What can SE do to make FFXIV "Noticed"?

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Originally Posted by Lux_Rayna

Why did you have to do this? The last thing we need is a bunch of armchair advertising experts. Do we really need to feed the egos of countless gamers who think they can run a game from their gaming chair? SE knows what they're doing better than anyone else here. What can a horde of clueless and ignorant gamers really contribute to this discussion? Not a lot, so why make this thread. It's just a avenue for SE bashing by a bunch who think they have a clue. SE has tons of experts in their fields (ie of advertising) that know the ins and outs of markets, costs, and efficiency. Yet here you are, asking the common rabble about that which they do not understand. Why Starlord, why?

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Yeah, what would a bunch of gamers know about making a game appealing to gamers? That makes no sense!

There is so many WoW commercials on TV for Mists of Pandaria its ridiculous. Everyone knows WoW is making a kung fu panda type expansion and they don't know if they really would want to buy it.

SE needs to have actual commercials on TV when ARR is going to launch not just in Japan but every other region they are supporting.

Commercials
Tons of posters
Promotional video and have retail stores play it on their TVs (gamestop, best buy, etc)
Live promotions....sort of like what EA did with SWTOR in Time Square
Enough eye candy and content for casuals so it can get high scores from "professional" reviewers

Need to advertise how this game will incorporate that true final fantasy feel to it that has been lacking for some years. Trust me, you show someone racing in the gold saucer, and the people will come. That and some damn advertising. Most people out there react to XIV as "er... that game that failed a couple of years ago? Didnt it shut down shortly after?"

Make the game really good... so good that it makes other MMO's look like shyt.

Need gameplay trailers with the UI up. Tease the Gold Saucer (closer to launch) in a trailer with the Gold Saucer Theme remixed playing throughout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjdpCcd5UgQ

something like this


http://i.imgur.com/rarAA.jpg

Went to TGS last week-end, FFXIV was virtually non-existent from the booth. Only the video drown in another 20 videos of all other games and commercials... when talking with gamers, most people don't know the game is being revamped, everybody just think it tanked...

Not sure why there was not more promotion around the booth (actually only DQX and Bravely Default were noticeable...)

was a bit shocked, that was good timing to create interest in new players in Japan... I don't get it

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Originally Posted by AcaciaTyrannia

They never advertise on american TV like they do in japan. Do they think American players don't notice that? That they seem not to really care if we play or not? Just some simple advertisement would be more than enough.

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Originally Posted by KamikazeMan

Commercials
Tons of posters
Promotional video and have retail stores play it on their TVs (gamestop, best buy, etc)
Live promotions....sort of like what EA did with SWTOR in Time Square
Enough eye candy and content for casuals so it can get high scores from "professional" reviewers

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Originally Posted by Kluya15

Need to advertise how this game will incorporate that true final fantasy feel to it that has been lacking for some years. Trust me, you show someone racing in the gold saucer, and the people will come. That and some damn advertising. Most people out there react to XIV as "er... that game that failed a couple of years ago? Didnt it shut down shortly after?"

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I see some of you have marketing experience and talent. Maybe Squenix needs to do another contest, "Promotions to make it our own". It seems to me many of you think you got what it takes to sell FFXIV:ARR. You never know, Squenix may even pay you royalties(if the campaign is remotely economical for'em).

This little market I go to near work loops the FFIX Coca Cola commercial on their computer screens all the time :D

There is no sound, but the fact it's there... even now... is sheer awesome sauce. I don't know why/how it's still there or how many other people get giddy in the check out lane when it comes on.

Simple make a good battle system and show it off.

How many years has it been since an FF game had combat that required player involvement?

Rebuilding the combat system will hopefully gain some attention but if it's just the same one then I dunno.

The game needs alot of content. I think its also lacking areas, sure rebuilding areas is kinda new but want to see new types of areas. Swamp, Snowfield, Mountain etc.

yes content content content, anything graphical won't go far. lol let every ffxi player know there will be a couple sexxy full linkshell events coming on top of all the other content and i say most the old school ffxi players will come and stay. that's for starters. and of course keep up with tons and tons of 8man stuff, story missions and new zones. if you build it they will come. as for new mmo'ers that never played b4 i played ffxi as my first just out of it being a title ff game, hopefully gamestop and all the game stores will highlight this game, people will pick it up off the shelves. i'm wondering are prices of the game going back up to like 60bucks? sounds a bit off to do lol. but keeping price 20bucks will defenetly help them bring in more people. pay 60bucks for a game that already failed once might be too much for some people to mess with.

