Clearing Confusion - MMORPG differentiation

[Konachibi]

Sorry, ain't gonna happen. If they wanted to go the "hardcore" route, they needed to do it from the beginning.

They've lost millions on this game already and they lose money every day that it's in development with no sub fees coming in. They took a big club to the face due to Tanaka's screwing around and Wada's incompetence.

Investors want their money, S-E corporate wants its money. Your niche crowd of "hardcore" players ain't gonna provide that money.

Never said I was part of the 'hardcore' niche crowd. I play my own way, sometimes I play it for a little bit just to do leves, sometimes I spend hours and hours on it trying to do difficult things, sometimes I just spend some time crafting, I'm not 'hardcore' or 'casual'. I just play it to enjoy it's content, to be with friends in the linkshell, and see the storyline as it unfolds.

And besides, in the 'hardcore is not a dirty word' thread, it would appear that FFXI catered for hardcore players and that game lasted 8 years, so surely it must provide the money if it can keep a game running for that long.

[Steggun]

Investors want their money, S-E corporate wants its money. Your niche crowd of "hardcore" players ain't gonna provide that money.

This game wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for that "niche crowd". If FFXI was not making them money they would have shut it down years ago, and they most likely would have decided that MMO's are not their forte.

[Konachibi]

This game wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for that "niche crowd". If FFXI was not making them money they would have shut it down years ago, and they most likely would have decided that MMO's are not their forte.

To be honest, at the moment, MMO's aren't their forte. If I were the owner of S.E I'd have a development team made specifically for creating MMO's then have them use a different name for the game instead of one of the most popular game franchises they own. If they did well with that, then I'd consider letting them make a final fantasy MMO.

Bit too late for that now though :3

[Zorvan]

And besides, in the 'hardcore is not a dirty word' thread, it would appear that FFXI catered for hardcore players and that game lasted 8 years, so surely it must provide the money if it can keep a game running for that long.

lol

If that's the best argument you have, I don't know what to tell you. FFXI didn't waste millions of dollars, drive their financials into the mud, make laughing stocks out of their company, shake investor faith, and have to be completely rebuilt all the while never collecting a single sub fee during that whole time.

FFXI actually had people willing to pay to play FFXI right from the beginning, whereas FFXIV can't get people to play FOR FREE.


So if you seriously think "Oh, FFXI was niche and it did fine so FFXIV will too", especially considering the fact we're in 2011 now, not 2002 when the mmo market, and more importantly mmo players, were a hell of a lot more forgiving, then all I can say is good luck with that.

[Konachibi]

lol

If that's the best argument you have, I don't know what to tell you. FFXI didn't waste millions of dollars, drive their financials into the mud, make laughing stocks out of their company, shake investor faith, and have to be completely rebuilt all the while never collecting a single sub fee during that whole time.

FFXI actually had people willing to pay to play FFXI right from the beginning, whereas FFXIV can't get people to play FOR FREE.


So if you seriously think "Oh, FFXI was niche and it did fine so FFXIV will too", especially considering the fact we're in 2011 now, not 2002 when the mmo market, and more importantly mmo players, were a hell of a lot more forgiving, then all I can say is good luck with that.

I was being sarcastic.

[Jynx]

I'm afraid if I say anything good about XI I'll be told my nostalgia goggles are on too tight.

[weeble]

is simple to me, dunno why this doesn't happen. separate servers or layer servers with multiple types of game play. if there was that many interested in hardcore mode then make them a server. how can you say no to that much extra money. only reason not to that i can think of is cause it's just that much cheaper and less work to create a mmo that is catered to easy or solo. build ground up for hardcore, then dumb it down for others, 2servers and done. i love the arguments u get on this thought too, is ridiculous.

i too would love the soul of ffxiv to be ffxi, all the good stuff that was in it was expected, just way more better and with a 2011 strength. most people don't even go on forums, i never did a second for ffxi, or other mmo's outside of learning if i'd like it or not. youtube usually paints a great picture. in reality i think most people are done complaining or asking for what they want. they will just leave or stay. i've said this in another thread, but in reality i don't think they after wow players or ffxi players, they want the new players. and easy mode seems to work for that, it's probably why wow had so many players it could always manage to get new players coming, while ffxi probably had way harder time getting new players to stay.

[Renshi]

Yeah, they could take some foundation things from FFXI.
Oh well... the dice has been thrown, so I want to see what the Dev team is going to do in the future =)

[Biggs]

Honestly, I just wish they had simply shut the servers down completely to rework the game. I think there will be too many people that play this game now that will be unwilling to play it when they start charging us. But, poop in one hand and wish in the other I guess. Can't undo it now.

I do think they have lost a huge amount of credibility with this whole debacle though. How you go from making something that, for the last 4 years or so, has been so nicely polished like Xi was to the smoldering piece of crap they released with XIV is still beyond my comprehension. And instead of putting it away for a while and letting people move on while they rework it, this thing has been limping onwards ever since. All while having the majority of the "fanbase" critisize every move they have made to bring it up to speed.

To those that say XI wasn't a success or that nobody wants an XI clone: Certainly you can't believe that an XI clone would have done worse than what this game has done since launch?

[Konachibi]

Honestly, I just wish they had simply shut the servers down completely to rework the game. I think there will be too many people that play this game now that will be unwilling to play it when they start charging us. But, poop in one hand and wish in the other I guess. Can't undo it now.

I do think they have lost a huge amount of credibility with this whole debacle though. How you go from making something that, for the last 4 years or so, has been so nicely polished like Xi was to the smoldering piece of crap they released with XIV is still beyond my comprehension. And instead of putting it away for a while and letting people move on while they rework it, this thing has been limping onwards ever since. All while having the majority of the "fanbase" critisize every move they have made to bring it up to speed.

To those that say XI wasn't a success or that nobody wants an XI clone: Certainly you can't believe that an XI clone would have done worse than what this game has done since launch?

I think the case was that once the beta was out people were ready for the game. If S.E had suddenly turned around and said "ok, we've listened to your comments, opinions and ideas, now please wait a further year or two whilst we finish this off". Same for release, once an MMO is out on the market the company can't just turn it off one day and ask that everyone come back in a years time once it's had some remodeling, it has to just keep rolling.