Rate FFXIV 1 to 10

[Conkers]

I give it 5/10.

Plus Points:
Nice graphics
Nice crafting system
Being able to play all classes on one character

Minus points:
It offers nothing new and is already dated.
It lacks polish in some respects.
Combat is dull.
Classes are simplistic, dull and offer no room for build variation.
Fates are probably the worst dynamic event system I've seen (Rift, GW2, etc do it better)
Levelling additonal classes is painful.
No European servers on a game asking for a sub is laughable
Lag issues worse than any other MMO I've played. (outside of mass scale PvP)
The dungeons are dull.

[Stryker]

Pre 50 I would say that the game was a good 7 or 8 out of 10 when I could play. But realistically with the server issues I would drop it a point, having to spam the 0 key on my num pad or afk to get some game time early on really blew.

Now that I'm 50 I would say that the game is a 5 or 6 outta 10. Purely because I find myself doing speed runs to get DL and doing primals. Maybe Coils is supposed to be the fun part, but getting there sure as hell isn't.

[PSxpert2011]

I give it 5/10.

Plus Points:
Nice graphics
Nice crafting system
Being able to play all classes on one character

Minus points:
It offers nothing new and is already dated.
It lacks polish in some respects.
Combat is dull.
Classes are simplistic, dull and offer no room for build variation.
Fates are probably the worst dynamic event system I've seen (Rift, GW2, etc do it better)
Levelling additonal classes is painful.
No European servers on a game asking for a sub is laughable
Lag issues worse than any other MMO I've played. (outside of mass scale PvP)
The dungeons are dull.

i give it a 4/ 10
Everything above you mentioned, I actually like but there's other negative I rather not say cause it out-weighs the positives.
... let just keep it as that. I don't want to fuel any controversy.

[jdnyc]

Pre-50 I would say 7.
After I hit 50 and started grinding, I would say 6.

Now after crafting and expanding other classes, seeing how much I still want to do...9

[Zezlar]

If only there were a beta where a lot of these points could have been addressed.

Oh wait....the game is the best thing ever created. I forgot.

[sasakusaku]

1-50 First char: 9/10.

Excellent leveling experience and the story was great even though there was little to no voice acting. Almost all major reviewers gave it 8+/10 but none of them actually reviewed the game based on the after 50 experience....

After first 50: 5/10

Boring, repetitious, and has no variety. I am supposed to run AK a billion times because after you do primals/DL grind...there is nothing else to do other than Coil which is aimed at the top 10% thus excludes most players. Oh, play alts they say...well the fate grind is even more boring/awful than AK + good luck gearing out those alts, takes even more grind yay! Infact, I believe it's 38 weeks per job...awesome! Well unless you buy gil off the RMTers since that is about the only way a NORMAL person will be able to afford crafted items. Oh and speaking of RMTers; they have pretty much taken over this game with their spam and gather/kill bots. It's almost as if FF 14 was made specifically for them to flourish!

Anyways, if this game had a fully realized/multi venue PvP system, 4+ more 4 man true lvl 50 dungeons plus HM versions, and Crystal Keep on launch...then I would not even be here complaining. There is only so much AK I can handle and it's depressing to know I have to do it for another 2 months.........YUCKY! I am getting mighty tired of MMO devs these days not including better end game and then promising it will all get fixed months or years from launch (after you sub that is).

[Ryios]

7/10 needs bug fixes and more content.

[seekerofpower]

The graphics have been downgraded w/ ARR(not just the asses) for PS3/low-end PC support. It seems like texture resolution took the brunt of it. However, they did add (full) dynamic lighting so graphics haven't been downgraded across the board.

From what I can tell, only character textures have been downgraded, everything else has been upgraded. The textures in the world are a lot better.

[Leonas]

7/10

The game itself is beautiful and lovely with a story that starts slow, but thats how SE rolls. They start a story slow and ramp it up like a snowball rolling down a mountainside, getting bigger and bigger as it gains momentum.
Character designs in terms of story and background are diverse, even if the models are lacking a little bit. Some of them have a serious case of the giraffee neck.

If it was just the game by itself, with the content coming out as planned every couple of months I'd of rated the game higher. But theres other things.

SE has dropped the ball alot and responded with some bad decisions.

When the servers were having issues and people stayed logged on day and night in order to avoid 1017 world is full because of tiny population cap on the servers, SE didn't put in countermeasures until AFTER they expanded the servers. The AFK timeout didn't get into the game until after the servers were expanded, good going SE.

