New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Minidrax]

Didn't read all pages..but, little dissapointment though. After the patch were pt's went from 15 to 8 (which is hell when you've 9 members for an event), now he talks about reduced exp on leve links and more for solo players...

"In light of guildleves’ repositioning as solo-oriented content, leve link bonuses will be reduced. To make up for this reduction, skill points will be added as a new reward for the benefit of solo adventurers."

i'm a little dissapointed on that. I'm really hoping to see some large group stuff coming, bc that's where the fun is. I guess it's wait and see.

[Richard]

Didn't read all pages..but, little dissapointment though. After the patch were pt's went from 15 to 8 (which is hell when you've 9 members for an event), now he talks about reduced exp on leve links and more for solo players...

"In light of guildleves’ repositioning as solo-oriented content, leve link bonuses will be reduced. To make up for this reduction, skill points will be added as a new reward for the benefit of solo adventurers."

i'm a little dissapointed on that. I'm really hoping to see some large group stuff coming, bc that's where the fun is. I guess it's wait and see.

if large group stuff ever comes it will be in the form of large scale PVE content. Not leves.

[kurokawa]

I reckon patch 1.18 will be July 18th. 1.19 mid August, 22nd.

Which makes 1.20 late September; the game will be 1 year old.

Mmm

[Richard]

I reckon patch 1.18 will be July 18th. 1.19 mid August, 22nd.

Which makes 1.20 late September; the game will be 1 year old.

Mmm

I have 1.5M riding on it being either the 11th or the 18th! I'm with you!

[Richard]

AWESOME!!! no new ideas!!! lets make this game into another solo-mmorpg (why online... hmmm).
I would love to have more party camps, more mobs to grind on. I don't play an mmo for solo questing only...

They aren't making everything soloable. Way to overreact.

The letter didnt say much but the few things pretty much pointed out that its casual (and easy mode) > hard and challenging. Why do they think that people wanna come home from work and play a game that offers no challenge at all?

The entire post was about levequests. The whole focus on XIV is not going to be the leveling but the character progression.

I don't get it. They are leaving the niche they could have been in, and will now have to fully compete with rift, aion, wow...

From a purely marketing standpoint SQEX can't survive in that niche anymore. XI survived 7 years of it and then finally went the way of the casual gamer because that is where the money is.

Chocobos are getting pushed back once again, that's sad. They should change the anima cost then once again. Haven't they said, they want to decrease the return cost to 0?

Chocobos never had a timetable. This is the first time they've confirmed when they are going to work on the mount system.

[Anty]

From a purely marketing standpoint SQEX can't survive in that niche anymore. XI survived 7 years of it and then finally went the way of the casual gamer because that is where the money is.

i have to disagree, since the games who keep failing all over again, are exactly the same games, without unique ideas, the easy-mode wow clones (who are usually far worse then wow in the end).

A niche in this HUGE market doesn't have to be 300k players (even though ffxiv won't probably see the 300k ever) max.
It can have millions of players. There is a shit load of players out there.
If the same recipe about wow cloning would work out so well, there would be a lot of 1 mio+ subscription based mmos out now, A LOT. But there aren't.

FFXI has a niche but it was too limited and well its just old now. But it did damn well compared to most other mmos, and it was a niche game.

People are tired of the same old concepts. no matter if its the pure grind or the mindless solo quest- click- go there- click - reward system.
People won't stay with an mmo like this for long. F2P might work for these games but not a monthly subscription.

And SE is way too slow to roll out all these fast-paced content updates that are needed to please the easy-mode masses. But well, some people just keep thinking that a niche has to be small. In this big market it can mean millions of players.

A lot of very successeful games of the last years didnt try be all average. And it payed out very well. The market doesnt need more of the same games.

[Richard]

i have to disagree, since the games who keep failing all over again, are exactly the same games, without unique ideas, the easy-mode wow clones (who are usually far worse then wow in the end).

A niche in this HUGE market doesn't have to be 300k players (even though ffxiv won't probably see the 300k ever) max.
It can have millions of players. There is a shit load of players out there.
If the same recipe about wow cloning would work out so well, there would be a lot of 1 mio+ subscription based mmos out now, A LOT. But there aren't.

FFXI has a niche but it was too limited and well its just old now. But it did damn well compared to most other mmos, and it was a niche game.

