I think the target audience is fans of previous FF games and yah, that's about it. If anyone tells you running for 20 min to go kill Mr. Mushroom is great fun then they're idea of fun differs from mine.
Well, there's the niche mmo crowd that considers "exploring" and "working" in a game fun.
Dunno about them, but when I come to play a game it's after a midterm or something very stressful. The LAST THING I want to do is work. I suppose, running 20 minutes to killl Mr. Mushroom makes those who don't have a job or school have meaning in their life?
Granted, I was the same way in grade 10 when FFXI came out...it made me feel so good about myself...!!!!
(Until my ex dumpped me becaues I was overweight and fat then I woke up and stopped pretending to be a Mithra).
Hmm you did forget to mention that you now have a pretty sport car a hot girl and leading a big company. Not to mention that suddenly all your problems were solved in your live. Oh and are now a muscular totally sexy healthy guy.
Edit: Oh take it back you say that you are an investor and as you say a good one and you still have enough time to enlight people in a MMORPG Forum about FF 14 fail and all. You impress me more and more. Be honest you are a software developer in your breaks as well.
Honestly, the whole reason why I see things the way I do is because I'm an investor...and with SE's decision, just what the hell are they telling their share holders?
And worse yet, if you look at their stock price...it's just been dropping. Now normally I'd advise for one to buy a stock when it drops, but because I actually know about SE and their idenity crisis (Final Fantasy XIII, NIER, and now Final Fantasy XIV) I'm really beginning to question their abilty to create games with a target audience in mind =/
Very well put, as is the person you quoted. Pretty much sums up the major problem with this game very nicely. While SE did do a decent job w/ FFXI, they clearly need to figure out the goal of what they are doing. Who are they attracting, how do they want to attract them, etc. It just seems like they have have completely no focus as to who they are designing the game for, and as mentioned above, they are burning the candle on both ends by doing so.
Edit: Oh, and btw Selph, get over yourself please. He said he was an investor, that's it. Do you know what it takes to become an investor? Money, that's it. If you know what you are doing, you don't necessarily have to be busy all the time to be an investor, you just need to be observant enough to know where to put your money, and when to cash it out. Myself, and many of the people I work with do investing on the side for extra pocket cash / savings. It really doesn't have to take up much time.
Honestly, the whole reason why I see things the way I do is because I'm an investor...and with SE's decision, just what the hell are they telling their share holders?
And worse yet, if you look at their stock price...it's just been dropping. Now normally I'd advise for one to buy a stock when it drops, but because I actually know about SE and their idenity crisis (Final Fantasy XIII, NIER, and now Final Fantasy XIV) I'm really beginning to question their abilty to create games with a target audience in mind =/
Very well put, as is the person you quoted. Pretty much sums up the major problem with this game very nicely. While SE did do a decent job w/ FFXI, they clearly need to figure out the goal of what they are doing. Who are they attracting, how do they want to attract them, etc. It just seems like they have have completely no focus as to who they are designing the game for, and as mentioned above, they are burning the candle on both ends by doing so.
Indeed, it seems that Square is living an identity crisis.
However crisis or not, when it comes to making a product, I think the least you can do as a project head is to assess the market and your competitors. Well, Tanaka confessed quite naturally that he doesn't play other MMOs (than FF XI of course). That guy's supposed to lead the whole FF XIV project into the right direction... there's enough buck in that game to aim at a large portion of players... but he doesn't have a clue about the reality of MMO gaming, not in 2002, not in 2010, I guess not even in 2018.
Now what does that tell us about Square's shareholders sanity when they approve the board decision to appoint Tanaka, who despite a great career inside Square has no knowledge of the market he's supposed to win? (My guess is, they never really aimed at that mass market, period)
Next you look at the UI of FF XIV. You ask any software engineer or ergonomist what they think of it. 90% of them tell you it's complete crap that pre-dates windows 95. And yet you put a greenlight on it for release.
I won't criticize Tanaka's ability to direct movie-like gaming development, because he's obviously very good at that. But as a software director in the wider scheme of computer development, he's just not delivering, not a tiny bit compared to current standards.
I mean... Alt-Tab making an application crash DX on 7 in 2010... on purpose to prevent "piracy and cheating"... sure. No hardware mouse... The need to exit the app to setup graphic details... Talk about IT knowledge and user experience.
Indeed, it seems that Square is living an identity crisis.
However crisis or not, when it comes to making a product, I think the least you can do as a project head is to assess the market and your competitors. Well, Tanaka confessed quite naturally that he doesn't play other MMOs (than FF XI of course). That guy's supposed to lead the whole FF XIV project into the right direction... there's enough buck in that game to aim at a large portion of players... but he doesn't have a clue about the reality of MMO gaming, not in 2002, not in 2010, I guess not even in 2018.
Now what does that tell us about Square's shareholders sanity when they approve the board decision to appoint Tanaka, who despite a great career inside Square has no knowledge of the market he's supposed to win? (My guess is, they never really aimed at that mass market, period)
Next you look at the UI of FF XIV. You ask any software engineer or ergonomist what they think of it. 90% of them tell you it's complete crap that pre-dates windows 95. And yet you put a greenlight on it for release.
I won't criticize Tanaka's ability to direct movie-like gaming development, because he's obviously very good at that. But as a software director in the wider scheme of computer development, he's just not delivering, not a tiny bit compared to current standards.
I mean... Alt-Tab making an application crash DX on 7 in 2010... on purpose to prevent "piracy and cheating"... sure. No hardware mouse... The need to exit the app to setup graphic details... Talk about IT knowledge and user experience.
This indeed is a very interesting discussion for a change and i fully agree. From a western point of view Tanakas behaviour screams "Amateur" but you have to take the japanese mentallity into the equation. Japanese Developers take pride in building things from the ground up, on their own. That's why with every game they try to invent "the wheel" anew so to speak. They don't licence third party game engines, they don't look at what others are doing they rather "invent" everything themselves. This is the major problem. Today the whole japanese economy is suffering because of this. Japan isn't international, never was, they have, what one could call an "Island"-State of Mind, which is rooted in their rich history.
Problem is: In an globalized market, that won't cut it anymore. It was good as long as Japan was on the side of innovation. They are not anymore and coping with that with a mindset as i described it, seems to be very hard.
I will keep my preorder, but I'm really wondering what else they have to offer. If it's 8 guildleves every 48 hours.... then this game is FFXI's ugly sister more than anything else.
I would bet my life on it that they have only opened up a tiny % for testing of what the realease will be like. You will notice buildings, NPC, and areas that are specificaly off limit. They had to give us guildleves for something to do while we stres test for em.
