How can this remain competitive in the MMO market?

[Abriael]

LISTENING TO YOUR PLAYERS.

With measure. Players often lack the bird-eye view needed to assess what's really good for the game (instead of just being convenient/fast/easymode).

Developers need to listen to the players, but they also need to be able to filter player demands, as popular requests aren't necessarily what the game needs.

Full, unfiltered democracy is a very, very bad way to develop games.

[Otemori]

With measure. Players often lack the bird-eye view needed to assess what's really good for the game (instead of just being convenient/fast/easymode).

Developers need to listen to the players, but they also need to be able to filter player demands, as popular requests aren't necessarily what the game needs.

Full, unfiltered democracy is a very, very bad way to develop games.

Oddly enough, that rings true. People are so fickle, I think that the majority of us would elect small quick-fixes to ease playability, rather than the larger picture. Example: There is already a thread created about in-game jumping. Wahoo?

What developers need to be focusing on is innovation, and efficiency of innovation at that. I, for instance, like the battle system but wish that playability wasn't bogged down by only partial alignment with keyboard style play. It isn't efficient to create a battle system with great potential and then throw its potential to the wind because some rough edges actually interrupt gameplay.

[Solfleur]

I agree with you to a degree, but this game is just a big LAG right now, literally and figuratively. If something isn't done about the Market Wards, ie frequent crashes and price finding (maybe an SE sponsored suggested price range averaged out by world or SOMETHING that is not going to force players into gil buying, which I adamantly refuse to do) the game is going to hemorrhage players and encourage corruption. I have been loyal to SE via FFXI for years and am severely disappointed in how market unready this product is. While they are compensating with the "no charge" status for now, we still paid good money for a game which is virtually unplayable as it stands. These issues should have been resolved in beta, don't you think?

With measure. Players often lack the bird-eye view needed to assess what's really good for the game (instead of just being convenient/fast/easymode).

Developers need to listen to the players, but they also need to be able to filter player demands, as popular requests aren't necessarily what the game needs.

Full, unfiltered democracy is a very, very bad way to develop games.

[Abriael]

I agree with you to a degree, but this game is just a big LAG right now, literally and figuratively. If something isn't done about the Market Wards, ie frequent crashes and price finding (maybe an SE sponsored suggested price range averaged out by world or SOMETHING that is not going to force players into gil buying, which I adamantly refuse to do) the game is going to hemorrhage players and encourage corruption. I have been loyal to SE via FFXI for years and am severely disappointed in how market unready this product is. While they are compensating with the "no charge" status for now, we still paid good money for a game which is virtually unplayable as it stands. These issues should have been resolved in beta, don't you think?

Rome wasn't made in a day. They have been constantly adding features to the market wards system since release. They will add more.

Also, who ever buys gil? Money in FFXIV is probably the easiest to get in any MMORPG i played to date.

[Ostia]

To REMAIN! It would need to first be able to COMPETE! Wish sadly it is not.