This is beta and people are trying out the game/testing. No one has time to stop and talk when they want to experience the content.
Has nothing to do with that, it's just a very unsocial game environment. I have been in plenty of betas where people talked, FFXIV is very anti-social, and it's not the players, it's the game that allows you to solo through 99% of the content.
Didn't even know you had access to 99% of the content. But, I would assume dungeons/raids are more than %1 so your logic is obviously wrong either way.
An MMO(any) will be as social as you make it. If you fall in line and just solo don't complain about it. Take the time and find a group to play with or god forbid play with some people you know in real life.
Originally posted by Lord.Bachus Its not the game.... Its the players that change and become less social...
You can solo all the way through the game.
and tahts why mmorpgs these days are "anti social" because they are all soloable. Remove every solo experience and you will see people talking to each other and grouping. There are lots of amazing single player rpgs for those anti social creatures.
Why not just make the whole game FFA PVP with full loss of items on death then as well? You know to get people really into groups...
MMOs need choices not rails, MMOs need to be virtual worlds not kiddie rides where you either need to be alone or in a group to get onboard (the social aspect is laughable considering you can just random group up with people and do "social" group MMOs just as easy if you were solo).
i did not mention pvp in my post. And full loss of items (which i dont like or want) has nothing to do with grouping, social interaction, solo gameplay at all...... Also, an mmorpg cannot be any more kiddie ride on rails (like you say) than making it fully soloable. You want to solo content in an mmorpg? fine, use skills and combat tactics to try and beat hard mobs. As soon as they make the mobs easy peasy that ruins everything.
I am in the beta, and decided to play it today. I coudln't get anyone to talk in the major city you start in, despite it being flooded with players. I've seen other people say this as well, people are still as "gogogogogogogo" as they are in WoW in this game.
Is this unfortunately true? I feel like this is a reason I'm starting to like themepark MMORPG's less -- They promote anti-social behavior when playing as grouping usually doesnt have any benefit, and the only time people talk in dungeons are for buffs or to blame someone if something went wrong.
Was hoping this wouldnt be the case, but in my experience with this game it was. I don't want to go out on a limb and pay $60 and $15 a month for this game for it to happen beyond the beta too.
Guess I'll stick to waiting for August 2nd for the Everquest Next live reveal. Worst case scenario it's a free to play game anyways so all I'd lose is time if I dont like it, but I feel like Sandbox games cater more to grouping/being social
This is game is not as difficult so people can pretty much solo if they want too. Its not gonna be like Final Fantasy 11, where you have to talk to people to get some where. But im sure as a Final Fantasy game and an MMORPG in general there are lots of things you can only do as groups. Just have to wait for people to get to that point in the game i guess before they start reaching out.
Limit Breaks level 1, cannot be used without a party.
Level 15 dungeons (part of main storyline, you CANNOT progress without doing them, also suitable leveling option)
level 25? Ifrit (storyline, 4 person party required, cannot progress without it)
Jobs level 30 (designed only for party play, require a party for their subsequent quests)
This is a group CENTRIC MMORPG that allows people to solo when they do not have the time to form a party. It does not really cater to the "I never want to group for anything ever" demographic because you literally cannot progress even through the main storyline in this game without grouping at multiple key points in your progression.
Originally posted by Robokapp
Originally posted by Arcticnoon
Its a beta that only last for 2 days at a time. People don't want to have random conversations with strangers while they rush to accomplish stuff.
Try shouting in a mall on black Friday and see how many people stop to talk with you.
testing and bugs/features/workarounds i'd imagine is a good ice-breaker in a beta...
There really hasn't been that many bugs since alpha, but people do talk in game. I have conversations all the time with people I'm playing with, even through the duty finder.
Sounds like an forced party MMO where choice is an illusion and the more intelligent and less lazy among the player base will just find the obvious loopholes to solo so yeah... I'd give this MMO 2 years before F2P by what you've just said ( it gets 2 because it'll last one more year after they actually start giving players choices in terms of progression, if you gotta have vertical progression don't be a dumbass and tell people there's only one path, that isn't a challenging game, that's a punishing one for anyone who doesn't fit that specific player type).