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This indeed is a very interesting discussion for a change and i fully agree. From a western point of view Tanakas behaviour screams "Amateur" but you have to take the japanese mentallity into the equation. Japanese Developers take pride in building things from the ground up, on their own. That's why with every game they try to invent "the wheel" anew so to speak. They don't licence third party game engines, they don't look at what others are doing they rather "invent" everything themselves. This is the major problem. Today the whole japanese economy is suffering because of this. Japan isn't international, never was, they have, what one could call an "Island"-State of Mind, which is rooted in their rich history.
Problem is: In an globalized market, that won't cut it anymore. It was good as long as Japan was on the side of innovation. They are not anymore and coping with that with a mindset as i described it, seems to be very hard.
Oh I totally agree with you on the japanese "way" of conducting projects, and the generally insular mentality at work there.
Japan invented the console side of video games, it used to be quite unanimous in the 80s-early 90s. Their culture somehow took a direction in video games that gave this medium a nobleness of its own, and Square is not stranger to that period of history.
But since that time, globalization has been at work again, and the late 90s changed how video games were made and sold. Again, it was a wind from Japan--Sony's PlayStation--but this particular one was a bold move not very "japanese" in spirit. They simply took on the world and won the match. However Japanese game developpers were still in the old vision of things, making japanese products for the japanese players--and if westerners like them to, great, if not, so be it.
The 2000 decade did not really changed that, the Japanese market was into a local concentration process. It was late, from 2007-2008 on, that the few editors remaining in Japan from that golden era became globalized companies with subsidiaries on three continents. Yet japanese console games are still very... japanese. Changing the creative process takes time and commitment--and if they're open to that change in the talk, nothing's so sure in the reality of field game development. Square is about there too (buying Eidos for the obvious, but remember Square America is a long existing entity).
Which begs the question: When Square and Sony are both in the starting blocks to win a global (juicy) market, how can they fail like that? I guess they don't. Maybe we'll hear of a Square-MMO made by Eidos for the westerner casual market soon. Maybe FF XIV is a casual MMO for casual japanese players, who have nothing to do with casual european or north-american players.
I have been playing RPGs and MMORPGs almost exclusively since the mid-90's and since then at some point a radical paradigm-shift has happened. During early to late 90's the only really good RPGs came from Japan. Period. Western products couldn't hold a candle to the quality of japanese RPGs online or offline. Somewhere around 2000 however, japan suddenly lost touch with what gamers want and adore. Namely since the arrival of the PS2 it became clear that soemthing was missing in japanese products while at the same time western products ramped up the product quality to an unprecedented state. At the same time Korea took the asien market by storm and as of today japanese products are downright shit, with a few exceptions. Since FF X Square wasn't able to put out a single decent Offline RPG and FF XI was nothing more than an Everquest-Clone with Chocobos, albeit, after years of tweaking, a pretty good one. Today the Behemoths of the MMO Industry are of western or korean origin and apart from FF XI there is not a single japanese MMO on the market that can compete internationally. FF XIV seems to be the last straw (there's obviously huge money pumped into this, sadly to no avail) but as it stands, it will be the Tombstone for japanese MMO-Endeavours. If Square-Enix can't pull it off, no japanese developer can .
sE already have a long running successful mmorpg...XIV is a polished product and will attract a solid player base as not everyone is looking for WoW.
That statement i feel is a victim of a time that has passed. Both XI and WoW hit at a particular time respectively that made both a long standing success in their own way.
That success does not always and usually doesn't translate well into newer incantations of the product. Players don't like to move on to the next thing and leave what they spent 5 or 6 years attaining, especially if they feel that not enough has been improved upon.
sE already have a long running successful mmorpg...XIV is a polished product and will attract a solid player base as not everyone is looking for WoW.
No one except you is talking about WoW in this here thread. Why do people like you always have to bring it up? Don't you know any other MMOs? The problem with FF XIV is not that it isn't wow, it is that it doesn't come close to ANY other popular MMO that is even remotely sucessful when it comes to sheer playabillity, fun, coherence, performance or gamedesign. Sure, not everyone want's WoW, but these people already have Aion, Lineage 2, LOTRO, Warhammer, AoC, Ragnarok and so on. All of these are heaps and bounds better designed and way more fun and playable than FF XIV and quite a few of these are way more "hardcore" than FF XIV.
sE already have a long running successful mmorpg...XIV is a polished product and will attract a solid player base as not everyone is looking for WoW.
No one except you is talking about WoW in this here thread. Why do people like you always have to bring it up? Don't you know any other MMOs? The problem with FF XIV is not that it isn't wow, it is that it doesn't come close to ANY other popular MMO that is even remotely sucessful when it comes to sheer playabillity, fun, coherence, performance or gamedesign. Sure, not everyone want's WoW, but these people already have Aion, Lineage 2, LOTRO, Warhammer, AoC, Ragnarok and so on. All of these are heaps and bounds better designed and way more fun and playable than FF XIV and quite a few of these are way more "hardcore" than FF XIV.
WOW is the standard of compairson even thou it is so highly hated by many people and no one wants to type out all the names every time.
the thing is many of the MMO you have listed i would put the target audiance as a much different list than what FFXIV. IF you played FFXI for a long period of time and talked to your friends about what was the seller of the game, most would say the fact that you needed to work for everything and their was always a chalenge with the top end content (most of witch only few linkshells could consistently complete) and thats what they wanted. FFXIV to me already follows alot of the aspects of FFXI with some changes to keep some of the more casual players (aka being able to solo more, or do small groups and not always need 6) and this will appeal to many players and provide a large player base for the future.
good for them Japan.. Globalization blows.. I'm tired of giving money to hati while people on the Outer Banks in North Carolina are being forced out of their homes to save birds that don't need saving nor are they even endangered. I'm tired of giving money to some environmentalist cooks so they can use my tax dollars to close off the irigation in california to save a minnow while people are losing their farms.
If this is what globalization brings.. stick globalization where the sun don't shine. Go Japan.
Now that people have been getting into the game, and the glitter and the shine has passed: I don't know whether I'm happy to see that many forum goers are finally starting to see what I've been saying for several weeks now -- or whether I should be saddened. I do enjoy the current conversation that is being stated here, as it's an actual discussion.
Many statements I can agree with, one mainly is that Square has not seen a good RPG since FFX, which it was a good game - it certainly wasn't a fantastic experience you can enjoy over and over again. Ever since SquareSoft became SquareEnix, that company has completely changed face and it's producing games which are high in quality of graphics and cinematics but are commonly behind the bar in gameplay. Anything that has been fun from SE since 2003 hasn't been an offline RPG (in my opinion). One game comes to mind in face, Dissidia Final Fantasy, which was an absolutely awesome experience I wish was on bigger consoles.
But perhaps the reason why I felt it was awesome, was because it didn't have a solid online function. I have a feeling that if the game did go online, say via PSN or XBOX is something more solid I may not have liked it. Ultimately it was a fighting game, and even in the small places where I played I was turned off by the elitist desire to spam completely unfair abilities and call it 'skill'. Typically when I would completely kick their asses normally, they'd just run into a corner and spam an ability so hard to dodge and did so much damage.. you'd most certainly lose. Hell anyone could do that, even me - but I didn't want to. So balance was always an issue.
