Questions and Feedback on the Future of FINAL FANTASY XIV

[Kafeen]

Do you really expect players to stick around and pay for an incomplete game?

When is an MMO ever complete?

[Kendra]

Since the Seventh Umbral Era storyline will close off the current scenario completely, would it be possible at least to complete the current city storylines (not the Grand Companies storyline, the individual stories)?

[Laughlyn]

Copy & Paste from my blog.

Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 News / Feedback !

I just want to say Thank You! to Yoshi-P & the Dev Team for
the recent Announcement with FFXIV 2.0

Im really Really excited about this new information,
all the concept art / ideas! :P

They look wonderful, and i cant wait to experience this new world,
even thou some of the current areas will remain.
(they are fine as they are right not, maybe some tweaks)
But the new zone's looks simply amazing!

So far what excited me most were the Concept arts of the new zones,
the new classes, housing & mail delivery system!

Wooooooo!!!!

No0my Happy !!! \( ^.^)/

Now to my Questions:

...actually at this time i have no questions, i just want to go
explore and find my own answers in that new world that awaits!

- No0my!

[Razor]

Another question: With the one-time race change and new storyline in 2.0, can we please have an option to change our allegiance* along with the race aswell?

*Not grand company allegience, starting city allegience that we are storyline-bound to the first 20 levels

[Fensfield]

When is an MMO ever complete?

When the servers shut down for good? >.>

[Valdir]

Great content plans.

Hoping for the best, while keeping my feet on the ground. I will subscribe for the next year, seeing as how it's just like paying for a new game; and the current $70 game has already provided me with more than enough hours of entertainment to pay itself (in comparison with the game play time of other $60~ dollar console and PC games. )

Despite the tedious bugs it started out with, it has eventually turned out into something enjoyable.

Whatever I pay for during the next year, I will consider it part of a fee for exclusive content of a whole new game; The game itself, and an extension and conclusion of the current game. (e.g. Skyrim's collector's is worth $150) We still don't know if there will be an additional reward for the players of the seventh umbral era story line.

Considering there are a lot of questions unanswered and a month and half left for the subscription to go into effect; I'd say that any conclusion about the whole deal, at the present, would be subject of prejudice.

Despite this I'm convinced to pay for the subscription given that I have been playing the most recent content in a mid-core esque way and it has been quite entertaining. I think they are doing things right this time; judging by the quality of the updates; and think that the release of the New Iteration of FFXIV Online will be worth it; and truly live up to the Final Fantasy title.

They never marketed the game for Hardcore gamers, they explicitly explained that it was for casual gamers; with these parameters in mind, the content they have released should be more than enough to cover for the initial price of the game.

Besides, I knew what I was signing up for when I bought the game; I played the open-beta, and was very much aware it was an incomplete game (and I am willing to bet every single troll out there bought the game knowing it was not finished)

Whoever bought this game at release (or at least many of us), knew full well (or at the very least suspected) they were buying a promise of something and not the thing itself; which is why I personally don't understand all the trolling coming from people who have grind all classes to 50 and so much time out of the game that they have turned a $70 dollar investment into hundreds of hours of entertainment (be that tedious entertainment or rewarding)

I have many questions about the new game coming out, but many of them have already been asked in this thread.

Square-Enix has my support for now; the rest will depend on the development team, the quality of the content released and whatever announcements they make during the coming months.

[Munba]

A little question: in a redesign map (Coerthas i think) there is an 'Astronomy Observatory' place. This imply something regards implementation of constellations and other observable cosmos objects? The possibility to use that? Or some sort of content about it? It would be awesome indeed.

About subscription, i'm going to pay in december also to help in this big project but i think the most suitable period to begin to pay would have been at 1.21 patch imo.

[djjdiss]

I would like to also post my concern about the monthly billing issue as so many others have stated.

You're treading on thin ice SE, so tread softly.

We, the community that populates FFXIV currently, are mostly die hard fans of the FF series and SE in general. If it weren't for us, there wouldn't be any players to busy your servers.

For the past year you have been using FFXIV as a test and us as the lab rats to gather insight for creating the REAL FFXIV. At least this is what the "Future of FFXIV" says in a nutshell when you read between the lines.

