Square Enix Explains Final Fantasy XIV's Unusual Experience System

[dante_136]

I don't like how they intend to enforce such a rigid and overbearing timer system for a subscription based service.

The subscription fees are £12.99 a month. Coupled with a needless time limit on how long you can effectively play within that month if you want to focus on a particular character build. It just doesn't seem worth it.

With that in mind, how can they possibly hope to compete against more popular MMORPGs in the market with a constraining system like this?

 

[Charli]

I do pose this question to both Square and Blizzard in light of the actions they're taking to making the game more accessible to (lets call them) players with less time on their hands...

If the community has no one to look up to, in this case, the hopeless basement mutants who spend all their free time perfecting the subtle art of MMO gameplay, via their gear, accomplishments, etc. What I'm trying to say if there's no degree of; 'chosen ones' because everyone can quite easily attain the status, what are they aspiring to by playing the game. who are they going to see specifically and think: "WOW! I want to be THAT guy." No one ever thinks: "WOW! I want to be that gigantic crowd!"... I know my drive to become a top end raider was the admiration of seeing some rare skilled players in pugs and learning all I could from them.

Blizzard addresses the issue with powerful versions of the gear (Albeit same models just recolours which are a tad disappointing), heroic mode raids, normally unattainable mounts and novelty items. But I can feel that drag when I see someone running around in something that took me months to attain when I can quite clearly see the player has only JUST hit the level cap and has merely half the gear/experience/achievements/knowledge that I've had to eat my way through to prove myself worthy.

It's a little like being slapped in the face over and over. Like an obedient but slighty disregarded puppy.

It's a nice idea, everyone being happy and getting to wear the most amazing things of awesome, and allowing everyone to do EVERYTHING and skip around holding hands and gaily skipping- Okay I digress, there has to be level of gating which I thought (as an example) Blizzard had right on the dot with Ulduar and then pissed all over it for the rest of Wrath of the Lich King, that allows players to challenge themselves and truly admire those who were a bit tragic (and ehem, Unemployed) and committed themselves to the cause, because really, at the end of the game? What else drives you to play?

You're into it now, you've got to have a goal to work to.


Back to the topic of this 8 hour nonsense, I rarely side with the bleating masses but I find myself thinking 'you know what, they're right, this is going to rebound to them in the face with a resounding KER-SPLAT' Blizzard tried this kind of too and everyone hated it until they put the 'rested exp' thing in its place, which lets the player choose if it's worth taking the break to double your experience or carry on the grind.

 

[WanderingFool]

"Komoto says the reason there is a time limit on accumulating XP for each character class is so that players with more time on their hands don't gain an advantage over those whose time is more limited."

Isn't that an advantage in ANY activity? I mean sure, here XP is a stand-in for actual player skill (assuming that FFXIV's mechanics are like most MMORPG's), but how is this different from my friend who is "between jobs" kicking my ass at Gears 2 because he's got all day to play it and get good while I'm at work?

Once I saw my friend play WoW and I shit you not some guy, who had like super level shit, was laughing at him and saying crap about how big a n00b he is and my friends goes "yeah, well I have a job, a girlfriend and my friend is sitting here laughing at your stupid looking character, and all you have is, well, a stupid looking character" best day of my life right there. Getting better at a game just means you can point at them and say "but I kick your ass at life" and there is no retort for that, so I say let them gain 100% experience all the time, I'll still have a better life overall.

Thats awesome on so many levels.

 

[tunderball]

If they stick to the idea of 'realism' and shorten the amount of time it takes to 'rest', say for example you can grind for 8 hours then levelling stops for 4 hours. This would kind of work I think, It'd keep the hardcore gamers happy enough and encourage a healthier life style on them.

And keep the more casual gamers happy, I think I know where square enix is going with this, I started playing WoW a couple of years back with a few friends who are very keen on gaming, after 2 weeks I was left in the wilderness as they went off together hitting high level dungeons and I was a still a simple level 15 hunter. Besides since when have MMOs been about skill all they test is your willingness to give up your life for something that won't matter in a year, if this keeps things more balanced and accessable then great.

 

[Naheal]

So that is the reason for all the stupidity. They don't want hardcore players to get an advantage? Although charging a monthly sub for a game they don't want you to play and will penalize you for playing does not make sense

you pay for Eve Online and level/train various skills automaticly.

essentially you pay for a game that you dont actually have to play to level up.

