Dear SE - What happened?

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Originally Posted by Prestige

I just feel that even now, updates are coming out kind of slow. For example, Rift just came out and with every issue brought up, it is either addressed or outright fixed as soon as possible. There were bugs that I submitted and they fixed within a few days, something I have never experienced in an MMO before. I think that SE needs to pull out all the stops and consider really putting ALL their manpower towards this game.

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Yeah, but if they put all their manpower towards this game, then XI will have nothing, and at the moment, XI is keeping their heads above water.

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Originally Posted by bsphil

Same thing with irises. Walk around in Limsa Lominsa for example and move from inside a building out into the sunlight. Pretty neat effect when you're inside and outside it looks drastically brighter, right? Just like an actual eye works, you've adjusted to the interior lighting and the light from the sun outside is extremely bright relatively speaking. Except that's a hard coded effect in the map (step on the line in the archway leading outside, there is a very specific point when the light suddenly and drastically changes even though you're going almost nowhere). Games have been able to procedurally measure light and make dynamic adjustments since 2005, SE has just taken the easy way out by forcing that effect into the map rather than design the engine so that it works anywhere and in any future circumstances without any hard coded work added into the map itself.

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Effects that have to be calculated are normally more hardware-intensive than fixed effects.

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That's not really fixable either without major changes to the graphical engine which I highly doubt they're going to change. Disappointing, especially knowing that SE will not be making amends for their laziness either.

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They have made plenty amends. I guess for some haters it'll never be enough.

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Originally Posted by Blitz0309

Hate to be that guy... but how about a program where we can send back our games for a refund?.. i bought the collectors edition and can't bring myself to touch it for the last few months.

$70 can buy another nice piece of coral for my tank... and it will look much better than a ffxiv box sitting in my closet.

I'd love to play this game... but i'm not going to waste what little free time i have on something i do not find enjoyable. Maybe in a few months i'd buy the regular (as a journal, key, and crappy helm ingame isn't worth $20). But i already shelled in for an over hyped game that failed to deliver on almost any level.

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What about informing yourself about a game before purchasing it? You know, it helps.

They already made a sizable (and unprecedented in the market) monetary investment by waiving monthly fees without making the game fully free2play (and adding a cash shop to generate revenue like in every other F2P MMORPG). Going around demanding refunds is utterly nonsensical.

In any case, if you're not going to waste your precious free time (no one is asking you to) on this game, what are you here for? trolling?

I feel very same, I was completely disappointed at first.

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Originally Posted by Abriael

In any case, if you're not going to waste your precious free time (no one is asking you to) on this game, what are you here for? trolling?

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Nah, bored at work. And i'd like to see this game succeed... But it hasn't. You asked if them apologizing a lot was enough. I'm saying no.

Its pretty simple really.

And i did "inform" myself about the game, read their site, watching the making of the realm videos. Scoured youtube for game play videos, played the "open beta", read forums etc.. We were led to believe that it was going to be a magical world.. it was an alpha release at launch. Not to mention when a game is capped at 20 in the beta, and you're being told more is going to be in at release you're probably going to be optimistic... which was a waste.

But thats neither here nor there. My point is that they "could" do more than just apologize.

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Originally Posted by Blitz0309

But thats neither here nor there. My point is that they "could" do more than just apologize.

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They have. They're letting us play for free. That's one hell of an apology for a company that (being a company) needs to generate revenue.

If you don't want to waste your "precious free time", and can't take advantage of that, well, it sucks to be you. Most other people around here are enjoying the effect of that "apology".

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Originally Posted by Abriael

They have. They're letting us play for free. That's one hell of an apology for a company that (being a company) needs to generate revenue.

If you don't want to waste your "precious free time", and can't take advantage of that, well, it sucks to be you. Most other people around here are enjoying the effect of that "apology".

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As it stands now with no subscription fees, it's like Guild Wars' business model.

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Originally Posted by Abriael

They have. They're letting us play for free. That's one hell of an apology for a company that (being a company) needs to generate revenue.

If you don't want to waste your "precious free time", and can't take advantage of that, well, it sucks to be you. Most other people around here are enjoying the effect of that "apology".

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It doesn't suck to be me, actually its pretty nice. I'll just play something else. Got a hell of a system to play whatever i want now thanks to this game :).

But yes, some of you are enjoying the free time playing... but there are still a lot of people out there with their FF14 DVD's tucked away and forgotten because of the horrible launch and first few months this game had. What sort of compensation are they getting? As they aren't interested in playing. Also, if they were charging... how many people do you think would play? You're pretty much beta testing at the moment so don't go all high and mighty on SE's behalf.

I know its hard to consider, but there are other people in this world. Sadly about 4 of my friends are in that category. One of which is slightly moronic and has said he will never buy another SE product again after 13 and now this... but he's always a little unreasonable.

I don't expect to get my money back, i'm just sort of playing devils advocate here. And having fun doing it, its passing the time at work.

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Originally Posted by SilvertearRen

As it stands now with no subscription fees, it's like Guild Wars' business model.

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Not completely. Guild wars isn't a full fledged MMORPG. At the moment FFXIV is the only full fledged MMORPG that provides a completely free (albeit temporary) business model.
I would say that's quite an apology, and a convenient one at that.

People that want to play, can play for free (even people that didn't buy the box actually, as finding a friend code is easy as hell, and that's a full fledged account). People that don't want to play at the moment can just leave their account on ice and wait for improvements.

The only ones that don't get a benefit are the haters that are so absolutely convinced that this game sucks and will suck forever, that they cancelled their account out of spite, or that will never look back.
And honestly I don't see how does would deserve any advantage.

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Originally Posted by Abriael

Consoles are a big market. MMORPGs live on numbers. I'm sure you can do the math :D

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That argument works for offline games. Not MMOs which have proven that not only does developing down for consoles hamstring them, but that a good MMO does not need console subscribers to survive. Also note that there is currently no launch date for the PS3 version on the horizon.

Logic dictates that if you need a certain level of hardware to do something right, you don't support hardware levels below that. Even if that means ignoring consoles. In this case, the hardware requirements to build a proper environment are beyond what the PS3 can offer. Tanaka already spoke at length earlier on as to the issues they were having shoehorning the game into a form the PS3 could handle. Now we have a product that the PC users aren't happy with, and that the PS3 users don't have access to. I'm not seeing a lot of people winning here.

That's not to say it's all bad. The environment may be a done deal, but there is still much that can be done to fix the other aspects of the game. And it seems that the new team is progressing quite well in that direction.

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Originally Posted by Blitz0309

But yes, some of you are enjoying the free time playing... but there are still a lot of people out there with their FF14 DVD's tucked away and forgotten because of the horrible launch and first few months this game had. What sort of compensation are they getting? As they aren't interested in playing.

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A better question would be: what compensation do they deserve?
If they are so close minded that they are determined to never come back to the game whatever improvement comes from SE, then my answer would be "none". It's theyr choice that determines the fact that their money has been wasted.
If they are willing to give SE a chance and come back when and if the game will be better, then they get to keep their account active with the ability to come and go whenever they want without having to deal with payments and reactivations, to check the status of the game. That's quite some compensation, that people that bought other MMORPGs don't get.

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Also, if they were charging... how many people do you think would play? You're pretty much beta testing at the moment so don't go all high and mighty on SE's behalf.

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Not really. I'm not beta testing, as I will get to keep all the character progression I'm earning during this phase, giving me an advantage when the game will be running at full regime.

You aren't being very effective as a devil's advocate :D