FFXIV Closed Alpha/Beta Discussion (Cancelled for this week)

[Lazytowner]

Hell, it's the MOST fun for me. There's nothing I love more than mapping out new territory and figuring stuff out for myself.

I guess I know that some people would rather have an FAQ written for them or something, but it's just stupid to be complaining about that as the game comes out. Does this guy go to gamefaqs and read the JP guides every time a JRPG comes out in the US?

Definitely, I won't miss people blurting out "just look it up on wiki" every time someone new asks the most trivial of questions. Yes, I understand that it would get annoying to veteran players after answering them for so long, but that's the point! I'll be starting at the same level as everyone else, even those with that disgustingly insatiable narcissistic type of personality that eventually taints every endgame community. Those are the people that would complain about the "unknown" of a new gaming world, simply because it's another hurdle they have to jump before they can start typing up their accomplishments in every forum possible.

[BRP]

You can definitely see WoW influences in the UI, there's no getting around that. The quest system and quick transport are also influences.

Feel free to explain why and why these couldn't have been influenced by anything else.

People need to stop making up this imaginary wall between games that came out before and after WoW(i.e. "WoW invented easy/streamline/warp scrolls"). They should consider community reaction from previous games made by the developer, and even offline games.


Finding out new things is an important part of the fun you can get out of a game like FFXI or FFXIV. Unfortunately, FFXI sometimes didn't give enough clues to some of its puzzles. Sometimes they would ask for an item without any clues on how to get that item. If you were lucky this item's source was known from previous updates(you'd still need to depend on other people, probably the internet, assuming it wasn't AH-able - then there was no puzzle! Just a new money outlet for farmers). Problems arise when this item was added in the same update(lets say suddenly a certain type of skeleton in a certain area drops it now, out of the blue). This generally got better as the game went on(they might tell you which zone or even the monster which drops it). However even if the game is a little cryptic, it is made worse if something's drop rate was like 5%, you wouldn't know if you were right and wrong and after 19 monsters you'd feel like you were wrong. (I believe SE kept this up because wanted players to exchange information, like they exchanged items. Unfortunately, that creates bad habits.)

This issue with discovery can also be found when trying to figure out game systems formula. Keeping stuff hidden is actually a pretty cool way to make players take the initiative in studying the game. However doing so by WSing bunnies a 1000 times isn't interesting at all.

But you also have the current situation where people have become so dependent on Blue Gartr and ffxiclopedia that you have be quick in order to convince people to try something dry. Otherwise your party will insist on reading you the battle strategy to some new mission or NM. If that mission's boss has some fun new gimmick that is completely new to the game you won't appreciate it if you already know how to make it 100% ineffective.

The information we look up is worse than story spoilers, because the story is just extra. All of us play( or played) a neutered version of FFXI, except for the few things we get be lucky enough to do first(or dedicated enough to do without guides).

EDIT: Looking up information on wiki and shit is like credit-feeding in an arcade game. It greatly diminishes the experience. However there are some games which do not give the players the proper tools so they must credit-feed no matter how good(smart) they are. There were many quests in FFXI like this, basically insolvable without knowing the most trivial of knowledge which might be brand new. Still one must look at the way people handle everything in FFXI and think they are "credit-feeding" through the whole damn thing.

EDIT: On the subject of how a game looks like on release: in the minds of American players FFXI(but not the press, who ignored it completely) benefited greatly by the fact that it was released in NA after an expansion. Reading some of the pre-NA update notes makes it sound pretty abysmal. It probably had more mystery though.

On the other hand this game is being released after a whole MMO, so it might have the upper hand here.

[Kirb]

But BRP, WoW invented minimaps and quest text

[Sephiroth]

I joined with the NA release of XI which was less than a year after the JP release. There was still a load of stuff to do by level 70 or whatever the cap was at that point. Sky was pretty new then, the kings were big and new, even fighting Fafnir was seen as a challenge. Sure there wasn't anywhere near as much to do back then as now but there was enough to keep us going until the later expansions appeared.

The same will be true for XIV and I'd bet the developers are already working on the planning and design phases of the first expansion. If you look how close Zilart was released after XI it's not too ridiculous to think we'll see an expansion at the end of next year.

Level other weapons/classes and crafts while there's not a lot of end-game content and you won't have to do it as much when extra content is there.

[Klaatu]

I wanna be on the same server you going to be on BRP!

[Cairthenn]

There are video games aside from WoW?

[Kalisa]

Feel free to explain why and why these couldn't have been influenced by anything else.

People need to stop making up this imaginary wall between games that came out before and after WoW(i.e. "WoW invented easy/streamline/warp scrolls"). They should consider community reaction from previous games made by the developer, and even offline games.

