Letter from the Producer LIVE Part VI (April 3, 8:30PM JST)

[Sephiroth]

I think people will be disappointed (or happy) if they think ARR will be raid raid raid at end-game, because even V1 wasn't that. Unless you can call content like primal fights, hamlet defence, FATE etc. raids but I wouldn't. The raid formula does seem to work best for content that isn't free for all or single battle though.

I don't know why people care so much about MMOs going out of their way to be different. MMOs have evolved over the years a lot more than another popular genre - the FPS. People still love those despite them being essentially the same as they were 20 years ago. Evolution has even killed some genres, platform games being a good example. There will also be many people who never played WoW or its clones who will be quite happy with what the game brings. It was never the content that put me off WoW.

[Takiwaki]

I never played wow, played 11 and the beginning of 1.0, also played / tried many other mmos, that tried to be different. I did not like Rift, Age of conan had much potential but was lost to crappy (different) combat.

I am liking what I have seen so far, and big plus for me is that the entry level is low, and familiar to a point to 11 players. My wife who only really played 11, is loving it and it makes me happy as I have tried to get her into other mmos to no avail.

The game is fun, low entry, and anyone with a brain can see the battle system has a potentially high ceiling for complex combat.

Only thing that is left is for SE to deliver.

I said this in the OF "Its like meeting a new possible love interest and getting pissed off because they do not remind you enough of your first love.. Instead of getting to know them, you judge them after the first date.."

This is what we are doing with 14 beta, all that love and feeling we have for 11 or even 1.23 did not happen over night, it's something that grew over time, with friends. Something that will never be captured in a beta.

[Shuichi]

Having played just about all of the major MMOs post FFXI (all of which have gone F2P, except for Rift), I've come to accept the fact that I don't need a radically "unique" MMO to have a good time. I just need that awesome FF storytelling, a decent UI, plenty of shit to work towards/do, and good art direction. It appears that 2.0 is going to have the things I'm seeking so far. I got plenty friends waiting on the PS3 release so we can all start playing together again.

[miokomioko]

just need that awesome FF storytelling, a decent UI, plenty of shit to work towards/do, and good art direction.

This + social environment with awesome peoples = my money. I'm in it for the feels.

[Alkar]

I think most here are conveniently forgetting about content that was in 1.23 and only look at beta stuff. At the end of 1.0 we had Primals, raids and Skirmish on top of beastmen strongholds and hamlets. We'll still have this stuff and more in 2.0 at launch and they all offer different experiences.
Yes, the game is going to have a focus on raids but that's not all it'll offer. There's also FATE which will absorb some of the content mentioned above.
Other additions like primal summoning and limit breaks will also set the game apart from the rest.

[Lokus]

A lot of content is always a good thing. Whether it's exciting enough to warrant trudging through it multiple times is another matter. I'm sure everyone here speaks highly of Hamlet amirite?

[Lucavi]

I've played most everything out there and have enjoyed most everything out there. I missed out on Warhammer and skipped the shitty star wars, but I know that I'd find enjoyment from certain aspects of both games. The big issue for me now is the fact that since I've had a taste of the "pay the $60 and you're done for a long long time" model with GW2, and to a lesser extent, with TERA and its initial "pay the $60 and spend in-game cash on tickets to keep you playing for free until we switched it over to F2P", its going to be a tough sell for SE to get me back into the XI and WoW model of "pay now, pay each month, and pay when the expansion drops". Granted, I enjoyed those games greatly, for different reasons, and seriously enjoyed Rift during the time I played it (I still love the class designs; chloromancer and pyromancer might be two of my favorite 3 classes in any MMO), but seeing as how it - the F2P model - can be done without feeling too nickel-and-dimey just makes me scrutinize where my money is going that much more in regards to paid MMOs.

