Clearing Confusion - MMORPG differentiation

[Zantetsuken]

What XIV was wasn't just different, they did everything from the foundation to content style different for the sake of it, because remember, their original mantra was "We did it this way to make it as different from FFXI as possible."..their entire goal was to make nothing beyond races similar to XI

^^This was their second critical flaw.

SE was determined to have their two MMOs running alongside eachother. FFXIV was purposefully designed to be as different as FFXI as possible so that it wouldn't siphon the majority of players from FFXI.

As the FFXIV release drew near, the FFXI team was instructed to open the floodgates of content, etc in order to keep players involved in XI. Hence Abyssea and the level cap increase.

Everyone knows that the rushed release of XIV that ended up throwing a wrench into both games, but it was compounded by a second mistake. One that completely went against their original designs for XIV.

The races.

If FFXIV had entirely new races (or Ivalice ones). It would have been much more likely to have been judged on its own merits. The problem is that while they tried to make something entirely different from XI, they chose to put the one thing into XIV would make it look like a direct sequel more than sequel more than anything else.

This caused many of the FFXI players to be the first in line when it came to FFXIV sales. The game wasn't close to being finished and any NEW systems that weren't working (or incomplete) were instantly compared to FFXI systems that did work. A new dev team was brought in. The original design was gutted. And the players began to give their feedback on the forums which would transform XIV from an incomplete new-style MMO, into a FFXI sequel.

It was the races that did it.