FFXIV Online Community seems to be dying?Follow

So did I. Then the level cap raised to 99 and obsoleted almost everything, and then it settled down again for a while and I was happy again. Then Adoulin came out, and suddenly everything was out again, with no sign of letting up. And my endgame shell exploded spectacularly, and I had out-of-game demands on time that would have made it hard to join a new one regularly. I found that in post-Adoulin FFXI, my previous endgame gear wasn't worth a darn anymore, and to getting into the new content to upgrade seemed incompatible with the more casual play I had time to do. That's when I quit, after playing constantly since February 2004.

So it was exactly that, gear obsoleting, that really pushed me away from FFXI. *

I still dislike gear obsoleting. But at least FFXIV didn't suck me in with the promise of stability -- I didn't play for many years expecting a level 75 relic to be eventually attainable with hard work and still relevant for the life of the game. I knew what I was getting into this time. The absence of gear swapping and having to spend all that time writing XML gear set code for every ability more than made up for what was clearly going to be a constant situation of being a little behind the curve for gear. The awesome graphics, the easier questing -- not having to have a laptop open beside me every time I wanted to do the simplest of quests -- and the easier casual play grabbed me and pulled me in. Joining FFXI friends in FFXIV was the final element that makes the latter where I want to be.

The trick is balancing the gear obsoleting so that the hard-casual player can keep up with the rate, staying a little behind the full hardcore but not too far. So far, that seems to be the case.


(* That and the New Dynamis. I adored the old Dynamis at level 75 cap. It broke my heart when they wrecked it.)

Edited, Jun 4th 2014 7:35am by Laverda

Well, of course we treat it as a preview. If they want actual QA or alpha testers they should be paying us to play it.

I reported all my bugs and uninstalled the game. If they truly have patched everything, I might go buy a copy after all.

Hey, I'm the one asking questions here...nah, just playing, of course I'll answer.

In all honesty, I don't really care if a game decides to constantly update their endgame gear or just give us new tiers altogether as long as the game itself is fun; however, I will say that my personal preference is the latter. My personal reason for that is that even though I "grew up" with FFXI, I never got behind the whole "it took me forever to get this gear so it needs to last forever!" mentality that was prevalent in that game's itemization. It always just mystified me. If something needed replacing, then I would replace it with minimal complaint. Also, "Yay, I can add +2 (insert stat here) to my old endgame gear!" doesn't sound as good as "Yay, new, awesome looking gear with more (insert stat here) than this set I've been stuck with forever!" to me. And obviously, I also don't expect everyone to agree with that as well. I think the latter is a better carrot to chase than the former. (I will admit that the above scenario may not be as big as an issue with vanity systems in play, but I digress.) That's what MMO's are about to me: making memories with your friends/family, having fun, and chasing the next shiny new carrot.

EDIT:



I'm in favor of the above. I believe the newest stuff should always be the cutting edge, but if people would rather upgrade their old things to keep them relevant enough, then more power to them.

Edited, Jun 3rd 2014 5:25pm by Arcari

I would hope fun was a given. When it's not, all 3 stop mattering. :P