Completely agree with the OP. Any and all judgement should happen on the 22nd. No if, ands, or buts.
Agreed Elocke. The naysayers came in, saw it wasn't dumbed down like WoW and they quickly called the game horrible. FFXIV reminded me of how gaming was in the good old days.
Dumbed down? Do you mean "working" ? FFXIV is a broken game by any objective measure. You'd have to be blind to deny this.
But there is no point in arguing with you about it. The game will launch on schedule, and it will fail to attract any significant attention beyond a group of masochistic japanophiles. And as for you, you'll be hoping everyone has forgotten what kind of naive nonsense you were spouting prior to the game's release (i.e. now).
Completely agree with the OP. Any and all judgement should happen on the 22nd. No if, ands, or buts.
Agreed Elocke. The naysayers came in, saw it wasn't dumbed down like WoW and they quickly called the game horrible. FFXIV reminded me of how gaming was in the good old days.
agree, FFXIV was made for casual gamers and also for old gamers like myself( play UO,EQ1(didn't really like to combat but everything else was Fucking amazing) and FFXI.
this game mostly for FFXI fans, FF fans and old slow-strat system gamers who like to think about our action rather then SPam same 3 buttons =(
Guess I am one of those players that will hold comments until the game is released. Not that I think a lot will change, only that the relase is the "right" time to experience and decide. I am also not one of those "every game has a bad launch" types, that is, a game released should contained all the elements that has been announced. That said, the results of the OB is purely in the place of the developer and rather or not the check point was made for them. One thing is certain, upon relase all excuses are out the window and the "I told you so's" will commence. With all the hype this company did, they better come up with a playable game.
Completely agree with the OP. Any and all judgement should happen on the 22nd. No if, ands, or buts.
Agreed Elocke. The naysayers came in, saw it wasn't dumbed down like WoW and they quickly called the game horrible. FFXIV reminded me of how gaming was in the good old days.
Your hilarious, do you have a newsletter?
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
Godamn how many ignorant people are on these forums?
One so far.
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
Player feedback on content is very important during beta, especially in closed beta given that these days open beta are often used for "try before you buy". Its such feedback that a developer would use to determine what a community finds fun and interesting, so that when it comes to open beta they have something people will be interested in. SE have shown zero interest in this area, to the point where I'm not even sure why they even bothered with closed beta, never mind open. Even if they suddenly added a game's worth of quests (which they aren't going to do), they'd have zero perspective on if they are enjoyable. Developers become focused on reaching their objectives to scopes handed to them, hence why they need external players to assist in the testing.
As a result In the case of FF XIV open beta was a very bad idea, as there's so little content, with a lot of broken mechanics. All they have done is damaged their sales. They'll still hit decent sales figures though, simply on the name and the fact that most people don't read forums or take part in betas.
Actually, I don't think so. Player feedback on content is not as important as you think. Look at all those single player game. The story telling, quest, cinematic do not have open beta before they release. Yet, people still enjoy them without any problem. In fact, release them out to public before release the game would be a mistake because it would spoil the fun when the game is released. What excited is there when you already know, seen all those quest story, cutscene... Duh! Open beta is free, nobody has to pay anything to play. What do you think would happen if a game instead of a limited trial release all its contents to the public for a month? Who would buy the game after that?
The reason why SE hold back on quests, storylines, interesting contents and other things is very valid.
Again, they are not holding back on quests. Its just the complete story arc.
Core mechanics are tested during alpha and usually bleeds over to close beta 1, which is often friends and family, along with employees of the company. From then on while bugs are part of the testing, how a game plays become a key focus (or at least should, and is the norm). The final stage of closed beta is often fine tuning of mechanics and content, while removing the last game break bugs, before entering open beta. Open beta is generally used for stress testing the live systems, amongst minor tuning to the game.
If SE where holding back on quests (which they sure aren't), we aren't testing the game, just its mechanics. Open beta is simply way to late for that. Stress testing was part of closed beta 2, they even called it such. What we are testing now is the game to be expacted at launch, minus the full story arc.
The entire guild system, including guild leves has not been turned on in open beta...
