First Impressions are key!

[Starlord]

Just hearing that Battle theme that someone recently posted Just gets me pumped up for the game. Of course there are the little things to a person Like for me from Greatest to least it's:

1) Music
2) Storyline
3) Graphics (styled Preferred)
4) Gameplay

Music my eye catcher to get hooked onto a game the most, of course the whole game itself needs to be at least average, but the thing that catches your eye the most needs to be at the top of it's game in order for a person to be "truly" hooked onto a game. Music is my eye catcher. What's yours?

First Impressions are always key into anything in order for that something to succeed.

Do you think SE Videos make a good impression?

[Radacci]

i think graphics and gameplay is close. an ugly game is usually a boring game. then comes story, then music. cause games without any fun story is also boring. If music is bad, you need to turn it off, which is boring. Music is what can make a scene really epic, or ruin it, so it's important.
But i guess gameplay is most important, if it doesn't look like any fun action, or to generic, i probably wont even bother playing.
Like earlier i saw some cool armor designs for Atlantica Online. and i was like...wanna check the game out...Checked YT char creator video...ugly. checked ICON of gameplay...ugly and boring -.-

FFXIV graphics are nice, music is nice, lancer fight looked more fun than 1.0. story gonna be good i suppose. so i'm looking forward to it

But well...no. the alpha videos doesn't make a good impression yet. but it doesn't matter. it's obviously gonna be more fun to play, than to watch someone walking around randomly, doing annoying things

[Ralos]

Music is my eye catcher. What's yours?

First Impressions are always key into anything in order for that something to succeed.

Do you think SE Videos make a good impression?

I'm gonna be "that guy" for a moment and point out that music can't actually catch your eye =P (unless your eyes have ears or some weird crap like that)

But seriously, I personally look for balance from the 4 main criteria you posted: Music, Storyline, Graphics, Gameplay

In a regular game I have a high preference for story line but in an MMO it shifts a bit because the story line only lasts until you beat it, so the content and gameplay has to keep me interested in order to keep playing. Graphics are usually the lowest on my list, I can get by with playing something that isn't pretty as long as it's fun.

Music tends to be in a department on it's own separate from the other categories for me because I judge it differently. I can't really explain it but music is definitely a factor in how much I enjoy a game because it adds to the immersion of being in another "world" so-to-speak more than most other aspects of the game.

As for the SE videos released so far, I've remained very open minded about them because, as we've said it's alpha right now, and because it's hard to really get a feeling for it without experiencing it myself. That said, I've enjoyed the videos so far and I think they're doing a great job with the game, so the "first impression" as it were, has been a good one.

[Starlord]

I'm gonna be "that guy" for a moment and point out that music can't actually catch your eye =P (unless your eyes have ears or some weird crap like that)

But seriously, I personally look for balance from the 4 main criteria you posted: Music, Storyline, Graphics, Gameplay

In a regular game I have a high preference for story line but in an MMO it shifts a bit because the story line only lasts until you beat it, so the content and gameplay has to keep me interested in order to keep playing. Graphics are usually the lowest on my list, I can get by with playing something that isn't pretty as long as it's fun.

Music tends to be in a department on it's own separate from the other categories for me because I judge it differently. I can't really explain it but music is definitely a factor in how much I enjoy a game because it adds to the immersion of being in another "world" so-to-speak more than most other aspects of the game.

As for the SE videos released so far, I've remained very open minded about them because, as we've said it's alpha right now, and because it's hard to really get a feeling for it without experiencing it myself. That said, I've enjoyed the videos so far and I think they're doing a great job with the game, so the "first impression" as it were, has been a good one.

I agree with everything you posted! To me whatever ranks top is usually a League on it's own. When you go look for a game You look for key points in what interests you. Of Course it will vary between person to person. What one person my like, another person can hate it. As long as the game's key points are Average people will at least look into it. But out of those Averages, the one that stands out the most to you, will be the mostly likely game you will get for yourself.

[RudyFails]

I have samezies... Wasn't totally blown away at all, but at the same time I wasn't really expecting to be. But that's probably because of playing 1.0 and following it this far. I did show one of my friends who didn't really play 1.0 at all and he thought it looked pretty cool and sounds pretty interested. Depends on the person I guess.

[Radacci]

I'm gonna be "that guy" for a moment and point out that music can't actually catch your eye =P (unless your eyes have ears or some weird crap like that)

I'm gonna be "that guy" for a moment and point out there's cameras that translate pictures to sounds, that blind people can "See"
Or a chip on the tongue that has many small points, that pinch the tongue, to create a mental image.
So you can "crosswire" senses.
And theoretically speaking hearing sounds can make you see things

[Nayto]

For me main priority would be Graphics... or more specifically: setting/layout design. One thing I really missed in XIV is the sort of lack of uniqueness of each area. When I first went to shopshea I thought it was a pretty cool dungeon with mysterious flame embers looming about. Then I went to that other one near bald knoli and found out it pretty much copypasted it. :\ It looks like that most of the zones so far seem pretty unique and eye catching. For an MMO you'd want to make the journey to discover the fast travel point at least memorable.

Second would be gameplay because people on kotaku and what not got bored of CGI trailers and wants to see how games active. So far they're not making a good impression in this criteria (You can see it everywhere on these boards :\). But it's unfortunate because, well, 'it's alpha'. The battlesystems are probably still in development seperately behind the scenes and people really want to see that/make sure it gets done right.

And number 3 is just community/friends that play. :P

And theoretically speaking hearing sounds can make you see things

Sometimes i like to imagine cutscenes/montages/etc. following the music, so yeah you can see/imagine some things when you listen to music.

[Ticks]

If I hear good music that appeals to me at the very start of the game - I will have a positive outlook going into it. I've watched tv shows and movies just because the opening music was cool. That's what gets my foot in the door.

[Nuru]

Some crappy games have great music. If that is the case, there's always the OST that stands alone, and you dont really have to play through the game :P

Gameplay comes first for me. If it's playable, and urges me to want to play everyday, then the game itself has pretty well on its own. Story would come next. Now, I'm all for playability, but when you also have a great story, you get people like me that wont want to stop playing because the story is just so damn great. A good story reminds me that I hate sleeping, and if I can be reminded that Games > Sleep, then good job!

Now for music and graphics.. I would have to say Music is more important to me. Music and graohice will always be something that doesn't really change all of the time, not like the Story or gameplay. Music you can get bored of, and graphics will always be the same. I take a strong interest in music though, and it is something additional I enjoy in my choices of video games.

As for Graphics, they don't matter to me all too much. I'd rather have a game that provides me with as much playability and content to last me for a very long time rather than have a pretty game to play for about a week. FFXIII and FFXIII-2 had a great balance with having great graphics and a lot of content. Also, the music for FFXIII and XIII-2 was just great! FFXIII story was awesome! FFXIII-2 i feel the story could have been much better, or at least how the sequence was. Time travel is hard to build a story around, which is why Back to the Future always fascinates me. :P

1.21 GIGWATTS!

[Alhanelem]

The videos are great. People (mostly NA people) are nitpicking the hell out of everything, but in all actuality, everything has been done pretty well so far.