Questions and Feedback on the Future of FINAL FANTASY XIV

[Klick]

In other words. Hey you people who have played this game or kept accounts open while we have no end game worth a damn. Can you start paying us now while we promise to fix the game within another year? Yeah there goes half the 50 player base. Get end game content and people will pay to continue, otherwise those people probably won't pay you a dime. They'll just wait a year and in the meantime the game will lose what tiny community it already has and only gain newbie players who just start the game. I think P2P might be too soon in the new changes, but thats just my opinion. No end game content I'll just not pay until the game has it.

[SilvertearRen]

AND a new question, regarding XIV lore~!

Will we retain the Echo as a plot device in the new Eorzea? I feel it is something that was an interesting mechanism to tell the stories of the original scenario quests.

[Darkshine]

Again with the half finished game stuff. Come on my good man this is a mmo its not like you bought FFXIII and it wasnt finished. Totally different. They are not being greedy they are bending over backwards for us and all of this in spite of the nuclear crisis they had earlier this year. You feel betrayed? I understand this but I think you like many fans that got their feelings hurt and cant forgive. They arent charging you and leaving things as is that would be robbery. They are still giving us all the patches and hotfixes while getting 2.0 ready to go. Many feel that is when they should charge and some do think after 1.19 they should be charging. I am going to pay not for greed but to help. Also they cant steal from you if you give it willingly. There are no guns to your head so everyone should all calm down.

Sigh, let me greatly expand on my outrage at this. First off, if you are willing to pay for something unfinished, tell me what kind of rebuilt vintage car you are absolutely fanatic about, I will sell it to you half finished for a finished price and I will finish it next year. What? All of a sudden not sound so good? Why not? You are fanatic about paying SE for their "efforts" toward ver 2.0 just as I am as outraged so I will not. I mean really what are we paying them for? So what, we're tipping them for their cataclysmic screw up cause they wouldn't give up on the project? Or rather we should feel sorry for them because they screwed the pooch on what was supposed to be a finished product and wound up being only about half a dozen individual unique content events in game? Yes I am sorry, sorry that they took my money and handed me a game that lagged, was broken, and was about as content unique as most atari 2600 games are, just with exponentially better graphics. (Graphics which wouldn't be notable or noticable on anything less than a serious gaming system.)

Which reminds me youngling...

I am well aware of what an MMO is. Completely familar with the concept and design behind it, and more familiar with the business, marketing and public relations than you could guess. I would be willing to bet that I was playing version 1.0 online MUDD games, assembling and programming computers when you were still in diapers, so please try not to sound older than you probably are and attempt to teach me what an MMO is about. You are young enough to still have faith in a company even when they are screwing you blatently and outright, which is good. Take heart in the fact that you are not alone and there are millions of consumers in the world like you, and the ideal target crowd for marketers like me. We call you the 'carrot' crowd. Generally in the early to late 20's age bracket, primarially male, and apt to buy or pay for anything so long as there is perceived value, or rather the carrot on the end of an unusually a long stick.

Sorry for the "e-thug" beating as you called it earlier, but that is nothing more than simple truths that I picked up on from your posts. I am happy you defend SE, not saying you are right or wrong to do it, but please do not argue with my, or anyone elses, reasonings for not supporting them. If SE really is listening to their community, which I doubt except in a few common agreement and common sense cases, the ending result would be a game that is so utterly complex and confusing that most people would give up and stop playing anyway. I don't really care how the game turns out, so long as it is playable, has content which is enjoyable, and lives up to my personal expectations of what I am paying for. Those are very broad terminologies, but I am trying to keep this to a short novel.

I am talking specifically about one thing, my payment for a product/service that I have already paid for once and has not lived up to anything close to being an MMORPG. I obviously was not alone, and so SE, and I emphasize that it was THEIR decision, decided not to charge a subscription fee. Wonderful, but that doesn't improve the game any... We've had 19 major revisions and several subset revisions, and the game is barely further than what it was at the start. I see detail and some minor functionality and database changes, but nothing substantial. That is what the new director was saying will come, so all ye people start paying us now so we can build it.

