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I still don't get the popularity of this game.
tixylix
Member UncommonPosts: 1,288
I'm trying again because apparently it's the second most popular sub based MMO out there. I just don't get it though, there is no Final Fantasy like story, no voice acting and the world design is super small and enclosed. All I've done so far is kill 10 rats and fetch quests, they're so boring and like going back to 2004 when quests were new and did nothing more than that.
I got bored of this shit over 10 years ago now, why hasn't this game evolved in any way? Any ways, I haven't even reached level 10 I am that bored, it doesn't even feel like a Final Fantasy game, where is the main story people go on about? It has been non existent so far.
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Comments
[mod edit]
This time with their own self-made expectations of what is a "Final Fantasy like story" (as if FF stories have never been slow burners). Of course he also wants the newbie experience to "evolve" even though it's made to be simple by design to not overwhelm the newbies. Lastly obviously there is a complete lack of perspective on what it meant to be a newb.
Your attitude towards the game/genre and the resulting massive baggage stops you from understanding the popularity of it. That is, this game is popular because there still exists gamers that don't start playing a new game with baggage the size of WoW playerbase. [mod edit]
We'll this thread got sour fast.
The game is popular because people like it. Simple as that. I enjoy playing it with the group of friends I've made while playing it, and even though not everything in the game is fun, it is rewarding as long as you allow it to be.
I played it briefly during beta, but the impression I had was that it was WoW with chocobo skin. It can't just be the final fantasy factor that makes people playing it. What is it that the game does good and/or better than others?
Would you wear poop coloured pants on your head because some frickin' chart says it's the most popular thing to do?
The end game is vastly superior in FFXIV, in my opinion of course. It requires every be on the same page and working together. There is a ton of it, and new endgame content is being released every few months. I'll be honest though, alot of what makes it challenging is that they put alot of one shot wipe mechanics into the fights. Some view this as cheap, I think it makes it fair. Needing to have EVERYONE perform to succeed instead of carrying an underperforming player through the latest endgame content is really nice.
lol'd
HARD
I really hope that *insert game name here* will be the first game to ever live up to all of its pre-release promises, maintain a manageable hype level and have a clean release. Just don't expect me to hold my breath.
Only WoW can rival FFXIV in content production. Or, can't, because FFXIV completely obliterates WoW in asset quality while still managing either the same content production or better, depending on whether Blizzard feels like putting in the minimum effort. At this point WoW has only a chance because there's so many difficulty modes for most contents and a very solid understanding of the game after 10 years, something FFXIV doesn't have to a similar degree.
Final Fantasy factor didn't help the 1.0 failure, so saying ARR's success is only due to the Final Fantasy factor doesn't make any sense. The game is either good or very good in all regards. That's what makes it a success.
you played it during Beta? i guess you mean the first incarnation of the game, which i also played briefly, it was pretty bad tbh, so when they redid the game and released it again as FFXIV;ARR i didn't really have any expectations, so i was very surprised by how good it was, i don't think you can really point to any one feature of the game and say this is better than X game because of Y reason, as in most MMO's its not the individual features that matter so much as the synergy they achieve, i think thats why so many other games that have a 'tick box' for features included have failed as badly as they have, if there is one thing that can point out to in FFXIV;ARR is that it works well, of course its down to individual preferences, but, i think its telling that FFXIV;ARR has become as popular as it has, despite its disastrous initial launch and subsequent 'redo' I also think that people trying FFXIV;ARR on the basis that its some kind of reskinned WoW game, will be disappointed when they discover it isn't, perhaps its also because you can develop your character in the game in so many different directions, there really isn't any kind of limit on that kind of thing, and while none fans might not appreciate the distinction, FFXIV;ARR is a Final Fantasy game through and through, if some people don't get that, its fine, but lots do.
