I see a lot of remarks throughout these comments from people who aren't aware of all that's going on with FFXIV, or perhaps don't understand the implications of what they have read.
I'll highlight some of the major ones.
1. Leves. Yes, Leves will still be in the game. However, they are being demoted from their "core content" status that XIV launched with. Yoshi recognizes the value in them as short-term, casual content for people with only an hour or so to login and play. However, he does not believe they should be the core/primary content in the game as Tanaka did. They will also be adding more variety to Leve quests so they'll give players different challenges and different tasks to complete.
2. Auction House. 2.0 will have proper auction houses more in line with what FFXI has, or WoW, etc. It will have the functionality we expect from one. I think they want to keep the Market Ward system in place to some degree, but it will not be "the" market system that the wards are now.
3. The current game versus 2.0. This is something that I see a lot. People don't seem to understand where the divide is between the FFXIV we have now, and the one we'll have with 2.0.
With the current server architecture, the current game engine and the current core game mechanics, there's only so much that can be done with XIV as it is now. They've made improvements and tweaks to the gameplay, have added or improved functionality of some areas and have taken half-steps toward other systems. It's very clear, though, that much of what they're doing is applying band-aids to make the current game as tolerable and playable as possible while they work on what is going to be a complete overhaul of almost everything the game has right now.
2.0 has been and is being built from the ground up with new server architecture, new zone design, new core game mechanics, a new game/rendering engine, new User Interface, and so forth, to allow for the wholesale changes the game really needs.
For all intents and purposes, SE has been working on 2 FFXIVs at once for all this time. There's the 1.0-Current version we can play now, and there's the completely redone version of 2.0 that we are seeing new information coming out about.
I see some people looking at the state of the game now, and using what they see as some sort of indication of what 2.0 will be. There is no sense in doing that. It's like looking at the horrible condition of a house that needs to be completely renovated, and determining in advance that the renovated house will be crap as well... without even knowing or understanding all of what he renovation will entail.
I also see a lot of people speaking out on issues that they have clearly not looked into or are otherwise not aware of. These people are spreading wrong information about the game as though it's fact. It wouldn't entirely surprise me to find there are some deliberately spreading misinformation to turn people away because they don't like the game and want to see it crash and burn. Wouldn't be the first time people have tried their hardest to sabotage a game like that.
What I would suggest to anyone who is interested in FFXIV and wants to know what 2.0 will be and what it will have, is to not go based on any info given in this thread - don't even take me at my word of I what pointed out above. Do the research and see the information for yourself.
There's a bunch of info out there, in terms of interviews, articles, wikis and the like that will provide you all the information currently available about the game. Don't go on the hearsay of others.
I've been playing from day one(Collectors release), and was disappointed in many ways because I did feel like it was just FFXI with nicer graphics. The combat wasn’t that exciting, and the game seemed to revolve around crafting. For me I dislike any types of crafting that isn’t a click a go, so for me the new crafting mechanics will be nice. I have been playing on and off though, and not much has improved. Sure, having the traditional jobs are nice, but nothing else really stands out. I have high hopes for 2.0. Not only for the sake of wanting a good game, but for SE to bounce back from this hickup in the MMO genre.
...What?
I do think you're the only person on the internet that has said this.
"FFXI with nicer graphics" was all their playerbase really wanted (with some improvements like jumping, less/no zoning (loading screens) and never to hear the phrase "PS[2/3]4]9] limitations" again.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug. 12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
I've been playing from day one(Collectors release), and was disappointed in many ways because I did feel like it was just FFXI with nicer graphics. The combat wasn’t that exciting, and the game seemed to revolve around crafting. For me I dislike any types of crafting that isn’t a click a go, so for me the new crafting mechanics will be nice. I have been playing on and off though, and not much has improved. Sure, having the traditional jobs are nice, but nothing else really stands out. I have high hopes for 2.0. Not only for the sake of wanting a good game, but for SE to bounce back from this hickup in the MMO genre.
...What?
I do think you're the only person on the internet that has said this.
"FFXI with nicer graphics" was all their playerbase really wanted (with some improvements like jumping, less/no zoning (loading screens) and never to hear the phrase "PS[2/3]4]9] limitations" again.
