The joy of grouping (FFXIV)

Murugan

I'm a guy who likes a challenge.  In particular, I like the kind of challenge that brings people together, and forces them to work as a team, for me nothing else in video games begins to compares to that experience.  I'm a raider, but I'm a raider these days by necessity.   Before all that I was a pick-up-grouper, I loved it, I played for it and for a long time I thought it was all I wanted from an MMO.  So what happened?  Leveling by way of pick up groups died out.  That is because the very worst thing that World of Warcraft did to the MMO industry, was to introduce (mainly solo) quest grinding as the most efficient means and therefore only means for 95% of players in modern day MMO's to level. 

 

For those who don't remember/know what I'm talking about:

In the old days people joined a party to gain levels and just grinded, they did this in EQ (I only know because I played the classic project) because there just wasn't much else.  Then came FFXI, initially it completely revolutionalized party play through the introduction of the skill chain (renkai), and XP chains.  Suddenly it wasn't just a grind, now every outing was a bit of a unique in that you would form a skill chain with what worked for the setup you had, and then try and keep that chain going as long as possible earning a bonus reward as you went.  It was addicting, and it was fun.  There were bad parties, and bad players, and there were also learning experiences and friends being made and the occassional party that just blew your socks off.  The kind you just had to tell everyone about.  FFXI didn't perfect grouping, you had your era of penta-spam, and for many of us at endgame merit parties eventually devolved into warrior-burns, mana-burns, summoner-burns, monk-burns etc. and it became painfully repetitive.  Then came Abyssea and well... if you played XI at that point you know the rest of the story.

 

 

Then came WoW.... and this kind of grouping died.  In post WoW MMO's I spent 95% of my time soloing (which I found unbearably boring and unchallenging).  I just grit my teeth and got through it so I could reach endgame, the point where people cared and learned how to play their class, and worked on goals as a team.  Of course all that soloing didn't exactly produce the most stellar group mates initially, and there was a long process of people now at endgame finnally learning how to play their classes together.

 

Even still I don't think endgame raiding satisfied my need for a challenge.  Ultimately it wasn't that hard to learn your class, to min/max, to get to the top of the parser as a damage dealer, and I would eventually lose interest in all those games.

 

What was so great about group leveling?  The opportunity it provided to come together with people you didn't know, or barely knew, and learn how to play together as a team.  Not just you playing your class, hitting the right abilities in rotation and wearing the right gear (which is what most "content" especially mid-level dungeons boils down to in modern MMO's if it even requires that, unfortunately most are like playing whack-a-mole), it is a dynamic experience of adapting yourself to part of a group and making the best out of it, because there's always room to improve with pick-up-group leveling, you can always push the envelope just a little further if you choose to.

 

FFXIV still has a ways to go, but it has done what no MMO since FFXI has done.  It has revitalized the pick up group community, the vast majority (90% at least I would say of regular players) of people playing FFXIV are likely to report joining a pick up a group to level at some point.  FFXIV also has battle regimens, it now has a working (pretty well I might add) enmity system, and soon enough it will even have XP chains/areas speciically designed to promote group leveling.  And since party leveling once again was pushed to the forefront, the population has started to go up.  People are playing more than they have since the first couple months, and this is despite the fact that we are right in the middle (or rather still the beginning) of their major revamps/content additions.

 

I love it, people try to demean the experience saying:

• 
  "oh god, GRINDING,"
• 
  "where's the point?" 
• 
  "It takes no skill" 

 

Maybe that was their experience, it wasn't mine. 

 

That is though how I feel about doing 99% of quests in most MMO's, or doing public events like rifts/invasions in Rift or public quests in WAR.  True you could actually get to group for those, but I never saw people talking or bothering to coordinate at all it was just zerg the target and leave party once all objectives were complete.  I didn't get to know anyone or make any friends, these are auto/public groups they are not true pick up groups.

 

I love pick up groups. .  Everytime I form/join one it is with new people, and it's that feeling I used to feel leveling up in XI.  Maybe you don't get that feeling, but maybe you just didn't get such fun groups, and that's unfortunate.  Maybe I'm just lucky, but I play a game and on a server where I get so many excellent ones.

 

So for me the FFXIV teams commitment towards developing systems which improve and aid pick up grouping, such as coordinated party roles with jobs, revamping the BR system (which I am grateful to even have since so many MMO's simply lack any depth in that regard), xp chains, and party areas is one of the best, if not the main draws keeping FFXIV at the top of my MMO list.  I do like the other stuff too, but I think this is a pretty unique aspect sticking out among modern/in development MMO's which I happen to really like.

Unknown

+1000000.  I have gone back to EQ recently. Playing on the progression server has really gave me back that "first mmo" feeling. Just waiting for FFXIV to have more done before I come back so I'm not playing through these changes or leveling out of range of lower level content they release.