What A Change a Few Years Can MakeFollow

There's still a pretty vocal minority on the beta forums who absolutely hate this game and everything it stands for. Personally, I really like the game; don't feel like it's any worse than anything that's currently on the market.

I think the real test is endgame; that's where you end up keeping the bulk of your subscribers. If SE can make good content and the correct pace, this game will have a very bright future ahead of it.

I always ignore the audience numbers. Too often, people will give movies high marks simply because they are fans of whichever franchises they are seeing. A great example is the audience rating for just about any Twilight movie, as opposed to the critical ratings.

That said, I also ignore the early critical ratings. Seems that the most "franchise-friendly" critics usually see the movies right away. The critical scores tend to drop a bit over time as more objective critics file their reviews. With good movies, though, the critical ratings don't move.

Just my two cents.

That's exactly why I pay attention when critics (by consensus, not individual reviewers) actually give something a good rating.

I agree. I think endgame will be the true test for two reasons:

1) Most people will spend the majority of their time playing characters at level cap
2) A large part of the population that carries over from 1.0 will have characters capped or very close

The first reason kinda goes without saying, but the second reason is the exclamation point on why I think level cap content will be so important to ARR on re-launch. I had hoped that players would be reset completely to level 1(at least soft capped down to something relatively low like 15 or so), but if ARR isn't coming out of the gate with a lot to see and do at level cap it will probably even deter legacy players from even starting from the beginning for lulz. I can't see what the draw would be if you had a capped character and knew that even if you did enjoy the new and improved journey to level cap; there would be nothing shiny waiting for you at the end of that journey.

I had originally planned on sitting out until ARR launched since I wanted to give it a fair shake before making a judgment about it until that point. Depending on how much of the later stages of the game are available in the last beta phase, I may have to rethink that. I think I read somewhere that the trial period for people who already have accounts is 2 weeks? I don't think that's enough time to experience enough of what there is at endgame to come to any real conclusion on whether or not I'd enjoy it enough to sub. Not certain why they wouldn't give everyone the same trial period. Can anyone confirm that?




Edited, Jul 23rd 2013 2:09pm by FilthMcNasty

I've found the best method was to look for opposing opinions. For instance, if you go to a fansite, and find the opinion of the latest product is overall negative, then chances are good that the product is below average and probably not worth your time. Likewise, a site that is an outspoken detractor of a product suddenly likes the newest one? Probably a good idea to check it out. After all, fans are going to be fans, and detractors are going to be detractors, so it's difficult to take their opinions serious when fans are positive and detractors are negative due to their confirmation bias.

Edited, Jul 23rd 2013 2:34pm by lolgaxe

So far I think they have done very well.

As for endgame they must keep in mind that there are solo players, small group players and raiders in any game.
All are equally important to make any game successful, all are equally long time subscribers so everyones style must be touched on., never focus on raiding only or it will fall into the trap that many mmo are at now, never gaining anywhere near the playerbase they could and I dont want to see that for this one, its simply too beautiful and they put alot of work into it so far :o)

Offer good rewards for all playstyles!! have many crafted gear sets that are very good at the trainers, only some in dungeons/raids.
Dont make raiding so vastly far better then small groups can get (dont make the same mistake that 11 recently has and divide the playerbase so far that the game is at a standstill) Please SE think out of the box 14 will thrive!!

Offer excellent options for all , they dont need to be equal, of course not!!
But not vastly more powerful compared to crafted, quested, small group etc.

Keep all happy and ffxiv will do extremely well, if not it will end up like 11 with a set number of subs, never increasing over 10 years. Strive for more, alot more, 14 deserves this chance to.

Im completely happy so far though, vast improvements from original launch !!!

I still think it's extremely important to have a somewhat established endgame. With new games you can ignore endgame for the most part and work on that after you get your release stabilized because your entire playerbase started at level 1, but that isn't the case with ARR. That's why I stressed the second point. I think that it's a double-edged blade in that regard.

I completely agree with you that ignoring new players is a death sentence. It might seem like it would be more important to focus on them at first glance because we all expect that the larger group will be the new players and not the returning legacy crew. However, if level capped players bow out quickly and directly link a lack of endgame content as the reason; what's to keep the new players around beyond their free trial if they're led to believe(by vets) that endgame is non-existent?

rockYoshihardplace

You don't have to break new ground to get a 80-85% on review sites. You just have to have content for different playstyles and be polished to the tee and very accessible.

01-49%= Bad design and unplayable
50-59%= Mediocre
60-79%= Above average
80-89%= A cut above the rest, has one or two unique things, standard but polished.
90-100%= Best in the genre, breaking new ground, highly polished, almost perfect but no game is absolutely perfect.

The majority of readers perception is that if it isn't at least 80% the game is a pile of **** usually. But that's not how critics do it.

WoW= 93%
GW2= 90%
EQ2= 83%
EQ= 85%
FFXI= 85%
SWTOR= 85%
Planetside 2= 84%
TERA= 77%
TSW= 73%
DCUO= 72%
APB reloaded= 56%
FFXIV original= 49%

I'd say an 80% or above would put ARR in pretty good company, FFXI their most profitable game to date scored an 85%.



Edited, Jul 23rd 2013 5:57pm by sandpark

No, metacritic is as reliable as scores can get. Regardless of the score some people prefer lower scored games over others though.

Spill the beans. How is it lackluster compared to 1.0? I'm not in beta.

You mean sort of like this? That does kind of suck. Well I'm not going to judge a whole game on an intro anyhow.
I did like the 1.0 cutscenes better if that video below is how they are now. I guess SE had a good reason.



Edited, Jul 23rd 2013 6:25pm by sandpark

It also had a rampaging goobue and mogs depending on which city