Moment of Truth: How do you really feel

[Enma]

1) They promised 2 patches for month, but they slowed down. Anyway I hope that all this time it's needed for the big improves that they will take to the game.

2) Since last Semptember the game has totally changed, in a better way, and I'm quite satisfied for what has been promised in the future. I'm ready to other drastic changes!

3) I don't care about it. I'm not interested if FFXIV will be the most played game in the world (like WoW ) I only want to see a real Final Fantasy, so that all people that loved this title in the past could join us and enter in Eorzea!

4) If SE will manage to transform this game, and repeat the great job done with FFXI, yes!

5) For the biggest part they are in the correct direction. Before they have to improve and prepare they basics of the game, and then they will can focus their strength on contents.

6) Hmm, I'm not really sure about it...

[Punainen]

1. Incredibly slow when compared to many other games. Although I am not a fan of Rift, I did play it when it launched and they were patching things in record time. It was a good example of how fast changes, bug fixes, and so on can happen with the correct team of people in place.

2. Some of the changes have been obvious wins, some of them questionable. Overall at this point, looking back of the history of implemented changes, it feels to me like there is no clear cut direction anymore. Feels more like they are making it up as they go without a real clear picture of what the finish line looks like. I understand they have posted an extensive list of planned changes, but they do not feel cohesive to me, i.e. I don't feel like the planned changes result in a well thought out game.

3. Given the bad PR, the current population with it free to play, and the patch rate, that by the time this game is even close to being competitive with a current generation title as far as interface, content, and so on, that it will be 2 to 3 generations behind the curve. It already feels behind the current generation in almost every way except for character models.

4. I don't expect this game to ever be as successful as FFXI, and it is for the most part a niche game. I do not think this game will enjoy a very long life span, I just don't think it is sustainable. I imagine if SE ever does move it to a subscription model, that it will close within one year of that time.

5. The changes overall feel like the wrong direction for me personally, but I think many people like what the developers are doing with the game. I am still looking for the fun factor myself, as none of the current content, or original systems are particularly engaging for me.

6. I think their focus has been very misplaced throughout the entire life of the game when it comes to what they have changed. It definitely feels like the game was in ICU when it was released, and everything they have done up to this point has been emergency surgery just to keep it going. None of the changes that have been made feel fleshed out and none of the core issues have really been resolved. The client/server interface, user interface, and general lack of basic mmorpg features should have been addressed first. This is my view. It may differ from yours.

This is my opinion as well. :/

[Platinumstorm]

1. How do you feel about the patch frequency?

I don't care because I don't consider the game ready for release.

2. How do you feel about the changes themselves?

Too early to say, but the dungeon design for Darkhold was terrible. Encouraging players to skip everything is bad, and the dungeons were placed in horrible areas that encouraged tons of travel time.

3. How do you feel this game will fair against current upcoming titles?
I think it will do fine on PS3 for an MMO title, but it's not going to be spectacular against the PC market. They have to build up a lot of credibility with the player base, so this means amazingly polished content at a brisk pace with a cinematic experience.

4.
It depends on what niche you think the game occupies right now. You don't have to have 10 million subscribers to be successful.

5.
There's no worse direction than what they had at launch.

6.
I don't think they should have kept the servers up during this period of time, and I think they should be focusing on making a real PC UI, a functional netcode, and localizing servers.

[Jim]

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. Slow, I would perfer faster.
2. I like them they are nice.
3. I think since all the bad press at release that they're not fairing well.
4. Maybe let's see how it goes.
5. Right direction.
6. Both depending on the patch.

[Sol_Aureus]

1. How do you feel about the patch frequency?

All things considered, given the grandeur of how much work it takes to essentially completely redesign a lot of the core mechanics of a game, the patches are coming along at blazing speed. I'll be really happy when the core revisions are done though, and content starts to flow freely.

