Clearing Confusion - MMORPG differentiation

[Zantetsuken]

What XIV was wasn't just different, they did everything from the foundation to content style different for the sake of it, because remember, their original mantra was "We did it this way to make it as different from FFXI as possible."..their entire goal was to make nothing beyond races similar to XI

^^This was their second critical flaw.

SE was determined to have their two MMOs running alongside eachother. FFXIV was purposefully designed to be as different as FFXI as possible so that it wouldn't siphon the majority of players from FFXI.

As the FFXIV release drew near, the FFXI team was instructed to open the floodgates of content, etc in order to keep players involved in XI. Hence Abyssea and the level cap increase.

Everyone knows that the rushed release of XIV that ended up throwing a wrench into both games, but it was compounded by a second mistake. One that completely went against their original designs for XIV.

The races.

If FFXIV had entirely new races (or Ivalice ones). It would have been much more likely to have been judged on its own merits. The problem is that while they tried to make something entirely different from XI, they chose to put the one thing into XIV would make it look like a direct sequel more than sequel more than anything else.

This caused many of the FFXI players to be the first in line when it came to FFXIV sales. The game wasn't close to being finished and any NEW systems that weren't working (or incomplete) were instantly compared to FFXI systems that did work. A new dev team was brought in. The original design was gutted. And the players began to give their feedback on the forums which would transform XIV from an incomplete new-style MMO, into a FFXI sequel.

It was the races that did it.

[Konachibi]

It was the races that did it.

It was those dastardly Hyur all along!

From what I remember reading, S.E wanted XIV to have some familiarity for returning players from XI so they made the races look similar, hence we got Hume > Hyur, Mithra > Miqo'te, Taru > Lalafell and so on. In some ways it was a good idea 'cos then players would be like "yay, i look like I did in XI, but more awesome!", but then yes as you said, it also caused XI players to throw in comparisons instead of trying to view it as a new game.

It's kind of ironic, because FF games, at least untill X-2, were reknown for NEVER having sequals. Only if they're officially marked as a sequal could they be considered as an actual sequal, and XIV was never marked a sequal, but people still tried to look at it as if it were one. If this were released as Final Fantasy XI-2, then it'd be understandable, but because it's called Final Fantasy XIV, no comparison should ever be made or expected.

[Mudd]

"yay, i look like I did in XI, but more awesome!"

Except they didn't have my FF11 hairstyle.. ;c

[Jynx]

It was the races that did it.

Honestly I probably never would have picked the game up if it had the Ivalice races in it "Banga and Viera and whatever" I can assume it was the same for a good chunk of people.

[Konachibi]

Honestly I probably never would have picked the game up if it had the Ivalice races in it "Banga and Viera and whatever" I can assume it was the same for a good chunk of people.

What about if they all looked like this?

Would all the Taru fans have rolled prinnies?