FFXIV Under New Managment?

What do you expect he/she comes from Asura server...only a trouble-stirrer. Trying to make a storm out of blowing wind out of mouth, talking gibbrish like Hugo Weaving in "V for Vendetta" or the Architect in that "2003 MTV parody for the Matrix Reloaded" movie.


I put it this way, S.E. put profits ahead of people (it's player base). They did make the numbers but not the grade.

PWR!!

LOL

lol..I approve

Also:



Lol again

I chose it will stay afloat, but that is it. I think Square Enix will not allow this game to fail to the point that is has to shut down. They will operate this game whether it’s at the breakeven point or at a loss, so long as the loss is not huge. Here are the reasons I think the game will stay afloat, but that is it.


Wada: I need a scapegoat, I choose you!


Even though Tanaka “took full responsibility for the game's current situation” I wonder if he was just used as a scapegoat by Wada. I think it was Wada (and possibly with some pressure from shareholders/investors/executives/board committee) who ultimately decided when to release the game and due to that error decided to make the announcement as well as the personal changes. If Naoki Yoshida doesn't really improve the state of the game, what choices will Wada have? Make another announcement and yet more personal changes till they get it right? Personally I think Square Enix is going to give this new team till the end of 2011. This team is going to have to make moderate to major positive changes and even that is not a guarantee. Considering how unforgiving the MMO community can be at times, it may difficult to get all those lost potential players back. I am shocked that the board has not fired Wada considering the company has lost over 60% of its value in the past 2.5 years. Square Enix is still a behemoth of a company but I don’t think they will allow the value to go down another 60% of its current value without additional major changes taking place.


Take 2 and call me in the morning:


Things will get better, they just have to. The same thing can be said about pretty much almost every MMO in the past 5 years. Some have made small positive changes while others made moderate positive changes throughout. Granted this kept the small core diehard fans in those games from leaving, but that did very little to bring everyone else back for a second chance.

Most of the P2P MMOs that started in the past 5 years began with around 15, 20, and up to 30 or more servers. Those same MMOs today are down to 5 servers or less, with a few exceptions having more than 5 servers. Some have closed shop, while others have changed their P2P to F2P model, and others are looking into possibly becoming F2P in 2011. One thing FFXIV has done without a doubt is resurge players back into FFXI. The surprising thing is that most of the numbers do not come from NA and EU players, but from JP players. FFXI had a December update the same week that FFXIV did and I was curious about the population in FFXI. I was shocked when I saw the population at 2950 during JP prime time not only during the weekend but also during the weekday (Tuesday and Wednesday specifically).

Also the question becomes when and if the PS3 is released in the NA/EU regions, how many of those folks are going to stay after the initial 90 days and how many people from the NA/EU regions are going to buy it for the PS3 in the first place. Almost everyone I know plays FFXI on the PC. Everyone I know in FFXI that tried FFXIV was on PC as well. Especially in the U.S., I do not see how MMOs are popular for consoles. Of the over 350 MMOs on this website there are only 3 MMORPG games that come to mind that were or are popular or semi-popular. Those are Final Fantasy XI, Fantasy Star Online and Everquest Online Adventures. I am not sure if any current MMO can captivate console owners (possibly the diehard fans of the Final Fantasy series who couldn’t play it on their PC, but I am not sure about everyone else).


Competition: Hey do you want to pick a fight!


As far as P2P models, the only one I can think of that has had increase in population over the years has been Eve Online (which some of you guys have pointed out). While it came out around 2003 it wasn’t until the end of 2006 when they hit over 100k active subscriptions. But that is a very niche game since it is set in a science fiction atmosphere with spaceships as well as PVP thrown into the mix. It barely has any competition that has a similar setting/mechanics, the only other game that seems close to that is Vendetta Online from a search I did here on MMORPG. I was curious and even went to the Eve Online forums and found a topic named “Does EVE have any competition?” and the same Vendetta game popped up.