That being said, that's really the only notable game I can give to SE's credit since 2002. Since then, nothing of merit in my opinion has truly come out of the company. Many other companies have just done better, and it feels like SE creates pretty clones of everything else that are just remarkably and beautifully out dated. Also, they've produced a massive onslaught of sub-par RPGs not under their Final Fantasy name. While again, beautifully cinematic - the games themselves feel as if the company has several inward factions within itself. So basically, if the game doesn't have Final Fantasy slapped onto it somewhere, it's not going to get any love at all.
Their attempts to impress on the Wii with Crystal Chronicles was another big miss, and various attempts to try something new were always just market gimicks. My trust in the company has fizzles into nothing, and I'm not going to cling to Final Fantasy 6 as my single and soul excuse to like the company. FF6 was made nearly twenty years ago, and it's clear that company that made that fantastic piece of work is long gone. Since FF7, they've taken the company in and entirely new direction and I never liked where it was going. FF9 was a good exception, if felt like they were trying to get back to their roots and FFXI was actually an impression Everquest clone I enjoyed too.
Their track record now is worse than before, and I've no doubt their stock prices as falling - because they should be. SE's time in the sun has faded away, and if they are going to keep any customers they seriously need to step backwards and try to get a better handle on what they trying to do in today's industry. Things are changing, and SE is changing too, but in ways I can't understand. Final Fantasy 13 turned into a Japanese Soap Opera was something I couldn't understand. Everyone I know who played FF13 traded their games in when they hit Chapter 10 in the story - proving that when the movie finally turned into a game.. people just couldn't stand it.
Final Fantasy XIV may be 'good' but it's not good enough to really be the next evolution in MMORPG gaming: It's not the big breath of fresh air we've been needing in the thick of the drowning MMO market. I didn't take much interest in it before, and my interest with it only flared for a brief flicker this Summer when I was about to get a chance to play it. But when I played it during the Closed Beta Phase it was vastly... vastly under the par I was expecting. I just expected more because I've played so many other MMORPGs and I've been through dozens of Beta Tests. When I got into this game I expected something new and refreshing, but instead I just got the same old crap I've done before -- just harder or more needlessly difficult.
These statements are not in reference to WoW; they are in reference to Monster Hunter, Everquest, Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies (Pre-Update), Horizons, Guild Wars, DAoC, WAR, City of Heroes, Champions, AION etc...
Honestly Final Fantasy XIV reminds me a lot of Gods and Heroes Rome Rising. While that game was ultimately about building your own Party, like Alantica - it was the Beta Period that really proved that games mustard. I'm surprised the IP was taken up again, after the almost unanimous outcry of how the game offered nothing new from the Close Beta Testers, the game was pulled out of production.
The Close Beta Testers for Final Fantasy XIV were largely ignored, at least those outside of the realm of Japan were anyway. While the Alpha Testers had a little more rights to offer feedback, Testers added to the team after May 2010 were not allowed to post any kind of real feedback on the state of the game. Since then, the game itself has mostly been unchanged since May. Mainly improvements on the look of the game and many of the core functions have been shaped up, but ultimately they are still the same. I didn't like the game then, and I didn't like the game now. So I'm just not gunna like this game. At least with others I've Closed Beta Tested I could tell I was going to like it regardless.. because even the 'Unfun Tests' were 'Fun'.
There was nothing, at all, fun about FFXIV in my opinion - in since May 2010, not since ever. I just got the feeling of 'Wow, they seriously missed the boat on this one. Did they ever play successful titles like Monster Hunter?'
FFXI since march 2007 and i am NOT going to buy this game. not by all means. they made a good game but it is NOT what i even dremt of. This game will find it's audience but since it's so simple (what i can't say for the endame stuff yet cuz there isn't any) that even a RDM-melee can do it. If it does not change in a way they won't have their big people crowd of players who come from other mmos that are casual friendly and hardcore in endgame and the hardcore ppl from old style mmo's. Right now everyone i spoke to who played (or still play) wow, daoc, ffxi, etc. they don'T dare to buy it and some were in the alpha from the start. Graphical update doesnt make anything better automatically... sry SE but this game just isn't for me.
I think the other problem is that there is no communication between the developers to the players.
If they're happy with just the Japanese in on this game and no tthe Western market then fine but...=/ I'm still confused.
And regarding the smart ass investment remark
1. If you weren't a piss-poor unsuccessful shit brick at life you'd realize that successful investors start when they're 25 or much younger. They also don't base their life around investing; they simply take 1 or 2 hours a week into looking at certain companies, creating multiple portfolios and slamming any extra cash they have into it. It's not very hard to invest, it's just 99% of the population, such as yourself, is both ignorant and uneducated about how to spend/make money.
2. Check my previous posts, I do own a Lotus Elise, and yes I consider my girl pretty damn hot. I wouldn't be dating someone that I think is fat and ugly wouldn't I?
3. Yeah I do have a ripped body. I've been working out since 2k4. Time management isn't really that hard. I can find time to finish school work, do investments, work out, jog, game, AND have extra time to come here and rip you a new one.
1. If you weren't a piss-poor unsuccessful shit brick at life you'd realize that successful investors start when they're 25 or much younger. They also don't base their life around investing; they simply take 1 or 2 hours a week into looking at certain companies, creating multiple portfolios and slamming any extra cash they have into it. It's not very hard to invest, it's just 99% of the population, such as yourself, is both ignorant and uneducated about how to spend/make money.
2. Check my previous posts, I do own a Lotus Elise, and yes I consider my girl pretty damn hot. I wouldn't be dating someone that I think is fat and ugly wouldn't I?
3. Yeah I do have a ripped body. I've been working out since 2k4. Time management isn't really that hard. I can find time to finish school work, do investments, work out, jog, game, AND have extra time to come here and rip you a new one.
Alright so this game already alienated a large portion of MMO players becuase of the system requirements. After alienating that portion, they decide to piss off anyone who doesn't want to use a controller and force them to adapt to something besides K&M (I came from FFXI, even I find the new controls...well, strange). The targetting is a mess and...oh my, I feel like it's APB/Global Agenda all over again because they screwed up on the target audience.
Right now, there BIGGEST target audience are those from Final Fantasy XI....however, they managed to kill them off too with the exp and quest restrictions to force casual play, so my question:
Who the flaming hell are they targetting? FFXI players are all hardcore, this game doesn't allow that. System requirements are too steep to allow the average computer to run AND the controls/gameplay differs greatly from what is generally accepted in the MMO world.
Someone explain? =/
I have to wander why people think they are targeting the game at FFXI players? I mean in what world does it make sense to make a product that compets with another product you already have running and plan to continue to support for some time into the future?
