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FFIX review
Mattpbm
Member Posts: 13
Before I write this let me just say that I am by no means a published game reviewer. I am an experienced mmo player with several titles under my belt. So you can take my review for whatever its worth be it gold or a grain of salt.
I began playing FF14 on the day the issued open beta keys and today I have deleted the game.
Leveling:
I tried out several different ways to level my GLD rank. I did the regional lvl quests and then waited for them to become availble again. I travelled to the 2 other main towns and used my teleport to get those quests, only to find out that my anima soon ran out and did not replish quickly enough to keep this option possible. Combine these two with the fact that regional lvl quests dont refresh for some time 30+hours and I was forced to do painfull grinding. There is a difference between grinding that is ok and grinding that is mind numbing on the level of drinking straight everclear...FF14 is the later. The fact that regional quests are on a ridiclously long timer adds to the frustration. You are almost punished for being in a party when u go out grinding as you get less hits in on an NPC and thus less chance to gain skill. This is an MMO you are suppose to form teams to accomplish in game results.
Grade: F
Crafting:
I rather enjoy the crafting system in the game. Not only can you take up numerous professions but whlie crafting you can determine the qulity of your items. One of the things I disliked about WoW was its vanila crafting. Here you can make a high or low quality item based solo on you skill during the crafting process. The one thing I disliked about the crating processs is you have no recipe book on you displaying the recipes that you learn along with their required mateials. I enjoyed the Local Level quests which introduced you to the crafting system and helped level your skill. I think there needs to be a better tutorial for each profession and a personal recipe book but thats about it.
Grade: B+
PVE content:
Here is where we are going to get into a very subjective matter for me. I live for pve content esspecially party based quests/missions like the dungeon based instances in WoW. After grinding to lvl 10 I would have hoped there would have been at the very least lvl 10 group quests that were part of the story line quest you had to do at the begining. But there was none and no instances either. It was more of the same FAIL leveling. To make maters worse the pve regional quests where the same every time they became availble. There is no intro help what so ever in this game. From the outset you have no real idea where to go so you are left with just going around, talking to NPCs, and eventually bumping into what you need to do.
Grade: F
PVP contnet:
There is none...fine by me I am PVEer anyway.
Grade: not applicable
Economy:
Normally I wouldn't even comment here because it is in beta phase and the economy isn't even deveolped but I will because their system is a FAIL system. Instead of an AH or some other centralized market place you have a half ass instance where you place a retainer, the retainer the sells your items you wish to sell. If you wish to buy something you have to go to one of the instances with retainers (there are several) and check each and every retainer looking for what you want to buy like a needle in a hay stack. There is no way you can price your items if you wish to sell because you cant check the market cause there is none and if you want to buy there is no way you can check every retainer and thus even if you manage to find what you want whos to say you bought the item that was priced the lowest.
Grade: F
Interface:
Complete and uter fail. Your mouse moves slow. Tab targeting is less efficent then pointing with you mouse. Vendors are so slow. To equip, craft, or view an item you have to jump through so many windows and they take a long time to load. If you want to trade with someone count on a simple transaction taking about 5 min. In order to private message someon you must type out their entire name, first and last (last name lol fail), everytime...it takes forever. One thing that is very annoying is there is no clear way to invite someone to party unless they are standing right in front of you.
Grade: F
Sumation:
The game is bad plain and simple. To all of you (very few I think) who love this game and rip on people like me by saying "You just want a simple game with shallow character development" I have this to say. In several interviews the Developers of this title say they wanted to make this game playable for the more casual gamer. They have failed completly at this thus the game is a failure of a product. The amount of effort that is required here is beyond a casual gamer. Combine that with a lack of overall fun while playing, long travel times, bad, UI, and poor grinding and the game is a fail product. I forget how many years it was in development 5, 6 or more. But after all that time and millions of dollars spent the lead developers should not have a job in a few months.
Looking forward to SWTOR....laters!