See, this is like Person A says "Ubuntu borrowed a lot of stuff from Windows" and Person B froths about how Windows was just a ripoff of Apple's software in the first place, so Ubuntu didn't really borrow anything from Windows. Does that make sense? Look, you get compared to the biggest kid on the block in this industry.

No, WoW isn't the only game with an action bar at the bottom and a tabbed chat window in the bottom left of the screen. However, it's the most popular, so it's (presumably) what people like the most, so it's (presumably) what SE borrowed from. Whether they borrowed from WoW or WAR or LotRO or whatever isn't really the point. It's a vast departure from FFXI and shows influences from today's games, where "today's games" is lumped together as WoW. It doesn't make the point any less valid: that these UI elements are influenced.

[Toxictaru]

If memory serves, it goes farther back than Apple. I -believe- that Apple actually borrowed from some old Xerox UI.

Regardless, it would be silly to think that the FFXIV UI was not influenced by other MMOs that are out there, and WoW was certainly the first thing that came to my mind.

[Ashton]

Looking at the last page or two Tuesday can't come soon enough

[GRT]

I just love how butthurt a lot of people get around here whenever WoW gets brought up. Funny thing is they are the ones who bring up WoW in the first place. Then they get put down like the idiots they are, someone else comes along and go "this is not a FFXI vs WoW thread." And then all these idiots are like some 5 year olds hoping their parents are asleep: "they gone yet? Good, let's start trashing WoW some more for no good reason!"

And so what if some WoW tard thinks FF14 will have some WoW-like features? A smart MMO community that hopes their game would succeed would go "Yep, we have that feature you like from that other game you like, so why not come and check out this game, maybe you'll like this more!" Instead they go "wow go away Wowtard, we don't want you here, we like our exclusive 'SE-is-genius-and-we-hate-everything-else' club and we hope our playbase keep its small size because obvoiusly larger population in a MMO is a bad thing."

[Kalisa]

If memory serves, it goes farther back than Apple. I -believe- that Apple actually borrowed from some old Xerox UI.

I didn't say you could get off the couch, husband. D:

[BRP]

I just love how butthurt a lot of people get around here whenever WoW gets brought up. Funny thing is they are the ones who bring up WoW in the first place. Then they get put down like the idiots they are, someone else comes along and go "this is not a FFXI vs WoW thread." And then all these idiots are like some 5 year olds hoping their parents are asleep: "they gone yet? Good, let's start trashing WoW some more for no good reason!"

And so what if some WoW tard thinks FF14 will have some WoW-like features? A smart MMO community that hopes their game would succeed would go "Yep, we have that feature you like from that other game you like, so why not come and check out this game, maybe you'll like this more!" Instead they go "wow go away Wowtard, we don't want you here, we like our exclusive 'SE-is-genius-and-we-hate-everything-else' club and we hope our playbase keep its small size because obvoiusly larger population in a MMO is a bad thing."

Motherfucker you ain't anywhere close. Also you are step beyond butthurt and you have now developed a victim complex. Also WoW Sux.

[Lunarhawk]

It's 4am
stop arguing and go raid a dungeon

[GRT]

Lol, i don't even play wow anymore, i just find you guys' behaviors hilarious

[supercoco]

tomorrow is the second testing day.
How about if we make a list with Questions , testers could answer after playing.

[Kachi]

SE has already stated that parts of XIV were influenced by WoW. And so? If there are good things about WoW, and presumably there are given it's status as the industry giant, then I should think that stealing some of it's good qualities is a strong point.

[Kachi]

tomorrow is the second testing day.
How about if we make a list with Questions , testers could answer after playing.

I'd like starting abilities and at what point new abilities are learned. Seems like a pretty good thing to get started on.

Some information on crafting and gathering classes would also be good.

[Lunarhawk]

tomorrow is the second testing day.
How about if we make a list with Questions , testers could answer after playing.

No one has answered me if you could target mobs by double clicking them
and I've asked it like 10 times
can we add that to the list?

[Ashton]

I'd like to see some more exploration videos myself.

[Azurewrath]

GRT is still mad

Probably unhealthy to be mad that long of a period

Also, FFXI is a rip off of WoW because WoW is more popular and FFXI has magic which is stolen from WoW.

If SE was unique in any way or didnt steal everything from wow like using magic and weapons to defeat enemies, it might be a good game.

FFXIV could have put your ability bar anywhere they wanted but they put it on the bottom, the most easily viewable spot for the eyes that does not mess with the minimap, etc. But WoW had their action bar there so its obvious SE is still stealing from WoW...

I heard xiv will have monsters and magic too... when will these games stop copying WoW...