4.0 the new 8.8?

[Madame Adequate]

Gamespot's review is out and oh man it's harsh

Final Fantasy XIV Online Review for PC - GameSpot

Will this be another one of those infamous reviews which gets retracted? Will we see a repeat of the Darkfall Online Eurogamer incident? Do you agree?

Judging from this, and to my NO SURPRISE WHATSOEVER, the interface alone is enough to completely turn me off.

[Del Murder]

Bah, restricted at work. Need to remember to check this out when I get home.

[Jessweeee♪]

I'm not very experienced with MMOs, but I always thought those "cons" were true of all of them

[Madame Adequate]

Not to rain on FFXIV, as I say I've not played it so I can't judge it properly, but I can certainly say that the cons do not apply to all or even most MMOs. The very reason they're such a big deal is because they are so elementary.

Absolutely miserable interface - Not true in ANY paid MMO I can bring to mind outside of the FFs and EVE Online. And EVE mostly takes getting used to, it does what it does because it has to, not because they decided that dragging a skill onto a hotbar was a bad idea. Maybe The Saga of Ryzom too, but even that wasn't close to how bad this sounds.
Does a poor job of communicating important information - Can't really think of any MMOs which fall down here, except perhaps EVE.
Limited questing means you're always looking for something fun to do - Though quite a few MMOs have a lack of stuff to do around launch, this is the first game I've ever heard of which seriously lacks quests. What is usually missing is stuff like crafting, or some NPC quest-giving faction isn't yet active, or a zone isn't complete. I've yet to see anyone outside the hardcore complain that in ordinary play an MMO lacks ordinary quests, except a few small-time ones that folded after a few months.
Everything about the economy stinks - The only remote parallel I can think of is City of Heroes, which didn't have an economy at launch, because you just earned everything yourself and trading didn't exist. There isn't an MMO on earth that has avoided problems with its economy, but they do tend to avoid problems like omitting Auction Houses and so forth.
Every aspect of the game is filled with dumb obstacles - This one is pretty subjective depending on what you consider 'dumb obstacles', but from the content of the review this does seem to step outside the bounds of ordinary MMO barriers to progress.

[Depression Moon]

I finished reading it too and looked at the score. DAMN! I thought it was suspicious that this was the first FF numbered game to be released in the same year as another numbered entry.

[escobert]

all I know is that GW2 is going to change everything in the MMO world

[Goldenboko]

"Everything about the economy stinks"

The game's been up for just like, what? a few weeks? How can you possibly judge the economy yet?

"Every aspect of the game is filled with dumb obstacles."

I really don't know what they mean by this. xD

[Rase]

"Everything about the economy stinks"

The game's been up for just like, what? a few weeks? How can you possibly judge the economy yet?

Well he seemed to single out the lack of an auction house making Player-to-Player transactions needlessly tedious, and says there is no indication of what NPC shops have what types of items. So I'm guessing that's how he judged it.

[Mirage]

all I know is that GW2 is going to change everything in the MMO world

Yeah, by not being an MMO :>.

[escobert]

how is it not going to be a mmo? it's going to have a persistent world.

[Goldenboko]

"Everything about the economy stinks"

The game's been up for just like, what? a few weeks? How can you possibly judge the economy yet?

Well he seemed to single out the lack of an auction house making Player-to-Player transactions needlessly tedious, and says there is no indication of what NPC shops have what types of items. So I'm guessing that's how he judged it.

I'm sorta used to that from the old MMO I used to play, however, with that said, didn't FFXI start with no auction house?

[Rostum]

While I'll agree that FFXIV has many a problem, the reviewer blows everything out of proportion.

It's a case of "My-10-year-old-established MMO can do this, this and this. Why can't this one?!" For instance, an auction house won't fix anything since the game doesn't have an established economy in the first place and as Square-Enix said, they were introducing better systems in to the market wards and will eventually throw in an auction house once it's all better established; at this point you don't need to play the economy with the way the game has initially been set up.

The main issue on everyone's mind is the UI, while a lot of people will complain about it it's only real issue is the lag with bringing up menus (1-2 second lag, caused by server side UI). But other than that, I see no difference to a game like WoW or Aion in terms of ease of use. I also suppose the lack of content is an issue for those who want to play 10+ hours a day, but otherwise I haven't really been bored while I've been in-game (and how do people even spend that kind of time in a game?).