Comments
You do know that guild leves are on a LONGER recharge for OB then they are intended to be for launch and that most of them aren't avaible yet right? This OB isn't meant to let you play the entire game for free. Most of the problems you are complaining about are because they specifically don't want people playing the entire game for free.
And the lack of auction house system is awesome. So glad lazy people can't easily look up a price. Welcome to the art of trading.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
Change your topic title.
I'll just say this and nothing more because I'm a little lazy to repeat the same thing for the 100th time: What you reviewed is the Open Beta, and SE has currently blocked a very large amount of content from the game, as this beta is intended for Server Stress Test and fixing lag issues and such.
Eh, why do they make it hard for players to test the guild leves? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
As for the lack of AH...so you think that MIGHT benefit you? How about all the players who don't want to waste their time running around looking for what they want? How about people who don't want to deal with stupid fights over placing their retainers in front of other people and trying to get the "best spot"? An AH overall makes things a lot easier for the customer and players alike. Call them lazy if you want, but then they might as well call you lazy for even playing a video game (that sort of argument doesn't get far).
Reply in orange
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
I foresee spending 6 hours wandering through these '50' instances of retainers (8 or 10 I believe in reality) just trying to find one item and being unable to find it. Much rather spam /sh (shout) sadly...
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
Or, you can go tell your retainer to find the item for you and be done with it? Or, and this info is hear-say so don't quote me on it, you can use the not yet implemented EvE like market boards.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
The irony is that your argument in supports the idea of crafters serving a purpose. There's nothing there, NOTHING, that makes crafters worth the trouble of interacting with or going through all that.
You know what makes crafters serve a purpose? Crafting items that are GOOD and being able to sell or otherwise distribute those items to a community. An AH then facilitates this really well, but even that only serves a purpose IF they can craft items that are good (which a different matter altogether).
Like you said, a system like this might encourage/force people to befriend crafters...since the system sucks so bad it is generally not worth dealing with. That of course makes it harder for crafters to get the raw materials they need to craft...and all this generally retards the market by making leveling crafting more difficult. Overall it is a mess.
I hope so. I haven't used a retainer yet myself but if either of these systems makes it do-able then it shouldn't be too bad. I'm not asking for an auction house, just a way to to find out where the person or retainer is who has what I need.
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
Eh, I hadn't heard anything about retainers going to look and find items for you, merely that they could be setup as a storefront (and hold equipment and such for you too).
An EvE-like market board is good though. Better than an AH in a number of ways, imho, but it is essentially an AH in terms of ease of use and so forth.
This is a bit of a silly post, 3/4 of the things you complain about are likely caused by the fact that it's beta not the whole product nor the polished product. For being in beta, they are doing much better than a number of recent releases... FE, MO, DF, for example.
Another worthless review based on an OB which is obviously lacking in content. Even if it wasnt lacking its still a good game offering somehing other than wow clone # 374. The only purpose of this OB was to stress the servers, thats it, not a free trial of the retail game. If someone is ignorant enogh to believe this is the retail version then so be it they dont need to be playing ffxiv anyways.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
Before the advent of "bind on equip" auction houses made crafter completely worthless because 90% of people recycled gear. What AH do to crafter now is remove all forms of player interaction, which is bad for a vibrant economy. What it also does is FIX prices, which destroys the art of trading. For instance, in FFXI the price of Carp was controlled by the fishing guild. They didn't have a monopoly on the item, but they effectively sold every single Carp they got for 4k that the price became 4k. Where was the art of haggling or trading in that, there wasn't any. This has happened in other games as well, especially with rare material. The people who get the "rares" first fix the prices to the point that, even when they become common, the price still is artificially high.
What the retainer/100s of player shops does is allow for the most common items to be sold easily, while the rare items are more difficult to attain. This manes that players will actually have the option of haggling on a more regular basis, this means that people who pay attention to the market price can turn a profit easier, etc. Trading will actually be important, and by design crafting will be doubly so. The most common crafted items will actually sell for a decent price and be worth crafting. Players who enter the game late and want to be crafters won't feel like they are grinding because their items will always be in demand for a reasonable price because trading is slightly more difficult.