FFXI is still doing very good in subscriptions and they have already released plans for the future content coming down the pipeline and have shown that they are fully commited to continuing the development of the game.
That would be like Blizzard making World of Warcraft 2 and continuing to run World of Warcraft and developing content for it.
Alright so this game already alienated a large portion of MMO players becuase of the system requirements. After alienating that portion, they decide to piss off anyone who doesn't want to use a controller and force them to adapt to something besides K&M (I came from FFXI, even I find the new controls...well, strange). The targetting is a mess and...oh my, I feel like it's APB/Global Agenda all over again because they screwed up on the target audience.
Right now, there BIGGEST target audience are those from Final Fantasy XI....however, they managed to kill them off too with the exp and quest restrictions to force casual play, so my question:
Who the flaming hell are they targetting? FFXI players are all hardcore, this game doesn't allow that. System requirements are too steep to allow the average computer to run AND the controls/gameplay differs greatly from what is generally accepted in the MMO world.
Someone explain? =/
I have to wander why people think they are targeting the game at FFXI players? I mean in what world does it make sense to make a product that compets with another product you already have running and plan to continue to support for some time into the future?
FFXI is still doing very good in subscriptions and they have already released plans for the future content coming down the pipeline and have shown that they are fully commited to continuing the development of the game.
That would be like Blizzard making World of Warcraft 2 and continuing to run World of Warcraft and developing content for it.
Exactly, so can you explain who they're targetting? Because so far the only thing people have concluded are "Final Fantasy" fanboys will buy it. Buying it is one thing, giving them a monthly fee is another. You and I both know (well no, maybe only I know) that MMOs when launched start no matter how big the box sales (including WoW) start with a net loss of profit. Most MMOs will eventually show a net gain but the question is when and how many heads need to be axed while they wait for the gain.
So if they're keeping the hardcore in FFXI and the casual in FFXIV, just who the hell are the "casuals?"
Last I recall, WoW is most successful for being casual and accessible, FFXIV might be casual...but so is it accessible? With the amount of "GO BUY A CONTROLLER" theads I'm seeing....it's not very accessible immediately after you install the game =/
Alright so this game already alienated a large portion of MMO players becuase of the system requirements. After alienating that portion, they decide to piss off anyone who doesn't want to use a controller and force them to adapt to something besides K&M (I came from FFXI, even I find the new controls...well, strange). The targetting is a mess and...oh my, I feel like it's APB/Global Agenda all over again because they screwed up on the target audience.
Right now, there BIGGEST target audience are those from Final Fantasy XI....however, they managed to kill them off too with the exp and quest restrictions to force casual play, so my question:
Who the flaming hell are they targetting? FFXI players are all hardcore, this game doesn't allow that. System requirements are too steep to allow the average computer to run AND the controls/gameplay differs greatly from what is generally accepted in the MMO world.
Someone explain? =/
I have to wander why people think they are targeting the game at FFXI players? I mean in what world does it make sense to make a product that compets with another product you already have running and plan to continue to support for some time into the future?
FFXI is still doing very good in subscriptions and they have already released plans for the future content coming down the pipeline and have shown that they are fully commited to continuing the development of the game.
That would be like Blizzard making World of Warcraft 2 and continuing to run World of Warcraft and developing content for it.
Exactly, so can you explain who they're targetting? Because so far the only thing people have concluded are "Final Fantasy" fanboys will buy it. Buying it is one thing, giving them a monthly fee is another. You and I both know (well no, maybe only I know) that MMOs when launched start no matter how big the box sales (including WoW) start with a net loss of profit. Most MMOs will eventually show a net gain but the question is when and how many heads need to be axed while they wait for the gain.
So if they're keeping the hardcore in FFXI and the casual in FFXIV, just who the hell are the "casuals?"
Last I recall, WoW is most successful for being casual and accessible, FFXIV might be casual...but so is it accessible? With the amount of "GO BUY A CONTROLLER" theads I'm seeing....it's not very accessible immediately after you install the game =/
I think the game is aimed more toward the core Japanese console gaming base than the MMO player base as a whole. Basically if SE can get a hold in that player base, the rest of us are a 'bonus' of sorts.
As for who the casuals are, I am guessing the Japanese player who may have about 3-10 hours a week to spend in a game (judging by the lockouts on guildleves and the whole fatigue system). This game will allow them to experience an MMO without having to worry about falling too far behind friends and others they play with.
I guess its kinda like WoW to EQ. EQ required a large time investment and was rather difficult for a lot of people to get into. WoW was designed to give players a chance to experience an MMO without such a large investment.
FFXIV was designed to give new players a chance to play without having to worry about investing a ton of time while at the same time giving people who played FFXI something slightly new and slightly different. Basically its not a game that was designed to compete with their first MMO but rather a game that was designed as an option.
There are 3 types of people in the world. 1.) Those who make things happen 2.) Those who watch things happen 3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Alright so this game already alienated a large portion of MMO players becuase of the system requirements. After alienating that portion, they decide to piss off anyone who doesn't want to use a controller and force them to adapt to something besides K&M (I came from FFXI, even I find the new controls...well, strange). The targetting is a mess and...oh my, I feel like it's APB/Global Agenda all over again because they screwed up on the target audience.
Right now, there BIGGEST target audience are those from Final Fantasy XI....however, they managed to kill them off too with the exp and quest restrictions to force casual play, so my question:
Who the flaming hell are they targetting? FFXI players are all hardcore, this game doesn't allow that. System requirements are too steep to allow the average computer to run AND the controls/gameplay differs greatly from what is generally accepted in the MMO world.
Someone explain? =/
I have to wander why people think they are targeting the game at FFXI players? I mean in what world does it make sense to make a product that compets with another product you already have running and plan to continue to support for some time into the future?
FFXI is still doing very good in subscriptions and they have already released plans for the future content coming down the pipeline and have shown that they are fully commited to continuing the development of the game.
That would be like Blizzard making World of Warcraft 2 and continuing to run World of Warcraft and developing content for it.
Exactly, so can you explain who they're targetting? Because so far the only thing people have concluded are "Final Fantasy" fanboys will buy it. Buying it is one thing, giving them a monthly fee is another. You and I both know (well no, maybe only I know) that MMOs when launched start no matter how big the box sales (including WoW) start with a net loss of profit. Most MMOs will eventually show a net gain but the question is when and how many heads need to be axed while they wait for the gain.
So if they're keeping the hardcore in FFXI and the casual in FFXIV, just who the hell are the "casuals?"
Last I recall, WoW is most successful for being casual and accessible, FFXIV might be casual...but so is it accessible? With the amount of "GO BUY A CONTROLLER" theads I'm seeing....it's not very accessible immediately after you install the game =/
Well looking back at there track record with FFXI, I doubt any heads will ever roll. Final Fantasy is first and for most a Jap inspired and targeted game with providing access to everyone else a bonus point for the game. I don't think they expect to compete with WoW on any front. The people that they are targeting are Final Fantasy fans that where not picked up by FF 11 and/or the ones tired / burned out of FF 11. This shows from the ground up in the game. The game uses the same Final Fantasy style interface that has been used in just about every Final Fantasy game created. (Menu driven system with a slight turn base style to the combat and heavly focused on a overarching story to the game.)
