I've been looking into this game for some time now and expect to be playing it upon release. I am going to watch and play at a friends house to get used to it before my final decision.

Final Fantasy is pretty good. Very good in fact... Still not quite good enough to make me want to pay monthly for a game though. Waiting for Monster Hunter to open me up to that.

the beta is fun!

I played the beta, and yep, I am having fun.

Then my character got kicked out by a bug and can't log in... over 20k people have had the same problem, and my FFXIV weekend, has turned into a gripe fest with Square-Enix.

O well, at least MH4 is looking to be really good, and I have good ole MH3U to keep me company on the meanwhile, :-D

I resent that "Strong WoW influences" remark. This game is 100 times the game that WoW could hope to be *Fair warning on anyone who dares combat me on this, played WoW for 5 years, absolutely hate it now, your fanboy criticism pales in comparison to my resolute stubbornness ;) *. But yeah, I was in the phase 3 beta and just wrapped up playing phase 4. I have the CE pre-purchased and will be in early access to grind my archer to level cap with all due haste. For Final Fantasy fans, this game is a must have. From the art, to the story, to the musical score, to the voice acting, it's all fantastic! And while some may tout that it doesn't bring anything new to the MMO table, in my opinion, it doesn't have to. It takes all that is out there and mixes it in with some good 'ol Final Fantasy epicness for a recipe that is sure to delight the discerning gaming pallet. In fact, my ONLY complaint with the game is that the servers right now can't handle as much as they should for a game of this magnitude, I really hope Squeenix takes that into consideration and improves their datacenter overall, or an otherwise awesome game will suffer for their inadequacy.

Shiera wrote:

I resent that "Strong WoW influences" remark.  This game is 100 times the game that WoW could hope to be *Fair warning on anyone who dares combat me on this, played WoW for 5 years, absolutely hate it now, your fanboy criticism pales in comparison to my resolute stubbornness ;)*.  But yeah, I was in the phase 3 beta and just wrapped up playing phase 4.  I have the CE pre-purchased and will be in early access to grind my archer to level cap with all due haste.  For Final Fantasy fans, this game is a must have.  From the art, to the story, to the musical score, to the voice acting, it's all fantastic!  And while some may tout that it doesn't bring anything new to the MMO table, in my opinion, it doesn't have to.  It takes all that is out there and mixes it in with some good 'ol Final Fantasy epicness for a recipe that is sure to delight the discerning gaming pallet. In fact, my ONLY complaint with the game is that the servers right now can't handle as much as they should for a game of this magnitude, I really hope Squeenix takes that into consideration and improves their datacenter overall, or an otherwise awesome game will suffer for their inadequacy.

Forgive me if I touched a nerve, but sometimes the truth does this. I have several dozen MMORPGs under my belt, and I played them way before WoW came out. Before WoW, it was mainly about the challenge and social interactions. In EQ, you would be stuck if you didn't find a party, and in FFXI, it was near impossible to level up, or even take on some things several levels below you if you were solo.

WoW changed this, and made everything soloable. The genre went from being group required, to group *optional*, and THAT is what makes a game WoWish. The original Final Fantasy XIV, which I also played, was designed to be much more group oriented than it is now, and it focused on interdependencies. That is now lost, and you can solo your way to maximum level... some of the panels even stated that some AF pieces would be soloable... For those that know little of FF, your AF is your ultimate armor for your chosen class... also known as BIS (Best in slot), with the exception of some God armor, for when they introduce those encounters.

With that said, I like the game, and the graphics, music, story and gameplay are indeed miles ahead what WoW currently has... but the style is still very much WoWish, with Kill x quests, delivery quests, cross world partying & instances. If you want to say that the art-style is less stylized that WoW, I can grant you that... and the whole atmosphere of the game is also a bit more "mature" than WoW in many senses, but the basic premise is still the same. But why re-invent the wheel? FFXIV tried and lost, and one year later, with a lesson well learned, it went back to the basics and made a FFXI that is soloable... that is what FFXIV currently is.

I still have to disagree with your assessment.  You're not the only one here who's touted an impressive number of MMOs, my friend.  By your words, you would have every MMO on the market today as "WoWish" which isn't the case.  Calling something akin to something else by one value is generalizing in an insane degree.  By your standards there, Hitler was a human, Hitler had facial hair, thus every facial-hair bearing human on the planet must be Hitlerish.  I'm not even going to touch on your mention of BIS, as that's been a standard in RPGs games for decades.  I'm sorry but for me, you need to find quite a number more similarities between the two before calling a game 'WoWish' ;)

And before this becomes a big nerd-off, lets agree to disagree and just say that the game is very much worth playing.

Shiera wrote:

I still have to disagree with your assessment.  You're not the only one here who's touted an impressive number of MMOs, my friend.  By your words, you would have every MMO on the market today as "WoWish" which isn't the case.  Calling something akin to something else by one value is generalizing in an insane degree.  By your standards there, Hitler was a human, Hitler had facial hair, thus every facial-hair bearing human on the planet must be Hitlerish.  I'm not even going to touch on your mention of BIS, as that's been a standard in RPGs games for decades.  I'm sorry but for me, you need to find quite a number more similarities between the two before calling a game 'WoWish' ;)

And before this becomes a big nerd-off, lets agree to disagree and just say that the game is very much worth playing.

lol, yep! Every human IS hitlerish. We all are intelligent creatures (compared to the rest of the apelike mammals) that through their own view of the world sees things in a different light.

