Final Fantasy 14 is going to be an MMO :)

[algol]

If it plays anything like the current FF MMO then no thanks.

This...

[Ridere]

I'm at work, and unfortunately a lot of websites are blocked by our proxy server, but there are sites out there that have information from a Q&A session that square-enix did yesterday about the game.

I think you can find a forum on allakazham about it.

They addressed the issue of solo content, and the developers said they do want the game to be more casual friendly. They want to have options for you to both have solo play and group play, depending on your preferences. So that's good news. Looks like it won't be a 2 hours LFM White Mage fest in Vulkurm Dunes anymore.

Other notable mentions:

The fight scene on the boat in that trailer is actually of in-game graphics, so the quality looks good. The airship scene and probably the cliff overlooking the valley are probably cutscene type movies.

The job system won't be identical to FFXI, but it does look like they're going to continue with the idea of one char being able to play as all "classes/jobs" in whatever system they come up with.

You can't transfer FFXI chars to FFXIV. This was a dumb thing to assume, anyway, but lots were hoping for that. So thankfully for us who would start anew, we don't need to worry about high levels tweaking the market to their liking. We all start off from scratch.

The FFXI characters, while looking similar to the characters seen in the movie, will be different. The similar look is mainly to not upset people who are transitioning from FFXI to FFXIV. I think that's probably a cop-out answer used instead of just saying "We didn't want to completely retool character design from the ground level." Doesn't matter much to me, since I liked Tarutarus

They're focusing a lot of "natural character progression" no clue what that means, though. Could be the exp system, could be simply fleshing out your character's storyline/history, could be customizing your character with scars and such. Who knows. But it seems to be an emphasis.

They admitted that they learned a lot from FFXI, and while they don't want to be a WoW clone, they are working to cater FFXIV to a broader audience by not requiring you to find five friends to do simple tasks, like going to the bathroom :P

Looks promising!

I'm hoping that by 2010 they mean like Q1 or Q2. I'd hate to wait until November/December 2010 to get this game.

Let's also hope we can box it!

[Duese]

I hate playing a ported game when its obvious the control schemes are just rehashed console controls (which sucks for a keyboard).

They have controllers for PC too. =)

And since it's coming out for PS3, they are either going to require a mouse/keyboard or they are going to make it functional to controller only gameplay like FFXI currently is.

After playing FFXI for over 4 years, I will definitely be picking up FFXIVIIXIVLOLXI or whatever number it is now.

If it plays anything like the current FF MMO then no thanks.

You can stick with WoW then. =) I'll go with the non-button mashing game.

[algol]

If it plays anything like the current FF MMO then no thanks.

You can stick with WoW then. =) I'll go with the non-button mashing game.

Right now, EVE and later, potentially Aion. Got bored with WoW a while back.

The only reason you can't mash buttons in FFXI is because they did an awful job of porting it to Windows, and that has very little to do with what's wrong with the game. This is a chance for them to learn from their first MMO and fix the more obvious problems...we'll see whether they do. At the least, they seem to be planning a simultaneous launch this time.

Doesn't help that the environment for FFXI & FFXII are by far my least favorite of all the FFs. The races are off too - bunny girls just look weird, the elven males all look gay, the elven females all look butch, and the taru look like sunburned...somethings. They're too worried about pulling players from their existing property when they should be worried about getting new people to play. The extreme cases will keep playing XI or will try XIV regardless.

I'm open to an FF MMO...but FFXI had tons of issues and had their least-attractive world. My degree of interest in FFXIV will be directly affected by how much it is or is not an FFXI clone with newer graphics.

[Ridere]

I think it being a world-wide release itself is just a major benefit.

New players in FFXI back in the day were completely at the whim of the japanese players in terms of what they needed to pay on the AH for basically what were consider job requirements.

I think everyone starting from level 1 together would be a huge benefit. Even if the game still requires heavily on group partying. I don't see what the big deal with that is, anyway. It basically gives us (Boxers) a major benefit. Think if you were boxing FFXI when it first started. Compared to your other NA cohorts, you would have blown through levels, not needing to worry about LFG, or finding a tank/healer, or worrying about extended AFK breaks where you waited around for them, simply because the thought of finding a replacement was even worst.