Story treats a level one like a level one as opposed to a dragon slaying hero that can beat a behemoth. You're a green adventurer. You will be tasked to deliver packages and beat up animals along with the occasional conspiracy to discover. It's... well, it's easy to see why someone would be upset with your assertions when you've only spoke of something that is obviously from a level one guild quest. The story ramps up as you get more power and reputation; the best bits are after the Titan Fight at 35+ with the first increase being at level 10 story and level 15. It really goes all out in patch 2.1 to 2.5 stuff.
The main reason it is so popular is because it is kind've punishing while also being consistently updated to great, great, great degrees. 90% of the systems are hidden behind gates that you simply stumble into. You have to find and perform quests before even realizing they might unlock something new that opens up an entire new playing for field for you. This is especially true starting again at level 10, 15, 20, 30... etc. All the way up to 50, where you have to work your ass off to unlock 90% of the max level features that are gated.
Dragoons have something like a 32 button optimal rotation (with no addons!), Ninjas can mess themselves up for 20 seconds of no real damage if they make a mistake with hand symbols, etc. One mistake could be the cost of a wipe when it comes to melee. This is why many people who reach end game as a melee DPS say the combat is much to fast, as you have 5+ rotations to figure out when to use at the right time depending on the situation, your party, group comp, boss, mechanics, etc. All the while timing a half dozen or more off the global immediately inbetween a rotation. Pick a wrong rotation? Have to follow through to try and salvage your DPS while hoping you don't get killed for pressing the wrong button, as everything combos together.
It's basically like the hidden gem of difficult combat mechanics of the genre, and the content patches are absolutely huge, even going as far as to add new races / beast races / classes. As well as dozens of new systems such as treasure hunts, Beast Hunts, Chocobo training (also recoloring), Housing, Marriage systems, persistent emotes, Gold Saucer, card games, classes, chocobo racing, crafting systems, desynth, meta crafting... etc. As well as hundreds of side quests with story, continuation of main story, 3+ new dungeons each patch, new boss fights each patch, new raid tiers each patch, patching every 3 months, etc. There are seriously about 100 dungeons in the game of various size and length (counting primals and such).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj3hGDaDZqI Last patch -- it is so big they had to split it into two parts, so this video only speaks for the first part of the patch.
Add to that the expansion is promising things that some want in having more open areas, solo story dungeons and much quicker combat with a newly updated Skill Speed stat.
TLDR; massive content updates, no nickle or dime tactics (if you buy a character appearance change for $10, every character on your account gets a token for it; all optional sales support new neighborhoods for housing), in depth end-game content which has 32 button rotations among other things. As well as a continuation of story, 3+ new dungeons and raids per patch, dozens of new systems since lauch. New classes since launch.
Both parts are included in the trailer.
Content patches don't add new races, only new classes.
Other than that, a solid post.
Au contraire!
They did in fact release new beast races and revealed the next expansion's race in game. Granted, the new playable race isn't playable until the expansion (though I didn't say playable races, but rather multiple new races... I think x3 It's been a long day), but it was revealed in game as well as out.
As for the video -- it has a mention of part two in it at the end, but we don't know if there will be another trailer or not for it. Granted, there weren't any for the last .5 patches. Though all of the features of said .5 patches weren't in the main trailer posts if I recall correctly.
I'll chime in having recently started playing. I tried ARR at release, looking for something to pull my away from my usually WoW, SWTOR, EQ2 rotation. It didn't. Combat was too slow, didn't enjoy the questing. I only got a toon to level 19.
About two weeks ago, I joined a good group of gamers and not wanting to spend money to transfer to their server on wow, or starting a new toon to play with them, they said I should consider trying FFXIV since they have an active branch there from the guild so I did.
At first it felt the same as it did when I tried it before, but I pressed on with the assurance from others that it just gets better. I pushed onto with to level 30 with a Gladiator. Then I found out to become a paladin I had to level a Conjuror to 15 and while it didn't take many hours, I felt like clawing my eyes out playing that class. In fact when I hit lvl12 which I did in about 3 hours, I stopped and didn't play for 3 days. Finally I came back and made myself get to 15 and finished the Paladin quest.
