Why is race and nationality ignored so much in the lore? (why does the lore fail)

[Jynx]

People are just on edge with the long period between updates and dev information they can really grab onto. Hopefully we get some good news this week that can sate some people to calm down so we can stop arguing about jumping and floating birds.

[Renshi]

Lore has potential.

There's not much lore because the game is at its starts. I bet even FFXI was like this when it first released. try to mention that we're in 2011 and we should do this very well, and I'll make you facebutt the toilet while drinking your own pee-pee.
Just wait until we have more narrative nodes in the lore. There's when we'll find it interesting. Take this as a still-writing book that we're reading word after word that's written in real time, and that you've spent money to join the writer as he costantly writes the book. Once the book is completed (practically never), you'll be able to tell the world about its story, lore, characters and whatever.

Also, on a side note, you can't say what's entertaining for everyone, as for me the lore until now is really interesting, so say that you don't/like things, but don't say that [enter portion of people] person don't.

And another thing, don't criticize everyone's english capabilities, but instead of it, Respect them, because they're talking in another language out of their home language!

See ya!

[Cairdeas]

People are just on edge with the long period between updates and dev information they can really grab onto. Hopefully we get some good news this week that can sate some people to calm down so we can stop arguing about jumping and floating birds.

I love the inpatience most players are reflecting against XIV because its unfounded. The amount of updates and dev interaction we've had in XIV has been more frequent then WoW, Rift, Aion, AoC, and many others. Most of them don't do updates except every 3 months.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

I agree i loved all the stories up to the point where you leave your main town. Then it got random and lame. I mean the main story wasn't -horrible-. Its just almost none of the npc's talk about anything useful and the quests are pointless except to add little tidbits of lore. But its not ffxi or wow or rift or any of the other games that actually give some sense of you being in a unique world.

you never truely played ffxi then XD. It had pointless missions and quests. And WoW didn't have cs or story mission ponly quest lines that also had not much point. And mor or less kill x mobs. I stop reading WoW quest info after level 20 it was not very well writen. But then again that is what you get when u make an rpg from an rts.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

Yeah but at least until the first expansion it was all unique. and it opened a branch to zilart but the main story was still it's own thing.

I guess it could still turn out that way but it seems they are going to favor the WoTG style branching then converging storylines. When you did Windurst Rank 1-10 it was ALL unique and revolved purely around the city state. Missions so far have sent us to Ul'Dah as part of the same story structure.

2-3 and the magicite missions were join efforts not al the cities were 100% unique. Also fyi this story just started. We still have more intro story to add once stuff gets fixed. Like the ifrit battle etc

[Firon]

If you guys don't remember but i think it was Tanaka he Said races don't have ties to an certain city they live where they want. So you wont see any racial lore in cities. Durrr

[Hiemdall]

If you guys don't remember but i think it was Tanaka he Said races don't have ties to an certain city they live where they want. So you wont see any racial lore in cities. Durrr

Yeah, but I'm sure we will see hold out towns/caves/forests where only a certain race may enter. Also as MMO's tend to always add new playable races (Goblin?) there will be areas where they predominantly live.

I personally like how all the races intermingle as it reflects the real word, but as stated above for more realism there needs to be towns/caves/forests where certain races are maybe allowed to enter but are not as welcome (can't use facilities?), such as black people and the deep south of the US, or playing as an orc/half-orc in D&D

[Cutriss]

I love the inpatience most players are reflecting against XIV because its unfounded. The amount of updates and dev interaction we've had in XIV has been more frequent then WoW, Rift, Aion, AoC, and many others. Most of them don't do updates except every 3 months.

Can't speak for the others, but WOW's 3-month content updates are significantly larger than XI's are and definitely larger than XIV. They also do a lot more balancing than SE ever did. If a job in XI falls out of favor and it's not SAM, you have to offer up a sacrifice to the gods and hope that maybe you get a boost in two years.

Here's a fun data point. SOE deployed NGE six months after the previous combat update. They scrambled, tested, and implemented a combat update that is even more significant in scope than the one that SE is working on in six months. I don't know how long SE has actually been "working" on this patch, but considering how many things seem to still be in flux, it seems like it's been less time than we'd expect.

For reference, here's how the first year of FFXI went - note that chocobos, the auction house, delivery systems, and all missions through 5-2 were in the game fairly early on, before the NA launch even.

http://www.jpbutton.com/?p=157

Seeing what was ready for the JP launch of FFXI and shortly thereafter, one has to ask how XIV came to market with *less*, and how six months later, we've fallen even further behind. And don't tell me "It's because they have to fix the battle system". These are things that should already have been in the works and were close to completion. That they weren't even close to being ready makes you ask yourself just what they were working on for the past 5 years.

I think those of us that come across impatient are more concerned than anything. SE is *lucky* to have unintentionally gotten a second chance to do this right via the PS3 release. Other MMOs don't get that opportunity - if you don't hit critical mass right away, you wither into obscurity within a year and hope to break-even. I see a lack of urgency on the part of the developers. It's like they're expecting it to fail anyway and so they're doing this to save face but their hearts aren't really in it.

On topic...

The lore's there, it's just kinda light right now and not really implemented. I mean, have you been to any of the towns in the starter regions (Wineport, Aleport, Silver Bazaar, Golden Bazaar, Quarrymill, Hyrstmill, Owl's Watch, Falcon's Watch)? They're ghost-towns but it's clearly not designed to be like that. The NPCs at various camps have things to say about the world as well, so they are aware of their surroundings. We just don't have the interconnects yet, and that should be coming in time.

[Nikita]

Can't speak for the others, but WOW's 3-month content updates are significantly larger than XI's are and definitely larger than XIV. They also do a lot more balancing than SE ever did. If a job in XI falls out of favor and it's not SAM, you have to offer up a sacrifice to the gods and hope that maybe you get a boost in two years.

I know, right? The latest patch for WoW that is nearly complete is larger than everything we have gotten from beta to now combined, possibly even adding the 1.18 patch coming.

We have gotten several updates, yes, but have people looked at the notes on those updates? A few bug fixes here and there, some new monsters with a size increase, some new armor using models that were already in the dats. To me, they lack substance, but I am still hopeful for 1.18 regardless.

[Cutriss]

I know, right? The latest patch for WoW that is nearly complete is larger than everything we have gotten from beta to now combined, possibly even adding the 1.18 patch coming.

We have gotten several updates, yes, but have people looked at the notes on those updates? A few bug fixes here and there, some new monsters with a size increase, some new armor using models that were already in the dats. To me, they lack substance, but I am still hopeful for 1.18 regardless.

Exactly. If this was an "emergency" situation, then I'd expect double-time efforts to get everything back on schedule, as opposed to content being pushed back to make way for fixes.

To a certain extent, I think some of us are happy just because it seems like SE is at least paying attention now, whereas in the past they'd just plod along with something of a "blame the customer" attitude, but it's still not going to be enough in this era of MMO abundance.