Worth playing now?

[Guyverarmor]

Well, I bought FF14 last night and figured I may try it, but question for people who have been playing it for a while now.. is it worth getting in now, or waiting for the updates to take affect? Any and all help is appreciated ^^

[Drako]

just play already, theres no difference in starting now or next week... if u were talking about now and march, then someone could have an argument.

[Cooleko]

lvls 1-10 wont change any so have fun on your low lvls

[Ratatapa]

Simple if you dont create your char today you wont have the 30 days free extension

[Katlan]

Simple if you dont create your char today you wont have the 30 days free extension

Pretty sure that was for existing players who bought the game before Oct 25'th or something around that date.

OP: It really depends. In my opinion, I would strongly wait until March to start playing the game (if you haven't already). You may enjoy the game now, but you will enjoy it more in March. Least that's what I would of done if i wasn't part of the CE crew

[Lucavi]

Play the game and garner your own opinion.

[Riposte]

Game doesn't update itself. There is an update schedule you can follow on the lodestone.

[solracht]

Pretty sure that was for existing players who bought the game before Oct 25'th or something around that date.

That was for the first 30 days.

* Character purchases must have been carried out no later than November 19, 2010 at 23:59 (GMT).

[SayomiSassaki]

Like Lucavi said, play it for make your own opinion. There is ppl who like the game right now (like me) and ppl who just hate it... so it's up to you to make your own opinion. And like Ratatapa said if you get it today you will get an extra 30 day free.

[Guyverarmor]

Yeah, I activated yesterday. Let's see what happens then !

[miokomioko]

May as well take the time to push most classes through to rank 10~11 since it's a) incredibly easy, b) very rewarding (Punishing Barbs while they last!), c) won't be easier after the update.

[Doombard]

I would get it just to grind some shit out before ps3 launch but I'd rather play it on ps3 because to get it to run on my pc without lag I gotta set the graphics to ps1 level.

[Kylewhataru]

Even if FF14 was good, cataclysm is out in 5 days, all the FF14 servers are going to be ghost towns next week, yes more than they are now.

If I ever play it seriously it would be after the ps3 release, not only will it be improved but there will be new people to play with from level 1 and the servers should repopulate, assuming SE doesn't fuck up, and I'll be bored of Cataclysm after about 3 months so it's good timing.

[Psion]

Why do people keep saying the servers are ghost towns? When I go to any of the 3 cities in Besaid, the streets are CLOGGED with people at all hours. anywhere there's a place to gather, such as guilds, the npc repair guy, or the aetherite, all I see are masses of white dots on the map.

If anything, the cities make whitegate at it's peak look empty. And there's always tons of people in the wilderness too, I'm always running into people even off road wherever I go.

People whining about ghost town servers got some sucky servers or are just seeing what they want to see. Me, I'm seeing my landline connection and great computer get slightly choppy when I move in cities from all the people it has to download when you move in heavily populated areas. (once the data is loaded, it goes straight back to perfectly smooth)

[Carraway]

Because just prior to the November update, all but the most populous servers were struggling to break 1,000 players logged on during peak hours, NA or JP. If you really want to compare it to FFXI, just before FFXIV CE release, Odin regularly had about 250-500 people in Whitegate during peak hours and ~2-3k logged on serverwide (more during JP peak than NA).

[Psion]

Uh, yeah no, I started playing just prior before the November update and it was still pretty crowded at all times. In all cities. In all nearby camps. the only place I didn't encounter any people was in mor dhona, and that's because fuck that place and it's horrible horrible ogres and warthogs.

The population did seem to rise slightly after the update, but it was plenty crowded even before then.

Also, the whole search function displaying people in the world was people in a party in the world, not everyone. That means in besaid, there were usually about 800-1200 partied people in the world, so try doubling or tripling that number and you got ::gasp:: server numbers quite similar to FFXI, if not a bit higher!

The reason SE made it you no longer see this is almost certainly because people kept thinking it meant people online total, not party members, and so people were panicking over the servers dying, when in reality the population levels are quite healthy.

[Riposte]

1200 people partying at once seems very unlikely. I am pretty sure you are dead wrong in your interpretation of world search.

However the cities and camps do seem busy. I imagine this might be the case because of the how the game is set up. It is not as spread out as FFXI. Everyone is usually either in town(which is one area, per city) near the adventurer's guild or a crafting NPC, at a camp, or doing a leve near a camp. Now compare that to FFXI's way of split-up cities and exp camps/parties. And there is also the matter of it being a new game. Most of the map/camps are dangerous and useless to people under rank 30.

Also talk of peak hours is suspect(when trying to find hard numbers). Unlike most games, FFXIV has at least two peak-hours. Perhaps claims of barely being able to reach 1000 pop during one or both of these ranges on underpopulated servers might be true, but I wouldn't be able to tell first hand.

[Carraway]

Uh, yeah no, I started playing just prior before the November update and it was still pretty crowded at all times. In all cities. In all nearby camps. the only place I didn't encounter any people was in mor dhona, and that's because fuck that place and it's horrible horrible ogres and warthogs.

The population did seem to rise slightly after the update, but it was plenty crowded even before then.

Also, the whole search function displaying people in the world was people in a party in the world, not everyone. That means in besaid, there were usually about 800-1200 partied people in the world, so try doubling or tripling that number and you got ::gasp:: server numbers quite similar to FFXI, if not a bit higher!

The reason SE made it you no longer see this is almost certainly because people kept thinking it meant people online total, not party members, and so people were panicking over the servers dying, when in reality the population levels are quite healthy.

You're wrong about the player count only tallying those in a party and your argument against the "ghost town" phrase is based on a purely subjective perception, whereas most people's evaluations of whether FFXIV servers are "ghost towns" were based on simultaneous connection counts in comparison to other games'.

There are plenty of people at camps and in cities because there is no reason to idle anywhere else.

I have nothing against the game itself but there's no denying the fact that we sorely need new players.

[Soupbowl]

I really like the game now, behests are a blast.

[Hyan]

Even if the game mechanics UI and so on were top-notch, for a themepark the game would still be lacking. Okay, like in a sandbox game you have tons of shit to do and won't run out anytime soon, but this game isn't really a sandbox, developer-made content is still what this game is about (which is how it should be). And we know there's not nearly enough of it right now and probably won't be after December either.

Of course, the core structure is there, and it works.. but it's not fleshed out. I don't think it is worth paying for in that kind of state.