Final Fantasy being a fantasy style game currently has competition and even more so when 2011 hits. You have close to half a dozen fantasy style MMORPG games coming up that will also compete for subscribers. You have the humans and the elves and the (insert the cute or short race here) and the (insert the big and tall and husky race here) with swords and knives and shields and armor. How much of an impact those games will have when they arrive is still left to be seen. This wasn’t like almost 10 years ago when FFXI had a rough launch. In 2010 information gets to the readers much faster than 10 years ago especially with all the fan sites as well as some sites having official Japanese moderators who bring in and sometimes translate information and articles coming straight from Japan. On top of that you have much more options as a customer than you did 10 years ago (whether those games are good or bad depends on the individual) the fact still remains the player can choose from a variety of MMOs out there.


Tolerance: Hey this bug does not bug me, but this other bug does!


Tolerance or maybe patience is what some folks may need for this game. Fans of the series will probably tolerate or even accept the game as it is (or at least accept it and wait till the patches come out). But that is no guarantee that they will stay. Some have said within the lines that “Well if the diehard fans have been able to go through the roughest parts of the game, then they will certainly continue to support/play this game.” This is not true at all. Just because someone may have stayed the first couple of months is no guarantee that they will continue to do so. There have been people with multiple 30 level jobs and even multiple level 40 jobs who have quit the game or have stopped playing the game and went back to the sidelines to hopefully see further future improvements. Two weeks before Square Enix decided to pull the plug on the population search, there were only around 22k active players during JP peak hours. It is very possible that even with the patches that the population either stabilized around these low numbers or possibly may even have declined further. Square Enix even stated in the lodestone with their recent announcement that they “regret that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability” and possibly even the level of active online folks overall to even consider charging people a monthly fee.

I’ll give you one example, there are people that have quit over the game because most of the weapon skills in the 40’s (for the job they leveled) look very lack luster considering how Square Enix touted this game with the beautiful graphics or how some have quit because of how poor the level 44 ancient magic all look. See now this might seem like a very silly reason to quit, but that is just my point. Just because some fans have been able to stick with this game does not mean that more of them will continue to leave and look at other venues for fun whether it’s an MMO game, or a console game (considering some upcoming and current fighting games and war games have online matches etc). Everyone’s breaking point is different, even amongst the fans. FFXI was already a niche game, and FFXIV “seems” a more niche game than FFXI was… almost seems like step backwards. This is why I think this time around just the hardcore fans might “not be enough.” The company wants to include casual players as well as hardcore gamers from other MMOs as well as from consoles. This seems like a daunting task, I’m not sure how they are going to lure all those people back. They need a focus/target audience. There is already a long post on that and I am sure some of you have read it, but in case you have not and are interested the link is:


link


To fail or not to fail that is the question:


Even though FFXIV is not considered a “complete failure” because it has not shut down, the word fail can still be used to describe how the game was handled as well as different aspects of the game. Take grades as an example let’s say F and C-. Usually in the Master’s level and even Bachelor’s level (if it is a class that falls under your major and not some elective) a C- would still be considered a failure. An F is a complete failure as it gives you 0.0 towards your GPA not to mention hurting it severely, and you will have to retake the course. Now take the C-, it is still considered a failure because you have to retake the course just like the person who got the F. It is not a complete failure in the sense you actually get a 1.7 grade point average for that course for putting in a little effort to get averaged into your total GPA compared to a 0.0 but it is still considered a failure. FFXIV did fail to meet the expectations of quite a few of the fans out there and most of the casual players who tried the game, not to mention everything else that has been said in this thread as well as the other threads, but the term failure can fit here.


And you pretty much summed it well with


“For now in XIV, it seems that you're advancing toward... a higher level. There's no reason to advance in the game except for the sake of advancing. That's definitely one of the gaping holes in the game right now.”

And to paraphrase from one of the FF fans that happens to have 2 major FF fan sites (one being FFXI and the other FFXIV) this also sums up part of the frustration that some of the players currently have.

“Part of the problem with FFXIV's current system is that the required effort doesn't pay off with really any uniquely cooler gear, region access, quest lines, mission lines, or prestige due to the utter lack of content at the moment. With no clear idea of what we're working for, it's difficult for people to justify the enormous time investment currently in place. Some people are just going on faith. Basically, that if they put in the effort now, the prestige and coolness and the game content will be patched in later.”

Oopsy Daisy wrong forum!

No matter how you see it this game was a fail.

