MithraPride

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/revie ... asy/705893

It is harsh, but I can't disgaree with them.

I can argue about the way their narrative and their visuals do not complement each other.

But I must agree with the "brilliant but incomplete" ending comment.

Personally I intend on sticking around to see if it gets more complete.

A couple of inaccurate statements, but overall very fair to the current state of the game. Hopefully SE gets their sh*t together.

That video...pretty much read my mind. Unless SE comes out with patches and fixes to the issues, 70% of their player base going bye bye.

O,o Dragonblue. You're in Great Lakes.

What are you assigned to do there?

dragonblue wrote:That video...pretty much read my mind. Unless SE comes out with patches and fixes to the issues, 70% of their player base going bye bye.

I'm already in that exit line.

I can take exception to a few of the things they said; the running around isn't anywhere near as long as it was in FFXI, I remember running for 3-4 hours to do the DRG flag quests. Speach bubbles, have you seen any MMOs that mostly use actual recorded dialog? Don't think so, imagine how much memory that'd take up. Few story missions, it's an MMO for crying out loud, not an RPG. Is it not standard to have your basic "grinding" of some sort between story missions? Crafting certainly not just about dumb luck, just that SE being SE likes their player base to figure stuff out themselves rather than telling them...

Though I can't argue about it not being ready for commercial retail but as I understand that's pretty normal for MMOs, not really an excuse but it's certainly not the first one to do it and certainly not the worst example of it either (from what I've heard). Why they do it? Beats me, they just want to start reaping in the cash I suppose and use this starting phase of the game as a stress test.

Still, seems like there are quite a few of us that are enjoying the game even with all its huge flaws. It can only get better, right?

Sugami wrote:I can take exception to a few of the things they said; the running around isn't anywhere near as long as it was in FFXI, I remember running for 3-4 hours to do the DRG flag quests. Speach bubbles, have you seen any MMOs that mostly use actual recorded dialog? Don't think so, imagine how much memory that'd take up. Few story missions, it's an MMO for crying out loud, not an RPG. Is it not standard to have your basic "grinding" of some sort between story missions? Crafting certainly not just about dumb luck, just that SE being SE likes their player base to figure stuff out themselves rather than telling them...

Though I can't argue about it not being ready for commercial retail but as I understand that's pretty normal for MMOs, not really an excuse but it's certainly not the first one to do it and certainly not the worst example of it either (from what I've heard). Why they do it? Beats me, they just want to start reaping in the cash I suppose and use this starting phase of the game as a stress test.

Still, seems like there are quite a few of us that are enjoying the game even with all its huge flaws. It can only get better, right?

But this isn't normal for MMO's. SE Locked this date in because they think that Whorecraft's expansion would destroy a game that wouldn't even be out on the market yet. I understand normal bugs for MMO Launches, but never since my days of playing MMO's since I jumped full onboard EverQuest have I seen anything this horrid. Look I'm not complaining about the positive notes. Hell Fishing's so much easier now. Hot and Cold vs Tug Of War, duh. But SE let everyone down because they got paranoid. LucasArts said the new WoW Expansion would be a power player in the industry, but they weren't worried about it, even if The Old Republic Launched in 2 years rather then their projected plan of next year.

If LucasArts isn't worried, than SE shouldn't be either. It's hard to swallow 80 bucks with 9 maintenance and patches in a row. It seriously makes it hard to enjoy the game. Now I have a positive here that most overlook. The silly glitches:

Limsa Docks, Ferry instead of pulling up next to the docks, plowed right into them
Go to general kitty and look at my insanity glitches and watch my arm very carefully.

Actually, sadly, it is pretty par on course to release mmo's somewhat unfinished. Warcraft itself in fact was a horrid mess of bugs and problems when it first launched and was damn nigh completely unplayable for a lot of people for a lot of time. Age of Conan & Warhammer, 2 newer ones, had some pretty huge missing parts and a whole lot of bugs when they launched as well. FFXI also launched in worse shape than this one (talkin initial launch, not the north american one). (Although they do seem to have repeated several of the same dumbass mistakes)

There are a lot of things I dislike in FFXIV right now, but there is much more I do like and Im 100% confident it will shape up into an awesome game.

