Did you PLAY or TEST?

[Zantetsuken]

I was a first-wave Alpha tester.

Looking back at my feedback and the state of the game a year ago, the game was literally unplayable. You would be online for a just enough time to walk around a bit, lose connection, and spend the rest of your time trying to get back online. It was clear that the game wasn't even ready for an Alpha test. Server issues, serious glitches, and other fundamental problems should have been 99% sorted out before they ever sent invites out.

Those first several months were spent primarily getting the game to a point where the Alpha testers could actually test some of the things they asked us about. Unfortunately, everything was so unfinished, it was very difficult to give feedback as you didn't know what the development team was looking to accomplish or what direction they were looking to take the game. In short, we were asked to give feedback on specific and very rough pieces of a puzzle, without either the neighboring pieces to measure them by, or any clear idea of what the puzzle should look like when assembled.

We gave feedback on things like the pace of battle which ultimately resulted in the elimination of the accuracy/damage meter. But overall, it was difficult to know what to comment on due to not knowing where they were going with it.

It was clear that completely unrealistic promises were made about FFXIV's development time-line both internally and externally at SquareEnix. After the release, when the general public got their hands on the game, did the reality set in with the upper management. Yoshida-san has a daunting task ahead of him. He has to take Tanaka's vague vision and years of development, and turn it into something worthy of the Final Fantasy name in a relatively short time.

Personal thoughts: I've always thought that FFXIV has the potential to be a fantastic game, far better than FFXI. But it won't be an easy task. First impressions are very stubborn things, and SE will have to work twice as hard to win back those they lost -- not just players, but gaming press and reviewers as well. Fortunately, the PS3 release is a great opportunity for that. However, If the game for some reason turns out to be unsalvageable, I wouldn't be surprised to wake up and find this game be renamed as FF:Online II, in order to preserve the franchise.