Gamespot ARR article. HOW DARE YOU DOUBT OUR YOSHI-P!!

[Issachar]

Yoshi-P isn't without his mistakes, but to err is human.

[radhaz]

http://www.amazon.com/Hubris-Inside-.../dp/030734682X

[Gramul]

I can totally and fully understand where Gamespot is coming from.
Most MMO's these days look better than WoW in terms of basic fidelity. story in MMO's has been attempted before, but it doesn't really hold an audience for long.

The game lacks originality in gameplay and structure and that's a big issue for the MMO community that feels like the genre is stagnating itself of rehearsing the same game in different clothes. And that's my prime concern with ARR. As beautiful as it is, as much improved it is over ARR, as much as the story may be interesting, it's still a standard MMO.
No offense meant to the development team who have poured their lives into it.

[Aion]

SE has tried the originality way. And it fails hard. So the journalist must put this in perspective. I think one of the media has stated this(massively?). SE needs to regain the firm first step that they couldnt do 3 years ago. After that accomplished, then we can see what kind of innovation that they have in their sleeves.

[Kerrigen]

Meh.

Seems like the guy is just used to the way North American marketing and PR teams will tout any given (and let's be honest here, sometimes totally boring) feature as 'unique' or 'awesome', like 'what makes our game unique is voice acting' and 'we have that awesome system where mobs randomly pop and that will change the way you play games forever'. Some (most) of these ideas aren't exactly novel to begin with, they just elaborate on things that have been done before, yet look forward to them as marketing bullet points on the back of the box!

If ARR doesn't bomb horribly, they'll have plenty of time to introduce their own unique and awesomely different and novel systems through content updates and expansions, I have no worry about that. Right now, from a gameplay standpoint, they have to nail the basics, that's what matter.

I for one am very excited about the 'buddy' chocobo system. It looks like it was ripped straight off SW: TOR but with gambits from FFXII as a unique twist. If done right, that's plenty awesome, isn't it?

[Gramul]

SE has tried the originality way. And it fails hard.

1.0 didn't fail for its originality. It failed for a massive lack of content, unstable structure, heavy use of cut and paste, and its lack of Final Fantasy themes.

[fusional]

it's still a standard MMO.

which is exactly what it takes to be successful, no matter how much people cry for something different. because you know what keeps happening to games that actually are different? they either fizzle out immediately, or are relegated to niche titles that support only a tiny tiny (and very particular) demographic of MMO gamers.

developers know this. they've collected and analyzed the data. why do you think swtor and gw2 went out of their way to market themselves as something they essentially weren't? why do you think they spent so much of their budget on a relentless marketing push that sold their games as "genre-defining", "revolutionary" and the like when in the end they were just like everything else but with a new hat... (which they also tried to say was *not* a hat, but something entirely new! ...nope. still a hat.)

people don't know what they want, and can't see the forest for the trees. ultimately *what the MMO is* has much less impact on the game's longevity/success as *how well it executes* what it is. content (and plenty of it, for every demographic you're targeting) built around a successful gaming core is what determines whether an MMO lives or dies.

devs lose sight of this trying to chase the dragon of "wahhh we want something different wahhhh" and the finished product ends up being either completely hollow or disappointingly one-dimensional. because in reality, in the structure of an MMORPG, there's not too much you can really change without it losing the identifiers of an MMORPG. but they want an MMORPG. so all the devs can do is rely on smoke and mirrors and hope the players are fooled long enough to pay.

and then they come to their senses after a few weeks or months and migrate on the greener pastures, asking for the same thing, and the cycle perpetuates. because the games which *are actually different* are overlooked, or are "too different"... and developers take notice of that, too.

and you can't really blame developers, either. they're stuck forever trying to cater to an entitled audience who says one thing but means another. who says they want X only to flip tables and storm off when they're given X. "well what i MEANT was i wanted Y!" and then they're given Y. and the process repeats. just look at our own 1.0 for evidence of that.

they want something familiar which is at the same time different and unique, and that's like catching lightning in a bottle. and you know what's especially funny about that? WoW was familiar, and it wasn't terribly different or unique. and yet in spite of that- it's the most successful MMORPG ever made.

why?

because, just like i said- *what* it is wasn't relevant. what mattered was how well it executed what it was. and it did it better than any other MMO ever made. and magically... 10-11 million subscribers, even at a time where people are claiming f2p is "the future"

tl;dr people don't know what they want or why they want it, they don't know what they like or why the like it, they'll say one thing but do another, and have absolutely no idea what works or makes a game successful. and developers are left trying to read their minds to build the next smash success, because most of the input they get is trash.

it's amazing they get anything done at all.

