Meanwhile, in BETA.

Greetings & Salutations everyone, from FFXIV BETA. This will be my first post since the lift of the non-disclosure-agreement so I plan to fill everyone in on what's going on in ffxiv beta right now and what you should know and might can expect. This is going to be a long drawn out post so I hope you're ready for it.

As you may know, the FFXIV ALPHA tests began many many months ago, I'm not for certain but I believe it was about 6 months ago now. However, about a month and a half back began the actual beta testing. However, it's not been the yellow brick road everyone was expecting so far. It's true that in all beta tests there will be problems, people fully expect them, even though the general consensus right now is that this beta has been the most bugged and flawed beta that pretty much anyone has played. However, this is not the main concern, not by a long shot. The main concern right now? That would be Square Enix's attitude, and most importantly, their "vision".

Square Enix has added a lot of unusual systems, controls and things of much frustration and agony so far. Most people were hopeful that these things would change come official release, that was, until not long ago when some new interviews started surfacing with the FFXIV development team. And let me tell you, they're nothing short of downright frightening. But before we get into that, I would like to go over a little history with you back in the world of Vana Diel, back when it all began over 8 years ago.

About 8 years ago, Square Enix came out with the MMORPG "Final Fantasy XI online". When this game was released there were not many MMORPG's on the market. The only ones out were things like Everquest, Ultima Online and I believe Ragnarok Online. Point being, there weren't many at all and even those were a newer breed of video game that had just surfaced. No one really knew what a MMORPG was, how it was suppose to work or just what it entailed. Developer and Consumer included. When FFXI was built they followed a lot of the same guidelines used in Everquest, which is generally thought of now days as the most "hardcore" and time consuming MMORPG to ever exist.

Because of this, it was no surprise that FFXI was very hardcore itself for many years to come. Back then people did not know what to think, what to expect or fully how to react to situations. They just played. They felt, and they were told if something was wrong that it was their fault for not being a better player. However, years and years of this "hardcore" play style went on before people started quitting in the masses. They were tired of being excluded out of content because they didn't have 5+ hours a day to devote to a game. They were tired of not getting anything accomplished because they didn't have 5+ hours a day to devote to a game. They were tired of being "gimp" because they didn't have 5+ hours a day to devote to a game. And the ones who did have and did devote (myself included) 5+ hours to the game for a very long time began seeing how it was effecting their real lives. They began to wonder why a game should take so much time out of your day just to be able to enjoy the systems within it.

And with this my friends, the "casual" mentality was born. People did not want to devote 5+ hours, 10+ hours a day to a video game anymore. It was no longer "cool" or "hardcore" but instead the masses began making fun of it, frowning upon it, and it became a taboo thing reserved for the mentally deprived. People had asked Square Enix for a good long time by then to change many things within FFXI, to change how these systems worked and to give them a better chance at enjoying the game while still maintaining their real lives. But with each new interview Square Enix simply ignored these pleas, these cry outs, their very consumers, and stated things were worked as intended. The "hardcore" crowd only made fun of them, telling them not to play if they didn't like it. Well, that's exactly what happened eventually, people stopped playing and because of this many MMORPG's (not only FFXI) began to lose many of their subscribers. And what does this mean for the developers? A loss of revenue.

Square Enix addressed this by slowly implementing new systems to allow better play for people who could not or did not want to play a game for 5+, 10+ hours a day. However, with the new systems being added many more, many of the same systems already in existence still remained. I guess you could say it was too little too late. But as time went on, more and more of these "casual friendly" systems were added and helped to retain the remaining subscribers of FFXI, although every now and again Square Enix would add another "Hardcore Friendly" system and simply shoot themselves in the foot. As years went on, people began to regain a small amount of trust in the company who never listened to them, their pleas, or their cry outs. The developers began communicating with the community just a bit more and things started looking a bit brighter. But again, it was simply too little too late. FFXI was passed it's prime and began it's slow and gradual decline.

Meanwhile, games like World of Warcraft were flourishing. They appealed more to the casual community, even though they were often abused by the hardcore. Because of this, it and games like it only grew in popularity while games like FFXI, with it's amazing story, amazing graphics and beautiful world simply fell by the wayside. It was a sad thing to see for me, because I always loved and have loved FFXI so very much, through thick and thin. It really truly is a amazing game with the most captivating story I've ever experienced in my entire life.

Life went on, time went by and the sun continued to rise and set. The remaining FFXI population began to regain more trust and a better outlook in FFXI and to the developers themselves. But then it came, the one day that would change it all. People had known for awhile, well they had "speculated" that Square Enix was developing a new MMORPG, a "next gen" MMORPG. We speculated for a couple of years before it was ever officially announced and took most (but not some of us) by surprise. "Final Fantasy XIV online", it was announced at the E3 convention in 2009. Many of us in the "underground" were already expecting this, it is in fact when I started this very blog.

