[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[icausewipes]

ofc its competition. but they dont wanna compete with wow with amount of players. Wow has what? 7-8 mill players atm, FFXIV doesnt want or NEED that amount of players. so they can afford to not cater to everyone and run their own game. this is proved by how small (dunno if small is the right word for it) the servers they launched with. they didnt expect this many players and they frankly dont need it. that doesnt mean they dont welcome it and love it. but it was never their goal.

so yeah it competes with WoW just by being another game, but they dont have the need to grow as big as wow.

So you are saying a company that makes games for profit doesn't want more people (profit)?

[Clymene]

So you are saying a company that makes games for profit doesn't want more people (profit)?

Sometimes the way SE has operated in the past, it makes you wonder.

[PizzaSHARK]

The response was to a previous post where it was stated that SE considers FFXIV a "serious competitor" for WOW, whatever the hell that means, with no supporting information, not that they did not want western players. Releasing outside of Japan, just means SE want players from outside of Japan. The idea that MMOs are highlanders and there can be only one is stupid. Unless someone generates quotes similar to those from Rift or SWTOR, it is not a valid assumption that SE wants to steal players from WOW.

Also there is no such thing as an implied fact, but honestly it is just trolling at this point.

You can say whatever makes you feel better, but at the end of the day, FF14 is in direct competition with other raiding-focused, subscription-based MMOs, and in the western hemisphere, that means World of Warcraft.

Acting like SE aren't aware of this or are somehow not intending on competing with WoW is absurd.

[Kalyyn]

So you are saying a company that makes games for profit doesn't want more people (profit)?

Two things:

1. This is a Japanese entertainment company, which are notorious for making poor business decisions to the point where it seems like they are intentionally hindering their profits.
2. This is Square Enix, a company that is notorious even among Japanese companies for just doing the opposite of whatever will make them money.

[Nyanmaru]

Two things:

1. This is a Japanese entertainment company, which are notorious for making poor business decisions to the point where it seems like they are intentionally hindering their profits.
2. This is Square Enix, a company that is notorious even among Japanese companies for just doing the opposite of whatever will make them money.

One could say, they don't care much about being competition and just want people to enjoy the game they made.

And I sincerely think that's almost all the "western market" is to Sqenix.

[CandyCotton Marshmallows]

If people were going to move from EQ to EQ2, they would've done it YEARS ago. I played the F2P EQ2 a year or two ago I believe. EQ2 is a different game completely. They changed it. The ones who love the way EQ plays, won't like EQ2 as much. EQ still has xpacs released for it. Not everyone jumps ship all the time.

WoW has lost about half its playerbase. That in no way implies it is near its death, it just shows that they continue to make mistakes, and their fixes aren't working for about 5-6 million people so far.

FFXIV planned for about 2-300,000 players. That is what they needed to make money. They are not looking to replace WoW. Once you understand that, you realize that gives them the freedom to plan and develop how they see fit and make the story that works for the dedicated fans of all of their series. They don't have to mold the game to the standards of a gorilla sitting on a fence. They are WAY ABOVE projected target. They are making MORE MONEY than they needed or planned for. The game is a HUGE success in their eyes. The did make a different kind of game. A different kind of MMO. Anyway, do you really want to copy a game that is in a state of decline, even if it is still the biggest in numbers? Lots of people like things that aren't the best, maybe the best for them. If you like death metal, great, but I'm not going to like it and don't try to make my music into death metal, please.


If you can't take 30 seconds to sort your inventory when you get a few new things; then maybe you are far too strapped for time. I've never had an issue in any game organizing my bags, none of them had any kind of auto-sort except for modded minecraft and a mod for WoW. Usually, their sorting bullshit would annoy me and I would turn it off/unbind it. If you could read unbiased, you'd see that is pretty much reiterating what I already said.

lowest common denominator refers to you thinking the game is too grindy. Why does the game have to be instant gratification? What is wrong with farming for a chocobo? What is wrong with spending time in the game to earn the things you want? Of course, you don't understand what I was saying, because you don't want to hear it.


Not every game is looking to be a 'direct competitor' as you put it. WoW and EVE are not direct competitors of each other. They are completely different games. So is this. This game is for people who enjoy Final Fantasy and for people who are interested in it who may not enjoy it. It is marketed and made for the people who enjoy it; plain and simple. This is not a competitor to those games. Now you could argue when Rift and SWtOR was release, they intended to be direct competitors to WoW; Tera I would say no, not at all. A Dodge Dart is a car, but that car is not a direct competitor to a Dodge Calibur or a Dodge Canyon. People who want a small car are not in the market for a stationwagon or a truck, nor the other ways around ... they are all about the same cost to buy/own; but they are marketed to different people with different tastes ... just because you are in the market for -any- MMO, doesn't mean that MMO is designed to be in the market for any MMO player.


