How can this remain competitive in the MMO market?

[Sarchy_Warchy]

With games like Tera and GW2 coming around late 2011, I don't see anything that this game has that truly makes it shine out and have it's own unique flavor.

By the end of 2011, other than it's graphics and FF theme, why this game over the others?

[Krausus]

Personally for me its because it is FF and though GW2 does look cool I really just dont have any interest in any upcoming MMOs. The only MMO I'm interested in is The Secret World and it being developed by Funcom will keep me from giving it any chance.

[Shewp]

Hopefully its battle system. Imagine how fun this game would be if it played like Demon Souls (similar to TERA but slower and more tactical). Hopefully the dev team realizes it has to revolutionize the battle system (rather than making it like all the other mmos).

The battle system needs to be new a refreshing for this game to survive the onslaught that is GW2/TERA/SWTOR

[Abriael]

The answer is simple, even if many don't want to hear it (in their crusade to try and push the devs into turning this MMO in a clone of their favourite MMO): fix the issues, streamline the UI, add content, make the mechanics more intuitive while retaining and polishing those mechanics that make this game unique.

The history of the past few years in the MMORPG market teach us that there's no success brought by cloning other games.

[Sarchy_Warchy]

I pretty much agree wit you, it's content, content, content. Also a unique battle system, currently not bad but it needs a little more. that added with FIXES and LISTENING TO YOUR PLAYERS.

All would be well.

[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.