This game will not go F2P. The logic is that they already have another mmorpg happily churning along on a subscription with a low subscriber base, if their old game even now has never gone F2P, I sincerely doubt their new one will.
To the OP this is like a hybrid themepark/sandbox. Quests don't last forever and there are serious advantages to being in a guild, some of them mechanic based within the game, can't say more than that.
The Rift devs said they would never go F2P... has Square Enix even gone on the record with saying something like "we'll run this game as P2P or close it down" ?
Also consider that FFXI has nostalgia going for it so people go back to it from time to time to play again whereas FFIV doesn't have anything beyond a failed first launch to its name. I am not saying it isn't a good game what I am saying is that as a P2P game to last it needs to be a great game on par in terms quality of gameplay offered as say EVE-Online (note: I said quality not type ). It might be possible for the game to craft out its own niche but... it's a bloody cramped space in the MMO-verse already and with Archeage coming down the pipes from SKorea and Black Desert on the horizon... the niche is set to get even more clusterfucky so while I do hope the game makes it I kinda doubt it too ( aside from visuals what I've read and seen of it just doesn't stand out to me in gameplay or feel terms ).
I doubt it will go F2P looking at their history. Think about it if they were going to go F2P surely they would have done so in 1.0. They pulled the plug instead to rework the game and re-launch it as a subscription. Plus the fact that the western market isn't its home market, Japan and Asia are.
My view is F2P is a false god and this has meant for the games I have tried low quality and quantity in updates. I rarely play a F2P game longer than an hour or 2.
From the looks of things many people (from what I have read) are able and wanting to pay a subscription. I read an interesting blog the other day that stated as a developer, they prefer a steady flow of income over pocket money drops in a blue moon.
Pretty much all MMos. Its better then Gw2 (which to their credit they had done what they did to spur socializing though it only made it less so) though its kind of traditional MMO where people are all doing their own thing half the time. Grouping for dungeons and all might help but its not likely to make a massive difference as far as the game goes. I do see it being more social then the average game but unfortunately MMOs have a big stigma lately of holding back social interaction.
Guess we wait and see how group content is later on if it can bring people together... in a positive way.
Like we dont know how MMOs work. Come on people you dont know the direction or flavor of a MMO till you have gotten to mid to high level content. If you play beta for a few days you should know by now you have only just started to taste 1% of 1% of what the game is trying to give the player. Snap judgments like this are bad form.
It probably wont be much different at launch. People will be racing to level cap.........to....complain about being bored? If its one thing I noticed about gamers these days, its the utter lack of patience for anything. Devs, realize this and are now catering towards this group of totally impersonal and impatient gamers.
I would guess it takes me about 4 to 5 times longer to level than todays average player, and when I talked to them about their leveling experience they remember almost nothing about it, none of the detail in the zones, the NPC, the quests almost nothing to them, its just a blur to end game.
"I can't be social with people unless the game enforces social interactions" /thread
"HOW DARE THEY FORCE SOCIAL INTERACTIONS ON ME!" /thread
But seriously people, it is not up to the Devs as to whether or not the playerbase chooses to be social or anti-social. The FFXIV 1.0 community (atleast on my server) was pretty damn social with one another, and I can say with some certainty that the closed off/solo players will not last very long in FFXIV. There is no powerleveling, there is no rush to MAX LEVEL!!!!!!! Yes there are some forced points of group play during the storyline and if for some reason that makes you feel like 'MUH FREEDUMBS" are being taken away then I'm sure there was no hope for you from the start.
There are many ways to acquire XP and level up classes/jobs. You can do EVERYTHING on one toon if you so choose. MMO Devs shouldn't have to try to brute force some social interaction on people in an MMO, but if you look at the playerbase of most MMOs it almost seems necessary to remind people that they are playing with hundreds/thousands of other people on their server and maybe they should /wave every now and then.
This is beta and people are trying out the game/testing. No one has time to stop and talk when they want to experience the content.
Has nothing to do with that, it's just a very unsocial game environment. I have been in plenty of betas where people talked, FFXIV is very anti-social, and it's not the players, it's the game that allows you to solo through 99% of the content.