SE should bring back their discount for playing FFXI and FFXIV because there is tons of FFXI players that quit FFXIV and didn't even give it a chance. If it was something like an extra $6 to play FFXIV a lot of people may give it another shot.

Two reasons:
http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps952c5f03.jpg

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...and


this
http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd00d5c9a.jpg

any questions?

maybe there next offliner they can toss a free copy of the online version with a free month ...bet that will help gets people rolling in.

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Originally Posted by Zumi

There is so many WoW commercials on TV for Mists of Pandaria its ridiculous. Everyone knows WoW is making a kung fu panda type expansion and they don't know if they really would want to buy it.

SE needs to have actual commercials on TV when ARR is going to launch not just in Japan but every other region they are supporting.

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Well, you have the commercials and the stuff using celebrities. I guess you could show gameplay as well, or do something memorable like the Office Space commercial a couple of years ago.

Magazine ads would be nice, and convincing Gamestop and their ilk to have ads in their stores would also help.

Too early for putting XIV artwork on the side of Mountain Dew bottles, but never too late to start telling people that 2.0 is-a-coming.

PS: Personally, the celebrity thing wouldn't work for XIV. It's not like that brilliant suggested commercial that had Betty White play a warlock and owning people in PvP. It just doesn't have *umph* needed.

FF14 has virtue. So often I see an MMO advertise on the things it doesn't have, trying to sex up what isn't there instead of just putting out what is. PvP for example. FF14 don't have it and shouldn't any more than EVE online should try and cater to PvE people or WoW would try and promote its graphics.

Look at what FF14 has and brand it. It has an integral crafting system, it has nice graphics, it could have summoning in 2.0 and has 15 games worth of lore. Sell that.

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Originally Posted by Ksenia

FF14 has virtue. So often I see an MMO advertise on the things it doesn't have, trying to sex up what isn't there instead of just putting out what is. PvP for example. FF14 don't have it and shouldn't any more than EVE online should try and cater to PvE people or WoW would try and promote its graphics.

Look at what FF14 has and brand it. It has an integral crafting system, it has nice graphics, it could have summoning in 2.0 and has 15 games worth of lore. Sell that.

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I think that makes sense but let's face it; those systems need to be a lot better in Arr to be enough to sell a game.
Let's hope 2.0 addresses the main issues 1.0 has and that the location variety is just icing on the much tastier cake.

Make a giveaway in the most popular websites, like mmosite.com mmorpg.com and such, that would give a 1 week trial account plus a exp boost item that gives a exp bonus up to lv 5 or 10.

People might either get hooked, or hate it, but at least they get to try the game :P

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Originally Posted by Churchill

make it free, like every other game

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i would say 15$ box price, just enough to cover the physical cost of it and 2 months free play time

oh and it has to be good

i said this in a earlier thread so i'll quote myself lol

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Originally Posted by neorei

Sorry, since i can't PM them I just wanted to let the devs/yoshi that these guys should get dibs on beta access for sure. I'm not sure if they're looking forward to it but I think they should get in. And if they do, I hope SE can back their shit up to them.


These MMO YouTube personalities would at least give a little interest in the MMO community.


SAMBONZ AKA "lets play FFXIV"

http://www.youtube.com/show?p=LtQJivej_oU

YOGSCAST

http://www.youtube.com/user/bluexeph...e=results_main

Very popular in the MMO community have over 2 million subs, their videos average about 300k to 1 million, so if you want to spark interest these guys should get it.


Jesse AKA OMFGCATA

http://www.youtube.com/user/OMFGcata


This guys basically became popular between WOTLK And CATA, giving out information and videos about the beta access he got. with over 300,000 subs he became I became one of his daily viewers during that expansion transition.


SWIFTY

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnsju?...e=results_main


Mainly WOW PVP based I think he'll help give a PVP perspective to the AVG wow player interested in FFXIV

I think if SE gave these guys beta access they'll for sure at least spark some interested in a game that has been long been dead to the outside world. I know after reading all the articles, comments and stuff about the new Realm Reborn trailer. I'm really Dishearten about all the bad talk and people loyal to the game still fighting against a sea of negativity.