I'd totally be okay if leveling was still challenging. That being said, I'd like there to be more options for leveling, so that 120 people are cramped in a single zone, competing for monsters. I'd also like gear progression to be a bit more friendly. The 4+ year time sink trying to upgrade your relic weapons in Dynamis, for instance, was absolutely absurd.

I'm hoping for a mix somewhere between FFXI and WoW. I absolutely loved the environment in FFXI, and the community was way better than WoW. I think needing to rely so heavily on other people made your personal reputation matter to more people, so as a result, less people were likely to act like douchebags. There were bad apples, of course, but nothing like WoW's battle.net community.

I'm pretty optimistic about this. I really enjoyed FFXI back in the day, up until I reached the point where I was hounded (as a WHM) to start farming Sky/Sea/HNMs all the time and it turned into a bit of a job. I'd avoid doing that again (Just like I avoid hardcore raiding in WoW), so throwing in the fact that I'd also Box it (if supported), I am pretty confident I'd enjoy this...

Besides, who would love seing 6 taru tarus running around?

[Pikey]

Jeff srsly... <3

You'll find me and my 40 Asian friends from FFXI reunited when this comes out

[Armyofarty2]

No freaken way. I've watched it like 10 times and still dont believe it. I cant wait, 2010 cant come fast enough now. I just hope i dont have to go thought playonline 5 times just to get on the game. Sweet

[Duese]

The only reason you can't mash buttons in FFXI is because they did an awful job of porting it to Windows, and that has very little to do with what's wrong with the game.

I don't understand this, how did they do an awful job of porting it to windows? You can't button mash in the game because the abilities themselves are not all instants without cooldowns that get spammed after a 1.5 second global cooldown. That has nothing to do with how it was ported to windows. Seriously, I hate it when people take a game design and call it a flaw. If you don't like the design, that's fine, but just because you don't like it doesn't mean that it's wrong.

I would have no problems with FFXIV being designed with this concept of ability CHOICE being more important than just spamming buttons.

[Ridere]

I don't understand this, how did they do an awful job of porting it to windows?

I agree with the above comment not making much sense. In regards to how they did a poor job at porting the game over to PC, well... FFXI is a resource hog. I think that's the real reason behind their initial full screen only, no tabbing system they had set up. The game sucked up so much CPU time that they were probably too embarrassed to have it be realized. They, of course, then claimed it was by design since, "PS2 players can't alt tab to look up information online." Well, you're right. They dont' alt-tab to look up info online, they just pivot their chair over to their PC to do it.

Of course, years later, after hardware specs got a bit better and better computers were most likely used to run FFXI, they finally bit the bullet and opened up a Windowed option. Of course, even then the implemention of the officlal Windower was less efficient than the Windowers made by 3rd parties. haha

All that being said, I still miss FFXI! And while I doubt I'll ever play it again, I definitely will pick up FFXIV. I just hope it's earlier 2010 and not later 2010. Probably won't be 'til Q3 or Q4, though.

[Duese]

In regards to how they did a poor job at porting the game over to PC, well... FFXI is a resource hog.

This I agree with. Standing in the middle of no where, cpu usage 100%. Standing in the middle of a busy town, cpu usage 100%. Running 3x copies of the game on the same pc, cpu usage 100%.

When the devs would actually release a statement (which was few and far between) regarding the concerns of the players and the most common response was "ps2 limitations", it did get kind of annoying. I ran one of my copies of the game on Ps2 and it was the biggest pain in the ass I've ever had to deal with. My PS2 was old as hell and the CD rom on it was barely spinning. Anytime their was an update, it was usually 2-3 hours of trial and error running the install disk. Worst thing about it was that you could no longer even buy the non-micro version of the Ps2 and since the micro versions didn't support the hard drive, you were SOL.

I'm hoping that they don't run into the same issues that they did with Ps2 "limitations". Granted the Ps3 is a little bit more of a beast than the ps2, but that's now and not in 5-7 years later like FFXI is.