This is how FFXIV should have launched.

Long story short: I tried open beta, thought it was terrible, didn't buy it. Back in June-ish, I was bored of all other MMOs and decided, "Eh, FFXIV is $15, why not?" To my surprise, it was actually semi-decent, but it lacked...uh, absolutely everything, and the combat was still a pretty broken mess. I lasted about two months before work really picked up and I decided to put it down until it was in a better state. Come January, I hear that a lot of stuff has been added! Neat. I didn't have a chance to check it out before subs reupped, so again, I figured, "Eh, why not?"

Again, to my surprise, it's actually improved! Combat feels much more intuitive than it did previously, latency aside; classes feel much more defined (before, I was a THM that casted almost completely CON spells); there are airships, chocobos, factions, and actual NPCs out in the world. All in all, as the title says, this is where FFXIV should have been at launch, or somewhere close (I know map revamps and 'advanced' jobs are coming, and are both desperately needed). It still feels kinda like late beta, but then, looking at actual production timetables, this would be late beta stage for any other MMO, considering they tend not to get rushed out the door after a year. (MMOs aren't Madden games; it doesn't work that way, man. T_T)

I don't envy the team for having to rebuild a completely broken game, and I don't envy the players who had enough brand loyalty/time/stubbornness to stay while the game slowly rebuilt itself over the time. I know that many of those Day 1 players feel rightfully bitter towards everything the game is, but from the perspective of an outsider looking in after months of not paying attention to it, FFXIV circa January 2012 is miles ahead of FFXIV June 2011, and is an entirely different game from FFXIV September 2010.

Just wanted to offer up a slightly different perspective on things, rather than the usual fare. :)

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Originally Posted by Ashthra

I know that many of those Day 1 players feel rightfully bitter

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Before FFXIV 1-year grace period, I was a nice person that everyone liked lol.

It's definitely getting there, but I think until 2.0 comes out people will be wanting. I played at launch, quit, and started back about 4 weeks ago. In 4 weeks I have managed to get 50 thaum, 42 weaver, and a few other misc jobs for abilities. It was fun, but now it seems my Thaum has nothing to do (so I am leveling Con now).

I think the system is getting pretty close (sans the horrible UI lag), but the content is still a far cry off.

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Originally Posted by Zeref

Before FFXIV 1-year grace period, I was a nice person that everyone liked lol.

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Hence the "rightfully bitter" part. If I'd played this game and this game alone for a year, I'd want to punt babies off a bridge into a freezing river full of maneating crocodiles, sharks, AND tigers. Yes, all three.

Like I said, not envying your position at all.

I'm still hurting for things to do. I'm one drop away from getting the last Ifrit weapon. I'm already working on my moogle drops. Right now my only goals are to start seriously getting materia melds on gear as well as work on Luminary Tools. But that's half hearted. Since I already defeated everything that needs defeating, even if I get triple melds on everything I'll feel like I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go.

2.0 is where it should have been. They would still get slammed for missing basic features, terrible server structures, not much content, copy/paste world...ect. Would have been slightly better scores, but still overly shunned.

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Originally Posted by Zanfire

2.0 is where it should have been. They would still get slammed for missing basic features, terrible server structures, not much content, copy/paste world...ect. Would have been slightly better scores, but still overly shunned.

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not really, i agree with the op. the game as it is now is a good to sell game, i feel 2.0 more like an expansion pack than a launching state.

I also agree with the OP, the game feels in a "just launched" state. Is it missing some stuff? Yes, it is. But almost all MMOs are launched missing some basic features (the latest one being SWTOR doesn't have macros, battle log, and other stuff that kind of surprised me).

But, keep in mind that many of the players that decided to stay have a love/hate relationship with the game.

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Originally Posted by Ashthra

Hence the "rightfully bitter" part. If I'd played this game and this game alone for a year, I'd want to punt babies off a bridge into a freezing river full of maneating crocodiles, sharks, AND tigers. Yes, all three.

Like I said, not envying your position at all.

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Yeah, I think I am "rightfully bitter" too.

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Originally Posted by Brigandier

It's definitely getting there, but I think until 2.0 comes out people will be wanting. I played at launch, quit, and started back about 4 weeks ago. In 4 weeks I have managed to get 50 thaum, 42 weaver, and a few other misc jobs for abilities. It was fun, but now it seems my Thaum has nothing to do (so I am leveling Con now).

I think the system is getting pretty close (sans the horrible UI lag), but the content is still a far cry off.

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The horrible UI latency + position update latency (i.e. the-dodge-Ifrit fire o no you didn't problem) is what's keeping me from fully enjoying the game. Once that gets fixed (sooner, if not later) then I'm all in, but it's just downright frustrating because things are a CHORE to do because of the UI latency. Skyrim actually has similar issues when your inventory/save game gets packed lategame, too much stuff to scroll through leads to funky load times.

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Originally Posted by Zeref

Before FFXIV 1-year grace period, I was a nice person that everyone liked lol.

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We'll still like you, Zeref. ^^ It will just cost you a cookie now. :p


To OP:

For me, watching the game change and unfold has been an adventure of itself. Sometimes it's been frustrating and sometimes it's a lot of fun, but I've enjoyed most of it and I'm glad I have not missed the past year.

It's nice to see posts like these though. :)
I'm glad you feel that way.