After I went and mentioned all the group content just from 1-20, you go and tell me that only amounts to 1% of the content? Do you have problems reading? Also, you're precious new Everquest isn't going to much different from the current "anti-social themepark MMORPG." You're just another hater who has come on here to create senseless drama. Your opinion is simply that, your opinion. You lost all credibility in your last sentence.
This is beta and people are trying out the game/testing. No one has time to stop and talk when they want to experience the content.
Has nothing to do with that, it's just a very unsocial game environment. I have been in plenty of betas where people talked, FFXIV is very anti-social, and it's not the players, it's the game that allows you to solo through 99% of the content.
After I went and mentioned all the group content just from 1-20, you go and tell me that only amounts to 1% of the content? Do you have problems reading? Also, you're precious new Everquest isn't going to much different from the current "anti-social themepark MMORPG." You're just another hater who has come on here to create senseless drama. Your opinion is simply that, your opinion. You lost all credibility in your last sentence.
There is no getting through to these people Maik36. They haven't actually gotten past level 3 in the beta, they never really wanted to test the game, they wanted to compare it to their expectations of their upcoming "HOPES N DREAMS: The Video Game" or just to try find ways it falls short to their current favourite. The amount of misinformation I have read in this thread alone is almost reaching "These motherfuckers have to be trolling" levels.
This thread is almost word for word copy-pasta'd on GameFAQS btw...
So, in true form, I'm Copy-pastaing my answer.
The problem with themeparks is that they shuffle you through the content. With this game especially, the notion of "The game doesn't really start until level 50" really, REALLY reinforces that message. Stop and chat... why? You're just wasting your time and prolonging the "task" phase of the game. And this seems to be the attitude for a lot of people.
Also, this isn't to say I've never stopped and chatted nor should this be a reflection of my play style. It's just what you notice the most. People want to knock out quests as fast as possible, move to the next zone, and start dungeons asap. There's a lot of chat 1-20, but there's substantially LESS chat 20+, and I wouldn't be shocked if that continued all the way until 50, where communication becomes mandatory.
I also really do feel that a lot of this has to do with the incredible easiness of this game. The first 3 dungeons are essentially impossible to lose assuming anyone is pressing buttons at all. Death penalties are non-existent, the risk of death is equally non-existent, and so there's no real need to coordinate or communicate early on. How many of you are 30 yet? It's not any harder (with the hardest battle I've done still being Lazy Laurence) and you can still, essentially, get away without communicating or coordinating. Would it make a difference? Yes, but is it mandatory? No.
In a way, it's an example of the game's philosophy working against itself. The game doesn't start til 50, so neither will the community. This, coupled with the general casual player attitude this game seems to be targeting ("What is the least I need to do to complete this content?") really doesn't promote a social atmosphere.
That being said, it isn't anti-social; people aren't against the idea of chatting entirely. They're just sort of indifferent. Anyone I've sent a tell to replies, groups WILL chat if you start up some convo. It just seems like a lot of folks assume that no one else has an interest in chatting either.
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
third parties like Something Awful and reddit have allowed players to establish their groups brfore they even enter a game.
If you are entering any MMO in this day and age without a group you are already at a disadvantage. Building the social structure game by game from the ground up doesn't happen as much anymore.
You could defend it and say it was the natural evolution of online gaming and you would be right. If me and a million other people find ourselves playing MMO's we might as well be in a guild, Society that does that.
The point is, OP. The communication is there. Just not with you. While it's good for games as a whole, it does leave some gamers on the outside looking in.
This is the way the MMORPGs are currently developed. Make SPRPGs online. That's what they make and that's exactly what happens. SWTOR is the best example of this.
They made the online game with the single player experience at it's heart and soul. Well what did they think was going to happen when players completed it? Players were done with it. Just like any other SPRPG. But then EA goes and blames the business model.
I agree with the idea that if there is no need to be social, the game will suffer socially. And claiming the game is as social as you want it to be is fine but remember, in the older games, populations weren't in the millions. The game attracted those who wanted to socialize. But when you pull in the masses, the masses tend to be a bit more antisocial. With that said, which one do you think developers want? Of course, that also makes for a short lived MMORPG.
What we need is for someone to go back to what made the genre in the 1st place and make the game according to that formula and stay true to it.
