What is this I don't even...

[ClausL]

she seems to think so. the FATE system is just like GW2's, not Warhammer's.

when I'm talking about reality, I'm saying... you don't really have to be respectful towards a product, as a customer. in my opinion, anyway. games are pretty fair game for being mocked and ridiculed. Even a final fantasy game!

[ispano]

she seems to think so. the FATE system is just like GW2's, not Warhammer's.

when I'm talking about reality, I'm saying... you don't really have to be respectful towards a product, as a customer. in my opinion, anyway. games are pretty fair game for being mocked and ridiculed. Even a final fantasy game!

For a customer? Maybe you don't, but this is professional media here. Also "thinking" something is one way, when it's stated to be otherwise is delusional.

[Abriael]

she seems to think so.

No she doesn't just "seem to think so", she states it as a fact. And it's factually false.

You can think that the sky is green with yellow polka dots, but if you write it, you're writing a falsehood.

the FATE system is just like GW2's, not Warhammer's.

No. It's not like GW2's. As a matter of fact it's pretty hilarious, because first she says they copied the design, and then she complains that it doesn't work exactly the same (as it doesn't rewards her when she soloed it with an overleveled character).

The system is more similar to Warhammer's than to GW2's, and the developer himself went out of his way to tell that it's inspired from Warhammer Online. It's an iron clad case.

when I'm talking about reality, I'm saying... you don't really have to be respectful towards a product, as a customer. in my opinion, anyway. games are pretty fair game for being mocked and ridiculed. Even a final fantasy game!

A "product" is made by people. She isn't mocking, ridiculing and misrepresenting just the product, but the people that work hard behind it.

If you state that a product is "half assed", you're stating that the people behind it are lazy, which is disrespectful, and in this case couldn't be farther from the truth.

Professional integrity involves the ability to criticize and offer negative criticism without being disrespectful. It's a very important part of the journalistic profession, and even more so for critics. If one can't say that something isn't good without going out of his way to be nasty and disrespectful about it, he should look at different career opportunities.

[FireBud]

"Even the inventory system is just plain inconvenient to use. Like most MMORPGs, FFXIV has plenty of “keel seex snow moose” style quests. However, whereas in most modern games those snow moose pelts would be extracted from your inventory automatically or with a double-click, I had to drag them into a screen and then hit a button to hand them over. Why? Why are there three steps when none would suffice?"

Have to say lots of people have complained about that and it is going to be addressed.

Other then that the first half is just dribble for a gaming article, it's like someone comparing their favorite horse to another horse they wish to be their favorite horse.

[Pandemonium]

The article is poorly written, under-researched, and badly articulated without even a modicum of professional decorum that one would expect from a 'professional journalist'. The writer portrays herself as a GW2 Fangirl and indeed comes across as very biased.

The writer hides her praise by skirting over positive aspects, and leans heavily on criticisms a few negative areas, some of which I can agree with, yet some of them seem to be very poorly thought out (i.e. "Why high level players don't get reward from low level content?").

However, the biggest problem with this article, is how the FFXIV community has reacted to it, in that the few have ruined it for the many.

Having read the article, and then what remained of the comments below, it is clear that some of our very own FFXIV Fanboys are themselves ‘butthurt’ at this article, and instead of taking high road and pointing out the author’s flawed writing style, and poorly constructed critique; instead they opted for puerile insults aimed at the person herself, and not the article. Shame on you, whomever you are. The author is entitled to her opinion, even though she has expressed it poorly.

Of course, we are all entitled to a rebuttal, but those who have made it personal have just dragged down the rest of the community who are able to see through this article, and are able to leave their own critique of the author’s attempt at reviewing the ARR Preview, in such a manner which leaves her struggling for a response, and would hopefully provide her some food for thought, and even give her (and others who read the comments) a structure to base their next instalment of FFXIV ARR play time on.

Instead, the thread has been locked on the site, and all the remains is the aftermath of a few childish FFXIV fanboys who have behaved poorly, and left the rest of us in a bad light. They may be wrong to judge an entire community based on a few bad eggs, but then it that is all they have to judge us by, who can blame them? And what of others who stop by for a look later on?

