will we ever get new jobs? Comunity rep response please ;_;

[Alhanelem]

FFXIV is getting rewired because of some misplaced sense of pride, not because it makes good business sense.

Time will tell if it made good business sense or not. Regardless of that, the new client looks awesome and the team behind it should have been in charge from the beginning.

And I don't think that sense of pride was misplaced. Tanaka and the original team responsible figured they could release anything, slap the final fantasy name on it and it would sell. That didn't work, and now someone who might actually deliver something worthy of what the name once stood for has taken the reins.

Why shouldn't they be be upset that they screwed up their flagship brand so hard?

[Camiie]

Don't forget that they have said they won't (for now) remake FFVII, a far more famous/successful/milkable through tie-ins game than FFXI could ever hope to be, because they'd have to... wait for it... rebuild it from the ground up. If they won't do it for VII, what chance does XI have? I'll tell you. ZERO.

[cidbahamut]

Time will tell if it made good business sense or not. Regardless of that, the new client looks awesome and the team behind it should have been in charge from the beginning.

And I don't think that sense of pride was misplaced. Tanaka and the original team responsible figured they could release anything, slap the final fantasy name on it and it would sell. That didn't work, and now someone who might actually deliver something worthy of what the name once stood for has taken the reins.

Why shouldn't they be be upset that they screwed up their flagship brand so hard?

They should totally be upset about that.

The problem is that they think they can salvage the game after the launch they had and are pouring all kinds of resources into it. The ship has sailed and the MMO community branded FFXIV a flop.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

They should totally be upset about that.

The problem is that they think they can salvage the game after the launch they had and are pouring all kinds of resources into it. The ship has sailed and the MMO community branded FFXIV a flop.

It can however fix that image it has enough players, and gaming reviewers that'll give it a new review after 2.0 to do so anyway.

Word of mouth is much better than anything regardless.

[Alhanelem]

The problem is that they think they can salvage the game after the launch they had and are pouring all kinds of resources into it.

If they play their cards right and really put their heart into it (it seems like they are), it is possible.

an MMO with a terrible launch bouncing back is not without precedent. Dungeons & Dragons Online was dying fairly soon after its initial release. They upgraded the client to support new technologies, changed their business moddel, revamped a ton of the content (especially the lower level stuff), and now not only is the game alive and kicking, but they're releasing a full expansion, years after it seemed possible the game would die (when the European version was killed off).

1-UP had an interview with Yoshi-P (FFXIV's new director) at E-3 (which included a demonstration of the new FFXIV client) and they touched on this issue a bit:

1UP: It's kind of common sense that after an MMO has a bad launch, you just give up on it and shut the servers down... It's really just the challenge? It's not pride? Or Square can't imagine having the "lost Final Fantasy," number fourteen...?

NY: Yes, there is the aspect there of, you know, "Because we can't let a Final Fantasy fail." But even more than that, there was the fact that, by releasing a game that didn't live up to player expectations, we basically betrayed our player's trust.

They expected something that was at a certain quality and we didn't deliver on that. We felt that if we just stopped there, it would end up hurting Square Enix in the long run if we just gave up. So we decided to go back and show the players that, no, we're really sorry that we did this, we have to show you that we are really into this project and regain the players' trust by showing them that, yes, we're going to give you what you expected. That's been his policy, he's gotten support from the president with that, and the whole company is backing this project now, because we want to get back the player's trust.

So the way he and his team saw it, they felt it might have been more damaging (to their reputation at least) if they let the game die than if they tried to save it.

The ship has sailed and the MMO community branded FFXIV a flop.

As i suggested, if they really do it right, and really wow people with the new client, they can bounce back. Obviously it will be a lot harder than if they just did it right the first time, but it's not impossible.

[Mostfowl]

As much as I hate to agree with Alhanelem I must admit he's right.

The community branded ffxiv a flop but with the increased playership and revamping of the game they do stand a chance, which is why they are not pouring any money into ffxi. It had its day in the sun and now that sun is setting.

So many ppl I know who claimed up and down and all around they would NEVER partake in ffxiv for a variety of reasons are now all playing. And I am sure there are many on here who claim they wont ever play that are currently and just dont want to admit it OR we will see them in the future and they wont admit being anti-ffxiv either. Curiosity if nothing else may get the better of some and once they give it a chance they will see its not bad. FFxiv V2 is going to be a completely different game, hell even in its current state its a completely different game. I have been with it since beta and the changes have been immense.

So if it is marketed carefully enough it stands quite a fighting chance. See you there!

[Randwolf]

Technically if the cap wasn't raised to lvl99 then it would still be endgame for lvl75, so lvl99 wasn't needed as such.

Truth be told they've broke so much with lvl99 it's unreal.

And, if the cap was lowered to 60, then that would be endgame. My point is that no one wants to do the "old crap." It isn't just about the fact there is "new crap." If there was only "old crap," a lot more of the population would be gone by now and fewer new people would be playing. Level 99 allows people to do things solo or in small groups that wasn't possible before. Things that most people don't do anymore. Take AF mobs, for example. Some of them are still tough for a solo level 75. And, no one does AF anymore, for the most part. If the cap was still 75, a whole lot of people were not going to suddenly start doing AF mobs.

The reality is the game is still dying with a 99 cap. It's just dying slower than if they never raised the cap. A lot of my friends had already quit. And, I was about to join them when they decided to raise the cap. Some of those people have come back. And they said the game is more enjoyable.

p.s. - When I say "no one does AF" I mean en masse. If you couldn't do it solo, you most likely wouldn't get it done. And, there are some people, like myself, who do missions, quests, af, etc. for the completion value. Now, I just don't need to try and get people to do it with me. Which would certainly speed my departure from the game with the frustration added by trying to round up groups of people for old content.