Lost faith in Yoshi-P?

[Hestern_Nestern]

o_o okay so I've mentioned in a different thread that I am in a funny mood, but...why did this post from you read to me like a song that I could play all night long? I edited it a bit to read more like lyrics and am posting it now. It's incomplete and amateurish. I’m not TRYING to mock you - I'm just weird.

Here now, sung in Pocahontas’ voice, Levian singing, “And It Will Go Live”:

The point where I lost faith in Yoshi-P
Well, I haven't per se (I think!)
The game is vastly different now
than it was even…(yesterday?)

judging from the snips and videos
they've released
It's certainly shaping up to be
on par with the other MMOs out there
so Yoshi and his team are delivering


But therein lies the rub (mmmHMM!)
I quit WoW abruptly
Because
I tired of the monotony

Quest grind to level cap
Then quest grind dailies
for money, run instances to acquire gear
to begin raiding
Continue grinding quests
for money throughout, you see…

The point where I lost faith in Yoshi-P
Well, I haven't per se (I think!)
The game is vastly different now
than it was even…(today?)

[Note: Here she is somewhat breathless and the speed changes]
Raid and quest
grind until
next expansion when you (are there?)
return to grinding quests
for level progression succession
(regression)(depression)(suppression)

I am tired of the monotony!
[Note: Line above, delivered loud, louder]

Quest grind to level cap
Then quest grind dailies
For money, run instances to acquire gear
To begin raiding

[Note: Each word following happens several seconds apart until the words delivered in caps that sound more like YELLING than SINGING]
Continue. Grinding.
Continue. Grinding.
Continue Grinding.
Grinding.
Grinding.
Grinding.
Grinding.
GRINDING
QUESTS!!!!

[Note: Voice still carries terseness in the throat but is clearly back to singing]
A circle that remains
GRINDING ALL AROUND!
A circle that remains
THAT AWFUL XP SOUND!

[Note: Breathless, like a person spinning around and around before falling]
unbroken to this day
unbroken to this day
so far as I know…
so far as I know...
(and OH do I know…)
Unbroken to...
this...

[Note: PAUSE, then she continues singing as if she had just begun the song]

I quit The Old Republic at 30 because I...
WELL...
while the gameplay was swell
You see...
and the quests were tied to something...
(the story)
You see...
and felt meaningful...
(was it meaningful…)
at the end of the day
You see...
they were still...


[Note: Sounds kind of crazy with these next three verses]
Gofer...
Quests...
GO. FER. QUEEEEEESSSTS.

[Note: here the song speeds up a bit]
Go fer this, go fer that
kill x of this, this and that
rinse – wash! - repeat every day!
Go for this, go fer that
Kill x of this, this, and that
Rinse – wash! – repeat every day!

To someone that has fetch quested
And quested fetches…
a minimum of an hour a day…
for years!

there's no amount of dressing up
or prettifying you can do
to make it palatable,
or even tolerable (to me)

[Note: slows down suddenly leading up to the elongated sounds featured in paranthesis below]
(tooooooooooo meeeeeeee)

[Note: Return to normal flow of song]
I picked up Final Fantasy Fourteen
not because I wanted Final Fantasy Eleven-Two
but because I didn't want yet another
Reiteration of WoW (Oh, EWW!)

The original claim that they'd
learned from FFXI, and would be
incorporating a little of this and that
from other popular MMOs and blending…
with their own style…
[Note: Pause. Surprise in tone. Next line said as if revelatory.]
with their own style…
[Note: Next three lines are slow yet fall into one another fairly rapidly]
to create
something different…
But!

it's looking
to me like there is more of
what everyone else is doing, and less uniqueness
[Note: Slow, Mournful] as time goes…as time goes…

[Note: the line "and it will go live" featured within parenthetical sounds somewhat will-o'-the-wisp and distant until...]
I have full faith (of course!)
that Yoshi will deliver a good game (and it will go live)
Whether or not it'll be the next MMO
for me (and it will go liiiiiveee~~~)
is where the uncertainty lies

This much I can say
though...
my days of fetch questing
are done!!!! (and it will go live~~~)

The point where I lost faith in Yoshi-P
Well, I haven't per se (I think!)
The game is vastly different now
than it was even…(morrowday?)