As time went on new information surfaced here and there and Square Enix began discussing and advertising their new up-and-coming MMORPG within the gaming community. We soon found out that Square Enix was planning on doing everything right from the start. They said their "vision" was to make FFXIV a casual friendly game, one that could be played and enjoyed for just a hour of commitment every day. They spoke of the new "guildleve" system, they spoke of all kinds of different designs to allow people to have fun and enjoyment while still retaining their real lives. They also stated that this time around they really wanted to listen to the community, what the community had to say and really give them what they wanted. But this would all change sadly...

Fast forward back to now. Saturday, August 21st 2010. We are currently in the 3rd phase of beta testing for FFXIV and already things are looking quite bleak. The entire FFXIV beta community is in a uproar and many have already quit in mass exodus, and the game isn't even out yet! But why you ask? Sadly, because Square Enix has reverted back to their old selves in many ways and they have also lied to the community. But how you may ask? Allow me to elaborate.

As I explained and as you more than likely know by now if you've been following the development of FFXIV, Square Enix has sworn time and time again several major points about FFXIV and the testing of such to make it a better game overall:

They would listen to the community and adhere to their desires.

They would communicate with the community.

They would make FFXIV a casual friendly game while still appealing to the more "hardcore" community as well. They said FFXIV would be a game that could be enjoyed thoroughly by anyone, no matter their play time.

They wanted to think of the FFXI community first and foremost and make FFXIV appealing to them before any other demographic.

However, these points became moot and untrue as time went on. The FFXIV forums were always a place where if you said anything bad about FFXIV you got flamed and chased away quickly, one of the most used arguments in doing so was "It's just beta". But things continued to go downhill and slowly the masses began to speak out. The "diehards" and "fanboys" were quickly silenced and drown out by the cries of the masses once again, and this time their cries were louder than ever.

You see, as of now Square Enix is not only going back on their word about many things, they are not staying true to it. Below I will describe the major issues which are plaguing FFXIV right now.

They have spoken with the community very very little thus far and only recently have given a few new interviews. This is one thing everyone hated for the longest time in FFXI that eventually changed down the road, but has changed and reverted back as of late with FFXIV and the development within.

They are not taking suggestions from the community. Now, before you roll your eyes I'm not talking about "PLEASE ADD FLYING CHOCOBOS!" or every little suggestion posted. I'm talking about MAJOR issues that the entire community bands together on and agrees with fully to the point that absolutely no one is against it. And with that, below, I will address some of these issues at hand.

The Guildleve system. It is part of Square Enix's "vision" to have Guildleve on a 48 hour cooldown, and the bad thing is that you can only accept a maximum of 8 guildleves for this 48 hour time period. This is very limiting to the player, however at first it wasn't such a big deal because guildleves were very worthwhile and gave very good experience points and rewards for doing them. However, this was nerfed and now at this point the guildleves give hardly anymore experience points than simple monster grinding. They took out the biggest incentives to participate within them. They then explained this was part of their "vision" and wanted this to encourage players to group up and share their guildleves. The thing is, when you do this you suffer a loss of experience points gained. More or less, it's more efficient to do a solo guildleve and then go about your business or go back to solo grinding than it is to group up with 2 or more players. At this though, the biggest complaint in the community regarding guildleve right now is the 48 hour cooldown. Square Enix simply responded in a interview with "This is our vision on how it will work, and while the community is asking for the cooldown to be lowered we have no plans to do so".

Then there was crafting. A Profession Square Enix swore the players could take up and enjoy within itself without having to depend on a melee/magic/front lines class to enjoy. That if some one simply wanted to craft, then craft they shall. However this was far from the truth. The skill ups even at the low levels were even much slower than that in FFXI and that being at higher levels. The materials needed to make simple crafts to level up your crafting profession were expensive and hard to come by, and lastly there were the crystals. Say goodbye to simply needing one crystal, because now even for the most simply low level synthesis you could need anywhere from 2 of one kind, 3 of another kind and 4 of a final kind to 9 of each kind of crystal, for a single synthesis. One which had about a 20% chance of giving you skill up points, a small amount at that. The crafting "guildleves" gave you free ingredients to craft with but only a few and after about a hour or so you ran out of them and then came to lovely 48 cooldown to obtain more. Things truly were looking bleak for crafters and those wishing to take up the profession.

The next thing the community absolutely hates is the controls. WASD for movement and IJKL for camera control? Square Enix said time and time again they wanted to make the FFXI community feel comfortable playing their game (FFXI primary controls were the num-pad for movement and arrow keys for camera control. It worked surprisingly well). But not only are they failing to do so, they are also alienating the WoW crowd and many other MMORPG players. I will admit using the mouse to control camera can be nice and I don't mind it a bit. Sadly, the mouse control system for FFXIV is done using what's called the "software mouse" system as opposed to the "hardware mouse" system. This means basically that it lags and there will always be a tiny amount of lag in it even if polished which right now, it is far from. The community was quite upset about this and was begging Square Enix to use the "hardware mouse" which is just as easy to be implemented into the system and design as it's inferior software counterpart. But for some reason Square Enix responded with "We currently have no plans to change the software mouse to a hardware mouse, the software mouse will receive some revisions and be kept".

