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Final Fantasy 14 isn't even out yet, but its players are already calling "No Fair!" The MMO is in beta, and Square Enix has decided that the game will try to balance the different time commitments of MMO players by cutting XP awards for players who are on for long periods of time.
Here's how Square explained the system on its Japanese message board:
"The main concept behind FFXIV is allowing those players with little time on their hands to play effectively, and game balance is based off of that. Furthermore, it is being designed to not give those with more time on their hands to play an unfair advantage. Because of that, systems such as Guardian’s Favor (a bonus to Guildleves) have been implemented to make leveling in the short-term easier than leveling in the long-term."
“To achieve this balance, the amount of possible skill/experience points earned after a certain period of time has a threshold. Think of it as real-life ‘fatigue’ from working at improving your skills via battle.”
The game will reward you with full XP for your first eight hours of grinding, then limit your XP for the next seven hours. After that, it's zero XP. The timer resets every week.
On the one hand, I get it -- my real life responsibilities prevent me from spending more than a couple hours a week playing an MMO, but if I did play one, I'd still want to be "competitive" within the game world. On the other hand, it seems to go against the main reason a lot of players are on MMOs: To waste a ton of time getting "better" by grinding.
In spite of the best efforts of MMO makers, I don't think these two competing play styles can ever really be reconciled. I don't see how you can make a game casual friendly without making it less hardcore. My response to not having enough time to play MMOs is to not play them -- I don't like other people that much anyway. But if I did want to play an MMO, I'm not sure I'd pick one that seemed gimped by its own leveling system.
What do you think of attempts to balance out MMO XP systems?
Source: VG247
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burritolobber
I HATE this idea! If I'm paying my own cash, I should be able to play as much as i want! This is very cruel. FF11 was for hardcore gamers who knew what they were getting into and FF14 should be the same.
partek2009
i think this is a step in the wrong direction. i think this is quite unfair to the gamers who work their asses off to become high level. it takes all the competition out of it.
The_Cadaver
First off, I find it hilarious that the devs went out of their way to cater to a demographic that wouldn't care to play their game anyway.
At any rate, I'm a firm believer in the distinction between the casual and hardcore. They shouldn't PENALIZE a player for having too much time on their hands. That's just dumb. It won't do anything to curb an addict's gaming habits, nor will it bridge the gap between the casual players and the hardcore. The addict will simply make more charcters, switch classes, or have multiple accounts or even play multiple MMOs simultaneously. The XP penalty won't improve the skill of casual gamers, or increase their interest in, or patience with, a decidedly hardcore MMO. Ultimately it's a bad idea.
...Besides, do I really want to pay a monthly fee -- only to be told how much progress I am allowed to make? Not really. The only reason an MMO subscription fee is acceptable is because of the sheer amount of gameplay hours per dollar that most good MMOs provide. I don't want the devs telling me how much I can play. A gamer should be able to decide how much play per dollar he/she gets, not the developers.
Until it's fixed, I won't bother.
If I wanted to pay more for less gameplay, I would've stuck to buying $60 titles and getting burnt out on them in the first two months.
johnnybatman
Although i find that the leveling system sounds a bit discouraging, i also think there might be some advantages. It will make questing with friends a little more balanced when one person can't find as much time as another. Also it might eliminate the race toward end game that everyone seems to go for with other MMO. I do however share the views on being competitive with the actual game play.
whatsJDMsir
I love how idiots who dont understand the system stand and outright flame it anyways. The fatigue system does restrict how fast you can take ONE class to max, but if you did take just ONE class up to max level it would be weak and useless because you havent diversified through leveling other roles. The fatigue forces you to level multiple jobs at the same time and thus making your character infinitely stronger than it would be if you just took one to max. Check out this vid it explains alot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =abE09-tqhoM
GamerDJ
I must admit that I m a bit undecided on this issue of limiting my xp gain by enforcing a time constraint upon the player. I m a vet MMO player from way back when and have played WoW and other newer MMOs lately (Which sadly have not been holding their own). Yet as I read more about it, and take more time thinking about what it means I find my mind agreeing and disagreeing with this move.
I m no hardcore player, I simply enjoy doing to many other hobbies and games to spend the time needed to be a S Rank Esper on any MMO. Yet simply hearing about a game limiting the ability to gain any more xp past a total of 15- 16 hours in a week maker my inner geek gamer flare into a massive Nerd Rage. To think that a game that requires a monthly fee would have the brass knocker to slap a gamers hand and tell them when to stop is just mind blowing. All the gamers I know would also be flippant at learning about this as well, but then again I m not willing to bash my head against the wall in an attempt to make the pain go away.
