Final Fantasy XIV: Gamma Testing vs. Guinea Pigs (edit)Follow

I've been looking on tons of websites with tons of reviews about FFXIV. The majority of the comments on every one of them is simply agreeing with the reviewer. Have you ever thought a "bad game" deserved a greater score? Or that a spectacular game by someone else's view was just horrible in your eyes?
How can you say that some games deserve better than others? How are you able to express your own opinions on a particular subject? How could you ever have an opinion about ANY game? The reason is because you have PLAYED and SEEN the game itself in its ENTIRITY. But not in this case. Too many people are already biased against a Final Fantasy MMO, and first impressions are everything to the American audience.

There's only one question that truely needs answering: Why? Unfortunately, people refer to videos or text like these reviews to answer the question for them. Let's start with something basic.

WHY are the controls so bad? If you think about it yourselves for a minute. You'll realize that, like many have noticed before, Final Fantasy games don't come out this close together (i.e. XIII and XIV in the same year). Look at FFXIV. It's still not a finished product yet. Its far too recent release date just proves that further. These reviews you're watching can't be justified by rating an unfinished game. If you choose play the game yourself now, you'll see that in the next few months, the control scheme, lag, and bugs will all be hauled over. But if you tried it for three hours and instantly quit because it was too hard, that's your decision.

Then WHY did they release it so early? The answer is not that hard to understand. It's still in its testing phase. We had the alpha and beta stages. Alpha was getting the game in a working condition, the concept and controls still being worked on. Beta was getting feedback from others about what would improve the game. Now it's on to something I would call the Gamma Testing.

The game is in a playable condition. It may take some tolerance from the players, but regardless, it is out for them to play. I use the term "to play" very literally in this case, because everybody here and everybody reviewing the game was expecting to play a FF quality game straight out of the box. What SHOULD be said is that it's out for the players to try playing and give input on. But like I said, the only thing that matters is first impressions, and now, because of these reviews, more than a few people are completely tossing the idea of ever playing this game into the trash.

This may have been Square Enix's best decision, but also their worst mistake. In Gamma Testing, they are now trying to get feedback from a bigger audience. Worldwide consumers. A greater number of players. They need more than just technical testers and a limited number of beta players to create a great game. I'm assuming that their best decision was realizing this and coming out to ask the newer players, the players who bought the officially released game, "What do you want to see?" They here the cries of fans, and the fans are crying for better quality games. They don't want the less-than-mediocre games they've been getting lately. A wordwide MMO is just the answer to that; the players request and they can evaluate what the mass media really wants and expects from them. All the company as a whole can really do is improve from where they are at currently.
But the problem with that is the people already expect too much with a name like Final Fantasy on the box. After two weeks, the reviews come out telling you not to buy the game, as if no improvements are even possible. If you're not to proud of yourself to go to: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/news/detail?newsId=0e1cf4484f2fae8d0609bbee17ee94f60fa6524c
You'll see that their Oct. 8 update has more problems fixed than they can fit on a single page. Other miscellaneous issues were addressed, it says underneath the update, and under THAT it says a major issue will be fixed within the NEXT WEEK. It's the consistency that's there, at least at the moment. There's no doubt that they are working to make not only a successful MMO, but an MMO worthy of a numbered Final Fantasy.
You have to look beyond the first bug you come across (or maybe the first FEW bugs >.<), and judge the game and its potential for yourself.

So WHY hasn't the game improved since beta? Well, first of all, the only ones saying that it hasn't improved are the ones that did nothing except play the game (rather than test the game). They signed up for beta to say that they "got to play it before anyone else". On the other hand, the people who gave input on improvements actually SAW their requests implemented. THEY are the ones that say that FFXIV has improved 500% since beta, and it's true.

WHY don't they at least use the same principles and working mechanics that FFXI has? Simple. THE GAME IS NOT DONE YET! It's still early to put the old in with the new and still have an efficiently running game. You can think of FFXI as the technical and mechanical testings for creating a Final Fantasy MMO. Many people say that none of the developers listen to the players' requests and so forth, but my speculation was that they were still trying out a working MMO, with enough different content to separate it from other MMOs. That's what made the FF series revolutionary, isn't it? This time around is more about the players' opinions. I can see it because 90% of people that beta tested the game love it and still play it.

The biggest complaint I hear is no Auction House. An Auction House isn't an easy, safe place to put stuff for the benefit of you and other players. There are some people out there that find mistakes and immediately take advantage of them. This isn't an item bag or someone holding equipment for you. In the case of an Auction House, they can break the economy before other people even start playing (like another economy I used to know...). Think about it, what would detract players more and push them to not play the game ever again: A defective and inefficient Auction House from day one, or an Auction House that will be coming later and in working and flawless condition? There's a space for it in-game. Just like transportation currently, nobody is complaining about not having chocobos or airships. Because you know that everything will be there eventually. Before you hurriedly bring in more potential problems, you have to solve the initial problems first. And that is the current stage of the game.

How about this: WHY didn't they just make FFXIV offline? Why don't we use a slide rule anymore? Why don't computers take up a whole room still? Why do we have CG and 3D movies these days? Times change! Companies need to expand their horizons if they are to improve and also stay competitive. If SE never hears what the players want, how are they supposed to get any better? How many people do you think actually write to SE with their own opinions on what they should be doing? On a counter measure, how many people are going to agree with those that write to SE expressing their opinions? The only way to be more efficient to all parties is by hearing everyone's voice.