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
Player feedback on content is very important during beta, especially in closed beta given that these days open beta are often used for "try before you buy". Its such feedback that a developer would use to determine what a community finds fun and interesting, so that when it comes to open beta they have something people will be interested in. SE have shown zero interest in this area, to the point where I'm not even sure why they even bothered with closed beta, never mind open. Even if they suddenly added a game's worth of quests (which they aren't going to do), they'd have zero perspective on if they are enjoyable. Developers become focused on reaching their objectives to scopes handed to them, hence why they need external players to assist in the testing.
As a result In the case of FF XIV open beta was a very bad idea, as there's so little content, with a lot of broken mechanics. All they have done is damaged their sales. They'll still hit decent sales figures though, simply on the name and the fact that most people don't read forums or take part in betas.
Actually, I don't think so. Player feedback on content is not as important as you think. Look at all those single player game. The story telling, quest, cinematic do not have open beta before they release. Yet, people still enjoy them without any problem. In fact, release them out to public before release the game would be a mistake because it would spoil the fun when the game is released. What excited is there when you already know, seen all those quest story, cutscene... Duh! Open beta is free, nobody has to pay anything to play. What do you think would happen if a game instead of a limited trial release all its contents to the public for a month? Who would buy the game after that?
The reason why SE hold back on quests, storylines, interesting contents and other things is very valid.
Again, they are not holding back on quests. Its just the complete story arc.
Core mechanics are tested during alpha and usually bleeds over to close beta 1, which is often friends and family, along with employees of the company. From then on while bugs are part of the testing, how a game plays become a key focus (or at least should, and is the norm). The final stage of closed beta is often fine tuning of mechanics and content, while removing the last game break bugs, before entering open beta. Open beta is generally used for stress testing the live systems, amongst minor tuning to the game.
If SE where holding back on quests (which they sure aren't), we aren't testing the game, just its mechanics. Open beta is simply way to late for that. Stress testing was part of closed beta 2, they even called it such. What we are testing now is the game to be expacted at launch, minus the full story arc.
The entire guild system, including guild leves has not been turned on in open beta...
Oh boy! The whole guild can grind mobs in the field! That changes everything!
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
Completely agree with the OP. Any and all judgement should happen on the 22nd. No if, ands, or buts.
Agreed Elocke. The naysayers came in, saw it wasn't dumbed down like WoW and they quickly called the game horrible. FFXIV reminded me of how gaming was in the good old days.
agree, FFXIV was made for casual gamers and also for old gamers like myself( play UO,EQ1(didn't really like to combat but everything else was Fucking amazing) and FFXI.
this game mostly for FFXI fans, FF fans and old slow-strat system gamers who like to think about our action rather then SPam same 3 buttons =(
I played EQ in Beta up until 2003 and DAoC from 2001-2003. Then I played in the glory days of SWG, went back to EQ until 2004 when I joined WoW.
I loved EQ, I loved WoW. I've played FF Tactics 7 times through, Warhammer Table Top, Blood Bowl for years. I hate FFXIV, it really just seems to suck to me. I'm a slow-strat gamer and I feel this game is neither a slow-strat game nor a good game.
Player feedback on content is very important during beta, especially in closed beta given that these days open beta are often used for "try before you buy". Its such feedback that a developer would use to determine what a community finds fun and interesting, so that when it comes to open beta they have something people will be interested in. SE have shown zero interest in this area, to the point where I'm not even sure why they even bothered with closed beta, never mind open. Even if they suddenly added a game's worth of quests (which they aren't going to do), they'd have zero perspective on if they are enjoyable. Developers become focused on reaching their objectives to scopes handed to them, hence why they need external players to assist in the testing.
As a result In the case of FF XIV open beta was a very bad idea, as there's so little content, with a lot of broken mechanics. All they have done is damaged their sales. They'll still hit decent sales figures though, simply on the name and the fact that most people don't read forums or take part in betas.
Actually, I don't think so. Player feedback on content is not as important as you think. Look at all those single player game. The story telling, quest, cinematic do not have open beta before they release. Yet, people still enjoy them without any problem. In fact, release them out to public before release the game would be a mistake because it would spoil the fun when the game is released. What excited is there when you already know, seen all those quest story, cutscene... Duh! Open beta is free, nobody has to pay anything to play. What do you think would happen if a game instead of a limited trial release all its contents to the public for a month? Who would buy the game after that?
The reason why SE hold back on quests, storylines, interesting contents and other things is very valid.
Again, they are not holding back on quests. Its just the complete story arc.
Core mechanics are tested during alpha and usually bleeds over to close beta 1, which is often friends and family, along with employees of the company. From then on while bugs are part of the testing, how a game plays become a key focus (or at least should, and is the norm). The final stage of closed beta is often fine tuning of mechanics and content, while removing the last game break bugs, before entering open beta. Open beta is generally used for stress testing the live systems, amongst minor tuning to the game.
If SE where holding back on quests (which they sure aren't), we aren't testing the game, just its mechanics. Open beta is simply way to late for that. Stress testing was part of closed beta 2, they even called it such. What we are testing now is the game to be expacted at launch, minus the full story arc.
The entire guild system, including guild leves has not been turned on in open beta...
Oh boy! The whole guild can grind mobs in the field! That changes everything!
People are complaining about lack of content, Are you playing the beta as you don;t seem to understand the guild system.
Reading your posts, you seem to be trying to be the new Lum without the wit or intelligence....
Completely agree with the OP. Any and all judgement should happen on the 22nd. No if, ands, or buts.
Agreed Elocke. The naysayers came in, saw it wasn't dumbed down like WoW and they quickly called the game horrible. FFXIV reminded me of how gaming was in the good old days.
Dumbed down? Do you mean "working" ? FFXIV is a broken game by any objective measure. You'd have to be blind to deny this.
But there is no point in arguing with you about it. The game will launch on schedule, and it will fail to attract any significant attention beyond a group of masochistic japanophiles. And as for you, you'll be hoping everyone has forgotten what kind of naive nonsense you were spouting prior to the game's release (i.e. now).
Let's talk again in 6 months.
There is a big difference between broken and suiting your own personal needs. Were you disappointed when it wasn't go kill 10 rats kind of quest or was it that fact you actually had to put a little skill into the game to make progress. Or was it that they did not have pointed arrows all over the place showing you where to go all the time. It is funny, people did the same whining when FFXI was launching and 10 years later it is considered to be one fo the best mmos in gaming. FFXIV will be doing the same thing all over again. No doubt it is not going to be a perfect launch for all but most of us players will be there at launch playing anyway.
Not having an open beta is always the worse scenario than just a CB -> release.
Pushing it back would've been pointless as far as i can see, as far as fixing server lag/crashes. You can't fix something if you don't break it first.
Stress testing is vital and a basic step every mmo has taken to date.
I think that's all true. But the problem is a marketing problem because players are getting in there and making a decision on the game based on what they are seeing.
When Guild Wars was being developed they had several short events where players could get into the game and break it, try it, give their opinions. Since there was always still time left before release it wasn't taken as "this is what the game will be like".
But when there is a game being released a few weeks away and players find issues, they suddenly jump to conclusions.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Normally open beta is not a testing phase it is a marketing phase. If a company feels they have a good product hey will let as many people in as possible. If they feel they have a bad product they will hide as much of the game as possible to maximise short term sales like AoC.
What is different here is SE does not really seem to care about the Western market. They make their money from the Eastern market not the western market and western sales are just added gravy. They know that the Eastern market will look long term and is willing to put up wih a game released 6-12 months early. They could care less that western market lacks patience. Their attitude is simply take it or leave we can care less if the game is unfinished. But unlike many western games they will finish the game eventually and it will be good thanks to the money from Eastern players.
Completely agree with the OP. Any and all judgement should happen on the 22nd. No if, ands, or buts.
Agreed Elocke. The naysayers came in, saw it wasn't dumbed down like WoW and they quickly called the game horrible. FFXIV reminded me of how gaming was in the good old days.
Dumbed down? Do you mean "working" ? FFXIV is a broken game by any objective measure. You'd have to be blind to deny this.
But there is no point in arguing with you about it. The game will launch on schedule, and it will fail to attract any significant attention beyond a group of masochistic japanophiles. And as for you, you'll be hoping everyone has forgotten what kind of naive nonsense you were spouting prior to the game's release (i.e. now).
Let's talk again in 6 months.
There is a big difference between broken and suiting your own personal needs. Were you disappointed when it wasn't go kill 10 rats kind of quest or was it that fact you actually had to put a little skill into the game to make progress. Or was it that they did not have pointed arrows all over the place showing you where to go all the time. It is funny, people did the same whining when FFXI was launching and 10 years later it is considered to be one fo the best mmos in gaming. FFXIV will be doing the same thing all over again. No doubt it is not going to be a perfect launch for all but most of us players will be there at launch playing anyway.
