Does this mean that the game is basically buy to play now? I bought the collector's edition and stopped playing within the first week. I never extended my subscription or did anything else past the free month. Could I log on now without paying anything?
I really wanted to like this game. But it was kind of like going to a really nice restaurant and being served good food but then only being supplied chopsticks to eat it with.
"You will use chopsticks and you will like it"!
"But I ordered a steak"
"You no like it, you go McDonalds"!!
You can't eat a steak with chopsticks?
For a medical reason right? That's kind of sad. There's some youtube videos that can teach you.
Does this mean that the game is basically buy to play now? I bought the collector's edition and stopped playing within the first week. I never extended my subscription or did anything else past the free month. Could I log on now without paying anything?
Based on what was said today - apparently the game is B2P for now. In your case, I think the intent is that when you re-activate the account, you will not be charged.
Does this mean that the game is basically buy to play now? I bought the collector's edition and stopped playing within the first week. I never extended my subscription or did anything else past the free month. Could I log on now without paying anything?
Yes, you can log on and play without paying anything until further notice. That said, if you couldn't even get through more than a week of playing you should wait at least until the December patches. The November patch did improve some stuff like the menu lag, skill points for solo players, and a faster leveling process for lower levels but it's largely the same game. December should bring some more good stuff so you may want to hold until then to see the accumulated changes.
I think Darkfall (while doing quite well ATM) still has a ways to go, but EVE is a good example.
It took EVE 5+ years to make all those changes. How can we compare FFXIV to follow same path of success? it was very different times and moreover EVE was unique and hardly had any competition in sci-fi genre.
A previous poster challenged anyone to name a game that had a rough launch that ended up doing well in the long run. The post (along with others) appears to have been removed. That's it, and that's probably why you are confused.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Just got that in my email too. Interesting point is right here, IMHO:
As stated above, the newly restructured team's top priority is to bring about improvements to the game's enjoyability, and therefore we have decided to extend the free trial period until we can provide a plan that outlines a level of enjoyment that will satisfy both us and our customers. When we are confident that we have reached that goal, we will notify our customers immediately.
In other words, subscription payments suspended indefinately.
Consider my account reactivated. This $75 collector's edition is turning out to be cheaper than most P2P MMORPGs after all.
I kinda feel sorry they underwent a major development re-org because I'm honestly not sure it's the developers fault. It was just pushed to market before they got around to adding enough content to satisfy or streamline the engine. The engine was well streamlined in the November megapatch, but the content is still deeply lacking.
Weren't you the guy that was on here EVERY day defending this game at launch and telling everyone that didn't like the game that they were too stupid to get it and that it was their fault, not the game?
I did some defense of the game when i twas released. Just because we enjoy the game doesn't mean we're blind to its faults. One of the biggest reasons that I bought the CE was not because I thought the beta was fantastic, but because I thought it had bunches of potential. I still do. The game has a massive number of problems, of which I think the most dire is the complete lack of content, but they have plenty to work with. FFXI was the same way it's first year. But now it's one of the better, more successful MMOs available.
Just got that in my email too. Interesting point is right here, IMHO:
As stated above, the newly restructured team's top priority is to bring about improvements to the game's enjoyability, and therefore we have decided to extend the free trial period until we can provide a plan that outlines a level of enjoyment that will satisfy both us and our customers. When we are confident that we have reached that goal, we will notify our customers immediately.
In other words, subscription payments suspended indefinately.
Consider my account reactivated. This $75 collector's edition is turning out to be cheaper than most P2P MMORPGs after all.
I kinda feel sorry they underwent a major development re-org because I'm honestly not sure it's the developers fault. It was just pushed to market before they got around to adding enough content to satisfy or streamline the engine. The engine was well streamlined in the November megapatch, but the content is still deeply lacking.
Weren't you the guy that was on here EVERY day defending this game at launch and telling everyone that didn't like the game that they were too stupid to get it and that it was their fault, not the game?