I have no doubt that I will play 2.0 for at least as long as I played Rift (about 7-8 months), as I've seen more than enough from the early beta to justify my subscription (not having to pay the $60 for a new box helps tremendously), but the key will be how I feel once the rush of endorphins and the chase wears off. A good game has to keep you there, not just initially grip you, and its got to keep you wanting to (or at least, not giving a shit about) pay(ing) that monthly payment each month. I had no problems doing this during XI and WoW's time; I never even though otherwise, because that was just how its donein that era. But times are different now; we've clearly seen that companies can retain profitability with F2P, and, more importantly, we've seen that there are companies that will not stop releasing content and string players along, simply because they aren't raking in a monthly sub each month.

I look forward to seeing whether or not SE is moving forward with P2P because of their confidence in their redesigned product, or simply because Japan is old-school and just doesn't know any other way to run their businesses. We've seen what SE's inability to adapt cost them with 1.0. I hope it doesn't happen again, but I can't make a prediction because I'm no shareholder and I'm no soothsayer.

[Sephiroth]

Surely those F2P games have a much smaller development team producing content though, and as a result get less content in their updates and less frequently. I don't know what GW2 patch notes tend to look like but SE has a track record of producing large scale updates every 2-3 months and that's only possible with a large development team. I barely notice £8 of my money each month going towards such a game so I don't get the fee hate but I can see why it could be a lot to those who don't work many hours or at all and be off putting as a result.

[Lucavi]

Surely those F2P games have a much smaller development team producing content though, and as a result get less content in their updates and less frequently. I don't know what GW2 patch notes tend to look like but SE has a track record of producing large scale updates every 2-3 months and that's only possible with a large development team. I barely notice £8 of my money each month going towards such a game so I don't get the fee hate but I can see why it could be a lot to those who don't work many hours or at all and be off putting as a result.

SE really has a track record of producing large scale updates? Seriously? How many large scale updates were produced during WotG? When did that expansion come out, anyway?

Its not a fee hate, its realizing that the gap between F2P and P2P has shrunk considerably. F2P used to be nothing but korean grinders and offshoots; times have changed.

[Grey Jorildyn]

It's not entirely surprising but it is a little bothersome that the average poster here still turns their nose up about f2p games and the business model in general. Gotta be more objective about things like this, especially going into the next few years.

[Izzy]

It's not entirely surprising but it is a little bothersome that the average poster here still turns their nose up about f2p games and the business model in general. Gotta be more objective about things like this, especially going into the next few years.

I guess every f2p game I've ever played feels really cheap and like a walking advertisement for itself so you'll spend money on random shit.

Exhibit A. Ragnarok Online

[Raldo]

There will always be skepticism surrounding F2P until people actually know how it would be used. It is all to easy to do F2P a "wrong" way (pay-to-win, artificial blocks in progress to extort money, more development effort spent on the paid sections of the game than the free sections, etc.).

It's become commonplace to bash SE for making stupid decisions as of late. Would you trust such a company to implement F2P properly? The same company that made FF: All The Bravest?

It's like asking a known klepto to go return someone's wallet. I mean, sure it could go well, but I'm not going to bet on it.

[Grey Jorildyn]

They're all as different as the subscription based games are. The stigmas surrounding them will be hard to shake off but will eventually.

[miokomioko]

Yeah... I have yet to experience a F2P system that didn't turn me off to the game.

Cash shops and copious amounts of limited/vanity shit is a turn-off to most "completionist"-type players.

[Stanislaw]

Cash shops and copious amounts of limited/vanity shit is a turn-off to most "completionist"-type players.

This. Being a person who wants to do everything and collect everything, if something is out of my reach simply because I have to pay something to get it is a huge irritation. Even exclusive items such as Collector's Edition extras or Contest items annoys me, although not as much as cash shops.

[Lucavi]

I guess every f2p game I've ever played feels really cheap and like a walking advertisement for itself so you'll spend money on random shit.

Exhibit A. Ragnarok Online

That's called the Korean grinder. TERA is still a korean grinder at its core. Not every F2P games is like that, especially games that were once P2P and switched to F2P.

I still want to see evidence from Sephiroth that SE actually releases content every 2-3 months with XI and XIV, because I sure as hell didn't see it.

