Sorry to Necro this thread, but I promised I would return as soon as SE's financial forecasts were released.
I said that FFXIV is going strong after 9 months of release and there is no indication it will ever go Free to Play. This game is one of the few P2P games that will stay P2P for the forseeable future.
Many of you disagreed stating that FFXIV was"dying" and it was a matter of time before it goes free to play.
That's an article on IGN (lol) a site well known for paid articles and reviews, we will see when the actual financial report comes out how things are going however the fact that they have refused to give any sub numbers since launch shows it's not doing that well, also that an article was released not long ago stating that the ps4 version vastly undersold expectations. You are no better than any other fanboy, no matter what game you support and you're just as ridiculous as the ESO fanboys that claim this game is a massive success.
When will FFXIV go free to play? Probably the same amount of time every other mmo does, within 12 to 18 month from launch. No company gives any indication it's happening until it's happening, they could be working on the conversion right now for all you or I know.
You say it won't go free to play like you have insider information, even though the developer has said many times he is still taking it under consideration and will change if it's needed.
FFXIV is no different than any other wow clone, it hasn't sold amazingly well, it doesn't have that many more active players than any other mmo and going free to play is directly linked to player losses.
I havn't played ESO to make a comparison but I have been playing FFXIV for 8 months.
You don't need to bring another game down just to prop up your own game. IT appears that a majority of PLAYERS, as opposed to critics, disagree with you. The average player rating for FFXIV is much higher than your player rating for ESO. Using critics is a strawman argument when it is clear that majority of players seem to agree with the critics.
As for FFXIV, when it was released, it was POLISHED with very few bugs. I keep reading about the bugs in ESO. I keep reading about the phasing of quests where you can't even group up with friends unless you're on the EXACT same part of the quest. I keep hearing that the quests arn't particularly well written or feel anticlimactic. Lastly, it seems that ESO has an identity crisis going on. It's a mediocre mmo and a mediocre Elder Scrolls game. It tries to be both at the same time and fails miserably at it.
When FFXIV released, it offered 16 dungeons, an 8 man raid, and three primal fights with story mode and hard version. It offers traditional quests and open world real time quests (FATES). It offers a very "final fantasy" experience. It knows what it is and waht it offers. It doesn't have an identity crisis.
There is 0% chance that FFXIV will go free to play in the next few years based on its huge financial success. Let's see if ESO can say the same.
TLDR: No need to show ESO love by trying to tear down another game (FFXIV). Let's see if ESO can be half as successful as FFXIV before you start making baseless comparisons.
You should not Believe Everything you read
Half of it is not true , the rest is so exaggerated beyond any real sence at all, and It's mantrad over and over and over again by some people that has made it their mission to grief Zenimax for their perfectly alright game..
Sorry to Necro this thread, but I promised I would return as soon as SE's financial forecasts were released.
I said that FFXIV is going strong after 9 months of release and there is no indication it will ever go Free to Play. This game is one of the few P2P games that will stay P2P for the forseeable future.
Many of you disagreed stating that FFXIV was"dying" and it was a matter of time before it goes free to play.
That's an article on IGN (lol) a site well known for paid articles and reviews, we will see when the actual financial report comes out how things are going however the fact that they have refused to give any sub numbers since launch shows it's not doing that well, also that an article was released not long ago stating that the ps4 version vastly undersold expectations. You are no better than any other fanboy, no matter what game you support and you're just as ridiculous as the ESO fanboys that claim this game is a massive success.
When will FFXIV go free to play? Probably the same amount of time every other mmo does, within 12 to 18 month from launch. No company gives any indication it's happening until it's happening, they could be working on the conversion right now for all you or I know.
You say it won't go free to play like you have insider information, even though the developer has said many times he is still taking it under consideration and will change if it's needed.
FFXIV is no different than any other wow clone, it hasn't sold amazingly well, it doesn't have that many more active players than any other mmo and going free to play is directly linked to player losses.
When will FFXIV go free to play? Probably the same amount of time every other mmo does, within 12 to 18 month from launch. No company gives any indication it's happening until it's happening, they could be working on the conversion right now for all you or I know.
You say it won't go free to play like you have insider information, even though the developer has said many times he is still taking it under consideration and will change if it's needed.