I did some defense of the game when i twas released. Just because we enjoy the game doesn't mean we're blind to its faults. One of the biggest reasons that I bought the CE was not because I thought the beta was fantastic, but because I thought it had bunches of potential. I still do. The game has a massive number of problems, of which I think the most dire is the complete lack of content, but they have plenty to work with. FFXI was the same way it's first year. But now it's one of the better, more successful MMOs available.
FFXI was not the same way it's first year.
I didn't like it because it was liner and slow, but it had content.
400k-500k players isn't that much when you consider the game is out in the US, Europe, Japan, China, France
400k+ is a huge number when you are looking at games outside of the WOW bracket. You could most probably combine all the major (big name studios) game releases for the past 3-4 years and they would be lucky to have over 500k active paying subscribers combined.
WAR, AoC, Aion, STO, CO etc. sold hundreds of thousands of copies and then promptly nose-dived into the relam of server mergers to support their dwindling subscriber base after mass exoduses from the respective games. No, I don't believe that FFXIV will ever see numbers in the hundred of thousands, as I said earlier, high tens at best. It doesn't mean that it can't ever be a good game, I just don't feel that it will be a game that will ever appeal to the masses regardless of the changes that are made. The game's name has been tarnished by this debacle and in 6 onths time many who may have been at one time interested in the game will more than likely have moved on. Why wait around hoping for a game to get better, when there is still a chance that it won't?
WoW is the exception, not the rule. Most MMOs (especially Western developed) don't fall into its bracket.
You have WoW with its 10+ million... then everything else with its few hundred thousand. It doesn't make all those other MMOs sub-par necessarily. It does make WoW super-successful though. That's the difference.
The problem is, WoW's success has completely skewed everyone's expectations of what a "successful MMO" has to have.
Again, FFXI has been a cash cow for SE for years with the ~500k they had.
300k could be a perfectly healthy population if its bringing the developers a profit.
Look at Eve Online. That MMO has, what, 300k players? It's been very successful for CCP. It's allowed them to support the game, enhance it, expand it and even spin off into a second game set in the same universe (Dust 514). If someone were to look at Eve's history, where it started and where it is now, it would be pretty darn ignorant to say it's not a very successful game simply because it doesn't have WoW-like numbers.
But perhaps you touch on a big issue... People are too caught up in numbers.
As for your last question... Because you enjoy playing the game would be a perfectly good answer. There *are* people playing the game who enjoy it even now, even though they realize it has some improving to do. Kinda have to be careful about wandering into generalizations when you pose questions like that.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Really? The company itself has admitted the game is a complete and utter failure to this point, and you lack the intelligence to see we are merely agreeing with SE. This game is junk. The developer realizes this and is apologizing, but here you are still trying to defend what exactly? You were wrong. We were right, as usual. We being those of us who demand a quality product, and you being those who just blindly jump game to game being a full-time fanboi until you realize the game sucks.
All the events and circumstances which lead to this decision, when taken in as a whole yes it is a disaster. What else would you call it? a success?
So they shouldn't have done it? Yes, considering the current situation of the game (which isn't going to change no matter how much people keep repeating it) this is the best course of action and was not set in stone that this would even happen. It's a good thing it did.
Meh... I wouldn't pay it too much mind.
It's one of those lose-lose situations with some people around here. No matter *what* SE did, they're going to find the black cloud in the silver lining.
In other MMOs, players who feel they've been cheated or let down are always demanding free playtime, acknowledgment that the dev screwed up... and on and on. They claim that they'd think better of the company if they did those things and it would earn back some of their respect.
SE does just that... so now it's "well, yeah they're doing those things... but THEY STILL F'd UP! SO THERE!"
Their situations are nothing more than a conclusion looking for a reason... and any reason will do.
When someone is committed to bashing a developer (SE or otherwise), nothing the developer does will be "good enough".
