Some Food For Thought (While you wait for the game to improve.)

If ALL the items in your resturant were free because you had not truely opened it yet and you were simplying trying to figure out how to make adjustments to your menu to reel in future business, you might value the criticisms of even the small issues a bit more. Good luck with your business.

What Eden said, also, Gamestop will NOT take ANY computer game in trade. they are too easily pirated. You'd have better luck trying to get trade in value on a rock... so that argument is useless here.

Yes some people only complain, this is very true, but many of us, like Eden mentioned, give suggestions along with our gripes. I think one of the main issues is that we don't get much information back, and the info we DO get is about a clear as mud.

This game is NOT free, there is no free trial to download, there is only the box copies which everyone has to PAY for. Those PAYING CUSTOMERS are rightfully complaining about a deficient product that has not only failed to meet expectations but has failed to come anywhere close to being as advertised.

SE has to get a bit of tough love once in a while to remind them what their customers want. You shouldn't be worried about all the complaining... you should be worried about when there isn't any... because that means everyone has given up on XIV and it's well and truly dead.

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Choosing the store = Buying FFXIV

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You chose what restaurant to walk into, the same choice you made whether or not to spend your money on FFXIV, whether the reviews were good or bad.

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Getting free chips = Getting free months

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As stated in the OP, customers got free chips with their meal as a courtesy of the restaurant. Customers of FFXIV receive an extended free trial until the game is satisfactory, as a courtesy of SE. In other words, they were courteous enough to provide these free services, they did not "have" to provide them.

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Complaining about chips = complaining about the game

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Its exactly the same thing. However, it would be better to make suggestions rather than complaints. Suggesting a less saltier chip = suggesting a less complicated crafting recipe. (many more analogies to be used with this.)

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Originally Posted by Roughgalaxy

What Eden said, also, Gamestop will NOT take ANY computer game in trade. they are too easily pirated. You'd have better luck trying to get trade in value on a rock... so that argument is useless here.

Yes some people only complain, this is very true, but many of us, like Eden mentioned, give suggestions along with our gripes. I think one of the main issues is that we don't get much information back, and the info we DO get is about a clear as mud.

This game is NOT free, there is no free trial to download, there is only the box copies which everyone has to PAY for. Those PAYING CUSTOMERS are rightfully complaining about a deficient product that has not only failed to meet expectations but has failed to come anywhere close to being as advertised.

SE has to get a bit of tough love once in a while to remind them what their customers want. You shouldn't be worried about all the complaining... you should be worried about when there isn't any... because that means everyone has given up on XIV and it's well and truly dead.

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Excellent post.

And people can whine about, "Oh, give them time, give them suggestions, not complaints!" all they want, but the thing is, we have nothing to lose by complaining/offering suggestions (No, just because you disagree with my complaints, does not mean they're not good suggestions, and yes, complaints *can* be suggestions in themselves). SE does.

This restaurant needs the business, this specific location (that is, this game, FFXIV). If they screw up, and customers don't feel it's been made right, it's their loss. They can give all the "complimentary chips" they want - if that doesn't make it up to the customer, it's the diner, and only the diner, that loses.

Ultimately, you can say all you want, "Well, be more patient!" to the customer who's been waiting nine months. But that's an attitude that's probably not going to win the customer over. That's why *SE* isn't going that route, isn't telling people, "Hey, be patient, we gave you a consolation prize, so shut it," because they know it hurts them and their reputation in the long run. And while you might be trying to help by telling people to stop complaining, walking up to people still poking at chips and salsa nine months after they didn't get the steak they were promised and telling them to "Suck it up, it's not so bad," can only hurt Square Enix and FFXIV by further pushing frustrated customers.

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Originally Posted by Alastor

And without wonderful modern-day conventions such as GameStop and eBay, if you bought a game and did not like it, you would be stuck with it. That argument is hardly reasonable.

Forgive me if I don't see eye to eye with you, but SE could easily have not dropped the fees to this game. It is only out of wanting to keep your business that they have. I'm only asking you to be a considerate customer. Is that so hard?

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You make no sense here considering the fact that you can not return, or trade in opened PC games to such "wonderful modern-day conventions" like EB, Gamestop or any retail store for that matter. SE knowingly dropped the fee out of all the player base that was left after that first month leaving the game, in a desperate attempt to keep people logged into there servers, an save face in the press. If you don't believe that then sir you are far to stubborn for me or anyone to try an change your mind. Have fun with this misdirected Loyalty you feel towards SE though.

