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Help Convince Me to Give This Game Another Try
Halibrand
Member UncommonPosts: 136
Hello! I tried FFXIV : ARR a while back, and ended up being very meh about my experience, playing only occasionally, and then cancelling after the first month. But on paper it has things that I should really love, so hopefully if I explain my experience, some of you nice people will give me advice and links and pancakes that'll make resubbing something that I'll enjoy:
I joined because I was looking for a new game. I have no Final Fantasy experience, have zero excitement about the story, and never really got into anime or asian MMOs at all. Account creation was strange and it took me a couple days to get into the game. It gave me lots of time to look up about the game to see what I wanted to play. I didn't find a site giving information in the way I'm used to seeing it, or that answered my questions, and the main game site was pretty useless. So once in the game, I picked a class based off of "maybe it does this" and quickly got bored of the tedious quest hub stuff. I got distracted by FATEs, and had a lot of fun doing those. But the mobs gave no loot, and by the time I got back to quests to try and get some gear, they gave me nothing. I eventually saved up enough money to buy a teeny weeny weapon off the AH, and joined a small guild of nice and fun people I met through channel conversation. They came and ran FATEs with me, but that's about all they were interested in doing that I was big enough to do, they weren't huge either, and I never got the answers to my questions that I wanted in guild chat. My answers were all either "dunno", silence, or some quick cyberspeak thing in game jargon that I hadn't learned yet and then they'd log off. By the time I quit, I was around level 15, with zero armour, a level 5-ish weapon, little understanding of the game or why I'd want to pick any class. I had some cool guys to joke around with in guild chat when I logged in, and FATEs that I was starting to die at unless I did the grey ones, and that ends my story.
So the style didn't appeal to me, in and out of the game I didn't learn much, and I earned nothing in my 15-ish levels. I was very "meh" and went back to naps and Hearthstone with my friend.
When I pick a class in a game, it's entirely based off the utility abilities. I found no descriptions of that sort of stuff anywhere. I don't care about what thematic weapon it uses, or if it's melee or ranged, or labeled as dps, tank, dps-tank, healer-mime, or whatever. Is there a site someplace that shows this stuff in an easy to find way?
I LOVE PvP games, and don't care for world PvP. I love robust crafting, and meh at tacked-on crafting. I love robust housing, and meh at tacked-on housing. I like challenging dungeons and raids, but am never going to be hardcore about that again, or faithfully follow the gear treadmill. My AQ40 days are well behind me. I hate games with zero fluff element. If it has nothing beyond quest hub grind, raid-gear grind, and PvP, it gets boring (I'm looking at you, ESO, with your awesome skill system and your seriously un-fun Cyrodiil). Other people complain about fluff content, but I love those little vacations from the grind.
I welcome all thoughts, helpful or hateful, but humbly request that all hate be phrased in the form of a limerick, or the shape of a bear.
Comments
do not judge until 50 even if you get bored. also check this link to give you update on how much changed but in summary there is a big difference in leveling now + many more content :
http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/2sob56/what_did_i_miss_patch_notes_24245_summary/
and this coming tuesday , 2.5 will be released check the trailer and the patch notes. golden saucer enough said.
I appreciate the reply, but your post and link explained zero to me. The patch notes mean nothing because I don't know the game, the link means nothing because again, I don't know the game. That something can now be desynthesized is meaningless when I don't know the "something" and I don't know what happens when you desynthesize it. I don't know what a golden saucer is.
I need to be talked to like someone with no experience, not a year of experience.
And your advice to play to max level even if I'm not having fun and then adding no explanation is a really bad sales pitch. Can you tell me things that you found exciting in the game once you reached level 50, or along the way?
Even if I was to play to 50 despite not enjoying the experience just to see what 50 is like, what class would I play? Do any classes have knock-downs or knock-backs, charges, pulls, polymorphs, blinds that makes the other person's screen go black, stuns, teleports, jumps, transformations, or any other abilities beyond single-target-hit and aoe? Can you tell me about them, or make a certain class sound exciting, or point me to a site that shows this stuff?
I probably could have worded things better. I'm just looking for help. A coherent and easy-to-use website or making a new friend that knows and loves the game (and doesn't mind explaining things) would be ideal. It just takes one person.
I just don't have it in me to spend a couple hundred hours playing a game to find out if I wanted to spend a couple hundred hours playing that game, or to find out what I should have done differently at the start to have better enjoyed those 200 hours, and I wasn't able to find answers or inspiration when I tried it before. I want these things, if they're out there!
It sounds like you had some trouble learning the ropes and become frustrated in having little to no direction.
There is an in-game guide that helps you understand what to do from the moment you log on. As soon as you pick "mouse and keyboard / Controller" preference you get a green box that helps educate you, I mean its pretty much idiot proof (not a remark on you, just on how well it explains things). I would recommend not turning this off until you get your bearings.
There is PvP in this game, but in honest as fun as it can be, it is not the games focus.
Crafting in this game is second to none and it is not only viable and meaningful but it is also very deep with a lot of depth that takes some understanding and experimentation. Very robust.
