I have been playing mmorpg just as long as you and your right about this game it seem everybody on this site doesn't want to hear the truth about this game. I remember buying FFXI on first day it came out i got it around 1pm and wasn't playing it until 7pm installing updating took hours then hours to get on the same server with some guild mates to get the world pass so other guild members can join us. FFXI had it's good and bad but at launch it was playable and fun FFXIV for me was not fun off the back all the things you pointed out are 100% correct I know it's beta but this close to launch not a whole lots going to change. I was really hoping this game would be good enough to last me until next year but it was a big let down. What kills me is that anyone posting anything about the games obvious flaws are treated like noobs or wining wow players. People who will be playing this game more power to you i hope you have epic journeys in this game but this has to be the worse mmorpg i have played in along time anyway good review Divion.
And this is what SE gets for having such bad PR or marketing team and the devs being a never listening idiots( while genious at making games).Shame , really.
BTW just in case you didnt know , FFXI CB was worst than this.Much , worst. Yea is 2010 what were they thinking ? lol.Not being sarcastic btw.
What are you talking about the whole reason of making a mmorpg is for people to play your game SE is making a game for a target audience and anyone in that audience like you will faithful follow this crappy game lol. I don't want them to cater to me i want them to make a good or decent mmorpg i have never seen this much negativity about a game that people are claiming is great. Divion has it right on the money FFXIV will be for people who love FFXI or any FF game any respectable gamer who knows challenging mmorpg's or content and played this crap knows it's a crappy mmorpg. Limiting a players play time and growth is the worse thing they have done so Uldah if you want to be loyal to SE go right ahead but i'm not giving them any credit for this crap they know better this is not there first mmorpg.
Thank the Lord people don't actually listen to posts like this one up there ^^. Your credibility vanished the very second you made the comment in Yellow. Of course what credibility does someone have that uses the word crap four times in as many sentences. Its as if your trying to convince yourself that this game sucks or maybe you just hate your life so much that you have to come on these forums and spew this 'crap' to make yourself feel better. I wonder which it is... Or are you just angry that you're not a part of the 'target audience' for this game. Does it piss you off that you can't seem to enjoy something that others obviously do? Oh and all that 'negativity' your seeing on this game is being posted by people who are generally angry they can't seem to play it as well as they would like to (99% of the people complaining suffer from lag issues and rage caused by 'incomprehensible delays'). Maybe SE should put a warning on the box 'Use of Ritalin may be required to play this game, please consult your Psychiatrist to see if use of this product may be harmful to your health'.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
I have been playing mmorpg just as long as you and your right about this game it seem everybody on this site doesn't want to hear the truth about this game. I remember buying FFXI on first day it came out i got it around 1pm and wasn't playing it until 7pm installing updating took hours then hours to get on the same server with some guild mates to get the world pass so other guild members can join us. FFXI had it's good and bad but at launch it was playable and fun FFXIV for me was not fun off the back all the things you pointed out are 100% correct I know it's beta but this close to launch not a whole lots going to change. I was really hoping this game would be good enough to last me until next year but it was a big let down. What kills me is that anyone posting anything about the games obvious flaws are treated like noobs or wining wow players. People who will be playing this game more power to you i hope you have epic journeys in this game but this has to be the worse mmorpg i have played in along time anyway good review Divion.
The game was released in japan on PS2 on May 16, 2002 and the PC version was released in North America on October 28, 2003, so Se had 1 years an a half to refine the game before you buy it. So you cannot compare the release of both game.
Now for the ''treated like noobs or winning wow players'', i can say that this is the same for the opposite. This will always be like that. You like the games your a fanboy or an elitist prock, you hate it so your a troll or a wowish kid. People like to to think in absolute here.
For the review i agree with some point and disagree with other, but still i will play this game cause i like it and most problem i see with the game are not gamebreaker for me. Any games at laucn has is problems, you deal with it or you move along.
