That being said, I don't think this game will retain as many people as it attracts. I'm betting on like a 40% retention rate. You can just see the shift in attitudes on a lot of the forums, and the luster of "NEW GAME!" is wearing off for a lot of people, and the reality of "We've done a lot of this before in other games..." is setting in.
Regardless, I'm going to roll my character on ULTROS when P4 begins, and start a free company. I'm in it for the long haul, and if you are going to be too, then feel free to join me
True, however (saying this as someone who *isn't* a big fan of the game so far) I feel like it has been QUITE a while since we've seen such a positive reaction to a new MMO. This will be interesting to watch. The fans that do enjoy it seem to be quite loyal, and SE is certainly dedicated to the project.
And since it seems 4 is going to be the magic number for groups
It starts off as 4 man for some of the story quests and group leves but most dungeon content later on is 8 man.
I really prefer the 4 man groups myself, the smaller groups give a more heroic feel and it gives me major FF3 vibes which is my favorite. The classic 4 warriors of light.
Though 8 doesn't sound to shabby either, I just really don't like raids in games to be honest, I feel.. disconnected from the boss fights if there are too many people fighting.
I've gone from the biggest hater of 1.0 to completely shocked at how much the game has improved in 2.0.
I do have some issues:
Needs more emphasis on group play
Invisible walls hinder exploration
Needs more classes (Dark Knight, Thief, Samurai)
Needs a better character creator (hairstyles are limited)
Being locked to 1 weapon is a bummer
Some of these can obviously be expanded on and will at some point, so i can look past them for now. I'm thoroughly impressed with how far the game has come and will be supporting it come release. Hopefully the housing system and raiding are fleshed out because i could see myself doing either for a long time.
I agree on the emphasis on group play, but I do think they made some major strides since 1.0, and the invisible walls are a little annoying but at least there is jumping now. As for the extra classes, FFXI only started with 6 (Warrior, Black and White Mage, Red mage, Thief, and Monk) with very few unlockables. They always add more in expansion packs, so it's more of a "we'll have to wait and see" kind of thing. They are adding more classes than we even saw in the beta though, so I can't complain.
As for the hairstyles, my only explanation for that could be that this is a more eastern-style MMO, and though I cannot find my source at the moment, I've seen polls where eastern players prefer conformity, while most western players lean towards feeling unique. I find it to be a good compromise at the moment, but I can also see why you'd want more. It was the same thing with the armor, throughout the beta I heard people complain about how the armor looked, but it's more eastern inspired than what we think of where western players believe all tanks have to be decked out in armor.
And for 1 weapon thing, yeah I am not a fan, but I'm okay with it considering it gives me a quick class switch rather than FFXI where I had to run back, go to my room, and then change classes.
Originally posted by Dfix
Originally posted by WATSKI
/snip
It starts off as 4 man for some of the story quests and group leves but most dungeon content later on is 8 man.
I'm fine with this, as long as the later dungeon content is more endgame/raid content. I enjoy leveling more than endgame, and being able to just find 3 other like minded people makes me happy, while I can call upon other friends to do the end stuff.
Originally posted by Alders I've gone from the biggest hater of 1.0 to completely shocked at how much the game has improved in 2.0. I do have some issues: Needs more emphasis on group play Invisible walls hinder exploration Needs more classes (Dark Knight, Thief, Samurai) Needs a better character creator (hairstyles are limited) Being locked to 1 weapon is a bummer Some of these can obviously be expanded on and will at some point, so i can look past them for now. I'm thoroughly impressed with how far the game has come and will be supporting it come release. Hopefully the housing system and raiding are fleshed out because i could see myself doing either for a long time.
Needs more emphasis on group play? ...what level did you get to?
I own the CE from the original release and played for a few months before giving up. When they suspended subs, I played a week, but couldn't even make myself play it for free.
ARR Beta.
Well, sort of back in the same boat. I couldn't make myself play it for more than a few hours, even for free, so no chance of resubscribing.
The new game zones, from what I did get to see, are much, much better in design and more organic. Probably the most beautiful thing about ARR is the new zones. They also succeeded in making the game look and feel like Final Fantasy. The original release had none of that, but it has been corrected. I'm also happy to report the game has a lot more content than before.
