The Final Fantasy XIV Thread [Dawntrail - 7.00]

[Marcus]

Thank god, I was expecting them to wipe everything after all the problems P4 Beta had (though I didn't have many issues). I'm rather far in so to start again would be annoying.

Also the trophy hunter in me is wanting to know it a trophy list has been released yet?

 

[Arianna]

I'm waiting for this to come out on PS3.

 

[Lex]

It is out on PS3, that's where most of us are going to play it.

@Marcus, No. There's an in-game achievement for completing 10,000 Guildleves. If that's a trophy it'll take 4 years because there's a maximum of 8 guildleves that you're allowed to do every day. Oh, and that's 4 years of doing 8 guildleves every day. Hahaha.

 

[Marcus]

Well that's one way of keeping us all roped in to playing the game constantly.

I'm hoping after a certain amount of time it will become F2P, I won't be forking out £8 each month to play the game.

 

[Drax]

I guess Summons are Weapons in this game? Looks like Behemoth, Odin, Ifrit, Siren, and Titan so far

 

[Lex]

Well that's one way of keeping us all roped in to playing the game constantly.

I'm hoping after a certain amount of time it will become F2P, I won't be forking out £8 each month to play the game.

If it becomes F2P we'll be fucked with Microtransactions for everything so no, I really hope it doesn't ever become F2P. If XI is anything to go by, it won't.

 

[Strangelove]

@Marcus, No. There's an in-game achievement for completing 10,000 Guildleves. If that's a trophy it'll take 4 years because there's a maximum of 8 guildleves that you're allowed to do every day. Oh, and that's 4 years of doing 8 guildleves every day. Hahaha.

I don't know if I'll have a subscription going all the time. It will probably be more of a case of when I have time/desire and if there's expansion packs coming out (which will happen i know).

Unless I'm suddenly rich tomorrow, then I'm going to be fully subscribed as I play on my 90" screen while floating in my gold pool.

moogle hats for everyone on that day (because i won't be getting one today)

 

[ForceStealer]

MMOs are so much more natural on PCs, ya weirdos

 

[Lex]

At some point in the past week the Collector's Edition of this game went down to £30 on Amazon. It's now back up to £45.

Gotta love that pre-order price guarantee. I'm getting it for £20 less than I was willing to pay. I love Amazon <3 (Amazon UK, I know they're shit in the US or whatever).

 

[AvecAloes]

Is it Saturday yet???

 

[Lex]

I'm going to go to sleep, then I'm going to wake up, then I'm going to XIV, then it'll be September.

 

[Cthulhu]

then you remember you haven't eaten in a week and you're sitting on a pile of your own shit and piss,

 

[ForceStealer]

Those of us starting over are going to have a hard time catching up with all the losers that grinded up to level 20 last weekend

 

[Knuxson]

I am very interested in hearing thoughts on the game. I have played many mmos (WoW, SWG, SWTOR, Guild Wars, LoTRO, etc.), but only tried out FF 11 for a couple of hours and never played 14 or got into any A Realm Reborn betas. So I would love to hear how you all that are playing like it.

 

[Lex]

Those of us starting over are going to have a hard time catching up with all the losers that grinded up to level 20 last weekend

You concept of this word is broken; please try again later

I am very interested in hearing thoughts on the game. I have played many mmos (WoW, SWG, SWTOR, Guild Wars, LoTRO, etc.), but only tried out FF 11 for a couple of hours and never played 14 or got into any A Realm Reborn betas. So I would love to hear how you all that are playing like it.

I don't know if I lose credible opinion points because I don't generally play MMO's, but I think this game is pretty damn awesome. I find it really fun to play and I can't wait to play it again. I only tried it when it was free last weekend to give it a go, and I've kind of fallen in love with it.

Aside from being a big FF fan-wank (as Satsu puts it) in general, it's just fun to play. I like the quests, I love the music, I love the world and the towns, and the NPC's actually have a surprising amount of character. I'm not sure about the story yet but it seems Final Fantasy-ish enough, kind of a cross between VI and XII's storyline in some ways with a lot of new in there.

 

[AvecAloes]

Those of us starting over are going to have a hard time catching up with all the losers that grinded up to level 20 last weekend

Well, I got up to level 13 last weekend, and would have very much preferred to start from there tomorrow, but I would have had to switch accounts with you and then not even being able to play with everyone, as you would all be on a different server, so

Just gotta wake up bright and early(ish) and power through it tomorrow...then you'll have all of Sunday to play catch-up as well, while I'll be off to coaster land with my sister, so I'll truly be behind

 

[Arianna]

How much does all this cost???

 

[AvecAloes]

It's $30 for the PC version, $40 for PS3, plus monthly fees anywhere between $13 and $15 per month, I believe, depending on how many months you commit to at a time.

