announcement speculation? (aka Rapture speculation + event bitching)

[Destinye]

u can also try just reading the first line of the article, sherlock.

looks cool though. Would be better if it weren't zzzivalice.

Srsly an entire mmo with NPCs talking in annoying pseudo-old english pretentious yoda-talk would make me want to die.

This is how I feel playing with people in WoW..only replace old-english with people who can barely type american english.

[Raikku]

SE better release an epic MMO that fixed all the flaws FFXI had... then it would deliver.

[Zeke]

Those of you saying Fantasy Earth Zero is no longer
associated with SE:

FANTASY EARTH ZERO

It links to SE right at the top, and I got the link to
it from the JP SE site, under the 'online' tab.
Though it may be true they are no longer providing for
the company, and are just trying to keep their name out there.

Also:
New MMORPG Game. Free Online Multiplayer Role Playing. Concerto Gate. Official Site

Is an SE mmo, though it was in beta early last year,
and has not had any additional news regarding the
game for -several- months.

[Croy]

Those of you saying Fantasy Earth Zero is no longer
associated with SE:

FANTASY EARTH ZERO

It links to SE right at the top, and I got the link to
it from the JP SE site, under the 'online' tab.
Though it may be true they are no longer providing for
the company, and are just trying to keep their name out there.

Also:
New MMORPG Game. Free Online Multiplayer Role Playing. Concerto Gate. Official Site

Is an SE mmo, though it was in beta early last year,
and has not had any additional news regarding the
game for -several- months.

Concerto Gate is based on a colaboration with one of their affiliate publishing companies and was originally designed similar to the media cluster that was Full Metal Alchemist (Anime, manga, games etc. all as one media initiative), the property just didnt take off like FMA did and so few people remember it here. Just like how SE made the FMA games, they are making the Concerto games and the MMO is just the final touch to that older media initiative.

Also like Concerto Gate, Fantasy Earth Zero is not officially part of SE's internal development staff but the difference is it 'used' to be part of it. Sometime ago it was just called "Fantasy Earth" and it was being directly funded and supposed to be published by SE using the playonline service but it was suspended in mid development and later it was refunded by a 2nd party affiliate. It is still SE's IP, but they are not directly funding it, nor do they have full creative control over the end product.

[Destinye]

SE better release an epic MMO that fixed all the flaws FFXI had... then it would deliver.

FFXI was their first MMO and its pretty damn epic (seriously, fuck off about the end-game for a second and look at the game for what it is.) so you know after 3-4 (the collab MMO don't really count though) MMOs they've learned a lot.

[Starless]

At one point there was speculation that our FFXI characters would somehow transfer over to Rapture. Sounds too good to be true, especially fromn a lazy ass crew like SE. That would be the only thing to get me to play the new game tbh. I put too much friggen work into Guitarman, the thought of starting over is not appealing to say the least.

Looks like FFXI is someone's first MMO.

[Nyuneko]

Online Scene
RX for Square Enix's Next MMO - Fixing what ails your online RPG by James Mielke

Scuttlebutt around the industry suggests that Square Enix will finally unveil the follow-up to their almost 7 year old mmorpg, Final Fantasy XI, at this June's E3 convention in Los Angeles. It's designed to coexist with (i.e., not replace) Square's long-running MMO, and FFXI Producer Hiromichi Tanaka tells us that "the next generation MMO that we're working on is going to be different than Final Fantasy XI. And even though we have the same staff working on the project, we're not going to make something that'll be exactly like FFXI." With Square Enix's next time-sink just over the horizon, we decided to compile a wish list of elements that Square's next MMO should add- while ditching a lot of the dead weight found in FFXI.

PLZ ADD
Streaming data uploads: The guys who created Guild Wars (PC) defnately got one thing right in their Diablo-like MMO-lite, and that was the constant streaming of data updates that loaded to your game, literally bit by bit, while you played- which made massive, bottlenecked 400MB-patch downloads a thing of the past.

More instanced battles: "Instancing" (where players adventuring either solo or in a group find themselves in a private, exclusive area to fight monsters and get good loot) isn't new, but World of Warcraft does it best, keeping real-money trading to a minimum and gamer satisfaction high.

Microtransactions: While the satisfaction of killing a monster in FFXI 99 times before getting the item you want may seem like a thrill to the development team, some players would rather drop 5 bucks on a weapon or item than waste real-life time camping for it- as Square's recent real-life merchandise featuring in-game rewards attests to.

KTHXBYE
24-hour monster spawns: Nothing's worse than sitting around for hours, competing with hordes of other players, for something that appears just once a day - or sometimes once per week - only to either lose claim to it or not get the drop you wanted.

Fewer menus: Anyone who's played FFXI knows that you have to make over a dozen menu confirmations before you can finally select which character you want to play the game with, whereas in Guild Wars or WOW, you merely enter your name and password, and -boom!- you're in.

Blank DVDs with the word "expansion" printed on the disc: We're still looking for the "expansion" in Wings of the Goddess. Thanks for the 600MB patch, though!

According to the new EGM, Square's next MMO, Rapture, will be fully unveiled at E3 2009.

DrDogg posted that on Neogaf forum.

You decide how much you want to believe it yourself. I, personally, am looking forward to see the next MMO, and hopefully it being more solo-friendly.

And lastly, what is there to speculate really? The same old screenshots/tech demo that have been round since dinosaur time...

[Synergy1]

True, true.

Btw, is this Synergy from Siren?

Nope i was on Gilgamesh With SK(same ls) But i left a year ago.

[BRP]

Rapture will probably copied off WoW like FFXI copied off Everquest... making any sort of combat mechanic balance experience gained worthless.

[Xno Kappa]

Blank DVDs with the word "expansion" printed on the disc: We're still looking for the "expansion" in Wings of the Goddess. Thanks for the 600MB patch, though!

lmao