I can Respect that Silok your right in a way i can't compare both release but i can not treat SE like they don't know what there doing when it comes to making a mmorpg they all ready made one this is there second mmorpg. I'm not a fanboy or a troll i'm just upset how the game turned out after all the things they said about what they learned and what there going to do different. A lot of it was false promises in my eye i was planning on buying it until i got a good play threw these last 2 months and i feel the game is just bad i don't like any mmorpg to hold my hand but i don't want one to inconvenience me while playing. Some people may see it different but there are alot of simple things in the game that are drawn out for no reason just getting quest is a quest in it's self just to do some simple as killing 4 bats if i'm going to go out of my way at least give me alot to do yea it's early levels but still it's unacceptable in my eyes.
Lol you know what, i even typed out a long reply for you, then i realized your either a troll or a fanboy messing with me, and it almost worked, had to delete everything i typed.
Your post is clearly delusional, did you even read the OP?
Ohey, i'm done with this post, too many kids getting on their parents PC's ,and sputtering psychotic rants inorder to get attention, moving on - said my peace on the game, do what you will.
Neither a troll, a fanboy, or delusional. I asked respectable questions of someone who claims to be a professional journalist and game reviewer. Each time anyone on this thread questions your comments you respond with the same type of comments as above. Yes I read your opening post, no I did not agree with all of it.
I am however sad to see that you feel someone has to be a kid if they disagree with your posts. But speaking of age, shall we??
Your opening posts quotes:
* I have played MMOs since 1997, i write reviews for (On games) for the Tampa Bay Examiner
Your profile on these forums states:
24 year old Male from Tampa, FL, United States
Lets do the math shall we? You started playing MMOs when you were 11 by the looks of it. And as such, your gaming 'experience' is more as a child than as an adult by legal standards (7 years to 6 years). Now I'm not saying this discredits you in anyway, but it does help to explain the rebuttles you give on these forums when your 'experience' and credability are questioned.
So you have a reference: I have been playing computer games since I was in 2nd grade, 1977. Moved through just about every facet of gaming from the early PCs to early 'online' gaming on dialup with the first ORPGs in late 80s and early 90s. Wrote tons of content in 6 different MUDS in the first stages of the internet revolution (via telnet) and moved on to Meridian 59 when it first hit release. My bio here has most of the games listed I have played since then (not all, as even this site doesn't list all of them unfortunetly).
Also, as for the journalist side, I profess I am not a professional journallist nor have I ever been as a career choice. I am a published freelance writer though and have done several articles back in Dragon Magazine when it was at its peak. So my questions to you were not psychotic rants in order to get attention. They were concerns for the readers of your misguided opinion piece, should they actually take your words as facts, when they should by advised they were not all facts.
Might I suggest in the future, that if you do plan on continuing your career as a journalist, that you make sure your facts are in place prior to writing your articles, and if you decide not to, that you should be prepared to be called out on them after you do. Responses like the one you gave above are not professional at all, they are immature and will one day impact your chosen career path negatively I'm sure.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
In short this game is really targeted at a specific market, with those players in mind, this game offers rich -storyline- eye popping graphics, but failures to deliver anything that appears to be industry standards at par for an MMORPG
That, in my opinion, is a perfect summary for it. It is somewhat disappointing that many fans of this game still refuse to simply accept such obvious thing and instead feel compelled to reply (to every negative reaction to this game) with a post containing some kind of unnecessary and questionable justifications/excuses, such as "this is still only a beta!", "the fun content was intentionally not included!", "it will be improved beyond awesome over its lifespan!", or my favorite "this game is BETTER than <insert the name of any other MMORPG> just because it forces you to play in a different, non-conventional way and if you don't like/appreciate this then you are unquestionably an inferior person in every possible way and must go back to your clearly INFERIOR game!" (this last one varied greatly from being intentionally oversimplified by a usage of basic derogatory/”curse” words to being overcomplicated by a thick veil of uncommonly used formal words)… Some of them even choose to produce many hundreds of words of pointless verbal diarrhea not even related to the game itself (about such fascinating concepts as journalistic honesty/integrity/objectivity)… But I guess such is a human nature… That said, this will also be my last post in this section since any discussion of this game cannot provide me with any useful information and reading the same thing over and over, no matter how entertaining or rephrased it might be, makes me bored very quickly.