Yes I am, but seriously just sharing my thoughts and opinions. Sorry it's too cliche for you. Perhaps I should have said the game was complete crap, and extremely redundant from their last mmo? As far as generalizing their player base that is not the case for me. I wanted something similar as far as jobs, but more action, less need for parties for day to day grind ect.
I'm a fan of FFXI and loved it for quite a few years. I'm going to give this a go when 2.0 releases. Praying I won't be disappointed but those graphics look yummy!
"While Yoshida obviously can’t speak for what the original team intended to create, he noted that when he joined the project he realized that the previous team had created something that wasn’t Final Fantasy XI, wasn’t EverQuest, wasn’t Ultima Online, nor was it World of Warcraft. In doing so, they created a game that wasn’t really anything and didn’t take into account many of the established MMO standards"
more articles by Mr Bitton, please. not only was this enthusiastic and informative, but it also kept my internal copy-editor quiet by not having to internally correct the grammar and spelling.
"There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play." Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
FFXIV had perhaps the best atmosphere in a game i ever saw. and i saw mostly all MMORPGs. but the rest was mainly dull up to horrible. first i thought, that i simply dont understand the game, like people dont understand GW2s approach for example. but it wasnt me, it was the game.
i really wanted to love this game and started 3 times in order to do so. no other game ever got more than a 2nd chance from me. but it was impossible.
well, with 2.0 i will reset the counter to 0 again.
I've been playing from day one(Collectors release), and was disappointed in many ways because I did feel like it was just FFXI with nicer graphics. The combat wasn’t that exciting, and the game seemed to revolve around crafting. For me I dislike any types of crafting that isn’t a click a go, so for me the new crafting mechanics will be nice. I have been playing on and off though, and not much has improved. Sure, having the traditional jobs are nice, but nothing else really stands out. I have high hopes for 2.0. Not only for the sake of wanting a good game, but for SE to bounce back from this hickup in the MMO genre.
...What?
I do think you're the only person on the internet that has said this.
"FFXI with nicer graphics" was all their playerbase really wanted (with some improvements like jumping, less/no zoning (loading screens) and never to hear the phrase "PS[2/3]4]9] limitations" again.
Yes I am, but seriously just sharing my thoughts and opinions. Sorry it's too cliche for you. Perhaps I should have said the game was complete crap, and extremely redundant from their last mmo? As far as generalizing their player base that is not the case for me. I wanted something similar as far as jobs, but more action, less need for parties for day to day grind ect.
My god gtfo of here with trying to make FF into this garbage. The reason ffxiv was such a terrible game is because they tried to get people like you to play it. All we wanted was FFXI with updated graphics. 350k subscribers would have moved to FFXIV but instead they said oh, let's have less need for parties for day to day grind etc.
We sat down with Final Fantasy XIV's Naoki Yoshida during this year's E3 to discuss Square Enix's plans for the relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV. Read on to find out what we've learned!
I came into our interview open about the fact that not only have I never played Final Fantasy XIV, but that outside of the game’s infamous history, I knew very little about it. If you don’t manage to make it through this entire article, know that I came away with this: I’m now actively interested in seeing where Square Enix takes the game. Final Fantasy XIV is on my radar.
It was pretty clear to me from coming into the room that the team was not interested in spinning Final Fantasy XIV’s failures. Everyone was aware of the game’s problems, and it appeared they were more than eager to share their plans with us for rectifying them. It was a breath of fresh air, to say the least, given the way these things tend to go.
Just curious Mike, I have the collectors edition someone gave me that I never used, it is still brand new. Will that be able to connect me to the new 2.0 version or is that totally new software I would have to purchase?
Good read by the way also. I am glad you came up with that good question of how would the new version would appeal to FF fans but not MMO fans.
While Yoshida obviously can’t speak for what the original team intended to create, he noted that when he joined the project he realized that the previous team had created something that wasn’t Final Fantasy XI, wasn’t EverQuest, wasn’t Ultima Online, nor was it World of Warcraft. In doing so, they created a game that wasn’t really anything and didn’t take into account many of the established MMO standards.
This is part of the problem in my opinion. Why is it considered "Nothing" when someone does something that is not like an existing game. I would call that innovation. I dont want a copy/clone of an existing game... I want someone to do something new. Hoping FFXIV turns around and I look forward to checking it out.