 

[Hisako]

I am very interested in hearing thoughts on the game. I have played many mmos (WoW, SWG, SWTOR, Guild Wars, LoTRO, etc.), but only tried out FF 11 for a couple of hours and never played 14 or got into any A Realm Reborn betas. So I would love to hear how you all that are playing like it.

In terms of MMOs, I think XIV is a solid choice. If I'm honest, I'm having a lot of fun with it but functionally I don't think it's outstanding from most other MMOs in any way. It offers just a fraction more customisation ability than the paragon, WoW, but you're looking at similar gameplay mechanics. I think the community will roughly round out to be very similar to Galaxy's degree of complexity since the fanbase is huge - not to mention the new player housing.

I've yet to play an MMO with the amount of directed plot or PC/NPC voice work as TOR has, but like Lex said, there's a surprising amount of character depth in the writing of XIV's questing and NPCs. Even early on, tutorial quests that are really no more than "go to point A and talk to character B" are full of NPCs that are full of personality in ways that players might not expect. A particularly memorable starting quest I had was one where a Lalafell wanted me to shout down her husband for being a lazy shit, whereupon the dude on the other side of town basically complained that her wife wasn't helping things by doing nothing but shopping for clothes all day. It's just flavour like that that go above and beyond what's expected of MMO questing.

So I guess what I'm getting at is the new FFXIV is a very competent MMO that's gotten most things right. I don't think it's particularly spectacular in any regard - even the absolutely amazing visual flair the original game had is now par for the course by today's standards - but given the fanbase that the game is drawing from, I think it'll have a fair amount of staying power. I have my doubts, of course (the plateauing of Guild Wars 2 sales and especially the massive behemoth that was SWTOR going f2p being my main two concerns), but there are many little differences in context (and audiences) this time around that keep me optimistic about the game's future. Also important to note is that I think tapping into the console market was a wise choice, especially since the PC demographic is already heavily saturated with MMOs.

 

[ForceStealer]

I'm not terribly experienced with MMOs, but that is exactly how I would have described it, only much less eloquently.

Also, the callbacks and fanservice (the good kind) don't hurt.

 

[Arianna]

What was wrong with the original FXIV? I mean, was it the graphics? The story? Or was it the programming? What exactly was so wrong?

It's $30 for the PC version, $40 for PS3, plus monthly fees anywhere between $13 and $15 per month, I believe, depending on how many months you commit to at a time.

See, I am not sure if I agree to all that. I just don't like the idea of having to pay extra when I've already paid for the game. DLC is different, at least a bit, in my opinion. I don't understand what else they need to charge me for when I've bought the game? Well... We'll see. No one's twisting my arm.

 

[Drax]

What was wrong with the original FXIV? I mean, was it the graphics? The story? Or was it the programming? What exactly was so wrong?

It was rushed out the door, so the game ended up being disjointed and very unplayable. GT explains it well.

 

[Lex]

Monthly subscriptions are necessary for MMO games so that they can keep the servers running and stuff, as well as update in-game content, keep the community going etc. I used to be funny about monthly subscriptions too but I understand why they're necessary.

Free to play MMO's might seem like a good idea, but before you know it it costs £0.50 to buy things at the shop, then every tiny little thing costs money because they need to keep the servers running. It's kinda just the way online games work.

EDIT: (The point of coming here, derp); Huzzah, I've returned to Eorzea!

 

[Cthulhu]

F2P MMO's are a good idea for MMO's that can no longer support themselves with subscriptions, and the newish MMO's that started up in the past couple of years have all gone through phases of a peak in popularity in the first 1 - 3 months, then having to reduce / merge servers, then having to go F2P after a while. Those guys are usually OMG AWESOME after they go f2p, with income suddenly doubling (or more). It's a different crowd though, I think; younger people with less expendable income that play it for the free part, and older people with expendable income that go OOOO SHINY and splurge on items (for more than the subscription fee / month). There's quite a bit of psychology behind microtransactions; see www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20130626/194933/? for a background article on it.

 

[ForceStealer]

Monthly subscriptions are necessary for MMO games so that they can keep the servers running and stuff, as well as update in-game content, keep the community going etc. I used to be funny about monthly subscriptions too but I understand why they're necessary.

Free to play MMO's might seem like a good idea, but before you know it it costs £0.50 to buy things at the shop, then every tiny little thing costs money because they need to keep the servers running. It's kinda just the way online games work.

EDIT: (The point of coming here, derp); Huzzah, I've returned to Eorzea!

There's still the Guild Wars approach, which is my favorite.

All right, everyone. Names! For the friend-listing!
I'm Amalek Hezremonde.