地獄からのゲーマー暴言

          So sorry for falling of the face of the earth and all. I'm back for a post. Can't say how frequent I'll be. Got some real life trouble and I simply must focus on that. For now though I decided to take a minute to talk about my thoughts on XIV. I'm not going to go into all the surplus drama and I'm trying to be as unbiased as I can be when I rant. So stay with me.

          One thing I just don't understand is why people insist on comparing XIV to WoW. People who play WoW are shunned. If you mention anything negative about XIV or XI you're told to go back to WoW with the rest of the preschool-MMOers. Even as an SE/FF fan it's hard to sit there and listen to a calm "WoW player" really trying to give XIV a chance only to be berated by a group of XIV testers. I start to wonder...who is the preschooler here. Not all of the fan are like this but there are enough of them there to give the group as a whole a bad name. It goes both ways, generally, but playing WoW I have yet to have anyone tell me to "Go back to XI". I can not stand to hear, "Go back to WoW!" anymore. It's just ignorant and unnecessary. Especially if you've never played it.

          I loved and miss XI but I do feel XI is 'harder' and requires skill, determination, and most of all, time. This in no way shape or form means that people who play XI are better gamers than people who play WoW. WoW brings some great things to the table that XI just couldn't offer. PVP and Raiding do present a set of skills that I had to acquire when I started playing. I also love that I can hop on, quickly group, get stuff done, log out, then jet out for grocery shopping. Each is a great ride and I implore everyone to give each an unbiased chance. As far as XIV is concerned..Let's not compare 10% of Beta XIV to the polished monster that is WoW. :)

          Now, back on topic with XIV. Anyone who gives any type of negative feedback for XIV as it stands gets yelled at or shot down. Usually in a humiliating and degrading flurry of words. This doesn't change the factoid that the game is still flawed. That's why it's in Beta..(I'm looking at you retainer/market ward system. What's funny is all during Alpha all we did as testers was give mainly negative feedback. We complained what was wrong with the game and SE tried their best to fix it within their parameters for the game. Now it's an all out war. When a new game comes out you usually do some research before you decide to throw down on it. Even moreso when the game is going to require a subscription. That's all a lot of people are concerned with. I know SE will fix the game and it will run smoothly one day. Most likely not tomorrow, not during release month, but one day. That's how MMOs work and the majority of us accept that. But to get people to 'hold' the game the game has to intrigue and excite.(Anyone remember WoW...go youtube the early years *cringe*)

          What has me concerned aside from my financial stand, is the content. I have no doubt there will be quests and an epic storyline,(did you see the videos SE released?!). Right now though SE hasn't really said anything about the player's goal. I wish SE had given us a bit more than just the leves and a taste of the main storyline to mess with for 2 weeks. All of us from Alpha/Beta have done this 5 times over. What am I doing leves and quests for? What kind of end game am I looking forward to? Have they decided on these things yet? What do I do when I hit cap? How are DoH/DoL classes going to participate in an end-game scenario? Why are they not releasing anymore information on subjects like these? XIV has potential to be wonderful and I just want to know what I'm getting into since the OB gives nothing on this.

          The sad thing is Open Beta sounds like Demo to most and will be a deciding factor for a lot of people buying at release. I've heard a lot of people take the ignorant stand on this with, "..that's just less lag for me." or "..No skin off my back, their loss" but you have to understand release sales can say a lot about an MMOs lifespan. I'm not saying beg people to stay or jump ship before it sinks I'm just trying to explain why these are things we should kinda be concerned about. Typically if it stalls right out of the gate people are going to forget it was even there. Even if it is a Final Fantasy title. I'm not even going to go into the fact that 2011 is going to practically be the year of the MMO...Okay maybe a little...Firefall from Red 5 studios (OMG), Blade and Soul <3, Tera online, WoW:Cataclysm, The Secret World (XD), Star Wars! TIDAL WAVE OF MMO!

          I didn't care for XI when I beta tested it either though but I went on to play that for 5 years so I haven't given up hope. As it stands I don't wanna play Beta anymore. All of the fans, newcomers, strays,...give the release a chance! I want to play the real thing please!! Enough watered down XIV!

          I don't really have too much to say this time around. The bulk of information was reported by Wicked, poor thing is having a rough time, she's a trooper. I'm also aware it's not Friday. I just wanted to make a update post before we really start down our road to release. This post, however, contains tidbit of Sugar I thought you guys might want a taste of before you get into our adventures of Beta.

          It's been a pretty epic road so far and the Beta just hit. Although we had our first official taste of the Beta Saturday and the schedule was posted this week SE threw us a curve ball. This morning upon my daily log in to the official Test site I noticed an announcement that the Beta schedule for this week was getting an extension. Instead of just being 4 hours for 3 days a week rotating regions through the day we now have a sleep deprivation schedule! Listen to this; Tuesday July 13th from 3am to 1pm and then again from 3pm to Wednesday, July 14th at 1am. This is repeated for Thursday - Friday. This schedule has us playing with only a few hours downtime for an entire day. This isn't just a server stress test, this is a Tester stress test. This came as quite a surprise only one day into the Beta. Hopefully this means the Beta is moving faster than they thought and perhaps we'll be playing freely, off schedule, sooner than we thought.

          The biggest WOW factor of this is that there will be no region restriction. We're all on the same servers. The best part of this is Wicked and I will be able to play together along with other Beta testers we've befriended along the way. How's that for Sweet?

A friend of a friend of a friend who knows something linked me this. Certain people of weight in their words and myself included, feel that these classes may be available on launch. :) Enjoy guys

Famitsu Exlusive with Tanaka and Komoto