Official global alpha start date: November 28th.

[millionsknives]

This hindsight critic stuff is pretty ridiculous.

The original Street Fighter II is a broken, abusive, very bad game. The damage is absurd, there are dozens of simple death combos, there are plenty of literally inescapable throw loops, the balance is horrible, and the game is riddled with glitches. And it kicks the crap out of every fighting game released before it, and quite a few that were released after it.

The release of Halo does not mean that Quake always sucked and was a horrible game. The release of WoW does not mean that FFXI was always terrible and unplayable.

That's exactly what I mean. It's like saying every time a new FF comes out, suddenly all that came before it are shit games because they can't use the systems of the newer games.

You have some broken and bitter thinking, Churchill! FFXI was good for it's time, and after it's time passed when WoW came out, that didn't suddenly mean it was and had always been a bad game.

FFXIV on the other hand was bad for it's time

[Sephiroth]

If XI was good for its time I dread to think how bad the competition was.

[Gokulo]

If XI was good for its time I dread to think how bad the competition was.

The market was pretty empty back then and MMO's weren't really competing much.

[Spider-Dan]

Any uninformed observer reading this thread would have to conclude that EverQuest was a colossal flop.

[Churchill]

I am certain you can find posts from people going back as far as this site was introduced, Allakhazam(lol), or Killing Ifrit, which document that this game had:

1. Terrible combat mechanics, damage formulas, job balance, dLvl implementation, haste, speed, activity level, skill requirements

2. Terrible enmity mechanics, hate generation, hate loss, hate ceiling (lol), damage reduction, tank class abilities (looking at you war/whm using barspells to tank and whm not being invited)

3. Terrible looting system, lead to terrible endgame events in general (dynamis, oh dynamis)

4. Terrible leveling system, no solo play, terrible quest system, terrible mission system

5. Terrible customer relations, terrible in game support, terrible feedback/bug support, terrible lack of information about anything, terrible PS2 restraints, terrible JP bias

6. Terrible Tanaka

Guess how many of these are still unchanged to this day, and guess how many of these have only received minor bandaids in place of actual changes?

Well there's the thing, we had about 10 people in my group when we were bustin out XIV 1.0. Of those 10 6 were good players w/ good gear, 2 were good players w/ mediocre gear and 2 were not good players and mediocre/AF gear.

It litterly took us as a mixed group of 10 as 30-40 try's before we finally beat it.
After we beat it. it was still hard, like 1/5 we would fuck up one thing and the whole thing was ruined, full wipe. That was the thing with that fucking fight that made it hard. Other fights if 1-4 people wiped, you could recover, but not with garuda.

Anyway, yeah voice comms all the way, even in guildwars, or league of legends.

I did probably 60-75 attempts in various groups before I finally got a win, by the time I had I could have played any job in the group of a winning group and been fine...but it took awhile to get there and basically got pity invited by a japanese friend who was basically just getting a few extra weapons for one of their group.

There are only a small number of things that wipe you in that fight so the problem is pretty easy to identify. Either your tank is slow through the phases (he should be the first person everywhere and should position sisters before you can even read which winds it is), your WHM is slow/lazy with pre-AB Stoneskin refreshing or with healing during killing first sisters (can be compounded by shit BLMs but alot of them experience issues right here because it's the only time they need to cure the whole fight), your BRDs are slow with plumes, especially your pillar (knocks off group stoneskin->lazy WHM or lazy BRD not reupping it, voice chat helps here), or your BLM's don't position Chirada quickly.

Edit: Or any one person is slow for South Winds, I blame the tank for this because he should be the first anywhere.

[Elcura]

You don't know how many times I have called out to you on vent and you weren't there. ;;

lol, work's been a bitch, but I'll drop on in today at least~

This can be said for any MMO or any game with multiplayer content. Once your LS or your party comprised of people who knew what to do, content was trivial.

No game requires voice comms.

Naturally, but some games require voice comms far more than others. Anything that's more dynamic than AI coming at predictably you will need voice comms more often than not. My point wasn't that voice comms aren't needed in MMOs, but that XIV wasn't even near hard enough to require them or even think about using them.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Let's make sure we don't say "require" when we really mean "benefit". This happens sometimes and it doesn't help the voip case usually.

[Achitophel]

I played FFXI at a very high level when the cap was at 75, that is about when all of us cashed out when the first WoTG content patch added nothing worthwhile to the game.

This.

i don't care what a nigga say's, garuda's was dark souls hard.

