And, from all I've read on the questions and answers, this is going to be a big fat NO SALE for me right now.
#1 PC = NO SALE
FFXI has turned into one big cheat, fraud, bot-fest which is no fun to play, and has no real merit to play, now, unless you basically either give in and cheat (hoping that your number doesn't come up at Square-Enix), or resign yourself to be the runt of the litter in the eyes of the player-base.
As I said yesterday when, given the information on the trailer, I thought the game was PS3-only, this game needs (if it is, in any way, going to be robust) to be on a system on which the players cannot get in and start mucking around with seven claim-bots, five versions of Windower, and God knows what other shit the player base has basically done to make FFXI a sluggish grind of a joke where you're the joke if you're not cheating your fucking ass off.
On top of this, the chances that my current system is going to be able to run FFXIV is about the chances of me getting a date with [insert sexy female superstar here]. They're going to pull the same fucking bullshit that Rockstar did with GTAIV, and that's going to mean that I would have to buy a new computer just to suck their dicks.
On both these bases, no chance I buy FFXIV unless I hear of major changes. Change One: Get it off the damn PC so the bot-festers and the video/sound-card manufacturers aren't the only ones to benefit.
2. FFXIV != FFXI Redux?? I'll believe that when I see it.
First question out of the mouth was about the similarities between FFXIV and FFXI.
Basically, Square-Enix decided to state that there was little similarity, except in the races.
3. No plans to stop FFXI in the near future?
Then how about improving the damn game so that it doesn't come off as a two-dollar whore with a venereal disease??!?!?!???
4. Another one year of content planned for FFXI???
Yeah, that'd be the amount of shelf-life it has left, even by their numbers (even if, by mine, the shelf-life had left the game about the point they admitted most of the prominent players were cheating fuck-tards). If Rapture/FFXIV comes out Q4 2009, that'd be about right for one more year of content, and a few more months, and then the shutdown either at the launch of XIV or shortly thereafter when it's clear (not that they don't know already) that there is no sustainable model for two games...
Hell, there isn't a sustainable model for one, at this point.
5. FFXIV = FF + WoW Yep, they're selling out on top of it.
They finally admit that they have no real clue as to the MMORPG market. Sounds to me as if they're going to have to really re-tool their thinking processes -- claiming to "aim for the casual player".
Good in theory, but the casual player already has WoW. And not many of the FFXI people are interested in FFXIV, if recent surveys are an indication. So now they're going to, several years behind the curve, try to foist in on WoW??
And what happens once you get to the top level in a week? That's one of the main draws of WoW: In one intensive gameplay week, you can get to the top level (or at least you _could_ when it was 70).
That's not Final Fantasy to begin with.
6. Feedback from FFXI users?? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha....
Why would you get feedback from people you cannot (and should not) intrinsically trust?
Worldwide launch, four languages, yeah yeah...
And this "marketing research"... I'd love to talk to the researchers and give them some of the experiences I've had here. You won't want to hear those, Square-Enix...
7. "How can we make the best Final Fantasy game available? An MMO!!!"
WHAT -- THE -- FUCK?????????
Did I just hear that right??
This is the quote from the LiveBlog from G4 TV:
(http://e3.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/696020/Live-Blog-Square-Enix-E3-2009-Press-Conference.html)
"Our plan from the beginning was to make the best Final Fantasy game available. That is our vision for XIV. Then we though, how can we make the best FF game and we came to the conclusion that it would be an MMORPG."
Essentially, Square-Enix believes the way to make the best Final Fantasy game, going forward, is an MMO. After all the bullshit in turning FFXI into a $2 whore with herpes...
Look, I don't play video games to associate with other people. I don't even play fighting games to associate with others. In fact, sometimes, I have to physically block the coin slot to keep others from getting in on my game to "impress me" with how "leet" they are!
If that were my interest, there's Second Life for that.
(ESPECIALLY with the types of people I've encountered in Vana'diel!)
This is the company that makes classics like VII and X and underrated gems like X-2 and XII, and now they're basically claiming the best way forward for the franchise (before they even release XIII!) is a MMO.
