Hey, I'm on Palamecia, too!




WoW doesn't allow you to take Warlock Abilities, and use them on your Warrior. And yes, you only get one character, and one Retainer. But you don't need more than that, seriously. There's enough to do in FF14 that you don't need additional characters.

In 14, You can level Marauder, Pugilist, and Gladiator. Equip a shield to your gladiator gaining the Sentinel abilities, and then use the Rank 6 Marauder and Pugilist abilities on your gladiator, use the Marauder's Bloodbath ability to make yourself able to regen health with each hit, or use the Pugilist's Second Wind ability to gain a temporary Regen effect. You can't do that on WoW.

Those of us that actually roleplay, strongly disagree with that idea. :P

Maya/Rudha

Roleplaying is a want. Not a need. You don't need more than one character to experience all the aspects of the game. You want more than one character for different roleplaying experiences. And if that's your cup of tea, pay the extra $3.00 for an additional character slot.

Or … I could just find a better game, which lets me do that for free. Like World of Warcraft or something. If I'm going to pay money in subscription fees for a game in a market where thats becoming increasingly obsolete what with games like Guild Wars out there, then I'm going to do that for a game that actually offers me what I want.

It's worth pointing out that NOTHING in entertainment software is something you need, its all something that you want, seeing as none of it falls into 'food', 'water', or 'shelter' or you know, essentials of life kinds of thing. It's about catering to what people want, and FF games have always been heavy on story and roleplaying and whatnot, so telling people that they have to pay additional fees for additional characters is basically a shameless and soulless expression of corporate greed in trying to monetise that kind of thing.

Maya/Rudha

Guild Wars, as nice and interesting as it is, doesn't compare to MMO's because, well, that monthly subscription fee does go towards things. I don't like how in Guild Wars you only run around out-of-city with your little party. Takes away a lot of the "feel" and interestingness that WoW manages to create.

There's plenty of other examples of "free" (not really free since you still pay for the game, but no subscription fee) MMOs out there these days, Guild Wars is just the most popular (and the one I had the most fun with.)

Maya\Rudha

Well, actually you do. When there's an established market with each vendor essentially providing identical services for the same cost; you kind of have to keep up with what consumers have come to expect for the money. I've played WoW since inception and it is only recently they've attempted to nickel-and-dime people via purchasable non-combat gear (mounts, vanity pets), server transfers, re-creates, etc. I'd argue I still get a lot more value in my "base package" with WoW than FF.

Things like that aren't deal-breakers for all people as they are for me and I understand that; the gameplay may be enjoyable for some but to me it's bloated, overly complicated, and suffers from a certain cynical attempt at nickel-and-diming people. Kline has the right idea here: compared to other MMORPGs you really don't get much for the money; but I suspect that they imagine they can get away with that the moment they put the increasingly ill-chosen words "Final Fantasy" on the title.

Maya/Rudha

Regarding role playing… if you really want to role play, how better to do it than to have ONE character that is your representation in the game universe? ONE reputation that everyone else knows is you. Making alts all over the place is just a way to hide who you are and make sure you always have an out in case you annoy someone, or fail to impress them. I played plenty of paper RPG's with real face-to-face role playing, and never felt like I needed more than one persona at a time.

Regarding crafting… WoW's crafting system is a joke. Sorry, but anyone who's played SWG or EQ2 at launch will agree. WoW has a moving target market where crafters can only really profit from consumables that are used at max level. Everything else is just spending money to buy recipes and then grind out the same things until you can buy the next tier. A small percentage of what you're grinding might be useful for others ALSO grinding their way up, but it's break-even at best.

Regarding multiple charcters for non-role-playing purposes. No, you don't need more than one. Your one character literally can do everything in the game. There's ZERO point in leveling a second character, because you could instead do it on the same one you're already playing, but with less effort.

Let's say you start out as an archer. You kill stuff, you get your archery skills up to rank 5, and your physical level up to rank 6. Your physical level determines your hit points, resistances, stat bonuses, etc. Your class level determines what skills you have access to in that class. You decide to play a conjurer. No need to make a new character and kill rats again. Buy your staff and start casting spells. You still are rank 6 physical and have all the hit points and such you had before, but now you're tossing little spells at things instead of more powerful arrows.

The difference is, you aren't as frail as that second character starting from scratch. You can even mix in an ability or two from your archer if you feel it'd help. They won't be as effective as when you're in your archery mode, but you can still use them. After playing a while, you maybe have conjurer up to rank 10 and archer up to rank 8, you might have also added a couple of gathering and crafting classes. You might think it'd be fun to try playing a marauder. Go buy an axe and do it! But your new level 1 marauder has all the hit points of a level 15 character, and can mix in a cut-rate heal from the conjurer class, and a watered down root from the archer class.

Kline, it's not a question of 8 characters being a better value than 1 character. In WoW, you NEED those alts because if you roll a Paladin, you play a Paladin, done. If you feel like trying a warlock, you have NO CHOICE but to start over in the newbie zone and slog through the same thousands of quests you did before. To me, it sounds like the 1 character that can do and be everything without so much repitition wins.

But no, the game won't be for everyone. It is a niche game that will appeal to those who enjoyed older styles of gameplay, meaning you have to pay attention and work with others to get things done. Also, those who like the Final Fantasy franchise may find this game enjoyable, since it has much of the same "feel" to it.

