Server Populations

[Lucavi]

Other MMOs have certainly had enough content for people to not accuse the game of being a skeleton at launch. Nobody is expecting 3+ years of content at launch, but people can certainly expect to not be brain-dead and bored after the first week because of the sheer repetition and RNG grind of the game.

If we're simply talking about time-consumption = not-bored for the game, then yes, the game is anything but boring. With all the running, doing leves, doing other people's leves, crafting, gathering, mat-grinding, and trading with others, its hard to find time to stop and breathe. But all of this doesn't hide the fact that the game is extremely thin when it comes to content. Much of this is sheer grinding, especially leves. I can't believe SE seriously thought they could institute a daily system at the launch of a vanilla game and not have people notice it. You're literally doing the same 5 quests at each camp at each level spread again and again and again, with the only random aspect being the chance of rewards each time. Killing that exact same spread of mobs gets boring. Fast.

At least WoW's famous "kill 10 boars" and "kill as many boars as it takes to get me 15 tusk" quests, if nothing else, were only completable once, involved different zones each time you quested through an old area and moved onto a new one, had new reasons for killing the farmable mobs, and tried (literally, tried; not always succeeded) to offer some sort of lore reason. This group needs boar tusks for weapon-heads. That family needs boar livers for pies to feed the rest of the village. This skinner needs a truck-load of pelts, and you're getting em for cash. Do enough of his quests and he'll put in a good word for you to the village leader, which will give you real quests that advance the plot, getting you to your next area.

I wouldn't trust some random stranger either. I'd give them psuedo-meaningless tasks as well to test how serious they are about whatever they claimed they were after.

[Alderaan]

Seriously, just go hang out at the Rift forums or something. If you want to see a terrible game, wait until that comes out. Developed by a company that gets all the leftovers that got fired from EA, and for some reason is developing three "triple A" titles at the same time (wtf?), and has no real expertise or history in making anything, much less a massive online game, which are notiroriously hard and require considerable expertise to do right.

I never tire of the "go play so and so" arguments. For players that enjoy rerolling and playing through the game many times and for those going through the game for the first time, low level and mid level content is just as important as endgame. How many players are going to actually stick with it and make it to endgame if the journey there is boring as fuck?

Rift is an underdog i know, but all you have to do is look at the amount of content they'll have at launch, to realize it's here to stay. They built their own engine and core for the game that they in turn will be using for their other games, that allows the devs to change things on the fly and keep things interesting and fresh if they feel they need to. You also act like leaving EA or Sony is a bad thing. Those 2 companies have no business making MMO's and it's clearly shown the last few years.

[bruiser]

I never tire of the "go play so and so" arguments. For players that enjoy rerolling and playing through the game many times and for those going through the game for the first time, low level and mid level content is just as important as endgame. How many players are going to actually stick with it and make it to endgame if the journey there is boring as fuck?

So you actually think it makes sense to hang around on a forum for a game you hate? Weird.

Rift is an underdog i know, but all you have to do is look at the amount of content they'll have at launch, to realize it's here to stay.

lol. If I give you 30,000,000 pieces of shit, would it be better than 5? I don't know what your frame of mind is to possibly think that a company devoid of any deep technical talent and great production leadership can possibly produce a long-lasting game that is going to be fun and up to technical standards to make the game playable. Blows my mind really.

They built their own engine and core for the game that they in turn will be using for their other games, that allows the devs to change things on the fly and keep things interesting and fresh if they feel they need to. You also act like leaving EA or Sony is a bad thing. Those 2 companies have no business making MMO's and it's clearly shown the last few years.

Leaving is one thing. Getting fired or laid off often says something about your ability. How has it "clearly shown" that EA or Sony have no business making MMOs? Can you name one that either company has even made (and not just published)?

Maybe you're forgetting about that time that sony made one of the most successful and long lasting MMOs in the entire history of the genre, and is one of the only companies who has successfully sequelled their cash cow without failing miserably as a result. Yea, no business there.

[Hyan]

Sony has their MMO branch that sucks at making MMO's. I don't think EA has made any MMO's themselves, but they like to control the development up to certain point afaik.

[bruiser]

Sony has their MMO branch that sucks at making MMO's. I don't think EA has made any MMO's themselves, but they like to control the development up to certain point afaik.

Sucks because you dont' like them, or because they don't make money? I'm pretty sure it would be difficult to argue that Everquest had trouble making money and keeping a loyal fanbase.

[Hyan]

Eh, I liked EQ2 when I tried it out.. but everyone else seems to be saying the opposite. I guess it could just be that they don't have the resources to do anything worthwhile.

Those guys made and destroyed SWG though. Also The Matrix Online. Also Vanguard... but Alderaan seems to like it so Idk about that, wasn't a commercial success though.

[bruiser]

Eh, I liked EQ2 when I tried it out.. but everyone else seems to be saying the opposite. I guess it could just be that they don't have the resources to do anything worthwhile.

Those guys made and destroyed SWG though. Also The Matrix Online. Also Vanguard... but Alderaan seems to like it so Idk about that, wasn't a commercial success though.