Melee Vs Caster - There is a dramatic disadvantage for a caster right off the back, as the leveling system is very similar to the system of Dungeon Siege (You level what you use), it doesn't (as of now), award class xp for casting spells, which means, if you are a caster, you won't be casting spells that often when grinding, as you'll tend to be swinging a staff, or zapping with a wand to increase class-specific (rank) exp.
This leaves Disc. of war characters with a huge advantage, as they will level both their P. Level, and C. Level by using their main weapon.
This part while honest, is misinformed. Difference? Yes. DRAMATIC difference? No.
Two things:
1. Caster has more heals and buffs/debuffs than melee have. This is fact. All a CON has to do is prebuff Stoneskin/Shock, nuke or status it once/twice, then wand the hell out of the mob. The mob is dead faster than almost any melee can kill it. If you didn't know this, you didn't spend enough time playing a caster.
Thau has Bio, Gravity, Slow, etc that all lessen damage or slow the mob's actions. This makes for more fast wand attacks (which are very fast). Leveling a caster is considerably faster than any melee job EXCEPT maybe a Pug due to pugs attack speed. If you aren't leveling faster than a slow hitting Maurauder or Glad, then you're doing it wrong.
I wand all green mobs and only nuke yellows and reds to soften them up. Yes, that's right I said yellows and red. Melees aren't killing those which you forgot to mention.
Also, it DOES award class points for casting spells. It also gives points for things like casting buffs and heals to your party while fighting.
2. Casters don't sit. With the heals casters have, and the active defenses and MP stealing regenning abilites.. casters move just as fast as the fastest melee jobs in regards to continuous fighting. Plus both casters get a MP regen ability that almost fully tops them off after a few minutes of fighting. THAU has Exaltation and CON has Tranquility.
I havent taken PUG as far as those two but up til 10, my PUG can't regen his mana so I have more downtime. Do melees have to run back to the aethernode to get more MP for that Cure spell they stole from Conjurers?
I didn't check the rest of your review, but if the rest is as off as this is it's probably not that readworthy.
Lol you know what, i even typed out a long reply for you, then i realized your either a troll or a fanboy messing with me, and it almost worked, had to delete everything i typed.
Your post is clearly delusional, did you even read the OP?
Ohey, i'm done with this post, too many kids getting on their parents PC's ,and sputtering psychotic rants inorder to get attention, moving on - said my peace on the game, do what you will.
Neither a troll, a fanboy, or delusional. I asked respectable questions of someone who claims to be a professional journalist and game reviewer. Each time anyone on this thread questions your comments you respond with the same type of comments as above. Yes I read your opening post, no I did not agree with all of it.
I am however sad to see that you feel someone has to be a kid if they disagree with your posts. But speaking of age, shall we??
Your opening posts quotes:
* I have played MMOs since 1997, i write reviews for (On games) for the Tampa Bay Examiner
Your profile on these forums states:
24 year old Male from Tampa, FL, United States
Lets do the math shall we? You started playing MMOs when you were 11 by the looks of it. And as such, your gaming 'experience' is more as a child than as an adult by legal standards (7 years to 6 years). Now I'm not saying this discredits you in anyway, but it does help to explain the rebuttles you give on these forums when your 'experience' and credability are questioned.
So you have a reference: I have been playing computer games since I was in 2nd grade, 1977. Moved through just about every facet of gaming from the early PCs to early 'online' gaming on dialup with the first ORPGs in late 80s and early 90s. Wrote tons of content in 6 different MUDS in the first stages of the internet revolution (via telnet) and moved on to Meridian 59 when it first hit release. My bio here has most of the games listed I have played since then (not all, as even this site doesn't list all of them unfortunetly).
Also, as for the journalist side, I profess I am not a professional journallist nor have I ever been as a career choice. I am a published freelance writer though and have done several articles back in Dragon Magazine when it was at its peak. So my questions to you were not psychotic rants in order to get attention. They were concerns for the readers of your misguided opinion piece, should they actually take your words as facts, when they should by advised they were not all facts.