As said by someone earlier, I am not a charity, nor should be expected to be one. Go take out a loan, this is your mess, you are financially bound to clean it up and provide me with a product/service that I paid for, and as of yet I have not received it. The product is even so grossly exaggerated and malformed that not even someone like Sony Online Entertainment's lawyer-weasel-snake hybrids could get around it with a prior to entry legal agreement.

Although SE has stated that it will be delivered in a year, what exactly did I pay for way back when? The right to log on and be mortified? I think not. Now you want 150 bucks more from me while I wait and get it gradually over the next year, with the bulk of it after I have paid all this extra money? Please share your opium SE, you got some high quality stuff.

Let me break down how they analyize expansion/subscription financial data from MMORPG's in general, as it seems to be a mystery on this forum that I have read several partially correct versions of so far. In no way shape or form is SE hurting for money on this project, and even if they were, they have 15+ other games that have made them money over the years with 3 that are still mostly active making them money. This is not even considering other collectables and items sold with the games. Believe me, SE has money, and LOTS of it. They funded FFX-FFXIV in house and WITHOUT subsidary investments or loans.

At any rate, the finance reviewers have only statistical data to go off of most times, and projection levels based upon current history. As the only history they have is covered with a big radiological hazard symbol, they have to basically guess. Now they use some highly sugar coated version like "estimated subscription flow for the blah quarter of blah fiscal year", but the truth is they have no substantial accumulated data to go off of. So they go to the backup plan.. how is the lack of FFXIV subscription income affecting our company as a whole? This is determined in part by flux in stock prices, game sales, prior similar history events (which I can't really think of SE having one besides FFIX.) , and a multitude of other things.

The answer to this is that Square stock has been in a constant state of flux, but I am sure that primary investors and stock holders are worried that FFXIV will NEVER be viable and they have threatened to sell out the stock which would reduce confidence in the business aka stock prices, as in that world when the herd leader goes, they all tend to follow. The World Market is a VERY fickle beast, even more so than Wall Street. But I digress.

The point I am getting at here is that SE is stuck between a rock and a hard place. What they are on the virge of doing is making yet another cataclysmic mistake in attempting to please their shareholders, but piss off a healthy portion of their projected income from the remaining player base they have now. The fact that they outright LOST a whopping 40% of their base from inception should be enough to tell their shareholders that forcing a payment plan prior to completed re-release would run a reasonable risk of losing 40% or MORE again. (Judging from forums solely, and more than semi-serious posts about refusing to pay during the interium.)

Ideally, whoever said that the risk of losing more player base in FFXIV is small by restarting the subscription fees should wear the hat and ears I mentioned earlier. I know because SOMEONE had to of said it, and I doubt that the director would of suggested implementing it given all his earlier dissertations to the community. He is a good director, and good at making hard descisions, but most of those proffered descisions probably aren't his, or his alone.

Now, to get back on the beaten path here, I am happy that you leomike35, have found a reason somewhere to defend and give SE your money. That is your choice, just as my choice to be outraged that they would even suggest such a concept to me is mine. Please stop harrassing people that feel differently, even if you feel that their decisions are short sighted, malformed, or in any other way misguided.

How about this??? How about those of us that want to pay can pay/donate. Those that want to play for free until 2.0 or atleast 1.21 they can as well. Would that satisfy everyone? Would anyone feel guilty playing for free while knowing there are those that are actually paying? I'm just curious because the answer you would give, whether you post it or not, will reveal the real reason you are still around. Something to think about.

I would be just fine with that, and no I would not feel guilty in the least. I would even consider doing a partial subscription for like 5-7 USD a month. I am still here because I WANT the game to be everything they promised it would be, and I WANT them to finish it. I may have less than 200 bucks invested in this game individually, but over the years I have invested thousands if not tens of thousands in Square, Soft, Enix, and the like, and I did it because I believed in the company as a whole.

They have provided me with a superior product at a reasonable price in the past, and I believe they still can with XIV, but I am not willing to go double or nothing on my investment into this game. That is unreasonable, and unquestionably not something I would expect anyone to do. Moreover, it is unethical business-wise and I can tell from the way the director carefully worded his announcement that he knows it, but it would appear his hands are being tied by other forces. Thus the comment about the company falling into the greed trap. Maybe not the FFXIV team because they know how crappy the deal is as they directly work on the project, but whoever is calling the shots on the upper floors and ignoring the team's recommendations.