FFXIV is no different than any other wow clone, it hasn't sold amazingly well, it doesn't have that many more active players than any other mmo and going free to play is directly linked to player losses.
I'm guessing you haven't played this for any great length of time or actually follow the game at all, but this game is doing well and isn't going F2P anytime soon. There are commonly character creation restrictions placed on the more popular servers and many servers still have login queues during their respective prime times. I don't know what you consider "amazingly well" sales, but they have over 2 million registered accounts (not active subscribers, I know the difference) and were surprised at how many people were hammering their servers the first two weeks, so I'd like to think SE is happy with where the game is at from a sales perspective.
There's also the history of SE with FFXI. It's a game that has been P2P for over 11 years, despite its rather dwindling population now. SE, like Blizzard, is in the unique position of actually being able to publish and develop their own game without the need of outside investors, so even if the game happens to take a large dip after some time, they can still afford to keep their game afloat without having to go the F2P route.
While FFXIV isn't innovative, it's good at what it does: a game that refines many conventions that are successful in other MMOs to work within its boundaries, while bringing it's unique touch through a strong single player story. (which requires interaction with other players) It has large content updates every 3 months which bring a new system into the game each time.
I realize this is an ESO thread, so sorry for derailing, I just don't like it when people sling around misinformation.
Originally posted by JoeyMMO Skyrim Online is what many people were expecting, they got a mediocre MMO with an ES skin. Many people are NOT at all happy with this. They used the IP, making for a lot of unhappy customers.
^This
I think if you're going to compare it to the FF series you have to look at where they came from. FF was a strong console game so any translation to PC was going to be an improvement. ESO on the other hand appears to have gone the other way, taking a strong PC title and dumbing down the online version to accommodate the consoles.
Me: typical casual gamer...older, family, job. Just want to log on for an hour, have fun
ESO: frustrating...solo bosses...tricky chests...die way too much
I think it's a good game. I really do...but I can't play it...not fun for me...
There are many including myself who would help you through this. Im only level 36 despite 5 days of early access, a relatively slow leveler because of the life I have outside of gaming, and I always find help when needed. I know they are focusing on releasing a mentoring system as well so that higher level players can drop down to help which was pretty common in older games like Everquest 2. You might want to come back when that happens. By then most of the bugs will be gone too and many better grouping tools implemented. Just something to ponder :-). Good luck with the more important things though, like the family and job :-) hehe
When will FFXIV go free to play? Probably the same amount of time every other mmo does, within 12 to 18 month from launch. No company gives any indication it's happening until it's happening, they could be working on the conversion right now for all you or I know.
You say it won't go free to play like you have insider information, even though the developer has said many times he is still taking it under consideration and will change if it's needed.
FFXIV is no different than any other wow clone, it hasn't sold amazingly well, it doesn't have that many more active players than any other mmo and going free to play is directly linked to player losses.
I'm guessing you haven't played this for any great length of time or actually follow the game at all, but this game is doing well and isn't going F2P anytime soon. There are commonly character creation restrictions placed on the more popular servers and many servers still have login queues during their respective prime times. I don't know what you consider "amazingly well" sales, but they have over 2 million registered accounts (not active subscribers, I know the difference) and were surprised at how many people were hammering their servers the first two weeks, so I'd like to think SE is happy with where the game is at from a sales perspective.
There's also the history of SE with FFXI. It's a game that has been P2P for over 11 years, despite its rather dwindling population now. SE, like Blizzard, is in the unique position of actually being able to publish and develop their own game without the need of outside investors, so even if the game happens to take a large dip after some time, they can still afford to keep their game afloat without having to go the F2P route.
While FFXIV isn't innovative, it's good at what it does: a game that refines many conventions that are successful in other MMOs to work within its boundaries, while bringing it's unique touch through a strong single player story. (which requires interaction with other players) It has large content updates every 3 months which bring a new system into the game each time.
I realize this is an ESO thread, so sorry for derailing, I just don't like it when people sling around misinformation.
Registered players doesn't mean sales, it means anyone that created a SE account. This includes beta players, who had to create a SE account to play betas.
Free to play has been stated to be something under consideration by Square Enix lead developer Yoshida. He has stated this many times. All modern MMO titles go free to play within the 12 month to 2 year time frame, FFXIV is not yet at that point.
