*How does FFXIV expect to compete in the market?

It doesn't seem that its a goal. At this point I think they are banking on name + limited mmo competition on consoles to carry it into profitability.

*What are its selling points, and will FFXIV best other MMOs in these departments?

One of a few mmo's that will allegedly be available on a console system, name

*Are you worried that standardising the game will only lead to carbon-copying?

I don't worry about it much at all anymore. It is what it is, I don't really expect it to ever improve significantly at this point

*Is there an upper and lower limit to imitation, and where is that?

All I can say is taking ok systems from other games, and implementing them poorly seems to be the status quo here

*Revising the game to suit every player, is that a wise move?

I don't think so-it leads to a watered down, visionless game that ultimately makes no one happy due to so many compromises

*What should an MMO be?

Every persons answer is different. Generally speaking though I think we can all agree that the 1st tenant is fun. After that, its anyone's guess.

*Where do other MMOs go wrong?

Every persons answer is different. Generally, I would say reliance on questing and solo play is the number one mistake most mmo's make

*Where did FFXIV go wrong? Why did people leave? / Why did people stay?

This game went wrong with its foundation. Broken servers, running an incomplete game design, in a very repetitive world, with no real content and no real goals implementing hacked up systems from other mmo's in a very much worse way (ex: leves) all glued together with an inferior, unintuitive user interface and gated by a challenging user billing system

People left because all of that adds up to very little fun and a lot of frustration and dissappointment

People stayed because they had misplaced hope, are true fans of the series, are willing to give the game a chance, its free and they are cheap and bored, they are masochists.. any number of reasons. I originally stayed thinking the game would get better, so I would go ahead and build my character up so that when it was worth playing I wouldn't be behind the curve. That was an error.


*What perceived problems exist and how do you intend to solve them?

I don't really think the problems within this game can be solved, short of just starting over with a new game and new name. I think it may be best left relegated to the history books, much like "New Coke" and "Crystal Pepsi"

*What are the redeeming features of FFXIV?

The character models heads turn towards their target

* Is there danger of interfering with these good features?

I am struggling with what you are referencing here-

*How much instancing is too much instancing?

Once you start instancing, you stop creating a interesting persistent world, so essentially that method should only be employed when absolutely necessary (see maat fight for example) otherwise anything else is too much

*Is there value in the armory system?

Perhaps in a sandbox game. I don't find a lot of value in it in this game. It made my character feel directionless and generally like everyone else. I don't really like playing ALTs - so with that said I do find value in switching jobs, but jobs should be clearly defined.

*Won't the current choice of job-implementation erode some aspects of the armory system?

Delete the armory system. It would be an improvement

*Will all players now be cookie-cutter builds?

Why not.. C in FFXIV stands for Change.

*What is the current dev team's opinion on the difference between jobs and classes?

I am sure they think what they are doing is brilliant when the reality is they are just making the jobs and armory system obsolete, so why not just go ahead and delete it. Oh and please don't tie a rep grind to the new jobs. This isn't aoc-

*Is the new Bard/archer an infringment on the differentiation between class and job?

It sounds like a conflict of interest.

*To justify implementation, will jobs be better than classes at certain roles?

The dev team has no idea-they are making this up as they go along. This project probably has more scope creep then we can imagine.

*Will that make classes a pointless intermediate on the way to jobs?

Yes

*Will crafters now only be "materia users"?

It sounds like a layer of complexity I am not even interested in, and since the new leve frequency is going to make everyone a high level crafter anyway, I don't really see crafters as some minority population anymore, so the answer is both yes and no

*Is there merit in a player-run economy?

Yep. This game is going out of its way to delete the economy

*Have the HQ changes removed some depth to the crafting system?

I don't know that I call endless grinding via slow arduous to navigate interfaces, along with menus that wont hold more than 4 options depth, as much as I call them just interferring with what could have been an interesting crafting system.

*Is there anything for crafters to do besides grind ranks?

Not really. There is no market for crafted goods at this time and I don't really see there being one in the future since everyone will level off saved up leve's and do their own materia work, if they care

*Has the materia system and HQ changes injected more grind into the game?

I don't know. Maybe they have given non-crafters more incentive to grind their crafts.

*When are we getting drag and drop???

Never