Alpha coming to a close (soon)Follow

Thanks for posting that!

For some reason, the people in the official forums seem to think the legacy members are guaranteed a spot in the Beta (PC I assume). Anyone know if there is any meat to this rumor?

Well considering that after the first stage of world wide alpha invites went out they had the game running well enough to support 1000 people in a single zone, I'd say they probably got the stress test they wanted. I expect the second wave with the new server was to test new sign ups. The additional waves are probably to get more people in the existing worlds to test max pop. They did say they were going to test merging servers as well I believe so that will probably be the last thing.

All that was said was "We will try our best to include our more dedicated players in the Beta."

There's absolutely no guarantee, and I highly doubt they would prioritize it that way.



Well, not really, if you hear Yoshi-P tell it. According to his latest letter, hes constantly receiving feedback like "This could have been the beta" and "Go to beta already, it's awesome."

Edited, Dec 12th 2012 11:11am by Louiscool

For the record I'm fine with Legacy members not getting preference, some of those whiny souls over on the official forums irritate the piss out of me with their entitlement. A special chocobo and permanent reduction in subscription fees aren't enough for them?

the sad thing about beats is that 95% of the ppl in them are just playing the game normally like its a demo and not actually TESTING it.. the point of a beta is the TRY to BREAK the game and report its flaws/whats wrong with it especially if you succeed in breaking it lol... not to just run around, playing and having fun like its a free demo. and im sure ppl that makes comments like "its fine" "it should be in beta already" "just release it now" are those ppl who are playing and not testing

Edited, Dec 12th 2012 11:06am by DuoMaxwellxx

Rest assured:
I always try to beak my games.
I also beak my cereals.
I'm a chocobo.

Edited, Dec 12th 2012 12:00pm by Rinsui

Chicks these days. I tell you: No beaks, no loyalty.


Uh. That's pretty optimistic.

Edited, Dec 12th 2012 12:08pm by Rinsui

What is this AH you speak of?

See FFXIV 1.0.

my point was im sure the devs already believed/though 1.0 WAS in a great state to get rave reviews... Im pretty sure when they released it they didnt say "I know this game is gonna get panned or reviews are gonna give it 3/10 all across the board but lets release it anyway!!!"

I rated myself up once and then since you agreed with me and I got off early from work today, I rated you up 3 times.

Perhaps it was their disregard to see the awful issues that plagued 1.0 for the sake of shoving it out the doors to harvest their money crop they must have assumed would come in just nicely due to the title of Final Fantasy. This however bit them in the behinds quite severely and thus 2.0 was conceived. THEY may have thought the game was just fine... But THEY are not the ones giving the company money lol... it is the player base and they were not being listened to because they wanted the game released asap.

I kinda feel that the devs knew the game was meh... but the old higher up (before Yoshi) made it impossible to fix things because he was probably so deadline oriented.

Can't tell if sarcastic or genuine question.

The 1.0 launch came off as arrogant, but it was definitely much more of a mistake made while under fiscal year pressure.

I could see them having as many people on the PS3 Beta as possible. They may even have PS3 n the PS3 server for a while before they merge the PC and PS3 servers for a final Beta. This would allow for more people at one time. I hope I don't have to keep waiting, I want it now!

ok so lets say thats exactly what happened. the devs knew it wasnt ready, the big wigs told em to do it anyway despite the devs telling them it wasnt ready to be released.... ok so:

big wigs: release the games

devs: no we shouldnt its not ready to be released in its current state.

big wigs: I dont care release it anyway

devs release it. Game fails dramatically

big wigs: youre all fired


ummm thats legal? If so its a good thing Im not in Japan because Im sure had something like that happened in the US. the guy who fired me would either be re compensating me or giving me my job back.

Ill go off and use another game as reference here.

Zipper Interactive, the creators of the Socom: U.S. Navy Seals series for the Playstation 2 (one game on the PS3) Socom was a HUGE success on the PS2. It was a sweet Single player, TPS, that used team based tactics, mission planning, stealth, and teamwork as a method of doing Seal missions. It also used a headset to send commands to your team, that would be followed. Commands like, "Move to _______," "Engage Target," or "Breech, Bang, Clear." It also had an online multiplayer that was far beyond awesome. It was the start of online counsel gaming, hands down. Flash forward to Socom 3. THe game was nothing like the first two games. Lots of issues and it moved away from the successful formula.