Then the response to RMT. They do a blanket ban that catches alot of players that never had anything to do with RMT. Suspending them, and then after deciding they were innocent, taking away a massive majority of their gil. Personally I think they did this because they were getting worried people can afford their large housing immediately at release, but thats tin foil hat theory. Anything else makes no sense whatsoever. Unsuspended their accounts after finding out they're innocent but still take away most of their money, lolwat? Seems very heavy handed and garners a serious amount of distrust between dev and playerbase.

The serious lack of communication from Square Enix. This is the big kicker. The only forum communication I see is from the tech and bug related threads in the Bug Reporting and Tech Support. Thats it, as well as their website info is just lack luster in what they say.

[Klefth]

For me, the original XIV (by 1.23) would've gotten a 8/10. But this... weird, chimeric-like mixture of any "popular" MMO that they've turned the game into gets a 5/10, and that's being really nice. I feel like they let go of just way too many things from the game, particularly those that defined it's identity like it's design and visual appeal, and it's rather distinctive combat system, and in it's place just made some half-assed... thing...

• The combat has now devolved into the same key-smashing, rotation spamming "standard" thing seen forever in a plethora of MMOs. Sure, it's slightly faster paced and more responsive, but it's dated and completely unoriginal to the point where some people call the skills our jobs now have by the name of their WoW counterparts (same for some boss moves)
  
  
• The graphics went down the craphole. Yes, some sort of graphical downgrade was to be expected thanks to the PS3 version, but not up to this point for sure. Textures on the PC version are garbage now, poly count was reduced to the point were many of the older pieces of gear look really, really weird, pretty much all physics animations are gone, and characters now feel floaty and awkward, weapons now seem completely weightless because of the new sped up and simplified WS animations and the fact that we can move around freely even if we're doing some sort of break dance move (see Dragon Kick). A lot of animations just stick out like a sore thumb. But hey, we got boob physics! ...>.>
  
  
• The world is... ugh. Most areas are about a third of their original size at best (Coerthas, the largest, most beautiful area of the game, is now a barren, snowy wasteland, reduced to less than 1/5th of it's original size, it's now among the smallest areas in the game, the smallest now being Mor Dhona), and the only thing that's in them are exclamation marks or FATES. The landscape was remade to be "more interesting", but now there's... nothing interesting within said landscapes... no NMs to hunt down, no danger, no chests in strongholds, no Shposhae, no special sights that you'd have to risk your ass to see
  
  
  
  
  (The Black Shroud, btw, got it's name for being always covered under the shade of the gigantic trees - not anymore! The name doesn't even make sense now)
  
  
  (level 86 ogres all the way up to this neat little spot, all with ranged attacks)
  
  
  (Level 86 Smolenkos right behind by the entrance of this nice hidden cave, which were later adjusted)
  
  
  
  
  
• Itemization in the game has been dumbed down incredibly. Sure, making your ideal build in 1.2x wasn't exactly the most complicated thing, but it was better than this. Stats on gear were more varied, AF pieces, primal weapons and relics had special bonuses to them, and there was a nice balance between crafted and dungeon gear. Sure, crafted/melded stuff was king for the most part, but nobody would neglect some Darklight (cept for BLMs, lulz), but now? Balance? Pff... Crafted gear is now just comparable to other endgame stuff if HQ'd, yet it costs a ton more to make (a darksteel hauby, for example, costs 1125 ToP + mats and obviously a well geared armorer to make, whereas a DL cuirass costs 825, period), and then it'd only be really worth making if melded... which btw is a pain now as spiritbonding isn't as easy as it used to be. Dungeon gear is simply king now at most level ranges, and all you need to do to get geared up is grind, grind, grind some dungeons like a madman. And if you don't have anything from a dungeon at lower levels, no worries, quests got you covered! You don't need to use them pesky markets!
  (as a side note here, why the fucking flying fuck can't we sell used gear anymore? It makes no sense at all. This is one of those changes that simply baffle me)
  
  
• The leveling... I don't even want to get onto that one. I already leveled a job up to 50 in ARR (ACN/SMN), and I don't even want to imagine what it'd be like to level another one now that I've used up most of the quests around the place. It's a good thing I leveled most of the stuff I cared about back in 1.0

I won't even get into the storyline and the cutscenes because that would just get me kind of sad and nostalgic. I'll just say they fucked it up big time, and anyone who's made it around the Tidus arc (the Lominsan arc) or past it would definitely know what I'm talking about. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF--

Also, the sole existence of the NPC Auriana in Mor Dhona (and, subsequently, tomestones) should lower this game's rating (for me) to a 3, maybe 4/10, but I'm feeling nice today.

Here's hoping things change for the better at some point. Sooner rather than later... But for now, well, just read my sig...