While I am pleased to see recent changes being made to FFXIV that should have been in the game when it launched, I don't feel that any of it deserves a reward or patronage. Each patch up to this point has merely been and proverbial "band-aid" on the real problem that underlies in FFXIV. To pay for that would be to reward failure or mediocrity, neither of which I condone for a game series and developer of your magnitude.

Since FFXIV was so bad it had to be rebuilt from the ground up, why should we pay for it?

charging for content that isn't 100% delivered is self-destructive behavior. With games like Diablo III, Guild Wars 2, Tera, Blade & Soul etc. etc. coming out very soon, just how do you expect to lure players in by charging them for tiny amounts of content/fixes without giving them a finished product?

I personally believe you should be paying us to test this festering turd of a programming nightmare for you and provide valuable feedback that you'll use to release the REAL FFXIV in 2013...

You have to have some nerve to think FFXIV is anywhere near being subscription worthy.

Heed our warning SE or risk having us, your valuable game testers, take a leave of absence for 10 months and maybe possibly never show back up again.

[OJtheLIONKing]

I'm excited for all the stuff I've heard about FFXIV. Another year is a long time to wait, but I hope the wait is worth it. I'm really enjoying myself in-game now, and if the content keeps coming to keep me occupied I'll gladly pay when the subscription fees start. The concept art, particularly that screenshot with the new GUI, looks epic, and I'll be very happy if the actual game resembles that even a little. With that said, let me start.

First, a suggestion. Please reconsider charging for this game until at least February or March of next year. I know this game is being operated at a huge loss right now, but with all of the games coming out this fall for consoles in addition to the upcoming WoW 4.3 patch and SW:TOR, there are many temptations that might lure players who are on the fence away. After that, it's out of sight, out of mind, and it'll be that much harder to get them back. With a release date a bit after FFXIII-2 though, people who want more Final Fantasy can start this up.

Second, I'd like to ask how big the graphics engine revamp will be. I was honestly surprised to hear "new graphics engine" when previously we'd just heard of optimization. However, I'm wondering if it will, for instance, have DirectX 11 support. This may be a bit technical to be answered on the live video, but a feature list or something in the next few months for us tech heads would be good to let us salivate over the prospects. In particular, I hope the lighting and shadows are improved, and I look forward to this game running better than it has been as the post promised.

Third, how much flexibility are you thinking of allowing for player UI mods? Player mods are part of what really give longevity to some games, and I hope you allow a lot of freedom, but I understand there may be balance concerns with the PS3 players.

Fourth, will voice acting be coming to all cutscenes, or just the FMV-quality ones. It's a pretty big undertaking to dub so much dialogue in 4 languages.

Fifth, how frequently will quests come in the new FFXIV? That is to say, will it be closer to the MMO standard of being able to get your character to max level only on quests? I believe this is an essential ingredient to success, as aside from old school MMORPG players (especially former FFXI players) nobody wants to grind mindless xp. I think any time that there's an xp grind party, it shines a spotlight on a lack of interesting content that party should be tackling.

Lastly, if I can direct a word at the players commenting. I totally understand if you don't think this game is quite up to snuff to be paying subscription fees for yet (I know I had trouble with the prospect for a long time), but there's no need for childish threats like post #249 there. I think it's a lot more effective to air your grievances in a clear, civil manner, as the people who receive them will be more inclined to listen to them.

[Betelgeuzah]

What changes are being made to

Enemies
Phasing system
Battle system
PCs
Retainers
Login System
Character Motion
AI
Scenario & Quest systems
Parley
Item Search Feature
Levequests & Behests
Login & Patch procedure

in 2.0 build? According to this chart: http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxiv/dow...Roadmap_EN.pdf

Tool production for 2.0 is well underway. How will this affect development procedures (positively) in the future?
How will 2.0 assets differ from 1.0 assets?
Please give us some details as to what the 2.0 graphics engine can accomplish compared to the 1.0 engine (better scaling aside). For example: the concept screenshot showed better lighting and effects.

Just how awesome are you, Yoshida?