Letter to the Producer, from an average gamer

[Gentaro]

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.

FFXIV sucks for the casual train that hops from mmo to mmo anyways, yea.

FFXI always had a tiny player base compared to the "big" mmos, but that player base was stable over years.

Creating a game for a minority isn't bad, in fact its the only way of making a good game for a certain group of people - quit whining just because you don't belong to that group and go back to casual-feels-like-wow mmo #342343543

[Jocko]

While I agree with a few of your functionality points, I heavily disagree with most everything else you said

I like the slower paced combat. I liked positioning myself correctly for Ifrit, reading his patterns and timing my WS during down periods to avoid getting caught in cracks. The only issue I had was the disparity between where you were visually standing and where the server actually says you are, which is a problem 2.0 promises to fix anyway. It's not an objectivelyworse gameplay style, it's simply different and one I enjoy. Don't come in here and insist they alter it to play like every other MMO. If that's what you're looking for, there are tons to pick from. Let something unique remain unique for us that enjoy it, and let them work out the bugs and kinks, improving upon their style instead of completely replacing it.

If every game in a given genre adhered to the same principles, video games would be a dreadfully boring medium. We wouldn't have games like Bit Trip Runner, Madworld, Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus. Let developers make the game they want to make, with overall quality assurance handled by us so it's polished, not demand they make the same game we've been paying to play for the last 8 years. This is my biggest fear over ARR, they seem to be standardizing it and pandering it to people like you

[Jaimie]

FFXIV sucks for the casual train that hops from mmo to mmo anyways, yea.

FFXI always had a tiny player base compared to the "big" mmos, but that player base was stable over years.

Creating a game for a minority isn't bad, in fact its the only way of making a good game for a certain group of people - quit whining just because you don't belong to that group and go back to casual-feels-like-wow mmo #342343543

LoL

You do know that it costs money to run the servers ?

You do know that some quests require parties of people on or past the same quest, online at the same time ?

You do know that SE is a business, who's primary goal is to make money ?

Oh wait, nm you're a fanboi, have fun playing your unique game while it lasts

[Ryans]

Hello there,
Battle system

Monster engagement
When a monster is attacking you, it is very annoying to have to select the monster, and then confirm that you want to attack that monster, and have a huge delay before you start hitting the monster back because your marauder (for example) has a slow swing speed. Making the game more convenient and streamline makes it a better game. It doesn’t take any difficulty away from it. It just makes the game less annoying to navigate. When a monster attacks your character, your character should automatically fight back. And, unless your character was already swinging away on another monster, the first attack should happen instantly.

Speed of battles
So…very…slow. But I have seen some footage of ARR in the letter from the producer live video of archer gameplay. That was a fairly acceptable speed, but still not enough going on in the time frame. The video of the lancer/dragoon at gamescom 2012 is another story. The player did an action once every 4-5 seconds in the battles it showed. That is ridiculously slow. I don’t particularly care how long a battle lasts. A boss battle can last an hour for all I care. I just don’t want to sit around pressing a button once every 4-5 seconds. Don’t be stuck in the turn based gaming era. Auto attacks should supplement skill damage, instead of be fillers when you run out of tp. You can adjust damage and hp, but make it so that there is more action happening. The more there is going on, the less boring the battles are. Remember that some of us play for hours on end and will need more than clicking once every 4 seconds to keep us entertained.

Mobility
Every skill requires you to stand in place. When I started playing Perfect World, this was the issue that made me not enjoy the game to the fullest. Standing still while using an “instant” skill is boring and unnecessary. Standing around for a casted spell is standard, because it balances out the range advantage, but standing still while performing a melee move is not balanced or fun. There are also no skills that provide extra mobility. Those skills are usually the ones that are the most fun to use. When you think about it, most of the current skills are just different versions of dealing damage, healing damage done, or preventing damage. Why not add skills that make you run faster for a short duration, teleport you a short distance, charge into someone, or displace your enemies?

AOE
There needs to be more of it and at earlier levels. Don’t make me fight one monster at a time for over 20 levels. That is so mind numbingly boring. Give me the tools to take on 4 monsters at the same time, instead of making me kill them one at a time while taking damage from all of them anyway.

I disagree with everything you said here. I'm not exaggerating, everything. If a monster aggros you, there should be some advantage that it has over you because it engaged first.

I love the speed of the battles (as anything but blm because it is boring as hell in my opinion) and I don't look forward to the speed of 2.0. If you have done Nael Hardmode than you would know that the speed of the current combat system can be very intense, require a proper rotation, but still not be a button smashfest.

Animation lock can be shorter, but I don't like that it is being taken out. There is no reason I should be able to run away from my target while executing a six hit weaponskill.