Don't tell me a freakin story! We will make our own.
EDIT:
It's fine if you have a story to tell, but that shouldn't prevent the previous statement.
People, as a whole, are missing one HUGE point; There is no *need* to be social, unless you just want to talk to people.
EQ wasn't hard, it was COMPLETELY NEW. We didn't know what to do, where to go, how things worked, or anything else like that. Now we know. We also realize that, for the most part, other people aren't worth wasting our time on unless we know them already.
Yes, there is group content that you need to group up for, is it challenging at low levels? NO! Of course not! For an experienced player it isn't going to be, because they have to "ramp up" the difficulty so that if you are new you can ease into it. Does this mean anything!? NO! Even a "Sandbox Game" has a tutorial, an easy area, etc.. EVERY game is the same in this aspect, whether this takes place over the first 30-40 levels or up to max level, WHO CARES!? These idiotic comparisons between "Sandbox" or "Theme Park" are short-sighted and asinine. It's all semantics and smoke and mirrors.
So, to make a long post longer, the "negatives" you're attempting to attribute to the game have nothing to do with the game but everything to do with you and your own short-comings. If it's not what you are looking for it's because you're doing it wrong.
Just because every car has similar features doesn't mean that Ferraris are copies of Model Ts. Progress requires failure and refining.
I am in the beta, and decided to play it today. I coudln't get anyone to talk in the major city you start in, despite it being flooded with players. I've seen other people say this as well, people are still as "gogogogogogogo" as they are in WoW in this game.
Is this unfortunately true?
My only question is: were you on a japanese server?
Reason I ask is because a few betas ago I logged in and noticed that no one was talking. Now, I don't require chat so it's not like I was in your predicament where I wanted to have a conversation, but NO ONE was talking.
And for a beta that seemed odd.
then suddenly I saw some japense characters appear in the chat box.
I immediately laughed and logged out to see what server I was on and "lo and behold" I was on a japanese server. I wonder if culturally they weren't spamming general chat or were already part of close knit communities and used their guild chat. Not sure.
I then rolled on a Western server and the chat was there.
Now having said that, I think bachus is right and there are a good many players who have entered the genre who aren't as social. For me, I won't really talk to you unless I know you or unless you ask a question I can answer.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Overall all things considered this is why it is great it is going to be subscription based as dedicated fans will be much more enjoyable to play with as they tend to respect the lore and get into the roleplaying side.
If it was f2p the overall concern would be valid, but all things considered once the game is out of the beta phase and the loyalists settle in it should be one of the most mature and enjoyable MMO's on the market. I imagine the true diehard RPG'ers will settle in to FFXIV:ARR and is the main reason I will be joining it myself.
I never get this argument over the social/anti social aspect of MMOs, its as simple as pressing enter, type something in the chat, if someone responds, boom you're social. You can't force players to talk if they don't want to, and there's no mechanic in a game that can force you to. Just being in a party does not make you social in any way, it just means you have a party, if they talk to you then you have social players, so its an attribute that can only be applied to a player and not a game feature.
Originally posted by ThomasN7 Unless you want to raid then there is no need to party up for anything. I highly doubt this type of system will work long term.
You need to group starting level 15 or you will not be able to progress. You need to group to level after that and to level all the other classes/jobs. There is no way you are going to level ANY job/class without spending at least 50% of your experience in a party. There are not enough quests to level all the way to 50.
Guildhests, Grand Company Quests, Primals, Dungeons and good old experience grind parties since parties give bonus and chain kills give more experience.
Stop posting wrong information.
"Give players systems and tools instead of rails and rules"
Long time MMO player here. lvl 16 toon, and am having trouble staying engaged. its the same mind numbing run here, run there, fetch and kill quests that have plagued the MMO scene since WoW.
I really don't see how this one has seperated itself from the pack, but assuming the same way SWTOR and RIFT did when they released... just new and shiny.
I will continue to press on, and hope that higher lvls proves to be a better gaming experience, but so far after about 50 quests, i am beginning to lose hope.
I am in the beta, and decided to play it today. I coudln't get anyone to talk in the major city you start in, despite it being flooded with players. I've seen other people say this as well, people are still as "gogogogogogogo" as they are in WoW in this game.