[Yrusama]

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/features/sta...chF%3bReadMore

THE STORY!! Final Fantasy has always been known for it's awesome storytelling. We got an awesome story for 1.0, a game they're going to let go. That's what's making me really looking forward to what's coming in ARR.

So what's special about FFXIV that most other MMO's fail miserably to deliver? STORY!

Yoshi-p you tell them that!!

The other MMORPGs aren't derived from a 25-year repertoire of lore and themes from which to draw inspiration and fan service. There will be something in XIV for all of its fans, unlike XI which has a hard time referencing the rest of the series without feeling like it falls flat on its face. I saw they added Bismark as an NM and it didn't get me half as excited as such a major reference should.

As a game, XIV might not have much setting it apart from other games other than that it has something from everything, which will result in abundant content. As a world, and as a story.... I expect great things. Gamespot may be right, but they don't need to be so harsh about it. A game is more than the sum of its gameplay features.

[Loggos]

w

...because in reality, in the structure of an MMORPG, there's not too much you can really change without it losing the identifiers of an MMORPG...

This is what I am wondering about the whole time. What is it then, that makes an MMORPG totally unique?

What do you want to see? Please don't answer with very general things like "gameplay". Because, what is it? How do you want it to look like so that it is like it has never been done before?
This is supposed to be a serious question: Please tell me what could be totally genre breaking because I cannot really imagine what it is using current technological options to cater at a very broad audience.

Then, I also think: If so many people try to make MMORPGS - and surely not all just want to copy; I think there actually are people who want to create something new - shouldn't one of them at least have found something really unique and new that is also quite successful if it is apparently "not so difficult"?

I am not defying that something new is not possible but I think it's not an easy task like "go, invent something new". If it was so easy to create AND to cater to the broad audience then we should already have seen it at least once with all those mmo companies out there.


I really like your article, fusional. And I also agree with Yoshi-P that most things are build upon something that was already there and that was done well. It's called standing on the shoulders of a giant. You cannot really invent the wheel again if it has already been created. You can define yourself however by how well you execute it.


*Please note that this is a general point of view. I am not commenting on ARR here but on the general idea of "revolutionising the genre".

[strallaalaa]

only thing that worried me is the statements from yoshi himself in that interview. don't get me wrong the new videos "look" great but the idea of anything wow sucks to me, warhammer questing was boring after the first class or 2 you level let alone playing for years(plus i'm already at the point of hate for any quest leveling), i didn't play camelot so we will see on the pvp, but reality check is pvp is added to pve games and then usually the pve lacks. it's usually something added so we have something to do while we wait for patches with nothing else to do.

also lets hope it really is balanced cause if it's faster to pvp level at 30, well that is what everyone will do, take swtor. the best way was to just stand at a bridge across from the other faction and just zerg kill each other taking turns killing. nothing else like real pvp really happened cause that was the best. and i can't say how much i hate gw2 as well, i didn't enjoy its exploring, fact i didn't explore in that game much and quit probably 2weeks into playing. witch is an all time record breaker on quitting a mmo for me.

but from what i see in the videos it looks really good, and the battles all look very fun. the one thing this game has is that it's final fantasy, that is the only thing that separates it really. so that is all many people might need from it, that it's a fixed version and it's final fantasy. for me i'll know in a month or 2 of playing weather it's enough of a game though. i'm hoping i love it though, i surely loved the new videos with a huge smile on face that is for sure lol. but yoshi's own words in this video totally turned it upside again reminding me that the game will probably not be what i want in a mmo just like all the franchises he mentions.

on last note ..the only thing i needed to stay with the game back when it was broken was the 16man grind parties and the crafting and gathering back then was much more interesting ...it's still ok now, but i still liked how it was originally. if they just expanded the game around that and added endgame with long progression ftw i'd have played for 5+ years like ffxi. that felt different and fun. it was worth waiting for a fixed version for, now that they changed it all totally. i doubt it. solo mode main missions? solo quests? removal of party grinds? making all crafting and gathering easier? no truely long progression endgame? all equals a failed mmo to me.