So I end on this: To the few, and from the many. Thanks for your efforts, but please don’t do that again.

[Abriael]

They may be wrong to judge an entire community based on a few bad eggs, but then it that is all they have to judge us by, who can blame them? And what of others who stop by for a look later on?

But of course that's not all they have to judge the community by, as there are tens of rightfully negative but well educated and well argumented comments on that article both there and here.

And he's very fast at evading the question when asked how many comments and emails he received that were so terrible. There's really no reason to believe that those emails or comments represented the majority or even a large percentage of the total, and in all honestly I really doubt it.

Whether it really happened or not or whatever the actual percentage is, it's rather obvious that he's using the few as a convenient excuse to avoid looking inwardly and admitting to himself that the article may have something wrong.

I can't honestly feel any sympathy for that attitude. When a good writer sees that his article is causing overwhelmingly negative reactions, first and foremost he thinks at what may be wrong with his article and his writing, he doesn't go look at what may be wrong with his readers.

[Mamba]

Regardless how badly the article was written I found the reaction from Ben Kuchera a bit strange.
There are far worse comments on some other actual news sites towards the journalist who has written something controversal and yet the heated debate goes on.

If you write such an article (which, come on lets be honest here, was made to flame) you stand by it and take the blows like a man. But now, by closing the comments and by that last comment from Ben Kuchera I get a feeling that these people are not professionals at all, they are just random people like you and me who have decided to start reviewing games. Their word weighs nothing.

Regarding the article, I have to agree with everyone here, it was really badly written. My university essays are better written than that and I am not even English. It makes me very sad to think that this could be the future of journalism...

[Kallera]

Regardless how badly the article was written I found the reaction from Ben Kuchera a bit strange.
There are far worse comments on some other actual news sites towards the journalist who has written something controversal and yet the heated debate goes on.

If you write such an article (which, come on lets be honest here, was made to flame) you stand by it and take the blows like a man. But now, by closing the comments and by that last comment from Ben Kuchera I get a feeling that these people are not professionals at all, they are just random people like you and me who have decided to start reviewing games. Their word weighs nothing.

Regarding the article, I have to agree with everyone here, it was really badly written. My university essays are better written than that and I am not even English. It makes me very sad to think that this could be the future of journalism...

Well if ben wants to judge the source of his misguided information as immature fanboys, I have no problem judging Penny Arcade as a bloated unprofessional tabloid of gaming news.

This can't be their first rodeo, and they are acting like it is. He invited fans to come with reasoned responses, and chides us when people do so.

And I would think angry emails would come with the territory of any opinion writer or journalist. I'm not defending this behavior by any means, but these are individual actions, not the Anonymous protest ben accuses abriael of pulling before closing the thread. if msnbc or hell even blogging organizations had this kind of response I'm sure there would be no discussion threads ever, and bloggers would reign supreme.

My point is I've seen more controversial blogging organizations act more professional than what was displayed here. And this only serves to foster division among their audience between trusting their word and looking into the game's information for themselves.

That's not proper journalism.

[SkyeWindbinder]

Here you go, guys. A proper response to Ms. Prell's so-called editorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNWzTL4O8o

Feel free to respond to it with your own opinions, seeing as how we can't do that on the site anymore because an admin felt the need to shut down the forums due to a few people coming in and ranting. lol (Although not everyone was doing that, but hey, who's counting?)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to cleaning and listening to The Gap Band.

[ClausL]

Here you go, guys. A proper response to Ms. Prell's so-called editorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNWzTL4O8o

Feel free to respond to it with your own opinions, seeing as how we can't do that on the site anymore because an admin felt the need to shut down the forums due to a few people coming in and ranting. lol (Although not everyone was doing that, but hey, who's counting?)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to cleaning and listening to The Gap Band.

Wow, one negative article prompted you to do an hour long rant video?

Holy crap, you sound like you're on the verge of tears during the video too.

you're in for a wild ride, there's going to be a lot more criticism even worse than the Penny Arcade one