A previous title being p2p has no impact on what a company will do, especially a company not doing well (as is the case with SE). FFXIV has already broken away from things FFXI did (cash shop items).
Originally posted by jonesing22 OP, you've got solid points. Your best point of all is that reviews aren't worth waiting for and the only way to know if you like it is if you try it.
this.
After trying both ESO and FFXIV. FF is a very polished product with plenty of game limitations. ESO is an unpolished product with game breaking things that cause game limitaitons. ESO can still be saved but until then its just a broken product.
Originally posted by jonesing22 OP, you've got solid points. Your best point of all is that reviews aren't worth waiting for and the only way to know if you like it is if you try it.
this.
After trying both ESO and FFXIV. FF is a very polished product with plenty of game limitations. ESO is an unpolished product with game breaking things that cause game limitaitons. ESO can still be saved but until then its just a broken product.
The first week after FFXIV: ARR launched I couldn't login because their were no idle timers and got "World is full. Try again later" for hours because so many people were leaving themselves logged in.
With ESO I've encountered a handful of bugs(none gamebreaking) and have had no downtime. But I'm asleep or at work during the maintenance so I'm lucking in that case.
The first week after FFXIV: ARR launched I couldn't login because their were no idle timers and got "World is full. Try again later" for hours because so many people were leaving themselves logged in.
With ESO I've encountered a handful of bugs(none gamebreaking) and have had no downtime. But I'm asleep or at work during the maintenance so I'm lucking in that case.
Indeed FFXIV second launch was disastrous. Im not comparing launches. Both have been awful launches. Like i said, ESO can still be fixed (like every mmo after a bad launch, including FFXIV) but at its current state... ESO is not prepared...
The first week after FFXIV: ARR launched I couldn't login because their were no idle timers and got "World is full. Try again later" for hours because so many people were leaving themselves logged in.
With ESO I've encountered a handful of bugs(none gamebreaking) and have had no downtime. But I'm asleep or at work during the maintenance so I'm lucking in that case.
Indeed FFXIV second launch was disastrous. Im not comparing launches. Both have been awful launches. Like i said, ESO can still be fixed (like every mmo after a bad launch, including FFXIV) but at its current state... ESO is not prepared...
Well, FFXIV ARR is kind of "flavor of the day" due to Yoshida picking to play it safe and go with a 100% themepark style game that ultimately plays like a single player Final Fantasy with forced grouping. It's not a bad game, just that players will generally run through it in about three months and be well into end-game affairs by six months. I personally haven't touched ESO, but going by forums it sounds like they should have spent more time bug fixing before releasing to the public.
When will FFXIV go free to play? Probably the same amount of time every other mmo does, within 12 to 18 month from launch. No company gives any indication it's happening until it's happening, they could be working on the conversion right now for all you or I know.
You say it won't go free to play like you have insider information, even though the developer has said many times he is still taking it under consideration and will change if it's needed.
FFXIV is no different than any other wow clone, it hasn't sold amazingly well, it doesn't have that many more active players than any other mmo and going free to play is directly linked to player losses.
I'm guessing you haven't played this for any great length of time or actually follow the game at all, but this game is doing well and isn't going F2P anytime soon. There are commonly character creation restrictions placed on the more popular servers and many servers still have login queues during their respective prime times. I don't know what you consider "amazingly well" sales, but they have over 2 million registered accounts (not active subscribers, I know the difference) and were surprised at how many people were hammering their servers the first two weeks, so I'd like to think SE is happy with where the game is at from a sales perspective.
There's also the history of SE with FFXI. It's a game that has been P2P for over 11 years, despite its rather dwindling population now. SE, like Blizzard, is in the unique position of actually being able to publish and develop their own game without the need of outside investors, so even if the game happens to take a large dip after some time, they can still afford to keep their game afloat without having to go the F2P route.
While FFXIV isn't innovative, it's good at what it does: a game that refines many conventions that are successful in other MMOs to work within its boundaries, while bringing it's unique touch through a strong single player story. (which requires interaction with other players) It has large content updates every 3 months which bring a new system into the game each time.
I realize this is an ESO thread, so sorry for derailing, I just don't like it when people sling around misinformation.
