I think it just hit me why I like games like ZZZ and Endfield: they're basically single-player MMOs. (I mean, I think they have multiplayer modes, but bear with me. They're sufficiently optional that I'm not 100% certain whether they exist.) I'm not sure how to explain that further, other than that they have more of an MMO vibe than other open-world games I've played somehow. I dunno, I'm tired. Today was kind of a lot. Maybe I'm just mumbling.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

No, I get where you're coming from. They do have that feel to them.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

While I don't know if I'd play either game, I really like the sound of a "single player MMO"- it'd be cool to see a traditional MMO recast that way to use NPCs to fill out your party with the option to replace them with actual friends, should any want to join in.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Until (and unless) you get into the raid scene, this is basically Final Fantasy 14.

It is an MMO, but you don't have to play with other people, and most-if-not-all of the dungeons (they keep expanding the list) that typically require Actual Humans can be filled by your trusty NPC sidekicks.

Mostly competently as well!

--sofaspud
--even if Alisaie *is* a dirty limit-break whore

I play 14 currently, and yeah it's pretty nice to have NPCs rather than people, since I'm still uncomfortable on the mechanics. Also it just feels right to go in with story-relevant characters rather than random players.

>--even if Alisaie *is* a dirty limit-break whore

Luckily I main Warrior, so I'm not fighting for the LB bar

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

I'm a regular raider (though not Savage) in FFXIV, and while I love playing with my Free Company (FC) mates, it's certainly not a play style that's for everyone.

That said, 100% agree that FFXIV can be played solo. The story varies from middling to good to excellent depending on the expansion, you never have to worry about the "looking in from the outside" story problems that WoW has (YOU are the main character in FFXIV) and they do indeed keep adding more and more solo play support for dungeons and even some raids, including the back catalog of dungeons. They just added solo support for dungeons not in the main story quest (MSQ), so I'm fairly sure they're up to date.

Lastly, I know I'm not the only FFXIV player around here. If you do hop in the free trial, let us know and we can give you a hand with dungeons and raids. If you end up subscribing we can hook you up with money and items, too.

Actually, my signature below is from FFXIV. :)

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Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

>--even if Alisaie *is* a dirty limit-break whore

If she's not VerBlinding the entire party, is she really a Red Mage?

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>If she's not VerBlinding the entire party, is she really a Red Mage?

Funny side story, the guy who got me into XIV also played a Red Mage in our last D&D game from the homebrew XIV D&D book. With him Flare-ing (Flare being 9th level in that version of the homebrew) everything that acted like a problem, it turned out that one of the big bads had learned how to cast it too, and the party was not happy to be at Ground Zero of a Flare in their next encounter.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Take a look at the PS2 games .Hack//IMOQ. (Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine, four parts) They're getting a remake!

Anyway, the conceit of .Hack is that there's this hugely popular (Standard mouse and keyboard) MMO called 'The World' that everybody plays, aaaand there's stuff that I decided not to post because they're kinda spoilers and I can't remember the tags to change the text to white as an ad-hoc spoiler tagging system. Anyway, the games soft-simulate an MMO environment with lots of (mostly scripted) interactions with other 'players' because you're a new player to the "The World" as well.

On the PS2, the four games were released separately as chapters/parts, because there was a lot of stuff they simply couldn't fit on one disc - They even cut the entire real world investigation part out of their design brief because it wasn't possible at the time. That's going into the coming remake! - and each chapter got progressively more difficult because you were meant to import your save from the previous part. Some of the other 'players' changed, they got stronger, stopped playing, new ones joined...it was really neat.