How can this remain competitive in the MMO market?

[Silvyaniss]

I wouldn't be too quick to downplay Guild Wars 2....Guild Wars 1 sold 6 million boxes.

Here's a quick video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giFE9...eature=related

I'de rather play a GW2 Ranger than a FF14 Archer....now some people say to give the game time...hey listen
I have all the time in the world to wait for games to come out and play them....but It's Square Enix who is
running out of time...What??? Do they think their the only ones with a TRiple AAA MMO in 2010-1011....they
had over 5 years to fix this mess and this is what we have??? I hate to be negative but I'm not the only one
with these reservations for this game...When ever you get complaints across the board from reviewers and game
companies the answer is pretty simple....they released an unfinished, unpolished game out the gate..and like other
games that were released unfinished unpolished....Vanguard, Warhammer online, Conan, etc etc...if they don't becareful
they will lose their loyal fanbase...I'm hanging in there, but even I have my limits.

[Dingleberry]

Wait until CE release. Wait until SE release. Wait until November. Wait until December. Wait until February content update. Wait until March content update.

Now folks are saying wait until September 2011?

Obviously i'm not actually saying wait until September 2011, I'm saying give it some time yoshi took over only a little while ago.

[Kiroh]

Do they think their the only ones with a TRiple AAA MMO in 2010-1011....

Are we traveling back in time now? I never knew they had MMOs in 1011.

Mind = blown.

[Abriael]

Correct. FFXIV has the skeleton/foundation to be better than any game on the market. This can only happen, however, if SE is devoting the necessary financial resources to precipitate these developments.

I don't see any evidence that the necessary support required for this has been given to the development team in the form of doubling, tripling, or quadrupling staff numbers and boosting the development budget.

Making you play for free for months without any kind of cash shop to generate revenue is already a very solid evidenceof monetary/resource investments. Servers have a cost, employees have a cost, development has a cost. Square Enix, at the moment, is shouldering that cost without asking a further dime of us.

If they didn't mean to seriously pursue a recovery of the game, they would do like EA did with warhammer online:
-Charge the monthly fee right after the first free month. Whoever stays stays and gets milked. Everyone else can get lost.
-Massive Layoffs of the team and of the QA team
-Massive server merges to reduce operating costs.

SE did exactly the opposite. They even redirected several key figures from other teams into the FFXIV one. So yeah, it's pretty clear that they are putting a serious effort into it, both monetarily and resource-wise.

[Dingleberry]

Are we traveling back in time now? I never knew they had MMOs in 1011.

Mind = blown.

don't need that around here.

[Kiroh]

don't need that around here. get lost.

What, a little levity? Forgive me oh mighty secret moderator of the beta forums for I know not what I did to displease you. Perhaps it was folly to believe I could bring some amusement to this sacred and holy place.

Don't be an ass just because someone makes a joke.

As for SE, I really don't know how they can remain competitive. True enough that they've been doing a lot to try and improve the game but, unfortunately, they'll have to keep proving the game is better for a long time. The updates will have to keep coming at a good pace too. Trust isn't regained that easily, and often never at all.

[KRTGDL]

Making you play for free for months without any kind of cash shop to generate revenue is already a very solid proof of monetary/resource investments. Servers have a cost, employees have a cost, development has a cost. Square Enix, at the moment, is shouldering that cost.

If they didn't mean to seriously pursue a recovery of the game, they would do like EA did with warhammer online:
-Charge the monthly fee right after the first free months. Whoever stays stays and gets milked.
-Massive Layoffs of the team and of the QA team
-Massive server merges to reduce operating costs.

SE did exactly the opposite. They even redirected several key figures from other teams into the FFXIV one. So yeah, it's pretty clear that they are putting a serious effort into it, both monetarily and resource-wise.

SE had three options if they were not going to shut down the game completely: 1) Charge a monthly sub fee. 2) Extend the free trial period and use the remaining and incredibly small player base as extended beta guinea pigs. 3) Shut down the servers to fix the game.

They chose 2, but this monetary and resource "investment" you speak of is simply part and parcel of the choice. I'd be more impressed with concrete facts, otherwise I'm not buying it.

Everything else you mentioned is simply window dressing and PR stunts. What Stephen Colbert might claim to be "rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg."

[Dingleberry]

As for SE, I really don't know how they can remain competitive. True enough that they've been doing a lot to try and improve the game but unfortunately they'll have to keep proving the game is better for a long time. The updates will have to keep coming at a good pace too. Trust isn't regained that easily, and often never at all.

Agreed, those updates will have to come at a good pace, before they lose their loyal players, one they're gone it'll be hard to get players back.

[Dingleberry]

Also, i'm not sure if it has been said yet but currently SE is basically making no money so you can bet they'll be doing all they can as fast as they can.

[Abriael]

SE had three options if they were not going to shut down the game completely: 1) Charge a monthly sub fee. 2) Extend the free trial period and use the remaining and incredibly small player base as extended beta guinea pigs. 3) Shut down the servers to fix the game.

They chose 2, but this monetary and resource "investment" you speak of is simply part and parcel of the choice. I'd be more impressed with concrete facts, otherwise I'm not buying it.

Everything else you mentioned is simply window dressing and PR stunts. What Stephen Colbert might claim to be "rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg."

Sorry but no. Shouldering the full costs of the maintenance/development/evolution of a MMORPG for an undisclosed amount of months IS a concrete fact. You may not care, but the fact doesn't change. Anyone that has the slightest idea of the costs that involve would know that.
It's simply unprecedented within the market.

If you demand a company to show you actual fiscal data on investment, you're quite delusional. No one will ever do that. It's not even legal for publicly traded companies to do that oustide official investor calls.