Much like the community here, we would like "OUR" MMO to survive and not depend on china to keep it a float, we don't want to be like SWTOR.


as long FFXIV 2.0 can back it's shit up against 1.0, then this is free advertisement.

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to really get things going, advertise in the superbowl or use this guy

http://youtu.be/ZUG9qYTJMsI

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Originally Posted by TheRac25

oh and it has to be good

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Nope, it has to be amazing. Good won't generate sales anymore, we're not in early 2000. There are lot of competitors now.

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Originally Posted by Antipika

Nope, it has to be amazing. Good won't generate sales anymore, we're not in early 2000. There are lot of competitors now.

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So in your oh so flawless logic, nothing will succeed in 2012 if it's not "amazing"? Are you a gamer from the late 2000s or something? Do you see how many indie titles succeed and they're not even "amazing"..just "fun to play"?

Even MMO wise there hasn't been an amazing MMO that released in this generation, they've all been "Good" or "Bad", don't let hype confuse you with amazement.

The threshold of where a title "succeed" is not the same for all games. XIV will never reach that threshold if it's good only.

How indie games are even related to this discussion? It's not the same scale. They don't cost as much as a project like XIV.

If XIV is "good", it will not stand out. And AAA MMOs have to stand out nowadays if they want to be profitable. Or it will just fail like most of titles released post-WoW. Glad to see that you have low expectations. It's like I'm hearing the XIV 1.0 Alpha players over again.

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Originally Posted by Antipika

The threshold of where a title "succeed" is not the same for all games. XIV will never reach that threshold if it's good only.

How indie games are even related to this discussion? It's not the same scale. They don't cost as much as a project like XIV.

If XIV is "good", it will not stand out. And AAA MMOs have to stand out nowadays if they want to be profitable. Or it will just fail like most of titles released post-WoW. Glad to see that you have low expectations. It's like I'm hearing the XIV 1.0 Alpha players over again.

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That's the thing, if indie titles which doesn't cost as much as a "AAA title" can succeed by not even being amazing that should tell you it's not the fact something is "amazing" it's the fact that it's something fun to play which is what people want.

XIV will never reach any potential simply because it already failed the initial launch, so the relaunch already has that stigma about it so even if it was the most amazing thing ever it will never reach that potential simply due to that fact. At minimum or even at best they can hope to hit XI Prime numbers and stay there for years, look at even the "amazing" MMOs like Rift and SWTOR, they all do well initially but it never stays simply because people fall back way too much on WoW due to it's popularity and not for what the games are on their own merit.

Even SWTOR doing things differently with storytelling didn't save it. So it's nothing like "1.0 Alpha players all over again", it's the reality of the situation.

http://berilac.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/cpml2.jpg
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A Snurble Plushie with each purchase and a Snurble in-game "Pet" (on a timer).

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Originally Posted by AsterBarnivere

http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/def...051eb085f4.jpg

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http://www.adventureleague.net/board..._25_209391.jpg

buying reviews, cinema advertising, tv spots

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If XIV is "good", it will not stand out. And AAA MMOs have to stand out nowadays if they want to be profitable. Or it will just fail like most of titles released post-WoW. Glad to see that you have low expectations. It's like I'm hearing the XIV 1.0 Alpha players over again.

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well i think people would just be happy about a "real" final fantasy. which is more final fantasy like FF13 or what ever.
and if they convince people of FFXIV fullfilling these wishes and dreams (here we have golden saucer, we have a limit break system, we have a classic job system, we have a summoner in it (we got carby ;XD).. then it really can attract a playerbase.


they need just good reviews to convince people to try it out. reviews are good to attract a harcore MMO player base. Advertisement is good to attract casual players (which i think is not the primary gole for FFXIV).


i do not need an MMorpg to stand out. i was not interested in SWTOR although it "stood out" to have a strict linear story line and fully voiced over cutscenes. those "i want to stand out wanna bes" MMorpgs like rift, SWTOR, Warhammer etc. havent been successfull in the end.


an FF MMO could stand out a lot with just the franchise and typical gameplay and story elements. If it fullfills the MMorpg standards of today. Looking back FF11 didn't either. thats the first chance for the ff online franchise to stand out, if they making it possible to reach modern MMorpg standards.

and afterwards they can do the "stand out" thing.
FFXIV seem to be a lot better then what i played in FFXIV alpha test back then.. the scenario is much more final fantasy alike (Job systen, regions with charismatic things), better story telling (GC missions) smoother gameplay... and MMorpg standards of today (not only progress through grind content)

Square Enix, please consider the following and take notes.

