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FFXIV And The Joys Of Having Everything On One Character
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Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
FFXIV And The Joys Of Having Everything On One Character
Leif was never really an alt person in MMORPGs, at least until Final Fantasy XIV sunk its teeth into him. Find out what helped change his approach to leveling alts.
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No trials. No tricks. No traps. No EU-RP server. NO THANKS!
...10% Benevolence, 90% Arrogance in my case!
I like being encouraged to roll alts, each of which I can give their own class, appearance, backstory, and playstyle. It's one of my primary joys in MMOs.
Partly down to roleplaying, partly down to being annoyed by the fuss, one character is more than enough.
But alts are a way to deal with end game, what do you do? Start an alt, so I do realise that until we invent AI's that produce endless end game content we are going to need them still. Besides some strange people, even some of our posters actually like them.
100% agree. I love FFXIV, but I roll alts in the game anyways, even if it does feel bad to do so.
I despise everything on one character..>To me that is a slap in the face to the RPG in MMORPG. WHy even bother playing, especially when you consider the entire game is on rails?
For the story of course, at least that's why I play RPGs...
Only a couple years'ish back i was completely sold on the One Toon to rule them all. Honestly could not even think of playing any other way ever again.
SWL, FFXIV, i mean ofc this is how all mmorpg's should be, alts are such a waste.
Well! to nutshell, it gets boring af when you start to cap out, and to spice things up you think OFC!!! ALT TIME WOOT... uggg then you think, yeah and why the f would i do that as there is zero reason in doing so.
Then you start to realize how it limits your play options (personal pref obv).
Never going to get that Fresh Start Feel again.
That awesome feeling of starting out with a unfamiliar class in a familiar world, and experience different ways to tackle it.
No more completely new character, completely new look, no new ALTernate personality.
No more instant options i want to play a Tank right now, select said alt play, i feel like casting up a f'ing storm tonight, click alt play.
No more rags to riches, no more climbing that xp latter to cap, weak to OP. (no help from main ofc)
It for me severely limits my options for ALTernative play styles and options. I've dabble in boxing (rarely), EQ2 for a bit and that's been it up until this past weekend in wow, dove into this multibox world again. (yes i play SWG:L and yes boxing is built right in but i dunno, i don't think of it that way?)
Setting it up is my foremost fun, then once i get it working i'm surprised how much fun it is. RaF'd myself and tbh having another toon in tow is pretty enjoyable, i dunno why, it just is. Contemplating a 3rd (maybe) do the whole trinity thing.
Maybe, but it's an option, Right! that's when you come to finally realize that alt's = "more" options, more ALTernative game play options, alts are fun.
Bob McClane : What is it that is exactly the same about every single vacation you have ever taken?
Douglas Quaid : I give up.
Bob McClane : You! You're the same. No matter where you go, there you are. It's always the same old you. Let me suggest that you take a vacation from yourself. I-I know it sounds wild. It is the latest thing in travel. We call it the Ego "ALT" Trip.
As of now I can still stroll through Limsa Lominsa and see the same familiar faces I saw a year ago passing through. Can't say as much with other MMOs, I rarely actually get to know players by their names.
My wish would be to have all crafting progress carry between characters. I hate trying to remember which character has what.
The point still remains no matter the reasoning,this way it is YOUR CHOICE,if you want to still make an alt go for it.Altaholic games give you NO CHOICE,how is that good ...ever?Not being allowed to divulge in several areas is not even realistic,just a design restriction for whatever reason that won't come off as making any sense even if the dev had a reason.
I can tell you this much,the EQ team at one time "idk if they feel the same still"THOUGHT you needed an alt system to make an economy work.They were so WRONG it is not even funny.
I will also say this,a sub class system takes a LOT more work and effort to balance out.So what do typical BAD developers do,they try and LIMIT your choice to very few like 5-6 hotbar choices in total.My one disappointment was that FFXIV did th esub class system WORSE than FFXI, i expected simple improvements,some buffed areas of concern instead they nerfed the hell out of it.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I do sort of wish FFXIV was more alt friendly as far as account-wide features go, essentially giving players more of an option. I'd probably have an alt of each race and at least one in each grand company, but only a few jobs maxed on each. Of course you can do that now, but there are more downsides to doing that than in the more alt-friendly games.
Do people even think before the write here?
!
mmorpg junkie since 1999
Including an "everything on one character" system is acknowleding that:
1) Your leveling experience isn't fun.
2) You didn't develop alternative leveling experiences.
3) There are no incentives for rolling alts.
The lack of incentive to level new characters is bad for the new player experience too, by the way. More players leveling alts means more lively starting areas, which gives new players a better impression of the game.
It is really annoying to have to make new alts to play different aspects of the game in most mmos.
I like games where your name becomes known, where your actions get tied to 1 character. Where I do not have to log into my guild and say "who the .... is this person?". I like the whole your character is a blank slate develope it into whatever you want model.
I honestly see no benefit in an alt system besides roleplaying purposes and the ability to repeat quest you already done before.
And in ffxiv... that option exist if you want to do it so i do not get the hate.
The main issue is - whenever I come back to a game I start a new character. I do this to relearn the game. There is nothing worse than trying to jump back in and try to learn everything again with a mid or high level character. This is the main reason I didn't continue playing Shroud of the Avatar when I tried getting back into it before they allowed alts. Same with most games with this horrible one character can do everythign system.
I don't know if they changed it but when I tried playing this game long ago when you changed classes and tried to grind levels there was no content to get you through the grind. You just ground out levels. It was very boring and painful. And you had to do this because you only had 3 chardev choices which were three slots you could play a skill from another class in. In order to put anything in these slots you had to grind classes like a mofo. Grind classes with no content to get you through the leveling. No thank you. An alt would have at least given me content to make it less boring to grind a class I didn't want to slot a weak ability due to such a weak rpg and chardev system.
Weak rpg system, no choice chardev, content focused on nonsense and silliness instead of systems and actual gameplay - this is the choice most all MMORPGS have taken in the last decade, and ruined once good mmorpgs for me.
How's the saying go? Oh yeah, I remember.
"You are doing it wrong."
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer