Final Fantasy Forum

I played XI for somewhere around four 3-4 years. I'm willing to give this game a shot, but what will make it or break it for me isn't going to be pretty graphics, but whether or not they've learned anything from XI when it comes to endgame. XI's endgame consisted almost enirely of insane amount of camping (standing in one place for hours waiting for a monster to spawn and hope your group is the first to attack it, then pray that you get lucky on the 5% drop chance to the item, and then hope you win it) and farming. 
 
The farming was often a prelude to camping - standing in one place for hours fighting the same monster and hoping a special monster will spawn in its place next time they respawn. Again, you had to hope that you got the claim to it. After you killed that monster, you could use an item he dropped with another item obtained via the same method to spawn another monster. Kill this and use that item to spawn another monster that might drop something you ned. Sometimes you would only get part of an item and would have to combine it with an expensive item to equip it. That last bit might not sound too bad, but making any amount of money is a huge pain in the ass, so it actually kind of sucks. Keep in mind that none of this is even remotely fun or interesting after the first few times, and you  can see why I'm a little wary of 14... 
 
Please, for the love of God, get endgame right this time... I want this game to be great.

Do remember that the video is still ALPHA stage footage... still, we know so little on anything about the game.
 For me, if I do plan to get back into MMO's, it's come down to Star Wars TOR and this o.o Star Trek was just another MMO imo with the shiny Star Trek badge.... not a bad MMO, just not anything great.

Super excited for this, it is by far the most gorgeous MMO I've seen, Aion is the only thing that comes close and that is a typical Korean MMO.  Grindfest to end all grindfests.   I loved FFXI, it was my first MMO even if it was a bit grindy too (though not like Aion), and would love to see some kind of continuation of that. Also, Aion only comes closest, this still blows it away graphically.
 
It just looks a bit different too, something I haven't seen for a while in this world of WoW clones.  (Okay, EVE is different too, but I'm not a big enough jerk to play EVE).   I love the entire group being like "Ooo, Chocobo~!" at the same time.
 
@Sigue: Even in FFXI now, they mostly fixed NM camping.  Anything dropped from NMs is Rare/EX, so people only camp them if they need the item.  You can't sell the drops so people don't do it for the money anymore.  You do BCNMs if you want the drops for cash.

@Addfwyn:  NM camping was annoying, but it wasn't really that big of a problem. Most equipment gave such small bonuses that they really were a luxury item. The really good ones, like Joyeuse, were already Rare/EX. I'm not sure if you've had much experience with with Ground Kings, Sky and Dynamis, but that's the stuff that I'm talking about. They made some progress in the right direction with Limbus, Assault, ZNMs and Salvage, but the grinding mentality was still there. Campaign would have been a success if the gear was a little better and you didn't lose ranks when you didn't play. 
 
If you want something good it's going to take you a long time and it won't be any fun. The problem can be traced back to the fact that most endgame gear simply doesn't get obseleted, so you need to "work hard" to get stuff. That's just not fun. Unfortunately, their engine also seems to have been very rigid (I'm sure they would claim that it was PS2 limitation) so I doubt they could have made any drastic changes even if they wanted to. Really, instead of making things "hard" by making it take a long time, they should focus on making things more fun and interesting. This stuff is likely all decided and set in stone by now though, so we just have to wait an see what path they choose.

I played Final Fantasy XI from release to last year sometime, so almost 7 years.... /sigh It was very exciting at first, like any new mmo or game and even after it was pretty good. The standing around for hours for parties to xp, was really stupid and boring, but when you got one, you was flying high on the xp chart... Or was you. Well, most of my experiences where is of parties that got to your exp camp location then someone decided they needed to go, and well, when One left, they all left usually. Don't get me wrong not all was like that, and I had fun, but as the months went on, it was just to much to bare. The end game items where indeed awesome, and not a luxury like @Sigue says. They actually gave you a boost. Ever wonder why some people could solo some NM's? Well, it's a combination of job, merits, and gear, you can't do it on just one alone. And yes, AH gear might put you close, but that extra nudge does make a big difference in such a slow paced game as XI. The combat was slow, the quests took forever, even on the most simple ones of them all, it was hard to get around at first, until they started updated every month. I know, I know, people will say, well updates every month is awesome, means they care about the game.... Well... Maybe... Or it could just mean there's that's much wrong it with.
 
Anyway. I am looking forward to XIV's release this year. Mostly because they promise a better environment for solo players. Making the quests party optional (which will be very sweet if they follow through with those bold words, will bring in and keep a lot more players and keep the community stable.)    As the combat game play goes, it is faster then XI, feels to flow more easily (instead of XI where you're constantly screaming at the screen, "Swing dammit, swing your weapon!!!!")  The graphics has been upgraded to today's standards of gaming, but nothing I'd get whiplash for, but that being said, I think they put a lot more detail and consideration into crafting. I don't believe in this game you'll only see few craft'ers making all the money while everyone gobbles it from the AH, not to mention they are going to be integrated into the party system, maybe even job based. 
 
Like it's already been stated though, this game is still under development for the time being and we wont see it until about the near end of summer or possibly close to Christmas.
 
 This WAS me:
 http://www.ffxiah.com/player.php?id=606667
 

Informational sites about this topic below:

 
Official web site:
  http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/
 
Decent Source of FFXIV info:
 http://www.eorzeapedia.com/