Unbelievable. Just -- fucking -- unbelievable.
8. "The Growth and the Development of the Character"
BULL - SHIT.
Epic -- fail.
You don't get it, Square-Enix, and you won't get it.
Most of the people who are paying to leech your system to death are trying to subvert that process in every way conceivable.
To actually promote "the growth and the development of the character", you must first achieve a robust system which the players cannot exploit.
Come back to me when you do that for Final Fantasy ELEVEN, much less Fourteen.
No transfers, etc. That's obvious...
9. Why should I join FFXIV? Oh, the world and story...
Just like the same bullcrap you tried with Vana'diel...
Same ol' shit...
Same ol' shit...
Same ol' shit...
----
And that was basically it about a 35-minute session which was all about FFXIV.
*cha-ching* The cash register reads "NO SALE".
Good grief, Square-Enix, are you that short on creative ideas, money, and wherewithal to do anything anymore?
Posts
9 comments:
Your whole post is contradictory. Why are you bitching about how much you hate FFXI when you obviously still play it? If it's such a horrible game stop supporting it already.
1. Asking for it not to be on PC is alienating the majority of the MMO player base. That would be an idiot move.
3 &4. They said they have another year already planned, and no reason to stop planning. This does not equate to one more year of FFXI. Bad reading comprehension, sir.
5. Because you obviously havn't noticed, they've already made FFXI much more casual gamer friendly without even coming close to WoW failure. They plan on incorporating these ideas into they're new FFXIV game. What makes you think they can't? Just because it's easier to play for an hour or two at a time now doesn't make the story lines any less epic and intrinsic.
6. Square Enix follows their userbase more then all the other MMOs put together. Not only do they have players on the servers, they follow the big FFXI sites. Users complain and they change. Blizzard doesn't even pretend to do that.
7&8. The way I can develop my character as well as the multiple story lines that tie together is what makes FFXI so very very different from other MMO's. If you don't appreciate that, well, we're right back at the beginning. Why the hell are you playing a game you hate so much? Cancel and move on. Whiner
Preciouskitten:
0) (Your first point) You obviously haven't been reading my blog long to answer that question. The only reason I'm still here on FFXI has nothing to do with enjoying the game, liking the environment, or having fun.
FFXI is a place inhabited by a bunch of small children who basically get off on destroying everyone else's work -- be that FFXI or elsewhere (which see anime -- which I haven't quit for the same reason I am about to tell you).
They want people like me gone so they can continue being this lawless piece of garbage on the Internet.
I'm only playing FFXI because I want to spite those "people" who wish all legitimacy to leave.
1) Two comments:
First, most of the people currently playing FFXI on the computer, I would want alienated from FFXIV, if it is to be viable.
Second, those same people are the types of people who will turn FFXIV into the same bot-, cheat-, and ninjar-fest which has destroyed FFXI's viability and compromised its playability beyond repair.
3 and 4) They said, by what I read, they had one more year of material left. That, plus a little bit afterward, would seem to jive with a Q4 2009 release for XIV.
5) They've made it much more about that, but, with the model they have with XI, they can only go so far.
Forget about relics, mythics, a lot of the expansion content, etc., if you are a casual gamer.
One of the key points, as I said, was that you can get (at least when it was 70) from 1-70 in WoW within one game-intensive week.
Think you can do that off startup in FFXI without cheating?
They're going to need to make the storyline a lot more friendly to players picking up the game if they don't want to have the same fail in XIV.
6) Bullshit, and you know it. Frankly, they don't do so in any way that involves their own rules. They throw their players a bone and then categorically ignore them at their whim. Please try again.
7 and 8) Most players don't care about the development of their character. They want to be 75 _last week_, even though they just started at level 1 two days ago.
Wake up, Preciouskitten. Please, wake up. And, as for your last comment, see my first one in response to you.
Too long a post to reply to everything, so just replying to various points that stood out.
How can you complain about it being on the PC and then complain the PC specs might be too high in the same breath? If it was PS3-only like you wanted, then you'd have to buy a PS3. Since it'll be on both, you can still buy a PS3 to play it. Noone is forcing you to upgrade your computer just to play FFXIV, there's other solutions.
