Lost faith in Yoshi-P?

[Hyrist]

I'm very concerned with the fact that ARR at this point looks like most other MMOs on the market. As others have said over and over, if we wanted to play those games, we'd be playing them.

I have to ask, and this is not a general question but your concerns has raised this issue.

Given that this is an MMO genre, what do you want out of it, for it to be such a departure from other MMOs?

I'd hate to say it, but those who are looking for similarities, or fear similarities, will find them regardless. But those who are looking for the differences, will also do succeed. The response to the Quest footage has been rather indicative of this fact.

And while the game is designed to have wide appeal, we have to keep in mind that some of what is being displayed is not the sum of the game. F.A.T.E., Primal hunts/battles, the Storyline itself. The Class/Job system, all of these already detract away from common MMOs in their own way.

I do share some concern in the way SE's been displaying the fundamentals of the game to us, and how they work. They are not what is going to attract a new players who have not already experienced the highlights of 1.xx. In my opinion, high level play with the classes, Primal Fights, Crystal Tower, Bahatmut's Labyrinth, etc. should be at the forefront of their advertising, even in Alpha. These gorgeous vistas are amazing, and the questing is smooth, but elements that strike us as familiar to the Final Fantasy franchise is what's going to excite us.

Low level play is going to seem fairly mundane and boring in comparison to all of this, although I am quite sure they were excited to display how smooth and controlled the quest and battle system looks to a brand new player. I still feel they need to do more along the lines of the Primal Fight trailers we had before.

But as far as 'If we wanted to play x game, we would play it." Please rest assured, this game is different. Perhaps not wildly so, but it may not need to be. Setting is a gigantic part of MMOs. It wasn't WoW's or any other game's fetch quest system that pushed me away from them, ultimately. These weren't necessarily bad, though we tend to like to blame them a lot.

What I feel is lacking in those other MMOS is the hook. That 'one thing' that keeps you invested in the game. Final Fantasys, especially the ones Yoshida has been aspiring too, have not lacked this quality to make you want to be a part of that world.

So while, yes, this trailer did seem a bit bland. It did not shake my faith or raised concerns about the quality of the game.

It just makes me criticize their marketing yet again.

[SidRheingold]

Yoshi 3:16 !!

[Gramul]

What I feel is lacking in those other MMOS is the hook. That 'one thing' that keeps you invested in the game. Final Fantasy's, especially the ones Yoshida has been aspiring too, have not lacked this quality to make you want to be a part of that world.

(I felt this was the core point so forgive me if I ignored something important)

What concrete concept would you consider that "one thing" to be? SWtOR and LotRO had a massive backlog of lore to build around but they fell into obscurity not to long after release and inevitably ran to F2P as a means of continuation. Conan had lore and nudity. Guild Wars 2 has beautiful visuals and a dynamic quest system but that's only doing fair. Tera too has attractive visuals and action based gameplay, but it's not very popular. DCU has all of DC comics behind it but people left that game bored.

So what does XIV ARR offer? The "one thing" that will prevent mediocrity? The fact that it was once so much worse isn't going to keep people invested. And while the environments, visuals, and story will no doubt be fantastic, it probably won't keep people around for too long.

Don't take this personally, I just think it's something we have to think about before celebrating.

[Zezlar]

I have not lost faith in Yoshi P. That said, I'm very concerned with the fact that ARR at this point looks like most other MMOs on the market. As others have said over and over, if we wanted to play those games, we'd be playing them. I desperately hope that Yoshi and his team pull off a great and UNIQUE MMO experience, and that people will flock to it because you can't find that experience in another MMO. As much as people like to hate on those of us with FFXI nostalgia, that game was (and continues to be) successful because it offered a unique experience. I don't think ARR needs to be an FFXI copy with shiney graphics by any means, but I also don't want to see it become a Final Fantasy themed WoW clone either, and the more I see of the game the less excited I'm becoming

I'm here because I still have hope that Yoshi and team will build an amazing game for us to play. Unfortunately I also understand that my preferences for what I want in ARR may not coincide with what Yoshi feels will give the game the widest appeal. In that event I'm prepared to bid FFXIV farewell, wish those that DO enjoy it the best, and congratulate the dev team on their success (and without all the bitterness I keep seeing on these forums.) I hope more than anything that ARR succeeds because I think Yoshi deserves it, even if in the end I choose not to be a part of it.

Well said. This is how I feel at this point, and I don't think I could have written it any better.

Yoshi-Ps vision may truly make the game more successful and if it does I congratulate them, but it's not one I consider Final Fantasy.

[VanillaLatte]

I haven't lost faith but it's not as much as before.

The fact that the game seems to play and feel just like wow is pretty disheartening. I think we all know what happened to wow clones. And although wow was vastly successful, it was based on the expectations ~10 years ago.

I understand this is only alpha so far so I'll keep my hopes up.

[Thebard]

Whats the latest trolling meme?

[Gramul]

Whats the latest trolling meme?

Asking that very question.

[Thebard]

Asking that very question.

How's your tail?

[Endigiont]

Yoshi 3:16 !!

That just hurts my core to even look at....

So blasphemous...

[ZakarnRosewood]

this is very true, http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/17...rep-will-fail/

....(edited to save space only)

and for those who say stop comparing mmo's or ffxi to ffxiv. maybe we are not comparing mmo's we are comparing ourselves and our enjoyment and entertainment value. what games did that just comes along with it at times. any who since i always sound like i'm complaining lmao, i have to always repeat. i still am here, i'm still on forums and still excited to play ffxiv. it still looks like a funner mmo then any that has come out since ffxi ...but i'm not so blind and wishful for it to work that i'm going to ignore all the issues they are pumping into it. first was how to make it not ffxi and stuff like yoshi has stated, now it's more how to kiss butt and make at the least our money back. any one think diff is just nutty.

I agree that end game and the Hardcore players need to have lots of challenging content to keep them long term, this give an MMO sustainability. Appealing to casual alone is a nail in the coffin for an MMO, once they move on as casuals do then those subs disappear. How much time did you spend at the lower levels in FFXI (just being curious not trying to needle) VS how much time you spent at end game? How memorable was the early stuff? I do hope for a decent end game to keep players busy for more than a month (look how fast the Primals were beaten and that was supposed to be the hardest content.)

By the same token I think the early to mid levels should be about learning how to play, how the game functions, and how to work well in party play. This is aimed at the casual or beginner player and it should be this way. If it is hardcore through and through then you will never get a new audience or build a more steady player base. To date they have shown us one starting area, a 5 min demo of two (out of 300+ quests), all at level 5-12. So far everything seems quite good and paced well for beginners and newcomers. For the hardcore, you will fly through this on your way to end game and will probably forget all about it anyway, so why the worry?

If the team does not try to include the new/casual as well as generate epic end game content then the game will probably die off like so many before. I'm not to worried about that honestly. I have not seen a Dev team so devoted to listening to their players and dedicated to making a game succeed as this one in all my years of gaming. It looks like they have a solid core system down now that has much more room for development than the previous one. Watching 1.0 evolve into what it was in the end given what they had to work with, I can't see this team stopping after launch. This is the nature of an MMO, it is constantly evolving.

I too have my concerns but I'm not the type of person that only focuses on the negative. The world is too diverse to focus all the devs resources on trying to appeal to one particular niche group, remember that at one point you were a "noob" too. we all were. I seriously doubt at 5 years old when you picked up your first game that you aced that in a day. I only wish people were more considerate about new players and wanted to include them too. We all have to start somewhere and if someone chooses to start am MMO with FFXIV, I want them to enjoy it and continue to play until they are a hardcore too. don't you?