That's all you really need to keep in mind.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Kinda have to be careful about wandering into generalizations when you pose questions like that.
I was directing it more at those who were sitting on the fence with regards to waiting for the game to be fixed before buying, or those who may have held out until March for the PS3 release. They are more likely be the ones that walk away to find a game that 'works as intended' rather than wait for FFXIV to one day maybe becoem the game that it should have been at launch.
Kinda have to be careful about wandering into generalizations when you pose questions like that.
I was directing it more at those who were sitting on the fence with regards to waiting for the game to be fixed before buying, or those who may have held out until March for the PS3 release. They are more likely be the ones that walk away to find a game that 'works as intended' rather than wait for FFXIV to one day maybe becoem the game that it should have been at launch.
There are some who may do that, yes.
There are some who will remain on the fence.
There are some who were never that interested in the first place.
There are some who may have not even been following the game that closely, if at all.
.... and so on.
There's all kinds of scenarios that could play out. Rather impossible to try to fit them neatly into a tidy categorical box.
I think if/when enough positive feedback starts coming back about the state of the game, though - from active players, especially those previously critical of it - it could very well change some minds.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
All the events and circumstances which lead to this decision, when taken in as a whole yes it is a disaster. What else would you call it? a success?
So they shouldn't have done it? Yes, considering the current situation of the game (which isn't going to change no matter how much people keep repeating it) this is the best course of action and was not set in stone that this would even happen. It's a good thing it did.
Meh... I wouldn't pay it too much mind.
It's one of those lose-lose situations with some people around here. No matter *what* SE did, they're going to find the black cloud in the silver lining.
In other MMOs, players who feel they've been cheated or let down are always demanding free playtime, acknowledgment that the dev screwed up... and on and on. They claim that they'd think better of the company if they did those things and it would earn back some of their respect.
SE does just that... so now it's "well, yeah they're doing those things... but THEY STILL F'd UP! SO THERE!"
Their situations are nothing more than a conclusion looking for a reason... and any reason will do.
When someone is committed to bashing a developer (SE or otherwise), nothing the developer does will be "good enough".
That's all you really need to keep in mind.
The day they do something really worthwhile, a lot of players will keep quiet. But trying to put positive spin on everything that SE does as 'they care' is also not fooling anyone. The complaints haven't changed they are still they same as they were during closed beta. if you are expecting thanks or sympathy then it is not going to happen. SE got what it deserved.
Not everyone here follows SE blindly and atleast i saw this coming.
Who could have thought that WOW could bring super power like USA to its knees?
Originally posted by Arcken
To put it in a nutshell, our society is about to hit the fan, grades are dropping, obesity is going up,childhood the USA is going to lose its super power status before too long, but hey, as long as we have a cheap method to babysit our kids, all will be well no? Im picking on WoW btw because its the beast that made all of this possible
It's one of those lose-lose situations with some people around here. No matter *what* SE did, they're going to find the black cloud in the silver lining.
SE does just that... so now it's "well, yeah they're doing those things... but THEY STILL F'd UP! SO THERE!"
Their situations are nothing more than a conclusion looking for a reason... and any reason will do.
When someone is committed to bashing a developer (SE or otherwise), nothing the developer does will be "good enough".
That's all you really need to keep in mind.
For me, personally, I'd say it's more of a realization that SE has lost their chance. Restructuring the development team takes time and finding a "new direction" will take longer. Yea, they could bring the game to a decent state and I'm sure they will, but the community is permanently shattered and the reviews are long out.
The game will never be the grandeur we wanted it to be.
Considering that a lot of people in this thread consider the game already death and all tehy sure take a lot of effort to discusss this 'obvious' point. I mean if it is obvious why all this fighting to convince all the otehrs that the game is dead and SE totally clueless?
Not get me wrong but 20 pages are a lot for something obvious.
