That means once you bust past say 15 hours within a week the game makes levelling ‘switch off’. Square say think of it as ”real-life ‘fatigue’”.
”First off, the main concept behind FFXIV is allowing those players with little time on their hands to play effectively, and game balance is based off of that. Furthermore, it is being designed to not give those with more time on their hands to play an unfair advantage,” said game director Nobuaki Komoto.
”Because of that, systems such as Guardian’s Favor (a bonus to Guildleves) have been implemented to make levelling in the short-term easier than levelling in the long-term,” he continued. After 8 hours things get real tough - 7 more and it’s no XP for you.
”To achieve this balance, the amount of possible skill/experience points earned after a certain period of time has a threshold. Think of it as real-life ‘fatigue’ from working at improving your skills via battle.”
”This system is on a weekly timer. After a week has passed since you began skilling that particular weapon, the timer will reset. It will start anew when you skill up again,” added Komoto-san. So that’s 15-hours per week you can play and reap experience.
Is this a worthwhile experiment to try given the level of obsession some gamers get when it comes to the massively multiplayer online scene?