Might I suggest in the future, that if you do plan on continuing your career as a journalist, that you make sure your facts are in place prior to writing your articles, and if you decide not to, that you should be prepared to be called out on them after you do. Responses like the one you gave above are not professional at all, they are immature and will one day impact your chosen career path negatively I'm sure.
There. You spoke my mind. The OP has a lot of motivation, but facts set straight do make for journalism while his review is more of an opinionated testimony. It reads like a blog (partial judgments, personal views on gaming...), not as a column you'd expect from a gaming media.
Wow dual spec Paladin to healer is still only a 2 classe change. Can you change to any class? Once you have your macros setup FFXIV class & skill change is almost instant . This weapon equal class change was created because ppl in FFXI didn't like the concept of going back to a house or npc to change. If an event required a job change, going back to your house to change could be a time sink. If the person swapping classes was fast it could take between five to ten minutes for them to return back to party. And thats only if it was somewhere fast travel was available. If the player was slow or disorganized it would take 30min and over. This weapon classe change is not perfectly executed. But once your macros are set down time is very little. I'd pick spending 5min to swap a few ablities over long travel back to a house any day. This system is an evolution, not perfect but nontheless an evolution.
Setting up those macro's are a hassle itself and not every player will be able to make them as efficient as they should be in the first place. Imo the macro's should not be needed for something this simple. Like an above poster already stated: there are way better ways to do this than the hassle it is now.
Also your explanation about the walking home etc being a time-sink. Everything in FF14 is a time-sink because nothing is fast and easy. Yet the swapping should be? Made me lol
Setting up a macro build for a class is a hassle the first time you do it. After your macro build is made for that class, anytime you need to swap to that class again. At most you will need to swap a few skills taking 2-5 minutes. Running to an npc or house to change classes could take 10-30min plus if you payed attention. If your in the party relying on a person to get an event done. Would you rather wait a few minutes for a person swapping a few skills or alot longer for someone to run back to a house that takes up to 30 minutes? And that run back to house to class change is only fast if it's somewhere to easily travel to. Show me a game that let's you class change between 20-30 classes on the spot almost mid battle with all needed skills sets perfectly fitted. If you can do that, I will say ok SE dropped the ball. Btw, all true mmorpg have time sink not just FFXI. If it isn't in a persistent world with some travel time. It's just a crapload of instanced lobbies. If some areas may take 30 minutes plus to run to. I'll take that thaumaturge speccing some heals resulting in a shorter wait to get an event done. Over waiting even longer for someone to skippity do to a house on the other side of the world.
I would have to write that while there is a learning curve for XIV, if you think about your PvE it isn't a problem and you don't have to grind all day on mobs to level. Sure some will play hardcore and grind on whatever for hours, but the point remains that casuals don't have to follow this path to progress.
Bottom line for me is: a $200 upgrade, learning curve to make macro's, and hopes that the issues everyone agree's upon will be fixed before I drop my cash. Not to mention having to purchuse a controller and relearn...again. The review sounded secure and I look forward to reading more.
OP, I'm not sure why you'd be having performance problems with your rig. It seems there's an issue now with connections (most people are running at the yellow or sub-standard connection). Hopefully that will be fixed by released. It could be a problem with the servers being in Japan or it could be a problem wtih the servers being stressed and overloaded.
Many people say that FFXIV is a throw back to first/second gen MMOs and it indeed does feel like it, not since Everquest have i locked in an epic duel to the death with a meager rat with the outcome unknown. To some of the immediate difference in PvE mechanics will be a huge turn off, i find this style some-what dated, and superfluously specific on targeted markets - If spending 5 minutes hunting down a target that may or may not end in victory for a small amount of XP sounds like fun to you, then more power to you - However, i have phased out of that style of MMO play 10 years ago, and it's exactly that, archaic - Allot of veteran MMO'ers tend to dislike "Care bear" MMO's but they also fail to see the practical application to it, when i was 14 sure, i could spend 5-8 hours a day grinding in the Greater Faydark of EQ for 1/4 a level, but today as an adult i have no time to spend on a game like that, and if the more casual game play wasn't offered by some titles then i would return to console gaming, and leave the MMO-market for good.
