XIV is Not Being Remade for You/Us

[Cichy]

They tried to reach a new demographic with Abyssea, but doing so alienated a large part of their primary playerbase and they didn't do much advertising for new players so it was a bit suicidal.

That's why I'm saying it was about 4 years too late. If they added this before when the population was strong that would have attracted more players. However, they added it during a time where most people around were the old players holding on to their glory days of claiming Fafnirs and getting Ridills.

[Xatsh]

They tried to change a hardcore based game into a mainstream casual game... thus causing over half the playerbase to quit.

I disagree with cichy though, changing earlier would of done nothing except make half the playerbase quit... the other they would of continued to play WoW, Aion, and the other mainstream games.

The ones playing XI where the ones who choose not to play WoW, infact alot of people left WoW and came to FFXI when they found out they did not like that style.

Mainstream and FFXI are not the same group of target audience.

[SuzakuCMX]

They tried to change a hardcore based game into a mainstream casual game... thus causing over half the playerbase to quit.

I disagree with cichy though, changing earlier would of done nothing except make half the playerbase quit... the other they would of continued to play WoW, Aion, and the other mainstream games.

The ones playing XI where the ones who choose not to play WoW, infact alot of people left WoW and came to FFXI when they found out they did not like that style.

Mainstream and FFXI are not the same group of target audience.

There was like 0 advertisement for the Abyssea release. I didn't even know it happened until I saw it on Steam for sale like a month ago.

As far as the WoW-related part goes, FFXI came out 2 years before WoW, so it's more like the people that were playing XI and not WoW were the people who didn't leave for WoW in the first place.

[Cichy]

If SE switches gears and caps abyssea at 75 people will still complain about abyssea ruining XI. Why? Because the status quo has been impacted by abyssea's mere introduction. Their status as "elite" players was negatively impacted by their level no longer being the highest, their gear no longer being the "best." They resent the idea that they spent years getting to a certain point or getting such and such item and now someone can come to the game and be on even keel with them in a couple months. Said players would have rather seen XI spiral into a stale oblivion and stasis than see anything change because they were on the top and wanted to stay there. This issue isn't about the game. It never was. It is about ego, entitlement, and elitism.

He summed up peoples problem with Abyssea.
I think overall and content wise XI is a nice package right now, the problem is that it's too late. If SE decided to make those additions few years ago they could've even increased lvl caps and there would be nice content that people could do on their way to the cap. People would've actually enjoyed some stuff other then lvling which everyone still just grinds out to max level because you can do it so fast it makes pursuing gear from lower level content pointless.
Yoshi has the right idea, he wants to make the game about the journey rather than the destination like XI was.

[Crica]

The only way to save this game is to make it marketable to as many people as possible.

Well, since the PC hardware required to play FFXIV is pretty pricey compared to what WoW requires and the PS3 investment is something WoW doesn't require - FFXIV is NOT marketable to as many players as WoW is.

If FFXIV gets even a million stable subs after PS3 version goes live, I would be *shocked*.

[Corrderio]

Well, since the PC hardware required to play FFXIV is pretty pricey compared to what WoW requires and the PS3 investment is something WoW doesn't require - FFXIV is NOT marketable to as many players as WoW is.

If FFXIV gets even a million stable subs after PS3 version goes live, I would be *shocked*.

This is probably the biggest problem with XIV ever trying to get a playerbase back. Even when they optimize the game I still think it'll be pretty costly to buy/build a PC for a game.

Wasn't there a review with Tanaka about the high requirements awhile ago and he tried to justify it by saying the requirements will be the standard for PCs a few years later or something like that?

[Vanguard319]

Hear! hear! Another good idea would be to hold a few LS events like mine did earlier this week, get people on and socializing, even if it is a naked marathon from LL to Gridania and back through Mor Dhona.

[Seraphite]

OP is rank 7 and therefore wrong.

[MeowyWowie]

And by you/us I mean both consummate XI vets as well as the staunch "old-school-ways" XIV supporter.

Yoshida is not remaking FFXIV for us on the boards here. The game is not going to be made into XI 2.0 nor is it going to be the base XIV -- only with more content. And this is a good thing.

No doubt after Yoshida took over from the failed launch and replaced Tanaka, he must have begun to analyze why the game was so unpopular; glaring technical shortcomings notwithstanding. Many people chimed in on the player polls, and continue to do so now with the forums. However, a lot of people here don't seem to want to accept that his plan is for the bigger picture, not just for those of us who stuck around.

The current, small playerbase will not save XIV, no matter how happy it's made. Remaking XIV in XI's shadow will not save this game. Sticking to Tanaka's vision will not save this game. The only way to save this game is to make it marketable to as many people as possible. How do we know this? Well, besides the obvious fact that more subs = more profits = more successful, Yoshida has already announced changes made to appeal to a wider playerbase.
* Auto-attack
* Enmity gauge
* Instanced dungeons & Raids
* More solo friendly

That's not to say that we're going to be overlooked. Yoshida's vision includes gameplay for all styles. But ultimately, he is looking at the bigger picture, and that is more people playing. On a huge scale.

