Gamespot ARR article. HOW DARE YOU DOUBT OUR YOSHI-P!!

[PEANUT]

Wow, whether or not Yoshi had a legit answer or not(maybe he was just exhausted from working like a maniac!) answering quick enough on the spot, but I can name a BUNCH of stuff that this MMO will seperate from the others.

GRAPHICS, STORY, MUSIC, CHOCOBOS, MOOGLES, CID(eventually ) PRIMALS, FASHION, UNIQUE EVENTS, JOB SYSTEM/ARMORY SYSTEM!

All those and the fact that this game is not only gonna cater to hard-core players, but casual players as well! So gamestop can SUCK IT! They've always had bad customer service anyway

[Biggs]

Story
Materia system
Character customization
Amory system

To name just a few.

[Fifty]

Unfortunately people do read reviews and will pass a judgment based on a bias opinion.
This article is pointless. Although if this spirit bond thing happens and players can't trade used gear or weapons, I will write a bad review myself. It's a huge turn off and I think people will hate it.
The concept alone makes some people not even want to try the game.
I will have to play and see what happens but... I am so against character binding.

[Issachar]

Yoshi-P isn't without his mistakes, but to err is human.

[Gramul]

I can totally and fully understand where Gamespot is coming from.
Most MMO's these days look better than WoW in terms of basic fidelity. story in MMO's has been attempted before, but it doesn't really hold an audience for long.

The game lacks originality in gameplay and structure and that's a big issue for the MMO community that feels like the genre is stagnating itself of rehearsing the same game in different clothes. And that's my prime concern with ARR. As beautiful as it is, as much improved it is over ARR, as much as the story may be interesting, it's still a standard MMO.
No offense meant to the development team who have poured their lives into it.

[fusional]

it's still a standard MMO.

which is exactly what it takes to be successful, no matter how much people cry for something different. because you know what keeps happening to games that actually are different? they either fizzle out immediately, or are relegated to niche titles that support only a tiny tiny (and very particular) demographic of MMO gamers.

developers know this. they've collected and analyzed the data. why do you think swtor and gw2 went out of their way to market themselves as something they essentially weren't? why do you think they spent so much of their budget on a relentless marketing push that sold their games as "genre-defining", "revolutionary" and the like when in the end they were just like everything else but with a new hat... (which they also tried to say was *not* a hat, but something entirely new! ...nope. still a hat.)

people don't know what they want, and can't see the forest for the trees. ultimately *what the MMO is* has much less impact on the game's longevity/success as *how well it executes* what it is. content (and plenty of it, for every demographic you're targeting) built around a successful gaming core is what determines whether an MMO lives or dies.

devs lose sight of this trying to chase the dragon of "wahhh we want something different wahhhh" and the finished product ends up being either completely hollow or disappointingly one-dimensional. because in reality, in the structure of an MMORPG, there's not too much you can really change without it losing the identifiers of an MMORPG. but they want an MMORPG. so all the devs can do is rely on smoke and mirrors and hope the players are fooled long enough to pay.

and then they come to their senses after a few weeks or months and migrate on the greener pastures, asking for the same thing, and the cycle perpetuates. because the games which *are actually different* are overlooked, or are "too different"... and developers take notice of that, too.

and you can't really blame developers, either. they're stuck forever trying to cater to an entitled audience who says one thing but means another. who says they want X only to flip tables and storm off when they're given X. "well what i MEANT was i wanted Y!" and then they're given Y. and the process repeats. just look at our own 1.0 for evidence of that.

they want something familiar which is at the same time different and unique, and that's like catching lightning in a bottle. and you know what's especially funny about that? WoW was familiar, and it wasn't terribly different or unique. and yet in spite of that- it's the most successful MMORPG ever made.

why?

because, just like i said- *what* it is wasn't relevant. what mattered was how well it executed what it was. and it did it better than any other MMO ever made. and magically... 10-11 million subscribers, even at a time where people are claiming f2p is "the future"

tl;dr people don't know what they want or why they want it, they don't know what they like or why the like it, they'll say one thing but do another, and have absolutely no idea what works or makes a game successful. and developers are left trying to read their minds to build the next smash success, because most of the input they get is trash.

it's amazing they get anything done at all.

[Loggos]

w

...because in reality, in the structure of an MMORPG, there's not too much you can really change without it losing the identifiers of an MMORPG...

This is what I am wondering about the whole time. What is it then, that makes an MMORPG totally unique?

What do you want to see? Please don't answer with very general things like "gameplay". Because, what is it? How do you want it to look like so that it is like it has never been done before?
This is supposed to be a serious question: Please tell me what could be totally genre breaking because I cannot really imagine what it is using current technological options to cater at a very broad audience.