Why is there no sustainable model for two games? If you're not actively doing development on one anymore, just keeping the servers up and running is very cheap. Heck, the 10+year old Ultima Online is STILL up and running. As long as FFXI subscribers pay the bills to keep the servers running, they'll probably keep it going. That would actually be a good idea as that sort of action encourages user loyalty.
I didn't read the actual entry so I don't know exactly what they mean by aim at the casual player, but they've been doing that for a while. FOV, assault, campaign, all things which are designed to not take too much time but still allow you to get stuff done. Probably more, but those are what immediately come to mind.
Actually I would think the reason they said the best FF would be an MMO is because MMO's have the ability to update and evolve that a regular game can't. Which also brings me to something I've asked before, why did you even start playing FFXI in the first place if you don't like to associate with people. Just because of the franchise name?
On a side note to this, I used to play fighting games a lot, and I dunno about you, but I used to play against other people to challenge myself, not to "impress you" with my "leet"ness. Sometimes I think your view of other people is just skewed, but eh, whatever.
Other than that, same old ranting, so not much to comment on here. Commenting on a blog is far too slow a medium to ever try talking to you about that load of crap.
tarothin: Let's respond to what you were able to get to.
The complaint about the excessive PC specs is one of the complaints I have about the game being on a PC. I shouldn't have to put $1,000 down just to get another PC so I can game in the 21st century. We don't need THAT MANY bells and whistles -- half of which probably will be bugs and won't work anyway.
If you think they're going to make a game for a 2010 release for a computer made in 2007...
Why is there no sustainable model for two games? Because there's no sustainable model, at this point, for FFXI. What makes you think that they're going to be able to keep up both games (or that they want to) when they've let FFXI decay so badly?
To say there will be a sustainable model for both XI and XIV implies you believe there's a sustainable model for XI now!
But you hit on it perfectly: The reason I came into Final Fantasy XI was that it was Final Fantasy. The brand brought me in, yes. Completely.
If I had known that this game would require associating with such people as these, I'd have never gotten in.
I don't like to play fighting games against others at all, as a matter of fact -- especially because they will literally ignore you when you specifically tell them you want to play the damn story mode and damn near start a RL fight so they can be an ass and waste my money!
So, basically, you don't play this game for enjoyment, but instead as a self-perpetuating, self-sustaining Hate Machine, who's preaching legitimacy when in fact legitimacy continues to sustain itself, contrary to your personal experiences. Given the vast and varied nature of the human condition, behaviors and mob mentalities will only carry over into a new social structure, in this case being an online game.
The online world is only as corrupt as the outside world can be. Final Fantasy XI is no different from any other social atmosphere, in regards to content and thought process. The only noticeable difference I see is that if you were to shout your thoughts in the streets, you might find acts of violence visited upon your person. I see reasonable arguments presented, and you allow them to be posted, so I can only assume you've a respect for healthy debate, which I greatly appreciate, but I can only imagine the amounts of mindless hate-spew hurled your way.
I won't lie, I don't like your motivations for staying in the game. It's like staying alive merely to spite death merchants and drug lords that live somewhere in the world. As such, I don't like that you're still within the parameters of the game's world and social structure. It's not that I'm an elitist, and wish you expelled for being a "noob" or what have you. In fact, you're much closer to an elitist than I, as I've managed to have quite a bit of fun in the years I've played this game without ever actually hitting 75. I merely find your behavior appallingly detrimental to society as a whole. No more so than RMT, no more so than petty thieves, and certainly no more so than drug dealers or rapists, but your brand of "righteousness" only serves as a further hurdle in progressive development of life and humanity.
I do not know what sort of experiences visited upon you caused such a bleak outlook on life, but I would not wish them on anyone, if such a dismal outcome is guaranteed.
Davy M. Jones:
First, I _CAN NOT_ play this game for enjoyment -- not the way a bunch of little shits have basically turned Vana'diel into a "place" I've seen far too much of: A world where it is necessary to cheat to win, and, basically, if you're not willing to cheat, the players don't want you here because there's no conceivable way you can be "good enough" and not compromise the rules of the game.