You are trying to compare it to some standard you think it needs to be at; you want it to compete with WoW, you want it to fit into some paradigm ... but it doesn't have to. It isn't after a large western sub base. It is there for the fans, if it sticks to a hundred thousand or so, then that is great. Show me where they stated they wanted WoW sub numbers, where they wanted to compete with WoW in any way, shape, or form ... and then I might see some validity in your argument.

There are QoL issues in every game. The game just re-released, completely revamped. They are just trying to adjust to the server loads they did not expect. Let them adjust to a larger playerbase than they expected, open up sales again, because sales have been shut down for some time now, let them get the damn gamn running smoothly for a while, then start worrying about the little things.

It seems like most of the gripes are either personal opinions, or there IS a fix for them in game already, but maybe the problem is lack of clarity in finding the solution, or the fact that user made resources aren't as vast and easy to access as it is for a 10 year old game with millions of players. I mean I have a question about WoW OR even one of its addons, I can go numerous places and find the answer because its been around so long. FFXIV ARR hasn't.


So tl;dr: FFXIV ARR is in no way competition for WoW; it is is own game. Most of the problems you have can be fixed except for 'grindy' which isn't a problem for most FF fans whom presumably are the ones they made the game for in the first place. The game is a HUGE success as far as the developers are concerned, they sold double the amount before they stopped sales than they expected to get overall, and people itching to still purchase the game. DESPITE its flaws, and BECAUSE it is designed the way it is. You are free to enjoy it, free to not. The market is vast, as you admit yourself. Please have fun somewhere ^_^

[Remilia]

Hard Mode Titan.
Fuck you.

With this server 'pug' for like 3 hours of wipes before he died.

[CandyCotton Marshmallows]

ofc its competition. but they dont wanna compete with wow with amount of players. Wow has what? 7-8 mill players atm, FFXIV doesnt want or NEED that amount of players. so they can afford to not cater to everyone and run their own game. this is proved by how small (dunno if small is the right word for it) the servers they launched with. they didnt expect this many players and they frankly dont need it. that doesnt mean they dont welcome it and love it. but it was never their goal.

so yeah it competes with WoW just by being another game, but they dont have the need to grow as big as wow.

The response was to a previous post where it was stated that SE considers FFXIV a "serious competitor" for WOW, whatever the hell that means, with no supporting information, not that they did not want western players. Releasing outside of Japan, just means SE want players from outside of Japan. The idea that MMOs are highlanders and there can be only one is stupid. Unless someone generates quotes similar to those from Rift or SWTOR, it is not a valid assumption that SE wants to steal players from WOW.

Also there is no such thing as an implied fact, but honestly it is just trolling at this point.

One could say, they don't care much about being competition and just want people to enjoy the game they made.

And I sincerely think that's almost all the "western market" is to Sqenix.

At least some people understand.


I have no problem with pointing out problems with the game. There are problems.

Kitty, you specifically said it feels like it is designed to be free to play, that basically every aspect is set up for free to play and make your life tedious. Great. But, there is rested xp, there are xp bonus foods, there are xp bonuses from guilds. There is a history with SE for not switching to F2P, because they don't design and project for big sub numbers.

The criticism you give is sound. But just like in SWtOR, I'll defend the xp rate of being F2P/Preferred, I can defend it here as well. You don't need any buffs. Apparently, if you stick to one class long enough, you'll get a bonus to the others anyway (a friend told me a 50% xp increase to other classes after 50?)


But, if someone says 'the UI needs to be more customizable' ... well, that is as close to a lie as possible. You can move every element, and even resize them. What more customization does there need to be? When someone demands there needs to be sorting for inventory, other than addons, no game has that, would it be nice for some, YES!, but a fault of the game, when they try to compare everything to another game that is lacking the same things? I call foul.

Same with the grind. Tera was much more 'grindy'. Rift 55+ is a huge grind, even with xp buffs if you aren't grinding expert hunts rifts or whatever that work around was.

My response to you earlier was simple, but my replies to others not so much. I will call them out. Just like I'd call out a heroic raider bitching about LFR in WoW.

