Who is jumping ship once they start charging in November?

[Tsukino]

I'm debating it. I have a while to decide for sure.

On one hand, the changes they've announced look great, and the game is still playable and getting updates in its current state. I'm also probably not going to be unable to pay for the subscription fee each month. But on the other hand, I'm just not sure I want to pay for a game the producer/director sees as "50%" fixed. I don't know if I want to bother learning how to play a game and memorizing a world that will be completely different. I don't even know if I want to get a head start on leveling like some other people, because sometimes it's more fun to experience fresh from the start.

I kind of want to support them and see the new stuff unfold, but at the same time I feel I might have a better time overall just waiting for the new game when it's ready in a year.

[Yellow]

I'm staying 95% of my LS is staying and umm all of my friends are staying ^_^ That's enough for me.

[Mortikhan]

I see it like this:

1) I have not paid for this game yet beyond the purchase price.
2) I have received a 13 month head start on this game for free.
3) SE has continued to pay the salaries of the past and current Dev teams.
4) Massive changes have been and continue to be made to the game as promised.
5) The update to the game to make it V2.0 will be free.
6) I will be receiving exclusive content others will not receive if I stick around.

I see this game as being 3 separate games I have been able to play. Like 3 totally different incarnations...one of which I got for free. The second 2 I will have to pay for. How many games that are free (and don't mention FTP games since they are money driven through "donations") have a 250 man development team and a massive amount of resources behind them to improve them? That is a very short list. Many people have been more than happy to list the faults of SE (me being one of their biggest critics, trust me my LS has heard some heavy rants by me on SE's performance on both FFXI and FFXIV), but very few have been quick to mention the fact that they ADMITTED to failing. They could have folded up shop and just written it off as a loss but instead decided to commit themselves to correcting that mistake. For the most part they have held true to that. This is called "Pride in ones work". What they have done in essence over the last year equates to them telling the community, "We were wrong to set our sights so low. We were expected to set a standard that we fell well short of. We promised a product that we did not deliver, this product could have and should have been better. We WILL make it better. We WILL meet your expectations and exceed them.". In this day and age that is a rare sentiment that is backed up by action from any billion dollar business.

With that being said...they are not only going to improve what they can on the current design but give us a whole new design that is more in tune with what we actually expected of them. I have been having a blast with the current and past versions of this game so far (granted this was mostly due to the cool people on my server and in my LS). Overall, I gave FFXIV a 6/10 on release (I have seen a lot worse releases). I think this newer version looks good but what interests me will be how they justify the world changing so much. I want to be part of that transition phase. I am hoping it will be epic.

As long as SE continues to put forth the effort and maintains their commitment to perfecting the vision behind this game I will have no problems giving my $15 to their cause. Free is better I know that for sure but quality has always cost money and if they can deliver on that promise I will never miss that money for a second.

[Seirra_Lanzce]

i lol'ed when ppl say "So we pay for the developement cost?" Well technically and truth is, yes you, me and every single one is paying for the development progress to get what we want in the future, is what has been done ever since Everquest came out, although here is a bit special, the game is playable no? is fun no? so let's leave it to those who want to play continue on paying and those who do not want to pay, wait out on 2012 or better do not ever play it again.. why is it so hard for these people to just state their point and leave the door.

[CrystalObsidian]

I'm absolutely staying. Though I may turn my subscription on and off (if possible) because there are times when I'm too busy to play for weeks. Heck, when I got the game I thought I was gonna be charged immediately. So a year of free-ness was a nice treat.

The massive changes coming are enough to know that I'll get my money's worth!

[Altera]

Im staying and paying

[Venat]

My brother says hes gonna jump out. Idk I might stay.

[polyhedral]

The game still runs like crap (although slightly better) and crashes too often for me to pay, honestly, it's not in a state for p2p, still. Everytime I'm watching tv via windows media center, then launch this game, it crashes in less than 5 minutes. No other game gives me this problem. This is how I play on my PC, all day, but this game doesn't work well while watching tv. 2.0 may be great, and that's great, but 1.19 isn't p2p worthy imho. I guess I won't be able to comment soon here, so adios amigos, I guess...

whatever.

[BlackPaneth]

I'm staying, at least to see the changes. If they do not fix a majority of the bugs at very least (Ones that have been around alot longer than they should have been) then i will probably walk.

[Yellow]

It's not like once you start paying you can't stop.. or if you don't want to pay it's not like you can't start paying again..

:S I don't see why this is such a problem.