As for fluff, yes there is plenty. The reason the guy linked the reddit post is because it gives a break down of each patch which has been quarterly and substaintial in length, lots of fluff, not to mention chocobo racing, triple triad and the golden saucer in Feb.
Currently playing: Elder Scrolls Online, Elite: Dangerous | Recently played: FFXIV, Rift, LoTRO, Diablo 3, Path of Exile, Guild Wars 2 | Single player RPGs: Dragon Age Inquisition, Skyrim
All of this, of course, is due to the fact that you do not wish to research anything your self.
Maybe this game isn't for you? Or MMO's in general, for what it's worth.
I don't know why you should give this game another try. You sound like you went in with negative expectations and the usual cynical "quest hubs baw haw" attitude that is so prevalent around here. You refused to play the game as intended from the beginning. No wonder you didn't have a good time. What's going to be different this time if you can't get over the fact the devs want you to experience the storyline that is as interesting and immersive as you let it be.
As long as you're not going to give this game a solid chance no matter how much you try to play it you'll simply feel miserable (and probably make everyone around you miserable as well). There's already too many people like you in the game to be honest. The game deserves better players than you, players that aren't so incredibly sick of the genre they "love" that they can't be arsed to pay attention to the storyline or anything the game tells them outside the gear grindmill.
I am a big Final Fantasy fan,yet the game did the same to me,just got bored.
The design was rushed and nothing they add now can change the core design of the game.
As to waiting until 50,that is exactly what i DON'T want in my game is some mythical end game nonsense,that is what FFXI turned into as well and i quit that as well.
All you'll see in your guilds are people join their little tight niche group that constantly run the same thing over and over grinding for the next tier of gear,in other words another Wow clone.
Even in the ancient FFXi where the were the Avatar instance fights,they still could move around and chase you,in FFXIV the fights are confined to this very small circle,it just looks bad and is imo not fun at all.
SO if you found it meh for the same reasons i did,i suggest you not sweat it and just,well idk there really is not much good gaming out there.
I don't FORCE myself to play out of boredom,if something catches me then i will play a game for awhile,maybe a long while.I went a long time without playing anything,then stumbled onto Gorgon but then the lead dev started to make changes i did not like,so now i am playing Path of Exile a game i kind of like .
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Hyperboles galore!
Ridiculous queues only exist on the lower pop servers if you're a DPS like Rogue or Archer (more than 20mins). FATEs have been popular from the beginning of service to this day, especially after the introduction of Rogue. The only difference is people found the areas with the best exp/hr ratio and flock there. You will always find people to FATE with in these areas, unless you play on a low pop server at 3am.
Guildleves are better exp than ever, guildhests give class-specific bonuses, and the challenge log provides even more exp than before.
It's not like you have to know these things beforehand because if you follow the questline as you should (d'oh) you'll figure out these things for the second class and beyond.
The situation will probably improve with Heavensward and being able to solo low-level dungeons but the situation is nothing like you described even today.
Well I don't think I can convince you of anything but let me tell you why I love this game.
I adore stories first off, so I read every quest text. In FFXIV you have some delightfully written stories, it's a good idea to take the time to talk to NPC's and just soak in the story. If all you go is press accept and fetch things and not read what they say then you are losing on the part that makes the game special I think. Also a lot of NPC's in cities are hilarious, they actually interact together and there's some pretty cute moments.
The first bit of the game leveling wise isn't going to be very exciting, though it IS fast. So if someone ^ is saying it's a chore, sorry but kids these days..... Try playing Lineage or FFXI or EQ back in the day.... It's not hard to level anything especially once you get used to the game. The more you play the more options to level up opens to you. Sure there's FATEs and quests, but there's dungeon roulette (after you unlock the dungeons), primals, beastmen tribes, treasure maps... PvP I have no idea how that works but it's there.
So really my advice is to start looking at the story, that is the strength of every Final Fantasy. If that is not your bag there are plenty of other MMOs that are less story driven and more to the point. Though honestly every MMO is basically the same thing, the key is to find the one that appeals to you most. FFXIV is beautifully crafted, but you do have to pay attention to the world.
Armor and weapons are given to you through the quests and main story, and leves. If you are 15 and have not being doing a few leves you should. This is where I got geared on my first character. There's no reason for you to be 15 and have a level 5 weapon. There's also armor shops in camps and in cities and do compare prices from the shops to the AH, some peeps have been retarded and charged less on the AH then in game NPC's for low level goods.... (rolls eyes)
If you like crafting and gathering, I'd recommend starting out as a botanist and miner and sell your stuff at the AH, then you can delve in crafting and gather your own mats. Level 50 gatherers can also mine rare nodes that can be sold for a good amount.
Just take your time and enjoy the game, if you trying to figure it out too hard too early I bet you are missing out on just the pure fun of adventuring. There's a lot to do in this game and once you get going it's goes fast! Remember these games started out as Role Playing Games. So sit back and play, it's not a job, it's a place to relax and have fun.
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
Same here, I wanted to re-sub, after losing my pre-order account (v1.0) due to super paranoid customer service. I went to create a trial account. So far, for 14 days the game failed to make an impression.
