Patch 3.3 is called Revenge of the Horde...

[Preypacer]

You mean the mounts that everyone is going to demand to be made usable by everyone like the bunny ears?

And don't forget flying. Because apparently, every mount in FFXIV is destined to become a flying mount as well. Yoshi-P has given up on taking XIV's world or lore at all seriously, or trying preserve it as a unique kind of experience in the genre. He's almost literally using WoW as his blueprint at this point. It shows more and more with every new update they release, or discuss.

"WoW did this, so XIV must do this... WoW does that, so XIV must do that".

You know, Yoshi-P, FFXI was heavily inspired by EQ1. The difference is, once they had the core game established, SE took FFXI off in its own direction, and it became a very unique, self-contained experience in the genre, which earned a strong and very loyal following - at least until they lost their minds, jumped the shark, and decided undermining ~8 years of world, story and game building with Abyssea was the right course of action, at which point it began bleeding players who no longer recognized the MMO they'd loved for so long.

Blizzard took the basic ideas of established MMOs, then put their own twist on them to create a new experience no one had experienced before. Yes it was more streamlined and accessible - it was very much a Blizzard game. Point is, it stood on its own within the genre (not even discussing numbers here, just in terms of its design philosophies, etc)

With XIV:ARR, you got the "basing the foundation off of established, successful MMOs" phase right. Problem is, you forgot the part where you stop "emulating" and start making the game its own unique, self-contained experience. You're still stuck in the "emulate other successful MMOs" bit, and are doing so in a variety of ways, on various levels.

While many other MMO devs have finally woken up to the fact that you don't have to copy WoW to be good, or even successful (as long as expectations of success are tempered with a grip on reality), and are starting to try new things, and push the genre in different directions....Yoshi-P is clinging desperately to the idea that trying to emulate WoW is the best way to go. FFXIV:ARR was born out of many of WoW's design ideas/concepts, but Yoshi-P never cut the umbilical cord.

Saying this may not rest well with certain people, but it's my honest opinion. I've been thinking for a while now that XIV might need to get someone new in the Director's seat. Someone with more vision, more imagination, and less insistence on "playing it safe" for fear of "stressing people out". He's a damn hard worker, and has poured a lot into this game, I take none of that away from him. I just think we may have seen the limit of what he is able to bring to FFXIV creatively. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am.

[Belhi]

Honestly, haven't we copied enough content and systems from WoW already? Not even the logo for patch has any FFXIV appeal. I honestly thought I saw the wrong logo there.

Really Yoshi, try to stop copying WoW and finally givethis game the individuality it deserves....

The Japanese name for the Patch is The Final Howl. I suspect this was both title and a dig from the Translation team.

Using 'Horde' in the title hardly is copying from WoW. WoW doesn't have exclusive rights to the term and Nidhogg's brood has been referred to as the Dravanian Horde since ARR from the moment you first stepped into Coerthas.

[Lone-wolfe-02]

Honestly, haven't we copied enough content and systems from WoW already? Not even the logo for patch has any FFXIV appeal. I honestly thought I saw the wrong logo there.

Really Yoshi, try to stop copying WoW and finally givethis game the individuality it deserves....

#triggered

[Dumbledoremd]

[QUOTE=Kaurie;3682452]We don't really know for sure that WoW is bleeding more % of their subs than FFXIV is :\

They have lost 5 mill subscribers and are at an all time low

[Chessala]

The Japanese name for the Patch is The Final Howl. I suspect this was both title and a dig from the Translation team.

Using 'Horde' in the title hardly is copying from WoW. WoW doesn't have exclusive rights to the term and Nidhogg's brood has been referred to as the Dravanian Horde since ARR from the moment you first stepped into Coerthas.

Well, for many people a title like this will make them think of WoW (mind, I NEVER played WoW and never will). At least the Japanese title sounds good. OIur translation team should start doing a proper job

[Belhi]

Well, for many people a title like this will make them think of WoW (mind, I NEVER played WoW and never will). At least the Japanese title sounds good. OIur translation team should start doing a proper job

Oh don't be hard on Koji. He does a pretty good job in general and translations are often not simple plus he has a huge amount of work on his plate, not only translating the game but also translating a 300 page lore book they are planning to release later this year. Plus he rights a lot of the lyrics for the songs in game. (He is also to blame for all the cheesy FATE titles :P)

In this particular case I will agree that The Final Howl would have made a better title but that's personal preference and honestly the title 'Revenge of the Horde' is perfectly valid and accurate considering. It might be that they felt The Final Howl might have sounded too cheesy.

In the end I really don't think its a huge deal.

[Kaurie]

me: We don't really know for sure that WoW is bleeding more % of their subs than FFXIV is :\
They have lost 5 mill subscribers and are at an all time low

They have lost well more than 5 million. They unfortunately stopped reporting numbers, and the last report was just over 5 million. I am sure since then plenty of people have both quit and resubbed (personally, I've resubbed and know quite a few others who have). It's hard to estimate what they are at now exactly. That said, they have sold (as of 2014) over 100 million accounts. That means they've lost 95+ million subscribers at one point or another.

FFXIV, conversely, has sold just over 5 million accounts as of last report. The most recent unofficial census, using achievements etc to estimate, puts it at ~650,000 characters. Note that this is characters and not players, which means that the value is likely less as some people have alts on a single account subscription.

All of that said, over say the last 6 months, we don't know how many subs either game has increased or decreased, as neither company is giving official sub numbers.