What would you do with XIV if you were in charge at Square.

You have FFXI which is 9? years old, still has a pretty large playerbase, makes a lot of money and is one of the more profitable cash cows you have.

You have FFXIV which has a tiny playerbase, is free, has cost a huge amount of money and is draining yet more money.

You have a brand new MMO the company is working on that you hope is going to be the new flagship MMO for the company, being a major financial success (they hope).

What would you do with FFXIV in it's current state in between a still successfull MMO (FFXI) that brings in a lot of money and a brand new MMO about to be announced this year, that you hope will be amazing and blow everyone away.

Keep things going as they are now, wait until the game is finished and playable, and then start a massive advertising campaign.

Wouldn't have released it in the first place. Would've waited at least 2-3 more years.

I would have listened to the beta testers a bit more and would have not released the game will OCT of this year.

Release game without all the advertising and hype, get people playing, get feed back start fixing the game, then do a massive advertising/ps3 release event right before some huge update/expansion.

Let Yoshi keep doing what he is doing, then I would troll all the trolls on these boards and break out the ban hammer and lol every time I used it =P

Only 1 thing that they aren't now.

Weekly lodestone posts with updates on EXACTLY what they are working on.

I don't care about oldschool FF fans anymore, I'll add 70% of WoW/another standard MMO system to the game add another 20% from FFXI and 10% for new ideas

Give away 1 months trial ID and then release PS3 version

I would do what Krausus,and DoctorMog said. With one thing different, weekly videos with the weekly posts. Also introduce more stuff from FF6-9.

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What would you do with XIV if you were in charge at Square.

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that guy only worry's about making money. so something is wrong

At this point i would take the servers down and have a test server. There they could test & provide feedback(voting system for different in-game systems).
The lodestone would provide frequent updates and details of the content being worked on. A series of bi-weekly video updates going around the office and showing off a few things.

Taking many existing systems from the previous entries and modifying them slightly in a unique or fresh way. Previewing new updates periodically and having test sessions done.

Finally, i would promote the game "Revamped", "Revised" & "Reborn" (whatever) and have a release along with Ps3 once the game was ready.
Loyal fans who purchased the game previously would be rewarded with special/unique titles, armor in appreciation & patience, an extra free month once the game went live, & a limited time deal that their subscription would be lowered for every person($1) they could get to play the game ($5 decrease limit).

Upon release i would also promote special campaigns to draw people in. These would include special items & EXP rate increases on set days in the week/month.

Reform the battle system, then make a ton of storyline quests. Abolish the current rank system and make it so you rank up depending on how many of the main storyline quests you complete. I'd also retcon the storyline to make it more epic, and put in some of the more awesome soundtracks for the common areas and have Nobuo Uematsu redo the rest as he pleases.

And then I'd make it so "Classes" just give skills related to the weapon and "Jobs" give skills related to that job's role, with each job unlockable by a certain set of classes.

And I'd also give map instanced jumping.

No timeline.

EDIT: Also, vanity clothing. Some of it is purchasable in-game with Gil (it will be usable but not omfg awesome stuff) and give some of the previous Final Fantasy outfits some exposition in a Crysta-only cash shop. Make some cash since we're not using subscriptions yet. Once we charge subscription frees, all vanity clothing becomes gil-purchasable (and we will announce so when we open the vanity shop so none of that "BUT I DIDN'T KNOW IT WOULD BE FREE LATER" bull crap) but insane prices (like 2mil for some of the good stuff).

I'd also balance out the rewards that leves give and make them more...in-depth. And I'd make more levequests, too, since there's a rotation of about 6-8.

Scrap the whole thing and make Ivalice Online?

Getting to what there already is, I'd start with overhauling the areas. Make the Black Shroud more open, no more copy-pasted terrain, add some large structures to the area that stands out (similar to the crash site at Mor Dhona), add more levels to the land as it's very flat, try to create a more lively town area (moving npcs, more decorations).

Fix the battle system. Add in some target commands that were useful in FFXI. Pretty much what the dev team is working on this.

Leve system, people are too dependent on them as the primary leveling source and abusing the milk most of the monsters and abort to save the leve for the next reset. This was done I think mainly due to the disconnect issues way back around release, this change should be reverted back to losing the leve regardless. Adjust exp rates so a non leve party also looks appealing.

I'd still get rid of the whole durability system altogether. It's been better, but in some ways I still hate it. With that I'd change gear to only be equipped at or above intended level.

Fix quality obtain rates on synthesis. I churned out some 400 quality from a +3 mat and I still couldn't even get a +1 to appear on my final? Find suitable threshold limits where the +# will always show, and a % rate if you're in between certain ranges.

I'm not really good with finding content to add, I'm more on what would I fix that's present.