SE could bring the second coming of Jesus into this game and it would make no difference to teh haters, it doesnt matter what kind of improvements ever come to this game, cause haters still gonna be hating.
You can say all that "well the launch did suck" all you want, there is no reason to go in ever thread everytime SE does something for the sole purpose of saying "lol dont matter this game is still fail", i guarantee itl happen when the next version update happens, and the one after that, and the one after that, and all the others, and after ever piece of news that ever come out of the loadstone, there is just no pleasing some people.
"I will Turn your name into a synonym for weakness"
SE could bring the second coming of Jesus into this game and it would make no difference to teh haters, it doesnt matter what kind of improvements ever come to this game, cause haters still gonna be hating.
You can say all that "well it does suck" all you want, there is no reason to go in ever thread everytime SE does something for the sole purpose of saying "lol dont matter this game is still fail", i guarantee itl happen when the next version update happens, and the pone after that, and the one after that, and after ever piece of news that ever come out of the loadstone, there is just no pleasing some people.
Sad thing is I totally agree with this, afte rthe ent update will propably the same again say, that it is not enough it is anyway doomed, and they need to change things more and faster. I guess I should only remember to push that thread up after the update and this happens again to prove that point.
i think this maybe marks a great change in the right direction, not just for ff14 but for SqE in general. They certainly needed a nice dose of humble pie lately, signs of their arrogance abounding (such as the terrible state that they released 14 in)...
I'll certainly take this in good faith and i'll start playing again as soon as that first december update is launched.
no promises ofc but i loved ff11 and i will certainly try out their fixes.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Seems to me their downhill slide started about the same time as they stated they wanted to appeal more to western gamers, and changing the way their games played.
We put up with their sloppy pal conversions (in europe) because we loved the games. But since this appealing to western terrotories started they seem to have forgotten why we liked their stuff in the first place.
Front mission evolved and Final Fantasy XIII are prime examples of it. They stripped out a lot of the traditional rpg elements (well ditched them entirely for Front Mission) because i guess they figure that stuff dosen't appeal to us, and called it streamlining for western audiences. But that was exactly what a lot of us enjoyed about the games.
Just seems to me they are trying to be different without actually sitting down and asking each other, " yeah that's different, but is it still fun?"
I played FF XIV in closed beta and can safely say it was an abomination. It was as if they deliberately wanted to make the most frustrating, virtually unplayable game they could. And they certainly accomplished that.
And yes, i used to blindly buy just about anything they released. Nowadays i save my money while yearning for the days when they made games i wanted to play and replay.
I don't really see a way back for FF XIV to be honest. It's so fundamentally flawed it's gonna take an awful lot of work to get even remotely where a lot of us hoped it would be. It sucks that it turned out this way but if it finally makes the people in charge at Square sit up and ask themselves "wtf are we doing", hopefully some good can come out of it.
Comments
Does this mean that the game is basically buy to play now? I bought the collector's edition and stopped playing within the first week. I never extended my subscription or did anything else past the free month. Could I log on now without paying anything?
You can't eat a steak with chopsticks?
For a medical reason right? That's kind of sad. There's some youtube videos that can teach you.
Based on what was said today - apparently the game is B2P for now. In your case, I think the intent is that when you re-activate the account, you will not be charged.
Yes, you can log on and play without paying anything until further notice. That said, if you couldn't even get through more than a week of playing you should wait at least until the December patches. The November patch did improve some stuff like the menu lag, skill points for solo players, and a faster leveling process for lower levels but it's largely the same game. December should bring some more good stuff so you may want to hold until then to see the accumulated changes.
A previous poster challenged anyone to name a game that had a rough launch that ended up doing well in the long run. The post (along with others) appears to have been removed. That's it, and that's probably why you are confused.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
I did some defense of the game when i twas released. Just because we enjoy the game doesn't mean we're blind to its faults. One of the biggest reasons that I bought the CE was not because I thought the beta was fantastic, but because I thought it had bunches of potential. I still do. The game has a massive number of problems, of which I think the most dire is the complete lack of content, but they have plenty to work with. FFXI was the same way it's first year. But now it's one of the better, more successful MMOs available.
