Will the game last 12 months?Follow

The Last Remnant does that too, though it's not an MMO. Grinding makes the game harder, not easier.

So glad I didn't rush to 50. Compared to other mmos, this one is in good shape so far, by the time I'm bored with current content there will be housing, pvp and hopefully more endgame. I've been levelling alt classes, helping my brother and Ls buddies, shooting the **** with randoms during fate grinds, fishing and having a blast. I agree racing to 50 can be boring and lonely. It can be social if you want to take the time to make it that way. I don't agree that forced grouping is the answer to your woes though.

I have 7/9 classes at 50, completed the story, on Titan now, decked out like a Christmas tree. I'll be here for a long time. If they ACTUALLY live up to the level of content additions they SAY they will, there will be too much content. It remains to be seen.

His point, and I agree with it, is that if the time cost money then it is not a free anything.

A free trial is something you get to do before putting any money down. What we're doing now is game time included in the purchase price of the game (or free time given to 1.0 players.. or is that done by now? I'm not sure about that one).

If SE sold FFXI or FFXIV(or Blizzard sold WoW) without a 30 day trial they would still ask for the same purchase price. That's why they call it free. The cost associated with the box is separate from the cost associated with the subscription. People can rationalize it any way they want to make themselves feel better, but both games offer trials that don't require you to purchase the game. Technically, open beta was a free trial for FFXIV.

Personally, I got access to the free trial period during 1.0 and during ARR, but I never spent a dime on the game. For me it was all free

lvl29.... u kidding right?

I think people are truly missing the genius behind FFXIV. Once the PVP content rolls in, more content that is group oriented is patched in, the Golden Saucer is implemented and the expansions start to roll out, that "softcore" main quest that is the skeleton structure of the game will simply be the crutch you fall back on to get to where you need to go when advancing in the more difficult content that is obviously to come.

The Day 1 content has to flow well. If it didn't, it would force new players to grind for hours on end right from the get-go. I know that there is a large population of former XI players who would be more than happy to see that, but the days of grind-fest MMOs are long over. It's an antiquated concept.

The counterargument to that is the the glut of modern themepark MMORPGs we've seen come and go recently. Lotro, SW:TOR, Rift, GW2, among others - they all came out of the gate strong and promised to be the new MMORPG on the block, yet none of them have managed to latch on to any significant amount of marketshare six months after release.

There's no need to point and contrast every MMORPG released in the past decade, specifically in regards to old school FFXI/EQ mechanics, but to state a FFXI-type game wouldn't make it today I feel is incorrect simply because we haven't really seen any MMORPG released in recent years that's had significant success despite excluding those 'grinds' as a notable part of the core gameplay. World of Warcraft pioneered this trend, and it's obviously successful, but history has shown us WoW is the exception, not the rule.

It's difficult to make the correlation between what mechanics drive a successful online role playing game vs what hinders it in today's market, but given the absolute inundation of soloable, quest-based, easy and non-meaningful leveling MMORPGs recently compared to what we had 10 years ago, one could just as much make the argument that a publisher couldn't sell a WoW/Rift/SW:TOR-type FFXIV today based on those similarities alone. I don't profess to be smart enough to know what the best MMORPG released today would look like, but recent trends show us "it can't have a leveling grind" isn't any more correct than "leveling has to be fast and soloable."

As for the personal side of "will you be here in 12 months?": Despite being a 1.0 CE and legacy member, I've yet to subscribe to 2.0, and I doubt I will. Meaningless, fast and solo leveling doesn't appeal to me, and I absolutely despise "face the boss toward the blue wall and stand in the purple circle, unless the boss turns red, then face him toward the green wall and stand in the orange circle" gimmicky type MMORPG mechanics. If FFXIV had included a significant and lengthy group-based leveling requirement, I would have subscribed for life as it's an incredibly polished and well made game. Right now though, it's just another modern MMORPG with forgettable and trivial leveling content where the game starts at endgame and is nothing but instanced dungeon raids for better ilvl stats. There's dozens of MMORPGs like that on the market right now, I have no interest in adding yet another one to my library.


Edited, Sep 13th 2013 8:09am by Whales

I didn't buy this game to fight others, as I'm not PVP orientated. So hopefully this PVP everyone wants doesn't mean "become like Aion". They could implement ballista again but with way more options(and less limited).

*huggles*

Its funny when people who haven't completed the main story complain that the main story is short, because if you actually completed the main story, you'd know that the story doesn't actually end. That's as close to spoiler-y as I'll get, because I don't want to ruin things for the 29 PGL in this thread.

Also, there's plenty to do as far as content. Not all of it is hand-holdy content though, so some people will complain. I don't mind the solo/anonymous nature of a lot of the content. You always have the option to do it with friends if you have them.

GRRRRRRR