On the other hand I am a casual gamer, with maybe a little more time to spare since I m single (Ladies! *wink*). I can understand the pressures of trying to keep up with friends that are more hardcore or dedicated to achieving their goals in a MMO. Heck, I got my friend that is 10 years older then me playing WoW and she has almost got all her gear to tier 10 while I m still slinking away with my tier 8! Making a limit to leveling and advancement would make it easier and most likely keep all the scary gamers from running around naked in the streets because they already did all their raiding for the week.
At the end of it I believe I would vote for no limitations on xp and advancement though. The reasons of as a paying customer it should be our right to decide when to put the bottle down! I mean controller. Though it s a way to defend casual players, or at least that is the one reason they are giving ( *Cough* less people on servers 24/7 *cough*), having run in the game shouldn t depend so much on how much progress I ve made compared to the next bleach white nerd with the overbite and pocket protector! (ok that last part was mean, lets be honest, fat guy alone in a dark room works better!)
kyruko
This is a horribly stupid idea most if not all mmo players understand that the game will REWARD you for the amount of time you put into it not penalize you for playing more then other players or spending more time on it then other users point is were supposed to be paying what 12-14$ a month? for a game we can only play 60 hours a month or 15 hours a week the more i read about FFXIV the more i want to cancel my limited edition preorder "oh sure my computer scored a 6107 on the benchmark" but who really cares how "good" the game looks or how it plays when you cant play it as much as you want to i geuss you can say "well you can play it for 5 hours a day after you get home from work till you go to sleep" yea i can and that gives me 3 days a week to play this game before i quit and start judging why im spending 12$ a month to have a game im not playing
Fact is final fantasy totally screwed this idea its beyond stupid especially in a MMO final fantasy is falling apart the hardcore final fantasy fans saw it in FF13 when it was as linear as a pencil
and now were seeing it again in FF14 turning into a failure
i dont know mayb ill buy the new starwars mmo........even if i havnt ever cared about any of the movies
jm121876
This is a absolutely stupid idea! I have been playing MMO's for years now, and sometimes, when I'm off, I can play for 5-10 hours in a day and I know MANY MANY people that are the same way. Doing this is gonna kill this game. If it's like this at the PS3 launch, I will not be playing this game and there are thousands(+) of others just like me that will not go near it. To pay to play a game that you can only progress for 15 hours a week?! Seriously?
Square-Enix, if you actually read these forums or even care what gamers think of your games, you should seriously rethink this decision. Because, all in all, you will lose more than you will gain with this decision. I hope you listen and can either come to a compromise like make servers for the casual gamers and servers for the hardcore, that way it's fair.
Engramnigma
graphicly gorgeous game that in its current form i can only hope isnt its release version. even the casual player is going to feel somewhat alienated by one thing or another in this, wether it be the control system, ui in combat, no recipe book in game just to name a few. its as if they kept the worst features of ffxi and added even more horrible features to the list.
i went fishing after finishing the only quest(the one that you start off with from entering the world and only one i have seen) and after catching 30 fish i had to go repair all of my gear. i ended up taking all of my gear off except for the fishing tools to cut down on the cost of maintenance. saw some other people mining naked aswell.
The game is very pretty though...if you have a high-mid level machine to meet the min spec to run it..
i never actually hit a exp cap during any of the different classes, mainly because it wasnt intersting enough or accessible enough to keep me logged in for long.
ohellyeah70
This is retarded! Not only will this gimp the player base so that people can't get anything done since hardly anyone except die-hard, self diluted, fan boys will be playing, but when people actually GET a party going, as soon as someone s 8 hours of REAL exp is up, they'll bail. This is nothing more than a shameless time sink to not only stall people from getting to the cap and discovering that there is absolutely NO ENDGAME CONTENT AVAILABLE, but to keep them paying subscription fees month after month, trying desperately to get SOMEWHERE in the game.
Just think, suppose you need to get somewhere in the game that requires traversing dangerous territory to complete a quest, or get to better harvesting grounds to get materials for your crafting, you won't be able to until you level up enough to make it through there safely! And god knows how long THAT will take since your gimped by this system. So how is this actually helping anyone?