Game you pay 50-60 bucks (forget price of collectors edition) to play in the first place is hardly free sir. No matter how u twist it. I can't even imagine them expecting people to pay a monthly fee of 13-15 dollars for a game that is essentially still stuck in last phase of Beta testing.

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PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Research a game before you spend $80.

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Well noone could believe that they POSSIBLY would ship the game in the state it was at the end of open beta.
A big launch patch was, by all standards, just a given. It took almost a week before people realized that this
patch was never to come.

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Originally Posted by Roaran

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Research a game before you spend $80.

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*Proud Pose*

I feel good that I bought this game for *Drum Rolls* $8.00... plus $2.50 postage...

I'm not going to go through and check if anyone else said this, BUT...

What would your restaurant do if every single person that came in for a full day ordered water and ate your chips and salsa only? They'd either close down, or change their policy. Why? Because its a gimmick to get people to come in. The cost of chips and salsa are in the costs of other foods. So don't give me that FREE crap.

Your restaurant analogy does not work in any way shape or form in this context.

And to think SE would give us free play and we should thank them out of the kindness of there hearts? Please. They are a business. Their goal is to make money. They can currently afford to have the game free or it would be ended by now. Some one somewhere in SE still thinks the game can be a profit maker or it be shutdown.

Everyone has the right to complain however they wish. That's why these forums are open. To hear opinions, suggestions and complaints from the community.

Whats worse then someone complaining?
It's the person complaining about the complaining.

This is why you should always read the thread before posting.Everything you said has already been discussed.

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Originally Posted by Taru_TwoPointO

I'm not going to go through and check if anyone else said this, BUT...

What would your restaurant do if every single person that came in for a full day ordered water and ate your chips and salsa only? They'd either close down, or change their policy. Why? Because its a gimmick to get people to come in. The cost of chips and salsa are in the costs of other foods. So don't give me that FREE crap.

Your restaurant analogy does not work in any way shape or form in this context.

And to think SE would give us free play and we should thank them out of the kindness of there hearts? Please. They are a business. Their goal is to make money. They can currently afford to have the game free or it would be ended by now. Some one somewhere in SE still thinks the game can be a profit maker or it be shutdown.

Everyone has the right to complain however they wish. That's why these forums are open. To hear opinions, suggestions and complaints from the community.

Whats worse then someone complaining?
It's the person complaining about the complaining.

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Originally Posted by Alastor

(This is not directed at everyone.)

I work at a restaurant, and before you go away, I'll make this comparison short. It is a Tex-Mex restaurant and we offer free (unlimited) chips and salsa to every guest who comes in to dine.

The most frustrating thing is to have a guest that complains about anything related to the chips and salsa. I hear things like: "The chips are too salty." "The chips are not salty enough." "The salsa is too spicy." "The salsa is not spicy enough." ect. ect.

When you are being given something for free, perhaps you should not be so picky. Obviously, the circumstances here are different. However, if you are currently playing the game, you aren't paying for anything. The developers of this game are not making any money off of you. Actually, they are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into a game that has lost them millions to make the experience more enjoyable for you.

Whether you believe SE is fixing this game because they want a new cash cow, or whether they truly wish to give you a wonderful experience (like the one so many attest to having in FFXI), please do not be so ungrateful as to complain like children in the meantime.

Having requests, comments, and opinions on the game and its future is a completely different story. I only ask that we be more considerate. ( Though perhaps that is too much to ask of the internet >.>)

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As someone says earlier, people came to the restaurant for a dinner and got that chips and salsa for free but they are paying for the dinner.
Like in a restaurant, if the food/service is not good, you came once, you tried (maybe got free stuff in the meantime) and never going back again to that restaurant is the experience was not up to your expectations. The same happened to me with XIV. I bought the game (payed for dinner), got free months of playtime (my free salsa and chips), the experience was boring and too repetitive after a while (I had better pasta dishes in other restaurant) so I left keeping an eye on the improvements the game might see in the future (Is the restaurant improving their food/service too).
As customers, we have the right to complain about a service that is not up to ones expectations.