Yep, this is how it shoulda launched

which is why they started charging now :D

I think the sloppy battle system and the overall quality of "quests" would still get the same reception they did a year ago. It's good that 2.0 is still so far away there's yet a whole game for se to build in here.

agreed i also feel like its in a good launching state now, maybe include 1.21 thou for jobs to finish the picture a bit more

Some of the updates are an ongoing process that will continue seamlessly into 2.0,
but i think it is important to remember that the majority of 'improvements', which include most of the content
is 2.0 based. of course this has a lot to do with 2.0 being built on a new engine/server etc.

So i think a bit of perspective is also necessary.
The game is coming along as we see and play it,
but the leap forward when 2.0 goes beta (August-November) will completely dwarf the entirety of improvements from launch until now.

For a new player, the game offers lots of things to do. Leves for casual players, lvl15-20 public dungeon, lvl25+ instance, mid -high level NMs, lvl50 raid + 2 "hard" fights + strongholds. Storyline and companies quests, (useless) sidequests, craft, gathering, achievements, materia melding.

This is how the game should have been at the release more then 1 year ago :P

But the real problem is:

i don't see new players at all. I always see the same faces from day 1, and this is terrible. I hope SE will do a great impression to people during E3 in June....
A lot of players have capped the fight classes, and the only thing we can do is waiting for the 2 dungeons promised with 1.21.

SWTOR is a great single player game till 1.21 release btw <.<''''''

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Originally Posted by Ashthra

FFXIV circa January 2012 is miles ahead of FFXIV June 2011, and is an entirely different game from FFXIV September 2010.

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This though, is completely a personal opinion and a matter of tastes, I dont think the game has changed much, as to what I can do its the same thing I had to do 15 months ago, grind. There are some visual differences, its smoother and cities have flags everywhere, but that doesnt make it a good game, for me at least. SWTOR looks fugly compared to this, even FFXI, but both have hundreds of thousands of players because it has content XD

Doesnt matter, GW2 will rule all XD it just has way to much content in at release.

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Originally Posted by HiirNoivl

I'm still hurting for things to do. I'm one drop away from getting the last Ifrit weapon. I'm already working on my moogle drops. Right now my only goals are to start seriously getting materia melds on gear as well as work on Luminary Tools. But that's half hearted. Since I already defeated everything that needs defeating, even if I get triple melds on everything I'll feel like I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go.

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You rushed to end game on a game that is being "relaunched"... of course you are going to run out of things to do.

Even when the game is relaunched... you're still not going to have tons of things to do. A ton of content isn't going to just magically appear at any point, hell when they release something new you see people posting that they've already done it X number of times..

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Originally Posted by Seif

I think the sloppy battle system and the overall quality of "quests" would still get the same reception they did a year ago. It's good that 2.0 is still so far away there's yet a whole game for se to build in here.

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Leves and quests are still a bit lacking. The battle system is actually pretty decent.. though it would be nice if you were in active mode and something attacked you, you would swing back... whats the point of having my weapon out being ready if i'm just going to stand there and take a beating till i give an input?

It maybe good for new people, but for me, who has been around since day one, I find it incredibly boring. I find myself with nothing to do or any motiviation to even log in. As of this moment, I have started playing Rift again, (which btw don't even mention you play FFXIV there unless you want to be a laughing stock lol) waiting for something to do here. I am very upset about the Moogle battle, I think this idea was absolutely ridiculous and I hate the weapons, I don't even want them, and now Gobbue mounts? I hope this is not the path we are heading down.

I would agree that the current state would be better for game launch compared to what it was, but if it was 2.0 it would be a lot better, which is what they're doing anyways. The UI & lag definitely needs to be address. I know it's better than before, but compared to the general mmo's it's going to get bashed by reviews. Content wise I would agree that 2.0 could be an expansion pack as far as redo of the world, pvp, etc. But the basic core structure of 2.0 (the, hopefully, improved engine, better server structure, ui) is what the game should've launched with.

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Originally Posted by Blitz0309

Leves and quests are still a bit lacking. The battle system is actually pretty decent.. though it would be nice if you were in active mode and something attacked you, you would swing back... whats the point of having my weapon out being ready if i'm just going to stand there and take a beating till i give an input?

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What I meant by that is that it's functional but doesn't involve any strategy and basically that's why it feels pointless and boring.

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Originally Posted by Chezen

For me, watching the game change and unfold has been an adventure of itself. Sometimes it's been frustrating and sometimes it's a lot of fun, but I've enjoyed most of it and I'm glad I have not missed the past year.

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This is definitely the case for me as well. I've played since launch but only 10-15 hours a week, so I've been able to enjoy watching things evolve without pressing hard against content ceilings.

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Originally Posted by Blitz0309

You rushed to end game on a game that is being "relaunched"... of course you are going to run out of things to do.

Even when the game is relaunched... you're still not going to have tons of things to do. A ton of content isn't going to just magically appear at any point, hell when they release something new you see people posting that they've already done it X number of times..

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This is one of the main issues the dev team has right now. Whatever content they release it will be beaten in a matter of days/weeks. And not because the content is lacking, I "blame" the people who have several classes capped and are just waiting for a new battle/quest.

New content is announced -> Everyone excited -> Content is released -> Everyone happy, and eager to do it -> Content is beaten in days/week -> [Insert flavor of the month ''strategy sharing" here] -> People beat the new content like a dead horse -> People complain that there's nothing to do

Ever since 1.18 that's how it's been. And no, the real culprits are not the ones that have several classes capped, is SE for taking so much time to release things to do. By the time they did, most of the player base already had everything else (meaningful, not things like "go around Mor Dhona and see what's there") done.