The game itself is not as bad as the reviewer makes it out to be, but it is evident that they were pushed by higher management to release this game as early as possible. It's got bugs, it's needs some more content (seems like a complaint of any new MMO that I see come around), and needs a rethink of some design elements. I don't even think the developers are happy with it, as they wanted reviewers to give it a month before reviewing it (I believe there is a major content patch on it's way, but I can't remember if I read that somewhere or that I'm just being hopeful).

An issue that will never get fixed is Square-Enix's lack of communication with their fanbase. As much as they say they are trying to fix it, they won't. And that's what will bring this game down, just like FFXI.

Anyways, the best thing about this game is the soundtrack. Uematsu is incredible. <3

I thought it was suspicious that this was the first FF numbered game to be released in the same year as another numbered entry.

That has nothing to do with it. It's a completely different team developing this game (from a range of talent from previous development teams in the series).

[Loony BoB]

The UI is bad. Definitely. Everyone knows this, even SE have apologised openly for the UI lag in particular. In time, it'll improve. They've stated it's a priority on many an occasion. Their money is invested in this thing, the last thing they want is for everyone to consider their UI broken beyond belief. We'll have to see how things go. I'd just be happy if it was faster response-wise, that's all I need.

The learning curve is bad. It was in FFXI too. I remember struggling to figure out what to do in that game. Hell, I initially struggled to figure out how to move. xD

Lack of content? Hmm, I agree and disagree. I agree because there is a lack of quests given by random NPCs. But the story quests are great, and the levequests are no less involving than say "I need an onion" from FFXI. It's still "beat up some things and bring them back" without the "bring them back" thing. You still get rewards, too. When you get to L15, you get Parley, a minigame. Crafting and gathering in themselves are minigames, and so addictive, in my case. I believe the game may open up a bit more at L20 when you can obtain guild marks, and again when you get to the point that you can do faction quests. It seems to be a game which benefits those who persevere rather than gifting everything to L1/R1's from the start. Newcomers may not be given an easy ride in this game... but luckily, if you do ask for help, people do help, and I appreciate the many people who have done so for me and I will do the same for them. I've even been helped by people who didn't speak English before. Which is crazy. They did it all through auto-translate, how nice is that? Even gave me something for free via trade. Lovely people.

From what I understand, few MMO's start with an auction house. I admit I look forward to the day they add one in, but at the same time I've actually not found it that limiting gameplay-wise. I gather my own items, craft my own parts, craft my own gear. If there were certain items made more readily available, great, but for now it's okay. If there were an AH right now, the economy would be terrible. Whoever has leveled highest would have all the cash, basically. That sounds normal, but with the recipe system FFXIV has (harder to make the parts than the actual end product), the people at higher levels could royally screw the people at lower levels if there was an AH. The lower level people would simply not profit. I like it the way it is (being in the mid-tier of crafters, personally).

The AH should only come in when there is a decent number of people who have capped, as that way the economy would have stabilised somewhat when it comes to supply and demand.

Dumb obstacles? Sounds like the guy was just trying to come up with reasons to lower the score. Is this the same company which was allegedly paid off at some point?

Still, at it's current state, the game certainly doesn't warrant an 8.8, either. It's lacking a massive amount of content, but things will be changing over the next few months and I'm told that quests will be coming in the masses soon enough, supposedly. Same with market ward changes and whatnot. It's a work in progress, definitely, but it's still a work in progress that I'm willing to pay in order to get ahead on. I'm also having loads of fun playing it. Can't complain about much, personally, aside from the lack of communication between players at the moment.

I'd give it a 6.5 in it's current state, but in my head I say it's more 7.5 because I'm enjoying it so much that I almost feel biased towards it. It definitely comes across in most forums as a love-it-or-hate-it thing. I'm genuinely interested in how WoW players rate it compared to how FFXI players rate it. Just to see how expectations differ amongst the playerbases. They certainly seem to have different reputations, just wondering if that has any relevance to the whole love/hate thing.

PS. Odd, I loved Eve's UI. I thought it was amazing. >_>; Go figure.

[Rostum]

Is this the same company which was allegedly paid off at some point?

I just wanted to add that they all do. Learning first hand, if you don't offer something to a reviewer they will intentionally rate your game down.

[Depression Moon]

That has nothing to do with it. It's a completely different team developing this game (from a range of talent from previous development teams in the series).

I know that, but are you saying there is no issue of money or time?

Also there is a written review of the game that goes more in depth. It was stated in the video.