Letter to the Producer, from an average gamer

[Trotsky]

One thing that sets FFXI/FFXIV apart from other MMOs is the lack of twitching. These games feel much more dignified because of that. Well, maybe dignified is a wrong word, but I believe my point is clear.

FFXI was my first MMO, I literally lived there for a couple of years. Afterwards, I couldn't take any other MMO seriously - all this twitching, it looks so cartoony, so unnatural. I hope that new FFXIV won't go down that path.

[Dragonheart]

i completely agree on BS, it's to much early to say, but it is still a bit slow..

But i'd like to see how it work in a boss fight, for example when you finish tp.. (we just saw video vs trash monster, so the tp didn't finish.)

Also i've seen something about 3 sec. of global CD on WS , eeeeck that is too much! I just hope they're still balancing it, of course with the feedback from alpha test.

[Genz]

After reading a little the OP, I felt the need to check the date of the topic. It looks like a necropost from 2 years ago.

~

Accelerating the battle pace doesn't automatically improve the gameplay. It seems there is a misconception that the quality of a gameplay is measured by the number of keys pressed. It's partially correct : the number of "actions" done by a player is indeed important, but it also includes what happens in his head, which takes time. The problem is that very few games achieve to make good slow paced games so people think that fast pace is the only thing existing on earth (chess and some others old turn-based games may have a word to say here), but it doesn't mean they can't try anymore.

[Dvorn]

Just a side im sure i use the escape key to exit any windows i might have up like the journal and gear windows... or am i mistaken >.>.

[Mujen]

I think what sets FF online games aside is not this "twitch" mechanics you ppl describe, which goes to show you are "spamming" abilities because of GCD and you want them to go off asap, same thing happens in FFXIV when say you're playing tank and need to voke asap, u spam press voke, etc.

What truly sets FF aside at the core is it's depth... Weather, time of day changes, music, the environment, the impact your character has on the world.. it's the immersive capability of the game to take your mind from where you are playing to a realm where fantasy thrives. This is why storyline & character creation is such a huge thing on the list of FF players, its like reading a good book, the characters & plot drag you in and keep you there. I've made this point before, you guys rly need to learn to analyze things a bit better.

The current gameplay is same as that of FFXI.. DATED & SLOW. The combo system is craptastic, directional based WS are poor mechanic. This isn't even "subjective" it's objective.. bosses that have directional based TP moves clash w/ directional WS. Also PLD has a def reduction combo where it works from BEHIND the mob... Tank > <Monster, FAIL.
If you want a game that takes a player and puts them into a fantasy world, you need to have it closer to realistic with the freedoms that come along.. Jumping, interaction w/ enviroment, cause & effect, impact through actions. You could literally GUT the game of quests/leveling/fighting, keep it immersive and interactive w/ dynamic game play and still have an awesome game. Basically you create the fantasy world and THEN you populate it.

[viion]

You complain about way to many things that are personal (clicking, right clicking, move to target, stuff that people here likely dont want or care about in general) and then stuff thats just wrong (you complain about lag? i didnt know you could play 2.0 and select your data center now! tell me how..)

[Ingolf]

93.2% of statistics are made up on the spot.

[Manbearcow]

I appreciate that some of these responses are well thought out. To be honest I thought I would be replying to mostly narrow minded hardcore FF fans. But, it seems that a lot of the negative response aren't very well thought out. They insult the original post because my preferences, which I stated are just preferences, are different from their own, without understanding their own incredibly biased and illogical opinions. So please let me shed my "nice guy guy voicing his opinions" skin and express my true thoughts.

I had thought that this game had at least a few million players until I googled it. Are you serious? Less than 50 thousand players and still these minority gamers come out of the woodwork to defend the game as it is. 2.0 won't save the game if its testers are you people, unwilling to give up your little niche and adopt popular gaming concepts. You know who likes slow gameplay? Noobs. You know who doesn't like pvp? Noobs. You know who prefers less options to more options? You guessed it. This is what the rest of the gaming world thinks of you. Slow gameplay and less skill options doesn't make a game more challenging. If you are worried about making mistakes with aoe, then you are bad. If the development team listens to the close mindedness of the "loyal players" that stuck with this game, then it is doomed to fail.