FFXI was not the same way it's first year.
I didn't like it because it was liner and slow, but it had content.
I will certainly check it out in a few months, fortunately the rest of the team will not seppuku in the meantime
WoW is the exception, not the rule. Most MMOs (especially Western developed) don't fall into its bracket.
You have WoW with its 10+ million... then everything else with its few hundred thousand. It doesn't make all those other MMOs sub-par necessarily. It does make WoW super-successful though. That's the difference.
The problem is, WoW's success has completely skewed everyone's expectations of what a "successful MMO" has to have.
Again, FFXI has been a cash cow for SE for years with the ~500k they had.
300k could be a perfectly healthy population if its bringing the developers a profit.
Look at Eve Online. That MMO has, what, 300k players? It's been very successful for CCP. It's allowed them to support the game, enhance it, expand it and even spin off into a second game set in the same universe (Dust 514). If someone were to look at Eve's history, where it started and where it is now, it would be pretty darn ignorant to say it's not a very successful game simply because it doesn't have WoW-like numbers.
But perhaps you touch on a big issue... People are too caught up in numbers.
As for your last question... Because you enjoy playing the game would be a perfectly good answer. There *are* people playing the game who enjoy it even now, even though they realize it has some improving to do. Kinda have to be careful about wandering into generalizations when you pose questions like that.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Really? The company itself has admitted the game is a complete and utter failure to this point, and you lack the intelligence to see we are merely agreeing with SE. This game is junk. The developer realizes this and is apologizing, but here you are still trying to defend what exactly? You were wrong. We were right, as usual. We being those of us who demand a quality product, and you being those who just blindly jump game to game being a full-time fanboi until you realize the game sucks.
To late for me,
This is the worst I have ever gotten hood winked on 2x Collectors edtions $150.
With SE doing this, I will never purchase, or pre-order a MMO until the final verdict is out 2-3 months after release.
The thing is, if you purchase a unfished/unplayable console game from gamestop...you can return it.
With MMO"s after you use that key..your done, no return- and the MMO publishers know it.
This game is at least a year from a release date.
Don't count on MMORPG.com to do the reviewing for you. Looks like they are going to be waiting a long time to review FFXIV.
This game is going to be swallowed up by other titles that are coming in 2011.
He who keeps his cool best wins.
Meh... I wouldn't pay it too much mind.
It's one of those lose-lose situations with some people around here. No matter *what* SE did, they're going to find the black cloud in the silver lining.
In other MMOs, players who feel they've been cheated or let down are always demanding free playtime, acknowledgment that the dev screwed up... and on and on. They claim that they'd think better of the company if they did those things and it would earn back some of their respect.
SE does just that... so now it's "well, yeah they're doing those things... but THEY STILL F'd UP! SO THERE!"
Their situations are nothing more than a conclusion looking for a reason... and any reason will do.
When someone is committed to bashing a developer (SE or otherwise), nothing the developer does will be "good enough".
That's all you really need to keep in mind.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I was directing it more at those who were sitting on the fence with regards to waiting for the game to be fixed before buying, or those who may have held out until March for the PS3 release. They are more likely be the ones that walk away to find a game that 'works as intended' rather than wait for FFXIV to one day maybe becoem the game that it should have been at launch.
There are some who may do that, yes.
There are some who will remain on the fence.
There are some who were never that interested in the first place.
There are some who may have not even been following the game that closely, if at all.
.... and so on.
There's all kinds of scenarios that could play out. Rather impossible to try to fit them neatly into a tidy categorical box.
