Would you have paid monthly for FFXIV if it was released the way it is today?

[Delmontyb]

Yes, but the best thing is, I did pay already, when I signed up, I bought enough Crysta for 6 months, and thus am cashing that in now. With the discount I was still covered after giving some away for the Japan Relief Fund.

[Physic]

It sounds like people are answering this as a level 50 player instead of what they would be at launch: A level1 noob.

With the state of the game as of 1.20, it's fully functional as a launch title and would have succeeded far better than it's initial launch.

Pretend you don't know anything about 2.0, level 50 or either Primal fight. Just that you know all this content actually exists.

Not really, even with the game as it was at launch, yeah i wanted lag fixes and some other system stuff but mostly i wanted more content, more places to go people to see, events to happen, i wanted to explore and find something, some one and have the game draw me into its story rather than do a short cutscene quest every 10 levels, although they werent horrible.

a good portion of people at launch when asked in questionarie said they wanted content, that was without having everything at 50 and nothing left to do at all. The game still lacks content even today, its basically a grind fest, and while the grind isnt the most hardcore grind out there, its pretty one dimensional.

rpgs are usually event focused, you go somewhere and do something to see whats happening to some person or whats going to happen next, you have great stories along the way, but the way this mmo is designed, you basically go into a training room for 90% of the time so you can do something interesting 5% of the time. While the exploration of your powers and growth and what you will be able to do is an intreresting part of a game i think they have mistakenly abandoned the rpg elements that tie it together and drive you forward.

essentially they need to connect the progression to progressions and engagement to the story/world. its been a problem since day one, and its still not remedied, and i dont think it will be till 2.0 even if they have decided to do so, because they probably dont want to create content they will probably need to destroy later.

[Lienn]

Nop.

I would pay the old one if it was released the way it was when Yoshida took over though.

[Fated]

The current version is "playable" and nostalgia from FFXI would have silenced my rational decision making process.

[Robbie]

Yeah gotta say i would

[Rubicon]

Yes but only if I had no foreknowledge of the game before.

No because after going thru a year and a half of this with no serious progress on 1.0 other than being a battle mechanics testing server, I am bored and frustrated. The game never felt right and when 2.0 was announced it was clear that 1.0 is not the real game. I stop pretending this was the real FFXIV a long time ago. You are only testing battle mechanics against time-killing bosses and quests until 2.0.

[AmyRae]

Well, this is going to be terribly one-sided since people who aren't planning on paying probably aren't showing up in the forums anymore.

Is 1.20 better than release? I'd say so.

But when it comes to being good enough to pay for, you're not really paying for a full game. There isn't much substance to the world. There aren't a lot of stories or quests to sink your teeth into. There aren't any strong characters in the game you'd pick for inclusion in Dissidia, as one interview noted. There are still responsiveness issues that can't be fixed without a revamp. We're still using a controller UI in a mouse platform world.

What you're really paying for, in my opinion, is a leg up when the real game starts in 2.0 and everything that's lacking is finally set to right. But I certainly wouldn't want to introduce someone new to FFXIV and expect them to pay for it until then.

[Zanfire]

He likes to toss around the word "Beta" as if he knows what it means. Just ignore him.

I am looking forward to the server upgrades above most other things. Even content. The removal of much of the server based issues will be of tremendous help.

laying the groundwork for a new version of the game....sound like beta to me.

[DoctorMog]

laying the groundwork for a new version of the game....sound like beta to me.

Like every game that had an expansion.

Ever.

[redmage]

Absolutely. I was discussing the game the other day on another board and someone reminded me about the random SP rewarded during battle. I had completely forgotten about that horrible system and it feels absurd that we actually had to experience that.