Barely anyone reads this site from the community, I would direct your linkshell search to the Besaid server forums on the official site, or Eorzeapedia.com for better results. :)

@DSP

 Everyone that plays the game doesn't like where this game is going? Really? No, to be more accurate there's a portion of players who were Tanaka supporters who loathe what is being done to the game, a portion who wanted to see changes since launch loving what Yoshi is doing, and a portion in the middle who like some things from Tanaka's time and some things coming or done by Yoshi. 

Originally posted by Benthon

Originally posted by Cynthe

Originally posted by MikeB

If you'd like me to address your feedback, cut it with the non-constructive comments (e.g. insinuating the review is a "troll attempt" by the author).

Again, we appreciate your frustration, but we'll most certainly be looking at the game again at some point this year. At the very least, we'll be taking a look at how 1.18 has affected the game.

 

Except that 1.18 is only the begninning of the revamp and will not be enough to illustrate where this game is 

-Snip-

 

So keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting? You got their answer. This review was scheduled long before it was actually written. The reviewer probably started writing when those "changes" were still rumours. I'm sorry to say, but nobody can ever tell if something is going to have a positive reception until it's been released. You should create lots of buzz. FFXIV is heading in the right direction and it has a big heart and only time can tell whether or not that is good enough.

Commenters are encouraged to share their opinion and disagree to the highest degree. What's not acceptable (and what MikeB has interated 3? times already in this thread, excluding damage control) is that baiting, trolling, harrassing, talking down, etc., is not acceptable. I don't know what the official forums for SE allow but it's a tad different here if those concepts are new to those who have jumped from there to here.

 I didn't start really freaking out until someone posted a quote from the admin saying that they would WAIT to review the game until changes to the game were made, I gathered he took the new dev team leadership into consideration when deciding this. But THEN he allows a review to be published JUST before the START of those changes are made??? My initial reaction was disappointment, then I wanted to add a few things that were not in the article and then I was just confused. 

This is my problem. I hope I made it clearer. 

{mod edit}

EDIT: For those saying that the site should not WAIT to do a review, let's be clear we all AGREE on this. They should have done a review RIGHT AWAY. But they chose not to, this is what is suspect or odd to many. 

Originally posted by MikeB

If you'd like me to address your feedback, cut it with the non-constructive comments (e.g. insinuating the review is a "troll attempt" by the author).

Again, we appreciate your frustration, but we'll most certainly be looking at the game again at some point this year. At the very least, we'll be taking a look at how 1.18 has affected the game.

 

Except that 1.18 is only the begninning of the revamp and will not be enough to illustrate where this game is going. I'd wait until next year. Or at least this winter. What I do know is that if everything goes the way it's planned out this time next year this will be a whole new game and unfortunally not many people will be aware. Or perhaps FFXIV fans should create their own buzz.. 

But seems this is your very least I don't expect a whole lot. Part of this problem isn't your site's fault but SE who should have known better to launch this when it did but it does make me sad this site only caters to some games. Also apparently your commenters aren't allowed to disagree with each other. Now I am reminded of the real reason why I left this place. 

Goodbye again MMORPG.com

Originally posted by Getalife

 

Everything that you said regarding polygon  and texture reslution is sitll an opinion unless you have some insider information regarding TERA and GW2 engines and there future limitations but you do not.

It's not an opinion it is very much fact. What is opinion is whether such things are relevant to player enjoyment. It's relevant to certain players but not all, probably not most. 

GW1 was always limited by it's engine, while it looked gorgeous for the first 2 years it quickly aged, Abriael seems to think GW2 will be similar, this isn't speculation, this is fact. Aion is in the same boat, it will age a lot faster then FFXIV because it's engine only puts out so much. I don't know about TERA because I don't care about that game. Rule of thumb is that if a game is hard to run when it first launches it's going to age very well in terms of graphics while others that can be played by everyone won't. 

These are either things you approve of or do not, there are reasons on both sides why one approach is better then the other. I personally prefer longevity. 

Anyway 1.18 also brings settlements!! These are the new quest hubs we believe, I didn't even expect them until later so this is very nice. XD Yay! 

As to the subject of this thread being trolled, I guess it's a good indication that people are genuinely upset about this article and perhaps MMORPG.com could take this into consideration next time they launch reviews. Timing is everything. 