Yes I agree, major difference in broken vs your personal gaming style.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore) Now Playing: N/A Worst MMO: FFXIV Favorite MMO: FFXI
Having been through 6 open betas (and a few closed betas and alphas), I disagree with the likelihood of a major change or a substantial amount of content being hidden. There have been some interesting changes between open beta and live in a couple of those cases, but nowhere near the level of drastic mechanics or content changes. Overall, open beta in the last couple of weeks is pretty darn close to what you are going to see when it goes live.
One of the primary purposes of open beta is to stress test the beginning areas (all of them) when the hordes of new players start on the first few days. It would absolutely defeat this purpose to hide a major portion of the entry level and mid level content. Are there better ways to do stress testing? Not sure about better, but alternative ways would involve larger investments by the corporation since they would no longer have (essentially) free testers.
I think one of the bigger assumptions that you may not be aware that you are making is that everyone should love the game. And if they don't love the game, clearly it is because they don't understand the brilliance of the game. However, the simple reality is that no game will fit the bill for everyone. I really don't understand why the concern that there are those that don't like the game...who cares? I don't find the game particularly compelling...and you should absolutely not care one bit that I feel that way about it. Go enjoy the game yourself...and I sincerely hope it is everything that you hope it is.
Having been through 6 open betas (and a few closed betas and alphas), I disagree with the likelihood of a major change or a substantial amount of content being hidden. There have been some interesting changes between open beta and live in a couple of those cases, but nowhere near the level of drastic mechanics or content changes. Overall, open beta in the last couple of weeks is pretty darn close to what you are going to see when it goes live.
One of the primary purposes of open beta is to stress test the beginning areas (all of them) when the hordes of new players start on the first few days. It would absolutely defeat this purpose to hide a major portion of the entry level and mid level content. Are there better ways to do stress testing? Not sure about better, but alternative ways would involve larger investments by the corporation since they would no longer have (essentially) free testers.
I think one of the bigger assumptions that you may not be aware that you are making is that everyone should love the game. And if they don't love the game, clearly it is because they don't understand the brilliance of the game. However, the simple reality is that no game will fit the bill for everyone. I really don't understand why the concern that there are those that don't like the game...who cares? I don't find the game particularly compelling...and you should absolutely not care one bit that I feel that way about it. Go enjoy the game yourself...and I sincerely hope it is everything that you hope it is.
How many of those open betas had tripple the amount of starting areas as opposed to their closed beta versions? How many of those open betas belonged to games playable on both consoles and computers? How many of those came from a large japanese company that is renowned for their heavy focus on story elements?
There are just so many things that are different with FF XIV that makes generalizations based on previous Open Betas not so wise to do.
An intelligent choice, if you don't have economical issues, is to test the game the 22nd and then ask yourself: "Am I having fun?".
For SE it might be a bad idea in economical sense; however, not necessarily from an ideological perspective: sometimes you stick your "codes of honour" despite lower economical gain.
As for gamers: it completely depends on how the game looks like during retail. If we see major improvements UI-wise and far stronger story elements, then people who drew conclusions to avoid the game, based on too few facts from the betas, will have been negativly affected by the open beta and their own overgeneralizing thoughts.
SE sux at catering their mmo´s, in general.BTW i am a fan.
was it a bad idea ? definetly, their missing the CE orders from whiners since now they have played for free.( on the other hand , they keep raising instead of going down according to every site that sells it)
People that arent fans should wait till later on after release anyways, is gonna be a messy ride on day 1.Ill be happy to see the kids who buy stuf without reviews or having a fair idea what the game is like crying around to get their money back couse the game is not what they tought it would be.Priceless.
At least this way we wont have them flaming forums a few months after release i supouse.
It is not broken. It simply appears broken because we had completely different expectations in several regards.
1. The game appears to lack content. We expect to see the whole game released at open beta and for the only changes between here and launch to be bug fixes. This is normal for most of the MMO industry. We dont believe there will be more content because we have never seen anyone do it this way before. SE has done this before. SE has never had a problem with having enough content in their FF games. Nearly half the download size is missing. They have said on the beta site that there is more. And there are hints within the game that things are missing like being told that the other guilds will have task for the character to do.
