HMMMMM

[Cow Puncher645]

At first I thought what i great concept by Softsquare to do this. Now it seems too weird to be a game. I mean I am a die hard fan of all the FF but this is just going a little overboard. I am looking forward to the release but I am going to to see what reviews people get it after actually playing the game in the US. But right now I think that this game his more of a potential to flop rather than be a great game w/ its own concept. The main problem will have to be that you have to PAY extra to play. Which is just going to annoy the trout out of people...or at least me. Also I understand that Softsquare is just trying to go a different direction to give their series originality but they have taken this from one extreme to the other.

[SubMatrix]

You must not be that familiar with MMORPG's. There isn't a large scale MMORPG out there to my knownledge that doesn't charge a monthly fee. It's a necessity to keep the game entertaining and functionable, not Square trying to rip you off. And this is not Square's new "direction," they are still continuing to make single player games.

There is a lot of money in MMORPGs, and if anything I'm happy to see Square (my favorite gaming company) finally getting involved and earning a cut of it. I also see very little potential that this game will flop; it's been a huge success in Japan and has a huge following here in the U.S. despite the fact that it hasn't even been released yet. I'm sure that given Square's dedication to making excellent games Final Fantasy XI will be one of, if not the, greatest MMORPG's out there.

Leighton

[KireiBlood]

Just the responces from the beta testers and those who have read stories from the beta testers is review enough....this is a smart direction that square is taking....other will follow this path, i believe next year we will here something of a gundam one

and yes monthly fee is common in MMORPG

[TheAbominatrix]

Well it would have been nice for the FF fans who don't want to pay to have a no-online feature. The game could contain only the NPCs and the quests, and that would be great. Personally, I cant afford to buy a cable line for the game, and even if I already had cable I cant afford an EXTRA monthly fee to play. No, I'm not complaining, merely stating. I'm sure it's a great game, but a single player mode would have be nice for the poorer gamers and the people who dont want to be propsitioned for cyber while playing FF.

[Lionx]

Think about this, Starcraft was an excellent game, and it was free online, and what community was it? Jerks

Ragnarok Online during their "beta" was free to everyone who d/led the client, and guess what community was it? Jerks

The point is, with free, there will be alot of jerks around here that will make the game unenjoyable and worthless. So face it you have to pay. I dont like to, but hell, if the game sucks without the pay then why even play it?

[TheAbominatrix]

Ultima Online was play and it had just as many, if not more, jerks. RO is now pay and it still has plenty of jerks. People asking for cyber, cussing you out, PKing (in games that allow it) newbies and looting them, etc etc.

Monthly fees are somewhat neccesary for a good gaming experience. You have mods to watch the game and fix problems (somewhat), and all the other benefits... but those arent completly neccesary for a good game. I had tons of fun playing RO beta. The only time it bothered me were the rollbacks and when they switched from Beta 1 to 2 and I was sent back like 20 levels and lost all my inventory.

[Nakor TheBlue Rider]

I think that the people asking for FFXI to have a solo play option are not only greedy and selfish but arent really thinking very far into the future.

Greedy and selfish? Why? You say. Because Every other FF besides FF: Crystal Cronicals has been solo play and off-line. Let those of us who want an on-line multi-player FF enjoy this one without you "Haters"

Thinking into the future you say. What kind of Drivle am I speaking now? Think about it......Everything is going the way of On-line.....Shopping, Communication, Entertainment, and even some peoples Romance.

Shouldn't Square be trying to Keep up with the times and anticipate peoples needs and wants.

Just because YOU don't want or can't afford an On-line game doesn't entitle you to keep others from it.

[TheAbominatrix]

How is a solo option keeping others from it? Let's see... you can choose to play online or off. How in the world does that keep other people from playing online? Let's see... oh, it doesnt!

No one ever said Square expanding was bad. No one ever said we didnt want online gaming, now did we? No, I don't think we did.

Did you even read a single post in this thread?

Edit: And speaking of looking into the future... what happens when PS2 becomes obsolete? Will Square continue to keep servers up for this game? What happens, years down the road, when people move onto the next online game, and there's no one playing anymore... not enough people to pay to keep the servers up and the mods online? Well hm... you cant play the game online anymore then, right? So... what do you do with it? It's useless now, because there is no offline mode. Man, am I ever selfish.

[SubMatrix]

When the PS2 becomes obsolete Square will keep the servers up, because they also have a PC version that they aren't just going to scrap. Most likely the PS2 game will be compatible with the next version. The only way that players might find themselves getting screwed is if new expansions come out for the new system.

As for the single player option in the online world it's really just not feasible. Unlike Diablo, Arcanum, Neverwinter Nights, and other games of that nature with an online as well as single player nature the game is designed for multiple players and to be maintained. Without the aid of other groups you wouldnt make it that far, and without a gm what do you do when you find a bug that is screwing something up? You might think that these are just typical errors and that they could release solo pathces to fix them. The problem is that games like this work on such a larger scale that the cost of maintenance can ONLY be maintained by fees from the users.

A single player online game sounds cool really in idea only. Maybe if it was your first time playing it it wouldnt matter as you couldn't care less about talking to other people and just wanted to do some exploring for yourself. But in the long run the game would become tedious and boring without a community for support and assistance. UO had a single player crack that I played for about 10 minutes before I was bored because there was no one else and it felt empty. EQ was cracked in it's pre-windows form and I found out very quickly that I couldn't kill a damn thing as a cleric that would give me experience by myself.

