"Oh btw, FFXIV Online in 2010"

[Rokal]

Or to put it another way, instead of $9.99 a month for a month to month sub, it's $6.99.  3 month and yearly subs are also discounted.  However, they are also charging $3.00 per character, and from the looks of how they explain it here it doesn't sound like the first character is free, so you're really paying $9.99 a month anyway (which I guess is discounted from the $12.99 it says customers will be paying when 2.0 hits).

I can't believe they're still trying to charge people extra per character (including the first!). What is wrong with this company?

Their multi-month subscriptions actually look reasonable considering the state of the game ($30 for 6 months) until you start adding in the $3 per character and that inflates to $66/6 months, $102/6 months, etc.

[HaemishM]

Wait, they are charging you PER CHARACTER? Without even a free one?

I think I just had an aneurysm.

[stu]

FFXIV's ridiculous systems are seeping into the real world.

[01101010]

Standard fare for Square. The 1st character fee was wrapped into the monthly and every other toon was $1/mo extra. It did work in FFXI almost a decade ago... funny they'd still attempt it now though. But hey, they'll be lucky to get a few Americans to play this game anyway.

[Amaron]

I can't believe they're still trying to charge people extra per character (including the first!). What is wrong with this company?

I don't claim to be an expert but it's sort of a cultural thing.   Turns out the Japanese feel impolite telling someone they are fucking loony.

[Rokal]

Standard fare for Square. The 1st character fee was wrapped into the monthly and every other toon was $1/mo extra. It did work in FFXI almost a decade ago... funny they'd still attempt it now though. But hey, they'll be lucky to get a few Americans to play this game anyway.

That's not correct according to the link Velorath provided.

*    One character save slot as well as a basic service fee is required to play FINAL FANTASY XIV.
*    The price for one character save slot is $3.00. An additional $3.00 charge will apply for every additional character save slot.

So the first character fee isn't wrapped into the sub. You need to pay $3 per char on top of that.

[01101010]

Well as far as I can recall, and since I am old - take it with a grain of salt, the sub for FFXI was $1 less without a character. But since you needed a character to play - it was just wrapped up into the cost. You could actually pay for the sub without a character if you wanted - which gave you play online access and the silly card game that came with it.

[Velorath]

It's all just using semantics to make the monthly fee sound lower.  Functionally, there's no difference between saying the monthly fee is $12.99 or saying it's $9.99 + $3 for your first character slot (to use the non-discounted figures as an example).  The problem is that a) charging $3 per character is stupid and b) it's misleading when news sites run stories saying that monthly fee is initially being discounted from $9.99 to $6.99 without also mentioning the character fee.

[Margalis]

Given that in FFXI and FFXIV you can switch job classes whenever you want there isn't much reason to have more than one character. Comparing to something like WOW where you are stuck in your original class is apples to oranges comparison.

I've never heard of anyone actually playing more than one character other than for mule purposes.

[ghost]

Looks like patch 1.2 is out.  

It's commendable that they're giving people a chance to try this out before starting to charge them money, but I have an odd feeling that the "free trial period" may be extended yet again after reading the patch notes.  

Addition-  so I logged on and ran around a little bit.  It seems exactly the same so far.

[Koyasha]

Given that in FFXI and FFXIV you can switch job classes whenever you want there isn't much reason to have more than one character. Comparing to something like WOW where you are stuck in your original class is apples to oranges comparison.

I've never heard of anyone actually playing more than one character other than for mule purposes.

The problem in XI, and I imagine it's the same in XIV, is that you couldn't actually have multiple jobs on one character particularly well due to equipment.  Since storage space was extremely limited, and you needed different equipment for various classes, and different equipment for different level ranges, which you needed to keep around because if you got deleveled for a fight you'd be stripped of higher level equipment....

[carnifex27]

When I first read that I saw deleveled from a fight and I was like 
Then I reread it and I was like   

[01101010]

Given that in FFXI and FFXIV you can switch job classes whenever you want there isn't much reason to have more than one character. Comparing to something like WOW where you are stuck in your original class is apples to oranges comparison.

I've never heard of anyone actually playing more than one character other than for mule purposes.

The problem in XI, and I imagine it's the same in XIV, is that you couldn't actually have multiple jobs on one character particularly well due to equipment.  Since storage space was extremely limited, and you needed different equipment for various classes, and different equipment for different level ranges, which you needed to keep around because if you got deleveled for a fight you'd be stripped of higher level equipment....

Well the way around that before they put mog storage and mannequins in was to drop $1 on another character to mule your gear and then mail it back and forth. I had a lot of gear on one - the AF sets took up the bulk being Rare/EX and I even had the gobby bag quests done when they added that to the game. It was rather ridiculous looking back on it, but... being my first real MMO, I figured that was the way it was.

