One of the issues with FFXIV...

[Wolfie]

i think the main thing is as consoles have got more powerful, dev's have had the power to create more and more realistic looking games, this is just a fad (i hope) and in time creativity will come. as ppl get bored of FPS's and sales drop. from the chatter i hear ppl are already starting to look for something a bit different

Realism has ALWAYS been a goal of most developers (SE included, notice the cool physics and dull-yet-realistic colors of environments and clothes?) and is, in my opinion, separate from creativity. You can have creativity and realism at the same time; it's just that with the current customer fad being war games, there's no room for creativity.

Look at how hard Battlefield 2142 failed. Look at how poorly some other realistic-yet-creative FPS games are doing, like Section 8. People just want to shoot turrrhrists in their brown muddy war simulator.

[Konachibi]

Oddly enough Lost Planet 2 has been doing better and better lately, when it didn't do so well on launch, even though nothing about it has actually changed.

So yeah I think people are getting sick of CoD and Battlefield now that they've been milked to death.

Thankfully it seems the zombie fad has died down now too.

I just hope something a little more.... 'positive' fills in the gap before another depressing grimey 'kill everything that moves' game steps up to the plate.

[grandm]

true, i didn't mean to suggest that things have gone bad because the games now look real. just mean although a game can look real, and look good at the same time. don't mean the dev's have to be confined to what only happens in the real world. on our planet we are bound by certain rules, like gravity. but that little box under your tv can do and be anything. and the sooner dev's remember that the better. i'm not saying get rid of FPS or sports games, just don't make them the only games on the market

[Konachibi]

true, i didn't mean to suggest that things have gone bad because the games now look real. just mean although a game can look real, and look good at the same time. don't mean the dev's have to be confined to what only happens in the real world. on our planet we are bound by certain rules, like gravity. but that little box under your tv can do and be anything. and the sooner dev's remember that the better. i'm not saying get rid of FPS or sports games, just don't make them the only games on the market

To be totally honest the most creative and original 'game' I've ever played is Second Life (even though really it's a 3D chat community which is a little too over-run with 'adult content' these days). I'm usually hanging around in English speaking sims on that and see the typical stuff like clubs and cars and overly shiny decorations and stuff. When I went to a Japanese sim though I was totally blown away by it! They had a fully scripted train the went around the sim in a figure 8 and the front of it was shaped like a cat, then there was a scripted cat and mouse that ran around on part of the island, they had things I couldn't even work out what they were, there was some amazingly creative stuff in there, and some of the clothes and attachments they'd created for avatars were astouding! Crazy thing was price comparison was almost impossible. The things english speaking shops sold for L$1500, the japanese were selling for around L$50, and they'd created some avatar attachments I'd never even thought was possible.

Least to say I rarely shop in english sims nowadays when I log on there

[Delsus]

Only console I ever sold was my Spectrum ZX2, to get a Commodore 64. Since then I've never gotten rid of a console, 'cos if I ever have kids I'd be able to show them all the games I played when I was young.

We all saw how the 'retro' fad took off not long ago, imagine how a 6 year old kid would feel 10 years from now seeing 8 bit graphics from Chuck Rock or James Pond

Lol I bet they would be like how did you play this??? but it would be awesome to do, wonder if I can find a megadrive or somthing on ebay.

[Konachibi]

Lol I bet they would be like how did you play this??? but it would be awesome to do, wonder if I can find a megadrive or somthing on ebay.

I could get them to play on the ol' Commodore 64, watch as their faces turn to pure terror as it loads, then the 4 bit graphics, and then the fact that they were THE hardest games EVEEEEERRRR!!!!

Seriously anyone who complains that FFXIV is 'easy mode' should go play a commodore 64 game, it'll make them think twice before asking for a hard game.

[Delsus]

I could get them to play on the ol' Commodore 64, watch as their faces turn to pure terror as it loads, then the 4 bit graphics, and then the fact that they were THE hardest games EVEEEEERRRR!!!!

