Letter to the Producer, from an average gamer

[Raina]

the game needs testers that are more forward thinking than some of this population can manage.

Agreed. As one who reads the forums often, yet rarely (if ever) posts--thus a representative of the "silent majority,"--I wish to commend you for your thoughtfully written, mature, and grammatically-sound post (especially for that last bit).
I've been a Final Fantasy fan since VII, and like your girlfriend, I was absolutely entranced by XI and horrified by XIV. I continue to play XIV because I believe that greatness can be "reborn," but not without (as you so artfully stated) "forward thinkers" who are willing to call out mediocrity and implement innovative solutions for 21st-century gamers.

[Jaimie]

What's DAoC? So... *hides sheet of paper behind back* does this mean you don't wanna go shopping cart sailing thru wal mart in bathrobe?... Better check that off the list, dratz!

Oh wait thats that Conan game? was hyped after release heard it was bad, seems nbdy played it? idk.

Dark Ages of Camelot

hmmm riding a shopping cart in wal-mart wearing a bathrobe naaa one of them greeters would pull me over and kill my fun

[Gentaro]

Dark Ages of Camelot

hmmm riding a shopping cart in wal-mart wearing a bathrobe naaa one of them greeters would pull me over and kill my fun

Dark Age of Camelot*

Yoshida was a hardcore-daoc player, I hope he puts some of that into XIV

[Manbearcow]

Dark Age of Camelot*

Yoshida was a hardcore-daoc player, I hope he puts some of that into XIV

I heard somewhere that he already plans to. That's why I am hoping the pvp will be good.

[Manbearcow]

lol I quit I think 2-3wks ago, lost track now :-\ I haven't played with a lot of sound on after a while. Idk just had lot of memories from FFXI, which is why I came back to FFXIV but it's not the same & FFXI is way too different now & after WoW would be too slow, I think? But WoW has dumbed down a bit I think so it's like blah, trying to find a game to put time into is so difficult, I'm actually installing MoP right now :-\ Nothing else rly has my attention. I did enjoy Eden Eternal (F2P) but I quit after GM took some of my gearz away for some "issues" T_T

I thought Eden Eternal was pretty fun. I would have stuck with it longer had it not been for, slow content updates, cash shops, and having to manage a guild. I did manage accomplish the goal I set out for when the game started, and that was to own my own guild town. We even managed to down all the world bosses to get the shrines for it fairly early on, despite having very few members. EE definitely did the class change thing right though. FFXIV could learn a thing or two there.

[Punainen]

Why can't FFXIV just be FFXIV without everyone insisting it be like some other MMO in every way?

[Cecwhite]

Let's face it, an MMO is an MMO. If I wanted to play something different, which I am, I would play League of Legend or Minecraft, etc. If an MMO doesn't have some mechanics that are recognizable to regular MMO players, then MMO players will not play it. I'm not asking for FFXIV to become a WoW clone. But things like the right click/ left click and escape button should be universal. I mean really, how many games do you know don't open the main menu when you hit escape. Having to figure out which tiny icon on the bottom right of the screen lets you quit a game does not make it player, or new player friendly.

Having working mechanics won't make FFXIV a clone of another MMO. Content, not mechanics, should be what makes FFXIV different from other MMO's. It already has better graphics than most games. It's not like FFXIV can replicate WoW's combat system with all its different character resources, like mana, energy, rage, runes, etc. FFXIV has a decent enough system with mp, tp, and the introduction of limit breaks.

The combo system, while fun at times, is fairly clunky, particularly when you miss or are soloing. Sure I can walk to the left of a target to start a combo chain while I am soloing a monster, but is it worth my time? The combo bonuses, at least at my current level are not even worth the effort for the most part. For example on the marauder, in the amount of time it takes me to build enough tp to use the brutal swing combo after the heavy swing combo, a monster is usually already dead, or the heavy swing combo is just about up. Do the bonus damage multipliers even work? I know it is RNG, but the bonuses are fairly unnoticeable.

Not everyone is a fan of fast action combat, but the majority of gamers are. League of Legends, the most played video game in the world is fast action. WoW, the most subbed mmo is fast action. Slow paced games are for the cell phone. Slow combat in an MMO caters to a very small population of gamers and the issue with FFXIV now is that it has a very small population of gamers.

Preferring slow combat isn't the same as preferring more strategically oriented combat. Doing less in the same time frame simply requires less thinking, ie. strategy. You can't mask slow thinking with notions of greater strategical orientation. You can have just as much, and much likely more, strategy if a game requires faster decision making. For example, the best real time strategy games are not slow paced. Puzzles are slow paced. Facebook games are slow paced.

Again, incorporating working system mechanics doesn't make one MMO a clone of another. MMO's are inherently similar and it is the content and the way it is presented that makes or breaks a game.

For the combo issue, I know they are changing that and I agree with you that the combo system is fun at times but that the mob is dead half of the time before you get to the good combos. At least in 2.0 we will be able to use those attacks off the bat and have tp at full that get used by combos and slowly regens. That's one widely-used mechanic I am glad to see return.

[Manbearcow]

Why can't FFXIV just be FFXIV without everyone insisting it be like some other MMO in every way?

Plain and simple? FFXIV sucks. While you may not think so, the fact that FFXIV has such a tiny player base is a good indication of this. A failed game shouldn't persist with failed concepts.

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

Plain and simple? FFXIV sucks. While you may not think so, the fact that FFXIV has such a tiny player base is a good indication of this. A failed game shouldn't persist with failed concepts.

I have to ask, do you even know what they are changing for 2.0? It seems like a huge waste of breath showing concern for a game version that isn't going to exist in a month. I am seeing a lot of concerns listed that have already been addressed by Yoshida to be fixed in ARR.

Of course, "being fixed", will be be up for debate till more information is released in how the fixes will truly function. We just mostly have concept. Complaints about Version 1.0 should have stopped a long time ago. It's just a ghost now.

[Gerrr]

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.."
- lot of the forum ppl are sheep who kiss up to JP, so yeah, that pretty much wraps everything up.

The quoted parts of this post creep me out. Your attitude towards both NA and JP players is full of distain. Why bother posting this BS?