[koro]

When I first read that I saw deleveled from a fight and I was like  
Then I reread it and I was like  

Well you can de-level from dying if you lose enough xp to push you back a level, so...

[Scold]

The new trailer for the re-launch "FFXIV: A Realm Reborn" looks completely unlike the game as it launched: seems to have an emphasis on massive battles rather than just another crap DIKU.

(Oh, wait. This is Square. They're forbidden by law from releasing trailers that have anything to do with the actual content of their games.)

[Kitsune]

Oh boy, that 100% cutscene footage convinced me!

[01101010]

Coming soon... 

[Cadaverine]

Oh boy, that 100% cutscene footage convinced me!

That wasn't a cutscene, that was the whole game.  They've distilled the FF series down to a 2 and a half hour cutscene at this point.

[Shatter]

Wish I could see the look on their face when this doesnt do shit for them

[sickrubik]

Oh boy, that 100% cutscene footage convinced me!

That wasn't a cutscene, that was the whole game.  They've distilled the FF series down to a 2 and a half hour cutscene at this point.

Oh, come on. Like Square would cut down cutscenes.

[tmp]

The other 2.5 hour one will make FFXIV-2.

[LK]

Pretty much what this is, isn't it?

[01101010]

I am now curious as to how much they tore down and rebuilt. I can't fathom them remaking the entire world and gameplay - even for Square.

[koro]

I am now curious as to how much they tore down and rebuilt. I can't fathom them remaking the entire world and gameplay - even for Square.

From what I understand that's exactly what they did. They even ditched their old engine (the Crystal Tools stuff that was used for FFXIII).

[Samprimary]

Why are they pouring so much into a cracked vessel. The amount of additional loss they are just flushing into this thing is just amazing to me. What is the motivation? Same as before? Brand name rep salvation?

[Lantyssa]

Brand name reputation salvation would be my guess.

Otherwise they could have just done FF15.

[Rokal]

Why are they pouring so much into a cracked vessel. The amount of additional loss they are just flushing into this thing is just amazing to me. What is the motivation? Same as before? Brand name rep salvation?

Apparently they are really investing in it. To the tune of ~300 staff.

They've stated that FF11 was their most profitable Final Fantasy game ever, so I assume they have big hopes for 14 once version 2.0 is out.

[01101010]

Jesus Christmas, taking an MMO and actually rebuilding it from the ground up after releasing a half-assed game. Still wonder why they kept the name... though the blight that was 14 is better overwritten because on the internet, shit is never forgotten. Now the real question... how much did this fiasco cost the company?

[koro]

Considering the amount of lazy shortcuts in world design and how rough, rushed, and unfinished everything was, I can't imagine Square sunk that much into FFXIV 1.0. I imagine that the FFXIV 2.0 budget is the first "real" budget the team's seen in a long time.

I also get the feeling the E3 (I think?) 2009 announcement of FFXIV's release date being late 2010 played a large part in how the final product turned out. I've heard tell that the firm final announced release date for XIV was partially made to give the team doing FFXIII - which had been in development for ages - a swift kick in the ass to finally get the thing done. If that's true, I imagine what impact it may have had on XIV wasn't really considered.

[Samprimary]

Considering the amount of lazy shortcuts in world design and how rough, rushed, and unfinished everything was, I can't imagine Square sunk that much into FFXIV 1.0.

They did, though. The end result was less 'lazy shortcuts' and more them looking at a shit-ton of completely unworkable product and saying "we HAVE to get SOMETHING out."

[01101010]

So this is a costly mulligan.

[Job601]

The best part of that trailer is when Unicron attacks the player characters at 0:35.

[ghost]

This whole deal smells of them farming out the entire project and then going, "what the fuck, this thing sucks.  How did that happen?"  It's just amazing. 

[Margalis]

Man, why all you trolls have to come in here and be all trolly and mean? LEAVE FFXIV ALONE!!! 

Anyway, I know Yoshi P and those guys have put a ton of work into XIV to the point where they are probably all about to drop dead from exhaustion. FFXIV has actually improved a lot already, but unfortunately in the grand scheme of things those improvements don't make the whole a much better game. I'm curious to see how this turns out, but I expect it will be both substantially better and not better enough.

[ghost]

I think it may actually be pretty interesting when they finish.  I actually liked some of the concepts, mostly the art style and the world.  I also think it has a potentially interesting story there, if anyone dares to flesh it out any.  This is one that I probably will resub to just to see where they got.