Are you planning on playing?

[Miriel]

It's tiring because no matter what MMO you come up with, it wasn't fully prepared at launch, it wasn't ready. Most likely it would not have had an Auction House, would have had server crashes, would have had lag, would have had balancing issues, etc. etc. etc. From what I've read about each of the "changelogs" I've read over for the first year of launch of various major MMO's, they always start out this way. Does that mean you're paying for Beta? No, it doesn't. Does that mean the game is broken? Well, it's not fixed, so maybe. But is it playable? Absolutely. Does it have enough to keep most people busy? Sure. But people have been complaining left right and center about all sorts of things - even some saying that they shouldn't have to grind in an MMO, which was rather perplexing.

MMO's simply don't go live without a lot of things missing and a lot of things broken. It's standard. If you want to play it at launch, then you can call it paying for beta or whatever, but this is what you get. It's not SE that came up with this strategy and to be honest I'm just glad that they are fixing things over the past week that make things noticeably better. The chat issues (that I had) are all resolved as of two days ago, and a lot of actual genuine "broken game" instances have gone, along with the constant server crashes. This, to me, is progress. I can play the game and enjoy myself.

In a poll I was looking at the other day, 75% of people were enjoying playing the open beta and would buy the game and were excited.

EDIT: And to answer your specific question, my problem is that people are flaming FFXIV everywhere for "allowing" the PC to be a "PS3 Beta" and saying they should have waited for a further six months for release instead, as if SE would endorse six months of open beta as a freebie. The various FFXIV forums are full of a few people going around every thread and slagging FFXIV off, mostly coming from late FFXI with what is essentially a "Why can't they have everything FFXI has right now at launch?" argument and the others coming from WOW slating everything they possibly can.

A large number of people then sit with what are felt to be trolls and the debate never ends. That's what I found tiring.

A beta is a pre-release. To say we are paying for a beta is inaccurate. We are paying for an initially flawed product, but not a beta. Of course, some could say that if you joined FFXI right now, you're paying for a flawed product there, too, because they don't have everything that FFXIV has...

So basically, you ARE arguing over semantics. :o It's the word "beta" that's tripping you up, not the intentions or meanings behind why people are saying what they're saying.

No one is telling you not to enjoy the game btw. You should enjoy it. But I don't think it's really fair to come out in full defensive mode when others complain about it, especially when they're NOT trolling and it's not like this forum is riddled with complaints to begin with.

And I honestly believe that the more people speak up with their legitimate complaints, and the more people hold out on buying the game, the faster SE will implement the changes necessary to make the game a success. So I say, let people complain away! Let people vote with their wallets. And let SE respond accordingly. This isn't like a regular Final Fantasy where complaining gets you nowhere. Here, complaining and demanding changes actually facilitates progress. So enjoy the game and let others you don't enjoy it as much get their venting out. It doesn't hurt you.

And btw, as far as THIS forum and MY post are concerned, I don't think I was complaining at all. I have no problem waiting. It's not an inconvenience for me to wait. And I am excited for the PS3 launch. Take your frustrations about people trolling and take it to the forums where it's actually happening.