Server Populations

[Lucavi]

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?!?



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.

Well if we were able to see where these goods were going to, and actually see them used, it wouldn't be a problem. All we currently have is the suspension of disbelief associated with about 6k people on each server crafting buckets and buckets of helmets, daggers, wire, and everything else for these mystery NPCs that apparently are getting their asses kicked somewhere. No CS of anyone fighting and losing so we can see where our stuff is going to. Its essentially "kill X boars" because there's nothing behind it, just words and a reward.

There are better ways to design the lighter side of content. Even receiving a bonus after completing 10 repeatable crafting leves in the form of a letter and stipend from a crafting guild or something, thanking you for your efforts, goes a long way.

But this stuff is fluff. Who needs it when we can call WoW EZmode for doing things like this, while FFXIV's hardcore system leaves you with bread crumbs and a damp cloth for lore-based sustenance. Having a grand total of roughly 10-15 sources of lore per the main storyline and another 5 for each class is true hardcore depth.

[bruiser]

Why does every game have to be just like WoW? Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending many (any) of SE's decisions, but can we stop with the WoW comparisons yet? It's stupid. "Well WoW does it this way, it's clearly superior. WoW tells it's lore that way, every other game should do that". If everything about WoW is superior, then maybe new MMOs are just pointless, because we're already sitting on the holy grail of MMOs.

I really want discussion of WoW to just be banned in this forum. So that we can, you know, talk about this game.

I mean, for one thing, Eorzea isn't a world that's existed for, you know, 15 fucking years. There isn't as much to tell.

[Dooom]

Well if we were able to see where these goods were going to, and actually see them used, it wouldn't be a problem. All we currently have is the suspension of disbelief associated with about 6k people on each server crafting buckets and buckets of helmets, daggers, wire, and everything else for these mystery NPCs that apparently are getting their asses kicked somewhere. No CS of anyone fighting and losing so we can see where our stuff is going to. Its essentially "kill X boars" because there's nothing behind it, just words and a reward.

Indeed. Bandits in the mountains being found by guards... what guards? What mountains? What hide-out? They raided farmers? Where are these farms? If Momodi is constantly asking for things to be made so she can sell them to adventurers - as the lore on the leve cards states she does! - then why the fuck won't she sell them to me?!? ARGH I'm annoyed now at this. It makes no bloody sense.

edit - @ above, people compare it to WoW 'cos everyone knows what WoW is, most people will have played it, and thus it makes for an easy point of comparison. I could say "well PWi had me go kill wolves to start with 'cos they attacked a shipping caravan" or whatever, but less people will be able to relate to it 'cos less people have played PWi than WoW.

[bruiser]

Indeed. Bandits in the mountains being found by guards... what guards? What mountains? What hide-out? They raided farmers? Where are these farms? If Momodi is constantly asking for things to be made so she can sell them to adventurers - as the lore on the leve cards states she does! - then why the fuck won't she sell them to me?!? ARGH I'm annoyed now at this. It makes no bloody sense.

edit - @ above, people compare it to WoW 'cos everyone knows what WoW is, most people will have played it, and thus it makes for an easy point of comparison. I could say "well PWi had me go kill wolves to start with 'cos they attacked a shipping caravan" or whatever, but less people will be able to relate to it 'cos less people have played PWi than WoW.

You realize that Blizzard has had close to 15 years and close to 12 games to create Azeroth's lore right?

[Dooom]

My point isn't that WoW's lore is deeper; my point is that FF14's isn't bloody there and what is there so far makes no sense!

Funny how we go from "WoW has no story" to "Blizzard has had 15 years to write a story" as a forum, huh?

[bruiser]

My point isn't that WoW's lore is deeper; my point is that FF14's isn't bloody there and what is there so far makes no sense!

Funny how we go from "WoW has no story" to "Blizzard has had 15 years to write a story" as a forum, huh?

Anyone saying WoW doesn't have a story just fell off the failboat, quite frankly. My point is that the FFXIV / WoW lore comparison is absolutely 153% retarded as a 3 tittied penguin. Let's go back and compare FFXIV's lore right now to the original Warcraft's lore in 1996. That might be a fair comparison. Maybe.

[Hyan]

Racist.

[plue]

Emphasis on grouping is what the game needs however. Soloing is what I'd call "grinding" in any game. Grouping on the other hand is fun.

Even the grouping in this game is shit, I have more fun looking at my TNR bar while in a group, than actually killing mobs.

[Eaglestrike]

Why does every game have to be just like WoW? Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending many (any) of SE's decisions, but can we stop with the WoW comparisons yet? It's stupid. "Well WoW does it this way, it's clearly superior. WoW tells it's lore that way, every other game should do that". If everything about WoW is superior, then maybe new MMOs are just pointless, because we're already sitting on the holy grail of MMOs.

I really want discussion of WoW to just be banned in this forum. So that we can, you know, talk about this game.

I mean, for one thing, Eorzea isn't a world that's existed for, you know, 15 fucking years. There isn't as much to tell.

