FFXIV wins Massively's "MMO of the Year" AwardFollow

Lost cause or not, they didn't beat anything. It would be like me bragging that I'm my mother's favorite son when I'm her only child

Whether or not it was a good decision to revive XIV is still up for debate. Longevity is key for MMOs and ARR barely released it's first major patch to a lukewarm reception. PS4 bringing subscribers won't play as large a role as how many of the current subs they've retained up to that point. It's not a matter of how many new people they get, it's more a matter of they need to get the people who come to stay

Don't forget Warlords of Draenor as well. 2014 is gonna be rough if SE doesn't pick it up.

I think XIV will hold onto its niche player base the same way XI did, but it'll never be a massive game (not necessarily a bad thing). It just isn't built for it, and SE's design choices in the last few years have been.. questionable. They're just so out of touch with so many things. Yoshida is an exception to this, but he's only one man.

Edited, Dec 21st 2013 8:17pm by BrokenFox

Most people in game have been quite positive over 2.1. If you're reading the official forums, well ARR has been dead since alpha. Minus housing, I've enjoyed everything they've added so far. The game is honestly hitting a good mix for casual/hardcore. The only people who might be complaining about lack of content are the super hardcores with 5+ hours a day, 7 days a week of free time.

Preludes was sure this game would be dead within 6 months, here we are at 4 and it's certainly not slowing down. The PS4 release will only add more to that.

Thayos, you moderate a forum that had quite a bit of talk about the patch, both positive and negative. You're not a likely candidate for someone who would get away with acting like they didn't see it all.

As for the things you don't see happening...

1) There are already high quality games, but the burden in on SE here. TERA, SWtoR, GW2... all games XIV had a chance to beat to the punch on release and all games who now retain a chunk of players who would be interested in ARR.

2) XIV 1.0 was niche. ARR basically mirrors the standard and aside from appearance(mob type, nomenclature, ect.) it's pretty generic. The majority of additions and adjustments were pulled from other games that do it just as well in most cases and sometimes better. ARR doesn't just get a pass because it's fresh.

I think I'm going to be ill...

Nah, he's probably still fapping at the implication I'm a hypocrite for implying XIV still needs some work here and there while enjoying a system XI put out as well as it freebie time. Bluntly, I've always felt a MMO can never rest and always needs to strive to evolve and improve. It's to our benefit and if me enjoying that when it does happen makes out what he wants to believe I am, then whatever. Dude still needed told off because despite whatever complaints I hold for any game, I still try to help its players, too.

I honestly don't see anything threatening ARR in a while aside from EQN and whenever Project Titan comes along. The biggest reason being that like a lot of people have already mentioned here TESO isn't looking too promising and if you look at the competition right now I would say that ARR is the best and newest amongst this generations MMORPG games.

I do however think that the two games I mentioned will take a big chunk of players when they are released simply because I think while a lot of people are okay with the same type of game we have had the last ten years, I believe a lot of people are also tired of it. If EQN and Titan bring something new to the table while keeping a high standard in quality, I think the current generation of MMORPGs will have a hard time outside of its core fanbase.

Thayos does have a point that sometimes doing something very well is better than doing something that's new. There were mp3 players out there before the iPod - I had some of them. They were adequate, some even good, but none of them were great. Which is why when Apple came along and released a product that was highly polished and also paired it with a good content delivery system, it became the best seller.

That's why WoW did as well as it did. WoW brought a handful of original things to the table, but it integrated them into the standards for the genre better than any game had before.

I'm less butt hurt over the housing now that I've found out FCs can set their homes as "public" - e.R.a on Lamia bought the nicest house and opened it to the public, so I was able to pop inside and see what was going on. They've got a lot of furniture that's been gifted to them by others, too. Three hot tubs in the basement!

I do agree that recycling ideas is only wise to a point, and that it is pretty prevalent, best example I can think of is fates. Before launch my friend was trying to get me to play and was showing me some videos of ARR and the fate system, I was kind of like, well OK they just ripped of Rift/GW2, but that doesn't make it any less fun, and also I sort of think they would have shot themselves in the foot by not having these concepts included in the game, wouldn't you agree?

I will agree with Hitome that GW2 is kind of a **** game, I played it for a few months, but the lack of a dungeon finder tool is what really killed it for me, that and I still kind of think removing the tank/healer/dps roles wasn't the best move either. The few dungeons I did run most people where unsure what they were really supposed to be doing.

Saying that there is nothing unique about ARR is not necessarily true though. Unless I am mistaken, isn't this the only current MMO that lets you do multiple classes on the same character?? I know this concept has its pro's and con's (not having to deal with alts, yet having to deal with the myth cap) But overall its a pretty neat concept I think. I haven't played WoW in about a year, but the easy access to the 8 man content though the duty finder is pretty smooth I think, I never really enjoyed the raid finder tool in WoW, but that was only during cataclysm so it may have gotten better (I have read about the changes they have made).