TLDR: AH system destroy trading. They are nothing more than a recycle bin that is easily controlled like the stock market.
You are one of the many people who complain about the game yet haven't even bothered to read the guide on how it suppose to work. Go read the guide FFS.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
Obvious question...
How do you review an unreleased game?
Second obvious question...
How do you review said game as a complete retail title when all its content is not yet in place, various systems aren't "set in stone", and "cool-downs" (e.g. leves) are not final?
Third obvious question...
How do you do either and expect it to be taken seriously by anyone who doesn't already agree with you about said unreleased and unfinalized game?
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Err, AH destroys trading because it gets rid of cartels and haggling while still allowing goods and monies to flow? Wow...just...wow.
Err, I went and looked it up BEFORE I POSTED. I read several sites and none of them had what you were talking about. So I mentioned I hadn't heard about it and I mentioned what I had heard. Maybe you could look to what you are talking about because I can't find it.
http://www.eorzeapedia.com/wiki/en/Retainer
It's not there, for instance.
I'd not go as far as saying AH's destroy trading, but they certainly do damage the crafting communty and immersion if implemented in isolation. Personnally I do prefer player ran malls, but AH's also play a part for the more casual crafter who doesn't want to run a shop, or indeed even a non-crafter who's obtained a drop and doesn't want to hang around.
The better economy systems I've come across have both.
Someone suggested a "Backwards" AH system. I.E A Bulletin board you could post on asking for items and telling people what you were willing to pay. People could then take this "Job" Promising to fulfil it. The items and gil would be transfered automatically, but it would be interesting because it allows for a personal connection between the buyer and seller and allows people to become sole suppliers to whomever they decide is willing to pay the most, without harming a free market where people can set up shops and sell things however they want.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
AHs make cartels easier to create and removes haggling. AH system aren't trading systems, there isn't any social contact being made. They are nothing more than a recycle bin for unwanted goods. They are just as bad as the stock market.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
No. You can't go on and on about how GREAT it was that the Fishing Guild controlled fish prices in FFXI because there was no AH and then turn around and say an AH makes it easier. Either they are bad things and FFXI having them is bad or they are good things in which case your argument here falls apart (and I've never seen a Cartel work well in a game with an AH...there's just too much competition that is accessible). Pick an argument and stick with it.
Besides, like you said, there's an easy way to make AH's not recycle binds. Bind On Equip gear is a crafter's friend.
And I, for one, do not enjoy wasting my time haggling. I'd rather use an AH-like system and "haggle" there by picking a price I like or not buying if it is too expensive. Besides, it isn't like you can haggle with a retainer.
I think AH's are good for crafters actually. It is a bit of a pain to run all over a whole city looking for something. If you think about it, an AH is a city wide retainer, centrally located where everyone's goods can be seen side by side and the best price sells.
Oh, I think a "backwards" AH is a good system, arguably better than the AH (or maybe some sort of dual system that does both would be even better).
I just don't see the advantage of having little bazaars. It's like saying you shouldn't look up prices for stuff you buy on the internet.
So are you saying that there are no good craftable items? are we talking about ffxiv here? due to the game only being in the beta phase, im going to come to the conclusion that you are mistaken. i already know for a fact that certain items/weapons will only be atainable through crafting. this in itself servers a purpose for seeking out that master craftsman of goldsmithing or etc.
how did you come to your conclusion about the crafting? im very curiuos about this
I won't echo what has been said about the Bazaars, but typically, Japanese style gamers prefer item stands. FFXI had both Stands and AHs, and many Americanized Japanese MMORPGs also feature these methods of bartering.
I think the problem here isn't necessarily a lack of communication between a buyer and seller, but the instant gratification one receives when purchasing something, or selling something instantaneous on the AH. If I want an item I can quickly; and easily find it by simply typing in its name or part of its name.
To find an item in a "Bazaar" you have to do a lot of jumping through hoops, skipping and spamming the trade channels. It seems counter-productive and I'm in favor of AH system; however, I have played and experienced both extensively, which is to say that I do know the inner workings fairly well.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher