Letter to the Producer, from an average gamer

[Mjollnir]

It's weird - I stopped playing WoW/LotRO/Conan/Aion/RIFT because they were all clones (undoubtedly of an earlier game I never played). What drew me back to FFXI repeatedly was that it was different.

When XIV was announced, I hoped it would take a lot of influence from XI - graphically it was obvious that it did (same player races, same enemies). Sadly, the release version was somewhat lacking (understatement^^). It seemed that a lot of the features that made XI stand out had been ignored and a lot of new systems had been put in which were unique to XIV, though ultimately flawed.

Over the last two years, I have noticed that XIV has taken on more and more features of the WoW-esque games. This saddens me a little, though I can understand that all of this has come about because S-E want to appeal to the broadest audience possible.

Your post refers constantly to the WoW-esques as "standard", but I would argue there isn't, and shouldn't be, a standard. Whereas I am not at all bashing those games (I absolutely loved LotRO!), FFXI and EVE Online are two other successful MMOs that have very little in common with them. Similarly, I look to XIV for a unique gaming experience as, though I do agree that the 1.0 release had a lot of features in it that seemed to be unique for the sake of uniqueness (and weren't so enjoyable).

So a couple of your points; mail, an AH system (though FFXI rather than WoW) I can agree with. A couple of bits; couples, carrying, I can take or leave. The boost for levelling other classes is already there - you get access to their abilities on your other classes. A lot of the rest of your points deal with speed of access to content (ie you consider it too slow). Your discontent here seems (and correct me if I'm wrong) to stem from that your reason to play is to get to level cap on all classes ASAP. That's a fine goal, but you should consider that one of, if not *the* main reason that people pick up a game with Final Fantasy in the title is to experience an epic, engaging and often moving story.

It does sound a bit fanboy of me, sorry. I'm just offering my opinion on your post though. There are already plenty of games out there that do what you've described and they don't have "Final Fantasy" in the title.

However, from what we've seen of 2.0 in the previews so far, it sounds like you'll be more than happy with the way it's going.

[Valmonte]

Except a lot of real mmo players play it >.>

Sure if you consider that a "Real" MMO, i dont.

WoW's a game i'm still trying figure outs its true pupose, is it the encouraged consistent complaining, the crappy give it too me now system or maybe its just because it works on your grandma's W98 computer.

EVE's a real MMO, you work together or you accomplish nothing a concept that seems to have been forgotten.

[Shougun]

Sure if you consider that a "Real" MMO, i dont.

WoW's a game i'm still trying figure outs its true pupose, is it the encouraged consistent complaining, the crappy give it too me now system or maybe its just because it works on your grandma's W98 computer.

EVE's a real MMO, you work together or you accomplish nothing a concept that seems to have been forgotten.

WoW is real, less I have one wild imagination of playing it.

Try and one man end game content of WoW or FFXIV.. not gonna happen "work together or accomplish nothing" is still present in those "fake" games.

[Husband]

I cried.....

[Manbearcow]

I hope you will all keep in mind that my post was done in one sitting, and that I didn't bother to edit it really. A lot of the things I wrote down as they came to me. These are, very much, my own preferences for small things that I hope will see the light of day. I express these preferences aloud so that they may be heard and perhaps someone will take note. I understand that others will have different opinions that are equally valid. Like I said in my original post, I made this post for selfish reasons. I want to personally enjoy this game as long as I have to play it. I will play this game because my girlfriend loved FFXI and was crushed when FFXIV failed miserably. We hope that 2.0 will be playable enough to sustain my interest, because she is more or less a FFXI fan girl and just wants me to play with her. I want very much to like FFXIV when 2.0 comes out.

"Your discontent here seems (and correct me if I'm wrong) to stem from that your reason to play is to get to level cap on all classes ASAP. That's a fine goal, but you should consider that one of, if not *the* main reason that people pick up a game with Final Fantasy in the title is to experience an epic, engaging and often moving story."

My discontent stems from the inefficiencies of the current system. I am a min-max player. I couldn't care less about any of the crafting or gathering classes if they don't add to the maximization of my battle classes. I would like there to be more incentive to level all the classes that i don't give two sh**s about. I have owned and played a few of the previous Final Fantasy titles and I do enjoy the stories, but they are fairly cliche. And it is hard to enjoy an epic video game story with little to no voice acting. I could just read a book or manga for that, at least that wouldn't be so akward.

"Also, Diablo 3 wasn't considered a flop since it sold so many copies. It's not a monthly subscription game anyways so they got what they wanted by selling it to the sheep that figured it would be awesome. They tried too hard to change the formula and forgot people played Diablo mainly for its customization and pvp."

