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Final Fantasy XIV: Fun, Live, Reboot, and Rebuild
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In a new blog post at the Final Fantasy XIV Lodestone, Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida issues the four words "Fun, Live, Reboot, and Rebuild" as the clarion call for the development team in 2011. He calls the final weeks of 2010 "tumultuous" but assures fans and players that the team is ready to hit the ground running in 2011 beginning with a Player's Poll.
As part of the new direction promised, we here on the development and management teams have adopted four new keywords for FINAL FANTASY XIV: fun, live, reboot, and rebuild. Forgive our translators if these buzzwords seem a bit cryptic or cliché, but I am using these English words as-is in the Japanese, and insisted they use the same words for a global resonance.
To get things rolling right away, I am asking for your cooperation with our FINAL FANTASY XIV Player's Poll the First—a brief questionnaire being issued to give you the players another means by which to have your voices heard.
Read more here.
Comments
Well I tried to take the poll, and he he my id been compromised. Hmmm oh well that's a new one, good thing it was beta only and I had no billing credit card on it.
I look forward to reading what the players have to say , and how the poll comes out.
I don't think anything can save this game, I do agree reboot/revamp is what it needs.
FFXI had just as rocky a start if not worse and look how great it turned out.
Yes times are much different now than they were 8 years ago for a new MMO and you really only get one shot at a first impression, but regardless of how the launch could have turned out, there would have only been a very niche population just as FFXI has maintained. The Final Fantasy MMOs attract a very different type of gamer than what is spawned these days, and the bulk of whom that tried it during open beta or purchased and left already never would have stuck with it for very long anyway.
I have no doubt XIV will make a strong return, but will only garner a healthy 500-800k subscription...I say this cause the population of XI will eventually start playing XIV once its updated to what we all expected and wanted to begin with.
No comparison here. did FFXI got Tanaka replaced? did it go F2P on monthly basis for indefinite period? did it lose more than half of its player base within first month? did FFXI got to that point where lead designer thought 'hey we should probably reboot the entire game'.
FFXI came out 7 years back and you would think that SE by now would know how not to repeat same mistakes and actually use that 7 years experince.
And good luck with that 500K to 800K numbers. But nothing wrong with dreaming. I played FFXI for 4 years so to say that those who tried open beta or retail would not have stuck with FFXIV long term is just a very ignorant statement.
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
6+ years and counting and you would think that "all other MMO developers" by now would know how not to repeat same mistakes and actually use that 6+ years experince of watching others fail and to try something new, yet they continue to keep releasing the same copy and paste crap expecting success, yet fail miserably!
Square-Enix are not the only ones that have made a mistake, but they are still the only developer with a very successful MMO in its 8th year, with world wide servers across 3 different platforms, and with a plethora of unique activities that are still ignored by all new MMOs...heh
MMO game devs in general have idea what they are doing. Too many chefs in the kitchen probably. With game engines being as advnced as they are and with so much money being at stake they are trating it like a business rather than trying to make a good game. anet seems to be the only ones saying "okay lets make a good game and hope people buy it so we can make money."
Everyone else is saying "okay lets try to make money so we don't have to eat ramen"
Also, I wouldn't call FF11 super big. Its still alive, sure, but that game is left to the diehard fans that can tolerate its painfully slow gameplay because they consider slow and dull to be hardcore somehow
Fail miserably? who where and when? fail as bad as FFXIV? sorry but nothing even comes close. There is difference between making mistakes and making out right blunders. Former can be fixed, later not so much unless they do some drastic changes to the game.
Even if i agree with you, only because other companies made mistakes doesn't give SE a free pass. And your last paragraph is self explanatory. A company with such a successful MMO across 3 platforms and world wide servers would have better understanding of MMO market and what players are looking for in MMO.
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
Hrm, APB rings a huge bell ~ launched, failed & shut down in less than 2 months...