This is by far not the worst mmo launch I've played in, but there is a huge disconnect on what is acceptable in na/eu compared to Asia in the current market. I haven't see a lot of "bugs" what I see are a lot of crappy systems that need to go or change if they want to keep a decent chunk of the non Japanese market.The fact is wow's xpac has to be factored in they need to push out content and changes fast within a month or so or they will lose a ton of people to cata. Just about every major mmo to launch since wow has had huge box sales then after 1-3 months dropped like a stone to 200-300k range. It might not be realistic but most mmo gamers today demand more out of an mmo at launch than in the past and it has to work by not having lots of broken stuff or they will just go back to their established mmo there are just to many choices out there. While I have no interest in cata I do have interest in other games, so it's unlikely they will get even 6 months out of me if they don't add in some compelling content.

This game is basically getting slammed from all sides on the Internet at the moment. I would hope that it would raise a few flags in SE's direction, at least enough to get them to actually start working on sh*t. I still don't think the game is necessarily bad so much as it, well... incomplete.

That said, from what I've heard, FFXI was also a mess at launch, and the current team who works on FFXI is not the team who worked on FFXIV. Keep in mind the rest of the world didn't get their hands on FFXI until a year after the Japanese had it. So while sites gave it a more favorable review, it was also a version of the game with a years worth of patches.

Karou Ariyen wrote:I'm already in that exit line.

Aye, me too sadly.

The review was mostly on par with my own view on the game right now. Here's hoping that things will improve in time.

Not in the exit line.

If nothing else having both XI and XIV gives me $ off my XIV subscription. And the Security Token I got with the CE is giving me enough inventory space (hooray for mog satchels) to close my telemule account, some $16/month.

So yeah, I am going to stick around and see what happens*. I will hope those in the dropout line will keep an eye on how it develops and come back if it begins to meet their standards.

*I may be a masochist in that regard, I put over a year into Warhammer.

Alya Mizar (Tsybil) wrote: *I may be a masochist in that regard, I put over a year into Warhammer.

"A Cubs fan is the ultimate Masochist." I know what you mean

Amiricle wrote:Actually, sadly, it is pretty par on course to release mmo's somewhat unfinished. Warcraft itself in fact was a horrid mess of bugs and problems when it first launched and was damn nigh completely unplayable for a lot of people for a lot of time. Age of Conan & Warhammer, 2 newer ones, had some pretty huge missing parts and a whole lot of bugs when they launched as well. FFXI also launched in worse shape than this one (talkin initial launch, not the north american one). (Although they do seem to have repeated several of the same dumbass mistakes)

There are a lot of things I dislike in FFXIV right now, but there is much more I do like and Im 100% confident it will shape up into an awesome game.

Yea, I agree. There are things I'm not happy about, but I'm not ready to call XIV a failure, by any stretch. City of Heros was worse (on initial launch), same with Champions Online. They both had multiple large rebalancing patches that changed the entire playstyle, after launch, things that should have been in the beta. So far, all SE has done seems to be fixing bugs. Yes, there is a glaring hole in the economy, but that was a deliberate design choice by SE and not just an oversight. I don't like it, but I can understand it.

Really, I think most of it is that people (myself included) had high expectations and XIV isn't meeting them. Yes, I expected the game to be better than it currently is at launch, but I'm sure it'll get there soon.

Shirai wrote:It is harsh, but I can't disgaree with them.

I can!

I know the review (and other negative spots on the 'web) have made a buzz lately, but I haven't bothered to look at them - I'm already playing the game, I don't need a review to tell me what I already know.

That being said, I think their review is unfair. It certainly hits one of my complaints - the lack of story currently in the game. Not just main story quests, but other quests around the cities that can add to the backstory and lore of Eorzea. That was one of the things I liked about FFXI (and WoW) - quests are stuck all over the place.

On the other hand, they (Game Trailers) complains that there's too much running around and grinding... in an MMO. Which is exactly what almost all MMO's I've played are full of, running around, and grinding. They are both better than the running and grinding in WoW and FF XI, I think.

GT brings up the (as I remember them calling it) "horrendously slow" regen rate for Anima. What, you want all players to be able to instantly teleport anywhere in the world at any time? Yes, that would be nice, but it's not like you're running from Windurst to San d'Oria; THAT was a long trip on foot. Or in World of Warcraft, even getting from Silvermoon to Undercity takes considerably longer than any trip in XIV if you don't use the flight point. The current game world is smaller, it takes less time to get places, therefore the need for faster modes of transport isn't as critical.

They also made a big deal out of the leve quest timer. Again, this is a different game, with a different XP scale than what we have in WoW. Yes, SE could have made the reset timer shorter (or even gotten rid of it entirely). But SE sells game time, and in order to adjust/balance their game for infite leves, they'd have to either drastically reduce the amount of XP/gil earned per leve, or heavily increase the amount of XP it takes to get between levels. Would you rather "have to" do 8 leves per day to level at the rate the game developers expect you to (and to 'keep up with the rest of the players'), or would you rather be playing for 30 hours a week doing non-stop leves to be at the same place at the end of the week. or farther back if you can't put in your 30 hours?

