3 replies to this topic

[mven]

FFXIV is soon to release (Sept 22 for CE Preorder, Sept 30 for everyone else). Bonedead pointed out they are adding in an exp cap. After doing a little research it sounds like you can make up to 8 hours a week of normal exp, then you lose about 10% exp an hour for the next 7 hours of exp. After that you make zero exp. I have read about 2 or 3 posts from people who actually seem to like this. Everyone else seems to hate it. Personally it sounds retarded but then I game a lot more than 15 hours a week.

From what it sounds like, they seem to be doing this to maintain "fairness" across the board for folks who can't play more. To me it just sounds like their endgame sucks and they have nothing for people to do if they blast through to max level. This also seems like a weird approach coming from the folks who created arguably the most hardcore PvE experience in any MMO in FFXI. I'm sure square fanboys will be doing their damnedest to suck some mad FF cock regardless of how bad it tastes, but will this cause a massive loss of subscriptions from people looking for an alternative to the 80 hours a week they spend playing WoW? Or will it magically make FFXIV a super hit for the ultra casual crowd who only play 4 hours a week?

Right now you have similar gated advancement in most MMOs through raid lockouts, daily and weekly quests, and limited point gains (WoW arenas). These always irritated the fuck out of me because having a job, my biggest chunk of free time tends to come on weekends and if I have no plans (and being a gaming nerd I rarely have plans) I will sometimes game as much on saturday and sunday as I do the entire rest of the week combined. So being limited by some arbitrary "daily" or even worse "weekly" lockout in areas I might want to advance can be annoying. For instance I want to run a heroic dungeon to get a drop, I don't have time to do it all week, so my only chance is on the weekend. Instead of being able to do it 7 times in the 7 hours I play, I can only do it once. Had I instead played 1 hour a night every single night I would have had 7 chances. Etc etc.

That said, no one has a 100% lockout on advancement. The closest thing I can think of is in EVE where you have no real control over how fast you learn skills. You train at the same speed whether you or in game or out so pouring massive amounts of time into playing will not net you skills any faster. Of course in EVE you have tons of advancement in terms of making money and buying shiny things that you can take part in while waiting for your skill ups. Will FFXIV offer similar advancement in terms of farming gear or making money crafting while your exp gain is on cooldown? I don't know. I certainly hope so. If not I guess I will just roll another character in WoW or finish levelling in Champions or something and shelve FFXIV until they have a more reasonable advancement system in place. *shrug*

[Snuggs]

After doing a little research it sounds like you can make up to 8 hours a week of normal exp, then you lose about 10% exp an hour for the next 7 hours of exp. After that you make zero exp. I have read about 2 or 3 posts from people who actually seem to like this.

That's the gheyest pinko commie thing I've ever heard that's been done to an MMO.

[mven]

Yeah I am pretty sure it is a slap in the face to every god fearing American!

[mven]

Well, I can say one thing about FFXIV and that's "THANK GOD FOR OPEN BETAS". Totally cancelled my preorder after about 10 minutes of that bullshit. Yay for yet another potentially amusing PC game ruined by having a control set based and play style tailored for consoles. In laymens terms, the controls suck and the gameplay is paced so retards could play it without much effort. Thank you Square-Enix for giving me advanced warning so I am not out 160$. I love you guys.