While Yoshida obviously can’t speak for what the original team intended to create, he noted that when he joined the project he realized that the previous team had created something that wasn’t Final Fantasy XI, wasn’t EverQuest, wasn’t Ultima Online, nor was it World of Warcraft. In doing so, they created a game that wasn’t really anything and didn’t take into account many of the established MMO standards.
This is part of the problem in my opinion. Why is it considered "Nothing" when someone does something that is not like an existing game. I would call that innovation. I dont want a copy/clone of an existing game... I want someone to do something new. Hoping FFXIV turns around and I look forward to checking it out.
It's not innovation if it doesn't innovate. I'm beating a dead horse here but they didn't improve on of the good features of XI. Instead, they kept all the annoying ones and banked on ooh's and aah's from the graphics engine.
It's been proven recently that you can have great combat and a great looking game. It still remains to be seen if SE understands what good combat means though. That's what I'm worried about more than anything.
The game has always looked good and seems to be improving in that regard with 2.0, but if it's still not fun to play and still has outdated mechanics, then what's the point?
I'm hopefull that Yoshida does understand this but i don't know if he's had enough time to get this stuff fixed while also trying to innovate.
No offense to the author. I wish they'd've sent someone in who had experience with XI and current XIV.
I understand you avoided XIV because you disliked XI and XIV by association but many of us tried XIV in the hopes we'd find the best of XI in it.
Many of XIV's initial players wanted XI 2.0 and were sad when we didn't get it.
Besides Chocobo racing, and raising, I want to know if 2.0 is taking any cues from Grandpa XI .
This said it all for me. I really loved XI before they changed the leveling experience. I was hoping some of it's magic would be found in XIV but sadly it wasn't. I'll come back and see if the changes brings in some new people to explore with.
Well gratz for them to having the brains to realize a failure and taking the necessary steps to fix their mistakes. If only SWTOR would learn from this....fire the current dev team, get new people in...scratch the entire pos swtor project they have now, and relaunch 2.0 thats actually worth anything.
So long as they go back to the more action oriented combat of the original game, I may be interested in it again.
If it's still the same old auto-attack hotkey based crap they changed it to, the I'm not going to bother with it. I've been sick of hotkey based MMOs for the last few years now.
The original team made something unique (except it needed TONS of polish, which never happened). Yoshida's team made it a clone of FFXI, which caused me to quit playing and ignore the game entirely until this 2.0 re-release. (FWIW, I played FFXI for 2 years back when I had dial-up, ugh!)
As for the visual fidelity of 2.0: Oversaturation and light bloom don't = pretty graphics. The normal client looks great, aside from missing environmental shadows entirely as well as having severely restrictive LoD and fade-out values, which ruin the overall visual fidelity of the whole game. The screenshots from 2.0 look too over the top and visually distracting (no anti-aliasing, ugh!), especially the UI, which has taken on a Dissidia/PSO (console) look to it.
I really enjoyed sitting in the game world and being immersed in it despite all the flaws the game had, but that was really all I enjoyed from it, especially after Yoshida's team took over. Will they rectify it with 2.0? They better, else I'm not going back.
Oh and, it they're still going to keep all the servers in Japan, that's another negative point it has which will affect my choices of going back as well. I don't play games to deal with latency I can never get rid of. Regional servers or bust, this isn't 2003 anymore.
I kept a thead of a bunch of the things I didn't like with the game (design choices or flat out bugs). It's highly outdated now (was mostly for beta), but maybe some people would enjoy the read: http://daow.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23
Well gratz for them to having the brains to realize a failure and taking the necessary steps to fix their mistakes. If only SWTOR would learn from this....fire the current dev team, get new people in...scratch the entire pos swtor project they have now, and relaunch 2.0 thats actually worth anything.
I wonder, seriously, how much their decision was influenced by their company's honor? I'm not trying to stereotype here but american media portrays to us that honor is still very very fundamental to their society over there and while I can't speak firsthand for how true that is.. we've never seen an american company do this.
To be fair, I'm not sure any game ever failed so hard and so immediate as XIV. Perhaps if Bioware was down to <100k subs in three months, they might take the same route but I do sincerely doubt it.