Then, I also think: If so many people try to make MMORPGS - and surely not all just want to copy; I think there actually are people who want to create something new - shouldn't one of them at least have found something really unique and new that is also quite successful if it is apparently "not so difficult"?

I am not defying that something new is not possible but I think it's not an easy task like "go, invent something new". If it was so easy to create AND to cater to the broad audience then we should already have seen it at least once with all those mmo companies out there.


I really like your article, fusional. And I also agree with Yoshi-P that most things are build upon something that was already there and that was done well. It's called standing on the shoulders of a giant. You cannot really invent the wheel again if it has already been created. You can define yourself however by how well you execute it.


*Please note that this is a general point of view. I am not commenting on ARR here but on the general idea of "revolutionising the genre".

[Gramul]

which is exactly what it takes to be successful,

No simple standard MMO has ever been a great success. Oh they can live just fine, but they mostly just coast on the contrived.

Every MMO that has claimed to be original, to add something new and drastic to the genre, has depended on a gimmick or ultimately small addition to gameplay that does nothing to improve or change the old structure that's set in place. Its never really expanded and it's stagnating. We have seen MMO's do WoW's thing 10 times better but a lack of content to compare and the lack of actual nuance keep people away.

Who is going to be interested in a game that adds nothing new? Pretty visuals and story only last so long as evidenced by every other MMO to come out in the past 5 years. In the end, we're all just doing the same KILL X OF Y questlines and rushing to endgame instances and no one has been brave enough to challenge that no matter the claims of originality.

To actually believe that the basic structure of MMORPGs is something that's already peaked, that you can't or shouldn't change from it is extremely shallow minded and keeps every new release from impressing crowds. No other genre is so hell bound to stick to a formula in the fear that it will fall apart. Even shooters have their occasional Portals and Metroid Primes. Games that aren't afraid to add concepts from other genres to restructure the core into something worth experiencing. Something that actually stands out and still retains popularity.

Bottom line: We've done this before and it has never worked out better than just "okay". If success is determined by playing it safe and resting in the expected, adding only to most shallow aspects of its design, then it's hardly something I would consider worth attaining.

Aside 1: I still fully intend to play and enjoy this game. I just think it's dangerous to not consider what we've learned form release after release of underwhelming MMOs ever sense LOTRO failed to make any lasting impression.
Aside 2: Is your shift key broken?

[TenraiNagi]

No simple standard MMO has ever been a great success.

You are making a valid point, but wasn't WoW a simple standard MMO when it first came out? It did nothing ground breaking for the genre. It borrowed many of the successful features in other MMOs, mashed them together, and executed them well. After building its pretty solid foundation, the game expanded upon it and started climbing all the way to the throne it sits on now.

Isn't that what FFXIV is doing currently? Yes it is still at the standard MMO level. And a high quality one, probably the highest from all that's out there. Given time after launch, every aspect gets improved and enhanced (more classes/ jobs, story content, new worlds, etc...). Then an MMO truly flourishes to show what it's capable of.

No one can expect the dev team to create an MMO in 2 years only and expect it to be the best of the best in every aspect, and redefining the genre in ways no one ever did (this is where the interviewer seemed ignorant). They wanted to make it to standard MMO level, and they did an excellent job at that.

tl;dr No MMO is a "wow-killer" the second it launches, but with good foundation to build upon, any MMO can become a brilliant game.

[Kallera]

You are making a valid point, but wasn't WoW a simple standard MMO when it first came out? It did nothing ground breaking for the genre. It borrowed many of the successful features in other MMOs, mashed them together, and executed them well. After building its pretty solid foundation, the game expanded upon it and started climbing all the way to the throne it sits on now.

Isn't that what FFXIV is doing currently? Yes it is still at the standard MMO level. And a high quality one, probably the highest from all that's out there. Given time after launch, every aspect gets improved and enhanced (more classes/ jobs, story content, new worlds, etc...). Then an MMO truly flourishes to show what it's capable of.

No one can expect the dev team to create an MMO in 2 years only and expect it to be the best of the best in every aspect, and redefining the genre in ways no one ever did (this is where the interviewer seemed ignorant). They wanted to make it to standard MMO level, and they did an excellent job at that.

tl;dr No MMO is a "wow-killer" the second it launches, but with good foundation to build upon, any MMO can become a brilliant game.

Yeah, though one major difference (And this is more industry related than with the gaming populace) Is that This is the first MMO attempting a ressurection on such a scale. Sure there are attempts to revive favorites done by others (Hellgate being one example off the top of my head) but Most modern MMO simply peter out and go "Free-to-play" in an attempt to wean whatever money is left from a game's audience, an absolutely none of them ever gain the shine of their previous attempt.

SE not only wants to supass 1.0, it wants to succeed in such a manner that its contemporaries (SW:TOR, DC Online, TERA, etc.) had not.