People are tired of the same old concepts. no matter if its the pure grind or the mindless solo quest- click- go there- click - reward system.
People won't stay with an mmo like this for long. F2P might work for these games but not a monthly subscription.

And SE is way too slow to roll out all these fast-paced content updates that are needed to please the easy-mode masses. But well, some people just keep thinking that a niche has to be small. In this big market it can mean millions of players.

A lot of very successeful games of the last years didnt try be all average. And it payed out very well. The market doesnt need more of the same games.

• . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . ,.-‘”. . . . . . . . . .``~.,
. . . . . . . .. . . . . .,.-”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .“-.,
. . . . .. . . . . . ..,/. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ”:,
. . . . . . . .. .,?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\,
. . . . . . . . . /. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,}
. . . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:`^`.}
. . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:”. . . ./
. . . . . . .?. . . __. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :`. . . ./
. . . . . . . /__.(. . .“~-,_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:`. . . .. ./
. . . . . . /(_. . ”~,_. . . ..“~,_. . . . . . . . . .,:`. . . . _/
. . . .. .{.._$;_. . .”=,_. . . .“-,_. . . ,.-~-,}, .~”; /. .. .}
. . .. . .((. . .*~_. . . .”=-._. . .“;,,./`. . /” . . . ./. .. ../
. . . .. . .\`~,. . ..“~.,. . . . . . . . . ..`. . .}. . . . . . ../
. . . . . .(. ..`=-,,. . . .`. . . . . . . . . . . ..(. . . ;_,,-”
. . . . . ../.`~,. . ..`-.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..\. . /\
. . . . . . \`~.*-,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..|,./.....\,__
,,_. . . . . }.>-._\. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . ..`=~-,
. .. `=~-,_\_. . . `\,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\
. . . . . . . . . .`=~-,,.\,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . `:,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . `\. . . . . . ..__
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .`=-,. . . . . . . . . .,%`>--

[Anty]

• . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . ,.-‘”. . . . . . . . . .``~.,
. . . . . . . .. . . . . .,.-”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .“-.,
. . . . .. . . . . . ..,/. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ”:,
. . . . . . . .. .,?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\,
. . . . . . . . . /. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,}
. . . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:`^`.}
. . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:”. . . ./
. . . . . . .?. . . __. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :`. . . ./
. . . . . . . /__.(. . .“~-,_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:`. . . .. ./
. . . . . . /(_. . ”~,_. . . ..“~,_. . . . . . . . . .,:`. . . . _/
. . . .. .{.._$;_. . .”=,_. . . .“-,_. . . ,.-~-,}, .~”; /. .. .}
. . .. . .((. . .*~_. . . .”=-._. . .“;,,./`. . /” . . . ./. .. ../
. . . .. . .\`~,. . ..“~.,. . . . . . . . . ..`. . .}. . . . . . ../
. . . . . .(. ..`=-,,. . . .`. . . . . . . . . . . ..(. . . ;_,,-”
. . . . . ../.`~,. . ..`-.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..\. . /\
. . . . . . \`~.*-,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..|,./.....\,__
,,_. . . . . }.>-._\. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . ..`=~-,
. .. `=~-,_\_. . . `\,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\
. . . . . . . . . .`=~-,,.\,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . `:,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . `\. . . . . . ..__
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .`=-,. . . . . . . . . .,%`>--

at least smart enough to be familiar with copy paste! +1

[Wolfie]

i have to disagree, since the games who keep failing all over again, are exactly the same games, without unique ideas, the easy-mode wow clones (who are usually far worse then wow in the end).

The games that keep failing are ones with little content, poor developer practices, unresponsive community reps, tons of bugs, boring or otherwise uninteresting world and lore, etc.

RIFT is a WOW clone through and through and it's doing VERY well. So there goes your whole argument.

[Anty]

The games that keep failing are ones with little content, poor developer practices, unresponsive community reps, tons of bugs, boring or otherwise uninteresting world and lore, etc.

RIFT is a WOW clone through and through and it's doing VERY well. So there goes your whole argument.

looking at the servers that all were "full" and now are at low/medium... isn't all "well" to me.
It did a lot of things right but its losing a lot of players every day due to the lack of content. Many are leaving back to wow, what a surprise. But well you know everything. That's not new to me.