Final Fantasy XIV and MMO Essentials #1: Running, Swimming, and Jumping

Hello and welcome to the first edition of "Final Fantasy XIV and MMO Essentials", a series of blog entries where I'm going to go over some things that I think that any decent MMORPG MUST have, and Final Fantasy XIV damn should have. In this part, I'm going to be talking about a few different ways a player should be able to move his character around in a game world: running, jumping, swimming, crawling, etc.

Yes, you heard me right. Haha, what stupid game developer would forget to include those?

You would be surprised. I have yet to see an MMO where your character can't run, but the others? I don't know, but some MMO devs seem to have trouble including things like swimming, jumping, or crawling. Let's do some backtracking and look at Final Fantasy XI as an example.

Don't get me wrong! Final Fantasy XI was a great MMO experience! The amount of content that is included in it and the things that you can do, the class system, the lore, and the story make it one of the most memorable MMO experiences I've ever been involved with. There were times when I took a hiatus from WoW and went back to play FFXI for a little while. However, in the long run, comparing this game to WoW was like comparing a komodo dragon to a tyranosaurus rex. One of the reasons I think WoW was better was a simple thing: the limitations of where a character could go and what they could do as far as movement goes.

In FFXI, your character could do both, run and walk. I think these are pretty cut and dry things to do in any fantasy based MMO. How else would your character get around, right? In both WoW and FFXI, only the thief (rogue in WoW) have the ability to sprint. I say give it to all classes, at least a short burst of speed. If you want to give improved sprint to a thief, by all means do so. But anyone should have the ability to run has tail off for a few seconds, yes?

Let's talk about swimming next. In WoW, a character can jump in deep water, be it lake or river or a vast ocean. They can swim around on the surface and even dive underwater for a time. Nowadays in WoW, players can stay underwater for a pretty lengthy amount of time. Far too long in my opinion. Not every player character hero should be as good a swimmer as Michael Phelps! But at least it beats FFXI.

All of you residents of Vana'diel as yourselves one very important question. What happens when your avatar tries to go for a dunk in a lake, river, or ocean. There you are, running towards a beach, eager to enjoy a summer swim, and just when you get to the shore, you splash out a few and then...BAM!! Ow! That invisible wall you just busted your face on must have really hurt! But why? Shouldn't that wall be further out like a thousand feet from the shoreline? Apparently not. I feel sorry for Vana'diel people when the summer gets hot.

Next item: Jumping. Some people are going to say, "Geez, WTF do you think this is, Mario?!?" No, not exactly, but I think it is kind of a reminder that it's just a computer game we're playing if we come to a ledge and not have the ability to jump over, or come to a short gap in the floor and not have the chance to leap over it. Once again, we're treated to the Invisble Wall effect. Lameness. Pushing the space bar and having your character leap a few feet up in the air should not be hard to implement into a game.

Crawling. Getting down on your knees and moving around on all fours or just getting low and moving through confined spaces? Not so much essential because there are not so many MMO's out there that let their character do this. It would, however, be a nice thing to have and also include a few environments where it might be warranted. Let's say that there's a little hole in a rock face and you have to get on your face and belly crawl to get to the treasure chest on the other side. Personally, that would add a special element to the game, Legend of Zelda-ish even.

You might even add the ability for characters to climb, such as scaling a rock face, a tree, a wall, etc. These are just thoughts though, and it would be cool to see them.

I've always thought these things should be added into the game. I know that creating underwater environments can be a tricky undertaking, but it can be done, and it would add some depth to this game. The ability to jump off a cliff (or fall off even), or create some obsticles that require to jump, crawl, or climb? That would be cool as well.

If you wanted to put restrictions on it, you could always include a stamina bar like many MMO's out there, which drains off as a character does strenuous activities such as these. These are just my opinions and suggestions though. If Squareenix chooses not to implement all of these things, I will still be willing to try out the game, but I won't stay unless the story, setting, and gameplay are all interesting enough to keep my interest.

So, the question to the Final Fantasy XIV developers is: Aside from the obvious ability to run, will our characters be able to walk, sprint, swim, dive underwater, jump, crawl, or climb?

That's all for now. See you next time for Final Fantasy XIV and MMO Essentials #2: Class/Job Balance (part 1)