Wow, no mention of Auction house / MW improvements

[Seif]

[citation needed]

Next, the long-promised (and demanded) auction house still hasn’t been implemented and there’s no hint as it if it ever really will be outside vague statements. This is seriously killing the game. Most cities are ghost towns now with the only human interaction you’ll find are either Gil farmers or pathetic souls who can’t realize that they’re playing a horrible MMO and are unable to leave their parents basement to explain how they wasted their allowance. The result is this is the death of the game’s 100% player driven economy. With no players around, you aren’t going to be buying anything.

That means if you want to get new weapons or armor for your character you need to make them yourself. That’d be fine if crafting still wasn’t the most mind-numbingly annoying grind in any MMO ever. Anyone who actually puts themselves through the nightmare of leveling up a crafting profession should be committed in a mental facility for self mutilation. /furiousfanboys.com

Even if you're a fan of Final Fantasy XIV, you're probably not enamored of the way that selling items among players is currently handled. It's not that the market wards aren't useful, they're just a really slow way of finding items in a game where nearly every single item is crafted by players rather than found or purchased. So it's good news for the game that the development team is aware of the issue, and adjustments are incoming within the relatively near future.

The first slated update will sort the market districts by items sold, thereby allowing players to zero in on exactly what they're looking for rather than the current ambling search. There are also plans for further refinement and specialization to the wards, along with plans to better facilitate hiring and employing multiple retainers at once. Whether or not the system will ever be replaced or supplemented with the often-requested auction house has not been stated, although there are no hints that such a system is incoming for Final Fantasy XIV. joystiq.com

One of the biggest complaints when the game launched wasn't just that there was no auction house (which is an MMO standard...) but that the retainers in the market ward weren't searchable as a whole. This meant if you were looking for a specific weapon, you would literally have to walk around and "check" each of the thousand or so retainers selling stuff on the off chance they might have what you were looking for. How this idea ever made it into the retail version of the game is beyond me—it's so stupid it beggars belief. gamecritics.com

Square recently announced a list of changes that are being implemented to Final Fantasy xiv in the coming months. These range from short term fixes to the existing game such as combat and additional quests to long term changes that would drastically alter the game such as the addition of an auction house. But is this enough for the tough PlayStation 3 crowd? ...

<--Whoa!?

...Console gamers are also typically more action oriented. While slower paced single player games do generally do well, fast paced shooters and action games tend to have the most success. Final Fantasy xiv is a slow game, there's no denying that. Even with the addition of an auction house (a must if the game stands a chance to survive on the console), the gameplay is still slow. Battles are slow-paced, travel is slow, and leveling is a tedious grind.

I have full confidence that Square doesn't want to risk losing PS3 gamers, and so they won't release the console version until they have made as many tweaks and additions to the gameplay as possible. They may be going against a ticking clock if they can't hold their current PC player base though. getpixellated.com

Final Fantasy XIV: Any Better a Year Later?

The innovative job system is still here, with slight refinements – levels are gained with slightly less grind, and more tasks seem available, but it still all feels poorly explained at executed. One of the major problems is that everything still feels fairly boring – the mini-games for professions sting the eyes with tedium, and the combat is little more than pressing “F” left clicking your target, slapping a couple of hotbar abilities and waiting for it all to come to a desperately slow end.

Has patch 1.18 made Final Fantasy XIV any more enjoyable than at launch? Personally, I wouldn’t say so. There is evidence of polish, refinement, and leanings into the right direction, but those dissatisfied at launch won’t find the game they were hoping for. It is still mindlessly complicated, the UI restricts anyone not wishing to make love to their Xbox 360, and it still packs that feeling of wading through hot fudge. There is still no auction house, but searchable player merchants, little in the way of social interaction, and distinctive lack of forward facing development. Spending time within FFXIV makes you feel like you have gone back in time to play a very needlessly complex EverQuest clone, albeit without the charm. mmorpg.com

I have to say that it's really hard to find articles about XIV post release but in almost all of them there is this same tone of: "It's still X or there still isn't even Y."