- everythin was rushed to hell and it smell bad
- full of bugs and cheap process
- they never though about idea for PLAY, only WATCH
etc etc etc

Now they have lost most players, and even worst the trust of market...maybe this will not be downfall for Se, but its a good step in this direction.
With a videogame market in a depression like today, make such a product today is call for a disaster...

Add to that, what players played till now was completely ruined by the game flaws, i mean how many of you enjoyed something?

If there was something to enjoy it would be ruined by flaws, bugs, frustrating thing, so the point is, they lost players, but the player that are trying to stick with the game arent really getting this much entertainment and good gameplaying.

There are way too many things to fix that people always hope for "lets wait for next update patch.. lets wait for jan, lets see what happens with next" and we always get screwed at every patch.

In the end, this game is losing massive amount of people and interest because they rushed the release date, and the content itself is very poor, you get bored after 1 week of leves and there is nothing else to do if not just craft spamming 1 button.
Having rushed the release, they ruined the whole evolution of contents and updates, now we have nms? yeah but everyone is frustrated because to fight Nms you need high rank, and you cant get high rank because the SP system is just bad, and so on and so forth.

On last note, they completely killed the network and party, there isnt anymore the need to SP in pt because the solo SP is way better than party SP, they need to fix this, its the main thing to do before even wake up in the morning for them.
Most of my ls quit because of this, speaking of 40 people here..
because we couldnt SP together and play together.. and dont let me start on leves SP because its not the same thing.

Lets see how much we'll resist at this rate before servers will just be empty.

P.s. anyone got Rowena npc to successfull trade back the item requested? because i think its bugged, i got the runestone + the other recipes she asks and she doesnt give me the item...

@Fairy.Pwrless: Because switching to a populated server with a considerably more reliable economy completely discredits my opinion. I suppose it should do the same for the Pandemonium players who were merged into Asura, right?
Grow a brain and reread my post. Maybe then it'll seem less like gibberish to you.

I'm curious to know if you supposedly quit 14 for WoW and WoW is just so much better then your gaming needs should be satisfied why do you even care any more? I mean if I found a mmo that I enjoyed more than 14 and I made the switch 14 would be the last thing on my mind. If its because you spent $60, then you mean you never bought a game b4 that you felt you wasted your money on, if so did you make this much of a fuss about it also?

This isn't an isolated disaster. SquareEnix is in serious trouble and there may be permanent damage done to the entire franchise. It's bigger than just liking XIV or not because the fallout will extend to other games and effect a company we all care a great deal about.

I have no interest in artificially creating a forum where disappointed fans (the vast, vast majority) can't post in order to keep a few hold-outs happy. There aren't any fan sites even making a concerted effort to spin this debacle positively anymore.

Why quote me? What you posted has nothing to do with the question I was asking him...maybe you have stock in SE idk but I don't and ultimately I'd like to see 14 make it but if it doesn't I'm not going to loose any sleep, I'll just find another game to play. Also I honestly don't see the point your trying to make can you elaborate.

Stop telling people to stop complaining.

Well if that's if that true then that means we not even on here to express different opinions but that only one side should be supported. I didn't know this turned into a bash site. In a forum you post with the understanding that your opening yourself to people that will agree and disagree with what you present. I don't jump on every one who post negative remarks. I respond to certain people's ideas who i don't agree with. Although I'm starting to get the feeling the that its ok to jump on any one who supports the game in any way but its not ok to say anything about those who don't support the game which is what is happening. If I like any part of the game for any reason and say I want to give it a chance then I called fan boy or I'm just not intelligent enough to see the real deal "because that the only way you can like the game". For that matter any one who doesn't agree with people who don't like the game shouldn't comment and be censored? I guess we are to convince every one to quit in hopes that the game fails? There is a difference between constructive criticism in hopes of improvement in order to achieve success and bashing in order to force supporters to quit in order to achieve failure which imo is what I'm seeing here. The player base has dwindled to a few I'm sure if anyone understands that there is a serious problem its SE. So they are attempting to correct the flaws, are we to continue to tear the game down in hopes to get the remaining "few hold-outs" to quit and the game totally fail before it can even be fixed? Which leads me to my previous question if you have already quit and given up on the game why do you still care, unless you are trying to get others to quit also in hopes the game fails. Wise men build and destroy in order to correct flaws, then they build it back up again even stronger. If we're not going to allow it to be build back up again then whats the point unless we just want the ***to fail...

