The WoW Factor

[Kainos]

I kinda hope ARR has some competitive elements to it as well. I had a lot of fun going to war at colibri merit camps when someone would think it was ok to just camp on top of you. Pulling and sleeping everything in sight, demoralizing the other pty and hearing the sweet sounds of warp being cast after a flurry of /examines. Hopefully the planned pvp stuff is good. Wishful thinking on my part, but i would love to see some dota style tournament events with ARR if they can implement it in the future.

[Sylvrdragon]

and the same Colibri that didn't get the memo to stay dead.

COLIBRI?!? You young pup! I leveled on shit like Perytons and Raptors in Valley of Sorrows, Tormentors in Den of Rancor, Apoc and Hellish Weapons in {Moon}, MORE FUCKING CRABS in Boyahda Tree, Skeletons in KRT, and when I got REALLY lucky, I could land a roaming party on Deco Weapons in Sky. I had merit parties on Aura Statues when we WEREN'T going for Ullikummi spawns (back when he was like 1-12 hour spawn). I remember when Bibiki Bay was made into a viable late-60s XP spot, and Tavnazian Rams were the highest level normal mobs in the game (also a viable XP/Merit spot). I WISH we had had fucking Colibri!

Of course, the generation just before mine had it even worse. Around the time I was hitting my 50s on my first job (RDM), they lowered the XP requirements to get from like 55 to 75, or some such.

I mean, it's not like I didn't slaughter thousands upon thousands of Colibri or anything, but you don't know what grinding IS if you didn't level a job pre-ToAU, when 5k XP/hr was considered GOOD. A good roaming Deco Weapon party was about the only thing that came close to Colibri parties. Bones PTs were up there too, but I fucking hated leveling on Skeletons.

[Churchill]

Yeah I'd really like to see some elements that incorporate PVE claim competitions vs. limited resources.

[The Stig]

If you want another lesser-used character on a completely different server, then having an alt seems completely reasonable to me. People who create alts on the same server, however, are probably wasting their time**.

**I'll be creating an alt on the same server as my main, just to appropriately experience 2.0 from a fresh perspective since my 1.0 char has all 50s, which is one valid reason I can see to create an alt on the same server as your main.

Do whatever you feel like. Thanks to all the unfinished quests, your alt ought to level quite quickly. I'm not sure how fun rehashing all those quests will be, but that's your call. Just don't be one of those greedy douchebags that expects double the loot just because you have two characters.

Thanks for the insight. It's purely a seperate char on a seperate server. Unless it's for mule reasons I can't see a reason to play 2 different chars on the same server given the freedom we all like and love in terms of classes for a single char

[Tokitoki]

COLIBRI?!? You young pup! I leveled on shit like Perytons and Raptors in Valley of Sorrows, Tormentors in Den of Rancor, Apoc and Hellish Weapons in {Moon}, MORE FUCKING CRABS in Boyahda Tree, Skeletons in KRT, and when I got REALLY lucky, I could land a roaming party on Deco Weapons in Sky. I had merit parties on Aura Statues when we WEREN'T going for Ullikummi spawns (back when he was like 1-12 hour spawn). I remember when Bibiki Bay was made into a viable late-60s XP spot, and Tavnazian Rams were the highest level normal mobs in the game (also a viable XP/Merit spot). I WISH we had had fucking Colibri!

Of course, the generation just before mine had it even worse. Around the time I was hitting my 50s on my first job (RDM), they lowered the XP requirements to get from like 55 to 75, or some such.

Had the same experience. Finally got a static going around lv 71 killing weaps & dolls @ moon before we moved to Perytons & Rams in Tav to finish to 75.

I remember a friend of mine had hit 75 WHM & SMN before they reduced the exp needed and was pissed that they spent so much extra time. I hope we never have to experience that again; ARR looks promising on that end.

[Ferien]

COLIBRI?!? You young pup! I leveled on shit like Perytons and Raptors in Valley of Sorrows, Tormentors in Den of Rancor, Apoc and Hellish Weapons in {Moon}, MORE FUCKING CRABS in Boyahda Tree, Skeletons in KRT, and when I got REALLY lucky, I could land a roaming party on Deco Weapons in Sky. I had merit parties on Aura Statues when we WEREN'T going for Ullikummi spawns (back when he was like 1-12 hour spawn). I remember when Bibiki Bay was made into a viable late-60s XP spot, and Tavnazian Rams were the highest level normal mobs in the game (also a viable XP/Merit spot). I WISH we had had fucking Colibri!

Of course, the generation just before mine had it even worse. Around the time I was hitting my 50s on my first job (RDM), they lowered the XP requirements to get from like 55 to 75, or some such.

