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Final Fantasy XIV has exceeded 10 million registered accounts worldwide
- Thread starter DKHF
- Start date
Legion is the best WoW has been in forever, but it's still pretty flawed. I played casually from right before Legion launch to November, then from March to May with the Broken Shore content and unlocked flying, got my item level up, and did a little PvP.
- The expansion's areas are designed for flying, but the process to unlock flying sucks. It's IRL time-gated (unless they changed Suramar rep since I quit in May). Locking something so essential behind a long, grindy, uninteresting gated questline is just nonsense.
- RNGesus the Game. When certain legendaries have a major effect on class performance, the RNG is pretty much unlivable. I mean, my son took ages to get his first legendary. I had four across three characters in that same time, with less content done. It's a drag.
- Classes are really dumbed down, both in talents and rotation. I had six 110's. The only one that was interesting to play mechanically even a little was demo lock. Glyphs are basically gone. Class trees offer very little variety.
- The engine is straining to deal with the new additions and areas. I have worse performance in WoW, ugly as it is, than I do in FFXIV (GTX1080 Ti and 980 Ti).
- Everything prior to level 98/100 is just throwaway content. The leveling experience is utter trash.
There was still some quality stuff. I liked the mechanics of actually playing the game. Having a faster global CD is enjoyable. There's more variety with healing and tanking compared to FFXIV. World quests and mythic dungeon/key systems are a quality addition. It's easy to gear up even playing casually, which is awesome for me at this point in life. Farming mounts and transmogs is addictive.
Compared to Final Fantasy Legion feels dated. The story and characters were a mistake. Suramar questline was ok but nothing close to say post-HW main story quests. The visual and audio design of XIV is superior in every way. Fight design in XIV is a bit better, though I think combat is kind of a wash because of the slower GCD.
I agree with this. FFXI had these awesome esoteric jobs. FFXIV the jobs are boring. They really messed up the pet jobs. Scholar and summoner are just... no. WoW has better pet classes than FFXIV. On the other hand, XIV's focus is class balance. In XI there is not and never was class balance.
Blizzard doesn't release sub numbers anymore either. P2P MMO subs are way down across the board I'm afraid.
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
Nope, tried three times to get into it, the slow GCD kills it for me. And the story for ARR is boring af, people keep saying Heavensward is a lot better in that regard tho.
Also, every playable race is a human-like or the cute small arquetype being is a huge No in my book.
royox
Member
For me it's the boss battles. They are SO DAMN GOOD and memorable with awesome music, cinematic phase swaps, active time events like the main tank RULES OF NATUREEE!'ing Susanoo's big-as fuck-sword.
https://youtu.be/g-ZnnMleRQY
Bosses feel like what they are: BOSSES. Oh and also the lack of hand holding addons like DBM. Wanna clear the boss? Git gud, learn it, improve your reaction time and beat it.
Gunslinger
Member
10 mil registration don't mean much in a P2P game. How many subs? WoW had 12 mil just sub at one point.
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
and 100 million registered accounts IIRC
royox
Member
Yeah, like 6 years ago, I even played during that period. What about now?
10M accounts for a Japanese P2P MMO is a big deal in a world where only WoW managed to stay alive with a sub-only model. Not even Star Wars could keep itself alive without a f2p option and changing the whole game idea.
Gunslinger
Member
SWTOR was a bad game and not fit for a MMO. Not surprised it went f2p in less than a year. I was there at launch. My server would have like 20 players on fleet during prime-time.
I disagree, I think it's newsworthy to know how much the amount of total accounts that have registered to the second most (or one of the most) popular active MMO has increased. It would be more interesting to know how many are active subscribers but it's still somewhat interesting to learn exactly how many people have registered accounts since Square Enix last gave out a number (6 million announced in July 2016).
Wow is lightning in a bottle, it's pretty disingenuous to treat it like the standard when there are only 2 p2p mmos on the market and in the context of past p2p games. It has been long established that nothing has or will ever topple it, it is entrenched as a universal icon among mmo fans. XIV is impressive in its success not only despite that context but in the face of its own failed 1.0 launch. 10m is a good milestone to hit for any mmo that isn't WoW.
For those complaining about the slow GCD, there are multiple abilities to use that are off the global CD that can make some jobs pretty hectic to play optimally while doing mechanics, unless you are the type to just mash buttons with no thought.
For those complaining about the slow GCD, there are multiple abilities to use that are off the global CD that can make some jobs pretty hectic to play optimally while doing mechanics, unless you are the type to just mash buttons with no thought.
10 million registered users isn't a millestons, it's pointless PR to give the false impression that the game is massive. It isn't.
Especially when the game was part of a humble bundle at least once or twice.
Sold boxes is far more interesting (or the number or users who paid at least one month of gametime).
Especially when the game was part of a humble bundle at least once or twice.