I'm not someone who'll claim SE can't make mistakes, and farts rainbows or any crap like that. There are things they can do (and need to do) to improve their game. I do think that some of those things are being lost in the sea of nitpicking, because people expect FFXIV to be a WoW or EQ clone when it is its own game.

There's also the whole thing with how leves are best used in groups. You activate one person's levequest and do it, and you all get the bonus exp, then the next person's and so on. Really you can group for a while with 8 leves a person.

I'm still not sure what to think about the copypasted maps though.

I think over the years there have been certain standards that have been set and it's one thing to improve on them, but to leave them out all together is trouble. I like the main story quests if anything there something to keep me interested, but I find playing my mara/glad kind of lacking with out some kind quests. I feel leves are just a cheap excuse not to have a real quest setup.

With mounts/chocobos/airships/flight paths I never felt like getting around took so long as it does in ff 14. I will say lack of mailboxes increases the amount of trips I need to take and that in turn makes it feel worse than it is .Another factor is there was a sense of danger in traveling on foot in games like ffxi/eq that hides to travel time a little.

All mmos have a grind, but it's how well they manage it that matters, though a alot of personal taste goes into liking or disliking a games lvling setup. Personally for dow I'd rather have either a wow based system or a more grind based one like ffxi I can't put my finger on it but ff 14 system just doesn't seem as fun atm.

Now given all that i'd still having fun, but I'm going to go for month to month payment instead of 3 month blocks like I had planned.

on a another note why do so many games get dungeons wrong? I mean I loved in wow how there were dungeons at all lvl ranges with back story,quests, and lvl relevant gear to be had. Even in more old school mmos they had dungeons that were open world at various lvl ranges that to me were fun and had a sense of danger. I haven't been to far in the dungeons in ff 14, but they seem lacking, I hope to see more once I get my glad a little higher.

They pulled a microsoft. All MS Does these days is shove unfinished OSes out the door and start work on the next all for pure money. No pride in their programming. SE did the same thing. Final Fantasy is a marketing term to them and we don't solve the issue buy constantly buying their product. The same way MS Gets away with crap, we continue to buy their product.

Oh and by the way this is the first and only Time I've ever agreed with GT. Because GT's reviewers are full of crap and very unprofessional blaggards.

Fiye wrote:O,o Dragonblue. You're in Great Lakes.

What are you assigned to do there?

I am here completing ET "A" School. Electronics Technician. Just finished the other week so now I'm waiting for orders. =)

Keerith wrote:They also made a big deal out of the leve quest timer. Again, this is a different game, with a different XP scale than what we have in WoW. Yes, SE could have made the reset timer shorter (or even gotten rid of it entirely). But SE sells game time, and in order to adjust/balance their game for infite leves, they'd have to either drastically reduce the amount of XP/gil earned per leve, or heavily increase the amount of XP it takes to get between levels. Would you rather "have to" do 8 leves per day to level at the rate the game developers expect you to (and to 'keep up with the rest of the players'), or would you rather be playing for 30 hours a week doing non-stop leves to be at the same place at the end of the week. or farther back if you can't put in your 30 hours?

I get the feeling that the timers on the leve quests aren't to stop exp gain but because of the rewards. If you think about it the exp and skill points you gain are no different than killing mobs of the same level (with the exception of Guardian's Favour increasing skill gain) but as you start doing the harder leve quests you're getting like 20K for each one. Imagine being able to do that non-stop, it'd be an unlimited supply of cash!

Arietta wrote:I think over the years there have been certain standards that have been set and it's one thing to improve on them, but to leave them out all together is trouble. I like the main story quests if anything there something to keep me interested, but I find playing my mara/glad kind of lacking with out some kind quests. I feel leves are just a cheap excuse not to have a real quest setup.

Above is also one of my reasons to consider canceling my subscription to FF14 right now.
The game's current state isn't worth the money they ask me to pay for it.

I really hope SE steps up and adds a lot of improvements to the game, it has a lot of potential but lacks the means to keep me interested.

As someone who has no intention of cancelling XIV in the near future, I disagree that GT's review was unfair. It was completely fair and fairly accurate. I disagreed with the bland environment comment, but that was really about it.

Simply put, SE shoved a early beta build out and called it a release copy. This is not a finished game by any stretch and actually feels more like a social experiment with the amount of sheer stuff missing from the game. I however am sticking to it because the core game has potential and I expect to be playing an entirely different game 3+ months from now.

