FFXIV major NA news release: Chocobo's and Airships (why?)

[Murugan]

MMORPG hates all mmos except those who spend alot of money on advertising on their site. They are the same ones that completely slammed XIV before 1.18 for the "rumored" changes of auto attack and addition of companys and dungeons and the extremely low chance of any change in direction of the game from launch.. all which where being changed 6days from the published release. That site already proven they have no integrity when it comes to online journalism basically reviewed the game without playing it or reading anything into it.

The other site is not as bad but then again they picked up on like 1/20th of the 1.19 update so it is not really representing anything either.

This is sorta the same thing as last time, 1 week before a massive patch and everyone talk like nothing major is happening and it is a lost cause. Basically the US media is trolling the game more or less.

Either way it is very obvious most US outlets have written the game off as a failure with no chance of recovery, so I highly doubt the reviews will ever change.

Every time MMORPG.com reports on FFXIV it becomes one of the most visited games on the site.

Ign's review of FFXIV, and many stories about FFXIV were "popular stories" on ign for weeks after their release.

People pay attention to FFXIV because it has pretty pictures. IGN/MMORPG.com report on FFXIV because it has pretty pictures and people read it quickly scan the articles for particular keywords and pictures/videos. These are businesses, yes they have a slant against the game, but that doesn't mean Square Enix should ignore them at only their own peril.

That is an extremely childish reaction. Hopefully Square Enix is a little more professional than that, or at least not so stupid as it.

A lack of information only confirms the worst assumptions.

[Murugan]

Mostly?
That IS Square Enix's job. It's not our job to make the game popular, it's theirs.
We already paid money for our CEs and Standard Eds (most of us did anyway). I know I won't be writing to any sites unless SE personally sends me cash.

As much as I want this game to succeed, we shouldn't feel coerced in to being volunteer PR workers.
Not only that, these sites will realise SE isn't doing their job properly at all when it's the customers giving the sites all the information. This will more than likely cause them to write more negative articles on SE and their game.

Maybe if this was the 1990's, and these were professional journalists.

That is not the case, this is the age of twitter, facebook, and morons on the internet. "News sources" are not the same as they once were. Either:

• These writers came upon this information completely themselves and somehow missed everything else about the game.
• they were told by a player via a news tip submission or twitter post or something equally sad
  -or-
• Square Enix released the information to them.

None of those is a good sign that information on this game is being managed properly, and it definitely should not be the extent of this game's engagement of Western gaming media.

[Sephr]

If the PS3 version was to be released soon, I'd understand wanting to defend it. This of course is under the assumption that the game's problems would be fixed at that point.

But it's not. We're nowhere near it, and given the branding and fanbase I expect if they can sort it out, some proper PR (Unlike the total lack of that was XIV's original launch) would probably reverse a hell of a lot of the negativity received so far.

As it is, I think it's better for SE not to complain to these companies because it's likely to just bring the game into the foreground and likely spark whole new waves of criticism over what is still a fairly crappy game, despite getting better.

So just let it happen, getting upset about it isn't going to change anything. Six months from now if the game is in a good state and these sites are still ragging on it I'll likely feel the way you do, but right now it's not worth it.

[Murugan]

If the PS3 version was to be released soon, I'd understand wanting to defend it. This of course is under the assumption that the game's problems would be fixed at that point.

But it's not. We're nowhere near it, and given the branding and fanbase I expect if they can sort it out, some proper PR (Unlike the total lack of that was XIV's original launch) would probably reverse a hell of a lot of the negativity received so far.

As it is, I think it's better for SE not to complain to these companies because it's likely to just bring the game into the foreground and likely spark whole new waves of criticism over what is still a fairly crappy game, despite getting better.

So just let it happen, getting upset about it isn't going to change anything. Six months from now if the game is in a good state and these sites are still ragging on it I'll likely feel the way you do, but right now it's not worth it.

Not everyone plays on the PS3.

People are reading these, they are being misled, and that is bad for the game's future.

This game is already at the foreground when they run a feature story on it. It's a little too late to "hide it", so if you can't hide its problems you should at least correct misrepresentations of them. Thank god you don't work for Square Enix, I hope someone who does work there cares about their job and the future of this project a little more than that.

[Jennestia]

That is not how you run a business. You don't expect people to come to you to get information on your products. If someone is reporting on your product, it is the PR departments job to help make it tell the story they want to be told.

I'm guessing the story they want to tell isn't: It took us a whole year to get chocobo's and airships, and the patch containing pretty much just them is delayed! The End.

Yeah, viion has no idea about the business world, especially game design. He still considers Tera a massive success "compared to FFXIV!" even though BHS themselves said it's failing financially.

[Zenaku]

What the people saying in the comment there just idiots finding where things are? like really? i found everything was within a few hours of beta1 and the servers keep shutting down and big lag issue with ATI i had like 5-10fps and i still played. The game right now is not bad and i would P2P now and even at release. For a 6year ffxi player who played before COP release there noting else for me to play. I dislike wow layout and way of playing and seeing how 99.99% of game out there copy wow there noting really much out there for me.