The parallels would be ironic and humorous though: TOR players ecstatic that the company was trying, and begging and hopping that TOR could bring together the best of early SWG, which it of course failed to do the first time.
But SWG, like XI, are harder than what the companies think their players want.. XI didn't dwindle to near-death because the game was too hard, it dwindled so severely because they weren't listening to players. Abyssea certainly wasn't listening to players either, but it brought a rush of people in who wanted a 75(99) but couldn't actually play their job.
In my two month return last year, all I saw everywhere was truckloads of blms that "were sorry, but they didn't have that spell" even if it was specifically their spellset they were recruited to the group for.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug. 12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
So long as they go back to the more action oriented combat of the original game, I may be interested in it again.
If it's still the same old auto-attack hotkey based crap they changed it to, the I'm not going to bother with it. I've been sick of hotkey based MMOs for the last few years now.
The original team made something unique (except it needed TONS of polish, which never happened). Yoshida's team made it a clone of FFXI, which caused me to quit playing and ignore the game entirely until this 2.0 re-release. (FWIW, I played FFXI for 2 years back when I had dial-up, ugh!)
Oh and, it they're still going to keep all the servers in Japan, that's another negative point it has which will affect my choices of going back as well. I don't play games to deal with latency I can never get rid of. Regional servers or bust, this isn't 2003 anymore.
{Please assist.}
Where do you see an FFXI clone in XIV? Not trolling, really want to know because all I saw was differences, for the worse.
I mean, it has the same races, with different names, but that's about where it stops. The game is more about questing (not just missions) than XI ever was, the class system is inferior. Leveling takes a matter of days.
I could go on and on but I'm curious how you see an XI clone in XIV.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug. 12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
While Yoshida obviously can’t speak for what the original team intended to create, he noted that when he joined the project he realized that the previous team had created something that wasn’t Final Fantasy XI, wasn’t EverQuest, wasn’t Ultima Online, nor was it World of Warcraft. In doing so, they created a game that wasn’t really anything and didn’t take into account many of the established MMO standards.
This is part of the problem in my opinion. Why is it considered "Nothing" when someone does something that is not like an existing game. I would call that innovation. I dont want a copy/clone of an existing game... I want someone to do something new. Hoping FFXIV turns around and I look forward to checking it out.
It's not innovation if it doesn't innovate. I'm beating a dead horse here but they didn't improve on of the good features of XI. Instead, they kept all the annoying ones and banked on ooh's and aah's from the graphics engine.
It's been proven recently that you can have great combat and a great looking game. It still remains to be seen if SE understands what good combat means though. That's what I'm worried about more than anything.
The game has always looked good and seems to be improving in that regard with 2.0, but if it's still not fun to play and still has outdated mechanics, then what's the point?
I'm hopefull that Yoshida does understand this but i don't know if he's had enough time to get this stuff fixed while also trying to innovate.
I agree with Dark, however I often said about the game that they kept alot of shitty aspects of FF11 and none of the good ones, while adding things they must have thought were modern/innovative psuedo-new age gimmicky things that further annoyed players.
Dark was on the money with the fact that they should have stuck to a vision and polished it and made it work. Instead the game has been spiraling out of controll in an attempt to "find itself" the newest thought process being taking "standard practices" (whatever those are) and implementing them in the game.
I wholeheartedly believe that Tanaka needed more time, money and effort as well as a better team under him AND maybe more power to make decisions, because I think SE head honchos, like so many other companies, were saying "no no no put this in, WoW has it" and so we had some weird ass features in the game.
Im rambling but Im tired.
I love snails. I love every kinda snail. I just want to hug them all, but I cant. Cant hug every snail.
Well gratz for them to having the brains to realize a failure and taking the necessary steps to fix their mistakes. If only SWTOR would learn from this....fire the current dev team, get new people in...scratch the entire pos swtor project they have now, and relaunch 2.0 thats actually worth anything.
I wonder, seriously, how much their decision was influenced by their company's honor? I'm not trying to stereotype here but american media portrays to us that honor is still very very fundamental to their society over there and while I can't speak firsthand for how true that is.. we've never seen an american company do this.