[Grey Jorildyn]

This. Being a person who wants to do everything and collect everything, if something is out of my reach simply because I have to pay something to get it is a huge irritation. Even exclusive items such as Collector's Edition extras or Contest items annoys me, although not as much as cash shops.

In some f2p models you would spend less money per month compared to the average subscription fee to unlock the content that would appease any completionist. I think it's just the "idea" of having to actively pay for something rather than a repeating payment that automatically charges you each month that causes this anxiety about f2p.

I'm not discounting that f2p models get abused at times. I am just highlighting/correcting some of the misconceptions about them. The model is ideal for the modern gamer but too often the publishers get too greedy and ruins the game by setting it on a crash course with "pay to win", beyond-unnecessary use of micro-transaction, or another major issue.

I have yet to stick with any f2p long-term but the business model itself, taken at face value, isn't what pushed me away for those games. Stuff like community (or lack thereof), crappy support (hell even p2play games have this), or bugs that never get fixed (see last comment) have been the culprit every time. I'm just saying don't judge a book by its cover

[Cutriss]

I still want to see evidence from Sephiroth that SE actually releases content every 2-3 months with XI and XIV, because I sure as hell didn't see it.

It slowed down quite a bit after launch of WOTG. Prior to WOTG the updates were generally no more than 3 months apart.

Reference:
http://www.eosun.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5009
http://www.zam.com/wiki/Update_History_%28FFXI%29

The Alla history is incomplete (obviously) but it references the appropriate time period.

I have yet to stick with any f2p long-term but the business model itself, taken at face value, isn't what pushed me away for those games. Stuff like community (or lack thereof), crappy support (hell even p2play games have this), or bugs that never get fixed (see last comment) have been the culprit every time. I'm just saying don't judge a book by its cover

My experience has been that F2P games tend to not have very strong "glue" within the community because nobody's really committed to playing it.

I like Turbine's model where the F2P is there, but it's also incorporated within a subscription and the subscription gives perks and access that you don't get with the F2P, especially if you lock out a bunch of advanced stuff to "subscriber only". Then you can have "positive churn" where the short-attention-span crowd can come in, boost their way through levels and create a low-end economy, and then they still have to commit if they want to *truly* become part of the community.

[Hyan]

I've yet to see a F2P game (or a P2P game turned F2P) that didn't have a crappy/nonexistant patch schedule, little to no content additions (esp.compared to the P2P additions) and an obvious focus on brainstorming ways to improve the cash shop instead of the game.

I guess if it isn't an MMO those kind of issues aren't so important. Maybe it's an underserved stigma but fuck it, to me things like lifetime sub offers and cash shops mean nothing but the developer's unwillingness to commit to the product in the long term.

[Pyree]

The fact that FFXIV is going to use a subscription model instead of a f2p + cash shop model is one of the biggest appeals to me. I'm getting kind of sick of these f2p games that are taking 4-6 months between content patches (I'm looking at you, Tera and Aion). They sure keep up with those cash shop updates every couple weeks though.

I would just prefer to pay a static monthly fee and have all of the game content available to me through in-game means. I'm a collector, if there are novelty and cosmetic items, I really want them all, so for me it's just too expensive to play f2p games. Oh, and I think companies that claim their seasonal event consists of seasonal items being for sale in the cash shop is bullshit. And companies that put RNG items in their cash shops are also bullshit. f2p used to seem like the best business model to me, I thought it was genius and that I'd love it. Then I started playing f2p games and now I hate them.

As far as the monthly fee not being worth it, this is obviously going to be subjective. If SE keeps to their planned content updates every 2.5 months and their seasonal events for all the big holidays, then it is worth it to me. I truly think that they will be at least very close to meeting that schedule, considering that's about what they maintained all through version 1.0 while at the same time developing a new game. With them being able to pool all of their resources into just 2.0 and not both 1.0 and 2.0 now, I don't see any reason why their update schedule would get any slower.

EDIT: And another big appeal to me is the simultaneous content releases around the world. I'm sick of waiting months for content to come to NA for a foreign game, and there aren't a lot of domestic games I'm interested in.