An interesting tidbit from the MMO hype of the day

[Psycoprophet.8107]

@Kurowolfe.7124 said:Well, from what I understand, FFXIV recently increased the FtP level cap from 35 to 60, and opened up the first expansion Heavensward for free play as well, possibly to pull in more players. It certainly is a lucrative aspect for me, since I actually played FFXIV FtP a bit because I wanted to follow my friends who left GW2 and went to do raids there instead.

But when I remember just how lonely I felt trying to level up my Mi'qote Pugilist in Ul'dah and its surrounding areas with almost no player chatter in the world map, with my 'friends' nowhere in sight to help despite them asking me to level up quickly so that we can do the end-game raids together, I stopped myself. FFXIV has a very interesting story from what I played so far (level 25) yes, and even the small sidequests and FATEs you find seem interesting, but oftentimes you almost have no interaction with anyone else at all, since the game focuses more on end-game content (almost exclusively raids, I never even knew it has a PvP lol). The supposed 'mentor' icons around just sit there and do nothing.

GW2 is different, it felt more lively in PvE, at least in Central Tyria's hubworld anyway. I started FtP as well, and there's always something happening around when leveling. Map, and even say chatter, is usually there. You can ask questions, and usually you can get a good answer and guide, amidst all the troll answers. I'm surprised that Queensdale still has a few mentor tags running around even after that exodus from that one MMO game some time ago, welcoming new players and doing guild recruitment. Other starter maps also usually have some people running around no matter what time, usually willing to help in doing quests together. The community has changed probably for the worse within the 4 years I've been playing, but it's still welcoming and lively. It's one main strength that GW2 has over FFXIV I feel; the sense of community even within the starter and hub areas.

I ended up falling down the WvW hole, and I have made my points on what I experience and feel in the 2-3 years I've been doing it in a post before. It's not great, but the sense of community, while dying, is still there. I usually log on just to meet up with my guildmates and some servermates and chat nonsense or catch up on news while we fight others. I also usually like reading whatever nonsense that is in the teamchat and mapchat, whether it be drama, rant or even goofiness. I never felt alone in there; it's probably the reason why I stuck on with it despite WvW in general being stuck in a rut and being shafted aside. And if it fails, I can always return to doing map completion, where there'll be people around as well.

Side note: another thing I like about GW2 more than FFXIV is the player character races. In FFXIV, you get 8 different kind of humans that barely any different from one another (except the Lalefell, which really bugs me since they look like they would attract a very deviant sort of crowd). GW2 at least has more variety in builds, even if humans and norn are pretty much the same, and sylvari being 50/50 human with plant skin and hair. The other races are more varied as well (hoping for tengu or even skritt playable race lol)

Hmmmm strange every starting zone and town are on my server is flooded with tones of players constantly, infact I have a queue every time I log. Dungeon etc are a big part that put u with 4+ players and sometimes 20+ for certain trials so imo ur almost forced into party play. I always see others running around in maps and free companies always having discussions in chat and asking me.bers for advice and assistance in dungeon, raids etc, weird u felt lonely, that sucks.

[Psycoprophet.8107]

@Kurowolfe.7124 said:Well, from what I understand, FFXIV recently increased the FtP level cap from 35 to 60, and opened up the first expansion Heavensward for free play as well, possibly to pull in more players. It certainly is a lucrative aspect for me, since I actually played FFXIV FtP a bit because I wanted to follow my friends who left GW2 and went to do raids there instead.

But when I remember just how lonely I felt trying to level up my Mi'qote Pugilist in Ul'dah and its surrounding areas with almost no player chatter in the world map, with my 'friends' nowhere in sight to help despite them asking me to level up quickly so that we can do the end-game raids together, I stopped myself. FFXIV has a very interesting story from what I played so far (level 25) yes, and even the small sidequests and FATEs you find seem interesting, but oftentimes you almost have no interaction with anyone else at all, since the game focuses more on end-game content (almost exclusively raids, I never even knew it has a PvP lol). The supposed 'mentor' icons around just sit there and do nothing.

