This game is not finished - Truth?

[Rostum]

How much content do other MMO's start off with? O_o I find it hard to be sure just how serious you guys are considering how little you have actually played. What kind of content do you want FFXIV to have that others have at launch, so I can understand better what you are after?

As for the "annoying cryptic updates" you're talking about - most people who are actually playing the game are enjoying it as, when they are not leveling and whatnot, the cryptic messages allow for people to speculate on what is to come and feel immersed in a changing world. The latter of these two things is being applauded around Lodestone's forums where people are delighted at the idea that the game will have a solid feed of rumours and whatnot to fuel the feeling that we are actually in a game that is in motion rather than a game that is static until the next major patch. Even the minor patches change the text that characters are saying, making things match what is said on Lodestone.

As much as I want this MMO to succeed, I'm almost starting to become convinced that this game won't go anywhere. Which is really sad for me, since I fell in love with FFXI for 8 years and have not been able to experience that feeling in any other MMO I've played.

You haven't even played past rank, what, 14 or so? You can get to 20 in a day I don't think you can accurately judge a MMO on that short amount of playing time. Especially when it was so long ago... unless of course you've done more since then, and if that's the case, I apologise for my assumption.

I don't feel I really need to explain myself here, but it's not hard to keep up to date with this game without actually playing it full time. I have played it here and there but have recently in the last few days given up on it for now.

I understand you are enjoying it, and my opinion isn't to put your fun of the game down, it's just something I wanted to share since I have played a lot of MMO's over the years to compare this game to.

As for the cryptic updates, it's all well and good if a few people get excited. There are some real hardcore fans of the game, no matter how tedious and out of date the underlying design foundations are, so I expect that. But it does no good for a huge part of the genre's community who are just waiting for SE to announce something that will spark interest in to the game again.

For instance, take the upcomming Guild Wars 2 development team for example. We know more about what they are doing with the game than what Yoshi-P is doing with FFXI, and it's not expected to be released until next year - because the development team actually talks straight forward to their fan base.

I think that Final Fantasy XI had very little content, maybe 5% of what it offers now, at its original launch. One could argue that what it is in its current state is a different game altogether from the one that debuted on its launch date.

Yes, and the genre's expectations, standards and even underlying design structures have changed dramatically since 2001 (a full decade). You pretty much can't compare it now.

Edit: I just want to add I might have been a tad overdramatic with my last comment about the game going no where. I do really hope it does, and I hope Yoshi-P can turn this thing around. But probably not any time soon.