To be fair, I'm not sure any game ever failed so hard and so immediate as XIV. Perhaps if Bioware was down to <100k subs in three months, they might take the same route but I do sincerely doubt it.
The parallels would be ironic and humorous though: TOR players ecstatic that the company was trying, and begging and hopping that TOR could bring together the best of early SWG, which it of course failed to do the first time.
But SWG, like XI, are harder than what the companies think their players want.. XI didn't dwindle to near-death because the game was too hard, it dwindled so severely because they weren't listening to players. Abyssea certainly wasn't listening to players either, but it brought a rush of people in who wanted a 75(99) but couldn't actually play their job.
In my two month return last year, all I saw everywhere was truckloads of blms that "were sorry, but they didn't have that spell" even if it was specifically their spellset they were recruited to the group for.
So true. God i hate this pandering to people who cant play games.
In FF11 partying for exp was fun the biggest problem was getting parties together. I dont really think level sync was as horrible as some people think. I think it was a good way to fix the problem of low population/stratification of the population.
Take level sync- decent way to alleviate a problem.
Abyssea and book burning- going way overboard into a game breaking paradigm.
I love snails. I love every kinda snail. I just want to hug them all, but I cant. Cant hug every snail.
While Yoshida obviously can’t speak for what the original team intended to create, he noted that when he joined the project he realized that the previous team had created something that wasn’t Final Fantasy XI, wasn’t EverQuest, wasn’t Ultima Online, nor was it World of Warcraft. In doing so, they created a game that wasn’t really anything and didn’t take into account many of the established MMO standards.
This is part of the problem in my opinion. Why is it considered "Nothing" when someone does something that is not like an existing game. I would call that innovation. I dont want a copy/clone of an existing game... I want someone to do something new. Hoping FFXIV turns around and I look forward to checking it out.
It's not innovation if it doesn't innovate. I'm beating a dead horse here but they didn't improve on of the good features of XI. Instead, they kept all the annoying ones and banked on ooh's and aah's from the graphics engine.
It's been proven recently that you can have great combat and a great looking game. It still remains to be seen if SE understands what good combat means though. That's what I'm worried about more than anything.
The game has always looked good and seems to be improving in that regard with 2.0, but if it's still not fun to play and still has outdated mechanics, then what's the point?
I'm hopefull that Yoshida does understand this but i don't know if he's had enough time to get this stuff fixed while also trying to innovate.
I wholeheartedly believe that Tanaka needed more time, money and effort as well as a better team under him AND maybe more power to make decisions, because I think SE head honchos, like so many other companies, were saying "no no no put this in, WoW has it" and so we had some weird ass features in the game.
I couldn't disagree more. The man symbolized why Japan is 5 years behind the rest of the world where PC gaming is involved. The first leaked info on XIV was in 2006 so he had at least 4+ years to work on a successor to XI and failed miserably. His team failed because he had no clue how the genre had evolved since XI launched. It was clear then and to some extent still clear that the people working on the game didn't actually play MMO's.
So true. God i hate this pandering to people who cant play games.
In FF11 partying for exp was fun the biggest problem was getting parties together. I dont really think level sync was as horrible as some people think. I think it was a good way to fix the problem of low population/stratification of the population.
Take level sync- decent way to alleviate a problem.
Abyssea and book burning- going way overboard into a game breaking paradigm.
People hated level sync? I never heard that. I loved it. The only legitimate complaint about it was it hurt your weapon skilling but it was still much better than soloing, and you could go take kill of your weapon skill later.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug. 12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
So true. God i hate this pandering to people who cant play games.
In FF11 partying for exp was fun the biggest problem was getting parties together. I dont really think level sync was as horrible as some people think. I think it was a good way to fix the problem of low population/stratification of the population.
Take level sync- decent way to alleviate a problem.
Abyssea and book burning- going way overboard into a game breaking paradigm.
People hated level sync? I never heard that. I loved it. The only legitimate complaint about it was it hurt your weapon skilling but it was still much better than soloing, and you could go take kill of your weapon skill later.
I meant to state that but forgot.
