Square Enix Explains Final Fantasy XIV's Unusual Experience System

[elvor0]

I actually like this idea. Unlike apparently everyone else here, I'm glad that there's an online game that doesn't punish people who actually like variety.

The limit has nothing to do with variety, you could not have the limit and still be varied in this game, you're just forced to only be allowed to level one job for 8 hours, how on earth you think everyone here is bashing variety is beyond me, everyone is pissed off that Square are parenting us into only being allowed to do stuff for 8 hours at a time.

But it punishes people who want to just hit things with swords, the hardcore players are always going to pull ahead whatever the limitations, this is utterly pointless, given levelling in MMOs is just a path to endgame where you will be at the level CAP, where the hardcore are going to do it first anyway, limitation or not, it's pointlessly punishing people for no reason and it'll cost them tons of subs because no one wants limitations put on their play time.

I like to hit things with swords, axes and other assorted oversized weapons, I do not want to be forced into playing a squishy warlock without a penis compensating weapon because Square thinks I should, I want to spend my play time how I want to play.

 

[Kelethor]

Sounds like a bad idea bro.

 

[Aurgelmir]

Color me Ignorant, BUT...

...didn't blizzard try this in the early stages of World of Warcraft?

Let me explain:

In wow you get rested xp after being loged out of the game for a while. So when you log back in you gain 200% xp. Now thats great, because you feel you gain a bonus while not playing.

Now from what I recall reading bout early wow beta (which I didn't play fyi) you would get a penalty for playing to long. Giving you only 70% xp from kills.

If I recall correctly Blizzard had put this system in place because of the same reasons Square has: to even out the playing field.

But blizzard also scrapped the system because it punished those who had more time to play, without really doing much else.



So if Blizzard (the creator of the 'best' MMO out there) scrapped a system, why would a second rate MMO maker put it into their game?

PS: So FFXIV is not an endgame based game then?

 

[squid5580]

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.

I am all for appealing to both sides but that is not what this is. This is one side being put on the sacrificial altar for the other. If they wanted to make it even for both I don't see why they couldn't use different servers. Those are what those things like Ragnarok were when I first got into FF11 right? SO you take them make 1 for casuals and the other for hardcore.

Then again I don't see the harm in someone being uber levelled while a less serious player stays in the single digit levels. If I want to dedicate 1000 hours a week into it what is the harm? I am playing the game how I want to play it. I don't need mommy telling me I can't. Especially when there is tons of games that I don't need to pay a monthly fee for that will allow me to play for as long as I see fit without punishment. Heck most even reward you for it.

 

[Wolfy4226]

So the hardcore players will be making a LOT of alts and leveling them in parallel. I really hope they know what they're doing because I sure don't. I know that it is not a good thing for someone to play like crazy, but a super-hardcore player will play for however much time they want. If you try to curb that, they will only hate you for it.

So your saying the Hardcore gamers will make a LOT of alts.

Which Square will charge them $3 per alt, added onto the monthly subscription of $12.99, thus giving Square more money.

And you doubt that they know what they're doing. HA.

 

[BenzSmoke]

That's one of the dumbest systems I've heard about in quite a while.
Penalizing people for playing the way they want and restricting player freedom is never a good idea.

 

[Royas]

I wasn't planning to play this game anyway (can't stand anything that even looks like a JRPG) but if I had been, this idea would have nixed that plan. If I'm paying for a game, I expect to be able to more or less play it the way I want to. Obviously, every game has limits on how you play them, but this seems more arbitrary and just sillier than most.

 

[GameMasterRhu]

Yes this system will fail. Making us paying more money to enjoy our time online is ludicrous. And who is the mental midget that came up with eight hours being the exp time? Eight hours, really? OMG When I worked 65 hours a week I could still balance my life and be online far more than that; sure I'm an insomniac but this whole trend of trying to 'balance' the games to make them fair for the casual players is really ruining these games. After you put in a lot of solid work for years you see the new players get fed everything on a silver platter after you and your contributions, both in game and financially, not only don't get any reward but you're stuck playing with the nine to five crew that can't even keep dps up with the tank, or the gifted healer. It's ruining all the games this let's make the games easier, if that were possible, and let's doll out the socialism online. If I can play more than you can, or If I'm unable to work and I play more than you do, why should you get the same benefit? People in real life don't get paid for thirty hours when they only work EIGHT. I'd love to get my money back for FFXIV--like I'm going to wet their pockets with 3 dollars more for seven toons--get real. Just my humble opinion.
P.S. I failed to read all the servers were going to be in Japan = Fail due to uber lag.

 

[Acting like a FOOL]

whats I find that's retarded with this is that if all of a characters combat classes are burned off and he has to slay boss for a quest but only has classes for gardening and baking pancakes he's screwed!

 

[The Lunatic]

Old thread.

But, anyway, given I've actually played the game, I'll tell you how it actually is.

I've spent a great deal of time leveling one of my classes, as it stands I am one of the highest, if not the highest of my class on the server.

I have never hit this limit.

Not within the first week anyway, and since that's reset, I can't say I've hit it yet in the second.

It's worth noting, I have done almost none of this "Swap to another class and level that."

For the vast majority of my time, I have leveled one class. And I am yet to hit this system.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

So surely the people with more time to play will just get really good with several classes? This isn't making it fairer at all. Players with more time on their hands will just have a stronger jack-of-all-trades.

 

[Hisshiss]

This reminds me of the fatigue system in this Free to play MMO called Dungeon Fighter Online, the games instanced dungeons are cut up into blocks on a map like in 2d castlevania games, so every new room you enter (which will usually have 1 to maybe 15 enemies in it, with between 5 to 20 rooms per dungeon) removes one out of the 160 points the bar has, once it hits zero, you cant play a mission on that character til the next day XD..so bassicly you can play like 5 to 10 levels a day per character, then your done .

(I quit the game the second I discovered this and havn't played in a year, so correct me if its different now).

Anyways..creating an MMO, a game that people tend to sink huge amounts of time into, and then not letting them progress properly after a certain point is just bullshit, especially for a game people actually pay for, at least in DFO's defense you COULD buy items to recover the gauge with real currency, and otherwise you didn't have to pay them.

I was hyped as hell about this game, but the minute they started talking about this I cancelled my pre-order, just gonna wait it out now and hope it either changes or I get a better feeling about it eventually =\.

 

[Hisshiss]

I just now remembered something one of this games dev's mentioned, they said that final fantasy 14 was intended to be more casual player friendly because number 11, its spiritual mentor was considered soul crushingly hardcore (and it was..seriously.), so maybe this is just a way for them to make the game even less hardcore by not just toning down the enemies and gameplay, but the actual hardcore players themselves.

Be that as it may, its still a load of crap and a damn good reason for me to just suck it up, and buy cataclysm =\. I have enough money for one, so Ile go with the one I can trust to not suck.

 

[MercurySteam]

And............. a Japanese Developer has destroyed one of their games in an attempt to mix things up.

WHAT A SURPRISE!

I have nothing against Jap Devs, but they're throwing out the manual containing the basics of MMORPG's. Good luck to them, but if it goes bad they'll have to pull the plug and suffer a madly pissed-off community.