Even ffxiv is casual it's not as casual as FFXI getting 30-max within a few hours and getting cop done in few days and solo most of the stuff. I enjoy ffxiv even tho there some things yoshi-p is doing are wrong but there really noting else

FFXIV could be the last MMO that still stay with the old type of layout that EQ/FFXI have soon everything be like wow. So i'm going to enjoy this game to it shut down or if a new game come out that like ffxi/ffxiv but better and without it being all about the casual and more party play "if that happen lol"

[Murugan]

What the people saying in the comment there just idiots finding where things are? like really? i found everything was within a few hours of beta1 and the servers keep shutting down and big lag issue with ATI i had like 5-10fps and i still played. The game right now is not bad and i would P2P now and even at release. For a 6year ffxi player who played before COP release there noting else for me to play. I dislike wow layout and way of playing and seeing how 99.99% of game out there copy wow there noting really much out there for me.

Even ffxiv is casual it's not as casual as FFXI getting 30-max within a few hours and getting cop done in few days and solo most of the stuff. I enjoy ffxiv even tho there some things yoshi-p is doing are wrong but there really noting else

FFXIV could be the last MMO that still stay with the old type of layout that EQ/FFXI have soon everything be like wow. So i'm going to enjoy this game to it shut down or if a new game come out that like ffxi/ffxiv but better and without it being all about the casual and more party play "if that happen lol"

Unfortuantely even people like you are turned away from FFXIV because of stories like this on gaming news sites. If all people have to go on for an MMO was "bad launch">>one year later>>"Delayed patch with Chocobos and Airships" how would they know the game had any of that? Or anything at all except for what it had at launch and chocobos and airships.

[Teknoman]

Well even Famitsu didnt really cover XIV again until the new job art, so i'm sure after enough substantial developments (or even after the current Famitsu releases) we should see more media entries crop up.

[Physic]

First MMORPG.com

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...-Airships.html

Then pc.ign.com

Final Fantasy XIV Getting Airships, Chocobos
http://pc.ign.com/articles/119/1196323p1.html


Massively is the only original English gaming site that really covers the game regularly, these other sites rarely if ever report on the game. Both articles are thinly veiled insults to a game they reviewed poorly that something "so simple" is only now being added, and they report the information as if that is all that has been added/is being added.

I was wondering if maybe Square Enix sent out a news release to major gaming sites (like they do for major announcements/sales/expansions for XI) for these sites to even pay the game any notice. If so why would you do that? That is a horrible mistake and it completely misrepresents the game/development progress.

This is just feeding the fuel of hate for this game. If you didn't release the chocobo information to these websites, then maybe you should release other info to them as well to round out their reporting. When this is the only thing that they report on regarding FFXIV it looks very bad.

It might be even worth it to give a non-Japanese gaming outlet an exclusive, how is that too much marketing when it doesn't cost you advertising money? Isn't it your job to influence the release of information and public opinion about the game in a positive way? That's what PR people do in every other industry...

Or do you only do that in Japan?

If any other players would like to get more informative and accurate news stories on these sites you can contact the "reporters" and websites here:

IGN does not have a news tip submission.

The IGN writer's "wall"
http://people.ign.com/shoggign
Twitter: https://twitter.com/intent/user?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fpeople.ign.com%2Fshoggign
Google+:https://plus.google.com/115004711687748538500/posts
Blog: http://ligerzero.net/?author=59

MMORPG.com does have a news tip submission (must have an account and be logged in to see it: white text box "know something we don't" on right hand side of screen)
http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm?&...14CDFAAA2BFD44
Send the author of the "article" a private message: http://www.mmorpg.com/profile.cfm/username/SBFord

in all honesty after reading the articles they are both fairly accurate new stories, and just tell people they are adding chocobos, how people responded to the articles, is a different story, but i thought that wasnt controlled by the media outlet.

I mean you could have wanted them to do a full breakdown of all the changes, but the most flashy and eye catching changes are the ones they most likely will report on.

As to the people who say why not go to an official website to find out about the game, its probably because, you

A want information that is not necessarily from the company whose best interest is for you to get the game no matter what.

B may not be familiar with the game and are just browsing the internets, and gaming sites for things which may inteerest you.

now im not saying these sites are great journalists, with honor, but not everyone knows that, and yes if you are making a product you dont want to limit your user base to just the people with discerning tasts in video game journalism.

[Murugan]

in all honesty after reading the articles they are both fairly accurate new stories, and just tell people they are adding chocobos, how people responded to the articles, is a different story, but i thought that wasnt controlled by the media outlet.

I mean you could have wanted them to do a full breakdown of all the changes, but the most flashy and eye catching changes are the ones they most likely will report on.

As to the people who say why not go to an official website to find out about the game, its probably because, you

A want information that is not necessarily from the company whose best interest is for you to get the game no matter what.

B may not be familiar with the game and are just browsing the internets, and gaming sites for things which may inteerest you.

now im not saying these sites are great journalists, with honor, but not everyone knows that, and yes if you are making a product you dont want to limit your user base to just the people with discerning tasts in video game journalism.

Chocobos and airships are the most flashy and eye catching changes????

Are you joking?