LIVE Letter (05/24/2014) Summary and ScreenshotsFollow

To be fair, the crafting system in 1.0 was unbelievably barren. I played 1.0 for about 5 months, and in that time I think my highest crafts were at around 32-35, and I crafted A LOT. I also didn't bot craft, which was the big fad in 1.0 since cheating was rampant and SE just didn't have the manpower to tackle that and try and fix the sinking ship. But if you were an honest crafter, the grind was pretty ridiculous. I remember literally craft-grinding for a 4-5 hour period while I watched Avatar on Netflix (the animated series, not the god-awful M.Night Suck-a-thon movie) and being lucky to gain a level in the 30's. The grind was horrendous and insanely tedious, let's not forget that.

However, I completely agree that when I got into XIV and started crafting, I was absolutely shocked at the XP I got from leves. I too thought it was an exploit, and even went so far as to report it to SE because I thought I was cheating the system or something. So you aren't alone in that regards.

There will always be people who are not happy no matter what developers do. In this case though I think it has more to do with what type of content they are releasing rather than the sheer volume.

This was the biggest waste of resources they put in FFXI, even beating out the pokemon monsters. It's so fully automated that races are happening RIGHT NOW even though the only thing anyone ever uses those zones for is hopping from one city to another. The gil amounts you could bet on the races were so low as to be pointless.

At least we actually did chocobo breeding.

Bingo. I certainly can't speak for everyone, but all I'd like to see is a focus on different types of endgame content. They don't even necessarily need to pump out more content, just change it up a bit from the status quo of primals, CT, hard modes, and Coil. Give me some more variety and less linearity, and some stuff that's not instanced. That's really all I'm looking for in terms of content.

I'd like them to expand more on the Hunts system they're coming out with. Instead of say, two hardmode dungeons. Release one hardmode, one new one, and then like a pack of new hunts, be they treasure or mark hunts, and have them work towards progression in some manner.

That said, the dungeons were the favorite part of last patch for me.

I can't believe I'm ever saying I'd want HNM's and the like back from FFXI, but I agree. If they do them right, where anyone can participate (maybe make a cap so the zone doesn't explode), and it either drops endgame mats or tokens or something based on amount of participation, that would be very cool. Make them as challenging as possible. I honestly thought that's what Odin and Behemoth would be, but the gear from them was almost purely cosmetic from the start, which I think was a misstep because it trivialized them pretty quickly.


Edited, May 30th 2014 9:21am by BartelX

I think I said this in another thread, but I really think SE should bring back "capped" open-world events like they had in 1.x, such as Behest and Caravan.

These could happen both randomly and on a script. The scripted capped events (and by that, I mean only a max of like 15 people can get the duty) would be great activities for FCs and linkshells, especially if they were to drop a small amount of myths or something that's still somewhat relevant. The random events could be the more elite FATEs, and they'd actually require teamwork and prowess on par with a boss (maybe somewhere between a dungeon boss and a HM primal).

Imagine you're in a camp, and suddenly an NPC soldier appears and says that adventurers are needed to put down Ol' Six Eyes Garblethumper?

SE pumping out 3x more dungeons in a single update won't make me happy. In fact, it's more than likely to make throw my hands up and walk away entirely. When expressing my discontent for Rift on their boards in the past, the common defense was that content came in cycles. This patch could've been the PvP patch, the next patch would be the Raider patch, and the patch after that would be useless PvE filler patch because if it's not raiding, ha ha, you suck. Tossing personal preference aside, this means something like 6-8 months are passing until it's "your turn" again if the other facets of the game don't hold appeal. So, this puts pressure on the content you do get to last that long. Usually it doesn't, hence people getting bored, raid logging, or even leaving the game entirely.

I know people love to abuse the e-word on the net when it comes to MMOs and gaming in general, but I'm a firm believer that when people are looking to be entertained, it is in the now and not three months from now. So, when I see people having to drop money upfront, I'm pretty much sold on them being entitled (the e-word, here) to their fun as long as it's not rooted in being a huge detriment to others (like botting, hacking, ganking, etc.). And since it's not exactly an industry secret that sub-15% of any MMOs user base is clearing the top tier content by the time the next comes around, this means that 85% or more of those funds are going toward things they may never see. PvP also tends to be a minority if you use games where PvE and PvP servers are a thing. So, there seems to be this twisted industry preference going on where the minorities get preferential treatment, and I don't think that's cool. We've also got Yoshi on record saying he'd be more the hardcore and would even design a "harder" game if he could, but I can't help myself but feel that despite his attempts to divorce himself from that preference, it's still guiding his design philosophy here. Hence, crafting being second-rate, no top-tier open world gear acquisition, and the inevitable focus on dungeons/raiding.

So, think of this as a roundabout way of saying the whole "patch cycle" philosophy is rubbish. The big updates need to be bringing something meaningful for everyone. I know that's dreadfully vague, and in the past I've had people try to pervert that into wanting hand-outs or other back asswards hyperbole, but that's not it. It's about having things to do and not feeling left behind. And if we're aiming even higher, it's not about big patches every 3-4 months, but instead new things being rolled out as they're ready. Such has the added benefit of keeping the hype machine rolling instead of radio silence for 1.5-2 months.

While I agree that FFXI did some things right -- including making the game feel more like a journey than a destination -- honestly I think what a lot of people claim to like about FFXI is an illusion that only seems real because we look back on it through thick, clouded lenses of nostalgia.