My account on FF 11 got hacked, the person bought a ton of content ID's with their own credit card, transferred one off, and left, the extra content ID's made my monthly rate go up over $50! I was playing FF 11 on Xbox 360 so I fail to see how the hacker got my info but he did, SE actually refused to remove the extra content ID's after promising to do so when I got the account back and actually told me that I would have to pay the inflated monthly fee first before they would do anything about it! After all the time and money I spent getting my character up to the level it was and they basically just gave me their butts to kiss! SE is concerned about two things: Money, and the pursuit of it. They don't care about the people who are subscribing to their service, and this system is yet more proof of the truth of my words!
ohellyeah70
This is retarded! Not only will this gimp the player base so that people can't get anything done since hardly anyone except die-hard, self diluted, fan boys will be playing, but when people actually GET a party going, as soon as someone s 8 hours of REAL exp is up, they'll bail. This is nothing more than a shameless time sink to not only stall people from getting to the cap and discovering that there is absolutely NO ENDGAME CONTENT AVAILABLE, but to keep them paying subscription fees month after month, trying desperately to get SOMWHERE in the game.
Just think, suppose you need to get somewhere in the game that requires traversing dangerous territory to complete a quest, or get to better harvesting grounds to get materials for your crafting, you won't be able to until you level up enough to make it through there safely! And god knows how long THAT will take since your gimped by this system. So how is this actually helping anyone?
My account on FF 11 got hacked, the person bought a ton of content ID's with their own credit card, transferred one off, and left, the extra content ID's made my monthly rate go up over $50! I was playing FF 11 on Xbox 360 so I fail to see how the hacker got my info but he did, SE actually refused to remove the extra content ID's after promising to do so when I got the account back and actually told me that I would have to pay the inflated monthly fee first before they would do anything about it! After all the time and money I spent getting my character up to the level it was and they basically just gave me their butts to kiss! SE is concerned about two things: Money, and the pursuit of it. They don't care about the people who are subscribing to their service, and this system is yet more proof of the truth of my words!
eticket109
Now that SE has clarified further, this story is even more inaccurate than before.
The 'threshold' as they are calling it will slowly reset on its own when you aren't getting XP. It's completely possible to have it reset within the week.
Between that process and the fact there is a separate threshold for every class, I don't see how this will be a problem for 99% of the playerbase.
amazonqueen27
The main issue I have is that you are paying a monthly fee to play limited hours. I probably will only play a few hours a week anyway but the people that put in massive hours still benefit more from this system then the people that don't play often.
Take for example the collectors edition comes out on September 22nd, the standard comes out a week later and the PS3 version comes out in March 2011. The Xbox version is still up in the air. Within the time between the standard and collectors edition coming out, someone that plays 16 hours a day will have gotten 14 classes 8 hours worth of experience in the first week. The people with the standard edition will not be able to "catch up" and the people that opt for the PS3 version will suffer even more.
I'm looking for a good first MMO to dive into and I thought this might be it, but I'm not sure there is any real balance here. For $14 a month, when I get a free moment to grind, I want to grind to try and catch up to the people that play all the time. This system effectively takes that option away from those of us that have other responsibilities and may only get a day to grind out once in a while
This was just a way for square to drag out the game play, not to benefit people that don't play often. Bad call, I think I'll try out Aion instead.
KravenDarkmyth
15 hours seems like it may be a little stringent (if it be across all jobs, crafting, etc), but I still think this is a good idea. Personally I like exploring a game rather than having some high level telling me "ya go to point A there and talk to NPC B and come back here then go there and you are all done." I played FFXI on and off since its NA release (off when the grinding became too much) and can tell you that I never explored ever part of that world. Why bother? I could just look up how to complete the quest on a wiki and go directly there and be done. Wouldn't it be fun to be one of the people who originally find out how to complete said quest on your own? Or find that first Named Monster in a certain region and beat him to find an awesome weapon you can make oodles of gil with? Or to find that ultimate leveling location that parties camp thereafter til the end of the games life?
The hardcore will complain about these restrictions but, as someone stated, they are dedicated. They will know exactly what time they begin gaining XP at and will be there at that time... and maybe even think, 'Hey, no REAL need to be there RIGHT away'. And the casual gamers won't even notice the XP restrictions most of the time. They will simply have a sense of satisfaction that they are not the lowest level character on the server right now while conversely the hardcore will be hitting the /search all command to ensure they are the top level or near to it.
I think SE has enough experience with FFXI, being the first multi-platform, multi-nation mmorpg which has been around for over 8 years, to know how to make FFXIV work. It may need a bit of retooling but what MMO doesn't at launch.
Davewesh
in my opinion i understand the idea or principle behind limiting XP gains. This wouldn't be hard to over come. Lets say you want to play traditionally so be it, get on a traditional server, no XP fatigue or anything of the sort. Lets say you want to play on a more strict regimen, get on a strict server.