Fast forwar, to Socom 4, 10years after the first Socom game. They had a Beta. People complained of the charts. It was nothing like the original game and the server issues, UI, game breaking bugs were everywhere. Fastforward 2 weeks after the beta, the game was release. HORRIBLE GAME and IDEA. Fast forward 6 months after the release. Zipper Interactive is disband and seperated, employees find new jobs and Socom 4 is quoted as losing all technical support from the developers and IT team that was patching and fixing bugs.

Relationship to FFXI: 1.0? Game was growing problems. The game was having problems. The Beta was insanely bad with TONS of negative feedback. The game was still released by SCEA...6 months after release the team was fired and the game lost all its support from SCEA. Sounds like Sony don't give a crap unless they are making money. It has happened before and it will happen again.

Thanks for letting me rant about my beloved Socom game /cry Socom 1 and 2 changed my life the way FFXI changed my life. /sigh, to love.

The Japanese work culture is much different. They wouldn't (and didn't) "fire" the developers, they reassign them, or ask them to step down, but never fire as that would be shameful and admitting failure.

Also, here's a particularly funny quote from the Alpha of 1.0:



Edited, Dec 13th 2012 9:21am by Louiscool

actually Socom's single player wasnt sweet until Socom 3... (1 and 2 single player were so awful i couldnt force myself to complete them... multiplayer though was a blast on 1, 2 3 and combined assault)..... also i like how you went straight from 3 to 4... what about confrontation? (which also was horrible) and as for socom 4 I LOVED the single player... multiplayer on the other hand... garbage lol

My greatest concern is this: FFXI was released at the high of the PS2 generation in 2002-03 and we get the "PS2 limitations" that plagued us. Now the game is about to be released when the PS3 is becoming ancient; OK, more like a middle-aged man now but it's getting there. Guess what kind of "PS3 limitations" will we get?

I'm actually half serious about this since the PS3 only has 256MB of RAM and 256MB of GRAM even if it's extremely fast at loading stuff compare to PC.



I guess it's slightly different but US and JP companies would be doing the exact same thing. Developers came up with the project. Management propose the project to the shareholders/investors. Project gets the green light. Then interferences, deadline, directions, management...etc caused the game to not giving the amount of $$$ everyone is expected. Investors got angry. Management started using their finger pointing skills to the max. Eventually, the development team and its projects are considered as failures and would be scrapped. Its members got reshuffled into other teams, made redundant or just fired. Its resources/work/future projects got shelved somewhere deep and dark. Management wrote it off as a stumble but they are still doing great anyway and should have the shareholders' complete confidence.

In terms of polish, outstanding for an alpha game just needs minor tweaking....in terms of mechanics....yeah...............

The code words I've heard bandied about in my linkshell is that they're alpha testing "My Little Pony Online Adventures II."

Wint, I'm pretty sure Darth Vader should be upright in your Avatar, not Yoda. I like your new sticky post. Thanks. To be honest though, I'm surprised more people have yet so say something stupid... or are you and other Admins, just that good and we never notice?

It's really not hard to have an NDA-safe discussion anyway. You can pretty much get away with murder if you choose your words with the slightest care. Especially considering we already have information from the developers and lots of knowledge about 1.0, anyone who wants to talk about alpha content only has to avoid making statements that are explicitly factual. Opinions like, "I really hoped for more strategic combat, but from what I've seen it's not looking good," are fair game.

Remember that the alpha is likely level capped, and surely what we've seen from the videos are in the lower levels and solo to boot. Once you reach higher level groups and have to party, they might introduce more strategic elements. (Even if it's just "This monster does a knockback move. Stand with your back to a wall or a tree!" - that's better than just standing there hacking something.)

FFXI had strategic combat primarily on boss fights, HNMs, and BCNM and KSNM fights. Remember having a THF flee pull Angra Manyu and Dynamis Lord to drag the dragons away? Remember kiting Chlevnik up and down the alleyway? Remember standing on the feet of dragons to stop Spike Flail? Remember coordinating magic bursts and skills on the giant turtles? BCNM fights also had gimmicks and special moves used by regular mobs, too. That one BCNM 60 fight with the coerl always gave us trouble, because you had to stun him based on whatever expression he was giving off in text.

So basically, you want an MMO version of Final Fantasy Tactics.