This is why it's really not that important what the few players that are used to living with the troubles MW brings think about it. They aren't the ones that can pay the bills of keeping this game online and especially in production.

I should add that searching the articles was also hard because most of the responses lead to dozens of gaming sites where XIV's lack of AH is discussed. Even if it's clear that on Lodestone it's the most popular topic that has ever graced these forums it's also constantly being talked about on other gaming sites whenever XIV pops up and it's the main reason that's used when people describe the dev teams lack of progress.

To them airships cutscenes and bikinis are pretty trivial thing to focus on in the presence of these massive elephants in the room.

[dinger]

I agree there really needs to be something done about the market wards. It takes way too much time to buy and sell gear.

[syntaxlies]

i'm not saying a AH is a negative, just saying this game is trying to be different just coz other MMOs have AH, don't mean u can't be a success without one, the market wards work and are different (ok little tweaking might be needed) but in general they work.

if every1 copied everything other ppl did just coz it works, we would still be painting on cave walls.
experimentation breeds innovation

now you have something against painting on cave walls.ill paint wherever i want.

also cave men invented the wheel and we still use it today, fyi.

[Eekiki]

<--Whoa!?




I have to say that it's really hard to find articles about XIV post release but in almost all of them there is this same tone of: "It's still X or there still isn't even Y."

This is why it's really not that important what the few players that are used to living with the troubles MW brings think about it. They aren't the ones that can pay the bills of keeping this game online and especially in production.

I should add that searching the articles was also hard because most of the responses lead to dozens of gaming sites where XIV's lack of AH is discussed. Even if it's clear that on Lodestone it's the most popular topic that has ever graced these forums it's also constantly being talked about on other gaming sites whenever XIV pops up and it's the main reason that's used when people describe the dev teams lack of progress.

To them airships cutscenes and bikinis are pretty trivial thing to focus on in the presence of these massive elephants in the room.

A bunch of articles written by people talking about the game as it was eight months ago (and mmorpg.com pretending that they've played it as another excuse to trash something that isn't WoW or Guild Wars). Okay.

[TonyMontana]

A bunch of articles written by people talking about the game as it was eight months ago (and mmorpg.com pretending that they've played it as another excuse to trash something that isn't WoW or Guild Wars). Okay.

Pretend I am a potential future PS3 player. I have decided to do a little reading on FFXIV because I am considering dropping $50-60 up front and then $13+ per month on it. Please direct me to the media you would have me read which shows the game in a positive light. Maybe some media that has good things to say about the market wards.

[Eekiki]

Pretend I am a potential future PS3 player. I have decided to do a little reading on FFXIV because I am considering dropping $50-60 up front and then $13+ per month on it. Please direct me to the media you would have me read which shows the game in a positive light. Maybe some media that has good things to say about the market wards.

Irrelevant until the PS3 version is released (or at the very least a release date is announced).

[TonyMontana]

Irrelevant until the PS3 version is released (or at the very least a release date is announced).

Really so potential PS3 players are forbidden from doing research on the game right now? Wow i didnt know that.

[DeadRiser]

I wonder how many friggin threads we have on damn action houses. QUIT MAKING NEW THREADS

[grandm]

now you have something against painting on cave walls.ill paint wherever i want.

also cave men invented the wheel and we still use it today, fyi.

nothing wrong with painting on cave walls. but if some bright spark never though " you know what there must be a better way" we would never have a got to a point where you would be playing an MMO , and sure mr cave man might have invented the wheel, but did they fill it with air and put rubber around it? innovation

[syntaxlies]

Pretend I am a potential future PS3 player. I have decided to do a little reading on FFXIV because I am considering dropping $50-60 up front and then $13+ per month on it. Please direct me to the media you would have me read which shows the game in a positive light. Maybe some media that has good things to say about the market wards.

ps3 version is not out yet therefore the coordinating reviews arent out either. But when it comes out i would refer you to game-spot prob. There you will be able to see an average of several reviews on the ps3 version of the game and read them separately.