The one thing I think, and this may just be personal preference, I have yet to play any MMO where the PvP is as polished as WoW (I know its not perfect). I've done some PvP in ARR, and I like it, and I know its still early in the game, but it still pales in comparison for me compared to WoW.

I really like ARR, but there are some things I'm still a little disappointed about, the fact that they released a new content patch with out adding another tier of gear kind of pisses me off a bit, its like, "Well I've been grinding for this gear for 3 months, and now I have another 3 months to grind for the same gear, so whats the rush at this point?" For me, its a fine line between doing things for fun and doing things for rewards, yeah its fun running new dungeons, but when there is no real reward for it besides tomes, people are just going to go back to whatever the fastest route to hit the myth cap is, and then never log in again for the rest of the week, besides doing there one BC or CT run.

I really think 2.2 will be what makes or breaks it, Yoshi P is supposed to be an experienced MMO player, but some of the little things he's over looked, at launch and with this patch, have left me saying wut?

I agree he wasn't trying to cater to the endgame crowd, and I am by no means "hardcore". I only have one level 50, and with my limited playtime it will be awhile before get another class to 50. With my BLM being full DL with +1 relic sometimes I just feel like there isn't much point in doing anything else atm. Our FC is just moving into coil so I do have that to look forward too which is nice, and I have been using my philo tomes to buy DL for my dragoon which is what I will be leveling next. But sometimes its still just like meh..part of this is my own personal problem just cause I have been playing MMO's for about 8 or 9 years.

This patch did remove the grindy feel, but so far with the duty roulette I have had terrible luck. I didn't get much play time this week, so I only got the chance to use it three times. Got AK the first time, WP the second time, and the third I got AK again with a group that was really under geared IMO. We struggled really hard to get past the first boss (wiped 3 times and on the final attempt the tank was dead when we finally killed the boss) there was just no way we were getting past demon wall, let alone the last boss, and sad to say I just dropped group to avoid the headache at that point.

I do have the new HM's unlocked, so I think it was just ****** luck on my part.

I wish they would add an option to check off at least like one dungeon you don't want to do. WoW had this for PvP where you could que up for a random battle ground, but choose two that you didn't want to play.

I'm still having fun at this point, I have yet to do any of the new 4 mans and I'm pretty excited to check them out. I just wish there was some new gear or something to pick up along the way, even if it was just some sort of vanity gear set or something.

Facts are produced from two things:

1) Ample experience
2) Actively playing the game in question

I've spent the last 10-14 years in the MMORPG world. I've already complained about FF14's pitfalls in other threads prior to this. Perhaps you should go read them.

I'm aware it's not perfect. I'm also aware that, right now, nothing else out there really holds a candle to 14 besides die-hard WoW fans and MAYBE people who are obsessed with Tera/EQ (a small niche). Yes, I've played games like WoW since they were first released. It was quite a fun experience and I agree: WoW's PVP is far superior to anything out on the market right now. But, after Cata and Pandaria, I can see its population will begin to dwindle much like 11's as people move onto the next generation of MMOs.

As I've said:: experience and plenty of playtime in this current game. If I had to give 2.1 a rating, I'd probably give it a 6 or 7 out of 10. All of the content was easy to breeze through with a bunch of FC memebers hellbent on doing it...but the majority of the playerbase will not be able to do the extremes past Garuda until more mythology is acquired and more coil is ran. And those are the things people will really want to do because some of the weapons are on par with (if not better than) the zenith relic weapon.

And this is just the end of the endgame content. CT offers plenty of interesting content and models Throne of Thunder quite well, actually. We'll basically be unlocking different rungs of CT as time passes which intersects with the main plot quite nicely. CT is something everyone can do and doesn't require a premade group for.

New recipes were added to keep crafting relevant and improve desirability for certain crafts which saw no use prior to the patch (ARM), ways to level other jobs were increased, and a slew of other content to work towards was given to us as well including FC housing and PVP. Both of those will take a while to 'complete'.

There is no denial. After searching for a decent MMO for the past two years, 14 is finally one that does quite a bit right where so many have failed in the past. If Yoshi does not pick up the pace with endgame content, you will find the hardcore crowd wander off into other games. But, that's apparently a very small subset of the population.

Less you're sitting with all jobs at 50, 2~3 jobs with myth/Allagan/CT gear, all crafting/DoL classes maxed with the best melds you can do, have downed Twintania, have downed the 3 EM primals, and have achieved the highest gear in PVP, then you still have plenty to do in this game. All the tools they just added this patch make it just that much easier to not only level/cap myth/farm philosophy but also to group up and do the harder content.

Edited, Dec 23rd 2013 12:37am by HitomeOfBismarck

WoW's PvP is a rather large chunk of their playerbase. Many players who don't participate in anything other than PvP. They could care less if Blizz ever made another expansion because their whole reason for playing the game would remain intact. The same is true for Vanilla. There is a pretty large group of players who cap their level at 60 and play through old content. Again, completely independent of future content. You kinda countered your own argument here.