Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

In another world, there is more than one way to interpret it.

"unlike other full-level MMORPG, it is a game that starts at level 1."

The above sentence comes from Iozeya's new manual in NGA's final Fantasy 14 (hereinafter referred to as "FF14"). Before starting my FF14 journey as a bean sprout, I saw similar words in the instructions for entering the pit on countless different occasions:

Slowly experience the plot, do not worry about the full level, do not regard the full level as the beginning …...

As an old player who has played a lot of MMORPG, in the past, when I saw these remarks, I somewhat disagreed, thinking that it was just a routine persuasion, which means "you have to be patient when playing games to get a sense of substitution."

Until, for reasons known to all, I came to the world of Iozea as a former WOWer. In more than two months, I experienced most of the game content from 2.0 to 6.2 (perhaps "I thought I had experienced it"), only to know that this sentence is true.

1 after the termination of NetEase's contract with Blizzard, a new ethnic group suddenly emerged in the FF14 player community-- whether on NGA or the FF14 section of other game forums, you can see endless WOWer entry-related posts.

Admittedly, the door to World of Warcraft has not been closed to all players, and players will be able to consume three more monthly cards from the day they hear the news. But because of the feeling of being lost, even after the release of 10.0, I just took a look online-like other Warcraft players who still need MMORPG, I embarked on a journey to find a new game, and considering the game content, player size and server issues, FF14 is usually our top priority.

In the process, I gradually found that the "difference" between the two is actually much greater than the "commonness". Once you try to match occupations, replicas, and processes to WOW, there will be problems that make aborigines laugh or laugh, and even miss the essence of the game.

For example, in the first week of the game, I asked my mentor (the player who volunteered to guide the newcomers) the following question: "is it better to upgrade with an output first?"how long is the 2.0 plot?"

In the second week, I was already asking, "when can I play to run out of books?"

There is no doubt that this has gained three periods from the mentor.

"what's your hurry?"

The first difference in the game experience is the unlocking rhythm of the game content.

Any Warcraft player will be very used to the situation that "the game starts after the full level". Every version of WOW's mainline task needs to be enforced-for example, in 9.0 Shadow Nation, after running the new mainline task and seeing all four new forces, you can enter the abyss to experience the current version of the game.

But only the main line of the version needs to be completed. If you start at level 1, you don't need to experience the main plot of the old version, and most players will choose to upgrade with random tasks to reach the level where you can play with the new version as quickly as possible.

Then there is the current main line, the accumulation of initial equipment, the investment in "what most people are doing"-usually PVP, big secret, or group book, you will always choose one. Game plot? What is there to see about eating books? I can watch NGA if I want to know the plot.

And FF14 is a game with a completely different rhythm.

Rhythm control is mainly reflected in that if you start from a low level, all kinds of game content (such as copies) and functions need to complete the corresponding main line content in order to open the front step-by-step unlock.

At the beginning, this kind of design has always been regarded as a kind of "forced control" of the game process. Until the 2.0-6.0 main story is actually finished, the production team is actually helping players understand the basic lifestyle of Iozea:

Slow down.

Including some skipping this "slow" can actually include some trade-offs. For example, I didn't skip the 2.0 scenario with a helicopter bag, and then I experienced the meaning of "running errands of Light"-when I first saw the famous Terrier "Sand House", my mentor said to me, "did you use a coupon? I didn't have this before." it's hard for me to imagine how slow the game was.

"the process before level 50 has been much simplified." the tutor often encourages me to continue, which can be said to be a way to quench my thirst but realize the "integrity" of FF14, which happens in this process.

2 this integrity can also be called a highly complete "single machine sense".

"stand-alone feeling" does not mean that you can play alone. Any MMORPG, at least in the training stage, can be played alone. The point is whether playing alone can make players have fun.

And that's what FF14 gives me the most obvious feeling: even if it was years ago, players can still find the experience of a stand-alone game in the process of lagging behind the version of the game.

What I'm talking about here is not "plot assist" (FF14 can work with AI teammates to challenge copies). After joining NPC teammates in version 5.0, almost most of the basic content of FF14 no longer requires the cooperation of other players, and can be played as a stand-alone RPG, but this is not the source of "stand-alone feeling".

I'm not talking about a very "dragon-like" place like the Golden Disc Playground, or leisure games such as the 6.2 newly launched "uninhabited Island".

After studying the strategy of "leisurely uninhabited Island Life", I found that it is not at all leisurely endless "running" and "dots" to create this "single machine feeling". It is the narrative content of FF14 that maintains a high degree of linear integrity, that is, the traditional narrative structure of JRPG.

Compared with the three-dimensional and multifaceted grand narrative of WOW, it pays more attention to allowing players to replace and immerse themselves in the protagonist itself, which is usually a feeling that can only be experienced in a stand-alone JRPG rather than a MMO.

The difference in perspective is that when WOW runs the main line task, the famous NPC makes friends with you, opens his mouth and shuts up the big lord / walker, and when it comes to the plot performance, the players will only become airmen and bystanders. "foot Men" have advanced 99% of the progress in all major versions, only to suddenly come out with a familiar hero picking fruit.

And no matter how FF14's Warriors of Light jokingly call themselves daze and light's errands, the spotlight is really hitting the player, both in the narrative position and in the plot.

If you experience each version of the plot as completely as I do, you can feel the evolution of this narrative experience from the design of these large expansion films of FF14. In the context of Rebirth, you can also feel some traditional MMO practices (for example, the plot connection is still mainly based on NPC). But starting with 3.0 "Forbidden City of Heaven", it is all about getting players into a smaller and more detailed perspective (almost POV) to experience what it feels like to be a "partner" and "facilitator".