Simply put, online games are designed to be such. There's just too many other complications is releasing a solo version, otherwise I'm sure they'd do it. Profit is profit, and the people who were going to play online would probably still do so.

As for being propositioned to cyber that hasn't happened to me in a long time. I played UO when it first came out and it happened like twice. I played EQ for over a year and a half and it never happened once. There are guys who still make suggestive comments, but it's always with a comical tone. And I didn't really mind it too much because they tend to be nicer to you and not as pissed if you screw up and forget to heal =).

And lastly, jerks. Yes, there are jerks in every online game, it's unavoidable. But there are usually fewer in pay games. The only logical reason I can think of is kids. They immature little hell-spawn who think that it is just amazingly funny to download new hacks and screw with people, but can't afford an online fee. With age not being a factor I think jerks are just as likely to pay to play as anyone else. But the majority of jerks I've met online were little kids, so I assume many of them get weeded out from lack of funds.

Also, stop writing so I can stop to replying. Or at least space out the posts by 8 hours+, thank you =).

Leighton

[TheAbominatrix]

I've gotten tons of propositions. But anyway, the point is, some people simply don't like it. We don't need someone saying "OMFG u guys r so selfish!" simply because we arent interested in playing the online game. The main reason FF fans care is because most want to play every FF game that comes out, and a dislike of online games and lack of funds makes it difficult. I'm not really complaining, if I want it that bad I can play at someone else's house, just sticking up for the one guy taht doesnt like it.

[madcap_wuggly]

im biased, i love MMORPG's so i do like ff11, yeah it would be nice to have an offline mode but there is probably a reason for it. And with ff10-2 it acts like a scale most people like one but hate the other, so they but they still have a new ff to play they do like, i personally love ff11 but hate to death ff10-2 so its obvious witch one im gonna buy and with a monthly fee yeah nearly all MMORPG do have them for maintance, profit, get rid off unused accounts and a bit of cash to continue the story for the players.

[KireiBlood]

SubMatrix deffinetely knows what hes talking about. (this seems to be almost settled but ill talk just to talk)...the game is designed for online, imagine walking for hours from country to country with noone to communicate, except mayeb some pc helpers who just say the same 3 lines over and over...the game just wouldnt be fun....a game like plus FFX2 is gonan be playable for the people who don't want to step into the future..

i think most people that are against ffxi online are only crying about it because it has a number...but it is the next ff and deserves one. Hopefully it will be the longest lasting ff

the whole thing of an mmorpg is that u get to interact with limitless possibilities of characters.......u have some people who are annoying (like in real life) some that will help u for no reason some that will help for a price, but nothing is solid, because ur playing with real people

i dont know what to write so ill attempt to finish this thought later

[Cow Puncher645]

What I just don't see for this game is that most of the MMORPG are rather fighting games, or open ended games. Now FF games have a story line and so forth. Will this game be an open ended game or will it stay on the original track of the rest of the FF games? This is why I see FFXI being able to flop. Now don't get me wrong this game could revolutionize the game industry as some of you said but who wants to pay 50 bucks for the game...and then 5 or 10 every month just to play the game? So instead of spending 50 bucks on a great game your going to end up spending about 80 to 90 if the game has a story. Also if the game is open ended then you could use infinite amount of money on it. So will FFXI only contain leveling up and beating different lands or will it have a plot to the game? Sort of like EVE, all it was was a game that you tried to level up and gain money. If this is all that the new FFXI has to offer then it is to my belief that this game will be more of a flop than a success.

[Cow Puncher645]

And what's all this about starcraft and other online games that you do not have to pay for? Does it mean that the majority of people that play these types of games are jerks? It makes no sense. Pluse Starcraft was a simple online game, not an MMORPG. The reason why FFXI will be set apart is beause its soul purpose is not just to make money or to kill things. They have both which could make for a very interesting game set. But if this game is an open ended game then I think that the game will eventually get old....maybe be 2 months...maybe 2 years but the game will eventually die out. And even if the game was free I still think that their will be "jerks" online that think the game is retarded and figure that because they have payed a month or two months in advance then they are going to try and make the game a living hell for everybody. So the fact that the game is free or not has no relevantcy to the quality of the poeple that play it.

[Nakor TheBlue Rider]

TheAbominatrix: "OMFG u guys r so selfish!"

Hey TheAbominatrix I really Liked it when you Miss Quoted me as saying "OMFG u guys r so selfish!" You even put quotes around it and everything......Even though I never said that.

Yes I do think its selfish to ask for every FF to be a solo play game. Its also selfish to ask for every one from now on to be On-line or Multi-Player. Why? Because then people who dont like those games get Screwed.

I am just saying...If you dont like one FF don't bother wishing it had solo or complaining that it wasn't designed to please you. As long as enough People buy it to make it Profitable (Which Has already Happened In Japan) then it was a good thing for Square to do.

Theres like 3 or 4 FF's I didn't Like.....But i Don't wish they were never made or that they were differnt just so that I would like them because then other people would not have liked them.

Get the point.