2. How do you feel about the changes themselves?

Everything seems good to me. The mob size increase seemed a little unnecessary, but I don't mind.

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

There's no point in comparing them, really. With the bad press FFXIV got on release, the upcoming titles will probably do better, but none of them will be an "FFXIV Killer." The only thing that can kill FFXIV are the devs, and that's if they constantly let down the playerbase, which a lot of people seem to think that they're doing, but I still have confidence in them to bring this game around.

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

Nope.

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

The right direction.

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

Not really my place to judge what's the "most important," however I think they've been doing a great job. 1.18 was a huge leap in the right direction, and the fact that they're revising core mechanics of the game now so they can work with their own systems instead of trying to salvage the mess that was the old systems shows a great deal of forward-thinking on their part, which I'm impressed with. That being said, the bigger mobs thing could have been skipped over in my opinion, and I think the one thing that should have been at the absolute forefront of the updates is the response time issue. You know, the short delay between you using an action and it actually happening. But then again, I don't know how difficult that would be to fix, and I'm sure they're in the process of attempting to fix it.

[Synapse]

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 they have focused on the most important things historically with patches or should the focus have been elsewhere?

1. Moderate.
2. Catering to people who quit after 5 months.
3. It's probably going to fail unless it get back to its roots.
4. Better please the crowd you have had and attract others, rather than making the initial crowed mad and losing them.
5. Wrong direction, if i wanted an easy game, i'll play the generic MMO.
6. Here and there.

[Coglin]

1. How do you feel about the patch frequency?

Better then most MMOS indeed, I see alot of poster here claiming its bad, but honestly, I think those peope have little MMO experience to compare too.

2. How do you feel about the changes themselves?

For the most part they are all very good. I appreciate the direction they are going and appreciate the fact that they have direction.

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

Hard to say. I bet its one of the most trolled games out there. I mean you have folk on fansites trying to bad mouth it for god only knows why. After the 2 magazine article writers got publicly busted for writing bad reviews just to be exposed as never having layed the game, its like it was the "in thing" to join the bashing bandwagon. So its hard to say.

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

It can, but alot of the games player and fan bus strive to prevent it from happening. Everytime someone post on the forums, how something needs to be more like FFXI, they tighten the leash that keeps it from breaking free. Everytime someone post agaist the good of this game and says there idea should be catered too because it was such and such way in FFXI, a kiten dies

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

I think they are good changes, far better then most of those who cry about them, yet offer now better alternatives could do, so I think the direction is right.

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

I think the new time has done a good job on this, not perfect, but good.

[Azurymber]

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. Slow and not enough useful changes in each patch
2. Meh. Nothing spectacular. I still had more fun @ release due to there being a lot more variety
3. no chance against SW: TOR unless drastic changes are made
4. no, never. I think it will actually alienate its niche market the way its headed
5. wrong direction
6. I think they have focused on the completely wrong things. The battle system should have been fixed first before any content was released.

[obaley]

1. pretty good. I understand it takes time to create content.
2. I like the changes.
3. I think this will be one of the big mmo's that people play from the end of the year on. Sort of A FFXI success but bigger. I can see FFXI population finally migrating.
4. i dont know; time will tell.
5. Right direction.
6. I think what was implemented and changed in the patches was necessary for whats coming.

[Fated]

1. Slow up until 1.18 considering the majority of the changes were for the most part not significant.

2. Weren't considerable enough until 1.18 and now the upcoming 1.19. Very happy with the steps they are taking now, though. They have finally started to break open and fix the game, which is long overdue.

3. Poorly until at least Fall 2012. FFXIV still has competitive graphics, but it is still horrendously behind in the gameplay aspect.

4. Depends on how strongly the PS3 brings in new players. If the PS3 launch is anything less than completely stellar, this game will never be more than a "what could have been."

5. Definitely in the right direction since 1.18. Before that, debatable.

6. Up until 1.18 I think their focus was off, now I think they are on the right track.