Spoiler:

Rant about Hitler in spoiler... no need to read, but I felt I needed to post.

Back on topic, the developers of WoW were asked "What did you do to the current MMO market?" Their reply: "We killed it." The developers KNOW, and KNEW that simplifying and gratuitously rewarding even the simplest of actions, coupled with their vast already existing following, would create a really successful MMO... What they got was a huge blip on the statistical probability charts that will never be equaled. Ask any statistician what is the best way to get a truly accurate representation of what something should be, and they would immediately tell you, Throw out the biggest and lowest deviations and average out the rest.

WoW is an outlier, and unfortunately, most gaming companies think it should be the goal... hence, they make games that revolve around exactly what WoW did... and in appealing to what they considered the lowest common denominator, they have made MMOs degrade from what it once was: a niche market aimed at making an online representation of the pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons style of gameplay, which required a group, imagination, patience, and tons of time. Does Dungeons and Dragons Pen N Paper RPG sound like what MMOs are today? No, they are single player console games with a grouping option.

Yes, the VAST mayority of games out there are WoW clones, or Chinese cash shops with a digital skin. Even those games that tried to do their own formulas, and make the game more about the social aspect and which tried, had to give. Case in Point, EQ2... when released, it soared to 500k players... EQ(1) had dropped to 200k from its glory days, and it was seen like EQ2 was poised to be the new representation of MMOs... Then WoW was released... comparing numbers, EQ was seen then as a failing... innovative concepts as class progression and diversification, were then seen as "un-fun", having to unlock progression was compared to the free progression of WoW, and several other things... and people went with the instant gratification of WoW instead of EQ2... so what did EQ2 developers do? Removed all group requirements to progress, dumbed down the overworld (which needed groups of people to complete), and did tons of other stuff to simplify the game, but I don't want to bore you any more than I have... In short, they WoWified it.

That is why games are WoWish... because companies want to imitate a fluke... they want to appeal to the instant gratification console crowd that WoW gathered, and unfortunately, that is not the niche market that MMORPGs were about. However, that is what the new "norm" is today. Until game companies remove the cash signs from their eyes, and stop chasing the WoW fluke, we wont have unWoWish games.

With all that said, again, FFXIV is really good for a WoWish game. (LOL, Why the heck do I feel like a troll ending with that!! /trl/ )

/-_-/ Y'know, I tried to extend an olive branch there at the end of my post so that this wouldn't devolve into a discussion about the overall nature of today's MMOs.. way to derail your own thread with a monologue about the gaming industry. Quite frankly, I don't care about the EQ vs. WoW debate. Chris Metzen is a douchebag for what he's done with WoW. And YES, I agree that the majority of the gaming industry who have made "WoW clones" are imaginationless, greedy, dream crushing, soulless trolls who don't deserve the IPs they own. But, I still refuse to acknowledge that FFXIV is a WoWish game. You're painting in broad strokes, while I'm looking for small details. Like I said, let's not let this devolve anymore than it has and just focus on the game which the thread was made for.

Shiera wrote:

/-_-/ Y'know, I tried to extend an olive branch there at the end of my post so that this wouldn't devolve into a discussion about the overall nature of today's MMOs.. way to derail your own thread with a monologue about the gaming industry. Quite frankly, I don't care about the EQ vs. WoW debate. Chris Metzen is a douchebag for what he's done with WoW.  And YES, I agree that the majority of the gaming industry who have made "WoW clones" are imaginationless, greedy, dream crushing, soulless trolls who don't deserve the IPs they own.  But, I still refuse to acknowledge that FFXIV is a WoWish game.  You're painting in broad strokes, while I'm looking for small details.  Like I said, let's not let this devolve anymore than it has and just focus on the game which the thread was made for.

Honestly, re-reading your post, I realized what you did before I posted mine... but then I saw ALL the stuff I wrote, and decided, what the heck, post anyways. But yeah, FFXIV is awesome, and me and my (known for years, live close by) friends have been following this game for a while. They all did at least the Beta 4 version, and are completely hooked.

I will be a little more hard pressed to again devote so much time to a game, but this, out of all the other games, looks like a winner for it.

Again, sorry for the prior post, but I let my awful judgment get the better of me.

No worries, my friend :p So, what server are you starting on anyway? I've apparently been invited to join a grand company on Hyperion that extends back to the early days of FFXI. As it's a small, prestigious company, I'm actually kinda honored.

Going to be in Midgardsormr, and joining the same Linkshell... umm Grand-company, that we used to do some God-Fighting in FFXI. Well, at least my friends did.

I am going to be focusing (at least early on), in being a tank, and a high level miner/armorsmith. Evenings will be for tanking, and days (during free time at work), will be exclusively gathering/crafting times.

My archer is on Midgardsormr! :O By chance have you met Caerwyn Delphine?

Been playing the BETA of this for about 3 months on & off. It's ok, but kinda boring to me.

Shiera wrote:

My archer is on Midgardsormr! :O  By chance have you met Caerwyn Delphine?

I would be lying if I didn't say that name looks familiar... however, I don't recall having specifically interacted with anyone in the game. Never grouped once, although I did answer some questions in shout chat.

I played FFXIV:RR a little on my friend's PS3 but quite frankly I've never been a fan of P2P mmos but this one (among MHO) I would pay monthly for. But I still find it unnecessary for it to be p2p

i'm guessing not alot of people play FFXIV:ARR here then.