I say all that because once I became a paladin I felt really good. It took some "work" that I didn't enjoy, but the outcome gave me that old sense from EQ1 all those years ago that I accomplished something, that the time was well spent.
I'm having a great time now. Game play really sped up at 30 once I got a reactive skill. Tanking in this game feels more strategic that any other MMO I've tanked in since 2008 (when I found my love for tanking). There is more time to think between skills about what you need to do next instead of being in a hurry to press the next skill to make sure your "rotations" dont' lapse.
I believe that FFXIV is geared towards more the old skool mentality of MMO'ing that the newer MMO's coming out. And while it turned me off initially, I'm really glad I stuck with it to find that out.
-Unconstitutional laws aren't laws.-
That's a very good point you are making and I'm sure it's something that makes some people wary of coming back.
Fortunately the game allows for people to get back to speed at their own pace fairly well. The low level instance roulette gives you some good amount of relevant gear currency for helping out lower level players. Since the instances are lower level, you also don't have to get acquainted with all of your abilities at once but can have an easier time. I've personally used the system many times when I've taken smaller breaks. Of course you can do the low level instances without the roulette thanks to the level sync feature, but you won't get anything much out of your efforts in that case unless you decide to level another class, which is also a good thing to do.
The thing about the "32 button rotations" is also that they seem more challenging on paper than in practice. It's a priority system at heart. There are actually very few cooldowns in the game, most abilities are on the GCD. Enough to speed up the gameplay but not so much that you end up having to watch 20 different cooldowns at once.
Lastly the game offers quite a bit of easy solo content to practice on before heading out to the party content.
That's sad to hear about the UI problems.
There are some more or less situational abilities, yes. But you're not playing your class any more to the fullest if you use them when they don't give you any advantage.
Hopefully SE will refine the available skill pool in Heavensward so that players like you will feel better about it. I mean either way the combat has to be handled in a way that you can perform with a controller. Right now we're still okay, but I don't think there is room for much more skill bloat in the current system.
Don't try FOTM games or ingame specs.
Play the games YOU want and the way YOU want. Don't follow the masses about. Apparently they have a compete different taste then you.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Well you do now. Tank, DPS, or Healer, controller all the way. I did start by playing with a keyboard though, but pad is just so much better for me. If keyboard is "better" than a pad, the difference is so negligible it isn't worth mentioning.
The problem is not really a problem at all. SE can easily change things up by having you choose between various skill sets instead of simply adding to the current roster of skills until we have 60 skills to manage. The flexibility SE has shown with the class system once deemed "too rigid" should leave no one with any concerns regarding the future of the gameplay.
OP has posted this before. Should we be entertaining this ?
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/6342437#6342437
Even though he may have posted before, he's not completely off base with the game. As I said in the post above, its a mixed bag with this game. But anyway, OP has to understand that most of the problems he has with the game are business decisions which most likely will not change if you have any dealings with SE over the past 5 years or so. Their business models have gone down the toilet, however, that does not mean the game is bad. I feel its doing the best it can within corporate means and I also feel people have faith in the direction of the game even with some of the business decisions in play. Anyway, OP if you dont like the game now, it wont really change in the future, but part of me thinks you want to believe the game will actually be a good game, which some people think it already is. And of course some people will raise up and say look at the numbers; however, they dont really understand how business works. Numbers aren't ACTUAL players.
RMT accounts are illegitimately obtained either through fraudulent credit card payments or stolen accounts. Unless SE considers fraudulent accounts as legitimate revenue they do not count. To think they have more than a negligible effect on the total subs is laughable.
To think that RMT's spamming the chat is more than the tip of the iceberg of the issue is also laughable. SE's RMT resources go where RMT is hurt the most, and that doesn't include squashing chat spam cockroaches by more than implementing simple algorithms that the RMT will then circumvent forever. SE bans the money banks, that's the only proper way to deal with the issue. Just because this activity is not immediately apparent to Albatroes doesn't mean it's not the most effective method to use.
It always makes me laugh how ignorant players think they know anything about game development.
Oh, just your normal troll being busy then.