Registered players doesn't mean sales, it means anyone that created a SE account. This includes beta players, who had to create a SE account to play betas.
Free to play has been stated to be something under consideration by Square Enix lead developer Yoshida. He has stated this many times. All modern MMO titles go free to play within the 12 month to 2 year time frame, FFXIV is not yet at that point.
A previous title being p2p has no impact on what a company will do, especially a company not doing well (as is the case with SE). FFXIV has already broken away from things FFXI did (cash shop items).
Yet more misinformation from Amber-r. Yes, registered players means actual sales, as thats the only way to register an account is by using the cd key etc. Not that the box price of the game is all that high to begin with.
Its about time you started linking your 'misinformation' with something a bit more real, as what you do quote is really taken out of context and ignoring the whole of the text that your 'misquoting' from, Yoshida has indeed stated that F2P has its place, but only in terms of games that are designed for it from the beginning, at no time did he suggest that FFXIV;ARR would ever travel that route, in fact he has stated that it would not.
And if your going to totally ignore actual financial data published by SE in the first place, which also contradicts your 'opinion' on SE's financial state, then i really have to question what information you are even basing your arguments upon ?
Think of World of Warcraft. Now think of what it could be Single player with better graphics. Then play World of Warcraft for the first time. Doesn't make ESO a bad game or WoW (or FFXIV) a bad game if you feel its lacking the epic feeling of the single player experience. I disliked Final Fantasy the MMO. It brought nothing other MMOs didn't have already of any real significance. Everyone looks for something different in a game.
Now Playing: Bless / Summoners War Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
FFXIV is a crap game, so saying ESO is better than crap but still crap doesn't make it any less crap.
FFXIV has the distinction of being the only premium MMORPG I've ever bought into and played where I didn't sub and quit before the first 30 were up (going back to EQ). It felt like a game designed for idiots, with xp welfare via fates, some of the worst zerg raids ever created, and majority gimpy content mixed in with very little good content. On top of that the game was designed for ancient consoles with hellish loading screens, horrid simplistic graphics due to PS3 limitations, horrid UIs, and more. I cannot fathom why people actually like the game unless they just REALLY like anime or something and the cutesyness of it. Boring combat, boring character development, boring loot. At times the game is pretty IF you like really tiny zones and loading screens.
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.
FFXIV: ARR = Most Polished WoW-generation MMO to date and a total success in my book. ESO, only time will tell, kinda like SWTOR (snicker). A shame too, ESO had such promise, again, kinda like SWTOR.
The first week after FFXIV: ARR launched I couldn't login because their were no idle timers and got "World is full. Try again later" for hours because so many people were leaving themselves logged in.
With ESO I've encountered a handful of bugs(none gamebreaking) and have had no downtime. But I'm asleep or at work during the maintenance so I'm lucking in that case.
Indeed FFXIV second launch was disastrous. Im not comparing launches. Both have been awful launches. Like i said, ESO can still be fixed (like every mmo after a bad launch, including FFXIV) but at its current state... ESO is not prepared...
Well, FFXIV ARR is kind of "flavor of the day" due to Yoshida picking to play it safe and go with a 100% themepark style game that ultimately plays like a single player Final Fantasy with forced grouping. It's not a bad game, just that players will generally run through it in about three months and be well into end-game affairs by six months. I personally haven't touched ESO, but going by forums it sounds like they should have spent more time bug fixing before releasing to the public.
And less money on voice acting. Seems to be a thorn in the side of MMOs lately. It's nice and all, but not worth the sacrifice in other areas, especially when the quests are all the same. What's the point in voice acting out the same stuff over and over?
It is a fun and fantastic game, if this is the type of mmo your looking for. A lot of players have been comparing it to swtor due to the heavy story immersion with the mission givers, other than that players have been crucifying it for being a multiple player mmo with limited group cooperation and very bland pvp.
I actually like the game, I don't feel rushed in getting to the end game for pvp, maybe because pvp is not what I am fixated on in my mmo's. I do like my sock'em and rock'em moments in pvp, but sometimes pvp isn't everything for me.
And less money on voice acting. Seems to be a thorn in the side of MMOs lately. It's nice and all, but not worth the sacrifice in other areas, especially when the quests are all the same. What's the point in voice acting out the same stuff over and over?