I mean, it's not like I didn't slaughter thousands upon thousands of Colibri or anything, but you don't know what grinding IS if you didn't level a job pre-ToAU, when 5k XP/hr was considered GOOD. A good roaming Deco Weapon party was about the only thing that came close to Colibri parties. Bones PTs were up there too, but I fucking hated leveling on Skeletons.

Oh god the PTSD...

[Ksandra]

Oh god the PTSD...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...Xi/anhownd.jpg

?

[Deuce]

Had the same experience. Finally got a static going around lv 71 killing weaps & dolls @ moon before we moved to Perytons & Rams in Tav to finish to 75.

I remember a friend of mine had hit 75 WHM & SMN before they reduced the exp needed and was pissed that they spent so much extra time. I hope we never have to experience that again; ARR looks promising on that end.

Man those were awful times. Glad I never went through it since I wasn't playing the game seriously back then. I do remember the huge amounts of rage after SE made the adjustment though.

I believe that was the time when they first introduced merits too.

[Tokitoki]

Man those were awful times. Glad I never went through it since I wasn't playing the game seriously back then. I do remember the huge amounts of rage after SE made the adjustment though.

I believe that was the time when they first introduced merits too.

I can't completely complain because that static group I had also ran their own CoP shell. I had got in invite to PT with them one day as I was seeking. They liked me so they asked me to static with them. Then at the same time they invited me to do CoP with them. Cleared all of the CoP missions after Promy up to Airship with them in a week or so, then used other friends/end game LS to clear the airship on.

Even if the leveling sucked I certainly made better friends that way than I have leveling to 80 on a noob with book PTs.

[Ferien]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...Xi/anhownd.jpg

?

Shit that was so long ago.

[ronin sparthos]

COLIBRI?!? You young pup! I leveled on shit like Perytons and Raptors in Valley of Sorrows, Tormentors in Den of Rancor, Apoc and Hellish Weapons in {Moon}, MORE FUCKING CRABS in Boyahda Tree, Skeletons in KRT, and when I got REALLY lucky, I could land a roaming party on Deco Weapons in Sky. I had merit parties on Aura Statues when we WEREN'T going for Ullikummi spawns (back when he was like 1-12 hour spawn). I remember when Bibiki Bay was made into a viable late-60s XP spot, and Tavnazian Rams were the highest level normal mobs in the game (also a viable XP/Merit spot). I WISH we had had fucking Colibri!

Of course, the generation just before mine had it even worse. Around the time I was hitting my 50s on my first job (RDM), they lowered the XP requirements to get from like 55 to 75, or some such.

I mean, it's not like I didn't slaughter thousands upon thousands of Colibri or anything, but you don't know what grinding IS if you didn't level a job pre-ToAU, when 5k XP/hr was considered GOOD. A good roaming Deco Weapon party was about the only thing that came close to Colibri parties. Bones PTs were up there too, but I fucking hated leveling on Skeletons.

Who said I didn't EXP on all of the above? You forgot Torama, the bestest EXP camp ever. Who doesn't like having shit acc and having to form an alliance to take down Ose. What's that? your WHM is bad and can't paralyna fast? Tough.

The point was that Colibri were a gamechanger, a paradigm shift for XI. Those old camps with Golems and Rams or Demons in Uleguerand were mostly made up of your ho hum 6man balanced party which would be lucky to have a proper BRD pulling to increase the EXP/hr. Post-Colibri, the game became oriented in a way that phased out the PLD, DD, DD, DD, RDM, WHM style parties for what we'd come to know as the first generation meleeburns.

And yes, I know that meleeburns were being done as far back as Deco Weapons but it did not become a mainstream fixture until TOAU. Not on Lakshmi at least.

[Mrbeansman]

I still remember quitting WHM after completely failing to be a good WHM at Toromas.

[Treble]

tragopans still haunt me to this day. Was my first time pulling as a Bard, before I even had ninja leveled at all.

Also, magic burst kuftal crab parties. Oh my god. Though really, getting the timing down on Freeze bursting with a good party did feel strangely satisfying the first few times and frustrating all other times with bad parties. I'd rather not go through that again.

[Kelenae]

COLIBRI?!? You young pup! I leveled on shit like Perytons and Raptors in Valley of Sorrows, Tormentors in Den of Rancor, Apoc and Hellish Weapons in {Moon}, MORE FUCKING CRABS in Boyahda Tree, Skeletons in KRT, and when I got REALLY lucky, I could land a roaming party on Deco Weapons in Sky. I had merit parties on Aura Statues when we WEREN'T going for Ullikummi spawns (back when he was like 1-12 hour spawn). I remember when Bibiki Bay was made into a viable late-60s XP spot, and Tavnazian Rams were the highest level normal mobs in the game (also a viable XP/Merit spot). I WISH we had had fucking Colibri!

