Month: August 2013

Just as Square-Enix is on the verge of releasing a “flood” of new information about Final Fantasy XIV’s much-anticipated version 2.0, the studio says that the players’ most wanted video will be missing from next month’s major convention. That’s right: The FFXIV 2.0 trailer will not be shown at E3 after all.

Square-Enix’s Naoki Yoshida wrote of the trailer’s completion in a recent producer’s letter but shared that the company is withholding it from E3 in order to package it with a larger marketing campaign. “During our most recent global PR planning meeting, we came to the conclusion that the most effective way to introduce version 2.0 to the world would be with a flood of new material rather than just a trickle,” Yoshida said.

Final Fantasy XIV 2.0′s public debut is still scheduled for E3, however. The trailer, along with the info-flood, is slated to be revealed this August. Version 2.0 will be a relaunch of the title alongside the PlayStation 3 release. It will feature overhauled graphics, server architecture, multiple in-game improvements, and additional racial/gender choices.

comments

Space Cobra

I would disagree with some of the comments that this was a “bad thing”.
It seems “hype” is still misunderstood; it can come from a company fanning it, but it also comes from fans and those expecting it (and the company fanning those expectations).
Here is the thing most of the Negative commentors are not taking into account: The game has a bad rep already in many circles, including in some of your eyes. Slow drips of info is fine, but that type of thing builds up expectation/hype: If there is no hype, which there is not, among those that have heard bad things about the game or do not like it, then the slow drip is not going to change their minds. In fact, they probably couldn’t care enough to keep up with any new info because, they do not care. That’s human psychology. You get “burned” and you are not wanting to go back to the place/person that you think did you wrong.

Now, if they overwhelm you with new features, that’s sorta like walking into a surprise party at work (at the job you hate) and just being taken aback that you didn’t even know that they knew or cared it was your birthday (analogy is analogy). It’s better to bring out all your guns at once and answer all your critics at this point in time. The game is out. It has bad press. Time for advertising akin to car advertising in that here you have a “brand new model” for the new year with features not in the old model and things corrected. You need to bowl over the critics.
Of course, some critics will never get bowled over, but those on the fence with open minds might give the game another chance. This is best done with all the info being made available at once. It’s a pretty standard tool in advertising and one that I think is warranted here. The devs have been at work for almost a year on this game and have left the game truly free-to-play for at least that long (with a Tsunami during the interm, I might add). There isn’t any “hidden agenda” or big “mystery conspiracy” at work here.
And they will be judged soon enough when 2.0 comes out. They seem to have a number of surprises up their sleeves (like the new races and classes) already.

sosuperstuck

I don’t know why people love to hate on this game so much.  The game has come a long way from what it was at launch and yes, there are quite a few people out there playing and enjoying it.  It’s not as immediately accessible as the Wow type game, but once you spend a little time it has a subtle beauty that can pull you in. Like any relatively young MMO, there are things that need to be improved.  It just irritates me that people still dismiss it as a total crap.  If it’s not your cup of tea that’s fine.  Move on.  Anyways, if they can’t get the full marketing campaign together for E3 then I agree this is the right move.  Better to wait than underwhelm.  Especially when so many people want to piss all over it.

TymCheong

I cant understand the logic behind not showing trailer in E3. And I can certainly see that they may be running behind schedule.
But based on the way Yoshi has been doing thing, I can’t help but trust him. He manages with such transparency not only is it rare in game development, but in all project development.
And to all haters…. I suggest try out the game with the recent updates before sounding like a complete fool.

A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with one of our fellow writers about MMO design. This, as you might imagine, is actually a fairly common topic of discussion amongst Massively staff members. (It’s beaten out slightly by talk of cats and horrible puns, but still.) Said writer was lamenting the fact that we haven’t seen a game in years that allows players to really focus on a non-combat role and level up without having to march out and kill things.

“Yes, we have,” I countered. “Final Fantasy XIV lets you do that.”

“Well, yeah, but you have to kill stuff to get materials and get money to start with, right?”