*Edit: Thats not what he's saying tard he means that some how SE failing @ 14 and or the company going under will affect other companies in the same industry. I was asking him to elaborate on that because I don't quite understand how.

I figured out a while ago I can only really play two MMOs at the same time. So I've always looked for another MMO to play. I've tried a lot of them but hadn't found a good 2nd. FF14 was going to be that 2nd...until I played it.

it made me so sad that this was FF14. I never understood how 14 was going to be the "WoW killer" if it couldn't even entice FF11 players away.

Anyway, that's so sad but I think I found a solution!

Aion.

Yes, Aion.

My summary of Aion is: The grind and pain of FF11 but with prettier graphics (and I LOVE the art sensibilities of the Koreans, especially the cute outfits) and also a modern control scheme with actual on-screen buttons and stuff.

The only other compromise that would be better is if SE re-skinned FF11 with FF14 graphics and did something about the menus.

While that's in the works though I'll play FF11 and Aion and stay away from 14.

I'm not telling you stop keeping hope, so stop telling people to stop complaining. Simple as that.

What Jaerik posted actually has everything to do with what you were asking. You asked me why I care if I supposedly quit FFXIV for WoW, and he essentially gave you a pretty big reason as to why a lot of the players (myself included) who quit this game are still posting or keeping tabs on it's lack of progress/improvement. Sure, it may not be everyone's reason, but it was a very valid answer to your question nonetheless.

I don't believe I ever said nor implied I quit FFXIV for WoW. If this assumption stems from my earlier post, I urge you to read it once more, as I cited so many more games in that post. A fair number of those games I did not particularly enjoy, but simply brought them forth on their merits as MMOs or MMORPGs. If there were a merit that I could bring forth on FFXIV I would. Unfortunately, there isn't, if it's abysmal ratings, market history, and lasting reception from both players AND company are not a clear enough indication.

You seem to believe that there's some line between WoW players and Final Fantasy MMO players, and I find it to be silly. I know it's not just you, it's an established hierarchy among XI/XIV fans which puts them above WoW players despite the fact that their game has an exponentially lower number of subscribers. Sheep will be sheep, I suppose.

Just take into consideration that your precious lolwowcata is at the top of its genre and one of the highest grossing games ever, and with good reason. I'm not sure by what delusion you are trying to put FFXIV over it.

You know it just hit me.

You know how every man and his dog was QQing over how they never got selected to get into the beta?

Looks like SE trolled quite impressively. Everyone got into beta, and is paying a handsome sum to do so, lawl.


It'd teach the other companies and SE themselves how not to launch a *** MMO.

protip, no one has paid ***outside of buying the game since release, it's free indefinitely

Yeah I'm really loving the free to play that definitely whats keeping me around during the restructuring.

The question is, was the game worth it? I could have easily gotten a code, but I thought the game would be @ retail level @ retail launch.

The CE was definitely not worth it for $80 but from what I can tell CE's from most games are rip offs just like director cut editions from DVD's. In the games current state I'd say the $30 you spend from buying the standard version game on amazon is definitely worth it but other than that I'd say no.

Edit: If all the stuff that is promised in the January update is implemented and its still free sub then I'd say the in store price for $45 will be worth it also.

Miracleworks, protip. You paid money for something advertised as a game, but in actuality is now nothing short of a giant pay to play beta (EDIT: by pay to play I mean the cost of buying the game itself, obviously). $80 for something you could've signed up for free for 5 months ago. Flionheart got my point it seems. I paid £50 for a beta key, in basic terms. Can any of the people who are blindly defending the game at this point seriously say with 100% certainty that they were happy with their purchase and the game itself from day one?

Myself? No. I paid my money for a video game that is supposed to have been completed to a somewhat acceptable standard. What I received for my money was, in short, garbage. My point is, I didn't pay my start up costs for something they will "hopefully fix and sort out soon." It's not unreasonable, as a consumer, for me to demand a product that works out of the box. I don't buy a brand new TV that works only in black and white for full price in the hope they add the colour feature later. I expect that stuff out of the box!

To even try and let this ***fly is nothing short of a scam at this point. The game had little to no content at launch outside of two things (guildeves and crafting) and with the current timetable, new content and fixes were not even seen as an urgency. Three months for the first major patch for a new MMO plagued with issues? Are you freaking kidding me?

This is the problem with first impressions. You only get one.

What kills me is that people keep saying people are defending the game . I don't think any one is defending this game me miracle or any one else. I agree this ***was a rip off from day one that being said and that fact you can't travel back in time lets move on to the present. Having previously bought the game was it worth $45 since its free to play imo I'm on the fence for $30 yes its worth it. You CE players didn't spend $80 for the game you spent $35 to play lol8 days earlier and for a bunch of junk maps art work ect... Which you received. The game itself was $45 now it can be purchased for $30 new online. All I'm saying is that for $40-$30 for a FF free to play game with super graphics that's still in development and seems to be getting better I'm not mad. Would I pay a monthly for this ***right now ...Hell no.

Edit: If SE promoted this game right now in the current state the game is in(with the knowledge that its still in development) for $29.99 and said its free to play would this ***sell like crazy? I think it would and I think most wouldn't complain.

I'm glad you finally came around Unmei :) I was starting to wonder what game you were playing for a while there!

lol...I think every one has misunderstood where I stood from day 1 I never thought this game was great. I did say and am still saying that I personally enjoy playing as a casual atm. I also acknowledge that the game is still in development and it is getting better after each update. I told the fan boys(CE) players that they were playing $80 for a retail beta from day 1 if you look at my previous post. Although as the game got better with each update and SE posted the update schedules and what was going to be implemented, I simply was stating that we should give this game a chance because it had a lot of potential. Just for the record I supported the "constructive criticism" just not the ban wagon bashing from many who were just butthurt 11 players who were just mad that another FF mmo was being released that never even played the game at all lol. I find it funny people believe that all the buthurt QQing and bashing that took place turned this game around when in reality it was the lack of sales and canceled subs(player base dropping to 1/3) due to a the game being released in a shitty state that brought about these changes.

Edit: although most don't want to hear this but the truth is if you played FF11 you should of been prepared for this and known what you were getting yourself into jumping into this game from release(I did). Ever herd the sayin' "fool me once fool me twice"? SE sucks with customer service/relations and the games suck when they 1st come out but they become very good over time that's just SE. Lets hope the severe spanking the player base recently gave them and a FF11 Dev team can do for 14 what they did for 11 in the past 2 years.

Then you should have waited a year just like I'm assuming you did with FFXI...if you even played it.

Again, all of you people complaining that "it isn't what it should have been at retail! game is teh borkded! class unbalanced bah bah bah /wrist QQ WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH" Did you play FFXI? The US release of FFXI, if you know ANYTHING about the game, wasn't the initial release of it. It was released in Japan almost a whole year earlier before many of us had even touched it.

Should this game have been a little better at launch? Yes, but I'm saying give it a year, at least 11 months, before washing your hands of it and putting SE on your ***list. I believe that it deserves the same amount of time to recover as 11 did. Now, don't say "WELL THEY HAD 8 YEARS TO LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES!!! /WRIST" while this is true for the company, it was an almost completely different team that worked on 14 than what worked on 11 so that isn't entirely true. Now that a lot of the 11 team is working on 14, I have full confidence that they will turn this game around, but I'm not expecting a complete overhaul and no one else should either.

So from now on, when I want to buy exciting new games, I should wait a year and delay those day one purchases, just in case the developers somehow forgot to do everything right first time.

I'm sorry I got hyped up and bought the game earlier than you wanted me to and left severely ripped off. If only I didn't expect a playable game at launch! How naive of me!

The amount of stupid in that argument is just...wow.

Again, if you would have played 11 at launch, you have been severely disappointed...the same goes for every MMO. Look at Aion's launch...and WoW's....I was around the first day of Allod's launch, that was a complete train wreck...You simply cannot expect single player console quality on an MMO at launch. People compare 14 to 11 all of the time, but the problem is that they are comparing 14's launch to 11 how it is now. Compare 14's launch to 11's launch. Now, compare it to WoW's launch. Now Aion's. Now any other major MMORPG in the past 7 years. This game is no different, people just like to complain about something.