I doubt you will ever see a WoWification to the game based upon what has happened with FFXI. They are very much focused on delevering a Final Fantasy experience.. not pushing the genre forward / taking everything thats been down and polishing it up.
As far as the game starting out with a net loss of profit. Well any game starts out with a loss of income before it launches because it takes money to make money in this world. I doubt, by any stretch of the imagination, that Square Enix is hurting for cash, since they are a huge game development and publishing company within the Japanise market.
The best part of FFXIV is that no matter how good it does in NA or Euro the game will still have a healthy population since the servers are all international. Last I checked they have no plans of dividing up the community so even if only 100k people in NA and/or Euro buy the game the 500k+ in Jap will more then keep the servers populated.
I guess its kinda like WoW to EQ. EQ required a large time investment and was rather difficult for a lot of people to get into. WoW was designed to give players a chance to experience an MMO without such a large investment.
FFXIV was designed to give new players a chance to play without having to worry about investing a ton of time while at the same time giving people who played FFXI something slightly new and slightly different. Basically its not a game that was designed to compete with their first MMO but rather a game that was designed as an option.
I think you're missing a crucial point here. Yes, they seem to want to design the game for casuals, but the way the game is currently designed, makes it not very accessible to casuals. They also don't seem to want to design a game for hardcores, so the game isn't very accessible to those types either. As you can see, the game seems to be restricting itself from both of the main types of gamers in the genre (japanese or not). The combat is also very simplified, which will not be fun for many japanese players.
So the question remains: Who are they really marketting this game towards? They currently have a game design that doesn't work w/ any of the audiences they seem to have their eyes set on.
I guess its kinda like WoW to EQ. EQ required a large time investment and was rather difficult for a lot of people to get into. WoW was designed to give players a chance to experience an MMO without such a large investment.
FFXIV was designed to give new players a chance to play without having to worry about investing a ton of time while at the same time giving people who played FFXI something slightly new and slightly different. Basically its not a game that was designed to compete with their first MMO but rather a game that was designed as an option.
I think you're missing a crucial point here. Yes, they seem to want to design the game for casuals, but the way the game is currently designed, makes it not very accessible to casuals. They also don't seem to want to design a game for hardcores, so the game isn't very accessible to those types either. As you can see, the game seems to be restricting itself from both of the main types of gamers in the genre (japanese or not). The combat is also very simplified, which will not be fun for many japanese players.
So the question remains: Who are they really marketting this game towards? They currently have a game design that doesn't work w/ any of the audiences they seem to have their eyes set on.
I guess if you look at it this way it might make more sense.
I don't think they are aiming at what westerners consider 'casual' players. When it comes to what we consider casual people tend to think those who want an easymode game where everyone is a winner.
They are also not aiming at the western definition of 'hardcore' ie; the 24/7 raider/grinder/gotta have it all player.
The game was aimed more toward the casual Japanese console player, someone who wants to play a challenging game with others yet not having to worry about being left behind due to time constraints. FFXIV was designed to be a complex game while at the same time not punishing you based on your playtime limitations.
Now they also had to consider western players while designing the game. This led to a lot of the more confusing alterations and aditions to the gameplay.
Basically they are aiming the game more to console players than MMO players, and thats what a lot of people are missing. They want people who are used to standard console RPGs to feel at home while giving them a taste of what an MMO offers.
I agree its confusing as hell to figure out who they are actually aiming the game at. Best guess would be everyone, because that seems to be the feel I get from the game. They tried so hard to accomodate all these different player types that the end result is a game that feels like the dev team is just randomly firing arrows into the air and hoping that they will hit enough people. That way they can look at all the people impaled by arrows and say 'Thats our target audience!'.
FFXIV will find its target at some point, and the devs will be happy.
There are 3 types of people in the world. 1.) Those who make things happen 2.) Those who watch things happen 3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
No one is asking for the game be WoW-ified. In fact, I'm quite sick of the amount of WoW clones that have been released since WoW came out. However, when you make a game, you expect the user to want to make it past the first 5 minutes.
I've had this game open for a total of....1 hour? The patcher is completely screwed and I ended up using Vuze (inacessibility right there, does the average user know how to torrent?). The controls are not what players are familiar with, whether or not they accept them is another question. There is a large list of things, not from the gameplay, that most users will immediately write off as "lol garbage".
Square-Enix seems to think they're still "the shit" of RPGs....well, sorry to say, they're not. I loved Final Fantasy X, I hated XII, XIII and like Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age A LOT more. As much as I've always loved Eastern RPG art, the gameplay has...well, not evolved.
And regarding Square-Enix not having money issues...I think you need to look at their stock quotes. They haven't gone up since God knows when, and if you know about Square-Enix's past, they've merged twice. A company merger, most of the time, is the result of two companies having finicial difficulty but there are exceptions, since we're on an MMO board I'll throw 2 examples:
1. AMD ATI. Anyone who is familar with computers knows what happened after Core2Duo) came out, they also know about the huge performance gap between Geforce 8 vs. Radeon HD2xxx series. If you don't, lets just say ATI was dying for a while even before their garbage 2 series, and AMD died the minute Penryn (Core2Duos) came out. Result? Share holders sold their shares. Both companies were getting screwed, so what did AMD do? They buy out ATI in hopes of doing better!
2. Activision Blizzard. I hate Bobby Kotick, but the guy is a genius. I hate how he wants to 'take the fun out of making video games" or "exploit games yearly" but he knows how to tickle investors. Activision was doing fine before, then this guy comes along and buys out Blizzad. I don't need to explain this do I? Any company that owns WoW isn't going to be bankrupt anytime soon.
Square merged with Enix in 2003. Go to their stock history, they were at an all time low during 2003 and it suddenly went back up: why do you think this happened?
7 years later they are , once again, at a new low. Final Fantasy XIV is by far their biggest project and they are big time fucking it up right now. Expect another merger or we're gonna see some downsizing soon.
Comments
Hmm you did forget to mention that you now have a pretty sport car a hot girl and leading a big company. Not to mention that suddenly all your problems were solved in your live. Oh and are now a muscular totally sexy healthy guy.
Edit: Oh take it back you say that you are an investor and as you say a good one and you still have enough time to enlight people in a MMORPG Forum about FF 14 fail and all. You impress me more and more.
Be honest you are a software developer in your breaks as well.
Very well put, as is the person you quoted. Pretty much sums up the major problem with this game very nicely. While SE did do a decent job w/ FFXI, they clearly need to figure out the goal of what they are doing. Who are they attracting, how do they want to attract them, etc. It just seems like they have have completely no focus as to who they are designing the game for, and as mentioned above, they are burning the candle on both ends by doing so.