Peoples criticism was "Ohhh no one knows how to play their job because they all leveled up to 75 in Qufim" and "There are so many 75's with gimped weapon skills"
On the pluss side, it created this really cool new form of partying, that was enjoyable in a different way from the exp parties because u didnt neccesaruily want to kill the mob quickly. I liked skillup parties for the diversity they offered.
I love snails. I love every kinda snail. I just want to hug them all, but I cant. Cant hug every snail.
Comments
i loved the older ff, game takes your healer away to make the group learn to heal.
counter magic tactics, epic battles, customise your group to your battle stances.
had 4 roomates back in the day, 4 tvs running ff7 everyone had diffrent setup groups.
magic of the old days you can never get back, like music artists.
played UO, EQ, WOW, and a ton of other MMO's just never could get into the FF ones.
I see a lot of remarks throughout these comments from people who aren't aware of all that's going on with FFXIV, or perhaps don't understand the implications of what they have read.
I'll highlight some of the major ones.
1. Leves. Yes, Leves will still be in the game. However, they are being demoted from their "core content" status that XIV launched with. Yoshi recognizes the value in them as short-term, casual content for people with only an hour or so to login and play. However, he does not believe they should be the core/primary content in the game as Tanaka did. They will also be adding more variety to Leve quests so they'll give players different challenges and different tasks to complete.
2. Auction House. 2.0 will have proper auction houses more in line with what FFXI has, or WoW, etc. It will have the functionality we expect from one. I think they want to keep the Market Ward system in place to some degree, but it will not be "the" market system that the wards are now.
3. The current game versus 2.0. This is something that I see a lot. People don't seem to understand where the divide is between the FFXIV we have now, and the one we'll have with 2.0.
With the current server architecture, the current game engine and the current core game mechanics, there's only so much that can be done with XIV as it is now. They've made improvements and tweaks to the gameplay, have added or improved functionality of some areas and have taken half-steps toward other systems. It's very clear, though, that much of what they're doing is applying band-aids to make the current game as tolerable and playable as possible while they work on what is going to be a complete overhaul of almost everything the game has right now.
2.0 has been and is being built from the ground up with new server architecture, new zone design, new core game mechanics, a new game/rendering engine, new User Interface, and so forth, to allow for the wholesale changes the game really needs.
For all intents and purposes, SE has been working on 2 FFXIVs at once for all this time. There's the 1.0-Current version we can play now, and there's the completely redone version of 2.0 that we are seeing new information coming out about.
I see some people looking at the state of the game now, and using what they see as some sort of indication of what 2.0 will be. There is no sense in doing that. It's like looking at the horrible condition of a house that needs to be completely renovated, and determining in advance that the renovated house will be crap as well... without even knowing or understanding all of what he renovation will entail.
I also see a lot of people speaking out on issues that they have clearly not looked into or are otherwise not aware of. These people are spreading wrong information about the game as though it's fact. It wouldn't entirely surprise me to find there are some deliberately spreading misinformation to turn people away because they don't like the game and want to see it crash and burn. Wouldn't be the first time people have tried their hardest to sabotage a game like that.
What I would suggest to anyone who is interested in FFXIV and wants to know what 2.0 will be and what it will have, is to not go based on any info given in this thread - don't even take me at my word of I what pointed out above. Do the research and see the information for yourself.
There's a bunch of info out there, in terms of interviews, articles, wikis and the like that will provide you all the information currently available about the game. Don't go on the hearsay of others.
...What?
I do think you're the only person on the internet that has said this.
"FFXI with nicer graphics" was all their playerbase really wanted (with some improvements like jumping, less/no zoning (loading screens) and never to hear the phrase "PS[2/3]4]9] limitations" again.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
Yes I am, but seriously just sharing my thoughts and opinions. Sorry it's too cliche for you. Perhaps I should have said the game was complete crap, and extremely redundant from their last mmo? As far as generalizing their player base that is not the case for me. I wanted something similar as far as jobs, but more action, less need for parties for day to day grind ect.
I'm a fan of FFXI and loved it for quite a few years. I'm going to give this a go when 2.0 releases. Praying I won't be disappointed but those graphics look yummy!