Tivia wrote:As someone who has no intention of cancelling XIV in the near future, I disagree that GT's review was unfair. It was completely fair and fairly accurate. I disagreed with the bland environment comment, but that was really about it.

Simply put, SE shoved a early beta build out and called it a release copy. This is not a finished game by any stretch and actually feels more like a social experiment with the amount of sheer stuff missing from the game. I however am sticking to it because the core game has potential and I expect to be playing an entirely different game 3+ months from now.

That's what I've been saying, Tivia, Bugs are one thing in retail, but this is beyond the norm. If they had problems like this in XI Retail, then they should have learned their lesson about shoving a product out the door to make money. Windows 7 Professional Anyone? All the problems in Windows 7 and MS abandoned it for 8. SE did the same thing. Their not thinking. They think WoW is a threat? Seriously? Whorecraft has claimed to kill every MMORPG since it's release and I have yet to see that happen.

I pretty much agree with the GT review. The game in its current state is trash. I do find it a little fun to play. The game looks amazing and the music is pretty nice too. I don't really mind the combat as far as the solo part goes and since i've yet to do group combat I can't really say much on that. Crafting is a complete mess and is something that ruins the game for me. The lack of content and a MASSIVE 8 leves in a 36 hour period is a joke imo. If they are worried about people netting tons of gil then they can just reduce the gil reward and faction credit rewards. The copy/paste job they did on the landscape is pretty sloppy but it's not something that ruins the game. Now going into your main menu to interact with anything? Thats got to go, no other way around it. While im not on my way out the door at the moment, I will say that unless we get a searchable market ward or an auction house sometime soon, I probably will be openin that door.

I have been thinking about my review and I have come up with the following questions to answer for it.

Is this a bad launch *for an MMORPG*? No. I've suffered through some bad launches. Aion was unplayable. Reading about FFXI, WoW, Eve, and other original launch reviews, It was playable, it was what we expected from open beta, and it's what we have. I read how much FFXI changed in the first two months and am expecting the same to happen here.

Does SE get it? No. Most of what we're complaining about was mentioned in beta, but it didn't change. The dates were set way too soon, but they wanted the game out sooner than later. I think it'll suffer, overall, but it's not the end of the road by a long shot. MMOs have a longevity that can survive a bad launch, so I'm here for the ride.

Mystiana wrote:I have been thinking about my review and I have come up with the following questions to answer for it.

Is this a bad launch *for an MMORPG*? No. I've suffered through some bad launches. Aion was unplayable. Reading about FFXI, WoW, Eve, and other original launch reviews, It was playable, it was what we expected from open beta, and it's what we have. I read how much FFXI changed in the first two months and am expecting the same to happen here.

Does SE get it? No. Most of what we're complaining about was mentioned in beta, but it didn't change. The dates were set way too soon, but they wanted the game out sooner than later. I think it'll suffer, overall, but it's not the end of the road by a long shot. MMOs have a longevity that can survive a bad launch, so I'm here for the ride.

I have to disagree on Aion, I found that to be more playable. But it had less content than 14 does, so I guess neither can be compared to the other. Another game none of us looked at was Star Trek Online. Remember you only had access to the bridge. Then they added the rest of the ship in an expansion pack? What was that all about? But then let's not forget SWG's NGE. Even I found away to adapt to NGE and CU on swg. 14 is starting to tax my patience worse than SWG (Which i play on a private server) and I hate swg.

The first few days of Aion were literally unplayable. The servers were unstable, and lagged to death when they did work. Some of the quests had text you didn't understand (yeah, Gridania had one, but imagine about 30% with major errors), and then pretty much no story to justify the grind. They are finally releasing the first Aion expansion that might fix a lot of issues that still exist, especially the grind, but Aion was one of the worst launches I've ever seen.

Let's not even talk about NCSoft "support" .. you want to kill a game, have bad support.

Mystiana wrote: Let's not even talk about NCSoft "support" .. you want to kill a game, have bad support.

I've played a few "free" NCSoft games (and by "free" they mean "spend a bunch of money on microtransactions in order to be able to really play") that had horrid, horrid support. And super crappy grinds. I've heard a lot of Asian games are grindfests, but holy crap - I hadn't imagined needing to leave my computer running overnight with my character on autoattack just to get from level 22 to halfway through level 24 (in a game with 120+ levels).

EverQuest 1 never had this many problems at launch. I remember. I was there at day one all the way to EQ2 Launch.