Some Food For Thought (While you wait for the game to improve.)

[CrstyCaptin]

Don't forget that word of mouth is the best advertising you can get. If they had closed down servers or kept charging people would be raging harder than they are now and thus leading to more hate towards SE. Even if they shut down the servers and opened them back up 1-2 years later you can bet that no one would pay to play and most would never even return to check it out with the next gen MMO's coming out. By keeping it f2p they're getting the 'free' advertising they desperately need from patch to patch by people simply discussing the game on numerous forums. I assume they're also betting people will constantly return to check the game out if they can freely invest a ton of time into their game and build their characters. Say 1.18 is a big hit. Everyone across all these forums will be saying "FFXIV is a ton better now, it's the perfect time to return!". By those discussions alone you'll have people dl the patch and return and even some new people go pick up the game to try it out. Just saying that they're not making it F2P without having something in it for themselves.

On a side note, it's not just the $80 that people are pissed about loosing at launch. It's also large number of people who, by looking back on XI and loving all that it was, thought XIV would be the 'new XI' and ran out to buy a new PC to be able to play this game in all it's beauty(remember those high ass system requirements?). SE hyped up launch and it failed hard. Now all these people are out 2k~$ on rig for a game that sucks. I spent that much on a new PC too but I use it for other stuff as well so it wasn't a huge loss for me.

[Wynn]

On a side note, it's not just the $80 that people are pissed about loosing at launch. It's also large number of people who, by looking back on XI and loving all that it was, thought XIV would be the 'new XI' and ran out to buy a new PC to be able to play this game in all it's beauty(remember those high ass system requirements?). SE hyped up launch and it failed hard. Now all these people are out 2k~$ on rig for a game that sucks. I spent that much on a new PC too but I use it for other stuff as well so it wasn't a huge loss for me.

Anyone that expected this game to be the new XI has only themselves to blame. SE has made it very clear since well before the release of this game that it was never, EVER, intended to be an XI-2 in any way, shape, form, or capacity. In addition, people that upgrade their computers just to play a game need to rebalance their priorities. We can blame SE for not releasing a quality game, but we cannot blame SE for our own bad decisions.

[CrstyCaptin]

Anyone that expected this game to be the new XI has only themselves to blame. SE has made it very clear since well before the release of this game that it was never, EVER, intended to be an XI-2 in any way, shape, form, or capacity. In addition, people that upgrade their computers just to play a game need to rebalance their priorities. We can blame SE for not releasing a quality game, but we cannot blame SE for our own bad decisions.

Never said XI-2. Said 'the new XI' meaning carrying the good over and leaving the bad behind and having a 'fresh start' in a new FF world. They also were very vocal and even posted tons of videos with the staff showing how the game was going to be 'awesome' and everything they were 'excited' about before release(the monster animation one sticks out in my mind). I even remember reading how leves were going to 'remove the grind'. The launch was 'hyped up'. There's no denying that. Go read JP forums and read the rage they threw at SE for letting them down so hard when a lot of them bought new PCs to get a head start before PS3 release(since PS3 was originally planned for march, and majority of the JP playerbase are console players).

They had tons of loyal fans that thought they always 'delivered' when it came to their games, including myself. Just because they didn't deliver doesn't mean it was our fault. SE blew it, not us.

I also could have waiting a while longer before upgrading... SSD prices only went down in price and I could have gotten my GPU for much cheaper ><

[KumaAkuma]

On a side note, it's not just the $80 that people are pissed about loosing at launch. It's also large number of people who, by looking back on XI and loving all that it was, thought XIV would be the 'new XI' and ran out to buy a new PC to be able to play this game in all it's beauty(remember those high ass system requirements?). SE hyped up launch and it failed hard. Now all these people are out 2k~$ on rig for a game that sucks. I spent that much on a new PC too but I use it for other stuff as well so it wasn't a huge loss for me.

Yeah I could have waited another year (or more but let's not be pessimistic) to buy a better pc damnit!