Greetings,
I am looking for information specifically about certain aspects of FFXIV. DISCLAIMER - I will talk about GW2 in this post but not as a comparison to this game but more as a general example when I need to explain something.
I will also attempt to keep this post as brief as possible while still giving as detailed and parsimonious explanation as I can.
I played FFXI for roughly 8 years 2002-2009, it was a very enjoyable game but it had gotten to the point where I was sick of certain aspects of it but I couldn't quite identify what they were or why I had grown tired of the game. After playing Guild wars 2 last year I realized what those things were. I am here to ask about certain key aspects of mmos that I have grown tired of and whether or not they are common in FFXIV. Quite frankly my life has gotten so busy that I just no longer have time to deal with the following things in games.
1. Camping for mobs - This was by far the most hated aspect of FFXI for me. I simply do not have time to camp monsters for advancing my character's gear or for the purpose of getting rare crafting materials, etc. In Guild wars 2 when you attack a monster you get your very own batch of loot independent from anyone else who also joins in the fight. Does FFXIV have camping as a main way of advancing a character through the acquisition of gear, rare drops, crafting materials, etc. or does it implement some other system for this?
2. Spending 1/2 my time running from point A to point B - Yes I know that once the crags were unlocked, and region warp was completed travel in FFXI was really not to bad. With that said, the first year or so of playing the game I must have spent at least 50% of my play time just traveling from place to play. I don't want to be doing this again in any online game. Guild wars 2 was able to deal with this issue by simply allowing players to auto warp to any point on the map they have unlocked anywhere in the world for a small (in game currency) fee.
3. Monopolies of gear, rare crafting materials, etc - This directly ties in to issue #1. In FFXI many end game linkshells would actively camp, organize, and essentially monopolize the market for rare crafting materials and rare spawns. Honestly I don't have time for this BS anymore. If the game encourages this behavior I simply will not play it.
4. Forced Grouping to level - Again it is an issue of time. I simply cannot spend 2-3 hours shouting or even 60 minutes /sea all whm "40-50" /sea all rdm "40-50" /sea all nin "40-50" /tell "Hi want to join a pt in (insert zone)". ---- I am over this.
5. Incredibly slow crafting system - Your alchemy skills increased by "0.1" -- Need I say more?
6. The need to wait around until people are available to help you in order to get things done - This is an issue that I believe is still common in FFXI today. You either dual box or wait until a friend who has leveled the right class is online to help you get something done. I don't have time to wait around like this anymore. I need a game where if I want to progress there are several avenues that I can take — even if I am playing solo that night — to do so.
7. (Insane levels of) Inflation - I will not spend 20 hours a week farming Darksteel ore for over a month and a half to buy a scorpion harness. It was a monotonous chore and I will not play a game where I feel like I have a second job. A game should be fun to play, I don't know anyone who found farming, mining, and logging fun, especially when they had to pay the insanely inflated gear prices.
These were the main issues I had with FFXI that I finally was able to identify after having played GW2. In the end it all comes down to time spent. I just don't have the massive amount of free time I used to back in 2002-2009 to play an mmo that demands so much. I want to know if these issues are going to be present in FFXIV. I have done some research on the game and I have heard that it is much faster paced than FFXI was. I have also heard that you will not spend all day traveling from point A to point B and that solo content is much more common. With that said, I have not actually played the game beyond level 6 (When the original came out) so I want to ask people who maybe have played the closed beta or know a bit more about how ARR will handle the above.
Thanks.
Edited, Apr 11th 2013 12:36pm by Alazardragoonz
Edited, Apr 11th 2013 12:36pm by Alazardragoonz