This is not an insult to those who obviously understand that its current mechanics don't work. The game needs to meet global standards for the rest of the gamers who are not hardcore fans to want to play the game. You may want to keep your small like-minded community, but SE needs to get paid. They can't develop new games or new content for you if FFXIV is a money sink. I couldn't care less what most of you think, if it didn't harm the success of 2.0. But the game needs testers that are more forward thinking than some of this population can manage. Both FFXI and FFXIV were "unique" and gave developers the freedom to implement a lot of crap ideas. It didn't work. The ~12k players of FFXIV can cling to this failed game all they want, but there are millions out there like me that are waiting for a WoW killer. If you fell through the cracks and didn't enjoy WoW, good for you. But 10 million subs, and $150,000,000 per month say that Blizzard is doing something right. If WoW updated its graphics engine, then there would be no competition. That isn't just my opinion. Sheer statistics will back up that claim. But I don't want to play a game that will consume my life. I want a playable game that my girlfriend will also enjoy. I'm even willing to throw money at SE for it. But it's players like me that FFXIV needs to be successful. You will probably stick around regardless.

[Jaimie]

I appreciate that some of these responses are well thought out. To be honest I thought I would be replying to mostly narrow minded hardcore FF fans. But, it seems that a lot of the negative response aren't very well thought out. They insult the original post because my preferences, which I stated are just preferences, are different from their own, without understanding their own incredibly biased and illogical opinions. So please let me shed my "nice guy guy voicing his opinions" skin and express my true thoughts.

I had thought that this game had at least a few million players until I googled it. Are you serious? Less than 50 thousand players and still these minority gamers come out of the woodwork to defend the game as it is. 2.0 won't save the game if its testers are you people, unwilling to give up your little niche and adopt popular gaming concepts. You know who likes slow gameplay? Noobs. You know who doesn't like pvp? Noobs. You know who prefers less options to more options? You guessed it. This is what the rest of the gaming world thinks of you. Slow gameplay and less skill options doesn't make a game more challenging. If you are worried about making mistakes with aoe, then you are bad. If the development team listens to the close mindedness of the "loyal players" that stuck with this game, then it is doomed to fail.

This is not an insult to those who obviously understand that its current mechanics don't work. The game needs to meet global standards for the rest of the gamers who are not hardcore fans to want to play the game. You may want to keep your small like-minded community, but SE needs to get paid. They can't develop new games or new content for you if FFXIV is a money sink. I couldn't care less what most of you think, if it didn't harm the success of 2.0. But the game needs testers that are more forward thinking than some of this population can manage. Both FFXI and FFXIV were "unique" and gave developers the freedom to implement a lot of crap ideas. It didn't work. The ~12k players of FFXIV can cling to this failed game all they want, but there are millions out there like me that are waiting for a WoW killer. If you fell through the cracks and didn't enjoy WoW, good for you. But 10 million subs, and $150,000,000 per month say that Blizzard is doing something right. If WoW updated its graphics engine, then there would be no competition. That isn't just my opinion. Sheer statistics will back up that claim. But I don't want to play a game that will consume my life. I want a playable game that my girlfriend will also enjoy. I'm even willing to throw money at SE for it. But it's players like me that FFXIV needs to be successful. You will probably stick around regardless.

I really do believe there are fanbois out there who want this game to fail (see one of my other posts). ie. Let's kill FFXIV, the SE will focus all it's attention on a remake of VII.

SE released a POS game, the beta testers knew it, the reviewers knew it, everyone but SE + the fanbois knew it. Now that, players have abandoned the game en masse. Se has decided to "fix" it. Unfortunatly, the fanbois don't care about the players who left. They are content to play their "unique" game on their low population servers.

[Mihana]

No offense but after reading through just about all of this (I didn't read the closing statement really, blame it for being a tl;dr thing.) feels a majority of it is just saying "Make the game the way I want it". A few points I will address... Auto-attack should not start because you "click" on an enemy. Moreso I'm particularly against your idea of making people auto-attack a target as soon as it attacks you, this is certainty a bad idea. Also I do believe one video showed that idea you can move around with some weaponskills. Archer/Bard and as much as I love these jobs, I do believe shouldn't be able to just move at will as you attack. I doubt it's very easy to run around hitting a target accurately while you're moving around.

Anyway from what I did read some thoughts I can agree on and it is a good read overall, so good work.