I don't remember that much voice acting in FFXIV but I'll agree quests were definitely all the same. Luckily, the dungeons were okay and you could always FATE grind.
ESO isn't the greatest game but it's nice that the quests actually have you play through the stories rather complete complete a loosely related task and magically the conflict is resolved.
FFARR got a lot of slack in my book. The game felt tiny with too much zoning in and out. Combat was slow with a global cooldown of 1 1/2 seconds. Combat was so slow it became very laboured.
But it did have a lot going for it. The world had a lot of character. The aesthetics felt unique in its FF way and it's dungeons and primal fights were fun.
But the grind at the endgame... I still haven't finished my Atma quest.
Originally posted by Arakazi FFARR got a lot of slack in my book. The game felt tiny with too much zoning in and out. Combat was slow with a global cooldown of 1 1/2 seconds. Combat was so slow it became very laboured.
But it did have a lot going for it. The world had a lot of character. The aesthetics felt unique in its FF way and it's dungeons and primal fights were fun.
But the grind at the endgame... I still haven't finished my Atma quest.
I thought it was slow at first, but once you got a class high enough and formed full combos it started to flow nicely.
I think it got a lot of slack because that guy appeared really sincere(not many people publicly cry when people are upset about their game).
From the point of view that you want to see a long term healthy game, so that you can continue to enjoy it. I get that, I totally do, but otherwise it's a much more cynical MMO fan base than it was 10 years ago. Remember UO introducing housing in Trammel? Remember servers crashing and being down for hours with a huge mad rush of people going to place houses? People would flip today, but that's barely a blip on the radar back then. For better or worse, expectations have changed.
Personally, I'm having fun, I've got a level 50 toon, a 26, a 19, and a 12. So I've put some time in, although I did not race thru the first month. I had two bugged quests, one of which I came back later to do, and it worked fine. I absolutely believe that there are bugs, whether I have experienced them or not.
There are definitely things I'd like to see done differently, or done better. I've seen "solo-centric" screamed, but that's been a trend, and nothing has stopped me from grouping with people, instead of being forced to do it, I can choose. Works for me.
I enjoy the game, it suits my taste right now, and I'm having fun. I don't spend much time on the forums because I'm busy doing something I like, why waste it here? I get that it's not for everyone, and honestly I could care less. Want it more like single player titles? Want open PvP? Want to be forced to group? Oh well. Thanks for the investment in the game if you did buy it! I appreciate your dollars helping fund the game.
It's not perfect, it's flawed, and it's a niche title, just like many other games are, and that's fine. Back when UO and EQ were the 2 big dogs, there was not a whole lot of choice, games like DAoC, AC, and eventually SWG started to give people more choices, and we all know what happened after WoW. Go look at the game list here, look at all the choices that exist.
People have a right to enjoy what they want. Negative about it? Cool, I get it, game is not/was not for you. All good. Choices though are good.
Comments
That's an article on IGN (lol) a site well known for paid articles and reviews, we will see when the actual financial report comes out how things are going however the fact that they have refused to give any sub numbers since launch shows it's not doing that well, also that an article was released not long ago stating that the ps4 version vastly undersold expectations. You are no better than any other fanboy, no matter what game you support and you're just as ridiculous as the ESO fanboys that claim this game is a massive success.
When will FFXIV go free to play? Probably the same amount of time every other mmo does, within 12 to 18 month from launch. No company gives any indication it's happening until it's happening, they could be working on the conversion right now for all you or I know.
You say it won't go free to play like you have insider information, even though the developer has said many times he is still taking it under consideration and will change if it's needed.
FFXIV is no different than any other wow clone, it hasn't sold amazingly well, it doesn't have that many more active players than any other mmo and going free to play is directly linked to player losses.
You should not Believe Everything you read
Half of it is not true , the rest is so exaggerated beyond any real sence at all, and It's mantrad over and over and over again by some people that has made it their mission to grief Zenimax for their perfectly alright game..
That article linked to the financial report.
I'm guessing you haven't played this for any great length of time or actually follow the game at all, but this game is doing well and isn't going F2P anytime soon. There are commonly character creation restrictions placed on the more popular servers and many servers still have login queues during their respective prime times. I don't know what you consider "amazingly well" sales, but they have over 2 million registered accounts (not active subscribers, I know the difference) and were surprised at how many people were hammering their servers the first two weeks, so I'd like to think SE is happy with where the game is at from a sales perspective.
