WoW Vs. FFXI

[Viertel]

I'm digging up an old thread here but...

Comparing endgame for WoW and endgame for FFXI isn't really a balanced comparison. Sure, FFXI has 'more to do' right now than WoW has, but it's also had close to 4 years to mature up to that point; WoW's had barely ten months. Blizzard, however, releases content updates faster than Square-Enix does so give them around a year and the volume of content will have surpassed FFXI's.

Yeah, most of the endgame is pretty much dungeon crawling, but most of FFXI's endgame is spent waiting on a spawn and hoping to god you get the pull. If you get the pull in FFXI, there's no guarrantee you'll get loot either; Fafnir dropping just a scale with Fire Crystals anyone? We've all had it happen. With bosses in WoW, you're guaranteed at least 2 pieces of epic loot, and I've seen up to 5 before; they may not be GOOD epics but it's loot nonetheless (Onxyia's Rind of Binding, I'm looking at you).

Another major topic people push on is the fact that FFXI has more 'storyline' than WoW which isn't really true; it's about equal. The only difference between the games is WoW presents its story via text and FFXI's is cutscenes. If you take the whole lore of Warcraft and compare it to Vana'diel, Vana'diels is weak in comparison because Warcraft has over *ten years* of games and novels based around the world. It's a flaw of all the Final Fantasy games -- they're held together by similar themes (chocobos, spell names, classes, etc.) with the same old "Evil is here, heros arise and go kill the bad guy" formula that's old. You go through a few rank missions and see your 3-4 minute cutscenes, then go level 10 levels and come back for the next short cutscene; by the time players go for their next point in the story there's a good chance they've forgotted what's happened previously because the story's so halted.

Another thing is the big kills in FFXI are just there for loot; big kills in WoW are intergrated into the story. We go "oh wow, so THAT'S what XXX looks like" and that's all we think when you look at Behemoth or Aspidochelone. In the case of Onxyia in WoW, it's a story arc you're dealing with constantly from the opening scene on BOTH sides of the game; both Alliance and Horde eventually are forced to go kill her but the different plots are two stories in their own. Plus, set pieces do NOT drop off of contested monsters (outside raid kills), only goodies. They do have quest items for Hunter and Priest like the 3 Zilart guys did for Monk, but it's a 100% drop if I remember right.

The leveling process itself is full of intertwining quest stories and plots that evolve as you progress throughout the leveling zones. In FFXI most newcomers would go through Valkurm > Qufim > Kazham > etc. because that's where they're told to go due to popular spots and fastest way to get a party. In WoW, you go to a new area because an intertwining story from the previous area sends you there to explore the next chapter in the plot. Plus, you virtually never, ever, look at the same monster model throughout your entire leveling career in WoW (oh god the crawlers...); every zone has different skins and variations on the monsters.

People won't agree with me, but personally the fights in WoW are a hell of a lot more challenging than in FFXI. You can have outside healing to your heart's content in FFXI, with an easy way of letting your mana regen with natural /heal as well as Refresh and Mage's Ballad I+II; unless you're a Druid your mana regen over time options in WoW are pretty damn limited. Let Fafnir play like Vaelstrazac does from Blackwing Lair and I guarrantee you players would think SE was playing a practical joke on them. I wouldn't have minded sky bosses so much if they had cruel abilities like Mark of Kazzak or Living Bomb (I still that that's funny as hell to this day) to make it interesting. Instead, you've got bosses that all act in the same manner -- they attack hard, fast, double attack often, use the same 2 hours you do, and same magic spell tiers. For the CoP Wyrms, make spells insta cast and throw some Very Tough mobs around the monster to make the encounter 'harder' and it's all in a day's work for the creators.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I'm not trying to say it's better, just highlighting how it looks from my viewpoint. Ultimately, you should be playing what is most fun for you and where your friends are.

Nerf Blessing of Sanctuary!

[Makaze]

Nerf Blessing of Sanctuary!

Die horde scum.

[Anderian]

World of Warcraft is like a MMORPG for people who don't have time to play MMORPG, if you know what I'm saying. It took me a little less than a month to level my Hunter from 1 to 60 on European PvP server. I didn't visit more than 3 or 4 instances during my leveling, tho...
What I noticed, was that WoW practically fixes all the problems that FFXI has: no money problems (actually, when you get to lvl 60 and have acquired your epic mount, money loses all it's meaning), no fighting for HNM spawns (sure, on some servers Lord Kazzak and Azuregos, the only outdoor raid bosses in the game, are camped, but they don't drop anything that good), no exp loss from dying (well, this one I actually liked...), exp from quests, fast transportation (not that I don't like waiting for airship for 10 minutes -_-) etc. etc...