Orsh side of the plot unfolded, let me first see the players as human beings rather than tools to watch NPC and word-of-mouth 5. 0, I began to feel Yoshida Naoki in the long-term plot outline planning to achieve "focus" and "coherence", trying to bring players a traditional JRPG plot experience, or "episode experience" (the main plot has been watching animation for a long time). Even if the plot of 6. 0 is too king and produces a certain feeling of D é j à vu, its full "Japanese adventure story" makes people feel "ah, that's it, quite self-consistent".

From the perspective of a former WOW player, it is this emphasis on narrative integrity that brings a unique MMO feel to FF14. Or in other words, WOW is essentially an equipment-driven game. There can be players who like to play deputy posts or make achievements, but most of the games are designed for equipment and difficult copies.

On the other hand, FF14 is a game that is almost completely away from the concept of "equipment-driven". Although there is a bis (graduation dress), you can experience most of the copy content without burden in a manufacturing outfit. This is also encouraging that in addition to equipment, there are many things worth taking the time to try: hundreds of hours of main plot, production and collection games as deep as war duty, RP store, Golden Disc Playground, such a year-round "Dark Moon Circus".

This may be why FF14 requires players to experience several versions of the continuous JRPG stage play: a large part of the important game content it covers is designed entirely according to the specifications and ideas of 3A stand-alone games, so players must experience it in this way.

However, in the case of strong stand-alone color, FF14 is still a ("can be a") heavy social game, which is also very interesting to me.

For anyone who has been playing other MMO in recent years, the experience is quite novel-or rather retro. Considering the unwashed refugee status, I decided to talk about the social scene of World of Warcraft first.

WOW is an inseparable social game, most games need teammates. In general, the scene of adding friends is in the process of typing Ben or playing on the battlefield. In any game, it is normal to meet skilled teammates to add a friend and play together next time, but WOW's social interaction is quite "centripetal".

For example, when you get the most friend invitations in the Great Secret, it usually happens to T, who is especially good at leading the way / pulling strange things / calculating progress. Why call tank players "car front", three DPS good groups, will co-ordinate the whole team of players rare. Social factors have a very strong purpose-oriented game.

The same is true of the group. If you don't have a public group or relatives and friends to play together, the group of the gathering stone group is often "passing by to work and then break up" every time, and people who will contact or want to add friends will often only have excellent leaders (or treatment that gives you special treatment).

In essence, the social interaction in modern WOW is highly focused on the core play.

FF14 is a game in which the social context is very discrete. In game content such as copies, it is not more testing players' familiarity with the process than assembling, assembling, gimmick, and picking details (at least in the general direction). It is close to collaboration in a common context, and rarely goes "than" (except that DPS plays lower than therapy).

Social fear can also play with NPC (really important) away from equipment-driven design, so that everyone is "not here for equipment", it is easy to have the feeling of "playing together".

Like my cheap mentor, like most of Iozeya's other mentors, I met him simply by asking a simple question on the newcomer channel-and then received tons of secret messages saying, "do you need a mentor?"

Then I was still online after playing for a few days, and I was dragged into the army (guild) by him, similar to what happens to most bean sprouts.

If you want to describe this "play around" social context, an example is that when I ask "what am I going to do now", on the guild channel of World of Warcraft, most people will not answer my question. A small number of people will answer "you have a full grade first," and those who are more patient will tell me how to upgrade at present.

In FF14's army, someone would say to me, "Let's take you to a nice place to take pictures."

Any bean sprout that comes to Iozeya like me will probably experience the most typical and basic social path: first, it will come from troops and mentors. Generally speaking, the instructor of the army went out to pick up a bean sprout and was "raised" by the members of the army.

Then, you will naturally enter other social circles according to your different interests. If bean sprouts like fishing, digging treasures, decorating and taking pictures, they will be picked up by "circles" of different leisure games and participate in group activities; if they like RP shops and various Haidu performance arts (such as dancing and street stickers), they will enjoy very pure social games; like me, they will somehow get to know the fixed teams that try to attract newcomers.

This feeling is very special, as long as you know your mentor and join an army, you can get to know the people you might want to know in your social circle in a variety of ways.

I can't remember how long ago it was the last time I added friends to things other than copies and equipment in Warcraft. I am very relieved by the warmth of yesterday's world, because it is based on social relationships with strangers that have nothing to do with the core game.

4 in other words, the greatest joy of FF14 is that it has no real "core play" and Endgame.

As a WOWer, I have long been confident or proud that MMORPG is an almost exhaustive type in which it is almost impossible to create anything fundamentally new.

But even though WOW laid the foundation for the basic form of modern MMORPG, it was beset by long iterations of play and an imperfect plot outline, turning its modern version into a largely equipment-driven competitive game, with everyone catching up with the full-level Endgame, and the space for "role-playing" was compressed.

And FF14 gives me the feeling that "there is more than one MMORPG in the world". In other words, it is the feeling of "ah, you don't have to worry about becoming salted fish if you fall behind a small version." Of course, you have to explore Iozea's world with curiosity and respect in order to get different results.

Perhaps producer Naoki Yoshida said before the 6.2 version was launched, "I hope players can enjoy all the fun of the game." Whether it's a new way of life, "uninhabited island development" (although there are still a lot of BUG and design problems to be solved), or the integration of branching routes and exploration elements into a new leisure copy for 1-4 players, FF14 continues to work towards diversified content.

For an equally old game, this "diversity" may be the key to keeping it alive today-and the key to making more MMO players happy to accept it.

This article is from the official account of Wechat: game Research Society (ID:yysaag), author: flame syrup

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.