What is the direction of FFXIV?

[SHJcules]

I'd like to know if the social systems put into place in XIV will be seeing much attention in the near future.

As it stands now, Linkshell and Friends List functionality feel pretty bare-bones.

[Platinumstorm]

What direction do other MMOs have, out of curiosity? I mean, direction is such an awkward thing to put into a game, I find. I don't really care what direction a game has so long as I'm having enough fun to keep playing. Maybe I'm easily pleased in such a way, but yeah, I'm intersted in what direction you feel that WoW, Rift, Blade & Soul, Guild Wars... any major current or future MMOs have. Again - direction is a very awkward thing.

Some examples would be World of Warcraft has always focused on "Boxed content". What I mean by that is WoW historically [although that seems to be changing in response to SWTOR] hasn't cared about providing a story that evolved over time, but they focus heavily on polished raids and dungeon design, and put a heavy emphasis on creating an "e-sport" from their pvp. The game targets a large audience from casual players to hardcore players and aims content at the lowest denomination first, but then adds more mechanics and higher difficulty thresholds as time progresses per expansion, and as players enter different categories of the game [zone experience vs dungeon experience vs heroic [upgraded] dungeon experience vs raid experience vs heroic raid experience]

Guild Wars' direction was always being the antithesis of the mmo genre. They've always strived to not take a lot of time to progress to the top. From that point, I think the players focus on PVP.

Star Wars Galaxies originally [before the major overhaul that made it terrible] created a mostly sandbox environment where developers gave players many options and tools to play the game like they wanted to, but didn't focus on providing structured content that players felt they had to complete to enjoy their role in the game. They also had an excellent focus on player customization and being able to "exist" in a Star Wars Universe.

Those are just some examples, but it's hard to tell what FFXIV wants to excel at, except maybe the given of story presentation; but that's impossible to say because of how the storyline functions and has many points of an intense lack of polish.

They've stated they want casual players to be able to progress in the game through guild leves, but at the same time it's been stated that Yoshi wants 2 hours of playtime per day over a 4 month period to max a class, which isn't really a casual endeavor.

While some players may say "good, they shouldn't be level cap" FFXIV needs a subscriber base, and there isn't content at lower levels right now that would give casual players a reason to keep performing repetitive and unengaging leve tasks.

While it's important to recognize that we're still in a reboot phase, and the direction of the future is unknown, think of how long it takes just to get your group into Toto Rak, or a better example, Darkhold.

It takes a really long time to get started, and by the time a casual player would have entered the dungeon, they would have used up a ton of their time just to access the beginning point of the dungeon; and that isn't a very good payout for that player's time.

All of the above is important because right now the base of players that doesn't exist is far more important than the base of players that does exist. Those casual players that so many seem to despise and want to limit provide funding for the development of more niche content for the core players who spend more time in the game. You don't want to lose that market, and you also don't want the game to put up large barriers that discourages that market from even entering in the first place.

If I personally was in charge of making the game I would ensure that low rank players have an engaging experience in the new world. This means I would stop the silly rush of rank 1-20 which has the crushing exp curve drop off, and instead of using that fast exp to give players skills to make the game less boring, while simultaneously pretending that it takes ranks 1-20 to be a "tutorial", I'd change the levels at which skills are acquired, add new skills to fill in the missing gaps, and build content for low level players at a higher density than those at rank cap. Nearly the entire player base has access to at least one class that is at a lower rank, and over time that focus can be honed in at the higher ranks, because no one progresses beyond that point.

At the same time, I would want to make sure that one of the major reasons players buy Final Fantasy games, the characters and story, are polished beyond amazing. Players should not feel like they're going up against ankle biters in every quest. They should not be treated to a quest where it takes an hour to reach the destination, only to have a woman running away from a wolf, you kill the wolf, and someone gets angry at you for killing the wolf because you were reckless. Quests that advance story should advance the story by more than one or two sentences, and players should feel engaged in that experience. Because these stories evolve over time, if players want to re-experience a specific event during the storyline, let them. Also, make sure that the story lines being focused on and that are the most intriguing to the player base don't simply disappear.

That's a way direction could be focused as the content goal of the future; I'm not saying it's the right one, but when you have a direction players understand where the game wants to excel at, and whether or not it's something players want to invest themselves in.

Then, you need to characterize how the game feels once you've picked a direction, and that helps you decide where you're going to excel in your game design, and where you're going to slack to help meet that characterization.

An example of characterization would be that players identify with the sheer power of Final Fantasy characters. To feel powerful in a game, maybe focus has to slack on PVP balance, which is a viable option, especially considering how the server infrastructure of FFXIV works with multiregional players on the same server - there will always be latency issues that completely erode PVP balance unless they localize servers. What sorts of things can be added to a game that remind Final Fantasy players of power? Well, limit breaks get tossed around, I've always felt summons had a powerful feeling to them, and powerful and distinct magic attacks help convey that power too. None of those things are conducive to a pvp setting, but does that matter that much when the characterization of the game is realized and helps players enjoy the direction of the game?

Now keep in mind what I said above are just examples.

Cliffs: Direction of game helps players understand their purpose of existence within the game world and gives them the motivation to continue. Characterizing the game to maximize enjoyment of the direction makes the players want more.

[Budi]

I tihnk your WoTs kill people.

[Cendres]

I believe the intention of this MMO is supposed to follow a story progression. The world actually does evolve over time with NPCs commenting on what is happening. Once the redesign is done I think we should see a whole lot of mission content and hopefully story based quests to engage adventurers in what Eorzea is all about. At least that's what I hope will happen.

[Betelgeuzah]

Yes... Yesterday compared to JP? You understood perfectly the meaning little fanboy.

ITT: it's SE's fault US is behind everyone else timezone wise.

Even though the JP reps comment usually during the evening JP time and US reps during the morning US time. That six hours gap is UNFORGIVABLE.

I wish they were more like Blizzard sometimes, who dedicate as much effort to translate their English info into Chinese ASAP. Not to mention the patches that are implemented globally simultaneously.

[Chocobits]

What direction do other MMOs have, out of curiosity? I mean, direction is such an awkward thing to put into a game, I find. I don't really care what direction a game has so long as I'm having enough fun to keep playing. Maybe I'm easily pleased in such a way, but yeah, I'm intersted in what direction you feel that WoW, Rift, Blade & Soul, Guild Wars... any major current or future MMOs have. Again - direction is a very awkward thing.

FFXI Roadmap 2010
FFXI Roadmap for 2011

[Betelgeuzah]

FFXI Roadmap 2010
FFXI Roadmap for 2011

So, what's FFXI's direction? We also have a roadmap fo XIV, even if it has no timeline beyond summer 2011. Where is FFXI going?

[Chocobits]

So, what's FFXI's direction? We also have a roadmap fo XIV, even if it has no timeline beyond summer 2011. Where is FFXI going?

FFXI is going beyond summer 2011 by all the indications? If it survives the CnB s***storm in September.

[Betelgeuzah]

FFXI is going beyond summer 2011 by all the indications? If it survives the CnB s***storm in September.

So is this game. The only difference is that we don't know the timeline. That's not an indicator of a lack of direction, is it? There's not really many options other than forward.