who the hell cares about leveling. Let's skip through to the end-game so we can spam the two end-game dungeons for a month and then get bored and quit."
I played that game before, it was called Kingdom Under Fire and it blew goat nuts. You have fun for a week or so. Then you get in a party with experienced players, level up to max in a day, go fight the end boss the next day, and then you are done. Game over.
This game does not have enough end game content to support this mentality. It never will. As we all know, hardcore players can clear new content faster then it can be created. Even if the success conditions are frustratingly random and the drop rates for loot is excruitiatingly low.
The only way to overcome this is to provide incentives for players to enjoy a variety of the content - with new players preferrably. It's not like leveling up was exactly satisfying. I'm quite glad that Leves are a thing of the past. Although some new Leves with some variety would have been nice. The most fun I've had are in the EXP parties, but after your third or fourth class leveling through Raptors you notice that there's not a lot of depth there.
It's like this game has fast forwarded to the end-end-game where everone is bored of everything and they haven't even started charging yet! They are going to make the same mistake as last time, premature action.
Predict: Game will take a massive hit to population at subscriptions and failure will ensue.
Remeber all the polls about who is staying and who is leaving? Well let's take a repoll now that the majority of the population has fast-tracked their way to every meaningful goal. You have a 50 in every class you wanted right? Just PL up to 40 and then Spiritbind Party to 50. 2-3 days tops. Lame.
So what do I tell my friends about FFXIV now?
"Well, I'm afraid it's turned into one of those games where you PL to the end and then complete the final dungeon and quit." They nod knowingly. We have all played that game before. You may be willing to play that game for free, but you certainly don't pay for it.
My hopes for the future are sputtering out yet again.
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EDIT: My old signature. Leaving it here. I am curious if there will be changes to PL'ing when the party search is implemented.
Quote:
Yoshida: ...I believe that the Market and the party formation system are the next big issue so we are planning to use FFXI's system as a reference and make an adjustment as soon as possible.
Yoshida: Improving the linkshell system is our highest priority task after the party search function, so we plan on doing so in patch 1.21. However, it involves a very complex script (which is why we haven’t been able to make improvements yet) so we appreciate your continued patience in the matter!
Yoshida: Improving the linkshell system is our highest priority task after the party search function, so we plan on doing so in patch 1.21. However, it involves a very complex script (which is why we haven’t been able to make improvements yet) so we appreciate your continued patience in the matter!
Edited, Nov 21st 2011 1:40pm by SmashingtonWho