Take the overall situation into perspective. What is better than staying at home in the basement by yourself playing an awesome Final Fantasy game with an awesome story? Easy. Staying at home in the basement with your friends playing an awesome Final Fantasy game with an awesome story. Everyone has their own take on whether RPGs are better as linear or MMO. Console or PC. Star Wars or Star Trek. If you want a good linear game to play, only YOU know what will make it good.
Now FFXIV may not have much content at the moment, but more quests and more exploration and more monsters and more storyline comes with more updates, which are dictated by the players. If there's one thing SE did right this time with Final Fantasy, it was deciding NOT to name it Final Sci-Fi.

Finally, WHY shouldn't I just abandon SE and Final Fantasy right now? SE is one of those unique companies that nobody wants to see go down the toilet (at least I HOPE nobody wants to), even the "non-conformists" that hate everything popular. Keep in mind that SE has another investment in mind - the PS3. This is probably their MAIN concern and it's probably this audience that they want to have a perfect product for. The series has had almost all of it's popularity on the consoles, and the PS3 is THEIR market. Just don't judge THAT FFXIV before it's out as well.
If you're willing to pay $24.95, any psychic will tell you that good things come to those wait. If you're willing to struggle through it, at the very least you can say "you were there" with your legendary status character. And simply put, if Nobuo Uematsu hasn't abandoned SE, should you?

Maybe I've been a little generous with the phrase "Gamma Testing". The PC consumers of FFXIV could be classified more as the "guinea pigs" to what they're truly aiming for. I agree that it is unfair that they've put out an unfinished and underdeveloped game, and that they're just milking the early market for a little extra cash, but they do want results to come from their plan. With no guinea pigs come no results.

I'll sum it up here. Don't let some review with an early first impression tell you whether or not to buy FFXIV. Don't dwell on the bad aspects, because you can be a part of the awesome aspects, but only if you want to be. I beg everyone reading to look at FFXIV as if it is in a bigger scope of testing now, to players around the world. Players with their own opinions on greatness. Express those opinions promptly and with resolve and you will see the changes. SE will improve with this game and all of their games in the future, because now they know what you want. And the only thing you should judge without ever having personal experience with it is Twilight.

As a final note, I'm not a FF fanboy. I've only beat 1, 6, 7, 8, and 9. I've never finished 4 or 10. And I've never even played 2, 3, 5, 12, or 13, and I played 11 for only 4 months. I won't even mention all the spinoffs. You just have to have a mind of your own.

Edited, Oct 12th 2010 5:17pm by dshwshr55

I just want the game to be successful, that's all. Too many others just want to see SE bomb, or at least this game for the anti-FFMMO.

too long to read seriously, skimming for "?"s to throw in my as well:

They're not if your computer is decent, it's just FFXI compact keyboard settings.
They didn't, they've been testing for a long time now.
It has a lot.
Because everyone was whining about it just being "FFXI-2"? The game mechanics are fine, in fact they're much improved for the most part.
Thats not really impressive, some FFXI updates were much bigger years after release. That list is just kind of the average random bugs that need fixing.
They already have offline games in pipeline. There is a market for MMOs. The game as currently designed wouldn't work well as a single player game.


This I really disagree with, people are going to abuse AH regardless of when they implement, the bazaar/retainer system combined with the requirements for crafting makes the economy completely unworkable. If a big part of you game is being able to improve your character purely by crafting the economy needs to work. Releasing without an AH is completely unforgivable, it kills everything else in game. It's the reason why the people I know that really want to like the game aren't playing atm.

No. NNNOOOOO. It definitely won't flop, but nor will it be a great or even good game. SE has demonstrated with the beta that they either learned nothing from FFXI or they don't desire to make any changes. They haven't change their design philosophy at all.

With all this gamma testing I wouldn't get SE angry, FFXIV might Hulk out and beat the crap out of you.

It's funny that so many people want this game not to suck so bad that they are seemingly willing to accept any amount of terrible suck and torturous game play.

It's like video game Stockholm syndrome!

If the game doesn't get drastically better in the next 1-2 months it's not going to make it to 7.

This game and this company both deserve to fail. The massive level of arrogance it takes to release a half finished game and not only expect people to pay for the software but to keep paying a subsciption fee to play it shows nothing but disdain for their fanbase. The people over at SE need to realize that they nothing without their customers. There are so many new games coming out every day that no one could possibly play them all. The bottom line is that we don't need SE, they need us, and the sooner they realize that, the better off we'll all be.

Edited, Oct 13th 2010 12:30am by Turin

APB didn't have the fanatical JRPG fans that will play it no matter how bad it was though. Also SE isn't on the verge of bankruptcy.

I think the game will end up a lot like EQ2, bad game at launch that eventually patches and expansions its way into a full game. As long as SE doesn't try and compete with WoW by adding PvP like EQ2 did.... we should be fine.

Edited, Oct 13th 2010 11:17am by Lamnethx

That's a pretty good recommendation, especially if you haven't played XI in a few years and seen some of the changes they have made such as level syncing for parties. The problem though is that with the new 99 level cap you are pretty hopelessly behind. I think that is why a lot of people are playing XIV, they see that the game has potential and will be really good someday once it has more content, but they don't want to fall behind in the levels while waiting for that content to come out.

I logged into WoW for the 1st time in like a week.
4.0.1 has been a game changer for sure. Hopefully I can poke around this weekend (Haven't really played WoW in weeks it seems, nothing to do until new race/class combos come out.)

I use to draw..or play my gameboy/psp.