You are exactly right, no game is perfect. These people are trying to put this game in a competition it isn't, it never asked to be. They WANT to make it a 'war'. They can't understand that this was made and marketed a specific way. You can not like that. You can say it is a poor business decision. But you cannot put words in their mouth and create a competition you don't seek. That is like pulling up to a sports car at a red light, and if you pull away faster you beat them ... they just don't care about you, they are doing their own thing. WoW to SE is irrelevant. Between that and lies or misconceptions; there isn't much more to say. No one denied the 'grindy' aspect. It may be 'honest' criticism, and valid from one perspective, but it doesn't make it valid to all.

Hyperbole like 'throw up in my mouth a little' is quite amusing form of exaggeration. I could say people making up stuff made me gouge my eyes out with a fork; but I don't think that respects my fellow forum debaters, and despite discussing and debating, all respect is still there. No name calling, no hyperbole, no disrespect. Nothing wrong with disagreement and discussion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But when people make statements as if they were facts, or say things that just aren't true; well, there is good reason to go on the offensive in the discussion. 'Direct competition with WoW' stated like a fact, doesn't make it a fact. Bjork is not in direct competition with Justin Beiber who is not in direct competition with Psy, nor Eminem. Different target demographics and tastes.

[Sunfyre]

Star Trek Online has bag sorting built in.

[Remilia]

And TERA actually.

[Halsynd]

Hard Mode Titan.
Fuck you.

With this server 'pug' for like 3 hours of wipes before he died.

WTS Titan HM kills, 200k PST~

[Remilia]

WTS Titan HM kills, 200k PST~

I guess it's possible if everyone was raid geared but the one being carried. However everyone is basically held self accountable.
All deaths except tumult or tank death is pretty much your own fault.

[Kalyyn]

You know what I really want? Instruments. And don't give me that "roll a bard" bullshit. They get some fairly lame music-based abilities that they barely even use. No, I want a goddamn violin. Like I had in Aion. And a Yukata.

[Halsynd]

I guess it's possible if everyone was raid geared but the one being carried. However everyone is basically held self accountable.
All deaths except tumult or tank death is pretty much your own fault.

Its kinda sad, of all the people we've sold runs to, only 2 of them survived the whole thing. And we've sold atleast 20+, the fight isnt that hard, theres a pattern to learn, once thats done, its all about not falling asleep and getting out of Landslides/Weights. The fight is very unforgiving though, if you get hit by landslide, you're dead and there's no way to res you, even the healer limit break doesnt reach that far down.

[kronpas]

Kitty, you specifically said it feels like it is designed to be free to play, that basically every aspect is set up for free to play and make your life tedious. Great. But, there is rested xp, there are xp bonus foods, there are xp bonuses from guilds. There is a history with SE for not switching to F2P, because they don't design and project for big sub numbers.

The criticism you give is sound. But just like in SWtOR, I'll defend the xp rate of being F2P/Preferred, I can defend it here as well. You don't need any buffs. Apparently, if you stick to one class long enough, you'll get a bonus to the others anyway (a friend told me a 50% xp increase to other classes after 50?)

XP rate is incredibly forgiving. You got 3% food, 5% guild, dont know how much from rested XP (which is usually a whole bar ahead of my current xp), and +50% for EVERY class after the first 50. By 50% I meant literally everything from quest to fate reward. I managed to bring a SCH and WHM to 50 during the past 3 weeks with full time day job, but the gearing is way more tedious than I anticipated :\

[PizzaSHARK]

Star Trek Online has bag sorting built in.

As near as I can tell, the only thing that the bag sorting option in FF14 does is make all new arrivals go to bag 4 instead of bag 1.

[Sandwrong]

So I'm level 40 and still not in a guild/free company. Anyone on Faerie want a white mage?

We'll take you!

If anyone on the Faerie server is looking for a Free Company, Triumviratus is more than happy to have you, just add Sandwrong Surith to friends, and I'll invite you when I get on :3

[Sunfyre]

There's now a free company thread that's stickied.

[PizzaSHARK]

We'll take you!

If anyone on the Faerie server is looking for a Free Company, Triumviratus is more than happy to have you, just add Sandwrong Surith to friends, and I'll invite you when I get on :3

Near as I can tell, you can't add someone to your friends list unless they're actually online.

[Remilia]

Its kinda sad, of all the people we've sold runs to, only 2 of them survived the whole thing. And we've sold atleast 20+, the fight isnt that hard, theres a pattern to learn, once thats done, its all about not falling asleep and getting out of Landslides/Weights. The fight is very unforgiving though, if you get hit by landslide, you're dead and there's no way to res you, even the healer limit break doesnt reach that far down.

Yeah, it's a very simple fight really that requires perfection. Everyone knows what to do, it's just messing up once can become a wipe.