I think if/when enough positive feedback starts coming back about the state of the game, though - from active players, especially those previously critical of it - it could very well change some minds.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
The day they do something really worthwhile, a lot of players will keep quiet. But trying to put positive spin on everything that SE does as 'they care' is also not fooling anyone. The complaints haven't changed they are still they same as they were during closed beta. if you are expecting thanks or sympathy then it is not going to happen. SE got what it deserved.
Not everyone here follows SE blindly and atleast i saw this coming.
Who could have thought that WOW could bring super power like USA to its knees?
Originally posted by Arcken
To put it in a nutshell, our society is about to hit the fan, grades are dropping, obesity is going up,childhood the USA is going to lose its super power status before too long, but hey, as long as we have a cheap method to babysit our kids, all will be well no?
Im picking on WoW btw because its the beast that made all of this possible
For me, personally, I'd say it's more of a realization that SE has lost their chance. Restructuring the development team takes time and finding a "new direction" will take longer. Yea, they could bring the game to a decent state and I'm sure they will, but the community is permanently shattered and the reviews are long out.
The game will never be the grandeur we wanted it to be.
He who keeps his cool best wins.
I think XIV got way too much competition to pull itself out of this death toll.
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
Considering that a lot of people in this thread consider the game already death and all tehy sure take a lot of effort to discusss this 'obvious' point. I mean if it is obvious why all this fighting to convince all the otehrs that the game is dead and SE totally clueless?
Not get me wrong but 20 pages are a lot for something obvious.
SE could bring the second coming of Jesus into this game and it would make no difference to teh haters, it doesnt matter what kind of improvements ever come to this game, cause haters still gonna be hating.
You can say all that "well the launch did suck" all you want, there is no reason to go in ever thread everytime SE does something for the sole purpose of saying "lol dont matter this game is still fail", i guarantee itl happen when the next version update happens, and the one after that, and the one after that, and all the others, and after ever piece of news that ever come out of the loadstone, there is just no pleasing some people.
"I will Turn your name into a synonym for weakness"
Sad thing is I totally agree with this, afte rthe ent update will propably the same again say, that it is not enough it is anyway doomed, and they need to change things more and faster. I guess I should only remember to push that thread up after the update and this happens again to prove that point.
After this people should never question why first impressions on launch day is vital to any mmo.
i think this maybe marks a great change in the right direction, not just for ff14 but for SqE in general. They certainly needed a nice dose of humble pie lately, signs of their arrogance abounding (such as the terrible state that they released 14 in)...
I'll certainly take this in good faith and i'll start playing again as soon as that first december update is launched.
no promises ofc but i loved ff11 and i will certainly try out their fixes.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
Good I guess they aren't greedy bastards afterall.
Hoping for better updates in the future.
Square just aren't the same company anymore.
Seems to me their downhill slide started about the same time as they stated they wanted to appeal more to western gamers, and changing the way their games played.
We put up with their sloppy pal conversions (in europe) because we loved the games. But since this appealing to western terrotories started they seem to have forgotten why we liked their stuff in the first place.
Front mission evolved and Final Fantasy XIII are prime examples of it. They stripped out a lot of the traditional rpg elements (well ditched them entirely for Front Mission) because i guess they figure that stuff dosen't appeal to us, and called it streamlining for western audiences. But that was exactly what a lot of us enjoyed about the games.
Just seems to me they are trying to be different without actually sitting down and asking each other, " yeah that's different, but is it still fun?"
I played FF XIV in closed beta and can safely say it was an abomination. It was as if they deliberately wanted to make the most frustrating, virtually unplayable game they could. And they certainly accomplished that.
And yes, i used to blindly buy just about anything they released. Nowadays i save my money while yearning for the days when they made games i wanted to play and replay.
I don't really see a way back for FF XIV to be honest. It's so fundamentally flawed it's gonna take an awful lot of work to get even remotely where a lot of us hoped it would be. It sucks that it turned out this way but if it finally makes the people in charge at Square sit up and ask themselves "wtf are we doing", hopefully some good can come out of it.