Or don't split the people up; Have this 8+7 hour Xp thing on an account base. People who care enough can go into their settings and turn it off; or parents whom don't want their kids playing 24/7 (thinks of the 5 year lineage player suing PlayNC). I agree some people have the time to spend on an MMO, I used to be one of them, However getting a job paying the bills eats up a bit of the time, 8 hours a week to me isn't enough in my mind, thats just not enough. The average person who works full time watches tv 2 hours a day to begin with why not crank it up to 16 hours a week(full XP hours)[*doesn't watch Tv except for burn notice and its over till November anyhow*] 16 hours a week is more then fair for just about everyone.
TOYBOXX
Well, it's an interesting idea that just simply isn't practical. If a casual gamer was to play an MMO I'm sure they would, hopefully, look to see what other MMO games are out there. Free-2-Play is becoming more, and more popular with no requirements to play. Why pay for something that won't be used all that much? And to penalize other players because the casual gamer doesn't get on that often is just plain wrong. This decision will push the very demographic that made the Final Fanstasy a franchised MMO - the hardcore fan base.
eticket109
While the details are still sparse, they have since confirmed on the dev site that the limits are 'per class'.
It's also not based on time specifically.
They figured out what the typical xp/hour will be for a gamer and set the restriction on each class after 8 of those units are reached. It could take 6 hours, it could take 8 or it could take 20.
In the beta, it was very easy to level and hit the cap. They stated that the overall exp gain at release would be lower and more balanced.
In the long run, this may not end up being much of an issue at all and will encourage people to level multiple classes or crafts.
We'll have to see if what they say holds up on release though.
HazelrahFiver
This is an inane idea for one reason: Having high level players was the best way to learn about, and play the game. I mean seriously, you get into a Linkshell or a Party with people who are knowledgeable about what to expect and what to do, and you have a much better time playing (the majority of the time.)
Besides, does SE really believe that there still won't be gaps between the players? Even the casual and hardcore that begin the game at the same time will slowly separate, and there's no correcting the obvious gaps for those players that get into the game late (like when the PS3 version is released in 2011.)
Animatorkid
So wait, S.E went from developing monsters that took a week to spawn and monsters in sea which forced players to spend a straight day trying to kill. Not to mention the huge amounts of hours waisted sitting in Quifim or Valkum for parties. To only allowing players a certain number of exp til he is capped and has to wait an entire week to level. Talk about not making a lot of sense, I am all for gearing it down a bit compared to the previous MMO but this is just way to drastic,
Forget me if I am wrong, but aren't we paying to play this game. Personally I am not paying for this game so it can sit for a week before I am "allowed" to play it.
Bast500
Its a ridiculous system to implement in an MMO. I understand that we all have different lives and time schedules, but to penalize those who can play massive hours a week is stupid. Now of course simple-minded people can say "Get a life loser, dont play MMOs" but that is just being ignorant, what about disable people who can't work but can play video games at home, or retiree people who worked all their life already and would like to play an game the way they want or even the fortunate people who won the lotto and decided not to waste the majority of their lives into a cubicle working for some big corporation. Point is we can't judge people based on the amount of free time they chose to invest in a video game.
I understand the casual gamer side of the argument however, yes most MMOs are ruled by those who have more time on their hands and less real life responsibilities, but punishing the "hardcore" is not the way to go. There is plenty of MMOs out there that found ways to reward the casual players like Age of Conan where you gain "off-line levels" by being off-line, it accumulates the time where you're offline and once it reaches 72hrs you get a free level on your character. There is plenty of ways to help the more casual gamers to keep up, penalizing the hardcores however is not one of them.
And to reply to those who say "well just play another game, duh" let me just say that when we purchase a game for full price and then pay a subscription fee of 15$/month it is because we have the intention of making this game our "main game" and mostly only play that game, otherwise nobody would pay the monthly fee.
Now i know this is G4 and most of the readers play FPS games (no judging i also love FPS) and when you see "MMO" you have a hard time seeing things from our perspective. Lets say... that Bungie or Activision or Dice decided to put a timer on how long you get to play as Recon/Sniper and that once you reach that limit you're force to either not play or change to medic or use a different gun. How pissed-off would you be? (Yes, i know less annoying snipers might sound good, but the point im trying to make is, how would you like it if the game dictated what class or what gun you can and can't use?)
Its unfortunate that SE will release FF14 with that ridiculous system, I've played FFIX for many years and i was looking forward to FF14, but i have canceled my pre-order. I'll give my money to games who respects all their fans, the casuals as well as the hardcores.
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