Whether it was or wasn't, I find it funny that we have people criticizing folks for not getting past level 10 in GW2, yet judging it, while arguably the person most critical of FFXIV on these boards didn't play it at all in 2012. I find it hysterical in it's hypocrisy.

[shidobu]

Let's make sure we don't say "require" when we really mean "benefit". This happens sometimes and it doesn't help the voip case usually.

people that don't use Voip scare me

its either a guy pretending to be a girl for attention orrrrr

Spoiler: show

A guy pretending to be a girl

Straight told somebody to fuck off when trying to build a tera static because they didn't want to use Vent. Me and 3 other guys encouraging this 1 priest to use vent "nah i don't like to use it"
all of us guys playing girl characters then this 1 fucker that wants to keep the mystique of internet pussy up.

fucking really? I've had this stance since XI "if your not using voip your handicapping yourself for no reason". In the year 2012 mics go for sale 3-5 bucks. Anybody that drops this line "can't afford one" can kindly go get fucked. Paying an MMO subscription monthly but cant afford a gdamn 4 dollar mic? Was paying 20 dollars every 3 months for walmart brand headphones when i was 15 without a job. Im sure you can skip one lunch to be able to communicate with your group.

No it shouldn't be needed but it damn sure helps only a fool will tell you otherwise.

[Rakisho]

No it shouldn't be needed but it damn sure helps only a fool will tell you otherwise.

It definitely should be needed. If it's not it means the content is shit easy.

[Churchill]

I am on voice all the time and people still want my epussy.

[Sephiroth]

I don't like vent because I still find it strange chatting to dudes on the internet via VOIP. I imagine the parents would be constantly asking why I'm talking to myself. But I always seemed to do fine on there just listening because I never played the more important roles in XIV like tanking or main healer. The most important thing is having one or two people on there leading the group and planning the battle correctly if something fucks up. In the days of XI I didn't know a single person or LS who used vent, it just seems to be since the XBox Live days that it became popular. The fun part is I have a mic, it's about 12 years old and I have not used it once, even when I'm the only one in the house. I don't know what it is.

[Raldo]

Same as above poster. It's weird talking to people you only e-know. I'll get on and listen if people get their panties in a wad about it, but I hate talking. To clarify, this is coming from a guy who plays guy characters.

[Rakisho]

For some reason, the 2 above posts seem really really sad to me.

Anyways, I hope FFXIV 2.0 will have encounters worthy of its name, otherwise the skilled raiders that wants to be challenged will be gone within the first month.

[Sup3rB4d]

Weird is having a complex of talking to other people online.

[Fievel]

Such neck beards that even talking to people on the Internet is nerve wracking, lol.

Also, tons of LS's used voice chat in XI way way before Xbox release.

[Lucavi]

^ This. Seriously, you don't play any other games that would require voicechat? L4D with friends? TF2? Any FPS? Maybe a rousing game of Civ V with buddies? Nothing?

How strange that people can still get the willies from voice chat. That -would- be the stance of some XI players, though.

[dejet]

^ This. Seriously, you don't play any other games that would require voicechat? L4D with friends? TF2? Any FPS? Maybe a rousing game of Civ V with buddies? Nothing?

How strange that people can still get the willies from voice chat. That -would- be the stance of some XI players, though.

every LS I was in had a vent server. Most required you to use it on major events. Sky gods, sea gods, namis, kings and what not.

If your on a online game and you have a hard time talking to people, I mean WTF lol. Its like the strange dude that goes to a bar with you but wont talk to anyone.

[Dakin]

I just told my mom to go and make me another sandwich if she asked who or what I was talking to/about on vent during ffxi events. I started ffxi when I was 14 or 15?

Maybe if you're scared/worried to talk to your LS on vent you should stop joining LS's with weirdos.

[Jakson]

idk, I don't use voice mostly because I just don't see the point. When you're first learning something, sure, but after that, unless you really like the people in your group, is there really need? I haven't played XI in years, so the first thing that comes to mind is Halo where games are similar to fights you regularly grind in XI - either you have it down and could do it on auto-pilot, or you have no chance and voice chat is going to be just a steady stream of expletives. While Halo more regularly switches between the two, it doesn't change the fact that any communication is usually pointless, because you so rarely have encounters that may go one way or another (as in, you probably know pretty early in a game on Halo, and in XI you'll probably know it beforehand). It's one of those things that it is good to have your mic nearby, but if you don't want to use it and it isn't necessary, you aren't really a neckbeard just for not wanting to have a pointless headset on.