The next big, major issue is the fact that there is no Auction House on FFXIV. There is what's called the "Market Wards". You "hire" a retainer, meaning you get your own NPC to stand in this large market area with a "bazaar" of your goods for sale within them. The bad thing is that there's no way of knowing who has what and there are honestly hundreds if not thousands of these NPC's and this is just in the BETA. This means trying to find some simple ingredients or a piece of armor can honestly take hours of searching. People begged Square Enix in the masses to please introduce a Auction House. If Square Enix was trying to prevent abuse of a Auction House all they had to do is revise the "price history" system there within to show if anyone was trying to abuse it, alter price history or under sale. Simply put, let people see who's selling what for how much and how often. But still, do this within a actual auction house system. This is what the player base has BEGGED for probably more than anything else. It's much more convenient to walk up to a Auction House and spend 5-10 minutes getting the things you need and browsing the wares within than spending upwards of an hour and perhaps not even finding what you were looking for. Square Enix simply responded with "The market wards are a unique and innovative system that we want to keep".

These comments were all found out in a interview that surfaced. One that should have boosted the morale of the current beta player base and given Square Enix better publicity. This interview surfaced in a time where the entire game was filled full of bugs, full of insanely high lag, issues that could be easily addressed that were simply ignored, even for beta. This interview came in a time where people were beginning to get very frustrated and put out with a game so unpolished that most said it was not even worthy of being called a "Alpha Build" due to the immense bug and hugely grotesque lack of content. This made the community begin turning against itself, people quitting left and right, disgruntled players everywhere and the few people defending Square Enix burned at the stakes. This was all within the OFFICIAL BETA FORUMS non the less...

But then came the final nail in the coffin for many. People thought it was some kind of glitch or some kind of odd system they didn't quite understand. After gaining experience points for awhile your rate of experience points began dropping and you began getting "surplus" experience points. Where did these surplus experience points go to and what were they used for? Sadly we found out. Absolutely nothing! That's right, it is a built in "fatigue" system that all classes share, from crafting, to gathering, to melee and magic. The bad thing is, you start experiencing this fatigue after a mere hour or two of leveling up. So Square Enix responded with this... "We do not want those who have more time to gain an advantage of the player base so we have added in this fatigue system. We recommend that if you want to play more past it you should switch classes". Wow, really? Truly? Before people were just upset about being excluded from end game events in FFXI due to the lack of 5+ hours of play time per day. But now, if you want to simply get experience points, on your own, giving you no real advantage other than quick leveling you get punished for it? I'm casual myself now but some times I will have 2-3, 3-4 hours a day to play and I want to enjoy it. Why would I care if some one else levels up slightly quicker than me? And why should they or I have to change classes and not enjoy the one we are trying to focus on if we want to enjoy the game more than a hour a day?

As of now the entire FFXIV beta community is in a uproar. It's like a FF-Apocalypse before the game has even been released. I've never seen a community in my life as disgruntled and surprisingly in complete agreement with each other. the FFXIV official beta forums are pretty much just a Square Enix bashing wonderland at the moment and the feedback forums and filled with nothing but anger and resentment for Square Enix and their attitude. You hear these "upbeat" and lighthearted interviews with the developers when they laugh, giggle, and say things like "We hope you enjoy your experience in Eorzea!" Are they clueless? Are they that fucking stupid? No, no one is nor can be. They are simply going off of their "vision" and what they feel is best, reverting to their old ways and going back on so many promises it's not even funny.

Things are looking bleak at the moment and threads like "I want to believe" "I want to enjoy the game" "Is there any hope" plague the FFXIV general discussion forums with nothing but negativity towards the developers who seem to not realize their player base is more important than their "vision". They don't seem to realize that if they release something that is nothing short of a joke and get a metric ton of bad media all because of a few visions they have and a largely ignored community their game will go absolutely no where very quickly, this includes in Japan to because the Japanese player base is sharing pretty much the exact attitude as the rest of the world towards this at the moment. Some one needs to tell Square Enix that their "vision" isn't going to mean jack if they have no subscribers to partake in it and make the company a profit.

Still I hold out hope, that maybe Square Enix will change their minds, maybe they will see how much of a uproar this is causing and change some things, because if they don't there won't be much hope for such an amazing and beautiful game with so much potential. Let's hope for the best everyone and pray that Square Enix does what's right and not what THEY think is "right" according to their "vision".