Seriously anyone who complains that FFXIV is 'easy mode' should go play a commodore 64 game, it'll make them think twice before asking for a hard game.

Lmao, I think i'll track down a commadore 64, just to see this it would be awesome."Daddy I want a PS6" "here play this, it will blow you away" "AHHHHH MY EYES THE PIXILATED LOOK" would love it.

[grandm]

I could get them to play on the ol' Commodore 64, watch as their faces turn to pure terror as it loads, then the 4 bit graphics, and then the fact that they were THE hardest games EVEEEEERRRR!!!!

Seriously anyone who complains that FFXIV is 'easy mode' should go play a commodore 64 game, it'll make them think twice before asking for a hard game.

lol the loading 10 - 15 mins of pure torture, give me nightmares just remembering it. still happy days

[Konachibi]

lol the loading 10 - 15 mins of pure torture, give me nightmares just remembering it. still happy days

And the noise that went with it.

Funny thing though, Sega Mega Drive gamepads could be used with a Commodore 64, D-pad did the movement and B button was the fire button.

Much more comfortable than trying to use a joystick.

[Vanguard319]

Most of that article is total bull XD

Just take Sega for instance, they made the first 'realistic' adventure game with Shenmue, they made the world first real-time strategy game with Dune waaaay back in the 80's, they created the Hedgehog Engine for Sonic Unleashed, the first engine in the world that can simulate what it looks like to move around 500 miles per hour. That's just a few examples from just one japanese games company. They aren't behind with their games technology, they're way ahead of the game.

The only difference here is american games companies have this obsession with making realistic war games or first person shooters, be it world war 2 or fictional wars (call of duty, brothers in arms, battlefield, army of two, gears of war, resistance) which used to be all well and good but now it's getting incredibly dull to keep seeing 'another war game'. Call Of Duty for instance has been using exactly the same games engine since Call Of Duty 2, all they do is upgrade it a bit to make it look prettier, they don't really tried to IMPROVE the game at all, just hide it behind a slightly different mask. The only other game genres that come out of america are racing games and sports games, and honestly once you've played one FIFA you've played them all, because you can't really make a 'unique' football game, no matter how you spin it, it's still always just going to be football, but that doesn't stop EA throwing a new FIFA out every single year for those dumb enough to keep buying them.

Japanese companies still keep their video games fresh and unique with originality. Adventure games, action games, roleplay games, platform games, puzzle games, they make every genre under the sun, and they keep things always feeling new.

Look at the still-going success of Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Sonic The Hedgehog, Mario, Dead Or Alive, King Of Fighters, Guilty Gear, Disgaia, The 'Tales Of' series, Gundam, Silent Hill and Resident Evil, then consider if Japan really is behind when it comes to video games.

So is it a problem for FFXIV? No it isn't. FFXIV did something new, fresh and unique as an MMO instead of being 'just another WoW clone' like american MMO companies are doing. Sure it had a bad start, but some people like it for how different it feels, rather than hanging on it's flaws.

p.s, sorry for babbling on, I just hate it when american reviewers think their country is making better games than japanese companies.

The article isn't about who's better, it gives some insight into why JP games seem to be in decline.

with the exception of the Xbox, most game consoles have a different architecture than PCs, which makes porting PC games to those consoles a bit more difficult. Many game developers in Japan learned thier trade on console games, which can be optimized for specific hardware rather than PC games, which have to run under various hardware configurations. It also points out that console hardware is static, wheras PC Hardware is continuously evolving, meaning that an engine developed last year is likely obselete and dated the next. Western developers on the other hand are used to developing and optimizing thier games to work well with current and future PC hardware, and know how to work around limitations in engines and source code, wheras Japanese developers are still learning. That is what I got from the article anyway. If you need proof of this, it can be seen in the fact that FFXIV's engine doesn't seem to be well optimized, which people have pointed out in other threads.

I think that the JP devs will be fine though, they still hold an edge on designing memorable characters, and excellent storylines, again something that the article points out.