However, the already poor combat from the original release has been made painfully worse with ARR. Most of the new content is in the form of the most droll, mundane and vapid "kill ten rats", "deliver ten rats tails here" variety of stale, old MMO quests. There is now less freedom in leveling up different classes with your character, no improvement has been made to the lack of variety of armor and weapon skins and the mob AI is even worse than before, if that is even possible. Mob placement is also worse. The zones are ten times better, but the beauty get's lost in the clumps of mobs standing around waiting to be killed.
I'm also not sure what's going on with the graphics. The zones look better than ever, but the characters look much more cartoonish with the flat shaders and apparently less detailed textures.
Players gave SE a pretty clear list of deficiencies with the original release. SE basically admitted the game was crap and asked for a chance to make it right. Well, yes, they made great strides on the game world and adding the feel that this was a Final Fantasy game, but it's still a game much more suited to 2002, than 2012, with combat that will drive most players of more actiony MMO combat completely insane.
People looking for a truly old school MMO, with no real improvements over games of a decade ago other than visual presentation, may find this game worth playing. I thinks it's going to be a fairly small, niche segment of the MMO market and after 2 1/2 year of working on ARR, SE is probably going to find that the new iteration is as out of date for it's time as the original release was. Unfortunately, it probably isn't going to be much more of a financial success either.
It's too bad, because I held out some small hope for the game, only to find myself even more disappointed than I was with the original release.
Comments
It starts off as 4 man for some of the story quests and group leves but most dungeon content later on is 8 man.
True, however (saying this as someone who *isn't* a big fan of the game so far) I feel like it has been QUITE a while since we've seen such a positive reaction to a new MMO. This will be interesting to watch. The fans that do enjoy it seem to be quite loyal, and SE is certainly dedicated to the project.
I really prefer the 4 man groups myself, the smaller groups give a more heroic feel and it gives me major FF3 vibes which is my favorite. The classic 4 warriors of light.
Though 8 doesn't sound to shabby either, I just really don't like raids in games to be honest, I feel.. disconnected from the boss fights if there are too many people fighting.
I'm fine with this, as long as the later dungeon content is more endgame/raid content. I enjoy leveling more than endgame, and being able to just find 3 other like minded people makes me happy, while I can call upon other friends to do the end stuff.
Aim Small, Miss Small.
Needs more emphasis on group play? ...what level did you get to?
SKYeXile
TRF - GM - GW2, PS2, WAR, AION, Rift, WoW, WOT....etc...
Future Crew - High Council. Planetside 1 & 2.
I own the CE from the original release and played for a few months before giving up. When they suspended subs, I played a week, but couldn't even make myself play it for free.
ARR Beta.
Well, sort of back in the same boat. I couldn't make myself play it for more than a few hours, even for free, so no chance of resubscribing.
The new game zones, from what I did get to see, are much, much better in design and more organic. Probably the most beautiful thing about ARR is the new zones. They also succeeded in making the game look and feel like Final Fantasy. The original release had none of that, but it has been corrected. I'm also happy to report the game has a lot more content than before.
However, the already poor combat from the original release has been made painfully worse with ARR. Most of the new content is in the form of the most droll, mundane and vapid "kill ten rats", "deliver ten rats tails here" variety of stale, old MMO quests. There is now less freedom in leveling up different classes with your character, no improvement has been made to the lack of variety of armor and weapon skins and the mob AI is even worse than before, if that is even possible. Mob placement is also worse. The zones are ten times better, but the beauty get's lost in the clumps of mobs standing around waiting to be killed.
I'm also not sure what's going on with the graphics. The zones look better than ever, but the characters look much more cartoonish with the flat shaders and apparently less detailed textures.
Players gave SE a pretty clear list of deficiencies with the original release. SE basically admitted the game was crap and asked for a chance to make it right. Well, yes, they made great strides on the game world and adding the feel that this was a Final Fantasy game, but it's still a game much more suited to 2002, than 2012, with combat that will drive most players of more actiony MMO combat completely insane.
People looking for a truly old school MMO, with no real improvements over games of a decade ago other than visual presentation, may find this game worth playing. I thinks it's going to be a fairly small, niche segment of the MMO market and after 2 1/2 year of working on ARR, SE is probably going to find that the new iteration is as out of date for it's time as the original release was. Unfortunately, it probably isn't going to be much more of a financial success either.
It's too bad, because I held out some small hope for the game, only to find myself even more disappointed than I was with the original release.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