And yet still, I came back. Why is that? Rather simple; WoW is easy. I don't give a shit what YOU think, WoW IS easy, period. Molten Core, one of the two full sized endgame raid instances, was ridiculous. 40 people go inside and kill gigantic dogs and elementals... great. What this meant for me (Hunter), is that I just push my auto-shoot on and then use my two burst damage skills, Multi-shot and Arcane shot. That's it. Nothing more. If I get hate, I feign and lose all hate. Very cool. And it was the same for all mobs and bosses. First we clear the mobs in the way to get to the boss, then kill the boss and watch the purple stuff drop. Sure, there were different strategies for different bosses, but it was nothing amazing.
Basically it was farming the same damn instance over and over again, so that everybody can get their fancy purple sets.

I saw people get full tier 1 epic sets few weeks after getting to level 60. So... what I'm saying is that it's pretty hard to come up with good goals in WoW (FFXI has plenty; like getting craft level to 100, getting to lvl 75 on a job, getting to rank 10 etc.) because mostly the game content is either beating the shit out of players of the opposing factor or raiding the same dungeons over and over and over and over and over and over again. I had a friend who had done Upper Black Rock Spire dungeon (lvl 60, 15 player instance) nearly 60 times trying to get his Set item shoulders. He had lost lot on them two times... he finally got them, but like 60 runs and they only dropped three times? Blizzard ftw.

That's all I gotta say about WoW. Thanks for reading...

NERF SHAMAN!!11111one!

[Viertel]

Anderian, taking forever to do something doesn't make it "hard". You can believe that all you like, but ultimately it's like saying a 100,000 piece jigsaw puzzle is oh-so-harder than a 1,000 piece puzzle; it isn't, it just takes longer. Grats on being the first person to say something in the thread with a nasty tone. Anger management much?

(Man I need to find my old account on these boards. Can't remember which email address :\)

[Maren]

a

[Gafgarionn]

Grats on being the first person to say something in the thread with a nasty tone. Anger management much?
Err... where was his tone angry? I fail to see it.

And yes, a 100,000 piece puzzle has the same difficulty as a 1,000 piece puzzle, but which do you get more satisfaction from after putting in the last piece? Definately the 100,000. It's the same for FFXI.

[Okan]

WoW will last for about 6 months then people come back to FFXI...

[Gafgarionn]

Okan I think I could stare at your avatar all day... something really entrancing about it o_OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Demetrio$]

Why did you bump this thread

[Elcura]

Why did you bump this thread

And what's with all the fucking essays.

[Akiro]

at least no wall o' text

[Anderian]

Anderian, taking forever to do something doesn't make it "hard". You can believe that all you like, but ultimately it's like saying a 100,000 piece jigsaw puzzle is oh-so-harder than a 1,000 piece puzzle; it isn't, it just takes longer. Grats on being the first person to say something in the thread with a nasty tone. Anger management much?

(Man I need to find my old account on these boards. Can't remember which email address :\)

Congratulations on sounding like a dick.
I just told people my fucking opinion. I think you are the one who needs the anger management.
Why are you so quick to attack me? -_-

[Hirronimus]

What's to discuss? Majority of people who left FFXI for WoW are coming back to FFXI. That in itself should show which game is superior.

[Anderian]

What's to discuss? Majority of people who left FFXI for WoW are coming back to FFXI. That in itself should show which game is superior.

Yeah.
WoW pretty much lacks content. Unless you like ganking other players all day long. Which, I figure, some actually do. :D

[Hirronimus]

They have FPS for that.

[anoush]

okay i just started WoW.. and my WoW friends starting talking me into switching from ff11 to it.. but yeah i been playing it... its fun but theres no way in hell im quiting FFXI for this...

imo ffxi is a really good MMO and it has a very complex system, games like WoW dont have.. like how theres elemental days, elemental based monster, moon phase..etc etc that all connect some how and effect the game..

WoW doesnt have things like that .. to me it feels like a casual gaming exp. with hack and slash that gets boring if you play more than 3 hours in a sitting...

FFXI>WoW for someone like me

[Okan]

They have FPS for that.

And how.