Is this unfortunately true? I feel like this is a reason I'm starting to like themepark MMORPG's less -- They promote anti-social behavior when playing as grouping usually doesnt have any benefit, and the only time people talk in dungeons are for buffs or to blame someone if something went wrong.
Was hoping this wouldnt be the case, but in my experience with this game it was. I don't want to go out on a limb and pay $60 and $15 a month for this game for it to happen beyond the beta too.
Guess I'll stick to waiting for August 2nd for the Everquest Next live reveal. Worst case scenario it's a free to play game anyways so all I'd lose is time if I dont like it, but I feel like Sandbox games cater more to grouping/being social
This is game is not as difficult so people can pretty much solo if they want too. Its not gonna be like Final Fantasy 11, where you have to talk to people to get some where. But im sure as a Final Fantasy game and an MMORPG in general there are lots of things you can only do as groups. Just have to wait for people to get to that point in the game i guess before they start reaching out.
Limit Breaks level 1, cannot be used without a party.
Level 15 dungeons (part of main storyline, you CANNOT progress without doing them, also suitable leveling option)
level 25? Ifrit (storyline, 4 person party required, cannot progress without it)
Jobs level 30 (designed only for party play, require a party for their subsequent quests)
This is a group CENTRIC MMORPG that allows people to solo when they do not have the time to form a party. It does not really cater to the "I never want to group for anything ever" demographic because you literally cannot progress even through the main storyline in this game without grouping at multiple key points in your progression.
Originally posted by Robokapp
Originally posted by Arcticnoon
Its a beta that only last for 2 days at a time. People don't want to have random conversations with strangers while they rush to accomplish stuff.
Try shouting in a mall on black Friday and see how many people stop to talk with you.
testing and bugs/features/workarounds i'd imagine is a good ice-breaker in a beta...
There really hasn't been that many bugs since alpha, but people do talk in game. I have conversations all the time with people I'm playing with, even through the duty finder.
Well what I meant was this game is not pre partyfinder. You just que and run around and quest. Now if this game was like Final Fantasy 11 the good old days where you have to ask around.
Comments
Didn't even know you had access to 99% of the content. But, I would assume dungeons/raids are more than %1 so your logic is obviously wrong either way.
An MMO(any) will be as social as you make it. If you fall in line and just solo don't complain about it. Take the time and find a group to play with or god forbid play with some people you know in real life.
i did not mention pvp in my post. And full loss of items (which i dont like or want) has nothing to do with grouping, social interaction, solo gameplay at all...... Also, an mmorpg cannot be any more kiddie ride on rails (like you say) than making it fully soloable. You want to solo content in an mmorpg? fine, use skills and combat tactics to try and beat hard mobs. As soon as they make the mobs easy peasy that ruins everything.
I doubt it will go F2P looking at their history. Think about it if they were going to go F2P surely they would have done so in 1.0. They pulled the plug instead to rework the game and re-launch it as a subscription. Plus the fact that the western market isn't its home market, Japan and Asia are.
My view is F2P is a false god and this has meant for the games I have tried low quality and quantity in updates. I rarely play a F2P game longer than an hour or 2.
From the looks of things many people (from what I have read) are able and wanting to pay a subscription. I read an interesting blog the other day that stated as a developer, they prefer a steady flow of income over pocket money drops in a blue moon.
Pretty much all MMos. Its better then Gw2 (which to their credit they had done what they did to spur socializing though it only made it less so) though its kind of traditional MMO where people are all doing their own thing half the time. Grouping for dungeons and all might help but its not likely to make a massive difference as far as the game goes. I do see it being more social then the average game but unfortunately MMOs have a big stigma lately of holding back social interaction.
Guess we wait and see how group content is later on if it can bring people together... in a positive way.
It probably wont be much different at launch. People will be racing to level cap.........to....complain about being bored? If its one thing I noticed about gamers these days, its the utter lack of patience for anything. Devs, realize this and are now catering towards this group of totally impersonal and impatient gamers.
I would guess it takes me about 4 to 5 times longer to level than todays average player, and when I talked to them about their leveling experience they remember almost nothing about it, none of the detail in the zones, the NPC, the quests almost nothing to them, its just a blur to end game.