That's why I'm still here: To openly spit at that concept.
Second: Legitimacy continues to sustain itself in Vana'diel? Only if you mean the legitimacy of a game which is basically run by RMT/cheaters, while Square-Enix looks the other way so it can still get enough money to get the players to buy the next game that the RMT and the botters and their bitch friends will promptly overrun.
I'd like to know your definition of "legitimacy" under those terms.
Because this is not just simply a bunch of people deciding to put on new faces and act in ways different than their own nature because they are online.
The actions of the player-base, especially the North American PC player-base, are mirrors as to who these people actually are.
Which is why I don't really care for the game (or "civilized society" in general) as such a social atmosphere.
As far as people wanting to take me out if I said it on the street: You're welcome to try, if that's the implication. I think the fact is that there are enough people who understand that I am more than willing to be violent, should the circumstances require (and that's speaking more in general than just FFXI), and, hence, just leave me alone in that regard.
I think, after a certain degree of time, they understand that they would probably have to visit those acts of violence you speak of towards me if they really want to accomplish anything.
People view me as one of these Internet "trolls", and that's fine if they wish to do so -- I see most of them as a bunch of small-child frauds who are an insult to an educated America. The point I make to them is, especially after reading articles about the types of trolls which abound on the Internet, is that there are only two ways to eliminate such a person from their presence:
1) Jail them.
2) Physically eliminate them.
And that, of course, doesn't count the amount of hate-spew I give back too.
Fair enough. As far as the game goes, I guess I want it to get to the point where someone finally has to call in Square-Enix and say "Get this fucker out of here -- now. He, by his attitudes and his statements, compromises my ability to have fun in the game."
That's part of the environment I want to purport, is that people don't want me in the game -- since the game has become so corrupt (and corrupt_ed_ and corrupt_ible_) that fair play gets you, basically, nothing unless you can insulate yourself (JP-only LS's, what have you) from most of the rest of the player-base.
In response to your being appalled at how I view you collectively: More and more, sadly, I can say that I can't really believe in the concept of "freedom" anymore. We live, more and more, in a societal structure where certain parts of society, in the name of their "freedom", are given an inch and take miles.
I would rather be a hurdle to what you might consider "progressive development of life and humanity" than allow same to basically overrun what little remaining common sense we have, resulting in anarchy. (And we're a lot closer to that than you think.)
Freedom + the types of people whose behavior is encouraged in places like Vana'diel = A life I would not want to be part of, and you wouldn't want me part of.
I've seen enough in my day to basically assume the worst and still be disappointed that I underestimated the ability of many people to be arrogant bitches and take what they want.
Perhaps we do both see things the same way, though you view it through one extreme filter, and I view it through a veil of naivete. The world is a chaotic and varied place, but there are still people who hope for the best, and do what they can to make their experiences and the experiences of others positive ones.
I can hope that we all see the end of such levels of corruption, the likes of which still see people in the world left scarred or tragically disfigured, or left dying in the gutter, but these are merely hopes of mine.
My experiences in the game have been very fun, and while there have been points were I've cursed the unnecessary and downright comical inflation within the game, and sometimes mindless attempts at making ridiculous amounts of in-game currency on the "hot new item that's basically necessary for someone else's job development," but these are commonplace issues that have attacked not just Final Fantasy XI, but numerous other online communities as well.
To say that Final Fantasy XIV taking a page out of World of Warcraft's book is "selling out" is also a bit of an exaggeration. For instance, while RMT activity may occur in WoW, their commerce is still their own, and their auction houses still show reasonable prices for numerous items, in my limited experiences. No where near as ridiculous as finding an item only sells for 460 gil when its lowest price on the Auction House is closer to 86k, but as I said, these are things that strike many MMOs, and with this being SE's first hurrah into massively multiplayer online space, they are facing criticism in the industry while still accomplishing the hopeless task of contending with not only profiting giants in the field (WoW and Everquest), but also completely free MMOs that offer a more fun experience for some players (Cabal, Guild Wars-although it comes with a twenty dollar initial pricetag). I can understand your disappointment to an extent, but to let it motivate you merely to spite other people, despite the effect it has on those who are still good, slightly disturbs me.
