This started as a reply to an article on Kotaku about Final Fantasy XI, it’s always weird when I read peoples opinion of XI, regrettably now been one who never played (I had a very bad attitude toward pay to play games when I was younger). Then most of what I see is expansion X wrecked the game and I hope they don’t do that to FFXIV.
November 2014
So I’m going to continue the though process here on my own blog, I’ve found my experience to be the opposite with XIV as I struggled horribly in the early days, you guys already know XIV is literally the first
real MMORPG I’ve played. (We’ll stop adding Star Trek Online in that vein it’s a very different experience). So as you know when I first started playing I wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible, I was a trophy hunter plain and simple I wanted that shiny and still very rare FFXIV Plat. Boy was I naive just two years ago! Lets face it almost 3 years later I’m still here!
So yea within a few minutes of me joining the Phoenix server I was invited to a Free Company (Oblivion) and they all took time to guide me in assigning stats correctly to the class I was playing, or the best side missions to gain a decent XP return. The mechanics of each dungeon as I went through, some of them were a true fountain of knowledge and I will always be grateful to them for that. I would highly doubt I would have ever made it through content like Crystal Tower had it not been for their guidance.
This was of course before Heavensward came out and they upped the XP return of A Realm Reborn quests so people can get to Heavensward quests quicker, I remember the frustration of been level locked from the main story preventing me progressing any further, grinding quests or dungeons for a few hours just to reach the next level to continue the story. Frustration at times just does not cover it.
I remember the game almost breaking my will to play, trying to down Binding the Coils turn 5! OMG Twintania back in those days was a horrendous fight, and still gives me legit nightmares! ne mistake and you were dead, mistime the Dive Bombs and it’s all over, or the whirlwinds good god there was so much to remember for a single fight. Not like these days, Twintania can be dropped in a single run unsync’d, and for the most part the mechanics can either be ignored or safely healed through.
Strangely after Heavensward came out I moved server to Lamia and my current FC, a group from Final Fantasy Forums, who are all Final Fantasy nuts and convinced me I’d be happier playing with them and I can honestly say I have been. I carved through A Realm Reborn in just under 2 weeks, that’s start 2.0 to end 2.55, no hassles levelling and a tonne of knowledge under my belt I enjoyed that race through the old content. Only hit level lock issues once I got the Heavensward and the XP returns dropped off horribly, meaning more running of side quests and dungeon grinding to clear that level out of my way so I could carry on. I also found new knowledge I hadn’t considered given to me by members of Gaia (My current FC). It made starting from scratch a worthwhile idea, it also gave me more confidence to begin helping newer players.
It is also without the help of members of my current FC that I would never have branched out job wise and always been doomed to the horrible queue lengths as a DPS, guidance and patience taught me to be a fairly decent Scholar and healer, not a bad WHM either in my humble opinion. But this knowledge came from their guidance and support, I’m not also branching into to Tanking or at least trying to be able to do the level 12 to 30 dungeons, if I can tank those I will consider it an achievement to be happy with, but again this coemes fro the support of a good FC, something with FFXIV that should never be over looked or ignored. Seriously if you find your FC is the source of unhappiness or lack of support leave and find one that fits you, while I never left Oblivion I found as time went on the in fighting became just too much to deal with and stopped the game being fun and that’s why I left the server.
FF14 Under PS3
I was also this year I moved from PS3 to PS4 and man the graphical upscale is awesome, and suddenly
FF14 Under PS4
my sparsely populated areas began loading with lots of avatars at a time and the server seemed suddenly more alive, it also seemed to look all the more beautiful. And Heavensward areas even more so.
Sounds like a fan boys approach doesn’t it? I’m not saying the game is perfect, the game has it’s issues, ones it is working to correct, the addition of the Mentors program was a horrible idea in my opinion, but the Hall of Novice was a welcome addition (Not that I’ve ever actually used it). Nidhogg (3.3) is badly balanced even still, it can be painful to play and more oft than not goes abandoned than finished, some of the veteran players have no time for mistakes and have left me and new players stranded mid-run, when when you’re trying to take time to clear out giving them as much XP as possible as well as the knowledge that they need to get through safe and sound just creates other issues, that for the most could be avoided with a little patience.
I still couldn’t do Savage Content even if I was inclined to do so there is just no real viable way of learning without a static and forming one to learn the new content just doesn’t seem to happen, I just wouldn’t know where to start or even how to begin. I also know for most of it I’m still under geared.
Still I now find most of my reward is in giving back the knowledge I have to new players, helping them learn the game I love so much, as well as several activities my FC operates throughout each month, I will find myself logging on just to say hi and run something with them each day. Returning the knowledge I have and the community itself is the biggest win I had with Final Fantasy XIV and this is why I’m still around almost 3 years later.
Anyways I’ve rambled enough so I’m gonna end it here, if you’re still reading thanks, and enjoy the world of Final Fantasy MMORPG or otherwise.
Devils Inc. 2023 