Yeah, it sold millions of copies because of the Blizzard brand and Diablo 2, but it also lost much of its player base since its release. They also probably bet that the real money auction house would do a lot better than it did. The longevity of Diablo 2 and Starcraft is what made them great games. By those standards, Diablo 3 was a flop. They might still be able to revive it when pvp comes out, but it won't be the same.

[Mujen]

Manbearpig, I def. liked your post, and as a non-soley FF player, let me say /welcome & also, these forums aren't very non-FF hardcore friendly. Basically if you don't kiss JP ass you're not rly welcome, so im pretty hated by now & i'm fine with that lol... As u can tell from the "most NA player suck" comment. If you never played early FFXI you prob don't realize how much the english-speaking FF community see JP players as demi-gods, "omg I got into a JP party!" "well this is how the JP do it.." etc etc..

Mostly everything on the forum at the moment is wishlists/hopes/suggestions and very little confirmation by the development team, lots of ambiguity, no guidelines - little information.

D3 (Diablo III) was a flop, Patch 1.4 w/ their paragon levels & fixed legenardies helped but I quit that game months ago & I started during release. It was def a let down to vet Diablo players.

Currently FFXIV can be "beaten" in a month, 1 month of the game I've pretty much experienced 95% of it, got bored & resorted to forum posting/browsing. Gear is all low drop rates & spamfest, gets old FAST.

There is pretty much not much to post anymore these days, all you can rly do is find something else to do/play & wait for ARR or some information to see what happens. No point in suggestions, cuz they don't go anywhere & lot of the forum ppl are sheep who kiss up to JP, so yeah, that pretty much wraps everything up.

[AjoraOak]

O_o 9/10? I love these kind of made up statistics.


PS more importantly, I just hit my 777 post mark.

Made up? I thought only 10 people played FFXIV by now. ; ;

[Yves]

Made up? I thought only 10 people played FFXIV by now. ; ;

That's total BS. I know at LEAST...wait...Ronnie...Jin...Steve...umm...Bill?...no wait - PHIL! How many is that now? Hahaha don't you look like an idio...oh DAMMIT!

[auritribe]

I hope you will all keep in mind that my post was done in one sitting, and that I didn't bother to edit it really. A lot of the things I wrote down as they came to me. These are, very much, my own preferences for small things that I hope will see the light of day. I express these preferences aloud so that they may be heard and perhaps someone will take note. I understand that others will have different opinions that are equally valid. Like I said in my original post, I made this post for selfish reasons. I want to personally enjoy this game as long as I have to play it. I will play this game because my girlfriend loved FFXI and was crushed when FFXIV failed miserably. We hope that 2.0 will be playable enough to sustain my interest, because she is more or less a FFXI fan girl and just wants me to play with her. I want very much to like FFXIV when 2.0 comes out.

"Your discontent here seems (and correct me if I'm wrong) to stem from that your reason to play is to get to level cap on all classes ASAP. That's a fine goal, but you should consider that one of, if not *the* main reason that people pick up a game with Final Fantasy in the title is to experience an epic, engaging and often moving story."

My discontent stems from the inefficiencies of the current system. I am a min-max player. I couldn't care less about any of the crafting or gathering classes if they don't add to the maximization of my battle classes. I would like there to be more incentive to level all the classes that i don't give two sh**s about. I have owned and played a few of the previous Final Fantasy titles and I do enjoy the stories, but they are fairly cliche. And it is hard to enjoy an epic video game story with little to no voice acting. I could just read a book or manga for that, at least that wouldn't be so akward.

"Also, Diablo 3 wasn't considered a flop since it sold so many copies. It's not a monthly subscription game anyways so they got what they wanted by selling it to the sheep that figured it would be awesome. They tried too hard to change the formula and forgot people played Diablo mainly for its customization and pvp."

Yeah, it sold millions of copies because of the Blizzard brand and Diablo 2, but it also lost much of its player base since its release. They also probably bet that the real money auction house would do a lot better than it did. The longevity of Diablo 2 and Starcraft is what made them great games. By those standards, Diablo 3 was a flop. They might still be able to revive it when pvp comes out, but it won't be the same.

Your complaints are entirely valid, and even agreeable. I think the silent majority agrees with most of what you have written here.

But the reason that it is agreeable is because people who have been playing this game for months already pretty much know, and so do the developers. These complaints have been repeated and addressed a million times by now. Right here on these forums.

The whole 2.0 project and sacking tanaka and all that stuff was due to a lot of the reasons you mentioned.

So basically what I'm trying to say is:



Welcome to FFXIV

[Jynx]

I can't say I agree with you much...on anything really.

Too much twitch gaming and ADD gameplay permeat your playstyle. Nothing wrong with that...just not what I think makes a good MMO, I enjoy the slower more deliberate pace of combat focused on a single foe instead of 10.