So what does that mean? In short, The MMORPG market has grown leaps, and bounds in the last 10 years, but that’s not because kids are playing these games, it's because more adults are playing, and those kids that started off with EQ/UO/SWG have grown up, and are now adults, by that measure they are the ones with the money, and they are the targeted marketed, a targeted market that can't contribute verbose amounts of time to a game for little return, it's just not practical, and i don't think this type of game play will -retain- anything but hardcore adults, franchise fans, and kids with the taste of this type of play.
Just want to touch on this part here.
First, I absolutely abhore it when people judge a MMORPG based solely on their personal circumstances, and then attempt to apply it in a sweeping context.
The whole "When I was younger and had more time, spending hours doing something was fine. But I'm grown up now and don't have that time, so now it's archaic and it's time MMO developers stopped designing games that way".
The first words to pop in to my mind every time I see that mindset expressed (and I see it a lot) are "Get over yourself".
Yes, you grew up and don't have as much time to play as you once did. So perhaps it would be more reasonable, responsible and adult-like to choose a game that is friendlier to your circumstances, rather than dismiss or degrade one that no longer is as "being archaic".
Guess what, there are a new generation of MMO players who *do* have all the time in the world to play a MMO, just like you (and I) once did. Do they not deserve the same option you had when you were younger and had more time to burn on a game? You grew up, so oh well, too bad, they just have to deal with it?
Also, I'm an adult, don't have a lot of hours at a stretch to game - and am not always gaming even when I do - and I still prefer a MMO where it takes a bit longer to progress. I don't care if I kill 100 mobs or 1000... If I do 10 quests or 50.. As long as I'm enjoying myself while I'm doing so, then I'm perfectly happy. I never measure "productivity" in a game based on how much content I've consumed in a given time frame, but by how much I enjoyed the content I consumed in that time. Quality versus Quantity.
There are plenty of MMOs out there that I'd like to play because some aspect(s) of them appeal to me. However, I find the overall experience of playing them to not sit well with what I'm looking for. So, what do I do? I choose not to play them and instead seek out a game that better suits my preferences. I don't post forum messages dismissing their design because they don't cater to what *I* want.
Sorry if this seems a bit rant-ish, but it just boggles the mind when people make the particular argument you did, because it seems so incredibly myopic to me.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Comments
Thank the Lord people don't actually listen to posts like this one up there ^^. Your credibility vanished the very second you made the comment in Yellow. Of course what credibility does someone have that uses the word crap four times in as many sentences. Its as if your trying to convince yourself that this game sucks or maybe you just hate your life so much that you have to come on these forums and spew this 'crap' to make yourself feel better. I wonder which it is... Or are you just angry that you're not a part of the 'target audience' for this game. Does it piss you off that you can't seem to enjoy something that others obviously do? Oh and all that 'negativity' your seeing on this game is being posted by people who are generally angry they can't seem to play it as well as they would like to (99% of the people complaining suffer from lag issues and rage caused by 'incomprehensible delays'). Maybe SE should put a warning on the box 'Use of Ritalin may be required to play this game, please consult your Psychiatrist to see if use of this product may be harmful to your health'.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
I can Respect that Silok your right in a way i can't compare both release but i can not treat SE like they don't know what there doing when it comes to making a mmorpg they all ready made one this is there second mmorpg. I'm not a fanboy or a troll i'm just upset how the game turned out after all the things they said about what they learned and what there going to do different. A lot of it was false promises in my eye i was planning on buying it until i got a good play threw these last 2 months and i feel the game is just bad i don't like any mmorpg to hold my hand but i don't want one to inconvenience me while playing. Some people may see it different but there are alot of simple things in the game that are drawn out for no reason just getting quest is a quest in it's self just to do some simple as killing 4 bats if i'm going to go out of my way at least give me alot to do yea it's early levels but still it's unacceptable in my eyes.
Neither a troll, a fanboy, or delusional. I asked respectable questions of someone who claims to be a professional journalist and game reviewer. Each time anyone on this thread questions your comments you respond with the same type of comments as above. Yes I read your opening post, no I did not agree with all of it.