Sold boxes is far more interesting (or the number or users who paid at least one month of gametime).
It's PR to make the game look a lot more popular than it is but I don't see how that makes it a useless statistic for people who care about the (rough, discarding likely a not THAT large amount who registered multiple times) number of people that have ever been interested in this game enough to register. There is a middle ground between "X statistic is very interesting and tells us how much money is being made" and "X statistic is completely useless garbage that should never be recorded or reported anywhere!!1!" and I think this falls in it.
It's useless because it means absolutely nothing
Nada
Zilch
It gives no perspective on how the game's playerbase/population actually is.
Niceguydan8
Member
The number just shows how many people have played the game to any extent cumulatively. If you don't find use in that, fine. Some people might find that interesting.
Just because a number is given that you aren't interested in knowing doesn't meant it's a useless number overall. It only means nothing to you because it's in the context of the number you actually want.
So because it doesn't represent the most interesting information but gives us an idea of something else that some would find interesting it is absolutely useless to know, record or discuss anywhere? That doesn't seem like a constructive approach.
Eorzea is a better Ivalice in every single way.
More varied locations, sexier races, our Judges don't die in under two cutscenes and no Vaans to speak of.
Great post, not critiquing anything else you said, but I did want to draw attention to the fact that scaling content is (IMO) the best thing to happen to WoW in forever and technically all leveling content just goes on to become end game content. You're given a ton of freedom to decide how you want to engage with the expansion.
Being able to play through well thought out zone at your own pace, without fear of taking too long or missing out on exp, is something MMOs in general need if they're going to embrace the theme park school of design.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately as well, but I am hoping for a sale on pc version before I pull the trigger.
PshycoNinja
Member
Pretty good post but I just wanted to draw attention to this particular point. In XIV's case, every new area is much better to fly in then run across, as some areas are entirely too large and are a pain to get across. The fact that you don't unlock flying in an area until you complete the MSQ in the area, complete a dozen or so side-quests, and go searching for a bunch of aether currents really dampens the experience of being in that area. Especially because once you complete the MSQ in any particular area why would one go back to any one area unless you are a gatherer?
After I unlocked flying in most of the areas in SB I never flew there because I never had a reason to go back there and fly around an area I worked a while to get flying in.
It isn't a milestone according to your arbitrary dogma, sure. The actual sub is probably closer to 450k, and to my knowledge the game has always hovered around that count outside of early expansion launches. Any PR is going to be fluffed, but some past p2p mmos would have loved to boast they had 10m registered accounts free trial or not. I guarantee WoW has done similar PR.
Niceguydan8
Member
A dozen or so sidquests? That seems to be on the high end from what I remember. I seem to remember there being <6 quest related aethers in every area, but I could be mistaken.
I think the best reasons for flying revolve around gathering, FATE grinding, or sidequests. How important that is varies by person, though. I don't gather at all so I don't have use for it in that regard.
PshycoNinja
Member
It's nice to have, but I am the same as you I don't really use it as much as I would like and feels like I put quite a bit of time in to unlock it for nothing. Not going back and doing SQ because they are not that great at all. At this point I dungeon grind to level secondary classes. Because dungeons and trails are much more fun.
I remember the Azim Steppe being the worst offender and having at least 10. Also didn't help that the area was so large it made doing side-quests a big, big pain.
Different strokes and all that. There is a ton of lore and mini arcs in the sidequests. Notably Azim Steppe's tribe dynamic and the Ruby Princess arc in Ruby Sea.
PshycoNinja
Member
I did my best to read up on all the side quests and care about them, but around level 65 I gave up caring and found the sidequest stories super uninteresting. The most interesting one I recall is the Ruby Princess one, but even that one was a bit of a slog for me personally.
You really didn't play XI right?
XI areas were generally bigger than HW ones, and there were no flying mounts. FFXIV areas are still too small if you ask me (didn't play SB so I dunno about that, but HW areas weren't that big and ARR was straight claustrophobic).
I agree with the second though, they really need to put interesting shit in areas. FFXIV may aswell be PSO styled game with it''s current endgame system.
PshycoNinja
Member
You really didn't play XI right?
XI areas were generally bigger than HW ones, and there were no flying mounts. FFXIV areas are still too small if you ask me (didn't play SB so I dunno about that, but HW areas weren't that big).
I agree with the second though, they really need to put interesting shit in areas. FFXIV may aswell be PSO styled game with it''s current endgame system.
I only played up to level 20 in XI. So I always assume I didn't get the "real experience" of XI. I would've kept going but now I just don't have that sort of time anymore. :/
Edit: Found the picture of the point in SB where I went, "Why do I care about these sidequests?"
