Did you PLAY or TEST?

I blame Zyuu for selling beta keys to people who just wanted to play.

Seriously all joking aside. With how SE is ''Listening'' Now it makes you wonder what the hell really happened in beta was Tanaka really that bad? Or was management really that rushed to release it. Anyone who was in beta how many of you not just reported bugs but made all these claims about content you are now?

I can happily say I reported, but I couldn't post on the beta boards

I was part of closed beta, but I was very depressed through all of it. I found the gameplay to be fantastic despite how poorly the performance was.

The problem was so many people were complaining about stuff I actually liked, such as the pace of battle (apparently it was too slow for everyone back then). I personally enjoy room for strategic thinking in the middle of battle.

I did it all, I shouted from the roof tops, but alas nobody listened.

Beta was not allow to report much it was all alpha job. Beta was just to see how much the server can take noting more sadly they did not listen to us at all i play beta 1 and got bored of the game by open beta.

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Originally Posted by Galamantyl

I was part of closed beta, but I was very depressed through all of it. I found the gameplay to be fantastic despite how poorly the performance was.

The problem was so many people were complaining about stuff I actually liked, such as the pace of battle (apparently it was too slow for everyone back then). I personally enjoy room for strategic thinking in the middle of battle.

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Sadly I never got the chance to beta test but I really wanted to try the older battle system. For some reason I feel if it were still around now there would be no need for auto attack. Considering auto-attack is slow as-well.

I reported ANYTHING I found, and it was quite a lot. lol

Most of it was mechanical like glitches though, and not actually like... "well, I think the game needs more content" because it was in Alpha when I tested it and I truly thought they had more planned than just guildleves and the main story arc. Too bad I was wrong. If I would've known, I would've complained about the lack of content more often. lol

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Originally Posted by Grimm

I blame Zyuu for selling beta keys to people who just wanted to play.

Seriously all joking aside. With how SE is ''Listening'' Now it makes you wonder what the hell really happened in beta was Tanaka really that bad? Or was management really that rushed to release it. Anyone who was in beta how many of you not just reported bugs but made all these claims about content you are now?

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By Playing, you are Testing. Most Game companies nowadays record the actions and paths that most players travel in their gametime. every crash, every error and event out of place, captured to be addressed.

The game was rushed. Sticking to September release date, they could have either tried to release more content but release a really buggy game, or release a game almost free of bugs but deprived of content. Either way would have been a disaster. Their release date was pretty ambitious.

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Originally Posted by Grimm

Sadly I never got the chance to beta test but I really wanted to try the older battle system. For some reason I feel if it were still around now there would be no need for auto attack. Considering auto-attack is slow as-well.

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I know that conjurer and thaumaturge felt different back then. There was not as much MP to spare, but the nukes/heals were much more potent if I'm not mistaken.

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Originally Posted by Kallera

By Playing, you are Testing. Most Game companies nowadays record the actions and paths that most players travel in their gametime. every crash, every error and event out of place, captured to be addressed.

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Yes but this system only works for the most encountered at the monument. I was more wonder as to how many people actually spoke their mind. Like the battle system was changed in beta but that is about it for things that can be seen at lest major things that people are talking about now like Job names and such..

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Originally Posted by Galamantyl

I know that conjurer and thaumaturge felt different back then. There was not as much MP to spare, but the nukes/heals were much more potent if I'm not mistaken.

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Sounds like the older FF games.

I was an alpha tester...the only suggestion of mine that I saw implemented were strafing keys. but the targeting and lock-on system were different back then.

I had a whole big post done but then you changed the title of the thread and I lost it.....

Mini version:.
From what I recall we were led to believe or chose to believe the rest of the game's content was being held back so as not to ruin or reveal the whole game, which turned out to not be exactly true. A lot of the defense against criticism came from this belief. I'd like to point out that negative criticism will ALWAYS be badly received, we would be in a better situation if people could actually word their opinions, ideas and impressions in ways that don't instantly insult someone's sensibility. Mutual respect and a sense of being mindful of other people thoughts and feelings other then ourselves is an art mostly forgotten nowadays.

Another thing, SE was going to release this when they decided they would and no matter what the community said or reported that's when it would happen, they did scramble a bit at the end but the responsible thing to do would have been at least a four to five month delay. I will say that many of the things that people actually mostly aggreed on were not listened to.

I was in since alpha, but I'm sure lots of people wanted to get into testing to play the game. I did do my share of reporting findings, not bugs so much (bug reporting wasn't as much required for late alpha and after testers) but more on what I found wrong with the system.

One thing I noted on the forums was that if you played on a smaller resolution, your gear setup menu was so large it would expand off the side of the screen. Also I was someone who mentioned a solution to underwear gear wear back when it was still in, I said "either link underwear to appropriate gear slots so you can take off one or the other but not both at the same time, or remove underwear from this rule and make it purely cosmetic". Note the underwear issue was back in closed beta, how long now did it take before they actually fixed it when the game went live?

Of course the problems that are with this game since release has much more than just your underwear boring holes faster than your outer armor.

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Originally Posted by Grimm

Sounds like the older FF games.

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Don't get me started... ;p

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Originally Posted by Cendres

I had a whole big post done but then you changed the title of the thread and I lost it.....