I play WoW. I played it from a couple months after launch (I played EQ2 first), and skipped a year when Burning Crusade came out. The game gets easier and more spoon fed every day. That's not a bad thing, and there are times I enjoy just logging in to run a few instances where I really won't have to think or try very hard. A couple times a week, I do stuff with the guild that does require some effort. But I also enjoy a game where I DO have to think, and I do have to figure things out for myself, and that's part of why I like FFXIV too.

I must disagree Quix. More than one character is important for RP. Yes, you can build a reputation for one character and it will likely be fun. (I find that if others don't RP as well, it's just silly, I wish they would make an RP server)

However many people that enjoy RP also prefer variety. Perhaps one day you want to be a stubborn Elvaan man bent on conquering the world. The next you want to be a Hume woman that wants nothing more than to sell her body for a handful of gil. :wink:

The point is while they may have every available class for one character, they do not offer different races or even the ability to have a different persona, unless you want to play a character with a mental disorder which is very possible and can be great RP, though you would likely just confuse the majority of people that will only meet you very rarely.

This. WoW has varied backstories / intro questlines / minor skill differences between races. Is there anything similar in FF? I'll hand you the need not to have multiple characters just to try new classes, but races are something else.

This topic was meant to find out if anyone here was playing 14, not to debate the merits of which MMO is better. I'm glad I was able to start a thread that served it's purpose for all of 15 minutes. Like most every other thread on this site.

At least one good thing came of it, I found out Quix is on my server, and have someone to play with when the mood strikes.

*shrug*

You may now resume your pointless debate over which overpriced game is better.

@Kline

I was just making a blanket statement in defence of having multiple characters from an RP perspective. I wasn't asserting either MMO was better than the other.

I don't play any MMOs - I prefer roleplay and I generally find only MUDs are capable of giving me what I want.

EDIT: I'll add that I did try out the original FF MMO, but I found it quite lacking in what I expected. I hoped for a more FF type feel and learned I just dislike the general game play that MMOs offer.

If you want to explore different personalities, then you either need to play a schiznophrenic or more accurately someone with multiple personality behaviour disorder, or you need multiple characters. While the first route is interesting in and of itself, it's also a good way to get you labelled as madder than a shark with a can opener.

Maya/Rudha

Why should I choose only one path to the end? Multiple characters are a must as long as there's variance and choice in how you progress.

This is the kind of thinking that makes MMOs suck.

I don't normally associate role-playing with FF games at all. Of course I've never played the MMO.

@Kayle, grats! *grin*



But, there really isn't.

It's not feasable to build independant storylines from level 1 to the end for every race/class/whatever. ALL games merge these storylines, usually pretty quickly after exiting the "newbie" areas. If they didn't, the game would cost $500 + $50/month and the investors would have to be willing to wait 10 years for it to be developed. Not gonna happen.

Instead, you get a story where the bulk of it is the same for everyone playing. The individual races or classes might have minor plot lines, but they generally aren't central, and usually get wrapped into the bigger story once the character leaves the newbie area.

Of the 3000+ quests my main character has done in WoW (as a concrete example), I'd say maybe 200 or 300 were specific to the Alliance in any real way, and maybe 30 or 40 were specific to the dwarves and NOT accessible to other races. You can see that for yourself by getting a list of all quests in the game and seeing which ones you can't do. Even in the starting areas, most quests CAN be done by any race, provided you walk your butt over to their starting area to do them.

The vast majority of those quests were thin cover material wrapped over the classic 3 quest types. (1) Fetch me a spoon! (2) Kill X thingies. (3) Protect sluggard as he plods from point A to point B. I'd be willing to bet that if you removed all of those quests, and packed all the storyline material into one narrative, it'd be a 400 page novel. Something you could read in an evening or two.

But, I digress. The point is, the actual unique material that you HAVE to make an alt to see is perhaps 1% of what's given to you.

As for role-playing…. I suppose that's up to the individual. If I make an Elvaan character, I can role-play that same character more than enough different ways just by changing clothing and attitudes. I don't consider it a big deal to not also be Taru, or Hume, or whatever. If you do, then is it worth $3 a month for that luxury, considering that the base price of the game is already lower than normal? *shrug*

I don't consider the ability to have multiple characters to be added value. If a single character can access 99% of the game's content, I'd rather focus on playing that one character well, instead of dividing my time between a bunch of alts. YMMV. :)

That's probably a valid point rather reinforced by this thread, sadly.



If I ever need to waste money that much, when there's better MMORPGs that have this as a basic feature, I'll probably burn it in the fireplace at winter, at least then it would be doing something of true value.

Maya/Rudha

Heh, not my fireplace. Mine was built by people who wanted a pretty looking fireplace, not by farmhands who wanted the room to be warm. So, most of the heat goes straight up and out. :(

My grandparents used to have a nice farmhouse designed properly, with a sloped section in the chimney so the hot air heated the mantle bricks and radiated most of that heat back into the room. Their house was built before electricity was common.

Huh, I always figured properly built fireplaces were a cornerstone feature of houses, as it were, but then I do hail from the Great White North.

Maya/Rudha