"I can't be social with people unless the game enforces social interactions" /thread
"HOW DARE THEY FORCE SOCIAL INTERACTIONS ON ME!" /thread
But seriously people, it is not up to the Devs as to whether or not the playerbase chooses to be social or anti-social. The FFXIV 1.0 community (atleast on my server) was pretty damn social with one another, and I can say with some certainty that the closed off/solo players will not last very long in FFXIV. There is no powerleveling, there is no rush to MAX LEVEL!!!!!!! Yes there are some forced points of group play during the storyline and if for some reason that makes you feel like 'MUH FREEDUMBS" are being taken away then I'm sure there was no hope for you from the start.
There are many ways to acquire XP and level up classes/jobs. You can do EVERYTHING on one toon if you so choose. MMO Devs shouldn't have to try to brute force some social interaction on people in an MMO, but if you look at the playerbase of most MMOs it almost seems necessary to remind people that they are playing with hundreds/thousands of other people on their server and maybe they should /wave every now and then.
After I went and mentioned all the group content just from 1-20, you go and tell me that only amounts to 1% of the content? Do you have problems reading? Also, you're precious new Everquest isn't going to much different from the current "anti-social themepark MMORPG." You're just another hater who has come on here to create senseless drama. Your opinion is simply that, your opinion. You lost all credibility in your last sentence.
There is no getting through to these people Maik36. They haven't actually gotten past level 3 in the beta, they never really wanted to test the game, they wanted to compare it to their expectations of their upcoming "HOPES N DREAMS: The Video Game" or just to try find ways it falls short to their current favourite. The amount of misinformation I have read in this thread alone is almost reaching "These motherfuckers have to be trolling" levels.
This thread is almost word for word copy-pasta'd on GameFAQS btw...
So, in true form, I'm Copy-pastaing my answer.
The problem with themeparks is that they shuffle you through the content. With this game especially, the notion of "The game doesn't really start until level 50" really, REALLY reinforces that message. Stop and chat... why? You're just wasting your time and prolonging the "task" phase of the game. And this seems to be the attitude for a lot of people.
Also, this isn't to say I've never stopped and chatted nor should this be a reflection of my play style. It's just what you notice the most. People want to knock out quests as fast as possible, move to the next zone, and start dungeons asap. There's a lot of chat 1-20, but there's substantially LESS chat 20+, and I wouldn't be shocked if that continued all the way until 50, where communication becomes mandatory.
I also really do feel that a lot of this has to do with the incredible easiness of this game. The first 3 dungeons are essentially impossible to lose assuming anyone is pressing buttons at all. Death penalties are non-existent, the risk of death is equally non-existent, and so there's no real need to coordinate or communicate early on. How many of you are 30 yet? It's not any harder (with the hardest battle I've done still being Lazy Laurence) and you can still, essentially, get away without communicating or coordinating. Would it make a difference? Yes, but is it mandatory? No.
In a way, it's an example of the game's philosophy working against itself. The game doesn't start til 50, so neither will the community. This, coupled with the general casual player attitude this game seems to be targeting ("What is the least I need to do to complete this content?") really doesn't promote a social atmosphere.
That being said, it isn't anti-social; people aren't against the idea of chatting entirely. They're just sort of indifferent. Anyone I've sent a tell to replies, groups WILL chat if you start up some convo. It just seems like a lot of folks assume that no one else has an interest in chatting either.
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
ARR is overrun by retarded 13 year olds "pwning" people with their recycled Chuck Norris jokes?
Actually I don't blame games.
third parties like Something Awful and reddit have allowed players to establish their groups brfore they even enter a game.
If you are entering any MMO in this day and age without a group you are already at a disadvantage. Building the social structure game by game from the ground up doesn't happen as much anymore.
You could defend it and say it was the natural evolution of online gaming and you would be right. If me and a million other people find ourselves playing MMO's we might as well be in a guild, Society that does that.
The point is, OP. The communication is there. Just not with you. While it's good for games as a whole, it does leave some gamers on the outside looking in.
This is the way the MMORPGs are currently developed. Make SPRPGs online. That's what they make and that's exactly what happens. SWTOR is the best example of this.