Grinding to level 75 in XI was boring and incredibly monotonous. INCREDIBLY monotonous. Yeah, there were some good parties along the way, but OMG, it was tedious. And once you got to 75, all there was to do for the longest time was Sky, Dynamis and ground kings (which were both monotonous AND hacked beyond belief). Sky was monotonous, too, and most of your time was spent either standing around or killing trash mobs. Dynamis, in my opinion, was fun... but the only thing that kept people coming back were insanely low drop rates on a few pieces of gear... most people only tolerated city runs so they wouldn't lose their points leads for the one Northlands piece they still didn't have after a year or two of grinding.

That was the difference between XIV and XI.

XI had gear swapping, thus far more BiS gear pieces per character, and each of those gear pieces required a super-long grind that makes atma farming seem like a Floyd Mayweather shopping spree at the Dollar Store.

It was fun at the time, sure... but I'd never want that again, nor would I wish that upon anyone else.

I think that's the problem. Take away the grind, and the old XI systems wouldn't be what they were. The old systems worked because large groups of people were forced to keep coming back for more... but I remember the way things really were, too. Most large linkshells had to deal with constant turnover, because the minute people got the one item that kept them coming back, they were gone. There was always lots of drama over people getting what they needed, and then not hanging out to help everyone else who helped them.

I'm not completely anti-grind, by any means... but XI endgame was incredibly grindy and also logistically difficult to pull off. The biggest challenge of endgame content was often just getting to the start line with enough people who were ready.

XIV content is hardly grindy in comparison... but it also requires extremely little planning. Also, successful endgame battles are usually over in 10-30 minutes. I think XIV could benefit from becoming a little less forgiving... just not in ALL of those areas, which seemed to be the MO of content in XI's heyday.

Susanoh, if you read my whole post, you would see that I am right there with you on the impact gear swapping had on XI's endgame. That isn't lost on me in the slightest. However, I don't think having more carrots to chase is the difference between good design and bad design. FFXI was awesome, but the game used horizontal progression carrots as a crutch. A lot of the content was overly grindy and wildy boring... And I played XI from CoP launch through the most recent expansion.

I bolded the (IMO) important parts of your text. Once again I can see that your intentions are noble, but there's quite a few points to re-assess. Firstly and most importantly, if I understood the first bolded part right you're saying that since only ~15% of an MMO's user base clears top tier content in the time it takes for the company to release new a new set of top tier content, most of the money going towards top tier content may not benefit the remaining 85% of the user base. However I cannot help but disagree with the notion that the value of the current top tier content somehow vanishes once the new set of top tier content is released. You are essentially overlooking the "trickle down" effect that is an essential part of the MMO design philosophy and in my honest opinion it is this effect that completely turns the table in favor of the majority. In ARR terms, the big updates (aside from 2.0) have all brought something meaningful for a much higher percentage of the user base than the aforementioned ~15%. The trickle down effect makes sure of that. We may as well dive into the more philosophical questions like "is it new content if it has been in the game for six months?" and so on. But like with most philosophical questions, there is no one "right" answer. It is essentially new content to those 85% of the playerbase that have not had the chance to take part in it. Surely it is better than there being nothing "different from the past" to do at all.

I also see another philosophical question lingering in your post. The age-old question, "Who deserves to be the e-top dawg?" -Plato, 365 BC. Peculiarly you argue for more ways to penetrate the top-tier content even though those particular means would not exactly make the top-tier more accessible to the majority of the user base, only other minorities. Certainly the top-tier would lose much of it's significance if everyone could get there regardless of what they do or don't do in-game. With that said, there is no reason to exclude the majority from the equation (the user base that don't have the means or desire to penetrate the top-tier content). That is because It is extremely important to understand how the majority feels about the top-tier content in the game. In other words, if the majority cannot penetrate the top-tier content and thus attain the greatest rewards, why would that be the case?

Since crafting boils down to money(=time) considering it doesn't exactly take a lot of skill to emulate the necessary steps needed for optimal results in the gameplay itself, by making crafting first-rate the devs would open the top-tier for those with little skill but all the money(=time) in the world. Since it is considerably harder to control the variables and build gameplay scenarios around open world content that is in any way different from instanced content, if the devs were to make these kinds of contents part of the top-tier they would be easy and time-consuming (to make up for the lack of difficulty). Once again the top-tier would be opened to those with little skill but all the time in the world. Not to say that SE hasn't already done this through the Zodiac saga, but I doubt that the weapons will go over ilvl110 even in their strongest form. Thus T9 will continue have the top-tier rewards.

The player mentality has changed a lot in the past decade. The majority will no longer accept that someone is the best simply because he has more time. He must also be more skilled, only then is it alright to be the top dawg. MOBA is an incredibly successful and a growing genre while MMO's continue to become stale. What do MOBA's have that MMO's don't? The gameplay is extremely skill focused, and if you are worse than someone it's because you aren't skilled enough. Time is a part of the equation, of course, but it is much easier to accept when it is not just time that a good player needs to excel.

SE is doing exactly what is demanded of them by the modern gamers, while the ancient gameplay designs are shunned. It is a different reality to people like you. In the end all you can say is that the devs don't get it, that they don't try enough, that you know better. You may continue to live being disappointed or accept the realities and move on. Most likely you will continue to make posts like the one I quoted with nothing changing in the actual games you play. It's just a sad sight to see, is all.