TV commercials, and bundle beta codes with your other games.

Finally this is how you do an announcement to hype up anything. Piccolo's voice is outstanding.

Tai Chi Zero Exclusive Trailer

They been there and done that "young blood", why do you think they can't care less for marketing to the NA,UK if it's popular enough in the east. They have commercials for the game, just not globally. Ads for magazines is as far as they'll invest.

Ask how many in Japan if they maybe know what "World of Warcraft" is.

Only way SE can really succeed is to: Have good features. No amount of social manipulation can compensate for its absence. I mean, you just never see an article on any MMO news site about some innovative feature SE is working on. I mean, I've seen more article pieces on Black Desert in the past week about its features than ive seen about FFXIV: ARR ever.

http://steparu.com/previews/mmo-rpg-...housing-system

EDIT: oh wow, AND they have a realistic jumping animation

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...17954643_o.jpg

S.E. just don't do anything to get anyone really interested. You can't really pique someone's interest with the status quo. You have to be better.

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Originally Posted by bobbygunz

Only way SE can really succeed is to: Have good features. No amount of social manipulation can compensate for its absence. I mean, you just never see an article on any MMO news site about some innovative feature SE is working on. I mean, I've seen more article pieces on Black Desert in the past week about its features than ive seen about FFXIV: ARR ever.

http://steparu.com/previews/mmo-rpg-...housing-system

EDIT: oh wow, AND they have a realistic jumping animation

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...17954643_o.jpg

S.E. just don't do anything to get anyone really interested. You can't really pique someone's interest with the status quo. You have to be better.

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what about Limit-break system, chocobo breeding, chocobo companion system, gold saucer (casino), crystal tower, housing as well.. etc. arent these features?
and the strong franchise .. the Final Fantasy scenario itself could be also a big reason for people to join in (if the quality is that of the MMorpg standard of today)..

you saw that many many players played FFXIV in the very beginning, although there havent been much advertisement. it was just the name "Final Fantasy" itself why people joined in.. they just left because the quallity of the game was miserable at that time.


and on the other side i heard some people who seem to be interested in the game now (IGN/gamespot commentarys after they released the new gameplay trailers)

and seriously Black Desert (your screenshots) does not make real more advertisement. its just mouth to mouth propaganda right now, some previews and one trailer. nothing more. its too early to say anything about black desert. could be an other grinder from korea.

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Originally Posted by Tonkra

what about Limit-break system, chocobo breeding, chocobo companion system, gold saucer (casino), crystal tower, housing as well.. etc. arent these features?
and the strong franchise .. the Final Fantasy scenario itself could be also a big reason for people to join in (if the quality is that of the MMorpg standard of today)..

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Won't say anything on the LB system as we know nothing about it yet.

Chocobo Breeding? Nothing new or special there. It all depends on deep and interesting the system will be. If it's like XI, it will be fun for 2 months, then no one will care anymore.

Chocobo Companion? From what we have heard/seen now, it just looks like another MMO companion system (see SWTOR etc.)

Gold Saucer? Could be interesting, then again we have nothing on that. We had Chocobo Races on XI and it was an utter failure.

Crystal Tower? No info on it. Nyzul XIV edition? Who knows.

Housing? If it doesn't come at least at the DAoC housing level, I won't even consider that a good feature. DAoC could do it 10 years ago (housing introduced in 2003), if XIV is unable to deliver the same level of features then there is a big issue.

So yeah, let's start talking about "features" when real info will be released (i.e. not concept arts.)

yeah using the "oh come back we're good to go again" advertisement isn't going to work this way around, they need to tell the world on what they changed.

Like we have


HOUSING!!!

EXPLORE THE CRYSTAL TOWER

FINAL FANTASY JOB SYSTEM

NEW LANDS

NEW WORLD

A NEW FINAL FANTASY XIV


they need to fucking punch these non-believers and haters in the face with advertisement, and we're on a slow track atm. I understand their carefulness but shit they need to throttle up.

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Originally Posted by neorei

yeah using the "oh come back we're good to go again" advertisement isn't going to work this way around, they need to tell the world on what they changed.

