FFXIV Thread

[Hathen]

come on thoren they are making fun of my game

MY GAME

[John]

Hey all you trolls, knock it off or I close the thread.

Except Parn, he's actually funny.

[Sagacious-T]

Hey all you trolls, knock it off or I close the thread.

Except Parn, he's actually funny.

Most of us aren't trolling we're actually discussing the game.

Unless you're referring to Gios DX


vvv Like I said man most of us are having a fair discussion, relax! Discussing games is the purpose of this forum right?

[TurnBasedDude]

Just chill everyone, seriously. Different strokes for different folks. Most hate it so fair enough, but I'm enjoying it myself. Let's not start a flame war here. :/

[Dios GX]

Hey all you trolls, knock it off or I close the thread.

Except Parn, he's actually funny.

If you think ADHD bipolar disorder is funny. I think it is a very serious matter and should not be made fun of.

[Sagacious-T]

Japanese Gamers have been upset with the game as well apparently

http://www.gamebrood.com/2010/10/07/final-fantasy-xiv-slammed-by-japanese-gamers/

Despite the uproar, SE has politely requested video game reviewers not to publish their final say on the MMO yet, until around 3 to 4 weeks after launch “to give the online game time to mature.” But the damage has been done, the MMO is out in the markets and in many gamers hands, hence the extremely low user rating score courtesy of many Japanese MMO fans.

Amazon User Reviews:
Holy shit.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/product-reviews/B003UHVPDG/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

This guy sounds extremely upset:

I hope everyone will, FF14 has just been betrayed splendidly.

[Logick]

GET OUT OF MY GAME!!!!!!1

I'm sorry I couldn't resist.

[Ashtrot]

If a game has a bad UI, it has a bad UI. If a game has content that is lacking, it has content that is lacking. FFXIV seems to be a game that clearly doesn't have a decent UI or sufficient content. No amount of whining about how other people 'don't get it' is going to change that.

If you play a game for 10 hours and still aren't enjoying it, what's the point? Even by MMO standards, that's absurd.

[Sagacious-T]

If a game has a bad UI, it has a bad UI. If a game has content that is lacking, it has content that is lacking. FFXIV seems to be a game that clearly doesn't have a decent UI or sufficient content. No amount of whining about how other people 'don't get it' is going to change that.

If you play a game for 10 hours and still aren't enjoying it, what's the point? Even by MMO standards, that's absurd.

I usually give single player RPGs the 5 hour rule, if I am not enjoying it in 5 hours I drop it. This is because the gameplay usually starts slow as hell, with a few exceptions of course.

MMOs however, I feel that they pull me in right away. Constantly upgrading the character, social aspects, exploration, I don't know, I've always had a ton of fun IMMEDIATELY with most MMOs. With FFXIV I played for a bit, dumped a bunch of hours into it and just.. couldn't take it anymore. I've never had an MMO do that to me before.

[Tenchi-no-Ryu]

I think alot of it has to do with the fact that you never played XI Thoren. For most of us who did, alot of this wasn't a shock and we've been playing with a controller and menu trees for years. I agree with your statement of "This is a PC MMO and 2010," but you also have to take into consideration their target market was probably the PS3. Anyway, I don't know what your performance issues with the game is, because other than lag related issues, the game runs fine for me as well as others. I don't know if it's your card, drivers or whatever but I haven't heard of alot of people having problems with the games engine if they are running with recommended specs.

I still think you need to give the game time, because SE has always crammed most of their content later on in the game. They march to their one tune and having previous experience with XI has helped me to keep an open mind. The game isn't a month out of the gate - expecting the doors to be blown wide open on content is what everyone seems to want but it's not going to happen.

Yes there are UI foibles, but these are easily fixed. I think the expectation of a high level of polish in a game that was obviously rushed out is unrealistic. They've already fixed some UI issues in yesterdays patch and theyve gone on record that they are aware there are issues and they are addressing them as quickly as they can. Remember this game is going to be multiplatform so there has to be consideration taken for that fact.

If I get to 50 and find the content lacking, I certainly won't continue to give them my money, but I'm not jaded enough to give up on something because of a handful of bugs, especially since the devs have already acknowledged them and promised to address them.

And in regards to WoW, people may want something else to play but ultimately if things aren't done like WoW, the vast majority of those players cry foul, which isn't fair to any MMO who try new concepts.

BTW they are fixing the market wards by dividing them into sections like a big department store. They have also gone on record that they are working on a search function, but things like that aren't going to happen overnight.

[Sagacious-T]

Having the PS3 as their main focus is fine, but that doesn't remove the demerits it gets for being clunky on the PC. It's like baking dog treats and then selling them as people food, and then going "Heh it's a dog treat" after they spit it out in a furious rage. As for the performance issues, from a quick look at other forums I think I am not the only one with the problems, so I am not sure how isolated they are.