Edit: Oh, and btw Selph, get over yourself please. He said he was an investor, that's it. Do you know what it takes to become an investor? Money, that's it. If you know what you are doing, you don't necessarily have to be busy all the time to be an investor, you just need to be observant enough to know where to put your money, and when to cash it out. Myself, and many of the people I work with do investing on the side for extra pocket cash / savings. It really doesn't have to take up much time.
From what I read its target audience are people who like a beautiful story. I am not sure though if it takes an MMO with mixed feelings to do it.
Indeed, it seems that Square is living an identity crisis.
However crisis or not, when it comes to making a product, I think the least you can do as a project head is to assess the market and your competitors. Well, Tanaka confessed quite naturally that he doesn't play other MMOs (than FF XI of course). That guy's supposed to lead the whole FF XIV project into the right direction... there's enough buck in that game to aim at a large portion of players... but he doesn't have a clue about the reality of MMO gaming, not in 2002, not in 2010, I guess not even in 2018.
Now what does that tell us about Square's shareholders sanity when they approve the board decision to appoint Tanaka, who despite a great career inside Square has no knowledge of the market he's supposed to win? (My guess is, they never really aimed at that mass market, period)
Next you look at the UI of FF XIV. You ask any software engineer or ergonomist what they think of it. 90% of them tell you it's complete crap that pre-dates windows 95. And yet you put a greenlight on it for release.
I won't criticize Tanaka's ability to direct movie-like gaming development, because he's obviously very good at that. But as a software director in the wider scheme of computer development, he's just not delivering, not a tiny bit compared to current standards.
I mean... Alt-Tab making an application crash DX on 7 in 2010... on purpose to prevent "piracy and cheating"... sure. No hardware mouse... The need to exit the app to setup graphic details... Talk about IT knowledge and user experience.
This indeed is a very interesting discussion for a change and i fully agree. From a western point of view Tanakas behaviour screams "Amateur" but you have to take the japanese mentallity into the equation. Japanese Developers take pride in building things from the ground up, on their own. That's why with every game they try to invent "the wheel" anew so to speak. They don't licence third party game engines, they don't look at what others are doing they rather "invent" everything themselves. This is the major problem. Today the whole japanese economy is suffering because of this. Japan isn't international, never was, they have, what one could call an "Island"-State of Mind, which is rooted in their rich history.
Problem is: In an globalized market, that won't cut it anymore. It was good as long as Japan was on the side of innovation. They are not anymore and coping with that with a mindset as i described it, seems to be very hard.
I would bet my life on it that they have only opened up a tiny % for testing of what the realease will be like. You will notice buildings, NPC, and areas that are specificaly off limit. They had to give us guildleves for something to do while we stres test for em.
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Oh I totally agree with you on the japanese "way" of conducting projects, and the generally insular mentality at work there.
Japan invented the console side of video games, it used to be quite unanimous in the 80s-early 90s. Their culture somehow took a direction in video games that gave this medium a nobleness of its own, and Square is not stranger to that period of history.
But since that time, globalization has been at work again, and the late 90s changed how video games were made and sold. Again, it was a wind from Japan--Sony's PlayStation--but this particular one was a bold move not very "japanese" in spirit. They simply took on the world and won the match. However Japanese game developpers were still in the old vision of things, making japanese products for the japanese players--and if westerners like them to, great, if not, so be it.
The 2000 decade did not really changed that, the Japanese market was into a local concentration process. It was late, from 2007-2008 on, that the few editors remaining in Japan from that golden era became globalized companies with subsidiaries on three continents. Yet japanese console games are still very... japanese. Changing the creative process takes time and commitment--and if they're open to that change in the talk, nothing's so sure in the reality of field game development. Square is about there too (buying Eidos for the obvious, but remember Square America is a long existing entity).
Which begs the question: When Square and Sony are both in the starting blocks to win a global (juicy) market, how can they fail like that? I guess they don't. Maybe we'll hear of a Square-MMO made by Eidos for the westerner casual market soon. Maybe FF XIV is a casual MMO for casual japanese players, who have nothing to do with casual european or north-american players.
I have been playing RPGs and MMORPGs almost exclusively since the mid-90's and since then at some point a radical paradigm-shift has happened. During early to late 90's the only really good RPGs came from Japan. Period. Western products couldn't hold a candle to the quality of japanese RPGs online or offline. Somewhere around 2000 however, japan suddenly lost touch with what gamers want and adore. Namely since the arrival of the PS2 it became clear that soemthing was missing in japanese products while at the same time western products ramped up the product quality to an unprecedented state. At the same time Korea took the asien market by storm and as of today japanese products are downright shit, with a few exceptions. Since FF X Square wasn't able to put out a single decent Offline RPG and FF XI was nothing more than an Everquest-Clone with Chocobos, albeit, after years of tweaking, a pretty good one. Today the Behemoths of the MMO Industry are of western or korean origin and apart from FF XI there is not a single japanese MMO on the market that can compete internationally. FF XIV seems to be the last straw (there's obviously huge money pumped into this, sadly to no avail) but as it stands, it will be the Tombstone for japanese MMO-Endeavours. If Square-Enix can't pull it off, no japanese developer can .
That statement i feel is a victim of a time that has passed. Both XI and WoW hit at a particular time respectively that made both a long standing success in their own way.
That success does not always and usually doesn't translate well into newer incantations of the product. Players don't like to move on to the next thing and leave what they spent 5 or 6 years attaining, especially if they feel that not enough has been improved upon.
No one except you is talking about WoW in this here thread. Why do people like you always have to bring it up? Don't you know any other MMOs? The problem with FF XIV is not that it isn't wow, it is that it doesn't come close to ANY other popular MMO that is even remotely sucessful when it comes to sheer playabillity, fun, coherence, performance or gamedesign. Sure, not everyone want's WoW, but these people already have Aion, Lineage 2, LOTRO, Warhammer, AoC, Ragnarok and so on. All of these are heaps and bounds better designed and way more fun and playable than FF XIV and quite a few of these are way more "hardcore" than FF XIV.
WOW is the standard of compairson even thou it is so highly hated by many people and no one wants to type out all the names every time.
the thing is many of the MMO you have listed i would put the target audiance as a much different list than what FFXIV. IF you played FFXI for a long period of time and talked to your friends about what was the seller of the game, most would say the fact that you needed to work for everything and their was always a chalenge with the top end content (most of witch only few linkshells could consistently complete) and thats what they wanted. FFXIV to me already follows alot of the aspects of FFXI with some changes to keep some of the more casual players (aka being able to solo more, or do small groups and not always need 6) and this will appeal to many players and provide a large player base for the future.
good for them Japan.. Globalization blows.. I'm tired of giving money to hati while people on the Outer Banks in North Carolina are being forced out of their homes to save birds that don't need saving nor are they even endangered. I'm tired of giving money to some environmentalist cooks so they can use my tax dollars to close off the irigation in california to save a minnow while people are losing their farms.