Like we have


HOUSING!!!

EXPLORE THE CRYSTAL TOWER

FINAL FANTASY JOB SYSTEM

NEW LANDS

NEW WORLD

A NEW FINAL FANTASY XIV


they need to fucking punch these non-believers and haters in the face with advertisement, and we're on a slow track atm. I understand their carefulness but shit they need to throttle up.

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I agree with everything you said, and they should hire the guy that did the Tai Chi Zero movie announcement while they're at it.

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Originally Posted by Tonkra

what about Limit-break system, chocobo breeding, chocobo companion system, gold saucer (casino), crystal tower, housing as well.. etc. arent these features?

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Of course theyre features. But they could be crap for all anyone knows because there is absolutely no information about it. All Yoshi says is "please wait for info about the juicy contents" every single time he's quizzed about them, and nobody even knows the idealogy behind the features either, except that SE are trying to appeal to their fanbase by throwing as much FF fanservice into the game as possible, i.e., resting on their laurels to sell a game.

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you saw that many many players played FFXIV in the very beginning, although there havent been much advertisement. it was just the name "Final Fantasy" itself why people joined in.. they just left because the quallity of the game was miserable at that time.

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A lot of people played this game for those reasons sure, but many joined because it had features which were advertised such as player-based economy and crafting classes that have meaning, the armory system, etc. There's nothing about ARR to talk about besides superficial statements like "MORE FF FEEL PLOX" and "CHOCOBOZ". Sorry, but that's not even really a solid concept, let alone a feature. A selling point, maybe, but they could really do so much more.

Obviously, before they advertise anything, they would have to first have developed it. Which is probably half the problem (theyve got nothing new to show off to begin with).

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and on the other side i heard some people who seem to be interested in the game now (IGN/gamespot commentarys after they released the new gameplay trailers)

and seriously Black Desert (your screenshots) does not make real more advertisement. its just mouth to mouth propaganda right now, some previews and one trailer. nothing more. its too early to say anything about black desert. could be an other grinder from korea.

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There has been mixed reactions about FFXIV, and Black Desert, but at least the latter of the two games makes an effort to present itself as something worth trying rather than just saying "Chocobos" "Golden Saucer" like that even means anything!

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Originally Posted by Antipika

Won't say anything on the LB system as we know nothing about it yet.

Chocobo Breeding? Nothing new or special there. It all depends on deep and interesting the system will be. If it's like XI, it will be fun for 2 months, then no one will care anymore.

Chocobo Companion? From what we have heard/seen now, it just looks like another MMO companion system (see SWTOR etc.)

Gold Saucer? Could be interesting, then again we have nothing on that. We had Chocobo Races on XI and it was an utter failure.

Crystal Tower? No info on it. Nyzul XIV edition? Who knows.

Housing? If it doesn't come at least at the DAoC housing level, I won't even consider that a good feature. DAoC could do it 10 years ago (housing introduced in 2003), if XIV is unable to deliver the same level of features then there is a big issue.

So yeah, let's start talking about "features" when real info will be released (i.e. not concept arts.)

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well i was refering to bobby because he quoted that he heard of more features of black desert than of FFXIV.. and is refering to housing. which also be there in ARR.

and as i said. we saw that many people have baught FFXIV at release, although it offered no special features. It was just the franchise and the final fantasy scenario which attracted these people. unfortunatley they saw that it was not much final fantasy in it, less content and the controls being very bad.

i think it does not need THAT special features to be successfull. its just the little things like a limit break system.. the traditional FF flair etc. what can make it. i mean at release we didnt even had special things like chocobo, ifrit, or the classic jobs even.. the only content was some story missions and guildleves.. thats what it was all about. really i do not need public quests only like in GW2 to be a good game.. (although yoshida was thinking about implementing public quests in the special talk session)

i think FFXIV ARR just doing fine with making a modern quallity MMO out of it. (which FF11 also wasnt)

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Originally Posted by Andrien

Square Enix, please consider the following and take notes.

TV commercials, and bundle beta codes with your other games.

Finally this is how you do an announcement to hype up anything. Piccolo's voice is outstanding.

Tai Chi Zero Exclusive Trailer

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TV demographics have changed over the years.

I wonder how much of FFXIV's target market actually watch TV regularly.


The free beta code with other games is a good idea though. (especially other SE RPG games)