Grim Dawn, the next great action rpg!
http://www.grimdawn.com/
"While Yoshida obviously can’t speak for what the original team intended to create, he noted that when he joined the project he realized that the previous team had created something that wasn’t Final Fantasy XI, wasn’t EverQuest, wasn’t Ultima Online, nor was it World of Warcraft. In doing so, they created a game that wasn’t really anything and didn’t take into account many of the established MMO standards"
Yoshida, you are my Hero.
"Everything is mine and your woman too"
more articles by Mr Bitton, please. not only was this enthusiastic and informative, but it also kept my internal copy-editor quiet by not having to internally correct the grammar and spelling.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
FFXIV had perhaps the best atmosphere in a game i ever saw. and i saw mostly all MMORPGs. but the rest was mainly dull up to horrible. first i thought, that i simply dont understand the game, like people dont understand GW2s approach for example. but it wasnt me, it was the game.
i really wanted to love this game and started 3 times in order to do so. no other game ever got more than a 2nd chance from me. but it was impossible.
well, with 2.0 i will reset the counter to 0 again.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
I'll resub when 2.0 hits. it would be nice if SE gives the origonal game supporters a few free 2.0 months.
My god gtfo of here with trying to make FF into this garbage. The reason ffxiv was such a terrible game is because they tried to get people like you to play it. All we wanted was FFXI with updated graphics. 350k subscribers would have moved to FFXIV but instead they said oh, let's have less need for parties for day to day grind etc.
Just curious Mike, I have the collectors edition someone gave me that I never used, it is still brand new. Will that be able to connect me to the new 2.0 version or is that totally new software I would have to purchase?
Good read by the way also. I am glad you came up with that good question of how would the new version would appeal to FF fans but not MMO fans.
Yes, but is the combat going to be just as slow?
While Yoshida obviously can’t speak for what the original team intended to create, he noted that when he joined the project he realized that the previous team had created something that wasn’t Final Fantasy XI, wasn’t EverQuest, wasn’t Ultima Online, nor was it World of Warcraft. In doing so, they created a game that wasn’t really anything and didn’t take into account many of the established MMO standards.
This is part of the problem in my opinion. Why is it considered "Nothing" when someone does something that is not like an existing game. I would call that innovation. I dont want a copy/clone of an existing game... I want someone to do something new. Hoping FFXIV turns around and I look forward to checking it out.
It's not innovation if it doesn't innovate. I'm beating a dead horse here but they didn't improve on of the good features of XI. Instead, they kept all the annoying ones and banked on ooh's and aah's from the graphics engine.
It's been proven recently that you can have great combat and a great looking game. It still remains to be seen if SE understands what good combat means though. That's what I'm worried about more than anything.
The game has always looked good and seems to be improving in that regard with 2.0, but if it's still not fun to play and still has outdated mechanics, then what's the point?
I'm hopefull that Yoshida does understand this but i don't know if he's had enough time to get this stuff fixed while also trying to innovate.
Looks promising. I alpha tested the game. I had such high hopes. I'll give it one more shot at 2.0.
This said it all for me. I really loved XI before they changed the leveling experience. I was hoping some of it's magic would be found in XIV but sadly it wasn't. I'll come back and see if the changes brings in some new people to explore with.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
Well gratz for them to having the brains to realize a failure and taking the necessary steps to fix their mistakes. If only SWTOR would learn from this....fire the current dev team, get new people in...scratch the entire pos swtor project they have now, and relaunch 2.0 thats actually worth anything.
So long as they go back to the more action oriented combat of the original game, I may be interested in it again.
If it's still the same old auto-attack hotkey based crap they changed it to, the I'm not going to bother with it. I've been sick of hotkey based MMOs for the last few years now.
The original team made something unique (except it needed TONS of polish, which never happened). Yoshida's team made it a clone of FFXI, which caused me to quit playing and ignore the game entirely until this 2.0 re-release. (FWIW, I played FFXI for 2 years back when I had dial-up, ugh!)
As for the visual fidelity of 2.0: Oversaturation and light bloom don't = pretty graphics. The normal client looks great, aside from missing environmental shadows entirely as well as having severely restrictive LoD and fade-out values, which ruin the overall visual fidelity of the whole game. The screenshots from 2.0 look too over the top and visually distracting (no anti-aliasing, ugh!), especially the UI, which has taken on a Dissidia/PSO (console) look to it.
