Mark Kearns reviews FF14 vs current MMO development mentality

[seraf]

I don’t get what’s so hard about making an account anyway. You go to mog click register. Input personal info. Then Input a game code you bought from Amazon or SE directly. Download game and play.

[Mingqin]

Mark Kern, now there's a name I never wanted to hear again.

[Puremallace]

I don’t get what’s so hard about making an account anyway. You go to mog click register. Input personal info. Then Input a game code you bought from Amazon or SE directly. Download game and play.

It is the two account thing. You have one user name for this place and another for the MogStation. You then have to use the right one on the launcher after you figure out where to input the code because the item code thing if you put the wrong code there it does not tell you where to put expansion codes lol

A lot of this could be solved with an option on a drop down to just apply the expansion code to your account when you buy it or choose to get it e-mailed if you want to gift the code or something.

[Raelsar]

Just to quickly drop a few comments regarding the leak...

Well, let's start with the obvious -- the leak FEELS genuine. This may be more important to it being accurate or not, stuff like this tends to become a "self-fulfilling prophecy" of sorts; Blizz can't control their own narrative, and for the most part it's affirming a lot of the negative sentiment which is already out there. The details like it actually affecting recruitment of developers would be this actually happening in practice, working at Blizz no longer has the prestige it used to.

The one detail that is surprising is actually somewhat contrary the negative sentiment -- the development leads are an example of the "Peter Principle", essentially being thrust into a position where they are unable (and/or don't understand everything that it requires you to cover) after the old guard left. This, combined with a certain stubbornness and steadfastly believing the game is "too big to fail", is what appears to be causing things to go downhill so swiftly.

There's an old saying:

"How do people go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly."

The problems have been mounting for years, but they've been ignored. Now that it has reached the tipping point, they're desperately trying to figure out why.
But the simple answer is that their arrogance left them blind to the warning signs which were being thrown at them constantly.

Still, there is one thing I have to agree with -- whatever Blizz does next, it has to be a "significant win" and be an important step in rebuilding all of the company's lost goodwill.
WoW might not be as bad as FFXIV 1.0... but Blizz' reputation is just as bad, if not worse, than Square's at that time. It has all but reached the point WoW needs an ARR-style rebuild.

[Jadedsins]

After reading all that, it seems real, but out of all of that. One part really irked me.


The woke part down at the bottom. I want stories that offend me. I want content that makes me upset, or cry. Making non offensive content is just stupid, and is a trend that needs to end.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

It is the two account thing. You have one user name for this place and another for the MogStation. You then have to use the right one on the launcher after you figure out where to input the code because the item code thing if you put the wrong code there it does not tell you where to put expansion codes lol

A lot of this could be solved with an option on a drop down to just apply the expansion code to your account when you buy it or choose to get it e-mailed if you want to gift the code or something.

Uhh, the forums use the same account as your game.

[Neoyoshi]

I feel like that advice is disingenuous.

Also, laughs in PlayOnline FFXI account setup.

[Hysterior]

Also, laughs in PlayOnline FFXI account setup.

I remember when I decided to try FFXI, maybe a year ago or so... installed the whole game and ended up not being able to set foot in the game...
It was pure chaos and I don't have a doctorate in nonsense so I ended up uninstalling
I really wouldn't be surprised if a lot of players are turned off by that and can't be bothered giving it a go.

For FFXIV I don't remember my account setup but I do remember when I moved from Asia to Europe and wanted my account to move with me was a STRUGGLE.
Had to contact support so many times for them to take my money XD

Good luck to new players, hope you make it through

[Puremallace]

Uhh, the forums use the same account as your game.

I can promise you for me atleast this is not the case. There is one login in that uses this thing and another that uses my e-mail. There are also like 2 other options for things that I am not even sure if I ever created. When I went to actually go buy Endwalker I had to login and took me 10+ minutes to figure out what to use to correctly get into my account that was the place to apply the code.

As someone who did use the Blizzard launcher to buy BFA it was very simple and applied the code to your account with a simple drop down. There was not a separate e-mail where I had to go back to the site with that code and put it in a different place.

The Square Enix devs obviously have Blizzard accounts and are not blind so they clearly see the difference in how the sites are set-up. What is HILARIOUS is the entire Blizzard launcher that people love was actually stolen design from Trion who made Rift lol. I honestly do not think WoW players understand how much Rift influenced WoW right after Wrath of the Lich King.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I can promise you for me atleast this is not the case. There is one login in that uses this thing and another that uses my e-mail. There are also like 2 other options for things that I am not even sure if I ever created. When I went to actually go buy Endwalker I had to login and took me 10+ minutes to figure out what to use to correctly get into my account that was the place to apply the code.

As someone who did use the Blizzard launcher to buy BFA it was very simple and applied the code to your account with a simple drop down. There was not a separate e-mail where I had to go back to the site with that code and put it in a different place.

The Square Enix devs obviously have Blizzard accounts and are not blind so they clearly see the difference in how the sites are set-up. What is HILARIOUS is the entire Blizzard launcher that people love was actually stolen design from Trion who made Rift lol. I honestly do not think WoW players understand how much Rift influenced WoW right after Wrath of the Lich King.

Because the SE store isn't run or managed by SE, it's a 3rd party. And you can use your XIV login for the store, but not vice versa.

The forums and XIV itself both use the same login.

Also, blizzards launcher is for all of their games. XIVs launcher is for... XIV.


I've played almost every MMO out there (or did, back in the 2000s and early 2010s), I still don't understand how people get confused with XIV. It's not hard. But then, I dealt with publishers like ncsoft, games like sw galaxies, the original guild wars, etc.

Even early wow didn't have a great account management system. It just all got rolled into blizzards launcher a while back, long after I quit.