Too many people look at it from their own perspective, and not the global perspective. If a game has 500,000 subscribers, then I really don't care how much an individual person likes it, it's a success. Not a success? APB was not a success, for example. That's what a terrible game looks like. It only sold 9,000 copies globally over its entire life.

[Alderaan]

I dunno what it is about Vanguard honestly that makes me like it. It reminds me a lot of XI but with better movement and combat mechanics, oh and the huge open world thing.

Plus that game was destroyed before SOE got their hands on it. I suppose they kept it alive but never really put any money into improving it.

It was prolly doomed from the start since it had no instances.

[Hyan]

Oh I didn't know Vanguard was made by someone else. Just checked from Wiki lol.

[Weltall]

Vanguard was absolutely awful when it first released. The only MMO worse was Age of Conan, and I have played most all of them.

I thought EQ2 was actually pretty good o.O Endgame just sucked because all of the NM looked the.....exact.....same.....

[Alderaan]

Well Microsoft pulled the plug on funding for Vanguard to concentrate on Xbox360. Not that the game wasn't horribly mismanaged by Brad McQuaid.

That launch seems really similar to XIV's.

Interesting read here: http://www.f13.net/index.php?itemid=562

[Sephiroth]

At least WoW's famous "kill 10 boars" and "kill as many boars as it takes to get me 15 tusk" quests, if nothing else, were only completable once, involved different zones each time you quested through an old area and moved onto a new one, had new reasons for killing the farmable mobs, and tried (literally, tried; not always succeeded) to offer some sort of lore reason. This group needs boar tusks for weapon-heads. That family needs boar livers for pies to feed the rest of the village. This skinner needs a truck-load of pelts, and you're getting em for cash. Do enough of his quests and he'll put in a good word for you to the village leader, which will give you real quests that advance the plot, getting you to your next area.

Are you suggesting the leves have no lore? It's understandable if you don't bother reading the text in the leves because I don't either, but the lore is definitely there.

[Sephiroth]

At least WoW's famous "kill 10 boars" and "kill as many boars as it takes to get me 15 tusk" quests, if nothing else, were only completable once, involved different zones each time you quested through an old area and moved onto a new one, had new reasons for killing the farmable mobs, and tried (literally, tried; not always succeeded) to offer some sort of lore reason. This group needs boar tusks for weapon-heads. That family needs boar livers for pies to feed the rest of the village. This skinner needs a truck-load of pelts, and you're getting em for cash. Do enough of his quests and he'll put in a good word for you to the village leader, which will give you real quests that advance the plot, getting you to your next area.

Are you suggesting the leves have no lore? It's understandable if you don't bother reading the text in the leves because I don't either, but the lore is definitely there.

[Suirin]

Are you suggesting the leves have no lore? It's understandable if you don't bother reading the text in the leves because I don't either, but the lore is definitely there.

You mean, like: "Vendor X wants stuff Y. Go kill Zs, who happen to be the rightful owners of Y."
A typical quest in Gridania, done 5 times in a row now.

Arrrghhh. The repetition is already killing me. After only one month.

Edit: I also keep asking myself how there can be a Imp breakout every frickin' second day. Honestly, either the security officer is a complete moron, or they build their prisons out of cheesecake.
Edit II: Also, it looks like the same guy is responsible for prisons in Ul'dah, Gridania and Limsa. Talk about globalization.

[bruiser]

You mean, like: "Vendor X wants stuff Y. Go kill Zs, who happen to be the rightful owners of Y."
A typical quest in Gridania, done 5 times in a row now.

Arrrghhh. The repetition is already killing me. After only one month.

Edit: I also keep asking myself how there can be a Imp breakout every frickin' second day. Honestly, either the security officer is a complete moron, or they build their prisons out of cheesecake.
Edit II: Also, it looks like the same guy is responsible for prisons in Ul'dah, Gridania and Limsa. Talk about globalization.

You call this lore? More like... bore. :::puts on sunglasses::: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[CasualPlayer]

If you want lore try doing some of the actual class quests and storyline missions, instead of only focusing on the dailies.

p.s
These actually require you to be at lvl 20 so some of you might not get to see them.....

[TStupified]

Kashuan seems to progress quite slowly when compared to some other servers, we just got our first lvl50 phys yesterday. Don't think there are any rank40+ crafters either.

[Dantrag]

I prefer the do this quest once deal. I've saved the fucking lettuce so many goddamn times now...

[Dooom]

Yeah, lore-based questing falls flat when you repeat it so often. How many bloody new daggers does the Quicksand need? How many times must I help make planks so some bandits can be hung? Why the fuck are these dodos committing so many acts of revenge?!?

If you want lore try doing some of the actual class quests and storyline missions, instead of only focusing on the dailies.

The impression I'm getting is that WoW has it's lore both in main missions and in side quests, which FF14 is failing at.

[Katlan]

Ok, so you get little bits of lore every 10 levels. That's not good story telling. Especially when those 10 level increments take exceedingly long to get to. Yes, the class and mission quests/missions may be cool and well done, but they are too far and few in-between. I don't think the game has enough lore in it to be its own world that draws ppl in. Since 90% of your gameplay is doing daily quests