As for AoE, just no. I prefer having fights be more of a strategy and not target one monster and watch them all die. Its already something that I can't stand in the current version (partly because monsters die in 3 seconds from aoes) because its used for everything that isn't a boss fight. I rather liked the FFXI method of aoes where spells would do less damage the more monsters they hit. It gave them a use on single target because they would do more damage at a higher MP cost but also didn't make them spammed for every piece of content.

As for people saying FFXIV is a broken game with bad mechanics, you are only right about the broken game part. The reason its broken is because the server lag, the game itself is very enjoyable to those who can adjust to that lag. Fix the server lag and the game is immeasurably better and all those things that you think are broken are immediately gone.

The market is allowed to have a game that doesn't follow the status quo of spamfest combat, quest based leveling, solo storylines, and instance every bit of content and at the same time, make money. There are enough people interested in that type of game and there are plenty of WoW style MMOs on the market already for you.

[Keisuna]

have fun playing your unique game while it lasts

Yeah, because FFXI didn't last very long at all, and it most certainly wasn't the most profitable Final Fantasy SE has ever had.

[Aion]

I'm really not into the idea of new MMO(RPG)s having to meet "the current MMO standards". I'm failing to understand why every single MMO out there should have the exact same features - isn't that boring? People keep using the WoW playerbase and all the money it makes as an argument, but how many games have you seen succeeding using the same WoW patterns ("the standard") in their design? In short: why do some people want all the MMO games to be identical in their game (especially combat) mechanics?

Not everyone is a fan of the fast action combat. It's not because they can't do it (at least not for everyone) but because they prefer slower, more strategy oriented combat (I'm not claiming XIV combat is more strategic than WoW combat here, I'm just saying that's the direction some of the XIV players would like it to evolve). Many others have written about this in this thread so I don't feel the need of repeating everything they have said.

Here's a good thread about this subject.

Have you ever play game called Final Fantasy XIV that launched around september 2010? I heard it has many unique features, maybe you will like it

[Alhanelem]

Not bad of a thread, but saying things like "I play these other games" and "I am your average gamer" do not strengthen the post. The OP writes as if he is representing the playerbase and that is not necessarily the case. There are some nice points in there, but you do not represent me or anyone else here but yourself.

It goes without saying that most of us do not want to play a broken game, so don't go around saying something like "unlike most people, i dont want to play a broken game" (paraphrased). "Most people" are not like you apparently think they are.

[Manbearcow]

I'll admit that I enjoy a good trolling. I have been amused by all the comments referring to me as "people like you" as though I am some sort of crazy outsider. What some of you refuse to acknowledge is that "people like me" make up the majority of the gaming world, albeit most are not as well spoken.

I didn't come in here making demands, but suggestions. I will play this game to amuse my girlfriend and if 2.0 doesn't suit my tastes I will move on. But what many of you fanbois fail to realize is that players like me will make your sacred game better in the long run. SE isn't going to spend millions they don't have on content updates and game improvements. They also won't spend money they don't have trying to keep up servers.

They need players like me to throw money at them, and in order for that to happen mainstream mmo players will have to enjoy the game. Sure there are plenty of mmo's out there that I can play. And if 2.0 is decent enough, I will probably stick around for a while. If not, I will move on. SE might have kept FFXIV running for 2 years on the hope that the relaunch will be a success, but if it flops again don't expect the servers to stay up for long. Or for SE to be releasing other games anytime soon. The money generated from this small community will only go so far. Pandering to players like myself is the smartest thing that SE can do. Like I said before, you will probably be playing this game regardless of its quality.

I get that a lot of you like slow paced gameplay and that is fine, but don't kid yourselves about strategy, positioning or timing. Slower paced games just make for easier gaming. You enjoy playing a game that makes you feel like you have some skill.

I don't understand why some of these players hate AOE so much. It's like they want to have less options.

[Jynx]

They need players like me to throw money at them,

Your playing FFXIV at all, your not the "Average MMO gamer". Therefore you can't represent them as you seem to think you do, you like us on the forums represent only yourself and your own opinions.

Your opinions on slower paced games having no difficulty to them is unfounded to say the least. If I was the "Average gamer" I'd be ashamed to have you trying to represent me and my ideals. Hell people should be upset when anyone tries to say that someone is representing them and miscontruing what they actually want out of a game.

Your telling us what YOU want out of this game, not what everyone else who isn't playing does. Please don't pretend that you are.

[Manbearcow]

It goes without saying that most of us do not want to play a broken game, so don't go around saying something like "unlike most people, i dont want to play a broken game" (paraphrased). "Most people" are not like you apparently think they are.

"Unlike most people, I make up paraphrases in quotations and use those paraphrases to make up arguments that fit my point" (paraphrased)