Jut woke up and saw this! I wasn't expecting to see this in 1.18 (?) so it certainly is very nice. Adding more things to the map is always going to be a good thing. Quest hubs like other MMOs is making me so very happy, I wanted quests since launch and now it looks like I'm getting served pretty soon FINALLY! 

If you had followed the thread you'd know that we're not arguing wether the game deserves the score, I tink we all agree on that, we're arguing why it's coming NOW??? 

Originally posted by WSIMike

It's an important patch that will (ostensibly) fix and improve things that need fixing and improving. It's an important step in the right direction.

It's not a miracle patch.

I'm just going ahead and requoting that because this really should be read a few more times...XD

Originally posted by Unlight

Is there a better rationale for not exercising their due diligence and reviewing this title on the same type of schedule as every other?  Someone stopped a review from coming out all this time.  Someone made that call.  I just want to know why.

Yes well honestly at this point so do I. The reasons they gave does not satisfy me one bit. Guesses are; they are posting it so they can post an updated review later outlining what's different, or they just don't care.

Personally I think it's the latter. But I guess we'll see. 

edit: Yes an extensive beta where ALL the features complained about here were given MUCH feedback on and was never addressed and pushed aside by fans and the old dev team alike. Game launches, is a bad mess, SE goes WTH Tanaka where's your promised content and additiions? Tanaka's like I got nothing. Enters Yoshi: "Hmmm this whole thing's design is crazy, let's redo it!!" 

10 months later, here we are. On the brink of things changing and no one who isn't actively following the game would never know because bloggers who haven't played the game since launch go ahead and post this! 

Oh well... Here's to hoping there's a better assesment come winter/spring. And if not well there's better sites out there anyway. I'm not even sure why I posted all day today I swear this place is like crack.... Once you post you can't stoooop. 

Originally posted by Benthon

and tell me what's so inaccurate about what was said here. :) New content aside (again, they're going to post a followup), it's all accurate.

I play all the time and I've already posted what I wanted/needed to say I'm not going to play your prove me wrong game sorry lol.. 

edit: Maybe innacurate was a bad choice of words, I'll give  you that, how about incomplete? Misinformed? 

Originally posted by Unlight

 

When a game gets released, the product is on the market and it should be your job to give your readers a fair assessment of what's been put out there, clamoring for their gaming dollars.  The kind of special treatment extended to this game only makes me wonder why an honest review was verboten all this time.  Is someone in  MMORPG's executive a big FF franchise fan?

And BOOM headshot. This is exactly why this review is coming out at a bad time. People who know nothing will take it as truth and post this ^^^. 

No they are not fans, FF fans wouldn't post something so innacurate. :/ 

Originally posted by Delsus1

Also the reviewer only had PUG rank 1 and physical lvl r2, which proves to me he barely played it

To be fair we don't really know that, that's just when they took those screenshots. Though by reading the article I don't think they got much beyond level 12 ish. 

@Ikeda *points at my post count* I've been away a while but I used to a 5 star elite member. XD  

Originally posted by Ozmodan

This game does not need patches, it needs a complete rewrite.  Someone in a prior post said it best, this game takes the word tedious and puts an exclamation mark on it, and the upcoming patch changes that not at all. 

Yeah..... Which what they are doing? Which is why the patches have been so small so far? Which is why there's grounds to be excited for 1.18 because we're finally going to see some of the fruits of this rewrite actually happen, finally?? 

Really guys if you do not know why the game is where it's at and can't spend the time reading the information helpfully posted in this thread, why are you still posting? :P 

Muah ha I just edited my post !! :) You're welcome. 

Originally posted by Kaijin2k3

Originally posted by Cynthe

 

XD Yes indeed. Chocobos and airships are tentatively slated for 1.19. I'm one of those pushing for a proper AH and I think everyone is dying for mailing... 

Just keep in mind that they haven't (afaik) stated how they'll be in or in what form. I've all ready seen some players assuming a lot of things regarding the chocobo issue.

Yes they have, it's just basic chocobo rentals so far, they are looking into chocobo mounts you can raise and other animals. We don't know if the rentals are on rails or on a timer like XI though. Because that's SE for you, cryptic until the end. lol 

Edit: Found the actual post, they are not on rails:  http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/16145-CHOCOBOS%21%21%21%21%21%21%21-1.19%21%21%21%21?p=231739#post231739

Originally posted by ghostinfinit

I can say this much:  If they add chocobos you can breed like they did in FFXI, an auction, a mail system, and airships they'll increase their rating dramtically.