2. The control scheme seems broken. They definitly failed to take full advantage of the existence of the mouse. This is an unfortunate choice in my opinion. Adding "click to walk to" style mouse movement as well as some basic context menu support on objects as well as UI elements would have added considerably to the playablity of the game for those used to mouse control. I do not buy that such support couldn't have been done. But they did choose not to do it. That is not broken but rather a difference of design opinion. But that is the choice they made. They choose to use a console based control scheme ONLY. I would have choosen differently. But that was their choice and most of their existing customers are cool with that.
3. The game design seems off. From a lack of direction and tutorial elements to a greater emphasis on mob hunt style grinding for levels. The lack of directions comes from the game fundamentally being an RPG Adventure game. They expect you to poke around and find things. To discover hidden bits and pieces. This is fairly unexpected for those who primarily play MMOs and have had little or no exposure to FF style adventure games. Further, the default position of most western mmo players seems to be that questing for exp is normal but grinding mobs for exp is not. There are many games that just doen't have a problem with grinding mobs to gain exp. You either grind mobs or you grind quests. There are few exceptions to those two choices.
This game also appears to have several mechanics in place not only as design philosophy but also for the sake of immersion and having a consistent explaination. In this case, they appear to have wanted to keep it "realistic" by making it so that you had to do the job you wanted to level in order to level it and that is separate from money making activities. Specifically, you kill mobs to level your combat jobs, you gather to level your gathering jobs and you make things to level your crafting jobs. But notice that killing mobs doesn't, in and of itself give you cash directly. Mobs don't drop cash and owls dont drop bronze axes out their arses. The only things mobs drop are crafting supplies which can be only either be used for crafting or sold to crafters. To make money directly you have to pick up these "Work Order" type job requests called guildleves. The guildleves only make you money, they don't give you any exp at all directly. Rather you only get exp while doing them because you have to "do" something to get them done. Separating the making of money by doing things for someone from the idea of getting better at something by simply doing it is interestingly realistic. But rather unexpected for those of us who are used to Western mmos that almost exclusively use quests for everything including making them the primary gear provider, the primary money provider the primary exp provider and the primary story delivery mechanism. FFXIV really only uses guildleve quests to deliver cash and a very limited amount of gear. They use crafting to provide most gear as well as exp for crafting classes. They use gatherining to provide gathering class exp as well as most crafting mats. They use mob killing to provide all combat class exp as well as some mats for crafting. And finally they use talking to npcs and specific storyline quests to deliver the story. So you could level by only doing guildleves but you don't have to and they game certainly does lend itself to simply hunting mobs for their own sake, that is both to "practice" and to get certain crafting mats.
Their choices are odd, but not unintended and therefore broken in the classic sense. They may turn out to be bad choices. They at least failed to manage customer expectations well here in the west outside their existing FF fanbase.
When you go into open beta then you just have the most of the game ready to show to the public and expect their input on things you could not find.
I downloaded the installer/downloaded. But my experience with it went that much. the downloader never run. that is not ready for open beta. should be thrown away and start over.
Comments
Dumbed down? Do you mean "working" ? FFXIV is a broken game by any objective measure. You'd have to be blind to deny this.
But there is no point in arguing with you about it. The game will launch on schedule, and it will fail to attract any significant attention beyond a group of masochistic japanophiles. And as for you, you'll be hoping everyone has forgotten what kind of naive nonsense you were spouting prior to the game's release (i.e. now).
Let's talk again in 6 months.
agree, FFXIV was made for casual gamers and also for old gamers like myself( play UO,EQ1(didn't really like to combat but everything else was Fucking amazing) and FFXI.
this game mostly for FFXI fans, FF fans and old slow-strat system gamers who like to think about our action rather then SPam same 3 buttons =(
Guess I am one of those players that will hold comments until the game is released. Not that I think a lot will change, only that the relase is the "right" time to experience and decide. I am also not one of those "every game has a bad launch" types, that is, a game released should contained all the elements that has been announced. That said, the results of the OB is purely in the place of the developer and rather or not the check point was made for them. One thing is certain, upon relase all excuses are out the window and the "I told you so's" will commence. With all the hype this company did, they better come up with a playable game.
Your hilarious, do you have a newsletter?
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
@Mysticum
It's OB for networking you moron.
Godamn how many ignorant people are on these forums?
"This is broken, that is broken.." No shit?
One so far.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
You're a funny guy, do you do stand-up?
The entire guild system, including guild leves has not been turned on in open beta...