Gears are hard to come by, skills are boring and dialogs...oh my the dialogs, what's up with the failed wannabe ye-olde classical english? Makes me wanna punch my cats, and I love my cats.
For me ARR doesnt deserve a second try, just because that nightmare/paranoid customer service.
Final Fantasy xiv looks great. You can casually play this game. There is a divide between the casual players and the hardcore gamers though. Also because most raids, dungeons, trials etc. can be done in duty finder or party finder I find myself doing most things in pick up groups. This is both good and bad. The plus side is you don't have to wait very long to do certain raids. The downside is that your chances of getting what you want hardly ever increase. if the item drops you still have to outbid 7+ strangers. In FF11 you needed to join a linkshell (basically a permanent group for the most part) to get those rare items. there was a pecking order. Pretty much once the person in line for that item before you received said item you knew you were next. In FF14 with it only being PUG groups your chances could be never. Of course you could join a static to get certain things. But you are obligated to stay. There goes your real life.
The game can get a little bit grindy as well. Since there is no party system leveling on 14 you are basically grinding to 50 for what feels like no reason. The actual leveling is almost pointless. As in most MMOs there are a lot of things wasting your time. You spend a lot of time doing things that you don't want to do and very little time doing things that you do. Honestly the game is a huge waste of time. If you grind and grind and get all of the best gear, the next update they will release better gear. It never ends. Its all designed to distract you and keep you busy so that your $13.00 keeps going to SE every month.
If you are looking for a grind that is a complete waste of time but looks awesome then this is the game for you. If you like the nostalgia of the older final fantasy games then just replay those. It will be a lot cheaper and you can keep your life.
I like this website for quickly looking stuff up about the game http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/
There you can find information regarding all aspects of the game in an accessible and easy to browse format.
I will say that reading the quest text for the main scenario and class quests is important to understanding how to play the game and what your class does. You begin with the main scenario quest and it leads you to your class quests. The main scenario is marked by a flaming "O" like in the logo of the game. Just doing those quests will give you a good set of armor and weapon by the time you are level 10. More importantly these quests are required to unlock important features and functionality required for playing the game beyond the beginner stages.
You mentioned that you bought a weapon from AH. Low level weapons and armor are sometimes way over priced on the market board. Instead you should browse the merchants located around the boards. For example if you wanted to buy a weapon you could talk to a battlecraft supplier. In fact one of the early quests is locating and collecting things from merchants in your starting city.
Another good website is http://www.ffxivguild.com
There you can find guides for most aspects of the game. But first I suggest getting your feet wet through the main scenario or you will not be able to understand many of terms.
I should also mention that there is an in game help system. Click System > Active Help.
Hope that helps.
Style hasn't changed for anyone under lv 50, you won't feel like you accomplished anything until lv 50. In the event that you DO decide to play again, you'll quit soon after lv 50 because you weren't able to get a static for End-Game dungeons, everything is too difficult, everything is too easy, don't like to grind tokens or <insert excuse here> . I love this game and will keep playing it until it dies out but there's nothing I can tell you that will convince you it's worth it when you've already decided that you hate the style.
All in all, keep playing Hearthstone, WoW or whatever blizzard or otherwise game you're currently playing. Save your 15 bucks, FFXIV just isn't for you.
I'm in the exact same boat. I've gone back to that game twice now and have lasted about a month each time. Actually, both times I quit playing again when I got to that snowy zone north of North Shroud. I'm not really sure why, since I rather like that zone.
I have tried this game a few times there are quite a few turn offs that just can't seem to get past:
Spam, spam and more golder seller spam get it every few seconds no matter how many i blacklist as soon as i add them to blacklist 1 sec after get a tell from another one with random name.
Playing from work on different isp have to keep changing my password this gets annoying this is 2015 all other mmo's have a code you paste in ONCE to allow access from that ip and is stored in a list.Only way to bypass is you have to buy the one time password key fob thing that generates codes and no i don't own a cell phone.
Combat system boring, slow and lackluster it's like watching paint dry cast times on spells are so long and gcd are slow i could play this game blindfolded while being drunk.
Want final fantasy online this seems still likean old mmo from 2008 that has a final fantasy theme does not play or feel like final fantasy lack of voice overs it's just not the same.
Quests are to repetitive even for me i spend most of time killing same mobs over and over and over again game does not get good till level 50? well then that is a problem just can't plod my way to 50,why should i pay for a game i don't enjoy.
Tried the free 14 day trial unless there are major changes to combat i doubt i will ever pay for this game.
There once was a dude from Albertar
Who desperately wanted to play FFARR
The game wasn't fun
And now he is done
The game was just not up to par.
Maybe try golf?
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
You seem to have played FFXIV: A Realm Hyperboled.
No wonder you came out shorthanded. It's in an entirely different plane of existence only grumpy, cynical people have access to.
If you dont like the style it seems pointless to stick with it in my opinion, the graphic style is this games only real unique selling point. Also its not a pvp game at all.
To me, ive never played any mmo that i wasnt that impressed with that changed my mind at level cap. If you dont like it during leveling that wont change if you grind to cap.