GW2 is different, it felt more lively in PvE, at least in Central Tyria's hubworld anyway. I started FtP as well, and there's always something happening around when leveling. Map, and even say chatter, is usually there. You can ask questions, and usually you can get a good answer and guide, amidst all the troll answers. I'm surprised that Queensdale still has a few mentor tags running around even after that exodus from that one MMO game some time ago, welcoming new players and doing guild recruitment. Other starter maps also usually have some people running around no matter what time, usually willing to help in doing quests together. The community has changed probably for the worse within the 4 years I've been playing, but it's still welcoming and lively. It's one main strength that GW2 has over FFXIV I feel; the sense of community even within the starter and hub areas.

I ended up falling down the WvW hole, and I have made my points on what I experience and feel in the 2-3 years I've been doing it in a post before. It's not great, but the sense of community, while dying, is still there. I usually log on just to meet up with my guildmates and some servermates and chat nonsense or catch up on news while we fight others. I also usually like reading whatever nonsense that is in the teamchat and mapchat, whether it be drama, rant or even goofiness. I never felt alone in there; it's probably the reason why I stuck on with it despite WvW in general being stuck in a rut and being shafted aside. And if it fails, I can always return to doing map completion, where there'll be people around as well.

Side note: another thing I like about GW2 more than FFXIV is the player character races. In FFXIV, you get 8 different kind of humans that barely any different from one another (except the Lalefell, which really bugs me since they look like they would attract a very deviant sort of crowd). GW2 at least has more variety in builds, even if humans and norn are pretty much the same, and sylvari being 50/50 human with plant skin and hair. The other races are more varied as well (hoping for tengu or even skritt playable race lol)

Hmmm I've never noticed poor animations while moving and I'm picky, even so skill animations are still far better than gw2 by a mile. Your right though gw2 has great combat mechanics and a dodge where as ff14 gives u skills that u time to evade attacks or aoe's in form of dashes and backward leaps etc. I'd say combat style is just different style between the two but yeah gw2 is definitely a better match for pvp. U also mention healers as tanks as a sustain issue which in gw2 yeah would be crazy, some classes in gw2 are close but prob is those classes in gw2 that are high sustain like healers also hit like the dps classes in ff14 lol wheres as a dps class in ff definitely out dps a healer but cant sustain like the healer so od say even if healers sustain may be a bit to high I'd still prefer classes have a role and not the gw2 all classes can do all philosophy anet tried and failed at delivering.Ff14 pvp is trash, its combat style doesn't work well in pvp, but pve I find it great as well as the whole pve experience where as imo gw2 has one of the most boring mundane pve experiences and story's but good pvp, unfortunately anet devs keep destroying it further ur after yr so it's no surprise its pvp population problem.

[Aeolus.3615]

@"Dawdler.8521" said:AoC is dead on arrival - it has a $15 a month subscription fee. Will probably get a large following the first couple of months due to hype true, then it'll die out within 6 months. GW2 really isnt its competition there, WoW is and yeah... you know... like trying to topple a building with your face. Even if its an incredibly good game, the sub fee will instantly stop it going viral, sort of speak.

Regarding the fluidity, well thats because GW2 has always gotten the fundamentals right (throughout both expansions) even if its not the most "advanced" game around feature wise. Many newer game sort of focus on the latter so they can "compete" and forget the former. For me personally it can be incredibly tiny things that annoy me, most notably the care and attention to animations, how they feel connected to the 3D world. Just something as simple as a characters legs moving too slow or too fast compared to the percieved speed of your character can instantly take me out of a game.

That's what i fear with ashes of creation with it will be monthly fee as well, its a pve game with WVW node system :\ looks and plays excelent atm on alpha stage(i was in one) but its from a from a guy that was tired of current mmo's due their awfull/idiotic balance or p2w.even pve role playing players suposely will/can help the pvp players defending the sieges to their city, while performing events, thos eplayers can also run a tavern in the city.