So... 'bout that new info...Follow

This is how SE works with their MMO's, (un?)fortunately. Better get used to it ;).

Ergh... I can already imagine.

It seems bad right now, but the fact that SE kept it behind the curtains for 5 years is actually pretty good for us players. We won't overhype ourselves (see what we've accomplished in only a month in this forum, LOL), and SE doesn't have to tell us about things they may or may not be able to implement to the game before they're completely sure.

Right now we have about a month, maybe 2 to go before something new will be revealed, and after that I think it'll speed up to about 1 month wait between new info at worst, and only speeds up from there.

I'd say it's pretty rare for any company to release new info on a monthly basis for a title that's still in development.

Next bite of real info will probably be in September, which is when TGS happens.

No new information will come until TGS. Just get used to it.

I've got my fingers crossed for something good at the next fan festival.

Seriously?

Tokyo Game Show

It will be in September.

Communication is definitely not one of SE's strong points. I would be disappointed if they didn't release anything but vague information during TGS, but I wouldn't be surprised. Not to mention that what they promise may not yield the results we expect from that promise (FFXI players know what I mean).

The need for information will have to wait until beta is opened and we can actually get real feedback and information from the community.

You know, it's not a whole lot to ask for them to release a little bit of information. Since they have been developing the game for practically half a decade, at this point they have a pretty good idea about what is and what isn't in it. We are coming up on beta testing pretty damn directly and I would expect that the bulk of the game is done and now they are just working on finishing touches.

If they really are interested in gaining a larger chunk of the general MMO market, they are going to have to stop with this all this secretive bullsh*t that has plagued XI for the last seven years. You can't just build it and expect that they will come. If you want to let them know that there is steak for dinner, you got to let them hear it sizzle.

Look at these forums - the majority of people discussing the game are people who have high post counts and have been involved with other MMOs and as a result, this site. We aren't seeing a whole lot of folks who aren't already tied to XI in one way or another, and that's a hurdle that SE is going to have to get past unless their goal was just to split the existing ~500k people up between the two games.

Even if they are counting on word of mouth as their main advertising, it's hard to tell people about something when we don't even have anything to tell them beyond "It's another online FF, and it has similar races to XI and maybe a similar job system". Not too descriptive.

They don't have to talk about features that are iffy, do they? What stops them from simply talking about content that they've been working on for the last five years? They could mention things that they 95% know will be in the game. Are you telling me that SE is just like the people on these forums and has basically no effin idea what's going to be in their game? "Your guess is as good as ours, hahahahahaha!"

The info they have released so far is pretty weak. I would never expect a ton of technical info regarding the interface, job system, or anything to do with the nuts and bolts of the game, but they would be wise to release a bit of the backstory about the world, the races, the jobs, the enemies, and the nations. The general consensus is that a Beta will start in September for a game that has already been in production for 5 years..... if they haven't finalized the backstory, races and jobs by now then they are in dangerous waters.

Lets see we know that chars that look like the XI races will be there, they have mentioned that Choccobo's will make an apperance umm there will be a boat and flying ships, and atleast one dragon type of mob.... but nothing to get me involved with the game. When I first read about FFXI years ago in one of the PS2 magazines I subscribed too, I had never played an MMO, but loved FF series. The article highlighted a number of MMO's in beta testing or in production that article was what really got me hooked on buying FFXI. I saw the races, a description of the nations, and the intial jobs and the Zilart jobs. This was just enough info for me to begin planning my Char the job I would lvl and the nation I started in..... I really didn't need to know anything else at that time. Why would I care if I knew about the game mechanics for a game I had never played.

This time round it is a different story as I have played an MMO now so I do have interest in the game mechanics, but for new players releasing this information now would do a hell of a lot to help advertise/promote the game, and for the rest of us who are FFXI/MMO veterans having this new info to look at will help us speculate 10x as much and increase anticipation.

Edited, Jul 10th 2009 4:39pm by NuckingFuts

Yeah they might have backstory, races, jobs, enemies, nations planned but not finalized. They might make a lot of changes to things like this in a small timeframe.

For example they might be planning to have 10 jobs for the release but in the end can only have 8 ready in time. Players will be disappointed.

They planned 4 nations at first but the end product only has 3 and 4th will be released in the first expansion instead. Disappointment.

I don't know about how SE works, but it's always seemed like they might change things very close to the release of content quite suddenly- at least when I read about the interviews of all the dev teams of FFXI. Nothing seems to be set in stone before the final day to change things comes up.

So what I'm saying is, I don't think they're taking a "okay that feature is done, moving on to the next.."-approach, but try to develop everything at the same time to keep different features closer together.

Age of Conan was a great example of this. They had alot of promised features that got cut at the last minute and a bunch of classes that were merged a few months before release.

Having an approach and following it are two very, very different things.

War launched with such a fraction of what it actually promised that I can't take it seriously that this was their approach. I mean, missing 2 promised classes and 4 promised cities is pretty bad.

And they were releasing stuff ALL THE TIME. I got stupid emails every few weeks with whole new races and classes.

With SE, I'm betting they will show new jobs as time goes on, not give them all at once.

Like, one update might show a Warrior and Blm. Another might unveil the Thf and Pld.

Whatever they are sure will be done in time.

And, if there are advanced jobs, you know they'll be unveiled later. If they have to choose between completing the Blm and Smn jobs on time, it is pretty obvious which they will choose.

They'll also be looking for balance. One of the stupid things about War's launch is that they failed to launch one of the tank jobs for only one side. Realistically, they should have benched the other side's tank as well, instead of beginning the game unbalanced.

There are a LOT of factors in releasing info. Breaking promises, the balance between hype and reality, the risk of information souring over time, fear of other games overshadowing your own, etc.