I am however sad to see that you feel someone has to be a kid if they disagree with your posts. But speaking of age, shall we??
Your opening posts quotes:
* I have played MMOs since 1997, i write reviews for (On games) for the Tampa Bay Examiner
Your profile on these forums states:
24 year old Male from Tampa, FL, United States
Lets do the math shall we? You started playing MMOs when you were 11 by the looks of it. And as such, your gaming 'experience' is more as a child than as an adult by legal standards (7 years to 6 years). Now I'm not saying this discredits you in anyway, but it does help to explain the rebuttles you give on these forums when your 'experience' and credability are questioned.
So you have a reference: I have been playing computer games since I was in 2nd grade, 1977. Moved through just about every facet of gaming from the early PCs to early 'online' gaming on dialup with the first ORPGs in late 80s and early 90s. Wrote tons of content in 6 different MUDS in the first stages of the internet revolution (via telnet) and moved on to Meridian 59 when it first hit release. My bio here has most of the games listed I have played since then (not all, as even this site doesn't list all of them unfortunetly).
Also, as for the journalist side, I profess I am not a professional journallist nor have I ever been as a career choice. I am a published freelance writer though and have done several articles back in Dragon Magazine when it was at its peak. So my questions to you were not psychotic rants in order to get attention. They were concerns for the readers of your misguided opinion piece, should they actually take your words as facts, when they should by advised they were not all facts.
Might I suggest in the future, that if you do plan on continuing your career as a journalist, that you make sure your facts are in place prior to writing your articles, and if you decide not to, that you should be prepared to be called out on them after you do. Responses like the one you gave above are not professional at all, they are immature and will one day impact your chosen career path negatively I'm sure.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
Nice review. Agree with almost every part.
That, in my opinion, is a perfect summary for it. It is somewhat disappointing that many fans of this game still refuse to simply accept such obvious thing and instead feel compelled to reply (to every negative reaction to this game) with a post containing some kind of unnecessary and questionable justifications/excuses, such as "this is still only a beta!", "the fun content was intentionally not included!", "it will be improved beyond awesome over its lifespan!", or my favorite "this game is BETTER than <insert the name of any other MMORPG> just because it forces you to play in a different, non-conventional way and if you don't like/appreciate this then you are unquestionably an inferior person in every possible way and must go back to your clearly INFERIOR game!" (this last one varied greatly from being intentionally oversimplified by a usage of basic derogatory/”curse” words to being overcomplicated by a thick veil of uncommonly used formal words)… Some of them even choose to produce many hundreds of words of pointless verbal diarrhea not even related to the game itself (about such fascinating concepts as journalistic honesty/integrity/objectivity)… But I guess such is a human nature… That said, this will also be my last post in this section since any discussion of this game cannot provide me with any useful information and reading the same thing over and over, no matter how entertaining or rephrased it might be, makes me bored very quickly.
Two things:
1. Caster has more heals and buffs/debuffs than melee have. This is fact. All a CON has to do is prebuff Stoneskin/Shock, nuke or status it once/twice, then wand the hell out of the mob. The mob is dead faster than almost any melee can kill it. If you didn't know this, you didn't spend enough time playing a caster.
Thau has Bio, Gravity, Slow, etc that all lessen damage or slow the mob's actions. This makes for more fast wand attacks (which are very fast). Leveling a caster is considerably faster than any melee job EXCEPT maybe a Pug due to pugs attack speed. If you aren't leveling faster than a slow hitting Maurauder or Glad, then you're doing it wrong.
I wand all green mobs and only nuke yellows and reds to soften them up. Yes, that's right I said yellows and red. Melees aren't killing those which you forgot to mention.
Also, it DOES award class points for casting spells. It also gives points for things like casting buffs and heals to your party while fighting.
2. Casters don't sit. With the heals casters have, and the active defenses and MP stealing regenning abilites.. casters move just as fast as the fastest melee jobs in regards to continuous fighting. Plus both casters get a MP regen ability that almost fully tops them off after a few minutes of fighting. THAU has Exaltation and CON has Tranquility.
I havent taken PUG as far as those two but up til 10, my PUG can't regen his mana so I have more downtime. Do melees have to run back to the aethernode to get more MP for that Cure spell they stole from Conjurers?