If there's no viable alternative
to fetch questing for xp
this probably won't be for me (and it will go live~~~)
But there's no way to be sure until ARR goes live...

[Note Continued: Until here, when it suddenly becomes a belting and lamenting voice to end the song]
And it will go live…
And it will go….LIIIIIIVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

[Note: Below, ominous drums, fading away]
Dun Dun Dunnnnnn DUnnnnn~~~~~~~~~~~~

o_o Ahem. You may all return to your regularly scheduled making sense.

[strallaalaa]

lmao

[Virtuso]

I may be in the minority of RPG-MMO players (although I think I am not) and I may not be SE's target audience for FFXIV (although I think I am), but what you just described is exactly what keeps me interested in an MMO (or any game for that matter).

I am one of those "It's the journey, not the destination" type of players. Sure I want solid Battle Mechanics and Epic Gears and that feeling you get when you finally get that piece of armor and/or weapon you've been drooling over for months, but every decent game has those things.

The reason why WoW, Rift, SWToR, Guild Wars, etc never got me "hooked" was because I did not care for (or about) the overall "Worlds" in which they took place.

FFXI was the exception. I cared about that world and to some extent many of the NPC's that inhabited it.

That is what SE is generally pretty good at...creating a "world" that has heart, drama, sadness and elation. I just hope they hired some really good scriptwriters for the Main Scenario and sidequests. I wouldn't mind if they reworked the Class/Job quests too.

Admittedly, the 2 quests we saw in the recent video were nothing to garner awards for and I expect some trash quests but I also expect some very involved quests as well.

I remain hopeful that they won't disappoint. They have a pretty good track record (except for XIV 1.0)

I'm the same way. While I tried other MMO's like SWTOR and GW2 and enjoyed then for a while, I just didn't care enough to stick around. Then out of sheer boredom I decided to give XIV an other shot in it's last few months. Even though I knew XIV version 1.xx was still a vastly inferior product by almost every measurement, something about the story, the events of the Seventh Umbra era and the world kept me paying and playing month after month. It got me more excited for what the future holds then any of SWTOR plans for it's future.

Similar to old school "Disney Magic" of the past the Final Fantasy series had it's own special "magic" to it that I couldn't find in other RPG's. In recent years that magic has faded with more and more fans turning their backs to the series with each new release.

I'm glad to see Yoshi-P acknowledged that fact. He's not just out to make a quality MMO, he's out to bring that "Final Fantasy Magic" back to the series. I could see bright glimmers of it in the Seventh Umbra story line and can't wait to see what he puts together with ARR.

[Hyrist]

I think she was speaking as Yoshida when she said "If you're interested I might share it with you." Could be wrong but that's how I read it.

Nah, I meant share it with the community, but it's becoming quite long... I might just post it in a new thread at this point.

[SkyeWindbinder]

o_o okay so I've mentioned in a different thread that I am in a funny mood, but...why did this post from you read to me like a song that I could play all night long? I edited it a bit to read more like lyrics and am posting it now. It's incomplete and amateurish. I’m not TRYING to mock you - I'm just weird.

Here now, sung in Pocahontas’ voice, Levian singing, “And It Will Go Live”:

[GodseijuroHiko]

Yoshi P is like fine wine~

[Preypacer]

I think Yoshi's doing a great job with turning the game around. He and his team have done an insane amount of work in a relatively short period of time (less than half the time it takes for the average MMO to be developed so far). Whether the game is wildly successful, or fails miserably, I respect the man for stepping up to the plate, accepting the challenge and diving in with all he has. That will not change regardless of what the outcome is.

That said, I have said, still say and will continue to say that I do not like a number of the decisions he's made for the game.

A lot of what he described in interviews and Producer's Letters didn't sit well with me. Things that are being shown in gameplay/Alpha videos now are underscoring and validating those concerns and I have a high degree of certainty that when it comes to hands-on experience with it, those concerns will be further validated.

Why? Because I've seen this before. I've played "that game" before. I've seen the song-and-dance each and every time with almost every MMO I've followed over the past 8+ years. It's always the same thing, "oh, it may look the same, but our game will be different! You'll see!". And what has come out has, without exception, been another reproduction of the "WoW model" with one or two new gimmicks added on. Problem is, once those gimmicks are no longer "new and novel" and they become "old and familiar", what you're left with is yet more of the same, from that same familiar mold.