Mini version:.
From what I recall we were led to believe or chose to believe the rest of the game's content was being held back so as not to ruin or reveal the whole game, which turned out to not be exactly true. A lot of the defense against criticism came from this belief. I'd like to point out that negative criticism will ALWAYS be badly received, we would be in a better situation if people could actually word their opinions, ideas and impressions in ways that don't instantly insult someone's sensibility. Mutual respect and a sense of being mindful of other people thoughts and feelings other then ourselves is an art mostly forgotten nowadays.

Another thing, SE was going to release this when they decided they would and no matter what the community said or reported that's when it would happen, they did scramble a bit at the end but the responsible thing to do would have been at least a four to five month delay. I will say that many of the things that people actually mostly aggreed on were not listened to.

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Sorry about that! But thanks for the details and I agree some people tend to be rude when reporting bug or voicing opinions

5 years to release a game is not *rushed

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Originally Posted by Galamantyl

Don't get me started... ;p

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But I must! I wish they would just make a modern traditional FF game with all the jobs from V and Tactics. But job's like Mime be restricted a bit. Also great story telling for an MMO like XI.

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Originally Posted by BelgianRofl

5 years to release a game is not *rushed

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Your right but, all we know is a tech demo. Does not mean they were working on it that whole time.

lol I just remember when I criticized there was nothing to do, somebody told me, "This is just beta of course we're only see'ing 10% of the game". I don't know, I really enjoyed alpha's combat system over beta's but it was indeed slower.

I was a first-wave Alpha tester.

Looking back at my feedback and the state of the game a year ago, the game was literally unplayable. You would be online for a just enough time to walk around a bit, lose connection, and spend the rest of your time trying to get back online. It was clear that the game wasn't even ready for an Alpha test. Server issues, serious glitches, and other fundamental problems should have been 99% sorted out before they ever sent invites out.

Those first several months were spent primarily getting the game to a point where the Alpha testers could actually test some of the things they asked us about. Unfortunately, everything was so unfinished, it was very difficult to give feedback as you didn't know what the development team was looking to accomplish or what direction they were looking to take the game. In short, we were asked to give feedback on specific and very rough pieces of a puzzle, without either the neighboring pieces to measure them by, or any clear idea of what the puzzle should look like when assembled.

We gave feedback on things like the pace of battle which ultimately resulted in the elimination of the accuracy/damage meter. But overall, it was difficult to know what to comment on due to not knowing where they were going with it.

It was clear that completely unrealistic promises were made about FFXIV's development time-line both internally and externally at SquareEnix. After the release, when the general public got their hands on the game, did the reality set in with the upper management. Yoshida-san has a daunting task ahead of him. He has to take Tanaka's vague vision and years of development, and turn it into something worthy of the Final Fantasy name in a relatively short time.

Personal thoughts: I've always thought that FFXIV has the potential to be a fantastic game, far better than FFXI. But it won't be an easy task. First impressions are very stubborn things, and SE will have to work twice as hard to win back those they lost -- not just players, but gaming press and reviewers as well. Fortunately, the PS3 release is a great opportunity for that. However, If the game for some reason turns out to be unsalvageable, I wouldn't be surprised to wake up and find this game be renamed as FF:Online II, in order to preserve the franchise.

OH And in alpha you received an email telling you what they wanted feedback on. i remember trying to do battle regimens for an entire session and not being able to pull it off once. but i always gave super positive feedback on crafting. ive loved the crafting and gathering system since day one. the one thing i did give negative feedback on was crafting recipes and having the need for player repairs.

^ Thank you for the well thought out post. I agree FFXIV has the potential. I just hope they listen rather than just giving everything most players ask for it can be game breaking. There is a difference between listening and thinking on a request than handing what ever people ask for to them.

I posted so many damn bugs and issues. They are welcome to go back and read my feedback. If all they ever do is read that beta feedback and respond accordingly, this game will have a very bright future.

First wave Pro Bono Crash Test dummy here. I tested, reported, and gave feed back until my eyes fell out and my fingers went numb. though after a while you got the impression that things were falling on def ears. Heck i honestly think the only changes that came from all of it all at the time were the current mouse camera control scheme and getting the con pips to be a bit more friendly to the colorblind. and those felt like herculean efforts. The communication was almost nil and the forum mod only stepped in and regulated due to really really outrageous things being said.

here's the thing though if you look over the things that have been changed since then, it mirrors a lot of the stuff we old guard were saying back while we were under our nda's. Would have been nice had this stuff gone in before the public laid eyes on the game, but hey they messed up the bed, now they got to fix it. and it really feels like they got the wake up call they needed.

Sounds like they are going through old beta feedback then comparing it to requests being made now and going ''Oh crap why didn't we do this before do it now!''

I was on the very first Alpha test and like Zantetsuken said it wasn't really ready, and staying logged on was pretty good if you could manage it, and almost every leve that i did in a party would crash out. Lots of bugs where reported by myself and lots of other players with great feedback and suggestions, sadly a lot was ignored. I also remember spending 30 minutes with somebody trying to Battle regiment and we looked like a right pair of muppets lol.

Welp this paints a bleak picture, but its not like we werent already looking at one.

I remember some comment in beta test like : "DONT SHIP THE GAME ! DELAY IT!" ;_;