Dear SE - What happened?

[Suzaku]

I know part of the issue is that they're still tying themselves to a console release, so they can't do everything with the environment that they'd be able to with a pure PC release. I expect they also burned no small number of dev cycles on the console side, too.

Though, I'm of the opinion that PC tech has moved so far beyond console tech now that something on the scale of an MMO should probably be exclusively for the former, and not the latter.

[InuraBera]

I just feel that even now, updates are coming out kind of slow. For example, Rift just came out and with every issue brought up, it is either addressed or outright fixed as soon as possible. There were bugs that I submitted and they fixed within a few days, something I have never experienced in an MMO before. I think that SE needs to pull out all the stops and consider really putting ALL their manpower towards this game.

I think it is important to realise that fixing bugs when you are going to modify or replace large swathes of it is somewhat inefficient. I seem to have got on well with this game particularly *because* I'm not a big Final Fantasy fan, and held no particular expectations outside a thoroughly player driven MMO, which we got. I'm not going to complain about the changes but the original game is definitely from the past with players left to decide what to do.

Sadly that doesn't seem to have a place anymore in today's gaming, but if the 'replacement' version is good I'll still be here. I haven't touched World of Warcraft (Despite solid play since launch and minus a couple days with Cataclysm) yet play FFXIV nigh on everyday so things are looking good!

The thing to keep in mind is that big changes are coming, but they don't just snap their fingers and Content appears. Seemingly we shall see the first big combat system changes in a couple of months (Interview, I'd source but furiously 'typing' with PS3 pad) and hopefully get information on what exactly Companies are soon. Chin up - until we start paying the game is basically back in development and will hopefully be worthy come the time!

[Abriael]

I wonder what's the utility in writing this kind of rants about the state the game was released in 5 months ago by a different team, while the current team is quite evidently putting in a lot of effort to adress that very situation.

What do you want, apologies? I believed we received plenty already.

Though, I'm of the opinion that PC tech has moved so far beyond console tech now that something on the scale of an MMO should probably be exclusively for the former, and not the latter.

Consoles are a big market. MMORPGs live on numbers. I'm sure you can do the math

[Xatsh]

What happened, they released a game 18 months early >.>.

Now they have to fix it with an extremely unforgiving fanbase. I would hate to have the new dev teams job, atm it seems nothing they can do besides make a brand new mmo in 6 months will please the masses.

[Verecund]

Considering the state of the game 6 months from launch, as well as the nature of the patch updates and the speed of their release (not extremely fast)... I would wager that they might've run into some major issues while developping their game engine. But it's still pretty much speculation at this point

[Blitz0309]

I wonder what's the utility in writing this kind of rants about the state the game was released in 5 months ago by a different team, while the current team is quite evidently putting in a lot of effort to adress that very situation.

What do you want, apologies? I believed we received plenty already.

Hate to be that guy... but how about a program where we can send back our games for a refund?.. i bought the collectors edition and can't bring myself to touch it for the last few months.

$70 can buy another nice piece of coral for my tank... and it will look much better than a ffxiv box sitting in my closet.

I'd love to play this game... but i'm not going to waste what little free time i have on something i do not find enjoyable. Maybe in a few months i'd buy the regular (as a journal, key, and crappy helm ingame isn't worth $20). But i already shelled in for an over hyped game that failed to deliver on almost any level.

[Harle]

What happened, they released a game 18 months early >.>.

Now they have to fix it with an extremely unforgiving fanbase. I would hate to have the new dev teams job, atm it seems nothing they can do besides make a brand new mmo in 6 months will please the masses.

I'd say they released this game in time...

In time enough not to repeat this mistake sometime later this very month. I'm glad that they have a new working attitude toward the game, and I'm glad that they're doing something about it instead of just twiddling their thumbs away until the very last players quit this game.

[SilvertearRen]

There are two problems with Square Enix. The first is the company culture towards the game development process - it doesn't exactly inspire their workers. Read up on articles that have been posted to Kotaku about this - there have even been allegations that Square Enix does not consider much for the welfare of their workers.

The second problem is inextricably linked to the first - because of the company culture towards game development in general, and their "shareholder"-centric focus, it has hamstrung creativity in Square Enix, which is why Tanaka was received very poorly by the community with his attitude and perceptions on what an MMORPG game should be.

If Square Enix had a more flexible and capable culture that took some elements of Western Game Design Theory, it's possible that they would have been able to produce a more complete product with FFXIV than what we had at its initial launch. When XIV has been in development for four years or more, and turns out a lackluster product, it's the result of a bad feedback process that was used late in the development cycle, which is counter to what most western MMO developers do - they have longer closed beta cycles than what we had with XIV.

I'm aware they have problems still with the mentality of the higher ups in Square Enix, but I'm hoping that after the failure of Final Fantasy 13, in terms of how it came off as a product (it feels very empty and soulless, just like XIV), that the company as a whole will improve their ability to create games that are enjoyable.

As it is now, I'm getting the feeling Square Enix has been behaving more like a publisher, than a game developer - that's usually the first sign that indicates that there are misplaced focuses.

[bsphil]

Lease from the yourtube vids I seen Eorzea looks much better then DCUO's ,metro and gotham. If you want to see a real empty game that was copy and pasted A LOT. Purchase dcuo for the pc/ps3. every building has the near same exact layout. Just different items in place but the city-scapes are obvious. Only "non copy/pasted" stuff is the lex co building bat signal stryker island. Oh and these cities are pretty small scale. I can fly around and see every part of each city in about 12 hrs.

I said this because there will always be something worse out there . but I agree they really do need to get to work on the game so a ps3 launch can happen. I wanna play it.

Modern developers have ways of procedurally generating content from a limited set of textures and a smaller pool of memory. SE has just shown a lack of technical skill and/or dedication to quality in that aspect. Not saying that every rock and tree should be unique, but using the same trees and rocks in unique, procedural ways to give the ILLUSION of more diverse content is what a top tier game developer in 2011 should be capable of. It shouldn't be this blatantly obvious that so much of the terrain is a massive copy/paste job. I don't know who thought that was acceptable.

Same thing with irises. Walk around in Limsa Lominsa for example and move from inside a building out into the sunlight. Pretty neat effect when you're inside and outside it looks drastically brighter, right? Just like an actual eye works, you've adjusted to the interior lighting and the light from the sun outside is extremely bright relatively speaking. Except that's a hard coded effect in the map (step on the line in the archway leading outside, there is a very specific point when the light suddenly and drastically changes even though you're going almost nowhere). Games have been able to procedurally measure light and make dynamic adjustments since 2005, SE has just taken the easy way out by forcing that effect into the map rather than design the engine so that it works anywhere and in any future circumstances without any hard coded work added into the map itself.

That's not really fixable either without major changes to the graphical engine which I highly doubt they're going to change. Disappointing, especially knowing that SE will not be making amends for their laziness either.

[Nipa]

I'd like to link you to a blog from Vanguard SoH lead developer:
http://www.bradmcquaid.com/Brad_McQu...em_Part_1.html

This is only the first of a 4 posts (the other are here). For those who were on the moon during the last ten years VG was a PvE MMO, with that hardcore EQ 1 feeling and some impressive budget that failed *very* hard.

Those 4 posts basically answer the question asked in this thread, "What happened?", but of course for Vanguard. This has been written as a post-mortem, and obviously didn't have any effect on the game. Yet it is the most interesting read you can have on a recent MMO (the EA Louse blog being probably the second one).

I feel that having a similar explanation for Final Fantasy XIV could be the best way SE could regain our trust - and by our, I mean all the buyers, not the few remaining players.