First of all APB wasn't even a MMO. Moreover, we are talking about companies with EXPERINCE. Realtime world had no experince with genre and were virtually unknown. I have no idea how are you even comparing it to ip like Final Fantasy.
Watching others is not same as the experince gained by being in this indsutry for long time and having successful rpg and MMO titles under your belt. No one had any expectations from APB, and as far as 'being something new' yes APB was different and not your typical MMO. And it was in trouble even before the game was out due to Realtime World's financial problems. If they had deep pockets like SE, APB would be still floating. You think FFXIV is still up and running because it is a good game?
So you contradicted your own post. APB was different and not the same old same MMO and yet it failed.
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
The core of the game and it's combat system were acceptable in 2002. It no longer is. When you have to revamp that aspect along with actually adding content to support it, you're looking at a brand new project basically.
It's a step in the right direction for them to do a poll. They need to do some extensive researching on their demographics as they seem to have completely forgotten that originally. Will they put that much effort into the revamp or go purely on the few people who bother to respond to the poll? The fact that people have to login to even participate in the poll is the wrong thing to do. That completely negates any of the potential players of the revamped game. Polling primarily the people who have stuck with the game, means that not a whole lot will change as they like the basic premise of the game already, whereas the majority that left, did not.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
I do. Given Square Enix' history of games, it's just not possible for them to make another good game. Squaresoft was brilliant, but the Enix merged destroyed them. Regarding Final Fantasy XI and XIV, they don't communicate with their players at all, even the Japanese base. They think they can play the Blizzard card and do whatever they want with no consequence, because people will subscribe to them anyway ... but they're hilariously mistaken.
just so you know APB is an mmo, there were employee's with a lto of experience and they were the biggest game studio in Europe. and they had EA backing them.
i may go back to ff14 seing improved ai and performance issues in every patch is pretty good and it might of been a bad game but it was so fresh to me i loved my first month
So sad to see this game in the state its in.. SE lost so much money on this.. and current XIV is receiving a lot Disaapointment awards from reviewers with IGN being the most recent.. I will give it that its the best looking MMO on the market visually as of now but thats it.. It had a lot of potential to be epic but the Dev's couldnt pull it off and the put out an unfinished product.. In short, they basically Rinse/Repeated releases with XI and now XIV.. "We are taking FFXI as a learning Exp." (Pfff right lol xD). Now here's this letter pretty much saying we're srry we didn't listen to our fan base, beta testers, etc.. and are listening now for ideas.. on top that you got a brand new XIV Dev team (with some pulled over from the XI team) trying to work on what they got... if you ask me, with the current state that the game is in? The best thing they can do for this game is to Shut it down > Back into Alpha test stage > Re-Work on it a bit get some of the bugs out etc.. > Re-Release/Review it.. I kinda don't want this game to turn out like XI because the its just gonna be an an updated HD version.. I like that they were going for a more fast pace battle system and they should stick with it and if they want Ideas and seeing this game was inducted into there main numbered series then maybe they should go back to previous FFgames and take a few ideas from those too.. They can start with XII as it acutually felt like an MMO then a single player exp. But will see what they do with it this year and hope for the best for them.
PS3 Trophies
http://www.zam.com/bffreport.html?bffreport=50
Top 5 Controversial Games of 2010 (Gives a Breakdown on FFXIV in there)
PS3 Trophies
Final Fantasy XIV: Boring, Dead, Shutdown, and Build FF XV
I've been a die hard fan of the Final Fantasy series since they first released the game on Nintendo. I was looking forward to playing FF XI beforehand and played it on launch up until laste 2008 or early 2009. However, FF XIV was on the opposite end of the stick. It was giving me a really bad vibe from the start. I wanted this game to be good, but not once while I tracked it did I ever have a desire to play it.
After getting into Beta I cancelled my two pre-orders (g/f and I). But, because I'm a FF fan I bought one copy of the game 2 weeks after launch and still couldn't stomache it. Normally when I quit an MMO after trying it out it's because it's boring and/or just doesn't interest me. However, this is the first MMO that was literally making me fall asleep at the keyboard in the middle of the day.
