Patch 1.20 Notes~

[Cooleko]

I think the disparity lies in how much you did before the chocobo came out.

Personally I had already completed all 3 company quests, and completed all 3 toto rak wins, ifrit, etc.
So when it was time for my choco it was just pick a place and go.
Therefore, I think getting the choco was very simple as do the other people who had already done the other quests out of boredom.

However, it seems other people didnt do any quests before hand (maybe just came back in 9 months), so had to do everything at the start.

For those of use who actually did grand company missions, choco was a breeze.

[Lordender]

You have to complete two quests in every nations that involve going out of your way in the world, then you go back and listen to all 3 "speeches" which make you run across the world once again , then you can pick a nation...but you're still not done. After that, you're left completing 3 more quests to get your remaining 800 points.


You're looking at 12 quests, which easily takes 4 hours to complete, especially if you don't know which part of the the Black shroud is going to be blocked by lv 70 monsters, or if you only follow the vague instruction (when they ask you to infiltrate their ranks, it means to complete every quests and not just join their rank). Someone who has done it before can probably do it in 4 hours, someone on his first time is most likely going to waste around 6-7 hours.


And just for fun, how much of this time was spent fighting or watching cut scenes? There is a total of 9 encounters, all of which takes about 1 minute. Cut scenes are a bit longer, but still.



[edit]
The real problem here doesn't lies in the quests or anything (beside most being incredibly redundant), it's that slow movement for 25 levels followed by a relatively boring 4-6 hours of running around is going to turn off a lot of players. I'm not sure I would have had the patience for this shit if it wasn't a FF game.

You also has to take into account if you're coming from FFXI you're used to a really poor questing system that has horrible flow but a completely new player is going to hate just about everything about this game. I've got quite a few people to try this game who never played FFXI and not one stayed playing longer than a week just due to how boring the questing is. Everything else the game has to offer to new players is terrible because it literally does NOTHING at all to grab people in the first 20mins of playing.

People who came from FFXI have been trained to put up with mediocre, status-quo SE stuff. The CS's for the GC quests were nice but the actual quests were so unforgettable and boring, I didn't even care about the story that came with it.

[shepardG]

Yeah , i love the ff series, but ive learned that square enix can not make mmos. The havent grasped the balancing of the player base with game design and i dont know if their culture/history/upbrjnging will ever allow them to.

[Corrderio]

That's one thing I find kind of sad regarding Yoshida though. These changes were made from a guy who does MMOs for a hobby.

[Lordender]

That's one thing I find kind of sad regarding Yoshida though. These changes were made from a guy who does MMOs for a hobby.

Pretty much, Yoshida's going to find out how hard its going to be to bring completely new players into this game. There is nothing friendly about it, FFXI players know what to expect. If I am a new player looking to buy an MMO what does FFXIV offer me? The questing is much better in other games, I can find better story and lore in Starwars or even WoW. What if I just want to play an MMO and not commit to a guild? then I could play WoW and LFR it up.

All those games offer more than FFXIV. Better story, Better endgame, Better quests, Better classes that don't get alienated every content patch. Sure each of those games has its problems but they have far less problems than FFXIV does.

[Cichy]

I think once jobs hit we will see more FF fans return. Also, Darkhold etc, those for me are still a remnant from the old team and something they threw together fast to give us something to do.
1.21 looks like its gonna have alot of content but until 2.0 the whole picture wont be complete. He has alot of stuff in development and I think 2.0 has a chance to work. However, he needs plenty more content for casuals to do, there is incredibly steep learning curve currently going from exp to Ifrit/Moogle fight. Shit is too hard and tedious for casuals. Until 1.21 population will only decline, at 1.21 we will probably see small influx.
Class alienation is obviously a huge fuckin problem and a mistake they keep constantly repeating. Today at midnight there were 3 people seeking party on the entire server, last night there was 8....Throwing that billing in wasnt the smartest idea. Lots of people I know quit just because they had to reactivate their account and dint want to be billed even though they wont bill till Jan6th.

[Tomino]

there is incredibly steep learning curve currently going from exp to Ifrit/Moogle fight.

This, absolutely.

Right now, in the shadow of 2.0, the curve is completely messed up. You reach lv50 in quite a reasonable manner (leves, parties, quests) then you hit an adamantine wall.
You either start Stronghold farming for the most boring and low% drops experience, or you sit out of a very difficult boss encounter no one wants to PUG. Darkhold and those Leve NMs don't interest anyone at the moment.

I understand they wanted to keep Ifrit as their own "Heroic Challenge", but then they'd had to use Darkhold as the entry content for endgame. The usual drill : boss drops, token drops... something to start gearing up, learning your class, making friends.