Yep.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Oh boy! The whole guild can grind mobs in the field! That changes everything!
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Not having an open beta is always the worse scenario than just a CB -> release.
Pushing it back would've been pointless as far as i can see, as far as fixing server lag/crashes. You can't fix something if you don't break it first.
Stress testing is vital and a basic step every mmo has taken to date.
I played EQ in Beta up until 2003 and DAoC from 2001-2003. Then I played in the glory days of SWG, went back to EQ until 2004 when I joined WoW.
I loved EQ, I loved WoW. I've played FF Tactics 7 times through, Warhammer Table Top, Blood Bowl for years. I hate FFXIV, it really just seems to suck to me. I'm a slow-strat gamer and I feel this game is neither a slow-strat game nor a good game.
He who keeps his cool best wins.
People are complaining about lack of content, Are you playing the beta as you don;t seem to understand the guild system.
Reading your posts, you seem to be trying to be the new Lum without the wit or intelligence....
There is a big difference between broken and suiting your own personal needs. Were you disappointed when it wasn't go kill 10 rats kind of quest or was it that fact you actually had to put a little skill into the game to make progress. Or was it that they did not have pointed arrows all over the place showing you where to go all the time. It is funny, people did the same whining when FFXI was launching and 10 years later it is considered to be one fo the best mmos in gaming. FFXIV will be doing the same thing all over again. No doubt it is not going to be a perfect launch for all but most of us players will be there at launch playing anyway.
I think that's all true. But the problem is a marketing problem because players are getting in there and making a decision on the game based on what they are seeing.
When Guild Wars was being developed they had several short events where players could get into the game and break it, try it, give their opinions. Since there was always still time left before release it wasn't taken as "this is what the game will be like".
But when there is a game being released a few weeks away and players find issues, they suddenly jump to conclusions.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Normally open beta is not a testing phase it is a marketing phase. If a company feels they have a good product hey will let as many people in as possible. If they feel they have a bad product they will hide as much of the game as possible to maximise short term sales like AoC.
What is different here is SE does not really seem to care about the Western market. They make their money from the Eastern market not the western market and western sales are just added gravy. They know that the Eastern market will look long term and is willing to put up wih a game released 6-12 months early. They could care less that western market lacks patience. Their attitude is simply take it or leave we can care less if the game is unfinished. But unlike many western games they will finish the game eventually and it will be good thanks to the money from Eastern players.
Yes I agree, major difference in broken vs your personal gaming style.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
Having been through 6 open betas (and a few closed betas and alphas), I disagree with the likelihood of a major change or a substantial amount of content being hidden. There have been some interesting changes between open beta and live in a couple of those cases, but nowhere near the level of drastic mechanics or content changes. Overall, open beta in the last couple of weeks is pretty darn close to what you are going to see when it goes live.
One of the primary purposes of open beta is to stress test the beginning areas (all of them) when the hordes of new players start on the first few days. It would absolutely defeat this purpose to hide a major portion of the entry level and mid level content. Are there better ways to do stress testing? Not sure about better, but alternative ways would involve larger investments by the corporation since they would no longer have (essentially) free testers.
I think one of the bigger assumptions that you may not be aware that you are making is that everyone should love the game. And if they don't love the game, clearly it is because they don't understand the brilliance of the game. However, the simple reality is that no game will fit the bill for everyone. I really don't understand why the concern that there are those that don't like the game...who cares? I don't find the game particularly compelling...and you should absolutely not care one bit that I feel that way about it. Go enjoy the game yourself...and I sincerely hope it is everything that you hope it is.
How many of those open betas had tripple the amount of starting areas as opposed to their closed beta versions? How many of those open betas belonged to games playable on both consoles and computers? How many of those came from a large japanese company that is renowned for their heavy focus on story elements?
There are just so many things that are different with FF XIV that makes generalizations based on previous Open Betas not so wise to do.
An intelligent choice, if you don't have economical issues, is to test the game the 22nd and then ask yourself: "Am I having fun?".
Q. Was open beta a bad idea?
A. For SE, definately, for gamers, No.
For SE it might be a bad idea in economical sense; however, not necessarily from an ideological perspective: sometimes you stick your "codes of honour" despite lower economical gain.