I really enjoyed sitting in the game world and being immersed in it despite all the flaws the game had, but that was really all I enjoyed from it, especially after Yoshida's team took over. Will they rectify it with 2.0? They better, else I'm not going back.
Oh and, it they're still going to keep all the servers in Japan, that's another negative point it has which will affect my choices of going back as well. I don't play games to deal with latency I can never get rid of. Regional servers or bust, this isn't 2003 anymore.
I kept a thead of a bunch of the things I didn't like with the game (design choices or flat out bugs). It's highly outdated now (was mostly for beta), but maybe some people would enjoy the read: http://daow.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23
I wonder, seriously, how much their decision was influenced by their company's honor? I'm not trying to stereotype here but american media portrays to us that honor is still very very fundamental to their society over there and while I can't speak firsthand for how true that is.. we've never seen an american company do this.
To be fair, I'm not sure any game ever failed so hard and so immediate as XIV. Perhaps if Bioware was down to <100k subs in three months, they might take the same route but I do sincerely doubt it.
The parallels would be ironic and humorous though: TOR players ecstatic that the company was trying, and begging and hopping that TOR could bring together the best of early SWG, which it of course failed to do the first time.
But SWG, like XI, are harder than what the companies think their players want.. XI didn't dwindle to near-death because the game was too hard, it dwindled so severely because they weren't listening to players. Abyssea certainly wasn't listening to players either, but it brought a rush of people in who wanted a 75(99) but couldn't actually play their job.
In my two month return last year, all I saw everywhere was truckloads of blms that "were sorry, but they didn't have that spell" even if it was specifically their spellset they were recruited to the group for.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
{Please assist.}
Where do you see an FFXI clone in XIV? Not trolling, really want to know because all I saw was differences, for the worse.
I mean, it has the same races, with different names, but that's about where it stops. The game is more about questing (not just missions) than XI ever was, the class system is inferior. Leveling takes a matter of days.
I could go on and on but I'm curious how you see an XI clone in XIV.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
I agree with Dark, however I often said about the game that they kept alot of shitty aspects of FF11 and none of the good ones, while adding things they must have thought were modern/innovative psuedo-new age gimmicky things that further annoyed players.
Dark was on the money with the fact that they should have stuck to a vision and polished it and made it work. Instead the game has been spiraling out of controll in an attempt to "find itself" the newest thought process being taking "standard practices" (whatever those are) and implementing them in the game.
I wholeheartedly believe that Tanaka needed more time, money and effort as well as a better team under him AND maybe more power to make decisions, because I think SE head honchos, like so many other companies, were saying "no no no put this in, WoW has it" and so we had some weird ass features in the game.
Im rambling but Im tired.
I love snails.
I love every kinda snail.
I just want to hug them all, but I cant.
Cant hug every snail.
So true. God i hate this pandering to people who cant play games.
In FF11 partying for exp was fun the biggest problem was getting parties together. I dont really think level sync was as horrible as some people think. I think it was a good way to fix the problem of low population/stratification of the population.
Take level sync- decent way to alleviate a problem.
Abyssea and book burning- going way overboard into a game breaking paradigm.
I love snails.
I love every kinda snail.
I just want to hug them all, but I cant.
Cant hug every snail.
I couldn't disagree more. The man symbolized why Japan is 5 years behind the rest of the world where PC gaming is involved. The first leaked info on XIV was in 2006 so he had at least 4+ years to work on a successor to XI and failed miserably. His team failed because he had no clue how the genre had evolved since XI launched. It was clear then and to some extent still clear that the people working on the game didn't actually play MMO's.
People hated level sync? I never heard that. I loved it. The only legitimate complaint about it was it hurt your weapon skilling but it was still much better than soloing, and you could go take kill of your weapon skill later.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
I meant to state that but forgot.
Peoples criticism was "Ohhh no one knows how to play their job because they all leveled up to 75 in Qufim" and "There are so many 75's with gimped weapon skills"
On the pluss side, it created this really cool new form of partying, that was enjoyable in a different way from the exp parties because u didnt neccesaruily want to kill the mob quickly. I liked skillup parties for the diversity they offered.
I love snails.
I love every kinda snail.
I just want to hug them all, but I cant.
Cant hug every snail.