This is the only game that gives people reason to continously travel trough all the world and do meaningfull comtent in all those zones..
unlike many otther games where people only play the last expansion..
this makes this world feel much larger then it actually is..
for people that love open world comtemt this is the best game..
espescially with the dynamic events that make no experience exactly the same.
this is the main reason i keep returning to this game time after time..
its also the only game where playing alts doesnt feel like loosing time on your main..
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Comments
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
The only MMOs where old zones are relevant are GW2 / ESO and Sandboxes really. Maybe a few scaling games that I missed that let you play in low level zones at max level. I do think that GW2 has the most relevant old zones though as there is always a reason to go to them between unique rewards only available in certain level ranges, the bosses,some living world updates,ect. ESO is similar in that way. Even sandboxes you really don't visit old zones past a certain point. Even a game like UO; you aren't going to find much value anymore in visiting north of Britain when you have access to the most recent expansion.
All that said though, I don't really think it matters. As games become older, old zones become less interesting anyways. The designers learn from those zones and make more interesting ones usually. It is also nice to just move on and get new things. You can't really keep pumping out new areas without eventually making the old areas not serve as much of a purpose (Yes, this includes GW2 / ESO).
The most that can be done is some kind of reward system that gives you a reason to go to a specific zone, but those are still limited. If the rewards you get from the bonus are from that zone, and you had those rewards anyways; it is still pointless. If the rewards are generic, you might wait for the best zone to pop up to farm for them, or you have them from all the other bonus rewards popping up for other specific zones in prior weeks / weekends.
There is a huge difference in UO. You have access to set skills all the time. Soulstones are like different characters as well. Since you level up those skills individually / seperately. In ff14 you have access to a limited set of abilities based on what job you are. Much like...you know, alts.
If you think your argument is sound then, by your logic: Every MMO ever has all zones relevant all the time; because alts. If you are fine with that, I am too.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
in gw2 its all relevant for every build..
both games try to archieve the same thing..
GW2 succeeeds much better at this in my opinion. Not only because of the way the characters work, but also how the zones work with dynamic events and espescially how the main storry takes sidesteps to old zones..
in GW2 it feels part of the world, in FF14 it feels kind of like a gimmick...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)