There's also the history of SE with FFXI. It's a game that has been P2P for over 11 years, despite its rather dwindling population now. SE, like Blizzard, is in the unique position of actually being able to publish and develop their own game without the need of outside investors, so even if the game happens to take a large dip after some time, they can still afford to keep their game afloat without having to go the F2P route.
While FFXIV isn't innovative, it's good at what it does: a game that refines many conventions that are successful in other MMOs to work within its boundaries, while bringing it's unique touch through a strong single player story. (which requires interaction with other players) It has large content updates every 3 months which bring a new system into the game each time.
I realize this is an ESO thread, so sorry for derailing, I just don't like it when people sling around misinformation.
Why do you care? Play the game you like, don't play the game you don't like. It really is as simple as that.
^This
I think if you're going to compare it to the FF series you have to look at where they came from. FF was a strong console game so any translation to PC was going to be an improvement. ESO on the other hand appears to have gone the other way, taking a strong PC title and dumbing down the online version to accommodate the consoles.
I like ESO; I just can't play it.
Me: typical casual gamer...older, family, job. Just want to log on for an hour, have fun
ESO: frustrating...solo bosses...tricky chests...die way too much
I think it's a good game. I really do...but I can't play it...not fun for me...
There are many including myself who would help you through this. Im only level 36 despite 5 days of early access, a relatively slow leveler because of the life I have outside of gaming, and I always find help when needed. I know they are focusing on releasing a mentoring system as well so that higher level players can drop down to help which was pretty common in older games like Everquest 2. You might want to come back when that happens. By then most of the bugs will be gone too and many better grouping tools implemented. Just something to ponder :-). Good luck with the more important things though, like the family and job :-) hehe
There Is Always Hope!
Registered players doesn't mean sales, it means anyone that created a SE account. This includes beta players, who had to create a SE account to play betas.
Free to play has been stated to be something under consideration by Square Enix lead developer Yoshida. He has stated this many times. All modern MMO titles go free to play within the 12 month to 2 year time frame, FFXIV is not yet at that point.
A previous title being p2p has no impact on what a company will do, especially a company not doing well (as is the case with SE). FFXIV has already broken away from things FFXI did (cash shop items).
You sir deserve some freshly cooked Enriched Fishy Sticks
+1
this.
After trying both ESO and FFXIV. FF is a very polished product with plenty of game limitations. ESO is an unpolished product with game breaking things that cause game limitaitons. ESO can still be saved but until then its just a broken product.
The first week after FFXIV: ARR launched I couldn't login because their were no idle timers and got "World is full. Try again later" for hours because so many people were leaving themselves logged in.
With ESO I've encountered a handful of bugs(none gamebreaking) and have had no downtime. But I'm asleep or at work during the maintenance so I'm lucking in that case.
Indeed FFXIV second launch was disastrous. Im not comparing launches. Both have been awful launches. Like i said, ESO can still be fixed (like every mmo after a bad launch, including FFXIV) but at its current state... ESO is not prepared...
Well, FFXIV ARR is kind of "flavor of the day" due to Yoshida picking to play it safe and go with a 100% themepark style game that ultimately plays like a single player Final Fantasy with forced grouping. It's not a bad game, just that players will generally run through it in about three months and be well into end-game affairs by six months. I personally haven't touched ESO, but going by forums it sounds like they should have spent more time bug fixing before releasing to the public.
Yet more misinformation from Amber-r. Yes, registered players means actual sales, as thats the only way to register an account is by using the cd key etc. Not that the box price of the game is all that high to begin with.
Its about time you started linking your 'misinformation' with something a bit more real, as what you do quote is really taken out of context and ignoring the whole of the text that your 'misquoting' from, Yoshida has indeed stated that F2P has its place, but only in terms of games that are designed for it from the beginning, at no time did he suggest that FFXIV;ARR would ever travel that route, in fact he has stated that it would not.
And if your going to totally ignore actual financial data published by SE in the first place, which also contradicts your 'opinion' on SE's financial state, then i really have to question what information you are even basing your arguments upon ?
