Quote Originally Posted by gifthorse View Post
Um, if the game can load in an icon without trouble, it can load in an animation. And you know it.
No i meant waving at every single person on the street would look uh..bad, some npcs are in somewhat high traffic areas.

Though spamming the server for requests for an animation from that npc could also go badly.

Quote Originally Posted by gifthorse View Post
They seem to have adopted a strategy of emulating rather than inventing though. While some small changes to their vocabulary are expected (using 'raid' to denote a certain type of content, using 'patch' as opposed to version update) , they do give off a distinct impression of trying too hard to copy things. They've said a thousand times that "people expected certain things in our game that are now industry standard" etc etc., so it's obvious they would then try and introduce some "industry standards" into the game. But to me it seems like SE has just latched onto this idea and basically pandered to any seemingly stupid and detrimental demands people have made, be they aggro indicators or exclamation mark quests. By trying so hard to seem in-touch with the MMO industry, they lost touch with their game and its good features.
mmm, I can't say I know exactly whats going on at square, but I doubt they're eschewing game theory to cater to demands, I honestly hope they have sound logic behind their decisions. One thing you have to keep in mind is that they came across as thinking this game would be a golden goose when it went live, going so far as to laugh when asked questions about features like jumping or auction houses and saying no one would feel the need for these features, it really felt like they were out of touch all the way through and so they're compensating quite a bit to make it clear that they made a mistake that they want to correct.

But lets not forget that copycatting is symptomatic of the genre.

The MMO industry is filled with features that are copied from other games with their own spin on them for a number of reasons(Heroic opportunities> Fellowship Manuevers> Battle Regimens). Being different can be punished and rewarded, so the typical choice is to go "How can we fit this framework but put as much of our own into it as possible"(or in rift's case: ok lets take the best of what everyone else did and also put in massive zone wide public quests). Yes XIV is taking some things from the basic frameworks of other MMOs, but if its really going to be a complete copy has yet to be seen. Heck it COULD end up being a complete copy but we'll have to wait till they announce more things to see if thats true.

Edit: WOW THATS A LOT OF TEXT TLDR: they gotta make some concessions to the genre or really really go all the way, and its much safer to make the concessions and innovate in that framework as much as possible.