Letter from the Producer, XXXV (08/30/2012)

[Raldo]

I started playing june 6th, I'm hoping I'll be legacy eligible, I think I got a free month, so 90 days of billing, do they take that free month into account? I feel like the obvious answer is no, but I'm hoping I will still meet the eligibility.

The free month means you'll need to be active for 120 days (since you didn't pay the first 30). It'll be close whether or not you'll qualify. New players were told to register by May 31st, so it's possible you could qualify if they're slightly delayed (and aren't anal about the specific date they gave back in May).

[Rocl]

All it needs is some Wamouras and Ruszors and it'd be the Roclpocalypse.

[miokomioko]

I welcome the roclocalypse.

[Mina]

I welcome the roclocalypse.

Gotta admit, it would be pretty cool if they did something like that.
God buffs would be extremely fun too :D Run around doing stuff we'd never do normally.

[shepardG]

I will fuck the trees up, 9999 on your. Bark ass!

[Stanislaw]

Not trying to derail but any links/info on the stream of the anniversary event? What time (CST/PST/EST) does it start?

Although the anniversary event that has some new announcement over FFXIII and the usual FFXI concert happens earlier, the actual FFXIV talkshow goes live at niconico at 09/01/2012, 5:20PM (JST), which, is, as of 08/30/2012, 1:38PM (PST), the current time I'm typing this post out, is 1 day, 11 hours and 42 minutes away.

[Alkar]

They better show Shiva <_<
Arcanist/Summoner reveal is probably gonna happen so I suppose it's likely, she's the only one left.

[Nadrojj]

The free month means you'll need to be active for 120 days (since you didn't pay the first 30). It'll be close whether or not you'll qualify. New players were told to register by May 31st, so it's possible you could qualify if they're slightly delayed (and aren't anal about the specific date they gave back in May).

I really hope so, I'm afraid this game has it's hooks in me once again, SE had me for 7 years with 11, and now it looks like they just extended my sleeping on the couch punishment from the girlfriend quite a bit longer.

[Luceo]

This is fantastic news, they are closer to on schedule than I imagined. Not sure about logging in to do something that won't be saved but would be a nice way to keep in touch with my friends. I've added most of them to Steam however so shouldn't be much of a problem.

[miokomioko]

Not sure about logging in to do something that won't be saved

The only playtime that won't be saved is Nov. 1st through 11th... which we can hope is a 10 day clusterfuck of meteor-falling, garlean-attacking, face-exploding chaos.

[LD]

The letter is basically asking us if we'd want to do that shit until 2.0 came online or just stop immediately. I don't see the point in fucking around when I don't know for sure what's going to be offered. May as well play league.

[Mina]

Um. I can't be angry about it?

You could just pretend that they said Nov 1 is the server shutdown.
They are offering to give people a chance to screw around for 10 days, your choice on if you want to or not.

At first I was thinking that it was unlikely they got crazy plans for the final day but I keep forgetting this is Yoshi-P, guy who likes things to be flashy. The odds of something happening are far higher. He's probably giddy as hell thinking no one knows what's going to happen in the final days.

Provided they don't have any plans to do something, I like my 'end of the world' scrapbook idea. Maybe I'll do a blog of the final days/hours. I haven't been everywhere in the game still and pretty much everything is going to change so...

[xopher]

Yeah pretty sure the save point on the 1st is before all hell breaks loose and the end of the world happens for the next 10 days

[Scythiroth]

All I can think of with the days after November 1st is: DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY.

[blythe]

Just want to make sure I'm not missing something - we now know when 1.0 is going down, but still have no idea when alpha/beta will be starting?

[Raldo]

If you are asking for exact dates, then yes, that is correct.

As far as vague dates go, Alpha starts "very soon", and Beta is... whenever they're satisfied with Alpha.

[Croy]

Just want to make sure I'm not missing something - we now know when 1.0 is going down, but still have no idea when alpha/beta will be starting?

Could be something they announce later tonight at the 25th anniversary event. It is going to Japanese audience first after all. But of the info we have Alpha should start sometime in mid to late September and since we now know it will have 4 phases it could last a month or more for all we know, depends on how long they take to stabilize the new servers. Beta will then be put out in waves as well, my guess is sometime around when FFXIV 1.0 closes down they hope to have the structural capacity to hold most of the active player population, but that is only a hoping guess since they really haven't mentioned much other then it will be phased and sometime in the middle the PS3 beta will come out.

Also the NDA is going to be a much more troubling sucker then the original release because with them only inviting current players to alpha, I get a feeling there will be a lot fewer people willing to compromise their 1.0 accounts lol.

[Manako]

Just want to make sure I'm not missing something - we now know when 1.0 is going down, but still have no idea when alpha/beta will be starting?

From their previous note Alpha should be starting soon, and the servers shut down marks the start of Beta.

I would say it would have to be a month long Beta test at the minimum? So if that is the case its possible that it could be a late December early January release, they are probably smart to wait til February for Marketing and considering that its an international release? I guess the other factors are if they prolong beta due to issues, or if they can ship early and have a large day 1 patch with additional beta feedback. They probably need to send it out before the end of March to count as "this year" for their profits.

[TacoTaru]

Are we going to do a thread for the 25th Anniversary/PAX info or are we going to keep it all in here?

[Elcura]

This is totally going to be my final 10 days music.