They made the online game with the single player experience at it's heart and soul. Well what did they think was going to happen when players completed it? Players were done with it. Just like any other SPRPG. But then EA goes and blames the business model.
I agree with the idea that if there is no need to be social, the game will suffer socially. And claiming the game is as social as you want it to be is fine but remember, in the older games, populations weren't in the millions. The game attracted those who wanted to socialize. But when you pull in the masses, the masses tend to be a bit more antisocial. With that said, which one do you think developers want? Of course, that also makes for a short lived MMORPG.
What we need is for someone to go back to what made the genre in the 1st place and make the game according to that formula and stay true to it.
Don't tell me a freakin story! We will make our own.
EDIT:
It's fine if you have a story to tell, but that shouldn't prevent the previous statement.
a lil thats about it
People, as a whole, are missing one HUGE point; There is no *need* to be social, unless you just want to talk to people.
EQ wasn't hard, it was COMPLETELY NEW. We didn't know what to do, where to go, how things worked, or anything else like that. Now we know. We also realize that, for the most part, other people aren't worth wasting our time on unless we know them already.
Yes, there is group content that you need to group up for, is it challenging at low levels? NO! Of course not! For an experienced player it isn't going to be, because they have to "ramp up" the difficulty so that if you are new you can ease into it. Does this mean anything!? NO! Even a "Sandbox Game" has a tutorial, an easy area, etc.. EVERY game is the same in this aspect, whether this takes place over the first 30-40 levels or up to max level, WHO CARES!? These idiotic comparisons between "Sandbox" or "Theme Park" are short-sighted and asinine. It's all semantics and smoke and mirrors.
So, to make a long post longer, the "negatives" you're attempting to attribute to the game have nothing to do with the game but everything to do with you and your own short-comings. If it's not what you are looking for it's because you're doing it wrong.
Just because every car has similar features doesn't mean that Ferraris are copies of Model Ts. Progress requires failure and refining.
My only question is: were you on a japanese server?
Reason I ask is because a few betas ago I logged in and noticed that no one was talking. Now, I don't require chat so it's not like I was in your predicament where I wanted to have a conversation, but NO ONE was talking.
And for a beta that seemed odd.
then suddenly I saw some japense characters appear in the chat box.
I immediately laughed and logged out to see what server I was on and "lo and behold" I was on a japanese server. I wonder if culturally they weren't spamming general chat or were already part of close knit communities and used their guild chat. Not sure.
I then rolled on a Western server and the chat was there.
Now having said that, I think bachus is right and there are a good many players who have entered the genre who aren't as social. For me, I won't really talk to you unless I know you or unless you ask a question I can answer.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Overall all things considered this is why it is great it is going to be subscription based as dedicated fans will be much more enjoyable to play with as they tend to respect the lore and get into the roleplaying side.
If it was f2p the overall concern would be valid, but all things considered once the game is out of the beta phase and the loyalists settle in it should be one of the most mature and enjoyable MMO's on the market. I imagine the true diehard RPG'ers will settle in to FFXIV:ARR and is the main reason I will be joining it myself.
https://ashesofcreation.com/r/Y4U3PQCASUPJ5SED
You need to group starting level 15 or you will not be able to progress. You need to group to level after that and to level all the other classes/jobs. There is no way you are going to level ANY job/class without spending at least 50% of your experience in a party. There are not enough quests to level all the way to 50.
Guildhests, Grand Company Quests, Primals, Dungeons and good old experience grind parties since parties give bonus and chain kills give more experience.
Stop posting wrong information.
Long time MMO player here. lvl 16 toon, and am having trouble staying engaged. its the same mind numbing run here, run there, fetch and kill quests that have plagued the MMO scene since WoW.
I really don't see how this one has seperated itself from the pack, but assuming the same way SWTOR and RIFT did when they released... just new and shiny.
I will continue to press on, and hope that higher lvls proves to be a better gaming experience, but so far after about 50 quests, i am beginning to lose hope.
Well what I meant was this game is not pre partyfinder. You just que and run around and quest. Now if this game was like Final Fantasy 11 the good old days where you have to ask around.