Seeing how much of a commercial success [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm] the other MMO Final Fantasy game was, you would think they would try to make a game more appealing to both casual and hardcore.

Your link pointed me towards the so-called "snark mark" in the end. I do believe that it may come into common use on the internet in the future.~

 

[Fatal-X]

Really weird idea.

 

[Raesvelg]

It seems to be a fairly obvious handbrake, so to speak, on the overall leveling process. In FFXI, that brake was applied in the necessity of party grouping past level 10. In FFXIV, which is vastly more friendly to casual play, they needed another method.

Hence this.

I'm still torn on this one. I doubt it will make it through beta (and remember folks, THIS GAME IS STILL IN CLOSED BETA) without some alteration, but even if it does, the fact of the matter is that I don't really have the time anymore for epic 12 hour leveling grinds.

With a little refinement I expect that this system will work out okay. Not great, and it WILL be something that they remove as the game ages, but it would work. Hopefully they find something better though.

 

[wehrp3nguin]

We all know this isn't about realism, its clearly about weeding the scrubs from FFXI who had underleveled sub-jobs, and somehow got past the whole Valkurm Dunes-"learn how to party without dying too much" into the later level areas and get everyone accidentally killed by a train of goblins, only to have one level capped job, and inexplicably having everyone die when they try to start a new one. (Me)

 

[Lucane]

hmm if it slows down the exp other time for trade skills like blacksmithing or woodworking I hope that means it's better at giving points at the start FFXI was fairly harsh with Skill-ups with complete disregrad to the value off materials.

 

[Waif]

I have a vested interest in FFXIV, and I do plan on playing it when it comes out. Collectors edition and everything ^~^! I'm not so sure I like the idea of a limited leveling system. Sure it won't make FFXIV near as grindy as other games, but I don't feel that it may be the best strategy. I have favorite classes in the FFXI games, mostly notably NIN and WHM. So for me, it would be strange to have to change jobs every so often. I hope that it does indeed work out. I have hope for FFXIV even now.

 

[Breaker deGodot]

There's a reason why the Final Fantasy games have a bad reputation; the fans.

Although I imagine this won't help matters.

 

[Enigmers]

I wouldn't mind a change of pace once in awhile, levelling different jobs and such, as long as the levelling itself isn't very tedious (like levelling a profession in World of Warcraft).

 

[TheBaron87]

It's really, REALLY obvious what's going on here. They want to discourage people from actually playing the game. They know most people that would marathon one character wouldn't marathon multiple because they're only interested in getting to the end-game. Some people will still attempt to marathon until they hit 0, but most will probably log off after 8 hours. Square gets the same amount of money out of them, and less stress on the servers meaning lower server maintenance costs, and of course more coddling of the whiny/insecure/instant-gratification low-class players that make up the base of the pyramid and the majority of the income, just like WoW.

 

[Nesrie]

This is a terrible decision. I can't believe someone at SE could possibly think this is a good idea.

 

[Danpascooch]

so that players with more time on their hands don't gain an advantage over those whose time is more limited.

Oh, that's a fucking BRILLIANT idea, next they'll say "and to make it even MORE balanced, players who suck or are of inferior mental capability will do double damage!"

This is a rare "Play our game less and be rewarded!" move from Square Enix, who unfortunately has already made my shit list over FFXIII, remember when they used to make good games?

 

[Gindil]

Odd...

This seems to be an intriguing way to play the game. I really don't know if this is a good or a bad thing...

 

[Crimsane]

Eh. As someone who works and has responsibilities and thus cannot spend all day playing, I kinda like it. It won't work, and will likely be scrapped in tne end, but I still appreciate the effort.

 

[Tolerant Fanboy]

The question becomes what the cooldown is on a given job's XP gain ratio and whether one can simply oscillate between two classes, letting each cool down as you grind the other.

 

[kaizen2468]

Doesn't bother me what they are doing, it does seem like a bad idea from a financial standpoint. I usually only play online for maybe 2 hours a day, if that. It might be a tiny bit too severe at first though. Maybe reset twice a week would be better. I think even the hardcore could compromise and be ok with that.