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
You'd think you would come here seeking some different opinions....but alas....
Still having fun...still waiting for fixes. Not unlike any MMO I have played before.
But hey....I guess I could just spout some BS like the rest of the people here.
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
FFXIV is a crap game, so saying ESO is better than crap but still crap doesn't make it any less crap.
FFXIV has the distinction of being the only premium MMORPG I've ever bought into and played where I didn't sub and quit before the first 30 were up (going back to EQ). It felt like a game designed for idiots, with xp welfare via fates, some of the worst zerg raids ever created, and majority gimpy content mixed in with very little good content. On top of that the game was designed for ancient consoles with hellish loading screens, horrid simplistic graphics due to PS3 limitations, horrid UIs, and more. I cannot fathom why people actually like the game unless they just REALLY like anime or something and the cutesyness of it. Boring combat, boring character development, boring loot. At times the game is pretty IF you like really tiny zones and loading screens.
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.
FFXIV: ARR = Most Polished WoW-generation MMO to date and a total success in my book. ESO, only time will tell, kinda like SWTOR (snicker). A shame too, ESO had such promise, again, kinda like SWTOR.
That's just, like, my opinion, man.
And less money on voice acting. Seems to be a thorn in the side of MMOs lately. It's nice and all, but not worth the sacrifice in other areas, especially when the quests are all the same. What's the point in voice acting out the same stuff over and over?
That's just, like, my opinion, man.
It is a fun and fantastic game, if this is the type of mmo your looking for. A lot of players have been comparing it to swtor due to the heavy story immersion with the mission givers, other than that players have been crucifying it for being a multiple player mmo with limited group cooperation and very bland pvp.
I actually like the game, I don't feel rushed in getting to the end game for pvp, maybe because pvp is not what I am fixated on in my mmo's. I do like my sock'em and rock'em moments in pvp, but sometimes pvp isn't everything for me.
I don't remember that much voice acting in FFXIV but I'll agree quests were definitely all the same. Luckily, the dungeons were okay and you could always FATE grind.
ESO isn't the greatest game but it's nice that the quests actually have you play through the stories rather complete complete a loosely related task and magically the conflict is resolved.
But it did have a lot going for it. The world had a lot of character. The aesthetics felt unique in its FF way and it's dungeons and primal fights were fun.
But the grind at the endgame... I still haven't finished my Atma quest.
I thought it was slow at first, but once you got a class high enough and formed full combos it started to flow nicely.
I think it got a lot of slack because that guy appeared really sincere(not many people publicly cry when people are upset about their game).
OP, who cares?
I mean why bother trying to understand it?
From the point of view that you want to see a long term healthy game, so that you can continue to enjoy it. I get that, I totally do, but otherwise it's a much more cynical MMO fan base than it was 10 years ago. Remember UO introducing housing in Trammel? Remember servers crashing and being down for hours with a huge mad rush of people going to place houses? People would flip today, but that's barely a blip on the radar back then. For better or worse, expectations have changed.
Personally, I'm having fun, I've got a level 50 toon, a 26, a 19, and a 12. So I've put some time in, although I did not race thru the first month. I had two bugged quests, one of which I came back later to do, and it worked fine. I absolutely believe that there are bugs, whether I have experienced them or not.
There are definitely things I'd like to see done differently, or done better. I've seen "solo-centric" screamed, but that's been a trend, and nothing has stopped me from grouping with people, instead of being forced to do it, I can choose. Works for me.
I enjoy the game, it suits my taste right now, and I'm having fun. I don't spend much time on the forums because I'm busy doing something I like, why waste it here? I get that it's not for everyone, and honestly I could care less. Want it more like single player titles? Want open PvP? Want to be forced to group? Oh well. Thanks for the investment in the game if you did buy it! I appreciate your dollars helping fund the game.
It's not perfect, it's flawed, and it's a niche title, just like many other games are, and that's fine. Back when UO and EQ were the 2 big dogs, there was not a whole lot of choice, games like DAoC, AC, and eventually SWG started to give people more choices, and we all know what happened after WoW. Go look at the game list here, look at all the choices that exist.
People have a right to enjoy what they want. Negative about it? Cool, I get it, game is not/was not for you. All good. Choices though are good.