Final Fantasy XIV: Fatigue != Grind Dampener
Yet another issue to take me out of hiding, albeit briefly, is the fatigue system in Final Fantasy XIV. If you don’t know about it yet, read up. My comments here are actually based on a response on Massively that asserts that players want a grind, and uses the complaints over the fatigue system as proof. I will only criticize very briefly. First of all, “grind” does not mean “gain experience for putting forth effort.” The grind is simply a state of mind that players get into. It’s negative, and everyone has a different threshold. Nomenclature aside, here’s my main criticism: Players don’t like to grind. What they do like is to be rewarded for their efforts. The fundamental concept of most MMOs is that Effort = Reward, and the fatigue system as defined breaks that paradigm. That is all.
“The grind is simply a state of mind that players get into. It’s negative, and everyone has a different threshold.”
This. Thank you.
(And oh cool, I like the realtime preview! I may just have to keep typing so I can……….)
[...] Just Google it if you want some links. The Shwayder, however — he of Nerfbat fame — wrote something this morning that hit a nerve with me and that I’ll quote here, because I’m more interested in the [...]
yet another MMO that penalizes those who like it enough to play it more. I’ll invest that monthly subscription into beer and bacon. and truck parts.
Would it make a significant difference if the game *wasn’t* a subscription game?
“Players don’t like to grind. What they do like is to be rewarded for their efforts. The fundamental concept of most MMOs is that Effort = Reward, and the fatigue system as defined breaks that paradigm.”
Agree a 100%
Its why I dislike Eve Online. No matter how much I played the game I could not change the time requirement to get the next skill point. When you first start its not bad but as you advance the time required to train a single skill point increased up to an entire month. The only thing I could control was the amount of isk I could earn during that time by grinding missions or minning or I could risk my isk by pvping and kiling someone else and gaining little from it other then bragging rights or lose my ship and have to go back and grind more mission or mining so I could do it all again. Not a game I want to play.