XD Yes indeed. Chocobos and airships are tentatively slated for 1.19. I'm one of those pushing for a proper AH and I think everyone is dying for mailing... 

Originally posted by Benthon

 Like FFXIV has much of a playerbase to grab from already. I can only speak for myself, but I'm sure many other FFXIV players are interested in atleast one of the following upcoming MMO's: TERA, SWTOR, GW2, Archeage. I'm not spelling DOOM and GLOOM from the Heavens above, only that these games will take what little playerbase FFXIV has and make it that much smaller.

I'm actually of the mind that what we have left in the playebase really can't get any smaller and that the people who would go to another game have pretty much already left. I have people ask me all the time if the game is ready to come back to and have to regretfully tell them no, to wait until fall or winter or even later for a really solid experience. 

Players come and go all the time, and there's no guarantee that the games you listed will attract a whole bunch of players for a long time. Tera is already dwindling in Korea and it literally just came out. TOR is STILL an enigma on many front other then they have voice overs and a crazy amount of story content. Archeage if it's FFA PVP will be a pretty Darkfall with some neat features, not a title that will attract a horde of players. 

I just get sort of tired when people play the new MMO on the horizon card to say that a certain game has very little future or hope of attracting old and new players. I know in my own circle of friends we play new games, and we check out old ones all the time to see if we like them better now. This is a constant. 

Originally posted by Benthon

Honestly, one patch isn't going to change what this game is. It's going to take a lot of time and effort to turn this thing into a game. If there was a category for "Determination to turn it around" they'd have 10/10 but they've fallen so far and many bigger sharks are coming into the pool soon that by the time they can say "We're ready." there's going to be few who will listen.

 

OMFG someone give me a penny for every time I've heard this: new bigger badder MMOs are coming and they're going to take over!!! No they don't, what happened with Rift lately? 

Let's see: game launched with great success and is very smooth, a ton of people play it for some months, after level cap many decide it's not much different then how WoW runs, a bunch get bored and now wait for the next big hit to fullfill another 8 months of leveling to reach end cap and do it all over again. 

Don't even try to pretend that MMOs have this amazing longetivity anymore and that any single one is going to pull a WoW and attract everyone for years. Nope, they are all 'niche' and it's far more relevant to push out quality content at a good rate then try to beat out any competition. Maybe that's actually one of FFXIV's down fall, releasing wayyyyy too early to beat out other MMOs, yeah that was a great idea! :S 

Originally posted by Ikeda

 

EDIT:  ZOMG, look one post above mine.  The miracle 1.8 is coming out, then a miracle 1.9 2 months after that!  I can predict te future.. it's like I have ESP-N or something :-P

Yeah yeah... That's not the point, their reason for holding out on a review and their reason for doing it now before MAJOR changes are due to BEGIN. Is the point, it makes no logical sense. 

Did I say ZOMG diz patch is gonna BLOW your damned troll's minds OFF!!! LOLZZ ??

No I'm actually well aware of the game's strengths AND shortcomings and why certain people wouldn't enjoy this and why some would. In fact I wrote a preview of this before the game came out and was defamed pubically for daring to list the things the game would do to scare people away, though I was 100% right. 

These patches are NOT going to change the game so drastically you will all magically fall under it's spell and won't be able to resist playing and eat your words that you dared to not like it.... BUT it will the beginning of a new era for the game and it's community and it's a disservce to those people that such a review as this comes out now instead of waiting out the week to try it out and report IF it really does herald better times for the game or not. 

This review as it stands reads like the game that came out at launch and does a very poor job of outlining what has actually been done so far and is coming. It's a crying shame of a review. 

So next time just release the review when you actually wrote it or when you last played the game. 

Originally posted by Shoju

Originally posted by ZizouX

Regardless, there's no excuse for this review.  It's poor sportsmenship at best.  Either review a game a month after its release, or let people know you're holding out for X reason.  There's no justification offered for why the review would be released at this point.

They gave their reasons back in December.  See Stradden's post:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3939510#3939510

Sooooo wait, they decide that NOW is a good time though? How in the hell does that even compute? Mere days before 1.18, a month or two before 1.19? BEFORE a monthly fee has been added and the game declared ready for 'relaunch'?? 

That makes no damned sense unless they had another reason OR they really are that incompetent OR uncaring about this game.