Did squenix make a mistake by investing too much in graphics and not enough in

[Geesus]

I've been somewhat negative towards this game since about 2 weeks after launch. I did not play beta, I did play xi for quite a few years. So many things i didn't like about this game, including graphics.

Sure the textures and high-poly characters look nice. But the graphics end there imo. The world is so empty i can't even think of a word to describe it. Everything is so "square". The towns are so simply built from a design view. I've done 3d graphics programming in school, albiet nowhere near on this level of course. But a large portion of the world looks like they just put in 4 polygons and through on a nice texture. The graphics of this game are far from ground breaking imo.

What does annoy me the absolute most, is the relative feel of the game. I don't like that there is so many places i just can't go. I'm going to gain hate to my post now by pointing out that I am currently playing wow, after having left XIV with intent to check up on the games updates from time to time.

I was just flying around through town in wow, and I can go, anywhere. I don't feel like this ledge is stopping me, or this wall is just blank, with who knows what behind it. I can stand on the top of a building if i like, jump onto the mailbox. My point being is, I feel like i'm in control of my character, not being limited to a very small path.

Another point, actions take too long to perform imo also. The delay for animation just feels slugish. Sure it may look nice, but it takes away the feel of "action" for me.

Both of my complaints in this post were in XI as well, and i absolutely loved xi. But to compare it to games nowadays, I wouldn't have the slugish actions with limited freedom. In XI i just took it for an older game that already pushed limits to what the hardware/coding could handle. This is 2011 now, (game was released in 2010 I know). I wouldn't have liked the limits of this game in say 2005 even.

First thing first, if you want to jump and climb buildings and all that other stuff, go play WoW as you mentioned or go play a platformer.

Second, as for another MMORPG, please show me where there is another that has graphics as good as these? And the thing is, unless your running a rather expensive GPU, you can't GET the full blown abilities for the graphics from this engine. That has been stated quite a bit in articles I have read. So please enlighten me personally as to other games that are MMORPG... key acronym there MMORPG that have better graphics then what XIV can actually do when equipped in a performance PC.