Oh, and they are, of course, working as fast as they can. However, they're not going to make the major mistake the previous administration did and rush it out the door. It will take time. So to all of you who are threatining to leave if 1.18 doesn't meet up with your exacting standards, or because we're getting auto-attack or an enmity gauge, sorry... you're not part of the bigger picture. Deal with it.


I will say this though to all you guys chomping at the bit. Take a few steps back for a while. Play other games until all these battle changes are hammered out. Check up on the game every now and then, and give the devs some good, constructive feedback. You'd be amazed how much easier it is to follow XIV's progress from a distance, rather than going crazy waiting every day.

Lol, you're definitely right. SE is trying to appeal to a wider audience, but that audience is casual PS3 players. There's nothing more to it.

FFXIV is slowly turning into a generic MMO, copying things from other games and removing what made it original. Sure, the things that made it original were not implemented very well (manual attack, market wards, DoH and DoL as main classes, etc, etc..) but they definitely weren't exact copies from other games. I would have rather seen them drastically improved than completely replaced. But that's just me.

Though I have to disagree. Things like auto attack, enmity gauge, instanced raids/dungeons, solo friendly content won't save the game, at least as far as PC players are concerned.

Auto attack? Wow! That's such an amazing concept!! Why didn't anyone else ever think of that?? Oh, wait... They should have just improved the system we have now, maybe making optional toggles for auto repeat on actions according to CDs. (See GW2)

Enmity Gauge? How does this help bring in new players? If anything, it just makes it look like a kid's game. You can try and say that it will make battle more strategic but face it, nobody that used this on other games got it to make fights more strategic. They got it to make hate management easier, even if only by a small margin.

Instanced content? The majority of the content in the game?? One word, boring. No competition what so ever. Completely kills the feeling that you're playing an MMO. Sure, it's easier to balance instanced content than open world content. It's easier to make it fair for everyone. However, the only people I see this appealing to is people who do not enjoy any type of competition, or would rather see the only competition in the game revolve around PvP. Perhaps even appealing to people that don't want anyone but their party watching them play? I don't know. But one thing's for sure. I would have much rather seen open world content be the majority. Doesn't have to be claim war content. ZNMs from FFXI were a good example. But Massively-Instanced-Online RPG? Sounds very familiar...

Solo friendly? This is probably the only good idea they had that you listed. I loved FFXI, but I will agree that it could have been a lot more solo friendly. I would much rather play with other people, but when you don't have a lot of time to play, or you just want to kill some time while waiting for something, being able to solo is nice. But how far are they taking it? Will solo be the best option for advancing? Or will it be a "Plan B" type of thing, taking a back seat to group oriented play while still remaining a very effective way to progress? Personally, I would much prefer the latter. Unfortunately, I don't think this is the case. There's already barely any incentive to bother making parties in the game. And judging by the recent news from SE, this does not appear to be as important as solo play is (to them at least.)

Overall, there is nothing planned that will make FFXIV stand out from other MMOs, except one thing. PS3 release. That's it.

The game shows no signs of new and interesting concepts on the horizon. Just stuff that has been done a million times before. While some things may help make the game "appeal" to more players, it's not enough to draw PC players away from other games.

The game will likely survive, but that's only due to the future PS3 players. For those of us who have PCs, most will choose something else, something that's not a copy of everything else on the market.

SE had the chance to make another amazing MMO, far surpassing its predecessor. The biggest mistake they made was rushing it. If the game was released with the same concepts it originally had but MUCH more polished and with a a ton of content (or any content for that matter...lol) it would have turned out much better than what we have today. Sadly, those ideas are now long gone and we will never see what could have been. Instead, we're being fed the same old shit we've seen everywhere else.

I supported the game for months, but slowly my hopes of ever seeing it succeed started fading. The constant let downs from SE, 1 step forward 10 steps back mentality, delayed patches, and ridiculous excuses (PS3 limitations anyone?) eventually made me realize that there's nothing new here and there likely never will be. I haven't played in over a month and I just can't be bothered to log in anymore. 1.18, 1.19 and 1.2 don't seem to have anything that's entertaining enough to keep me playing. I'll log in again for the "new" dungeons, but I'm fairly sure even that will be extremely disappointing, definitely not worth waiting 10 months for.


TL;DR

Nothing new here, just the same old crap you see in every other game.

If you're looking for a console MMO, this will likely be your best option. For PC players however, there are much better games on the horizon.

[Joeking]

If you're looking for a console MMO, this will likely be your best option.

DC Universe Online.