Moment of Truth: How do you really feel

[unnameduser]

1. How do you feel about the patch frequency?
I'd say that the patches are coming out at a reasonable rate so far as the last few months are concerned. I'd still like to see things speed up a bit.

2. How do you feel about the changes themselves?
Changes have been pretty good so far however I don't think anything of us have any idea how things will turn out until the new combat system and jobs are introduced.
3. How do you feel this game will fair against current upcoming titles?
I don't like a single title that is coming out in the near future. Tera looks decent however that game's success here in the states will be based on if they have server clusters located state side. I think that if ffxiv introduces a solid party system with some good high end content things will be just fine.

4. Do you think this game will ever exceed niche popularity?
In the states? NO. In Japan and some other Asian Nations, yes.

5. Do you think the changes are in the right or wrong direction?
Overall I think they are moving in the right direction however the game still has a very long way to go. Airships and chocobos are a great idea that will remove allot of the frustration that keeps many people away. So long as the job system is a success and the new beastmen content is well done we will see a strong close to 2011.

6. Do you think the they have focused on the most important things historically with patches or should the focus have been elsewhere?
All about the job system and the future of partying. At the moment everything is up in the air and has no real consistency... If things go well with the new content they I will say the time and focus over the past few months has been well spent.

[Physic]

This is possibly true given how many free2play mmo's some korean companies create and constantly maintain.

the cost of server mainentance and opening servers is negligeable, the bigges cost is development, but since most games sell expansions the truth is they dont really need monthly costs to profit, of course they get more money, and a predictable income if they can make people pay monthly. Ideally a monthly fee game wouldnt need to charge for expansions, but why should companies not try to profit as much as they can if they can get away with it.

Surely some of you have heard of private servers that run off of donations only? the upkeep costs of servers are comparitively low cost in the process.

[weeble]

unnameduser quote:
3. How do you feel this game will fair against current upcoming titles?
I don't like a single title that is coming out in the near future. Tera looks decent however that game's success here in the states will be based on if they have server clusters located state side. I think that if ffxiv introduces a solid party system with some good high end content things will be just fine.


i'm feeling the opposite, most mmo's have a little something that intreges me, but the biggest problem with all of them is they are solo friendly. but they all have some type of gameplay that already makes me think it ok cause it has this an that in it. like tera has no target system and action oriented, if this game fails in the states i think it cause of this more then anything but that my opinion. also they all will have some pvp in them.

but i agree ffxiv just needs a few things to make it great, like u said party play grinds, this is very important to me, we need at the lowest a 4man grinds but i really want the full8 man. if the grinds aren't enough players i would just rather solo and chillaxe and not worry bout replacing people or i can go afk every 5mins if wanted solo, when i wouldn't in group.

but this game can't be just solo i'd run to the any games out instead then. party play all the way, also party play missions with the story play is needed, u can't go from ffxi to what we have in ffxiv, yeah ff series mmo's only ones with cut scenes an story witch is why i love these rpg mmo's but... no party play in them makes them pointless, i'll go play a real rpg offline then and get way more out of it.

and 3rd'ly large scale linkshell events ...so important, if we got dinky dungeons only, and even hamlets witch sound like a version of gw2 public quests but that game will have 100's of them at launch, giant bosses in them from level 1 zone to the end on top of there small man dungeons. so in reality making this endgame when in other games it's just normal leveling to max stuff ..doesn't work.

this game needs these things to stay alive and be a great mmo in my opinion i said this so many times in diff posts. very important, it is all this game has to make itself different from other mmo's. other then that, way more things in other mmo's to try and enjoy.

[unnameduser]

did u play ffxi on the diablos server weeble?

[weeble]

no i was hades weeble. started on pheonix for first i think 6months b4 they added new server hades and gave us transfers. ls leader and a half dozen derided to go there. though they all quit within a year, it was my home for 5years lol.

[Neptune]

1. How do you feel about the patch frequency?

Yoshi-P tried unsuccessfully to get the team off their 3 month work schedule. He needs to keep chipping away at them until they can do work outside of that arbitrary, habitual timeframe.

2. How do you feel about the changes themselves?

The simple changes have been the best so far, like the upcoming UI tweaks. Overall the changes have been too few, and based on a faulty approach to upgrading this game.

3. How do you feel this game will fair against current upcoming titles?

With the best leadership it will become the forerunner of MMOs, with the worst leadership it will fail miserably.

4. Do you think this game will ever exceed niche popularity?

I think it's possible with the right leadership.

5. Do you think the changes are in the right or wrong direction?

The simple changes have been in the right direction, and the major changes have been in the wrong direction.

6. Do you think the they have focused on the most important things historically with patches or should the focus have been elsewhere?

See my thread here to see EXACTLY why the major changes to this game have been from a flawed approach:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...11131-Be-brave

[Dallie]

1. How do you feel about the patch frequency?
2. How do you feel about the changes themselves?
3. How do you feel this game will fair against current upcoming titles?
4. Do you think this game will ever exceed niche popularity?
5. Do you think the changes are in the right or wrong direction?
6. Do you think the they have focused on the most important things historically with patches or should the focus have been elsewhere?

1. In all honesty, it's fine for such larger changes (transportation, new jobs, etc.) that are coming in the future sequence of patches, but it seems as if some of the smaller stuff (beastmen strongholds, market ward improvements) could be added on a bi-weekly basis. Two months or more between generic updates is a long time to go for modern MMOs.

2. A mixed bag, much like many other players. Some of the updates have taken one step forward, two steps back.

3. It won't. People who play MMOs like this typically aren't as likely to switch over to stuff like SWTOR, but are likely to go to something like GW2 or Secret World. Most of the interested audience is already playing, and while the PS3 release might garner more followers, it won't ever be as big as the hype pre-release. Honestly, going P2P is going to be a mistake on SE's part, unless they've got something big to pull out of their collective tookus' after 1.21 to draw folks in.

4. See #3.

5. Most are good for the game, but there have been some less than stellar choices made. I can deal with things like the revamped Market Wards, but really an AH, mail system and housing could have been put in months ago. They do have separate teams working...no reason this couldn't have been developed in parallel. This is just one area of example.

6. See #5.

All this being said, i'll at least give the teams credit for working hard and trying to improve the humongous mess they were left with. I'm sure SE cut down funding and manpower significantly after the epically failed launch, even with new blood at the helm.