Giving the game time isn't an issue, if 6 months from now the game is much improved, then great. But with the huge negative publicity the game is getting, its release in an unfinished state, Cataclysm, TOR, and other MMOs on the Horizon, I can't help but feel that Square-Enix lost a lot of potential players by releasing it like this.

Ultimately I am judging the game for what it is now and my experiences with it. That can change in the future, of course, but I don't play and enjoy a game based on it's future potential.


Edit:
The WoW thing is something that is definitely debatable. I think people really want the accessibility and polish of WoW, but not necessarily the end-game design of Raids and Arena, with an emphasis on slowly upgrading more and more from monotony. If you look at something like TOR it is heavily a WoW clone in terms of polish and arguably style. The hype is coming from things like being "Fully voiced" and "storylines" though, which is really odd considering the average wow player usually powergrinds through quests without reading them. There are just simple things that make a game so much more accessible.

If I was Square-Enix the first thing I'd do is a UI overhaul. Make a completely PC-accessible UI design, with improved chat windows, hotkeys, inventory system, etc. Just that alone would improve the game for so many people. Give a place for the community to connect with the developers too for feedback, make the players feel wanted.


Edit 2:
Gametrailers Review
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-final-fantasy/705892?type=flv

[Tenchi-no-Ryu]

I think we can all agree we want the game to succeed, and all the bad press might be a good thing. The MMO market doesn't have the kind of tolerance it did back in 2002, and there are already more accessible options out there with major competition on the horizon. SE has always done things at their own pace, to the annoyance of their fanbase and the detriment of their title. It took them a long time to get XI where it needed to be, which was when we got the NA release. The market won't give XIV 3 months much less a year. I think its funny though that they asked reviewers to wait a month before reviewing the title, which shows how unfinished it really is. I think when they fix the UI and lag issues and introduce some more content variety for earlier levels, the game will attract and keep it's playerbase, but out of the box they need to grab the audience with more than great cutscenes. Had I not gone through the motions already in XI, I'd probably be just as disappointed.

If the Japanese are as disheartened with the game as the NA press is, I'm sure heads will be rolling if alot of these issues aren't fixed quickly. There's supposed to be a monster patch next week so we will see what is addressed.

[Sagacious-T]

Well, as a gamer I want any game to be good and succeed. Subscription numbers show how frail the MMO market can be though, especially with examples like Vanguard, Aion, Warhammer, Age of Conan, etc. Some FF14 fans have the mentality of "Don't like it, don't play it" but they aren't realizing the seriousness of the situation FFXIV is in right now. Diehards don't have the numbers to support massive budget MMO projects.

Success means more power for greater development projects in a multiplayer game, if WoW had struggled in sales initially it wouldn't have evolved into the juggernaut of content it is today. Same with stuff like Team Fortress 2/L4D2 and their free content. Square-Enix will have to pull some goddamn miracles out of their ass if they want this game to be big.

[Tenchi-no-Ryu]

The holiday season will be a defining one for them, but as most other MMOs have shown, you don't need WoWs subscriber base to be successful. If FFXIV manages to keep the same numbers as XI then I'm sure they will be content. I'm sure that by the game's first anniversary there will be a dramatic change compared to what there is now, but by then will anyone care? It really sucks that alot of the major gripes people are having were issues that were not addressed in retail, because they were voiced as early as alpha last May. Time will tell and most people I've talked to are willing to give the game until PS3 launch to get it's act together.

I really appreciate what SE is trying to do with the game (player driven economy/accessible crafting) but are held back by needless design flaws. We will never see a drag and drop UI in FFXIV due to the PS3 version, but they can add add hotkeys for alot of functions. If they cloned XIs UI it would fix alot of the menu redundancy for sure. In a way if they had no intention of porting the game to console, it would be a different animal entirely. Still, I'm drawn to the potential of this game and will be willing to give them some time to work the kinks out. At least I can still play AION: Assault on Balaurea (which is surprisingly good for the PvE) when I run out of content in XIV, but that doesn't happen often.

Anyway, as most of you guys who have bought the game aren't really playing it, I'll let you know about the content variety as it unfolds. We are doing mass factionleves on Sunday and with the SP fix I'll be 25 LNC next week so will have impressions on M-6 posted up on our LS website if anyone wants to stay up to date.

[Cesta]

Thanks Tenchi. Keep us posted. I am still having too much fun with Aion right now to start another mmo, but I still plan to pick up FFXIV even with all the negativity it received. Aion got trashed by alot of people too (still does on occasion) and I'm having a good time with it. I'll take all the complaints into consideration guys, knowing that people have different tastes. I'm glad Square Enix didn't make "WoW Re-skinned". WoW is awesome and all, but I want it to remain the only mmo of its type (I hope TERA and Blade & Soul stay away from the WoW formula too). The beta of XIV got me excited because It was different, and knowing it will only improve gives me somthing to look forward to. I already like how well my wireless Logitech controller works with it (The game is going to Rock on PS3). It always amazes me how upset people get when new games aren't like titles they have already played or beat. I want somthing different to keep me interested in this hobby.