I'm glad its free to play, its a good game, worth the price of it. However I won't be playing it long after I hit 80.
^ this is my problem.
Its that the leveling aspect isnt nessarly the fun stuff... I dont want to play one mmorpg get max level then leave it for another mmorpg in a endless spiral of just questing/leveling up (each time in a new mmorpg).
I want a mmo that ll last me a few years.
Apparently thats to much to ask these days. Your right when you say the good old days, I never really appreciated how good ffxi was until I stopped playing it and started playing other mmorpgs.
Which makes me all the more angry that squresoft f***ed up ff14, when ff11 was so good... which brings me back to this:
New doesnt always mean better.
Sometimes the old saying "if it ain't broke dont fix it" really does make more sense.
Squresoft should just have made a new version of FF11, instead of throwing out everything people loved about the orginal.
(apparently they wanted to get more players, by copying WoW, makeing it a more casual friendly game. Result? = clusterf*** of a game)
GW2 dynamic events system, downscaleing of levels in area's, removal of holy trinity,
and their item system, no real endgame, still has to proove itself.
@
imaheadcase
In FFXI (11) there where weapons that took year's of effort to make.
Apocalypse (scythe) (relic):
DMG: 103
Delay: 513
Accuracy +20
To make this weapon you had to:
Do a dynamis run and get a rare drop.
Dynamis's you have to do this with a huge alliance, and it costs alot (but earned back), 2 pr week max.
Then you needed to upgrade that Sycthe with rare item drops from various Dynamis runs (from non typical faught boss's inside the dynamis's)
The part about makeing back most of the cost, of doing a dynamis run, has to do with the currency that drops inside these runs (that are usually kept by the guild bank (to pay for the runs, he/she sells these)). Who buys these currencys? the people upgradeing these insane weapons.
Its a 5 step process of upgrade's, with like 14 differnce items, tons of currency, and hard boss fights you ll need a alliance to help you with.
At the end of all that? maybe a year into the game. You earn a weapon that has a unique skin, new weapon skills (powerfull) and higher base stats than most weapons ect. It shows you have devotion to the game, to the classs/character your playing.
Its something that most people never accomplish because they cant stay focused/devoted enough to grind out, get the help they need to accomplish the task. You know what? things like that make the game great. Every server would have a few people with these items, that would reach "legendary server status". Everyone would know their names ect, you d look up to the guilds that could do tasks like this.
It wasnt just the item(s) though, it was the area's access (you needed to do storyline missions to unlock area's), unlock job traits/skills, unlock weapon skills.
And even when you where at max level, there was still exp grind, because you could grind exp points and use to upg class specific "merit points" (Hp/MP,ability points,weapon skill levels,defensive skills levels, magic, other, weapon skills, and 2 class specific groups of skills unique to each class)
So the game never really "ended", there was always something to do.
Also there wasnt just 1 type of raid, there where like 20 differnt types of endgame experiances that all gave differnt types of items that served one use or another.
To compair that Apocalpyse scythe to another more "typical" used scythe:
Death Scythe DMG: 97
Delay: 528 Additional Effect: HP Drain
Everyone would get a Death Scythe for cheap on the auction house (if they played a DRK).
If you wanted better you had to work for it, some where kinda close to the apocalypse,
which made it a huge investment to be that last bit better than everyone else. I never would have gotten one, but I like the option that games have something like that in it, something to reach for.