“No, you can just craft the whole way through.” And as I said it, I realized that one of the real shames of the game’s launch was that everything the crafting and gathering systems do correctly wound up being overshadowed by other issues. There’s a reason I started calling the game a sandpark when I was writing my first impressions, because the devotion to non-combat gameplay options is almost peerless among more modern games. And it’s worth some tribute.

The game’s crafting features honestly feel like something out of a pure sandbox design document. You can start crafting at the start of the game and spend the entire game quite comfortably crafting. There are quests specifically for you, content that you can unlock, and progression — both in terms of harder quests to accomplish and better equipment for crafting. There’s now even stuff for you to do at the endgame, special quests to undertake that require a high level of skill and a fair amount of extra material.

It even keeps player-crafted gear on par with dropped gear. Sure, getting crafted gear to match high-end stuff requires a lot of materia conversions and some luck in the melding process, but that just gives you more reason to keep churning through equipment. It helps ensure that there’s a market for your equipment even at the top end.

That’s not to say the process isn’t helped by having some combat classes, but they’re not mandatory any more than playing a crafting class is mandatory. You can get along just fine forever crafting and never fighting, or crafting and gathering, or gathering and fighting, or all of the above. The game honestly doesn’t care how you want to experience it.

Of course, some of the options for what you can do now weren’t in the game at launch. But the updates have actually made it more viable to be a crafter, not less. At launch there was only really a market for the top-end equipment, since the penalty for wearing something beyond your level was negligible and the money saved made up for it. You bought your top equipment, you leveled with it all the way through, and you never had to worry about getting new pieces. Materia, a stricter set of penalties for overleveled gear, and more reasonable leveling gear have really changed that setup to something more reasonable.

And that’s all assuming that you’re crafting equipment instead of consumables. Food is never going out of style.

The two biggest weaknesses the game does have in this regard are pretty noteworthy, though. The first is a lack of any good recipe list function — the best you get is the option to quickly redo any of the last ten recipes you’ve made. It’s a function that is coming to the game, but it makes crafting either an activity that must be done in windowed mode or one that requires a binder full of notes. The second is smaller, but still pretty significant: the lack of any way for you to actually personalize what you’ve made or market yourself as a specific crafter on the server.

Lack of marketing options may not seem like a big deal, but when you’re limited to 20 items for sale at any time, branding might actually be desirable. Instead, you’re just another cog in the moneymaking machine. Not that it matters a whole lot, since reasonable pricing ensures a steady flow of sales, but it’d be nice to get a reputation for all your hard work.

These days, it almost makes more sense to start as a crafter and hit the level cap that way before embarking on the usual bloodthirsty march that typifies video games. You can pick up all the important things, like lots of gil and a chocobo and so forth, and then you can start leveling with a bit of an edge. Plus, you can power through most of the main scenario quests, which at least offer some decent money if not many other tangible rewards.

In summary, you can level as a crafter, you don’t need to stop crafting just to advance or gather materials, and you can be as pacifistic as you want if you don’t mind paying for all of your components. Comparatively, a lot of games that have been praised for their crafting don’t offer all of that, much less the actual minigame mechanics you get from Final Fantasy XIV’s crafting. For all that the combat system has been trimmed up and cleaned up since launch, the crafting mechanics have only seen minor touch-ups, and that’s indicative of how solid they are.

So the next time someone claims that no one designs crafting systems with any real punch any longer, by all means, show them this article. Have them fire up a couple recipes. It’s an eye-opening experience, and certainly was for me. I normally do not care in the slightest when it comes to crafting or gathering systems, and I fell in love with these.

Final Fantasy XIV Producer Naoki Yoshida has returned for another producer’s letter, this time focusing on the recent poll sent out to players across the world. Yoshida personally addressed points regarding combat, crafting, the synthesis system, and version 2.0.

Yoshida observes that two points of constructive criticism will be used as FFXIV continues to be revised: “Many of you said that combos are too restrictive… We also received many comments that character positioning is bothersome and difficult.”

In regards to the upcoming version 2.0, he notes that the most excitement seems to be swirling around the new classes and jobs, improved level design, additional maps, and the graphics engine update. “Interestingly,” Yoshida writes, “Japanese players are the ones who’re most looking forward to the new housing system — a national trait, perhaps?”

