Official global alpha start date: November 28th.

[Lordender]

Is there any other game that offers interesting gameplay in early levels, let alone in alpha stage? Im curious to know

I find people judge a game like WoW way too early, it has the best game play I've seen at the endgame level. Just because leveling might be a mash of 1,1,2 or w/e doesn't mean the endgame is that. The Flame Leviathan encounter in Ulduar was amazing for its time, never seen anything like that in another MMO.

[Gokulo]

I find people judge a game like WoW way too early, it has the best game play I've seen at the endgame level. Just because leveling might be a mash of 1,1,2 or w/e doesn't mean the endgame is that.

Eh, you say that, while on the other hand I know a lot of people saying it the other way - that the only thing they enjoy in WoW is leveling and they hate endgame. Opinions, opinions, opinions.

[Dirge]

I find people judge a game like WoW way too early, it has the best game play I've seen at the endgame level. Just because leveling might be a mash of 1,1,2 or w/e doesn't mean the endgame is that. The Flame Leviathan encounter in Ulduar was amazing for its time, never seen anything like that in another MMO.

Thats why Im asking, because some of the players said early levels or ARR alpha is boring. I dont understand what kind of experience they expected. Right now Im playing FF XI on early level. OMFG its so slow, ARR thousands times better already.

[Lordender]

Eh, you say that, while on the other hand I know a lot of people saying it the other way - that the only thing they enjoy in WoW is leveling and they hate endgame. Opinions, opinions, opinions.

The same could be said about XI, when I first started XI, I brought around 35 people with me from many other online games I played prior to it. I was the only one who survived past the dunes, everyone else cancelled sub and didn't even finish out their free trial. The difference is, I stayed the course, I did everything there was to do in XI(endgame wise) @75 except AV, and who honestly beat AV back then without it bugging out which resulted in locking? or wall of justice, etc.

No matter which side of the spectrum you fall on, I think its ridiculous to judge a MMO within the first week. granted XIV 1.0 was a special case, no endgame existed, many systems were beyond broken such as exp(omg i didn't get skill during that entire fight!") or the debacle where if you had more than 2 people in a party, someone got 0 skill.

in FFXI, I found the leveling to suck ass, the worst experience I've ever had unless you had a LS static that could breeze to 75 in a week. The endgame was ok when you got to participate in it(assuming you won claim) but the drop rates made it a very unrewarding experience. My LS had Tiamat to ourselves for a year + when it spawned during a time we had people on, I remember at least 40 of those kills only giving a fire crystal. Sky was cool before the gilsellers locked it down for over a year.

WoW endgame, now my experiences vary, I had a lot of fun back in WoTLK, I was in a decent guild, the players were competent for the most part, we got shit done. I've been in guilds where I could feel blood vessels pop because one or two failures would hold us back by failing @ various mechanics that don't take rocket science to pull off. Whether or not you like the endgame in WoW, you can never say its not creative, far beyond anything we saw in FFXI.

I don't know what kind of endgame we will see in FFXIV, I just hope its creative, I hope it pushes the envelope of the games systems like WoW did. My point is this, leveling and endgame are two different beasts, I hated leveling in FFXI but the endgame was decent for its time despite all of the games flaws. If you've made your mind up to play FFXIV 2.0, you should at least stick around to see what kinda endgame SE comes up with now that they finally got a modern game engine for their MMO.

[Gulkeeva]

No single game is going to be able to appeal to every persons different playstyle, they will only be able to appease most people not everyone. They will probably be making adjustments from feedback in alpha, to make the beta. Its an alpha for a reason!

People just don't seem to understand what an alpha test is I guess, its not there to entertain people, its there for you to make sure the game is functional and the basic foundation of the game is working etc, and feed back on what they may or may not like to build upon for a beta. A lot can change between an alpha and beta.

[Rakisho]

I find people judge a game like WoW way too early, it has the best game play I've seen at the endgame level. Just because leveling might be a mash of 1,1,2 or w/e doesn't mean the endgame is that. The Flame Leviathan encounter in Ulduar was amazing for its time, never seen anything like that in another MMO.

Exactly, and that's why it is silly so far to judge FFXIV 2.0. WoWs gameplay was very uninteresting for most classes until very high level, but at cap, it's very good.

[Lucavi]

People judge for a number of reasons, one being a sheep mentality and another being the stupidity of not realizing that Alpha is for stability tests. A major reason, however, is that they have nothing else to do. With 1.0 down, the 1.0 lovers on OF have nowhere else to spew their vitrol, so they dump it on the alpha forums. I'm sure SE recognizes this, and the community team has done a pretty good job at wading through the shit and staying on task, although I wish they'd lock more threads.

SE did kinda goad people, though, by asking for opinions and suggestions for things outside of stability.

[Rionel]

As another poster said, having testers spout their own solutions to problems isn't usually a great idea. As you acknowledge in your post, just look at the state of the Alpha forum. I think it's more constructive to say 'I think the combat is boring' than to say 'I think the combat is boring please make it more like XI' or something equally inane.

I prefer 'I think the combat boring because-', haha.

With a reason behind an otherwise vague statement, it seems to be a lot more useful, no? Even if the reasoning seems flawed, it's better than nothing to go on.

Obviously this kind of thinking doesn't always apply to everyone (heck, sometimes I feel like it's the minority of the community), but it's worth a shot to try.

[Cichy]

do not worry we are getting behomobobo or a chocohemot?

http://rss.finalfantasyxiv.com/jp/bl...20121218_1.jpg
http://rss.finalfantasyxiv.com/jp/bl...20121218_2.jpg

[Niiro]

Fuck your dusk gloves, that behemoth hide is gonna make my chocobo some fuckin pimp threads.

[Jakson]

If that's the Legacy Chocobo, then it was money well spent.

I prefer Chohemoth.

[Fievel]

If that's the Legacy Chocobo, then it was money well spent.

I prefer Chohemoth.

It's not, this is - http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/to.../5b/4583_5.jpg

[jwang]

I can just imagine it already if the loot system is like XI. "OMG Behemoth hide +1! That's going to go to my chocobo's armor." ALL THE RAGE!

[LD]

2.0: "Look at 1.0, now back to me, now back to 1.0, now back to me. Sadly, 1.0 is not me, but if he stopped having crappy gameplay he could play like me. Look down, back up. Where are you? You're in Gridania with the game your game could play like. What's in your hand? Back at me. I have it. It's a dungeon with multiple drops of that thing you love. Look again. The drops are now Relics! Anything's possible when your game plays like A Realm Reborn and not Tanaka.

I'm on a Chohemoth."

[Gokulo]

Which is a horsebird!

[Solito]

Can anyone tell me the actual release date ? I've been hearing mid january and dec 31, 2012

[Spira]

not even close lol

[Rakisho]

not even close lol

If they wait too long they should just not release it in EU at all. All servers will be dead.

[Kononeko]

If they wait too long they should just not release it in EU at all. All servers will be dead.

Why? All of the servers are still going to be world wide. Just one or two will be suggested for EU players.

[Sup3rB4d]

do not worry we are getting behomobobo or a chocohemot?

http://rss.finalfantasyxiv.com/jp/bl...20121218_1.jpg
http://rss.finalfantasyxiv.com/jp/bl...20121218_2.jpg

I guess I have to be the first to say it. That looks fucking awful lol.