Hitler would be an extreme example, surely, but it's the first that comes to mind, though I'm not certain you hold enough considerable influence to incite mass genocide. Closer would be terrorists, who for the majority on their part take the actions they do out of hatred. I'm sure there are some crazies in PETA who would see the whole human race exterminated, but I don't think they're the right sort to associate anyone with anyway, because they're just batshit crazy.
I can't fathom your reasoning, sir. Paying money monthly into an online community you hate so much, because you so greatly dislike one part of it, that you say permeates throughout the entire experience? I could understand hating the elitists, and wanting to prove them wrong, but they've already been proven wrong, and people are still having fun on the game without even getting to their "level" of gameplay. If anything, I think your time might be better spent sending horrible emails to RMTs until they attempt to cry a legal foul on you. At that point, when they attempt to or succeed in taking you to court, you can put forth that the RMTs actions are illegal, and they have ruined your experience in the game, a game you pay for monthly, and likewise negatively affected the experiences of others.
If nothing else, perhaps you could do more to help tear down RMT altogether. If that's not something you'd do, and you'd rather burn the world down to see the RMT go with it, then you'd be correct if you assumed that we are at odds, in opinion. Though I would like to inform you I've no intention of harming or attempting to harm you, if that's the implication you received.
You say people realize they'd actually have to visit said acts of violence upon you to accomplish anything, but I believe that given your stern attachment to words and speech, there's no reason you can't understand a concept without need for mindless violence.
Davy: I'll try to keep this shorter to get all my thoughts in within the 4K limit. (Had to do quite a bit of editing last time through...)
I see that form of naviete as a dangerous thing, in this day and age. There was certainly a time that one could expect the best out of people, but that's changed in the last couple of decades.
Now, instead of shows where you want to see the person win, now people want to see the person abjectly humiliated. We are no longer a civilized culture, and that shows itself quite well, thank you very little, in FFXI.
I understand how certain "gateway items" can be just ridiculous in price (Gobbiebag IX and X ingots, Utsusemi: Ni...), but this is a different animal. You've got people basically robbing Square-Enix of it's proprietary property. And that needs to stop if Square-Enix wants a viable situation for XIV.
My thought of FFXI "selling out" was more a recognition that Square-Enix was bowing to the reality that they may have to make a "much easier game" for people to actually embrace XIV and make it competitive in the MMO market.
My motivation is that these are a bunch of little punks (not unlike the bunch I saw get marched out of the local grocery store last night by the manager) who have compromised the game (in many forms, not just RMT) to the point where the game is no longer competitive in the market, much less fun for the players.
I can understand your feelings. I really can. The problem is that these punks want me gone so they can continue to "rule" over Vana'diel. I don't find it right to let that happen.
And I want to point that out by disagreeing with one of your central theses here: That kind of player HAS NOT been proven wrong. If anything, the extent of the illegal conduct has proven that type of player correct. For example, the "fame" of some of the Salvage dupers or the number of players using Windower.
The elitists, sadly, have NOT been proven wrong.
Davy: As for the RMT themselves (easier to split into two):
I have already begun stepping up what communications I have with respect to the RMT "players" personally. I have also (and posting a couple of them in the blog) made several very strong statements to the Special Task Force, demanding further action.
The current situation (not unlike another (probably soon-to-be, in this case) passion of mine, anime) is not sufficient to deal with the rampant illegal conduct.
This needs to be addressed as a criminal and civil matter, by players and RMT "companies". Until this is more than just a "slap on the wrist" situation on all ends, this is not going to change.
I gave several such discussions earlier in the blog (much to the laughter of much of Vana'diel, mind you) to this effect. This is not ending, simply, with internal matters -- in fact, as I said elsewhere, there are more messages for RMT gil at less price, indicating that supply is up.
Post a Comment