As for gamers: it completely depends on how the game looks like during retail. If we see major improvements UI-wise and far stronger story elements, then people who drew conclusions to avoid the game, based on too few facts from the betas, will have been negativly affected by the open beta and their own overgeneralizing thoughts.
Actually the graphics design for WURM online isn't it? Amazing textures overhaul btw, I'm surprised you haven't commented much on FFXIV's artwork.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
SE sux at catering their mmo´s, in general.BTW i am a fan.
was it a bad idea ? definetly, their missing the CE orders from whiners since now they have played for free.( on the other hand , they keep raising instead of going down according to every site that sells it)
People that arent fans should wait till later on after release anyways, is gonna be a messy ride on day 1.Ill be happy to see the kids who buy stuf without reviews or having a fair idea what the game is like crying around to get their money back couse the game is not what they tought it would be.Priceless.
At least this way we wont have them flaming forums a few months after release i supouse.
It is not broken. It simply appears broken because we had completely different expectations in several regards.
1. The game appears to lack content. We expect to see the whole game released at open beta and for the only changes between here and launch to be bug fixes. This is normal for most of the MMO industry. We dont believe there will be more content because we have never seen anyone do it this way before. SE has done this before. SE has never had a problem with having enough content in their FF games. Nearly half the download size is missing. They have said on the beta site that there is more. And there are hints within the game that things are missing like being told that the other guilds will have task for the character to do.
2. The control scheme seems broken. They definitly failed to take full advantage of the existence of the mouse. This is an unfortunate choice in my opinion. Adding "click to walk to" style mouse movement as well as some basic context menu support on objects as well as UI elements would have added considerably to the playablity of the game for those used to mouse control. I do not buy that such support couldn't have been done. But they did choose not to do it. That is not broken but rather a difference of design opinion. But that is the choice they made. They choose to use a console based control scheme ONLY. I would have choosen differently. But that was their choice and most of their existing customers are cool with that.
3. The game design seems off. From a lack of direction and tutorial elements to a greater emphasis on mob hunt style grinding for levels. The lack of directions comes from the game fundamentally being an RPG Adventure game. They expect you to poke around and find things. To discover hidden bits and pieces. This is fairly unexpected for those who primarily play MMOs and have had little or no exposure to FF style adventure games. Further, the default position of most western mmo players seems to be that questing for exp is normal but grinding mobs for exp is not. There are many games that just doen't have a problem with grinding mobs to gain exp. You either grind mobs or you grind quests. There are few exceptions to those two choices.
This game also appears to have several mechanics in place not only as design philosophy but also for the sake of immersion and having a consistent explaination. In this case, they appear to have wanted to keep it "realistic" by making it so that you had to do the job you wanted to level in order to level it and that is separate from money making activities. Specifically, you kill mobs to level your combat jobs, you gather to level your gathering jobs and you make things to level your crafting jobs. But notice that killing mobs doesn't, in and of itself give you cash directly. Mobs don't drop cash and owls dont drop bronze axes out their arses. The only things mobs drop are crafting supplies which can be only either be used for crafting or sold to crafters. To make money directly you have to pick up these "Work Order" type job requests called guildleves. The guildleves only make you money, they don't give you any exp at all directly. Rather you only get exp while doing them because you have to "do" something to get them done. Separating the making of money by doing things for someone from the idea of getting better at something by simply doing it is interestingly realistic. But rather unexpected for those of us who are used to Western mmos that almost exclusively use quests for everything including making them the primary gear provider, the primary money provider the primary exp provider and the primary story delivery mechanism. FFXIV really only uses guildleve quests to deliver cash and a very limited amount of gear. They use crafting to provide most gear as well as exp for crafting classes. They use gatherining to provide gathering class exp as well as most crafting mats. They use mob killing to provide all combat class exp as well as some mats for crafting. And finally they use talking to npcs and specific storyline quests to deliver the story. So you could level by only doing guildleves but you don't have to and they game certainly does lend itself to simply hunting mobs for their own sake, that is both to "practice" and to get certain crafting mats.
Their choices are odd, but not unintended and therefore broken in the classic sense. They may turn out to be bad choices. They at least failed to manage customer expectations well here in the west outside their existing FF fanbase.
All die, so die well.
When you go into open beta then you just have the most of the game ready to show to the public and expect their input on things you could not find.
I downloaded the installer/downloaded. But my experience with it went that much. the downloader never run. that is not ready for open beta. should be thrown away and start over.