Dreamwriter
Member
Thats kinda the point - the areas are purposely designed in such a way to be much more annoying to traverse by foot than by flying, so that when you finally unlock flying, you really feel how cool and useful it is, and can now explore lots of areas that were inaccessible without flying. And they make sure there are plenty of quests in the areas after flying is unlocked, to give you a lot of time using it. In fact, Yanxia kinda went overboard with you flying back and forth over and over again between the town and an outpost at a corner of the map (or more realistic - flying to the outpost and then teleporting back). You get quite a lot of flying time doing all the quests in the area.
PshycoNinja
Member
Unless your interested in doing side-quests or gathering, flying is useless once the last MSQ in any particular area gives you the last aether current. How I play is I go for unlocking dungeons and trials to play, so once the MSQ is over in an area I do not return unless there is something I have to get there to unlock a dungeon, raid, or trial. Like I said, Azim Steppe is the worst offender of it. Some area's you do return to like Yanxia, that is true. But other than the two areas you return to, acquiring flying after the fact is rather pointless.
Niceguydan8
Member
Well, there's a difference between flight in those areas serving you no purpose and actually being pointless though, isn't there? It seems like you're kind of saying "Flying is pointless if you aren't doing the things it's useful for."
It would be useful for grinding FATEs while in a DPS dungeon queue.
Dreamwriter
Member
I guess thats true, if you are skipping most of the games content then flying is kinda pointless. Its very obviously designed around doing most of the quests in a zone.
Speaking of side quests, it's not like FFXV was any better. That game had really awful side quests. It looks like FFXV team burrowed the boring quests from FFXIV and called it a day.
PshycoNinja
Member
That's a fair assessment of what I said even if that is not what I meant by it. Flying is highly useful for the, at times, areas that are too large for ground traversal. When you get flying after doing the most important things in an area deflates that a bit.
Maybe a single side-quest chain that takes you all across the map so you can have the ability to acquire it early so you can put it to use for MSQ and other important side-quests would be more useful to players like myself.
Edit:
I'm not talking about FFXV. But good on you to bring it up out of nowhere.
LordKasual
Banned
The Azim Steppe climax is one of the best moments in FF history
Shit like that simply does not happen in mainline FF games anymore
PshycoNinja
Member
That climax was a MSQ, and it was...okay I guess... XIV has had much better moments than that IMHO.
What I was talking about was the side-quests. Like gathering chickens, picking up pebbles, and milking sheep...
LordKasual
Banned
oh, that is never fun.
The most fun I get out of XIV's quests are honestly in dialogue and lore. But no MMO really has fun sidequests.
King Gilga
Member
I know a lot of people myself included who bought the game on a sale but never subbed fast the free month. Oh I guess there's the free trial too.
The story is nothing to write home about, the lore isn't simply as interesting as WoW, ESO or even Guild Wars.
The long cinematic before Heavensward was cool I admit, but voice acting was atrocious and it was hard to take the Lalafell bad guy seriously.
I remained unimpressed by the story but I only made it to the the early stages of Heavensward. Post-ARR was bad as fuck, though.
The long cinematic before Heavensward was cool I admit, but voice acting was atrocious and it was hard to take the Lalafell bad guy seriously.
I remained unimpressed by the story but I only made it to the the early stages of Heavensward. Post-ARR was bad as fuck, though.
SilverArrow20XX
Walks in the Light of the Crystal
You really didn't play XI right?
XI areas were generally bigger than HW ones, and there were no flying mounts. FFXIV areas are still too small if you ask me (didn't play SB so I dunno about that, but HW areas weren't that big and ARR was straight claustrophobic).
This is false. Even the largest XI areas are dwarfed by pretty much all HW and SB zones. It's not even close. The incredibly slow walking speed did make them see pretty huge though. With the increased walking speed and the ability to call mounts at any time, it's easier to tell now.
As someone who's walked across every zone in XI countless times, I can tell you with confidence that it takes longer to walk the length of West Coerthas, and XIV's walking speed is faster. The larger XI areas are more comparable with Central Coerthas and Mor Dhona, thought the faster movements speed lets you cross those much faster.
Sammy Samusu
Member
Nice game but it devours your life. If you have lots of free time I recommend it!
I played it during my last vacation and I enjoyed it.
I played it during my last vacation and I enjoyed it.
Sparrowhawk
Member
I've been playing on and off for a few years and it's pretty enjoyable. I'm currently subbed and playing the Red Mage is a lot of fun!
I think XIV's lore is pretty amazing actually. As an example one race has a canonical dictionary just to describe their in-game naming conventions: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/61147-Roegadyn-Dictionary
The lore book they released last year is so chock full of information, art and history it's pretty incredible. It's not all obvious but there's a lot in game and a lot more that we don't even know about the world since the lore book only goes up to the end of HW. We haven't really explored the empire very much, the southern continent, most of the eastern continent, or the homelands of most of the playable races.
The story is pretty hit and miss honestly, but when I compare it to most other MMOs I'd put it up there. I'm looking forward to more since it seems to get better as time goes on, and it's already pretty good.