I didn't check the rest of your review, but if the rest is as off as this is it's probably not that readworthy.
"TO MICHAEL!"
There. You spoke my mind. The OP has a lot of motivation, but facts set straight do make for journalism while his review is more of an opinionated testimony. It reads like a blog (partial judgments, personal views on gaming...), not as a column you'd expect from a gaming media.
Setting up those macro's are a hassle itself and not every player will be able to make them as efficient as they should be in the first place. Imo the macro's should not be needed for something this simple. Like an above poster already stated: there are way better ways to do this than the hassle it is now.
Also your explanation about the walking home etc being a time-sink. Everything in FF14 is a time-sink because nothing is fast and easy. Yet the swapping should be? Made me lol
Setting up a macro build for a class is a hassle the first time you do it. After your macro build is made for that class, anytime you need to swap to that class again. At most you will need to swap a few skills taking 2-5 minutes.Running to an npc or house to change classes could take 10-30min plus if you payed attention.
If your in the party relying on a person to get an event done.
Would you rather wait a few minutes for a person swapping a few skills or alot longer for someone to run back to a house that takes up to 30 minutes?
And that run back to house to class change is only fast if it's somewhere to easily travel to.
Show me a game that let's you class change between 20-30 classes on the spot almost mid battle with all needed skills sets perfectly fitted.
If you can do that, I will say ok SE dropped the ball.
Btw, all true mmorpg have time sink not just FFXI. If it isn't in a persistent world with some travel time. It's just a crapload of instanced lobbies.
If some areas may take 30 minutes plus to run to.
I'll take that thaumaturge speccing some heals resulting in a shorter wait to get an event done. Over waiting even longer for someone to skippity do to a house on the other side of the world.
Bottom line for me is: a $200 upgrade, learning curve to make macro's, and hopes that the issues everyone agree's upon will be fixed before I drop my cash. Not to mention having to purchuse a controller and relearn...again. The review sounded secure and I look forward to reading more.
OP, I'm not sure why you'd be having performance problems with your rig. It seems there's an issue now with connections (most people are running at the yellow or sub-standard connection). Hopefully that will be fixed by released. It could be a problem with the servers being in Japan or it could be a problem wtih the servers being stressed and overloaded.
Just want to touch on this part here.
First, I absolutely abhore it when people judge a MMORPG based solely on their personal circumstances, and then attempt to apply it in a sweeping context.
The whole "When I was younger and had more time, spending hours doing something was fine. But I'm grown up now and don't have that time, so now it's archaic and it's time MMO developers stopped designing games that way".
The first words to pop in to my mind every time I see that mindset expressed (and I see it a lot) are "Get over yourself".
Yes, you grew up and don't have as much time to play as you once did. So perhaps it would be more reasonable, responsible and adult-like to choose a game that is friendlier to your circumstances, rather than dismiss or degrade one that no longer is as "being archaic".
Guess what, there are a new generation of MMO players who *do* have all the time in the world to play a MMO, just like you (and I) once did. Do they not deserve the same option you had when you were younger and had more time to burn on a game? You grew up, so oh well, too bad, they just have to deal with it?
Also, I'm an adult, don't have a lot of hours at a stretch to game - and am not always gaming even when I do - and I still prefer a MMO where it takes a bit longer to progress. I don't care if I kill 100 mobs or 1000... If I do 10 quests or 50.. As long as I'm enjoying myself while I'm doing so, then I'm perfectly happy. I never measure "productivity" in a game based on how much content I've consumed in a given time frame, but by how much I enjoyed the content I consumed in that time. Quality versus Quantity.
There are plenty of MMOs out there that I'd like to play because some aspect(s) of them appeal to me. However, I find the overall experience of playing them to not sit well with what I'm looking for. So, what do I do? I choose not to play them and instead seek out a game that better suits my preferences. I don't post forum messages dismissing their design because they don't cater to what *I* want.
Sorry if this seems a bit rant-ish, but it just boggles the mind when people make the particular argument you did, because it seems so incredibly myopic to me.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops