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Refuse to buy without a test drive
Sorrow
Member Posts: 1,195
With so many developers pushing so much garbage out as games these days Ive come to the decision I will no longer buy any game without a test drive.
Generally I am willing to pay $5 for a preorder key that offers beta access, allowing me to see if I like the game before putting out my entire purchase price.
However Square Enix has decided to forego letting most of their potential customers play the game before we fully pay for it.
In this economy, I find this a huge, potentially devestating market blunder that could literally sink the game before it ever even gets its sails aloft.
I will not be playing FF XIV as things stand.
Peace
Comments
I disagree that its a marketing blunder.
Everyone seems to think that every game developer wants THEM specifically as a customer. They have a target audience just l ike movies, I bet that you didn't go out and see a lot of popular films because they just weren't geared toward you right?
Maybe Titanic or Twilight or something like that?
When someone aims for a demographic sometimes they are not aiming for you. FFXIV will do fine without a open beta for everyone to play and try it out. FF's are nitch games and have a very specific following.
I think this needs to start applying to all video games in general.
60 Dollars is too much for the quality of games that has been releasing lately. Sure there are plenty that are worth it, but it's not like it used to be. I hate that feeling you get when you buy a brand new game and realize it's junk... its like... gee, glad I just threw 40 dollars away
Luckily with this I've had my test drive.
I paid 50 bucks for Aion, played it two months, so add on the 14 bucks for a total of 64. I bought FFXIII recently, did not like how linear and obstructive it was, could not really get into it and didn't like it, played it for about a week, it cost me 65 bucks.
Seems to me the MMO gave me more play time for my buck.
Results my varry, however game quality hasn't really "gone down." Things were like this when I was growing up, you think everyone was so excited when Mega man 6 was just l ike mega man 5 only with new bosses? Think they were mad to spend the 40 bucks it was to buy the next game?
Things don't change, they just stay the same.
Fear not little grasshopper, for I predict that the hundreds of thousands that will enjoy FF14, will do so regardless of whether or not you choose to bless the game with your superior presence. In fact, I'm quite sure that not a single one of them is even aware you exist.
I'd ask you for your stuff, you apparantly you don't have any.
"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." - Henry Ford
Im pretty sure last week some1 said just about the same thing in another thread a few pages back (im not gonna look)
Yes I agree with the title as far as your post Id say just wait till the review are out the game has solid player base then chose if you want to play. By then with a lil research youll know exactly what to expect and youll have sepnt no money just a lil time.
Laughing man, you are so correct in both post.
I'm not sure why people like to complain so much before a game is released.
Even before I got into MMO's I used to waste money on console games that looked great but ended up being crappy or too short. I spent way way more money on console games that just sat on a shelf doing nothing then i ever had with mmo games. i pretty much bought every major title mmo that came out and i don't see it as a waste of money because it wasn't something that I enjoyed playing.
We all make bad choices on games but I rather have experienced the game than never giving it a shot.
my real problem with mmo's today is finding friends who enjoy playing the game and stick around. Most people I know jump on a new game and get bored after a month or two.
Makes total sense to be weary in the current MMO market. I wouldn't go off slamming SE or anything. Most games don't offer a trial right off the bat. Why don't you be a little patient and try it out down the road.
ffxiv comes with buddy keys so
they do tech at least with the ce version buddy keys ftw
ffxiii isn't that linear once you really get to the end of the second - third disc. it becomes pretty open and worth exploring.
get to chapter 10 game opens up quite a bit yes its a bit to linear at first tho
123,480
Pre-Orders of PS3 and PC version in North America Only.
I'm pretty sure that before the game releases, it will have 300-400k Pre-orders world wide. It will most certainly be more popular in Asia (especially Japan) and also in Europe. That fact that it has 123k Pre-Orders two months before release in North America (its weakest market) is a pretty good sign.
You also have to factor that SE hasn't even advertised this game (unlike Bioware).
In the end, and in my personal opinion, it doesn't matter. I played FFXI and loved it. I played FF 7 - 13 and loved all them (except for 12... disapointed).
The $75 I'm going to spend on the pre-order gives me an authenticater, exclusive in-game items, an art book, and 8 days of head start. If I end up playing the game for 50+ hours and never more, it's still the cheapest form of entertainment when comparing cost to time ratio.
Heck, I spend over $75 bucks taking my wife and son to a movie that lasts 2 hours.
I totaly disagree with this post. FFXIV as Iv mentioned in another post is part of an IP that has been around longer in the gaming market then any other. What basis do you assume that FFXIV will be something your not expecting. This makes no sence and is compleatly absurd and nonsensical If you dont mind me being so bold.
I do agree though that alot of games can disgruntle even the hardest of players with the type of content released so there could be some type of way to check things out before some peace of shit hits you wiht a 60 dollar bill and only wimpers. hah, but still it would take some doing, maybee every mmo could have a starting area that is free to all players to check the game out and the graphics and stuff.
Gameplay videos have always showed me what I needed to know.
You shouldn't compare linear games with MMORPG for the price btw.
MMORPG are meant to last forever, Linear are not.
I agree that MMOs need to have free trials at launch. Still, this is not offered by any other game... so I see no reason for SE to do it (unless they just wanted to).
The only thing you can do is wait for trials to come out, or hope one of your friends ordered the CE.
Just throwing this out there:
Beta is NOT a preview, and I think its tacky when an MMO uses it as such.
Today, Open Beta boils down to nothing more than a early release for crappy games. I'll agree that 14-Day Free Trials are a definite must for MMOs, which I'm sure FFXIV will have in time. I definitely don't think it's a "must" to have the free trials at launch, but definitely somewhere between the 6 and 12 month points. But as far as using open beta as a preview... meh not so much.
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Live a life less ordinary.
You need friends for that......
That's why so many MMO's today sucks, alot of people see BETA as a free ride and not help to find bugs.
They join a beta and then after a few hours of playing they rage and whine about *gasp* bugs on all sorts of forums.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
This is absolutely true. The trend of allowing people into the game to check it out under the pretense of "Open Beta" is a disturbing one. Even worse are the games where you pay to gain access to the beta test. Paying money for access reinforces the notion that you are owed something for what you have paid. When players enter into a beta test with an expectation that they are due a certain level of service in exchange for payment already rendered, that's a problem. If a game wants people to play free for the first week or month, or wants to give a head start to preorders, they should have the balls to come out and say "The game is FINISHED, and now you can start playing."
Once you start charging for access to your game, you have launched. Period. You shouldn't be able to get away with saying "Oops, we know this is going horribly so far but haha, what do you expect. This is the beta!"
Wait aint the first 6 months of play a beta? I mean we are going to find a lot of bugs and stuff so in essense as the game gets to a point of it being mature the true beta is over and it should play better....
But to the OP no I do not believe you should get a free ride or a trial or anything when a game first launches. This is not the F2P game, or any of the other games, I do not know of an actual game that at launch provided a 15 day trial or what ever, probably wrong but I do not know of one. What you normally see is a game that sells you the box then it gives you the first month "free" well technically the first month charge is already part of the box charge, so if you paid $65 then you really only paid $50 since the $15 is for the first month. You might see video's or maybe get a character creator or something prior to launch that while works it will not be the same as what you get for the game... I dont know what to tell you, wait till it has a free trial I guess.
I think one of the biggest mistakes developers have made in general is offering beta access to people who preorder. What people keep forgetting is the purpose of beta is to test the game and the servers in order to improve it, not to be meant as a test drive. I think the MMO community has been spoiled by the large betas that have so many people invited, that now we almost expect that every company let us do this.
How many non-MMO games have let you play the game without buying it??? (Sure, there are demos but they are usually just a small taste of the game).
I am looking forward to this game, I pre-ordered, and to be honest I don't want to be in the beta. Because I wouldn't be in the beta to help test it, I would be in in to play the game. For me, it is not too much of a risk. I am a pretty big FF fan played every game since FF1, and while I have to admit I am not crazy about the last couple games in the serious, overall I think SE is a great company and they make great games.
Also, I think for some people, trying a game for just a short period like a week or two in beta or with a free trial, will not always show how great a game is. When a game is different than a game you have played for awhile and are accustomed to, it can take some time to get used to the differences before you can really appreciate how good a game really is.
lol ok? why do people feel compelled to come on here and tell everyone they're not going to play a cerain game. nobody cares if you dont play a video game or not.