Did squenix make a mistake by investing too much in graphics and not enough in

[Gramul]

What? They used artists?

Yes. For the characters, equipment and detail work of the city. For the environments, they just took some of the concept art and made a few large chunks for their tilesets.

I'm just wondering if it would have been cheaper not use Yoshida for the art direction.

[ZachCero]

Love how all these people are saying this game blows, but looking @ most of you guys having 50's it really doesn't make sense.

[Vesper]

IMO SE made two big mistakes:

1. Trying to reinvent the wheel. Getting rid of standard features of an MMO in the name of being different.
2. Releasing the game prematurely (probably hoping to steal some sales from Cataclysm). Retail was essentially the same thing as Beta minus level cap. Another year under Tanaka, I'd like to think we wouldn't have a number of the problems were having now.

Pretty much this

[Vesper]

Love how all these people are saying this game blows, but looking @ most of you guys having 50's it really doesn't make sense.

Some people like the franchise so much they are sticking it out. Just because the game currently 'blows' as some have stated, players will play hoping to establish themselves ahead of time, hoping for the day the game is brought up to par, not only that but many people enjoy the franchise and want to stick it out, doesn't mean they are not going to be vocal about their discontent, nor should they.

[Rydin]

IMO SE made two big mistakes:
1. Trying to reinvent the wheel. Getting rid of standard features of an MMO in the name of being different.

Fuck the wheel... every game that we consider INCREDIBLE reinvented the wheel....
Games like Myst, that challenged the notion that every game had to be 2D side scrolling
FFIV's attack Time battle (ATB) guage (Thank you Akihiko Matsui) when every other MMO was turn based
When Grand theft auto started letting you get out of the car
FFVII with 3D environments....MMO's aren't even old enough to have a wheel....
Every other Genre evolves... the latest Mario games don't even remotely resemble the original mario brothers... but they are no more or less groundbreaking
Different doesn't mean bad....
Or else every game out would be Pac Man or Pong....
Shoot the wheel... blow it up...

the real issue is:

2. Releasing the game prematurely (probably hoping to steal some sales from Cataclysm). Retail was essentially the same thing as Beta minus level cap. Another year under Tanaka, I'd like to think we wouldn't have a number of the problems were having now.

I don't know about cataclysm... I don't know what was going through SE's heads... but yea, they rushed it... You can reinvent the wheel if you take your time and do it correctly....
FFXIV doesn't need the standard MMO party search or auction house...
BUT..
It does need a way to find parties and buy and sell goods that works efficiently, and naturally... I don't care if it's a new system or a recycled one... I just want them to work...
Just because MMO's have always done it one way doesn't mean thats the only way...
And just because SE failed at bringing change doesn't mean change is bad....

Know this: FFXIV's shortcomings were due to a rushed release... end of discussion

[Rydin]

Love how all these people are saying this game blows, but looking @ most of you guys having 50's it really doesn't make sense.

And for the record.. I think the game is not bad.... I'm not just playing to try to stay ahead of the curve when the game actually becomes good

I think it's decent right now... I missed it the 10 days the servers were down... and that was before a lot of the changes....
And it's only getting better
It just needs more content... which they've been giving us....

[Aldwin]

First thing first, if you want to jump and climb buildings and all that other stuff, go play WoW as you mentioned or go play a platformer..

Funny you would mention this. I haven't played platform games since ps2 days strictly because I liked the freedom of pc games more. They tend to be larger, and have more options.

Ffxiv i wouldn't even call a pc game. It is more of a platform port to pc.

And second. Why does wanting my opinion of freedom from a game have to be assaulted with "gtfo".

And as to the graphics of this game. Maybe i should have stated what my opinion of good graphics are. A rich, high poly count and CREATIVE world is what makes gaphics to me. Just because they used 10billion polygons on characters, and 2gig textures doesn't make this game great graphics. IMO rift has better graphics than this, I didn't enjoy that game at all.

I suppose if there was a square room with real life pictures textured onto them some people would be like "omg these graphics are great.

Why don't you go running around and take a closer look at the world. Try outside limsa. The very scaresly positioned shrubs and trees are nothing more than 2 polygons set inside of each other with high resolution textures (if you're running the game on high settings) better known as sprites. All games use these, ffxiv did nothing different with them at all.

[Geesus]

And second. Why does wanting my opinion of freedom from a game have to be assaulted with "gtfo".

I didn't say gtfo I said go play a platformer if you want jump and other options.

IMO rift has better graphics than this,.....

Then I guess it IS a matter of opinion. I saw Rift and thought the graphics were just as crappy as Aion. Matter of fact, the games look almost similar. Personally, I think the gfx in XI are nicer in comparison. WHy you ask? Well, in AIon in order to see ANY detail, I had to be zoomed in almost on top of my toon; unacceptable. Also, the gear and characters themselves looked like crap. But that's imho and Rift looked amazing but sucked is your's.

[weeble]

14 graphics aren't that great really. We have very high polycount player character models and that's it. World is standard low count, particle effects are meh, dynamic lighting doesn't exist, DoF and SSAO are broken to hell......

I am the first to agree that it's not about how many polygons you use but about what you do with them but this works for the competition too...

i was soooo excited bout playing tera, thought it be out this year though, lo and be hold though they released a date of fall 2012, sucks, hopefully ffxiv will be in good shape by then, but luckily i play enough hours in a day to enjoy both games. but man i can't imagine not playing this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcuoSPVXKMo&hd=1

anyone know if it possible to even mele bot in a game like this with no target system? i think the 2games ffxi and tera are 2 worlds apart though an most the player base won't hurt it, but in my case i can't wait to see that game in action.

[Aldwin]

I didn't say gtfo I said go play a platformer if you want jump and other options.



Then I guess it IS a matter of opinion. I saw Rift and thought the graphics were just as crappy as Aion. Matter of fact, the games look almost similar. Personally, I think the gfx in XI are nicer in comparison. WHy you ask? Well, in AIon in order to see ANY detail, I had to be zoomed in almost on top of my toon; unacceptable. Also, the gear and characters themselves looked like crap. But that's imho and Rift looked amazing but sucked is your's.

I think as far as graphics we are argueing the same point.

Yes your character looks amazing. The poly count is huge (hence why the loading of character at a distance is horrible in this game, and was in xi), and the textures are very detailed. But what else looks great? The very dull design of towns and zones? There really is, nothing there except a few flat polygons with more high res textures.

Running through zones, there is very small patches of low poly count grass scattered around. And each "patch" of grass or shrubs is nothing more than a copy/paste replica that was used over and over. Yes I know all games use this method. But it also has never been more obvious to me it was done as it has in this game.