Peer pressure, FFXIV's reputation, & subscribing

[Seif]

It's easier to come out than to tell your friends you play FFXIV.

A LOT easier. Worst case scenario is to lose all dev cred at work if this dark secret of mine ever gets out.

[UmJammerSully]

The whole peer pressure thing is dumb. Like many others have already said, just man up. -_-

With regards to reputation though, that's a very real concern. FFXIV managed to become pretty infamous with the expectations it had from its brand and the end product resulted in some shockingly negative reviews. It can be hard to shake that off.

I think as long as they advertise Version 2 right and really promote it at E3 with great gameplay footage and a big "FFXIV: THE NON-CRAP VERSION" logo, it should be able to reel people back in. If the game is good and it has enough players on launch, then not only will those people stick around but they will likely bring in more people through word-of-mouth.

I'm feeling optimistic. The future looks bright, my friends.

[Fanzeron]

The whole peer pressure thing is dumb. Like many others have already said, just man up. -_-

With regards to reputation though, that's a very real concern. FFXIV managed to become pretty infamous with the expectations it had from its brand and the end product resulted in some shockingly negative reviews. It can be hard to shake that off.

I think as long as they advertise Version 2 right and really promote it at E3 with great gameplay footage and a big "FFXIV: THE NON-CRAP VERSION" logo, it should be able to reel people back in. If the game is good and it has enough players on launch, then not only will those people stick around but they will likely bring in more people through word-of-mouth.

I'm feeling optimistic. The future looks bright, my friends.

Couldn't agree more with you, my friend. Even though there are a lot of things against FF14, the future relaunch looks very bright indeed. A really good positive campaign could really save FF14 v. 2.0 next december 2012.

[FNXIV]

Cyber bullying over an online game.....What has the world come to.

[Fensfield]

I can understand pressure from the internet fraternity at large, but if your 'friends' bully you over playing a game? You really need some new ones.

Not playful ribbing, mind. A little teasing and possibly amenability to giving it a look themselves .. but if it gets to the point where their negative treatment of you for playing the game feels uncomfortable and they don't let you be when you tell them as much..

Yeah, think about your friends some, in that case.

That said, though .. you're right, it's a very real concern of mine the bad reputation is being perpetuated about this game. I hate how it's fashionable to hate certain things like that.. Hopefully there'll be enough of a bang at the relaunch to force the various sites to properly re-review and not just make another of those crappy 'Let's pretend we took another look but use the old impressions' (Eurogamer, who in their December re-review stated you stop gaining experience after doing 8 guild leves) or 'Let's take a quick glance at the bits we know and not bother with anything's been added' (MMORPG.com), lest they look like the idiots we know them to be for doing so in the face of their wider readership.

[Arshei]

I stopped letting peer pressure bother me when I was like 15. I have not had anyone look down on me or say anything...maybe it's because i'm an adult and I have mature adult friends. O.o Even if I did have jerk friend/co-workers that made fun of me for playing a game I liked I wouldn't let it bother me because I won't be talking to them anymore!

[XxOstiaxX]

I can understand pressure from the internet fraternity at large, but if your 'friends' bully you over playing a game? You really need some new ones.

Not playful ribbing, mind. A little teasing and possibly amenability to giving it a look themselves .. but if it gets to the point where their negative treatment of you for playing the game feels uncomfortable and they don't let you be when you tell them as much..

Yeah, think about your friends some, in that case.

That said, though .. you're right, it's a very real concern of mine the bad reputation is being perpetuated about this game. I hate how it's fashionable to hate certain things like that.. hopefully there'll be enough of a bang at the relaunch to force the various sites to properly re-review and not just make another of those crappy 'Let's pretend we took another look but use the old impressions' (Eurogamer, who in their December re-review stated you stop gaining experience after doing 8 guild leves) or 'Let's take a quick glance at the bits we know and not really mention the new stuff' (MMORPG.com).

They have properly reviewed the game, is just that in the eyes of the people that play this game, this is the holy grail of MMO'S to the other 90% that left it was not, you have to see it from the point of view of the reviwer and his audience, when you go and review a game after 1 entire year, you expect the game, to have changed or evolved to a certain point, this is not the case with this game, after an entire year, the only thing the game has to show for itself, is 2 dungeons, Mounts, one faction(I know is 3 but the quest is the same for all 3) and one boss fight. Sure they added auto attack, sure they have bandaied the UI, but at the end of the day, they have not adressed the issues that the reviewers and that 90% that left where complaining, that is lack of engaging content, an Auction House, End game content, low level content( Wich is still lacking a LOT!) a mail system, a party search system, a LS administration system etc etc.

So after an entire year, if you look at the game, the game has not really come that far, sure to those that play, things have changed and in the right direction, but to those outside looking in, is really not that much, and also consider that during this entire year, the other MMOS have been putting out content 10X the size of what FFXIV has, so who in their right mind, would give this game a good review, when everybody else in the market is outdoing it 10 to 1 ?

[Pulseczar]

This is pathetic.

[Molly_Millions]

They have properly reviewed the game, is just that in the eyes of the people that play this game, this is the holy grail of MMO'S to the other 90% that left it was not, you have to see it from the point of view of the reviwer and his audience, when you go and review a game after 1 entire year, you expect the game, to have changed or evolved to a certain point, this is not the case with this game, after an entire year, the only thing the game has to show for itself, is 2 dungeons, Mounts, one faction(I know is 3 but the quest is the same for all 3) and one boss fight. Sure they added auto attack, sure they have bandaied the UI, but at the end of the day, they have not adressed the issues that the reviewers and that 90% that left where complaining, that is lack of engaging content, an Auction House, End game content, low level content( Wich is still lacking a LOT!) a mail system, a party search system, a LS administration system etc etc.

So after an entire year, if you look at the game, the game has not really come that far, sure to those that play, things have changed and in the right direction, but to those outside looking in, is really not that much, and also consider that during this entire year, the other MMOS have been putting out content 10X the size of what FFXIV has, so who in their right mind, would give this game a good review, when everybody else in the market is outdoing it 10 to 1 ?

I have this dead horse over here, can you help me out? I think if we just kick it a little more...

[TheVedis]

Haha, the other day my coworker gave me the dirtiest look when I mentioned that XIV is going to be moving to p2p and he was basically like "you have to be kidding me, you're going to pay for it?" (we'd been talking about me getting into XIV recently). Was hilarious to me, I just told him that as of the last few large patches I've finally been having a bit of fun with it and by the time the next patch comes out it should be better, so yeah... I'll pay.
He just shrugged and that was the end of it. Not really a big deal.

and chances are all he knows about the game is how it launched
since no one has given the game an honest review of whats been added(and thats serious, NO ONE HAS, all the new reviews ignore all the stuff being added to rehash old crap)

imo, just ignore people, whenever i mention i play 14 myself, i get more questions then actual "why are you bother" type comments
you would be amazed how many people are more curious about how the game is coming along given that its been f2p for all this time and all the patching being done to it

the more dismissive people are those who wouldnt have played it to begin with, and even moreso those who cant see a reason anyone would play anything but wow