Of course, the generation just before mine had it even worse. Around the time I was hitting my 50s on my first job (RDM), they lowered the XP requirements to get from like 55 to 75, or some such.

I mean, it's not like I didn't slaughter thousands upon thousands of Colibri or anything, but you don't know what grinding IS if you didn't level a job pre-ToAU, when 5k XP/hr was considered GOOD. A good roaming Deco Weapon party was about the only thing that came close to Colibri parties. Bones PTs were up there too, but I fucking hated leveling on Skeletons.

*raises hand* FFXI Importer here... I know of what you speak of.

[Resin]

Don't forget damselflies in the tree as well. I wasn't lucky enough to get a KRT bones party more than a couple times though.

[Elcura]

COLIBRI?!? You young pup! I leveled on shit like Perytons and Raptors in Valley of Sorrows, Tormentors in Den of Rancor, Apoc and Hellish Weapons in {Moon}, MORE FUCKING CRABS in Boyahda Tree, Skeletons in KRT, and when I got REALLY lucky, I could land a roaming party on Deco Weapons in Sky. I had merit parties on Aura Statues when we WEREN'T going for Ullikummi spawns (back when he was like 1-12 hour spawn). I remember when Bibiki Bay was made into a viable late-60s XP spot, and Tavnazian Rams were the highest level normal mobs in the game (also a viable XP/Merit spot). I WISH we had had fucking Colibri!

Of course, the generation just before mine had it even worse. Around the time I was hitting my 50s on my first job (RDM), they lowered the XP requirements to get from like 55 to 75, or some such.

I mean, it's not like I didn't slaughter thousands upon thousands of Colibri or anything, but you don't know what grinding IS if you didn't level a job pre-ToAU, when 5k XP/hr was considered GOOD. A good roaming Deco Weapon party was about the only thing that came close to Colibri parties. Bones PTs were up there too, but I fucking hated leveling on Skeletons.

I really want to go to sleep right now. Or at least do something else. Weird.

[Kalima]

I'll throw my 2 cents in here but my (somewhat biased) opinion on the matter comes down to 2 points

1: FFXI is a terrible "game". Yes I played that terrible game from 2004 to June of this year but my definition of a game has significantly changed as I got older. To me now, a game needs to be relaxing, fun, challenging but not tedious, and to tell a good story. XI had its moments, don't get me wrong. I did get some fun out of it. And I know that it has to be executed a certain way in order to be a long lasting experience, especially for an MMO, both for the people playing and the people who created it to make a living for themselves, but this is the aspect that always felt cheaply done by XI to me. I got to the point where I hated myself for logging in every weekend, which is why it was easy for me to quit cold turkey.

2: FFXIV is what XI should have been. Again, my opinion is a bit biased because my definition of what I want to do in a game has changed. When I played during beta phase 3 I felt that the time I put into it was actually rewarded correctly. Very engrossing story tied into just about every action that I executed. The gameplay is also very fast paced. It gave me the same sensation of playing solo DNC on XI...I felt like I really had to pay attention to what I was doing. And speaking of jobs...theres not a freaking buttload of them that get pidgeonholed into specific roles for specific events. As much as I loved and put a ton of time into jobs like THF and DNC, they almost never got used in events. Sure there will be some of this in XIV, obviously your GLD is not gonna be main healing or CNJ dding...but there won't be any "lets invite a THF just for TH and not buff it or even heal it" type situations either.

Overall I'm very excited to play this game knowing that I can play it one day a week and still not only feel like I got something done, but actually enjoy what I do. Even if I hit a point where I have everything capped and all the shinies I could ever want, I still see myself logging on and doing random fates or throw up duty finder and help random people get through dungeons. That is what was missing for me in XI...and why I will probably never go back to it.

[Enkidu]

In my opinion a hardcore MMO can almost always be played casually, but a casual MMO can very rarely be played hardcore. I think XIV has the casual aspect met, and quite honestly I probably wouldn't play a game past that casual level anymore (at least until I finish my PhD...), but I'd still like that hardcore aspect to be there. For two reasons, one because it's the hardcore players that generate hype. This website specifically exists because of Big Kills and Ondori's endgame videos and I'd say many if not all popular guilds in MMO's grew similarly. More hype, more players, less chance of playing a dead game. Secondly I'd like the opportunity to one day complete that content, if it's engaging and fun...

Personally I think XIV needs to offer endgame content similar too or greater then that of a typical WoW expansion, and I think that will be a difficult target to hit. We'll probably know within a few weeks of release though, which will make my decision to p2p or wait for f2p even easier.

[Aldon]

This thread is giving me feels.

[Tokitoki]

We'll probably know within a few weeks of release though, which will make my decision to p2p or wait for f2p even easier.

Why do people think it will go free to play? Everything Yoshi has said shows that they are not going to let it go free to play.