People will defend it and say "no no no... you don't know what you're talking about". Yeah, and I was told that every other time, too. Only it turned out I did know what I was talking about. Each and every time. Does that make me some kind of genius? No, it means that - no matter how excited I am for a game (and I've been extremely excited for ARR) - I keep my eyes open and see things for what they are - not for what I really really want them to be. And that's what I'm seeing a lot on these forums, just as I have on every other MMO's forums... people defending the game by projecting their own personal hopes or assumptions of what it will be, instead of just looking at what's right in front of them for what it is.

Again, this is all my opinion. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Yoshi-P, like I've said. It doesn't mean I have to agree with or like or embrace everything he does. I have the utmost respect for my best friend, too... It doesn't mean anything he does is automatically "right", or that I should automatically defend or agree with it.

People seem to be stuck on this mindset that to be a fan of someone or something means you have to loyally defend it against any and all criticism, in any way you can fathom. That's not the case. Not by a long shot. Liking someone or something does not render them or it infallible and beyond criticism.

You know how they say that a true friend will tell you what they feel you need to hear, not just what they know you want to hear? Same overall concept applies here.

[Tonkra]

The only people who have "lost faith" are those crybabies who can't cope with the fact they haven't been invited to alpha.

they cant cope with changes..


i think thats the more bigger issue for them..
hmm you want to have a new game, but cant cope with changes.

whats wrong about that?

[Kiritokaze]

I for one was surprised how quickly he turned the game around for the better. I started playing FFXIV from the uk launch date and at first was disappointed,being a veteran of FFXI. I expected more from it. That being said when Yoshi P took over I actually started playing where as before I was dabbling not really interested. I get bored of mmo's easily but since he took the reins I haven't stopped (except for financial down time). I say bravo Yoshi P 'you da man' now hurry up with ARR so I can get my goons on and don't have to be solo all the time :P

[Darshu]

I'm willing to bet how much disappointed most of you will be. Unless you disliked everything about 1.0 and XI and are a WoW/Aion fan, I doubt you will remain long playing FFXIV ARR. They tricked me, and I think most of you when they improved 1.0 to a playable state, gave us something to hope for, just so we could expect better in the future. They tricked us because most of what we saw in 1.0 is not coming back. The game is almost completely different now. Those improvements were a lie, and I'd much prefer if the game had been shut down from the start if they knew 2.0 would be something as different. We got used to something for a year, and I can't believe everyone is complaining about the game and not how it simply didn't work well in some (many) areas. How can someone say they didn't like the weapon skills in 1.0 after they implemented the job specific skills and improved upon the lv 50 ones, which have in my opinion the best animations I've ever seen in an MMO? You're all really not satisfied with those skills? With the main scenario quests? The writing?

There have been great improvements with the rebuilding of the game. I like how the music plays in the field and the UI. But everything else I like is a plus, an addition easily implementable in 1.0. Were it not for the bad coding and purported need to rebuild everything, 2.0 would have done nothing much to improve upon 1.0 besides more content. We'll have delivery moogles, fate, a new class and possibly an auction house at start. Some other things are coming in a future update, such as chocobo fighting. But that's new content, which we could've had. It's not, to me, anything only 2.0 could offer. Yet 2.0 is changing in a much major way, and that is possibly game breaking for many. It's pace, mood and overall gameplay. I despise the flashy battles of Aion, the button mashing with low CD skills and little strategy or time to see what's happening, I despise the fetch quest system to lv up with and the raiding over and over again for a piece of gear. The fast lvling pace to get to the "end game" is despicable, short sighted and children/mass oriented gameplay.

I criticized this game on beta to no end despite a great part of the community defending it until it got out. Some still remained guardians of it's broken gameplay and lack of content until suddenly all linkshells became empty. They got their lvs to 50, amassed a great amount of gil, and then stopped playing. This is probably happening in ARR.

Some people will stay, and if they manage somehow to compete with every other MMO out there that is just the same, which will only lose in graphics (for now), they'll be getting an influx of players who are nothing like the FF players of today. A big part of the gaming community will be, yet again, without a decent online game to play.