Yoshida also expressed concern that a good chunk of players do not read player blogs on the Lodestone, not to mention that a vast majority of them simply do not use the Lodestone to post their own articles. He hopes this will change with 2.0, as the Lodestone will be receiving a full renovation at that time.

Final Fantasy XIV’s major upgrade had been announced well before this year’s E3, but this was its first public showing. While many of the major changes were only appreciable by long-term fans of the game, what was there was massive, ranging from major changes to the interface to several dazzling new areas. It was a lot to take in, and needless to say, we had some questions. Luckily for everyone, executive producer Naoki Yoshida was on hand to answer some of those questions and discuss the game’s pending update.

Previous interviews with Yoshida have indicated that the version 2.0 update should begin alpha testing in late September, with a beta to follow not long after. He’s also stressing the fact that version 2.0 is a major change for the game, almost an entirely new game in many respects, and while the live game has seen the fruits of a great deal of work there’s still more to be done. As Yoshida put it, the game is an MMORPG, but it’s an RPG before that, and a Final Fantasy game even before that.

Of course, current players will be most interested in the differences over the similarities, and Yoshida stressed that the familiar elements will be mixed with a great deal of changes. The guildleve system, for example, will still be a part of the game, but it won’t work in the way it currently does. The system will change significantly, and it will no longer be the only option for solo leveling, as the game is also adding a much larger quantity of quests akin to a more traditional MMO experience. Players will have familiar touchstones to fall back upon, but the differences will be massive.

That’s not the only change, either. Maps will be radically different — there won’t be anything truly unrecognizable (Yoshida used the example of Ul’dah suddenly being in a jungle) but areas with the same name won’t look like the old area with a new coat of paint. Every area has been redone from the ground up, with a visual flow to each region but a new look and layout to every part of the world. The maps will also have a larger number of areas to explore, more little places to investigate and little hamlets or outposts scattered about. The idea is to fill the world with adventure, and that means more things to do and more places to go.

That extends, obviously, to the game’s content. Guildleves will no longer make up the bulk of the leveling curve, with a larger number of quests added for players to partake. There will also be several added instanced dungeons, along with a content finder so that players can find groups quickly if usual partners aren’t available. The content finder should have broad functionality to help assemble a party for any party-based content — if you have a job quest that requires a group, you can assemble the group via the tool.

One of the major concerns that the team had regarding the game were the long gaps between relevant bits of story. Rather than a steady series of story quests, players would often perform a story quest, level, and finally reach the level required for a new quest… only to have forgotten what happened in the previous quest. Increasing the overall number of quests allows the team to ensure that there are fewer spaces between major story installments as well as keeping players involved in sidequest stories. Version 2.0 is set to include a large number of extra options for players to interact with the world and the plotline.

And on the note of interacting with the world, Yoshida confirmed that the game’s estate system for player housing is on schedule for inclusion with version 2.0′s launch. He did note that there’s a small chance it might miss the launch window, but it would then be included in the first large content patch released after the revamp has gone live. Fans of the game will note that this is not an uncommon method with the development team.

Moving on from strictly mechanical questions, the issues of several players regarding physical server locations was noted. While Yoshida could make no firm comment at the time, he stated that the team is well aware of the issues regarding time zones and lag most notable for European gamers. He also noted that gamers affected by these issues should look for some announcement regarding it within the next two months.

Last but not least, when asked if he felt he was under any pressure when he was first given the task of revamping the game, he laughed and said that anyone who didn’t feel pressure would presumably not be human. But at the same time, he made it clear that he felt a great sense of accomplishment in what he was being asked to do. Trying to essentially create an entirely new game after the game was released and negatively received is something that had never been tried before, and he felt that the development team rose to the challenge. He was also thankful to the fan community that has stood by the game over the past year and a half, dealing with its issues and idiosyncrasies as development worked overtime to add in new features and expand others.

Fans will have to wait a few more months for more hard data on what the revamp will include, but the promotions for the game should start in earnest in August. That means more system information, more previews, and more information on what the future holds for the second version of the game.