FFXIV And The MMO Blues~

Playing FFXIV it’s clear to see the effort, heart, talent and desire that’s gone into it. It really is a polished gem in the modern genre's eyes. Anyone who’s experienced in MMO’s over the past decade or more should be able to see this. However saying that, I’d bet that those same experienced players would also agree that A Realm Reborn is a short loved experience. It’s joys are merely skin deep and pass by very fast - typical of MMO's made within the last 5-8 years.

I started playing MMO’s back in 1999 and I remember the sense of pride I’d have in working together with other players in simply earning a level, unlocking a job, an airship pass, a rank, that new piece of equipment or finally saving enough money to buy one, and my favourite of all, reaching that location that was once far beyond your reach due to dangerous mobs. You could see yourself growing and becoming stronger. It was a fantastic gaming experience because we all came together; sometimes I’d play with the same group but I would regularly play with new people too. We all benefited from our time together and got to know the community as a whole by building reputation.

FFXI epitomised this feeling and made it its core feature. Now I’m not for one moment saying the game was perfect, it wasn’t, it certainly left me frustrated many times waiting for a party in lower Jeuno, or having certain jobs finding it incredibly difficult to get an invite due to balance issues. But a lot of these issues could have been prevented if the game had a more pro-active development team that wasn’t so archaic and terrified of making decisions and changes.

Meeting up with people for the first time, travelling to locations, setting up tactics for the fight and getting used to enemies where all parts of each gaming session. Just travelling on its own had to be carefully planned out; did I bring everything I needed? Do I have the right subjob? Is there enough space in my inventory, did I check my moghouse? You had to plan things because it wasn’t easy or cheap coming all the way back. These simple things made the pace of the game change dramatically. People have a tendency to jump on this saying it’s awful, but I really don’t think so. You got used to it, you played more carefully, and you looked at and expected things differently than you do from today’s MMOs.

Each and every member of the group had their own specialised area that was vital for the fluency of the party. You couldn’t wing anything otherwise you’d get punished by the mob. Did the WHM have raise up? These small decisions had big consequences. The game was setup so that you HAD to join with people to progress; this meant that everyone was on the same page. Everyone knew that because life wasn’t perfectly free giving in Vana’diel (unlike new MMO’s) we all needed to work together. Obviously you had the occasional idiot, but that’s commonplace in most MMO’s. The good thing about FFXI was that these people, the whiners, the elitists and the down-right morons were weeded out by the CORE requirements of having to co-operate with people.

Because it did take time travelling, setting up parties and between combat, it gave you time to converse, get to know people and have a laugh. It wasn’t at all about being rushed through something on a “speed-run” or moaned at for taking the time to talk... all of which I'm experiencing from FFXIV after having recently come back to it.

Alongside the gradual levelling scale was the equipment factor. Nothing was given to you; you had to earn your equipment through knowing how to earn money, which while not difficult, did require some planning and know how. This lowered the pace of the game aswell, but at the same time, you could also resell your equipment so your low earnings weren’t a complete gameplay stopgap, it made you THINK about what you were buying/selling and to plan ahead. And it made purchases feel like they were something tangible instead of something that's going to be NPC'd or discarded from your inventory. Obviously FFXI had a lot of problems regarding the economy, mostly due to horrible inflation created by free-running RMTers blowing up the market. But again, this was another area that could have been managed so much better by a development and GM team that actively managed the economy instead of passively watching it die.

The point I’m trying to make with this post is that there is NOTHING WRONG with a game that takes on a more gradual/shallow progression gradient. On the few occasions this topic has been brought up in my FFXIV FC chat and some of us talk about our good times back in FFXI, there is always someone who puts up the argument “Yeah but you can quickly reach level cap here and meet end game” and it’s exactly that outlook in MMO’s that is ruining the genre. MMO isn’t an abbreviation for “endgame” the journey reaching a top level should be the main focus accompanied by the community.

Meeting people, getting to know them through co-operation, having experiences together and both helping each other is KEY to the genre. It’s the entire point of it; it’s not an MMO anymore if the game doesn’t do these things. What’s happening in FFXIV is that whenever you want to party up it means you need to go on a dungeon run, which 99% of the time is via the Duty Finder. Now that’s fine but the problem is, unless your friend or FC members need that specific dungeon or something from it, then you’re going to be playing with people that you’re likely never going to see/play with again because it pairs up randomly with people from all servers. So how are you supposed to build a great community, friendship and trust between players when throughout most of your core gaming experience you’ll mostly play with complete strangers from other servers? The only way, it seems, to make this happen is if you create a static which completely nullifies the point of your gaming experience being casual because you’ve then got to play by a rigid time slot and it creates cliques in FC’s and leaves other people out of your “community” Free Company to fend for themselves for the majority of their playtime. Yes you can argue that this goes on in other games and that those people can make their own friends, but the point I’m making is that if everyone is soloing and using the Duty Finder, then good luck meeting new players and forming lasting bonds.

I long for a game that is a cross between FFXI and FFXIV. In that it shares its core values and focus with FFXI but it has the modern technical improvements of FFXIV and its dynamic development team who are fantastic. If this game is ever made, I’ll be all over it. I’ll play it for 8+ years like I did FFXI and no doubt make friendships and bonds that will last a lifetime, as I have in FFXI and other MMOs that came before (or just after) it. As it stands, these things don’t happen in FFXIV because there’s just no time for it to happen. Everyone is rushing to meet something, hit some goal and because of this the community is really quite awful. It’s not just me but others too that are complaining about the attitude that people have at the endgame regarding ilvl. Countless times people are rude, ragequit, moaning about people not meeting their ilvl epeen. It’s a completely un-enjoyable situation.

If its not completely obvious already (:P) I'm thinking of quitting the genre outright, at least for a good 4-5 years because I just can't see a future for it. Time and time again I come back, check out a new MMO that's supposed to be the next greatest thing, and I find myself staring at something I played 7 years ago. I just think they're all missing the point. Surely there can be room for both casual online games and my ideal MMO. What are the chances of this ever happening?