Comments from the Devs

[Alkar]

The problem is that a lot of games are simply copy/pasting WoW these days without really bothering to do their own thing. That means people don't really care about these games after a while and developers simply don't wanna waste time and go F2P to recover (hopefully) losses. Some see this as a "trend" and keep saying F2P is the future while it really isn't. Also the update schedule is usually all over the place... if you don't release stuff quick enough people will quit.
FFXIV was extremely guilty of this at first too... 2-3 months for the first update and all we got were 5 NMs? Yeah, that's not gonna work.
Also I don't really see all this love for F2P... you end up paying more than subscription anyway or a huge chunk of content is simply out of your reach. Most people just see the word "free" and instantly assume it's better lol.

[Lucavi]

F2P attracts one crowd, but turns away another. It attracts a crowd that couldn't pay for the long-term investment of playing a monthly sub, which inflates the sub numbers of the game, and could possibly lead to increased revenue if enough of these people buy a few products here or there, or buy the actual subscription once they finish enough of or all of the content that is provided through F2P. This crowd is typically more casual and is more likely to leave just as quickly as they've joined, especially if they get bored.

Meanwhile, F2P pushes away a crowd that feels that the F2P tag will equal either a death sentence for the game, or a death sentence of the environment that they enjoyed with the game. It sounds funny, but these can sometimes be purists who enjoy having things that others don't have, and can become disappointed that others (especially casuals) will have a shot at some of the things that they currently have. They roll off in droves, typically with their hardcore guild that stays together, to find the next game to "dominate".

As for which group pays more, I think it depends on how good the game is initially vs. how good it becomes. The better games up-front will make more through natural subs, while the worse games up-front will make more through F2P. Dungeons and Dragons Online is an example of the latter, as the game was absolutely terrible when it was P2P, but wound up making a bit of a profit once turning F2P, simply because far more people played it once it was F2P than would have ever thought about playing it if they had to pay for much of the content.

[Spira]

as far as payment models go, i think the bigger problem is actually the playerbase, but we're slowly shifting away from the old established notions about different payment systems. monthly fee isn't always the best way to go.

understandably it seems the most ideal because its a more stable income stream, regardless of new content released.

but the MMO market is saturated and the average gamer is only willing to commit a certain wallet share to monthly fees. the post-WOW mmo scene also has far less 'new to market' customers, which everyone having at least tried / or is still playing an MMORPG.

at the other end of the spectrum is f2p, which many look down upon as being casual and not as serious as paying ones. but this notion is slowly being eroded as many major MMO titles, new and old are moving to the f2p model.
It can survive because for many, they still do sell "boxed" expansions, which may defray costs, but more importantly, deal with microtransactions.

So for FFXIV to survive, it'd depend on how strong ARR is in establishing a new stable subscription base and what Yoshi P has in mind for a stable community of players.

I'd reckon if it came anywhere close to what XI managed to achieve then it'd have no problems continuing comfortably with monthly fee. but if it doesn't then they'd probably need to slash fee prices in hopes of pulling people in (which doesn't always work), or make it f2p, which will no doubt attract a whole lot more people to play.

Provided the game can retain its players, the increased player population, coupled with clever use of microtransactions could easily match or surpass monthly fee takings, even if its less consistent. More importantly, it'd be useful in keeping the community alive, because f2p games practically never run out of players - low monetary barriers to entry, no barriers to return.

Personally, I'd prefer for XIV to go F2P, because I believe no matter how well they repair the XIV name, it's still going to be difficult to draw and retain a sizeable player-base in a fickle MMO market, with a monthly fee.

Also, because the nature of microtransactions could be vanity, or a shortcut to get past grinding/farming, one may not necessarily buy it. For me, that'd definitely be savings cos you may not need to make any microtransactions at all, so you still save on monthly.
But this would be a dickish move for Legacy subscribers, so i'm gonna bet if they do ever move to a different monetization model, it'd be after however many month's it'd take to break even on having reduced monthly after signing up for Legacy. I think it was 6 or 9 months.

tl;dr - no one payment model is the best. they're gonna need to examine their subscription rates and tweak accordingly.

anyway.. i remember them saying August is gonna be the start of the media dump. does anyone have any idea when the next scheduled event where XIV footage will be revealed is or if i missed any out?

Gamescon - 15th Aug
FF 25th anniversary event is Sept 1.
TGS - 20th Sept.

so.. roughly around 2 weeks for each update?

