Final Fantasy XIV boosts fatigue for smaller gameplay sessions

Square Enix wants you to play Final Fantasy XIV for a long time, that’s a given with any online, subscription-based game. However, Square doesn’t want you playing for hours upon hours during the day; Enter the “fatigue” and “dormancy” systems.

“We wanted to introduce a system to reward players who don’t have a lot of time to play,” producer Hiromichi Tanaka told Famitsu.com during Gamescom last week. “Maybe it looks as though we are placing long playing users at a disadvantage, but the idea is really to let play for short periods be viable.”

This most likely won’t stop players who like to play longer from cutting their time back. So what about them?

“We want these players to try different classes. If you change class the fatigue doesn’t affect you, so you could try non-combat classes as well. You actually have more play choices now as you can make more characters.”

However, if early reports of just how drastic the fatigue system really is are to be believed, Square Enix may have a problem on their hands. Apparently, fatigue rises fifty percent within two hours and takes about two days to go back to zero. That means that playing for four hours would mean you’d have to stop playing for two days. Not very ideal for an MMORPG that charges a monthly fee.

If this is true and stays in place, there will definitely be some sort of uproar from players. We’ll see what happens come release.

Thanks, Sankaku Complex. (NSFW)