If this is what globalization brings.. stick globalization where the sun don't shine. Go Japan.
Now that people have been getting into the game, and the glitter and the shine has passed: I don't know whether I'm happy to see that many forum goers are finally starting to see what I've been saying for several weeks now -- or whether I should be saddened. I do enjoy the current conversation that is being stated here, as it's an actual discussion.
Many statements I can agree with, one mainly is that Square has not seen a good RPG since FFX, which it was a good game - it certainly wasn't a fantastic experience you can enjoy over and over again. Ever since SquareSoft became SquareEnix, that company has completely changed face and it's producing games which are high in quality of graphics and cinematics but are commonly behind the bar in gameplay. Anything that has been fun from SE since 2003 hasn't been an offline RPG (in my opinion). One game comes to mind in face, Dissidia Final Fantasy, which was an absolutely awesome experience I wish was on bigger consoles.
But perhaps the reason why I felt it was awesome, was because it didn't have a solid online function. I have a feeling that if the game did go online, say via PSN or XBOX is something more solid I may not have liked it. Ultimately it was a fighting game, and even in the small places where I played I was turned off by the elitist desire to spam completely unfair abilities and call it 'skill'. Typically when I would completely kick their asses normally, they'd just run into a corner and spam an ability so hard to dodge and did so much damage.. you'd most certainly lose. Hell anyone could do that, even me - but I didn't want to. So balance was always an issue.
That being said, that's really the only notable game I can give to SE's credit since 2002. Since then, nothing of merit in my opinion has truly come out of the company. Many other companies have just done better, and it feels like SE creates pretty clones of everything else that are just remarkably and beautifully out dated. Also, they've produced a massive onslaught of sub-par RPGs not under their Final Fantasy name. While again, beautifully cinematic - the games themselves feel as if the company has several inward factions within itself. So basically, if the game doesn't have Final Fantasy slapped onto it somewhere, it's not going to get any love at all.
Their attempts to impress on the Wii with Crystal Chronicles was another big miss, and various attempts to try something new were always just market gimicks. My trust in the company has fizzles into nothing, and I'm not going to cling to Final Fantasy 6 as my single and soul excuse to like the company. FF6 was made nearly twenty years ago, and it's clear that company that made that fantastic piece of work is long gone. Since FF7, they've taken the company in and entirely new direction and I never liked where it was going. FF9 was a good exception, if felt like they were trying to get back to their roots and FFXI was actually an impression Everquest clone I enjoyed too.
Their track record now is worse than before, and I've no doubt their stock prices as falling - because they should be. SE's time in the sun has faded away, and if they are going to keep any customers they seriously need to step backwards and try to get a better handle on what they trying to do in today's industry. Things are changing, and SE is changing too, but in ways I can't understand. Final Fantasy 13 turned into a Japanese Soap Opera was something I couldn't understand. Everyone I know who played FF13 traded their games in when they hit Chapter 10 in the story - proving that when the movie finally turned into a game.. people just couldn't stand it.
Final Fantasy XIV may be 'good' but it's not good enough to really be the next evolution in MMORPG gaming: It's not the big breath of fresh air we've been needing in the thick of the drowning MMO market. I didn't take much interest in it before, and my interest with it only flared for a brief flicker this Summer when I was about to get a chance to play it. But when I played it during the Closed Beta Phase it was vastly... vastly under the par I was expecting. I just expected more because I've played so many other MMORPGs and I've been through dozens of Beta Tests. When I got into this game I expected something new and refreshing, but instead I just got the same old crap I've done before -- just harder or more needlessly difficult.
These statements are not in reference to WoW; they are in reference to Monster Hunter, Everquest, Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies (Pre-Update), Horizons, Guild Wars, DAoC, WAR, City of Heroes, Champions, AION etc...
Honestly Final Fantasy XIV reminds me a lot of Gods and Heroes Rome Rising. While that game was ultimately about building your own Party, like Alantica - it was the Beta Period that really proved that games mustard. I'm surprised the IP was taken up again, after the almost unanimous outcry of how the game offered nothing new from the Close Beta Testers, the game was pulled out of production.
The Close Beta Testers for Final Fantasy XIV were largely ignored, at least those outside of the realm of Japan were anyway. While the Alpha Testers had a little more rights to offer feedback, Testers added to the team after May 2010 were not allowed to post any kind of real feedback on the state of the game. Since then, the game itself has mostly been unchanged since May. Mainly improvements on the look of the game and many of the core functions have been shaped up, but ultimately they are still the same. I didn't like the game then, and I didn't like the game now. So I'm just not gunna like this game. At least with others I've Closed Beta Tested I could tell I was going to like it regardless.. because even the 'Unfun Tests' were 'Fun'.
There was nothing, at all, fun about FFXIV in my opinion - in since May 2010, not since ever. I just got the feeling of 'Wow, they seriously missed the boat on this one. Did they ever play successful titles like Monster Hunter?'
My guess? No.. no they haven't.
FFXI since march 2007 and i am NOT going to buy this game. not by all means. they made a good game but it is NOT what i even dremt of. This game will find it's audience but since it's so simple (what i can't say for the endame stuff yet cuz there isn't any) that even a RDM-melee can do it. If it does not change in a way they won't have their big people crowd of players who come from other mmos that are casual friendly and hardcore in endgame and the hardcore ppl from old style mmo's. Right now everyone i spoke to who played (or still play) wow, daoc, ffxi, etc. they don'T dare to buy it and some were in the alpha from the start. Graphical update doesnt make anything better automatically... sry SE but this game just isn't for me.
I think the other problem is that there is no communication between the developers to the players.
If they're happy with just the Japanese in on this game and no tthe Western market then fine but...=/ I'm still confused.
And regarding the smart ass investment remark
1. If you weren't a piss-poor unsuccessful shit brick at life you'd realize that successful investors start when they're 25 or much younger. They also don't base their life around investing; they simply take 1 or 2 hours a week into looking at certain companies, creating multiple portfolios and slamming any extra cash they have into it. It's not very hard to invest, it's just 99% of the population, such as yourself, is both ignorant and uneducated about how to spend/make money.
2. Check my previous posts, I do own a Lotus Elise, and yes I consider my girl pretty damn hot. I wouldn't be dating someone that I think is fat and ugly wouldn't I?
3. Yeah I do have a ripped body. I've been working out since 2k4. Time management isn't really that hard. I can find time to finish school work, do investments, work out, jog, game, AND have extra time to come here and rip you a new one.
GG thanks.
^^ Define: Shallow
I have to wander why people think they are targeting the game at FFXI players? I mean in what world does it make sense to make a product that compets with another product you already have running and plan to continue to support for some time into the future?