These head honchos ought to sit down and play FFXIV for about 3 hours in the same manner that us players are forced to (meaning no cheat hacks or level selectors or given weapons), I doubt if they would last 10 minutes before being absolutely appalled with the game, and completely bored.

If they are not, well you know what they say about simple pleasures.....*shudders* I hope that they would find it just as revolting as the player base that left given their lofty status.

Above all else, I do agree with what many have said already today... why would I pay over 100 bucks while I was waiting for 2.0 as there would be very little I could do until then as I am max level in all Disciplines? What good is watching armegeddon if it lags every 3 seconds, despite your powerhouse machine? (Also, you won't actually see the event, you will see a cutscene but the land layout will be altered after patch and server reboot. Although I think the other may be worth looking into doing as a treat for their loyal player base that didn't outright abandon the game. Good luck with that memory allocation... lol.)

Finally, I really didn't see more than just a few things in the 2.0 PDF's that was real promising or concrete in "this is how this is going to be", and definitely not enough to call it a definitive plan. Roadmap, hmm, maybe, but I would use the term very loosely, as major concepts still have not been solidified into their forcasted outcome. I mean what are they hiding? Why are some things still a secret? I would like to think its secretive, but I think it is just that they have not decided yet, and don't know what to do. So what exactly am I being charged for again? Sorry SE, you may be able to WoW a portion of the players with some discussion, boards, concept art, and UI screenshots, but not me, and that is DEFINITELY not enough to call that a subscription worthy plan in my book.

Although I may be open to the idea of a reduced subscription, SE still has a MYRIAD of things to change and retool and rebirth before they are getting into my pocket book again. If that isn't good enough for them, then they will lose yet another life long customer that will NEVER come back as you cannot be trusted anymore to deliver quality product. I will discourage, but not prevent, my children from buying your products or services when the time comes, and will offer my experiences with you up to your colossal flop and betrayal to anyone who inquires. All of this not really personal(a little bit is, but I will get over it), just business.

Thanks for reading again, sorry for the novel!

[Aeru]

General Questions;

Would Players whom played since the beginning get a special title for sticking around?

What will the PvP Frontlines be like?

The Coliseums?

Specific Questions;
Max amount of players that will be on the Frontlines?

Will the Catapults shown in the Frontline PVP concept art actually be available to use?

Can they be destroyed?

Repaired?

Would Materials have to be harvested FROM the Frontline PvP area to repair the catapults? ( I would like this, have people protecting the DoL, otherwise they could get assassinated, killed, losing the materials gained for repairs to catapults/maybe other things? The Wall/Gate maybe?)

Will the PvP actually require teamwork or just a everybody for themselves?

Reward for winning the Frontlines?

Would the Coliseums have tournaments that players can bet on other players for gil?

i.e Tournament in Ul'dah and Limsa, people who complete the requirements to enter can enter, players can bet on competitors, examine pvp stats, If the person they bet on wins they get double the gil, (min max bet obviously) and the player who is participating in the tournament moves up, each time increasing the reward. Maybe Company Seals, a Title for a certain amount of wins, a title for winning the tournament, gil reward?
If you were to win the tournament, you could also participate in the next tournament automatically, not having to complete the requirements again, to those who want to enter the tournament would have to maybe get 500 kills on Frontlines, pay a sum of gil, something else maybe. (obviously this isn't that great, but im sure you can think of something better.)

How will you balance PvP? Seems like it would be difficult.

Right now new content is Best in Slot, and right now almost everytime new stuff is released it becomes almost useless, will you make items more focused toward Tanking/DPS/Healing/Nuking/Crowd Control? Maybe the Malevolent Moogle Drops more Parry/HP/Healing Potency/Block Items because Ifrit droped Attack Power Weapons Pretty much? This would make people who are a tank/healer use the Moogle Drops, while DPS the Ifrit Gear, thus not making Ifrit Gear Useless when Malevolent Moogle comes?

Questions are Over.

