This times a thousand. FFXIV where to even start? That game is exhausting. Played it a few years ago. At the end of each expansion, they make you do hundreds of trivial busy work quests before letting you play the next expansion. These quests are terrible and add nothing of substance. Talk about gatekeeping. Their fanbase defends it as anime like filler, and make you out to be a bad person if you don’t like it. Okay, I hate anime so there’s that.
I would summarize it as exhausting and punitive design. People just fawn over the writing and while it seems technically sound it’s also boring, dry, predictable, and confuses epic with simply being theatrical.
This is what you are saying, to summarize it very quickly
But here’s the problem… they are focusing on two entirely different things, and WoW isn’t a RPG for the same reason why Hitman isn’t - just “using RPG mechanics” when that’s not the “core gameplay loop” or what’s the “essence” of the game, its not a RPG
It is as Ronina says:
This here is the simple fact:
FF14 is a RPG, WoW isn’t
WoW is a MMO, FF14 isn’t
All you did was essentially say “You can roleplay and talk in a hub therefore its a MMO”, and by this logic you are making the argument that Splatoon is a MMO as well because “You can roleplay and talk in a hub therefore its a MMO”
I’m sorry to tell ya’ but WoW hasn’t been an RPG focused game probably since… Wrath at least, probably earlier than that to be honest
The only RPG elements WoW has had anymore have ALL been absolutely hated content because “it felt pushed and forced to do so”; legendary questlines, mechanics such as covenants, artifact weapon and farming artifact power, and other stuff like that
Those mechanics work in a RPG because that’s not the main course of the game, thus’ those systems are easy ways to add complexity, goals, and gameplay without detracting from the RPG experience because you complete an epic quest chain; you grow with your faction; and you empower your legendaries weapons and artifacts
Sorry but WoW isn’t an RPG, and FF14 isn’t a MMO - it is a modern MMO, which essentially means that “MMO” equates to “Hub world with other players running around in clashing and immersion breaking clothing” (which is also why FF14 succeeds because its Final Fantasy, there’s no such thing as ‘immersion breaking clothing’)
I’m talking about the leveling process here. In wow you can get to the required level to start the latest content however you want. You can do pvp, you can do dungeons, you can just pick herbs all day if you want. When you hit the required level, you can just go to the latest expansion and start it. No fuss.
In FF14, you are required to slog through a dull, drawn out, uninteresting MSQ before you can move on to a new expansion or levelling bracket. Even if you are at the soft level cap of your current expansion, you cannot move on to the next one until you finish the current MSQ, including all the .1 and .2 etc patch content.
I could have 5 wow characters leveled and into end game content in less time than it takes to get through the full MSQ of only ARR in ff14
??? No? That’s not even remotely the same comparison? Tales of the Borderlands is a narrative experience with absolutely no gunplay. Borderlands 2 is a full-fledged FPS ARPG. They belong to two completely different genres whereas both FFXIV and WoW are MMORPGs by definition.
FFXIV has the same exact gameplay loop as WoW. You do dungeons/trials/raids, you get gear. The harder it is, the better the gear you get. The only difference is that FFXIV has more to it than just gearing in harder versions of the same content.
FFXIV: Duty Roulette
WoW: Random Dungeon Finder
FFXIV: Trials/Alliance Raids
WoW: Raids
FFXIV: Crafting/Gathering Jobs
WoW: Professions
The problem with Ronina’s comment is that she assumes there aren’t people who do the same thing in FFXIV. FFXIV’s raiding community is huge and is a major part of the game. The only difference is that FFXIV doesn’t railroad you into it in the way WoW does.
I just want to say, the post ARR DOES pay off if you pay close attention to the dialog.
Even small seemingly pointless conversations are either foreshadowing future events or showing character development.
That entire Crystal Braves story is not only setting up the that 45 minute cutscene, it’s showing Alphinaud’s arrogance and ignorance AHEAD of his downfall.
Without that stuff, his character personality change enter Heavensward wouldn’t make sense and his personal growth in response to that event wouldn’t make sense.
You need those small interactions and downtime to tell CHARACTER stories. Otherwise you just have global events, like in WoW, and the players don’t understand why someone burns down Teldressil or any other actions.
The leveling process is just as easy compared to wow. You also have many options on how you level in comparison, if not more options. Fates, Levequests, MSQ, Blue+ quests, side quests, class/job quests, beast tribe quests, pvp, raids, trials, guild heists, dungeons, Palace of the dead… so much more options to level up my guy. And yes, you do get exp from raids.
The bunny girls look like they came straight out of waiting tables at the Playboy Club and the cat girls from a Sexy Halloween Costume competition. At least Wow’s animal-based races look for the most part as if they actually derive from the animals in question.
He learned to ‘trust but verify’, listen more closely to people with experience instead of just assuming that his intelligence will guide him the right direction, and most importantly how to cope with failure.
He’s such a glassboy that having something go wrong for him breaks his spirit and he doesn’t know how to pick himself up from it at first.
All of which are a waste of time, because the MSQ is required and gives you enough xp on its own to level up. There is no point in doing anything else besides the MSQ because if you level up to 50 via dungeons in ARR, you still have to go back and do the MSQ anyway. Like why is this so hard to understand lol.