[Lucavi]

Bring on the delicious information; here's to one hell of a good august for MMOs.

[TacoTaru]

Not that this is a horribly big deal but I don't understand their hard on to make all these emotes, half of which I don't remember exist nor have I seen used. Seems stupid to make racial differences in the mile long list of emotes that most people aren't using instead of battle animations, which even XI was able to pull that off ~_~.

We checked in with the animation team about whether or not races will have different animations and they said that there aren't any plans to have unique animations per race. Instead they'd rather show the uniqueness of each race through their emotes rather than their battle animations. They did say however that they are trying to create unique animations for many of the class and job actions by the launch of A Realm Reborn. Please keep in mind that there is a possibility that they might not be completed in time but that they will do their best!

[Raldo]

They almost have to be a little unique, don't they? Doesn't the lalafell do a bit more crazy shit during... that one MNK weaponskill with all the punching and the kicking and zip zoop zippity bip bop?

[Gokulo]

Yeah, unique racial animations were one of the cooler things, while unique emotes aren't that great because people don't even use them that often.

[Elcura]

They almost have to be a little unique, don't they? Doesn't the lalafell do a bit more crazy shit during... that one MNK weaponskill with all the punching and the kicking and zip zoop zippity bip bop?

Pretty much every race does the same thing. Maybe it's just that everything looks cooler on a lalafell? I do kinda miss racial differences in WS, but on the flipside I hated that some animations for certain WS looked better (in some cases way better) on some races than others and knowing that even if I leveled that job and got that cool WS, it would still look shit because of my race.

Personal peeves, but showing differences in emotes rather than battle animations seems like a good idea for those who just want to see what the races look like first hand. Battle animations being more standardized means all races look good not just a couple, and certainly none looking worse.

[Raldo]

I think I was getting it confused with XI's Asuran Fists

[solracht]

This is sort of silly but I thought it was funny:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post780622

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post781051

[Fievel]

This is sort of silly but I thought it was funny:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post780622

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post781051

That's hilarious, hahaha.

[Lucavi]

Oh god, that guy sounds like a champion.

For the people.

[vadre]

Announcing the FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Gear Design Contest! (08/10/2012)

With the Seventh Umbral Era fast approaching, adventurers of Eorzea will need to be well-prepared if they hope to endure the coming crisis. Unprecedented dangers demand items of unimaginable power--unimaginable by us alone, that is. However, with the combined creativity of our community, we hope to create an epic ring to aid adventurers as they struggle to survive and forge new legends in a realm reborn.

Are you a frustrated goldsmith with aspirations of fame? Or are you merely a marauder who enjoys collecting shiny trinkets? Regardless of your background, we challenge adventurers to design a ring of exquisite, alluring beauty imbued with potent, esoteric enchantments.

The development and operations teams will select ten finalists, and the community itself will vote on and select the three rings that will appear in-game!

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...cfd590eb99f445

Inb4 the OF are flooded with inuendo-heavy threads about their rings.

Neat idea and all, but couldn't they have done it with something a little bit more significant than rings? Designing hats would've been awesome.

[brozy]

This is sort of silly but I thought it was funny:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post780622

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post781051

That was genuinely my first visit to the OF....oh god help us, also found this gem: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...a-on-equipment...

[vadre]

FFXIV 2.0 using as little as 10% of 1.0's assets

Every asset was revisited and improved. With as little as 10 per cent of the existing game’s assets being ported over, the rest is a new game with maps, battle systems, story and characters deleted and redesigned. The new game even has an apt new title: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/how-s...ebirth/0101075

That's all I really took from it that's semi-new, good that there's a bit of publicity going on. Hope the gameplay really gets people interested...

[Gadritan]

It'd help if we actually saw some game play and not just CG that has recycled CG from the original opening scene...

[Gokulo]

They're showing it during Gamescom. Shush until then with "gaemplay pllzz"

Also, that article is actually bad on some parts, they say as if the decision to remake the game was made just recently, and that characters will be deleted and people will have to restart. Misleading people~!

[vadre]

Yeah, they obviously haven't been following the game particularly closely, the fact that they spoke to Yoshi made me think it was worth posting. This assumes that wasn't bs.

[Gadritan]

They're showing it during Gamescom. Shush until then with "gaemplay pllzz"

If they weren't feeding us rehashed CG and advertising it as new on top of cockblocking with faux pics of gameplay I wouldn't bring it up.

However...

[Spira]

you don't like appetizers before the main course?