God I hope these questions aren't stupid.

[Darkshine]

Aeru, you forgot to mention Master Chupon... Master Chupon would have to be the bookie... there is no other. For those that are lost... Master Chupon was the nasty purple critter elemental glob in the FFIII colliseum that came in and "blew" your character out of the ring if you gambled a trivial worthless item.

I don't know of a single FFIII player that DIDN'T cuss out this NPC at some time.

[Bearforce]

Q1.what's the reason to enforce beta-testers to add pay 2 play system, is it because hoping to attract investors? or is it to cover salary's of 250 staff that are working in the production of ff14?

Q2. why bother adding pay to play late november/early octoboer when the game is still on beta-phase and we are still not experiencing final fantasy 14 V2.0?

Q3. will you add another payment method other then click to buy and if no then why not?

Q4. will you be releasing new collector's edition of final fantasy 14 v2.0? if yes then what will it will be coming along with it?

Q5. prior v2.0 what will you compensate players who bought your collector's edition?

[feint2021]

I apologize if this question has been asked already.

Regarding endgame:

Will we see instances similar to those in ffxi, for example, Limbus, Salvage, and Nyzul?

I'm not exactly asking for stuff like, "Must wait 3 days to enter", but having more to do than just farm the same boss over and over gets kind of old.

[Seirra_Lanzce]

The subscription is starting this late november/early december, how much is the fees and will there be more payment option like Paypal and such? because C&B is lock to me for no reason what ever that i am now unable to register my new card on C&B and C&B is the only payment option available in my Account Management.

Please i do hope in future you will have more payment options.

[Paganb]

/insert multiple well thought out but ranty walls of crud here

Sorry, but I can't possably see how the misshandling of one product has "betrayed you" it seems like you and a few other people think that playing a game for free for a year has not returned the value of your inital investment...

Honestly I've been playing FF games just about as long as you have, I was an avid player of FoxMUD in highschool and got into UO before Renaissance, when there was no true safe area. Even hung out on the White-Wolf chat servers for a few years. *sigh* some of the best typoes I've ever seen happened there.

No one is stealing anything from you, if you don't feel you should have to pay untill the game is ready by your standards then don't. Personaly it seems like a silly complaint from someone who, sounds like, feels entitled to the game as it should be now.
Well, it's the very fact that we have been playing it for a year that has made progress so slow. It's likely that they don't have much choice, when the boss says we start charging or it's scrapped guess who wins.

In my oppinion it's been a free ride, if it's not fun this may be the kick in the pants telling you it's time to find something you find fun. If you have to blames anyone at SE my guess is it's right up at the top with the same guy who has made several missinformative press releases and interviews. But every company has to make money and if you are begrudgeing them that then you won't find a single company out there that won't "betray" you if it means thier bottom line.

[Paganb]

Q1.what's the reason to enforce beta-testers to add pay 2 play system, is it because hoping to attract investors? or is it to cover salary's of 250 staff that are working in the production of ff14?

Q2. why bother adding pay to play late november/early octoboer when the game is still on beta-phase and we are still not experiencing final fantasy 14 V2.0?

Q3. will you add another payment method other then click to buy and if no then why not?

Q4. will you be releasing new collector's edition of final fantasy 14 v2.0? if yes then what will it will be coming along with it?

Q5. prior v2.0 what will you compensate players who bought your collector's edition?

Disclaimer: Answers below are just what would seem comon sence from one players point of view.

A1. Either Yoshi feels it's ready to start asking for cash or pressure came down from above to start getting compensation for the huge chuck of cash the company has shelled out to get the game back on track by letting us use the servers and waisting the dev teams time by exponentualy increasing the development time to get the game going in the right direction.

A2. They aren't makeing us pay for our subs till late november/ early december, as for why, well they are a company and do require money at some point to continue running a project.

A3. No clue, they might already have a binding contract with Click to Buy though, I know they were concerned about payment security and regularity since the payment method they had for XI was kind of glitchy.

A4. *shrug* they said that we will get the update for free, but I supose they might do a store rerelease.

A5. We were compensated with an, IMO, ugly hat and prerelease game time. It's not like they took that away from you, so what's to compensate?