I really don't think this game can be saved. Honestly, grabbing the races from FF XI and slapping new names on them that were impossible to pronounce and calling it "new" was pretty lame. This game was sadder than a guy who paid a hooker upfront and ejaculated before he got his pants off.
I have a dream...
That Korean developers...
And Japanese developers...
And American developers ...
Will make an MMO with good PvP (koreans), a good storyline (japanese), and good customer service (american) that we can all enjoy.
I am always astonished how many developers manage to make games COMPLETELY beyond what their audience wants. Tried it out on a friend's account, but boy... the need to always swap to other professions and not just play a warrior and do quests, but a game that forces me to play it "their way" pissed me off to no end.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
There were so many wrong decisions made by the developer in this game, it is pointless to list them. Can the game be fixed? I am not sure, but at present even faithful FF XI players dislike it. When you put out a new game and it is worse, by a large margin, than your present one, you have issues that are not going to be overcome easily.
About all we can do is wait and see what SE decides to do. If they decide to make some major changes, the game has a chance.
Not to get off the thread, but anyone thinking APB was a MMO has a much broader range of what a MMO is than most of us. Just a Diablo II clone in a different setting.
I've read all the comments up til this point and have read shit tons of others throughout the months and have seen a few things said that strike me the most.
Just because you loved the Final Fantasy series doesn't mean you've liked all the games
-Yes to some SE has lost it a bit lately but I have to say I've enjoyed every single FF game(from the GB to the 360/PS3 FFXIII) because they were different...No single game was the same outside of a passion for story, some were cliche but it WAS a good story (I'm not to far in FFXIV but the main storyline is quite good if you actually read into what is said), ..You can't compare a Single Player RPG to a MMORPG, c'mon now..that's like saying Fallen Earth and Fallout are the same because they share a theme,...Fallout has a story you can follow strictly and beat the game, there is more to do but if your just in it to beat it whats the point? If MMO's were that linear story wise why pay a monthly??
The Leve's suck they are just boring repeatable's -
The Leve's may need work but you can't expect repeatable quests to mean to much to the lore when they are just that "repeatable", thats a reprecussion of what system MMO's have favored today
It sounds crazy but I have to say, 16 Leve's(8 Combat, 8 Crafting) is more than enough to keep me occupied for the 16 theoretical hours I have to play the game(/sleep does take ~8) in the 32 it takes for them to reset. Between going to the 3 cities to fill the Leve's that fit my rank for crafting and combat(This actually can fill a whole day off btw, ie ~ 8 hours of playing..bathroom, lunch and dinner included) Throw in joining up with LS friends I can litterally spend a whole day just doing Leve's...and kill some local Dodo's...
Is it boring?? No?? is it the same?? Yes, but what the hell, you can't expect everything to be different, no quest based system is, people moan about "Fetch, or Fed-Ex, or Kill" missions but honestly, what else can you do for games that have to be the same for everyone? I think instancing is a great thing, as it allows you to experience something regardless of others, but not everything can be instanced, because then its not an MMO apparently, its a lobby game with RPG qualities...............
I have so many more thoughts and things to say but to be honest I'm tired of typing it, this seems long enough to read(even I got tired of reading it over) XIV did use XI as a starting point, it is a spin-off and I think the basis behind it is successful, the implementation sucks at times, but the core is good. It's not a boring game in any way, shape, or form, but you can't look at it like a "i'm going to just quest and level game" or "I'm just going to grind on mob's all day and level game"..its a bastard hybrid that needs direction,..
The UI sucks, but is a UI, it can be fixed..the lag was(kinda is menu wise still, but really is not THAT bad) a pain in the ass, but that is something that can, and apparently is, being fixed...there are a lot of things that are backwards in the game, but in no way are the just plain out wrong..crafting needs organizing recipe wise, combat needs to be a bit more fluid, information needs to be easily accessed IN GAME, but those are things that can be added..they messed up not realizing what needed to be in right away, but to say the game downright sucks is just being irrational.