1) Fix the battle system more like FFXI with EXP & Skill chains and remove the need for the action bar... only optional for controller users.
2) Increase the difficulty of mobs to where parties have something fun to battle on (don't die as quick and require attention)
3) Make NM's near impossible to beat and require huge amounts of strategy, changing the NM's behavior based on the party setup.
4) Reduce the rewards from Battle Leve's and make them more Solo only, so casual/soloist players have something to fill their precious time with when they aren't partying.
5) Prepare for the rank cap increase to 60. (Building content and getting ready for the first expansion/ps3 release)
6) Add in 100's of repeatable quests that are simple yet provide fun and possibly fame (like XI)
7) Add more mobs types to the game, along with changing locations of mobs and making walks/gathering/anything more difficult to do.
8) Prevent Teleporting to Aetherytes you haven't been to before (Like the crystals from XI)
9) Create godly sets of armor and weapons people will need to work for, and be challenged to get
10) create new interesting zones with challenges in them
11) Modify the zones and make people venture to the new zones to rank up in parties
12) Fix the HQ rates for crafting and fix the drop rates on the HQ materials
13) Remove +1 and +2 Materials from the game, and only go NQ and +3. Also add in a +4 to finished products that only a godly crafter with amazing luck can create.
14) Make weapons and armor soul-bound once you equip it. (this is to keep crafters in business, as too many items floating around kills an economy)
15) Give proper LS tools to use, fix the kicking and other issues
16) Add in variously ranked dungeons everywhere! (level sync down to dungeon to ensure challenge is always there)
17) Create 100's of new Notorious Monsters everywhere that are shared spawns of the normal mobs that don't spawn in such a small area. (maybe can spawn in any zone of that type of mob)
18) Create PVP arena's so players can challenge each other
19) Create multiple mini-games inside of FFXIV, like Triple Triad, Crystal Defenders, etc... All based on actual play inside FFXIV. So the more you play, the more cards/jobs etc... you can collect and use inside the mini-games.
20) Reduce the time of many animations like pulling out weapon, crafting, gathering and equipping new armor/weapons.
21) Add in 100's more NPC's that do various things and give various quests.
22) Job system with the ability to create your own job, assign your stats based on the rank of that job/class. (I wont provide how this would be done here, but it would prevent all the best abilities for each person, kinda like BLU on XI)
23) make the map more interactive with abilities to mark it, and label items everywhere.
24) Provide contests inside the game for people who find issues etc, and offer them 1 weapon or armor of choice (no HQ)
25) Hire in-game people to find bots and give them ability to ban people.

I can go on and on... but those are the first 25 :)

Destroy & rebuild

Close this game down, then force them to work with Gamefreak to make me a Pokemon MMO.

Hire back all the original FF series, programmers and develops that were fired/let go in the past years.

I would make it more like a graphic mud with a pk system, dynamic content, dynamic weather, raidant AI (meaning npc have scheds and roam around their cities doing tasks), have full voice overs, Make jump with content you need it for and have it needed for exploration, make the world 100% seemless the best I could, have chat bubbles (optional) grouping is a much for harder content, soloing is optional for 20% of the game (leveling etc but not as good as grouping), have dynamic dungeon ( similar to mabinogi) but also have would dungeons, raident story questing based on play style. No levels, no classes, have 10K skills players learn from from a gradually scaled exp. (think merity system but exp scales) fully customized characters which include mix breeds of the races, fully customized clothing/ outfit system and armor system. Ability to lock styles no matter the gear. add places for socialising like taverns where players can sit at tables and eat and drink stuff.

Thats what I would do for ffxiv.

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Originally Posted by Joeking

Close this game down, then force them to work with Gamefreak to make me a Pokemon MMO.

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already one around look for it :)

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Originally Posted by Kilta_Firelotus

already one around look for it :)

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There are minor, fan based online Pokemon games that are strictly the single player game with multiple people in the game with you.

Not the same thing.

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Originally Posted by ZephyrAM

There are minor, fan based online Pokemon games that are strictly the single player game with multiple people in the game with you.

Not the same thing.

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called pokemon mmo? right........... one i'm talking about is advertised as a pokemon mmo.

Please don't take offense: I would scrap it, pretend it never happened and release a finished MMO 6 years down the road that is fresh and that is amazing (and preferably set in Ivalice).

I'd probably take the game down for a year to rework it like APB and re-release it with free gear for those who played the botched version.

I'd re-design the game from ground-up and get rid of ALL the leve-centric gameplay aspects. I'd have the entire story re-worked to be a bigger part of the actual gameplay experience and to live up to FF standards. I'd also fire everyone who did the arrangements for Ueamatsu's tracks and hire Kumi Tanioka and Naoshi Mizuta to arrange all the music with him.

Like a rock star I would personally smash every guitar in the building.

The money I'd save from upholding the servers and forums would go to marketing when the game is re-released. I'd also do everything in my power so that 360, ps3 and next Nintendo versions would be released at the same time as the console crowd is mostly a lost game at this point.

The menu system would have to go to make way for a FF I-XI style menu that has XII like elements.

I'd remove skills, maps and travel options from the beginning of the game and would make them work as meaningful rewards for completing missions and quests.

I'd fire the environment designer and hire people from any other FF titles to get the job done.

I'd keep some of the XIV players as alpha testers during the entire process but wouldn't make every creative decision through voting like N.Yoshida is doing.