I'm betting this is how we came to FFXIV at launch. They tried so hard to not duplicate anything from WoW because of all the FF fanboys who hate it, and thus FFXIV has nothing from WoW and that's how you got where you are, lol.

From what I can gather, people were bringing up WoW because of HOW they handle things in the game. It's not about the lore being there or not, it's HOW they tell the story. It sure would make sense if there was more to leves, that made sense to do repeatedly.

WoW is popular because it does things right. There is NOTHING WRONG with taking things from WoW, SE should copy a lot of WoW and then alter it to add in jobs all on one character, Cid, Chocobos, more emphasis on cutscenes, etc. The end result wouldn't look like WoW, or feel like WoW, except solid gameplay and the world you expect from a FF game.

[CasualPlayer]

Indeed. Bandits in the mountains being found by guards... what guards? What mountains? What hide-out? They raided farmers? Where are these farms? If Momodi is constantly asking for things to be made so she can sell them to adventurers - as the lore on the leve cards states she does! - then why the fuck won't she sell them to me?!? ARGH I'm annoyed now at this. It makes no bloody sense.

Why are you looking so hard for shit to criticize? Leves are designed for casuals to be able to log in, get some quick boosted xp, link up with their friends while doing it if they choose, and maybe get an item along with their gil. They aren't for tying the story of eorza together with all this lore your talking about.

Who gives a fuck what Momodi is doing with that bowstring. Just take her gil and move on thats what the leve is for.

You want lore, do the actual quests and storyline missions. I mean SE doesn't even call leves quests. Actual quests have their own separate tab in your journal.

When ffxi released in NA I remember having to do repeatable quests for gil. Anyone remember Eco-warrior? How about that Sandy quest that had you turning in bat wings, or the guy who wanted all the rabbit hides? Did we question why the giant blob would reappear every week in ordelles cave? Did we question wtf that guy did with the millions of wings he had?!

NO! So why all the incessant bitching about not having enough lore in a fucking leve?

[Dooom]

They aren't for tying the story of eorza together with all this lore your talking about.

Which is a failing, because they could so easily have been made that way. It's not hard to make quests that give background into the game world and it's people, yet Leves totally fail at that.

You want lore, do the actual quests and storyline missions. I mean SE doesn't even call leves quests. Actual quests have their own separate tab in your journal.

Yipee, one quest with story every 5 fucking ranks. And you're acting like this is acceptable?

When ffxi released in NA I remember having to do repeatable quests for gil. Anyone remember Eco-warrior? How about that Sandy quest that had you turning in bat wings, or the guy who wanted all the rabbit hides? Did we question why the giant blob would reappear every week in ordelles cave? Did we question wtf that guy did with the millions of wings he had?!

NO! So why all the incessant bitching about not having enough lore in a fucking leve?

Some quests seemed to make no sense, and you can accept a certain level of repetition because that's what makes MMOs tick. But no leves in FF14 make a lick of sense. One bit of story every 5 ranks is incredibly poor form for a company which has a reputation for strong storytelling and game lore. Your own post highlights how empty FF14 is.

And fwiw, he wanted the bat wings to make into charms to ward off evil spirits, and the other guy wanted the hides for his business. But we can overlook that we never saw his business because there were enough other shops, yet in FF14 having leves say "NPC X wants Y to sell" while there is a total absence of reasonable NPC vendors makes it stick in your mind because it's a missed opportunity.

[Dooom]

Forgive the double post, but something I just thought of.

PWi had grinding quests called One Man Army. Go kill X mobs, get money, reputation (fame) and a small item reward. No limit on them, could do as many as you wanted. The reasoning behind such quests? "We know there are more mobs in the wild than can be fought, but we reward you for trying". These quests were always on demons or beastmen or whatever rather than just random sheep and rats, and I thought they were such a simple, yet effective idea.

[TStupified]

Oh silly me I thought this topic had something to do with server populations, I must've looked wrong, apologies for that.

[Dooom]

Heaven forbid that a topic goes from one topic to another.

[TStupified]

Yea.. not that it's tiring to see same fucking conversation in nearly every topic that's "hot", maybe in different forms, but meh, it all leads to same shit.

[Dooom]

Sad thing is, I kinda agree. I'm just in a pissy mood because of my leves being retarded, ironically enough.

edit - on topic, less than 800 people on Kashuan atm, 10pm UK time. That's... pretty bad, to put it lightly.

[TStupified]

I wasn't blaming any certain person for offtopic or anything like that, it's just generally retarded that there's about two pages of posts about the topic itself, and after that it has turned into some kind of war between the haters and the white knights and now after few pages we're in the basic ffxiv vs wow shit, that's quite a common sight in these forums nowadays.

[Ragns]

Final Fantasy XIV Player Numbers Collapsing

[Dooom]

Where does the article get its numbers from?

[Ragns]

Where does the article get its numbers from?

If anyone can read japanese: http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/1393492.html