I've lost my own train of thought and I added 2 little paragraphs of ranting even after saying I was tired of typing, but that is what 2 aggrivating roomates, a busted ass new house that should be fixed before you move in, and a thermostat that your not allowed to set above 60 in Jan in CNY will do to you!!(oh and some Vodka and Juice) added for a little bit of laugh..truth though grrr...
Maybe I'll organize MYSELF and continue on my feelings of this "Is a great game just needs more to look forward to" but in the end just think,...is it really that bad that you don't like it, I'd rather play XIV or tbh anything else than being stuck at work for 12 hours(unless I had a really badass job like, well anything besides working for/with your Pops at a family restaurant)..nope...I'd rather sit my ass down and play something!
(Edited because I thought the spacing just wasn't enough
)
Too late SE. The game has already been written off as a failure by the majority of the MMO market. You had your chance to shine and you blew it. There might be a few forgiving souls out there that will give you a second shot but the majority of us have moved on and will never lok back.
Stick to Single Player RPGs it's all you're SOMEWHAT good at.
I don't think they completely messed up with the game's design, to be honest. I just feel they released the game a year before it was ready.
Leves: A great idea to promote grouping, but there's an absurdly small number of these, and ZERO variation. Give us something to do besides kill things, craft things ,and gather things. Because right now, that's all we have, and it becomes monotonous really quickly. Send a woodworker out to an outpost to repair its walls. Send a DoW/DoM to defend this person while they do it from the <enemies> that are encroaching on the vulnerable site. Send a botanist to chop through some some thick folage that is starting to block off parts of a trade route. Send a culinarian to host a dinner party in some remote part of the city.
With the diverse class system, there is so much room for more creativity than we're seeing.
Behests: Make these more frequent, and more noticable. Don't spawn a shouter at the camp, and then a bunch of random spawns in the middle nowhere (our epic monsters on my last behest were some Foraging Does). Spawn a giant baddie right on the edge of camp, blocking one of the roads leading away from it, so that people see it and feel the incentive to actually participate.
Repeating terrain: This is fine, but you have to be careful with it. Look at WoW. WoW did it so well that the vast majority of people think that the game's terrain is all handcrafted. Not by a long shot. Go look at the cave maps in WoW. Look at the hilltops in some zones. Look at any house in the game. There's a right way to reuse terrain/features, and there's a wrong way, and FFXIV is certainly not doing it the right way.
Also, whoever designed Gridania needs to be fired, if they haven't been already. That is quite possibly the laziest zone I've ever seen in an MMO. And I played Flyff, so that's saying something.
The UI and control are well on their way to being fixed. The lag is mostly gone, but that may be due to the loss of players. What the game really, really needs at the moment is more content, and more variation. You can only do the same handful of leves so many times before you burn out on the game. THAT is their biggest danger right now - without more variation in the game content, people are going to start burning out en masse very soon.
Agreed.. The zones really disappointed me, there’s no distinction or landmarks that stand out until you’re virtually on top of them.
gridania is one of the worst zones I’ve ever seenand the worst one that I can think of atm. It is just a narrow maze that makes you feel confined and closed off.
If every developer created games they preceived their audience 'wanted' we would all be playing WOW knockoffs with an 'I-WIN' button.... Developing games is about pushing the boundry, not regurgitating the same junk. hence DEVELOPMENT.....
Erm, you do not NEED to constantly swap classes, this class system is actually the selling point of the game, instead of having Alts coming outta your ears you can develop every class on one toon......
And name another MMO that does not 'Force you' to play it their way?
WOW does it when it forces you to RAID to progress, etc etc etc.......
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Norsefire-logo.png
As long as they try to improve it and keep doing so, I can't blame them for effort.
Shame I don't have a PS3 yet (Late Xmas present I hope) cause I'd like to try this on the Console, which is what the game seems to have been designed for.