I'd BEG for Hironobu Sakaguchi to come back to SE and help with this travesty.

I wouldn't twitter anything during the entire process. I'd leave that as N.Yoshida's only job that he seems to be good as but I wouldn't let him in the building in fear of him actually starting to make sense in his twitteria.

Make some excuses. Take down all the servers. Make more excuses. Hire a bunch of experimented MMO programmers and start negotiation with Trion to get their network engine. Add in few excuses. Have all the content designers play a week of WoW, Eve and Rift, and ask them to make plans for long term reusable content based on horizontal progression. Throw more excuses. Scrap the PS 3 release and begin to inquire on PS 4 hardware, hoping it won't have hard limitations. Excuses. And hope that 3 years later, we can release a brand new game offering multiple ways of horizontal progression, a stable economy, a single world server decently balanced using instancing, no repetitive gameplay, deep storylines, content scaling in difficulty, a topnotch network and graphic engine and including all the recent MMO features they could have listed in those 3 years, but within FF lore.

And few more excuses.

If I were in charge I would make it my #1 priority to get 1 million subscribers.

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Originally Posted by Kilta_Firelotus

already one around look for it :)

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I want a real one by Gamefreak!

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Originally Posted by Evangela

I don't care about oldschool FF fans anymore, I'll add 70% of WoW/another standard MMO system to the game add another 20% from FFXI and 10% for new ideas

Give away 1 months trial ID and then release PS3 version

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70% of WoW Players?.. so more crying for new stuff which is like WoW... and more "i quit threads" out of the sudden cause the game is to hard? Thanks for the offer, but i have to pass.

Didn't I make a thread about this just last week?

first thing i would do is take all of the staff and force them to play the game they are feeding us. make each one of them sit there non stop and go straight through to cap on one class and then report back on how much fun they had. once everyone explains how not fun it is then i'd take suggestions on how to make it more fun and final fantasy.

i understand yoshi said he played it for a few days and did different things, but a few hours does not show you the problem the game has. take a class and start at the very beginning from install and setting up payment to creating the character then make them take that class they started to cap solo. if they are doing a dow or dom we'll even let them do leves as a group or grind as a group. i just feel sorry for the unlucky mofo's that got stuck with crafting to cap without a dow/dom to farm mats for them and have to buy all the mats through the wards.

once they actually played the game i have a feeling they would have a video of them on their knees begging us to forgive them for the game that is in use now. i feel that if they ever played the game more than a few minutes just to test to see if something works and actually got to see how it affects people in the long run they would see the issues. that would allow them to actually see the problems people have with the game.

I would honestly scrap it. No game in history has been this behind and ever made something of itself. It will likely never be worth the name, and some things you just can't repair.

Sucks for everyone, but this game will never be close to what ffxi was in terms of success, let alone be the smash that ffxi should have been.

Monumental lesson learned, hopefully. Better fortune next time.

format c: :D :D
joke!

I would not have given the game a thumbs up for an official launch. You know, I know, the developers knew, and execs at Square-Enix knew the game wasn't ready for consumer release. There is a certain balance of art and quality vs. profit. One compliments the other. And $$$ was more important to them than financial loss and a delay. I think they would have saved more in the long run by delaying the game, than releasing a broken product, damaging the brand, and trying to dig their way out of it.

1.18 should have been closed beta. That's what I would have done

• Fire the Programmers that are responsible for the engine and hire people that have some idea of actual 3-D algorithms.
• Remove the ctrl, c, v, x buttons and mouse context options for copy, paste and cut on the mappers keyboard and mouse
• Show the whole FFXIV Department a 12 hour movie that declares the word "fun" and explains the meaning of it
• Turn Air Condition and lights back on
• Scrap FFXIV and work on the new MMO
• Release new MMO
• Sell Company to highest bidder while it is still worth some cash, which it wont be for long at their current route.

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Originally Posted by Sepix

• Show the whole FFXIV Department a 12 hour movie that declares the word "fun" and explains the meaning of it

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Fun, can have multiple meanings. Torturing others is fun, Sleeping is fun, Trying to Voodoo curse people is fun.


FFXIV is fun?

fire everyone.
not put votes in for a game change when more then half are rmt or lazy asses.
add party play for grinding
add party play for all quests and missions
add lots more quests and missions
add lots of mini bosses in quest and missions
make all quest and missions caped for challenges.
add a better search function for party.
get ride of leves all together or make them just for rewards not grind.
make only some crystals 100% free anima an rest around them need to run or choco.
make sure servers are full.
lots more but lol u get the point.

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Originally Posted by rainfish

You have a brand new MMO the company is working on that you hope is going to be the new flagship MMO for the company, being a major financial success (they hope).

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SE is not developing Wakfu, a French gaming/animation studio is (Ankama Studio). SE is in charge of localization, and translating both the game and the anime/cartoon series. Unless SE milks the game, anime, and merchandise for more than it's worth then it won't do well because people will be annoyed that players in other markets pay much less for the same content.

We'll see what they do with it but for now I play on the UK servers.