FFXI is still doing very good in subscriptions and they have already released plans for the future content coming down the pipeline and have shown that they are fully commited to continuing the development of the game.
That would be like Blizzard making World of Warcraft 2 and continuing to run World of Warcraft and developing content for it.
Exactly, so can you explain who they're targetting? Because so far the only thing people have concluded are "Final Fantasy" fanboys will buy it. Buying it is one thing, giving them a monthly fee is another. You and I both know (well no, maybe only I know) that MMOs when launched start no matter how big the box sales (including WoW) start with a net loss of profit. Most MMOs will eventually show a net gain but the question is when and how many heads need to be axed while they wait for the gain.
So if they're keeping the hardcore in FFXI and the casual in FFXIV, just who the hell are the "casuals?"
Last I recall, WoW is most successful for being casual and accessible, FFXIV might be casual...but so is it accessible? With the amount of "GO BUY A CONTROLLER" theads I'm seeing....it's not very accessible immediately after you install the game =/
I think the game is aimed more toward the core Japanese console gaming base than the MMO player base as a whole. Basically if SE can get a hold in that player base, the rest of us are a 'bonus' of sorts.
As for who the casuals are, I am guessing the Japanese player who may have about 3-10 hours a week to spend in a game (judging by the lockouts on guildleves and the whole fatigue system). This game will allow them to experience an MMO without having to worry about falling too far behind friends and others they play with.
I guess its kinda like WoW to EQ. EQ required a large time investment and was rather difficult for a lot of people to get into. WoW was designed to give players a chance to experience an MMO without such a large investment.
FFXIV was designed to give new players a chance to play without having to worry about investing a ton of time while at the same time giving people who played FFXI something slightly new and slightly different. Basically its not a game that was designed to compete with their first MMO but rather a game that was designed as an option.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Well looking back at there track record with FFXI, I doubt any heads will ever roll. Final Fantasy is first and for most a Jap inspired and targeted game with providing access to everyone else a bonus point for the game. I don't think they expect to compete with WoW on any front. The people that they are targeting are Final Fantasy fans that where not picked up by FF 11 and/or the ones tired / burned out of FF 11. This shows from the ground up in the game. The game uses the same Final Fantasy style interface that has been used in just about every Final Fantasy game created. (Menu driven system with a slight turn base style to the combat and heavly focused on a overarching story to the game.)
I doubt you will ever see a WoWification to the game based upon what has happened with FFXI. They are very much focused on delevering a Final Fantasy experience.. not pushing the genre forward / taking everything thats been down and polishing it up.
As far as the game starting out with a net loss of profit. Well any game starts out with a loss of income before it launches because it takes money to make money in this world. I doubt, by any stretch of the imagination, that Square Enix is hurting for cash, since they are a huge game development and publishing company within the Japanise market.
The best part of FFXIV is that no matter how good it does in NA or Euro the game will still have a healthy population since the servers are all international. Last I checked they have no plans of dividing up the community so even if only 100k people in NA and/or Euro buy the game the 500k+ in Jap will more then keep the servers populated.
I think you're missing a crucial point here. Yes, they seem to want to design the game for casuals, but the way the game is currently designed, makes it not very accessible to casuals. They also don't seem to want to design a game for hardcores, so the game isn't very accessible to those types either. As you can see, the game seems to be restricting itself from both of the main types of gamers in the genre (japanese or not). The combat is also very simplified, which will not be fun for many japanese players.
So the question remains: Who are they really marketting this game towards? They currently have a game design that doesn't work w/ any of the audiences they seem to have their eyes set on.
I guess if you look at it this way it might make more sense.
I don't think they are aiming at what westerners consider 'casual' players. When it comes to what we consider casual people tend to think those who want an easymode game where everyone is a winner.
They are also not aiming at the western definition of 'hardcore' ie; the 24/7 raider/grinder/gotta have it all player.
The game was aimed more toward the casual Japanese console player, someone who wants to play a challenging game with others yet not having to worry about being left behind due to time constraints. FFXIV was designed to be a complex game while at the same time not punishing you based on your playtime limitations.
Now they also had to consider western players while designing the game. This led to a lot of the more confusing alterations and aditions to the gameplay.
Basically they are aiming the game more to console players than MMO players, and thats what a lot of people are missing. They want people who are used to standard console RPGs to feel at home while giving them a taste of what an MMO offers.
I agree its confusing as hell to figure out who they are actually aiming the game at. Best guess would be everyone, because that seems to be the feel I get from the game. They tried so hard to accomodate all these different player types that the end result is a game that feels like the dev team is just randomly firing arrows into the air and hoping that they will hit enough people. That way they can look at all the people impaled by arrows and say 'Thats our target audience!'.
FFXIV will find its target at some point, and the devs will be happy.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
No one is asking for the game be WoW-ified. In fact, I'm quite sick of the amount of WoW clones that have been released since WoW came out. However, when you make a game, you expect the user to want to make it past the first 5 minutes.
I've had this game open for a total of....1 hour? The patcher is completely screwed and I ended up using Vuze (inacessibility right there, does the average user know how to torrent?). The controls are not what players are familiar with, whether or not they accept them is another question. There is a large list of things, not from the gameplay, that most users will immediately write off as "lol garbage".
Square-Enix seems to think they're still "the shit" of RPGs....well, sorry to say, they're not. I loved Final Fantasy X, I hated XII, XIII and like Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age A LOT more. As much as I've always loved Eastern RPG art, the gameplay has...well, not evolved.
And regarding Square-Enix not having money issues...I think you need to look at their stock quotes. They haven't gone up since God knows when, and if you know about Square-Enix's past, they've merged twice. A company merger, most of the time, is the result of two companies having finicial difficulty but there are exceptions, since we're on an MMO board I'll throw 2 examples:
1. AMD ATI. Anyone who is familar with computers knows what happened after Core2Duo) came out, they also know about the huge performance gap between Geforce 8 vs. Radeon HD2xxx series. If you don't, lets just say ATI was dying for a while even before their garbage 2 series, and AMD died the minute Penryn (Core2Duos) came out. Result? Share holders sold their shares. Both companies were getting screwed, so what did AMD do? They buy out ATI in hopes of doing better!
2. Activision Blizzard. I hate Bobby Kotick, but the guy is a genius. I hate how he wants to 'take the fun out of making video games" or "exploit games yearly" but he knows how to tickle investors. Activision was doing fine before, then this guy comes along and buys out Blizzad. I don't need to explain this do I? Any company that owns WoW isn't going to be bankrupt anytime soon.
Square merged with Enix in 2003. Go to their stock history, they were at an all time low during 2003 and it suddenly went back up: why do you think this happened?
7 years later they are , once again, at a new low. Final Fantasy XIV is by far their biggest project and they are big time fucking it up right now. Expect another merger or we're gonna see some downsizing soon.