Dear SE - What happened?

Please don't consider this a condescending post with the intention of insult - it is not that. It is simply a curious customer's question.

I, along with many other people who purchased FFXIV, were expecting something phenomenal. The game had been in production for quite a while, it looks extremely polished graphics-wise, and from what I heard, it cost you guys a lot of money to make the game. So, what came out of it all?

I figure a game that was in production for such a long time with the amount of funds thrown at it would produce something extremely high caliber. What we got was a few zones with many parts copied-pasted, half thought out game mechanics, and completely missing mechanics altogether. On top of that, there was rumor that game was outsourced to people in China (which would possibly explain the fatigue system). As I said at the top, please don't consider this a flame. In fact, anyone reading this, use this opportunity to ask SE YOUR question regarding the state of the game.

How could the amount of time and money spent on a game like this amount to something that feels so... empty and heartless? I'm genuinely curious as to what cost you guys so much? It surely couldn't have been the time constructing zones, I mean... common, CTRL+C/V? I know designing the graphics and item system would be time consuming, but years worth? Where did all the time and money spent go?

I don't really know what else to say, I hope I got what I was trying to ask across. I'm well aware I'm going to get people with flame-like responses, and I accept that. I just hope you understand that I'm not intending to sound like a troll here. I've been playing Final Fantasy for a long, long time now. It WAS my childhood, so you can understand that I only hope for the best in the end when it comes to this game. I just want some questions answered.

This is what FFXIV was 5 years ago. The water actually reflected the world, and the terrain wasn't just a bunch of repeating textures making the game look like it's from the early 2000s.

I honestly don't think FFXIV has been in development for more than three years. I think that was just a tech demo they kicked out for E3. Most of the characters in that vid are wearing clothes that are very FFXI ToAU in design.

Lease from the yourtube vids I seen Eorzea looks much better then DCUO's ,metro and gotham. If you want to see a real empty game that was copy and pasted A LOT. Purchase dcuo for the pc/ps3. every building has the near same exact layout. Just different items in place but the city-scapes are obvious. Only "non copy/pasted" stuff is the lex co building bat signal stryker island. Oh and these cities are pretty small scale. I can fly around and see every part of each city in about 12 hrs.

I said this because there will always be something worse out there . :) but I agree they really do need to get to work on the game so a ps3 launch can happen. I wanna play it.

I remember playing the open beta with my friends and thinking "man, this game is going to be out in a few weeks. I bet they have a lot of patches that they haven't shown us yet". In the very least i figured there would be an item sort... but no...

And yes, i know mmo's are often rough when they launch... but this is ridiculous. And sadly i think i've already lost most of my RL friends playing this game no matter what patches come out.

I feel you there. As a long time FF player myself (I've played since the very beginning when FF I came out), I feel that SE has let us down. However, I think asking "what happened?" is redundant and a more pressing concern is "what are you going to do about it?" and making sure that what they do about it isn't again "half-assed" like the first time around. So far SE has made some attempts to correct the current state of the game but in all fairness to the FF community I do not believe it is even close enough to what they need to be doing.

The latest patch with the mediocre side quests and some improvements to the journal/quest entery, along with marking mobs that aggro with an atrocious icon isn't good enough. SE needs to step it up and start really making big changes and fast, because a lot of players are losing patience with this game. I myself am a patient person, and the only reason i'm still playing is because i'm a longtime, hardcore FF fan and sentimental for my own good. But make no mistake if push comes to shove and I see that further "band-aid" solutions are the only improvements thet SE has to offer I will end up saying goodbye and good riddance.

I would love to see this game prosper and be the great game we all envisioned it to be, and I'm still holding my breath and giving SE the benefit of the doubt to try to make amends and fix what should have been addressed before the game was released. I am confident that the future is bright for this game as players voices are being heard in these forums and other forums alike. SE has an obligation to its fans and players to ensure that the quality of thier games is not compromised and the expectations that come with the Final Fantasy name is met.

Don't worry about anyone possibly flaming you. You asked your question politely and it doesn't at all smell of an insult ridden post.

Many people probably have the same question. As we paid SE for the game itself, which SE has told us that it would contain much more than it had, I believe we all deserve an answer to this question. Where did the funds go? How was the time spent? Why wasn't the release date pushed back?

Let us see if SE will be open and explain how they perceive things on their end.

It personally makes me sad, the state the game was released in, and is still currently in.

I've also played every FF title ever released stateside, I played XI for something like 5 years, and can honestly say that it is still the greatest experience I have ever had in gaming. It has that special FF "feel" that every fan knows when they put ANY FF title in. XIV, for me captures that feeling in the two opening cinematics, then it disappears completely.

I'm not mad, I'm not flaming, I'm just disappointed because I had such high hopes for a "next-gen" experience at least on par with XI.

Stuntmanmike, I know what you are saying. I thought FFXIV was going to be the last game I had to buy until FFXI-3. This is not the case. I already bought a new game 2-weeks after FFXIV came out.

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.