"Oh btw, FFXIV Online in 2010"

[01101010]

I haphazardly jump on Bluegartr forums to see reactions from people and the mods have an attitude of, "post whatever, but if SE sends me a note saying that something breaks the NDA, I am pulling the post." Of course as soon as something is posted, its mirrored or C&P'd to some other forum. I am hardly complaining, however this is a far cry from what SE used to do with anything related to upcoaming changes to FFXI. Hell, it was years before they had a presence on allakhazam.

Oh and the game's alpha looks pretty. Still retains a feel of FFXI but shinier. A buddy of mine has been selectively distributing pics to trusted people on his list. Of course, he is in alpha and that trust might be fair game. 

[Draegan]

One of the cinematics was on youtube last night.

[Murgos]

I don't know if you all recall but FFXI beta had live streams of people playing for months before the NDA dropped.

[Draegan]

There are a few running right now if you know where to look.  One of em got suspended, not surprisingly though.

[LK]

In MMO development, transparency can help more than it hurts. You can gauge reactions better and see what works and what isn't. It's not like another game where someone can get a competitive edge on your game system or some shit. You really should be doing every god damn thing possible to make your game / service the best it can be before launch.

[schild]

In MMO development, transparency can help more than it hurts.

Disagree. There's a difference between transparency and GOOD focus testing. Latter > Former. Transparency just makes people angry since 90% of shit never ever makes it into ANY game.

[Simond]

It works if either the 'beta' is essentially a complete game ready for launch anyway or if it's Blizzard. If you want actual testing, then I agree.

[Draegan]

I hate transparency with games.  It gets me excited to play, then I have to wait and then it's never as good as I think it is.

[Goreschach]

The Blizzard system is best. Almost completely opaque until beta starts, then pretty much fully transparent.

[eldaec]

The typical mmog PR strategy with a metric asstonne of expectation building and overcommunication works pretty well if your game is shit.

Take WAR or Hellgate as an example, if either set of devs had one day turned up out of the blue and they were all like 'SURPRISE!! I HAS MMOG!" the games would have flamed out just as quick, but only half as many people (if that) would have been fooled into buying the box.

[Nonentity]

I'm tentatively posting this, as there doesn't appear to be any kind of NDA for it, but the alpha testers manual and some videos have appeared on the major news sites.

http://kotaku.com/5516194/heres-the-final-fantasy-xiv-alpha-tester-guide

First video on the site shows a chat window being adjusted and moved with a MOUSE. HOLY SHIT.

[Dtrain]

First video on the site shows a chat window being adjusted and moved with a MOUSE. HOLY SHIT.

It's like 2001 all over again.

In my pants.

[Velorath]

I'm tentatively posting this, as there doesn't appear to be any kind of NDA for it, but the alpha testers manual and some videos have appeared on the major news sites.

http://kotaku.com/5516194/heres-the-final-fantasy-xiv-alpha-tester-guide

First video on the site shows a chat window being adjusted and moved with a MOUSE. HOLY SHIT.

I'm pretty sure that stuff is under NDA.  I think most of the leaks are just too widespread for Square to bother with doing anything about it at this point though.  The only things it seems like they're going after are the live streams.

Also, I wouldn't get too excited about the mouse stuff just yet.  Supposedly, mouse support is still shit and since the Alpha is just made up of long time FFXI players, there's apparently a ton of sycophants telling Square that keyboard only controls are just great and they don't really need to worry about mouse support.

[01101010]

I'm pretty sure that stuff is under NDA.  I think most of the leaks are just too widespread for Square to bother with doing anything about it at this point though.  The only things it seems like they're going after are the live streams.

Also, I wouldn't get too excited about the mouse stuff just yet.  Supposedly, mouse support is still shit and since the Alpha is just made up of long time FFXI players, there's apparently a ton of sycophants telling Square that keyboard only controls are just great and they don't really need to worry about mouse support.

Bolster that with the whole PS3 controller capabilities... yeah, sadly the mouse might get the shaft again. However, I doubt even SE can ignore the WoW-factor in that many of those FFXI players also played WoW for a bit and no matter how much they rail against Blizzard, they can't quite throw it all away considering a major theme that comes up in EVERY dev conversation is the casual player issue and the travel issue. Some things transcend abject loathing.

[01101010]

Small update interview

Nothing earth shattering in the way of news, but if anyone is interested in the alpha feedback stuff.

[Cyrrex]

In a fit probable insanity, somebody saw fit to send me a confirmation of my participation in their beta program.  My streak of rejection seems to be at its end.

[01101010]

In a fit probable insanity, somebody saw fit to send me a confirmation of my participation in their beta program.  My streak of rejection seems to be at its end.

  Welcome.

[Draegan]

I got an email as well.  Until next week then...

[Nonentity]

Yeah, I got an email.

I saw a video a while back of someone moving around a UI element of this game with a mouse. A mouse! Amazing!

[Numtini]

Blah nothing for me.

[Dren]

Still watching this.  I'll bite when it releases just because I believe there is a good chance they will launch something polished and completely playable with some unique/interesting elements.  I know I'll get at least 1-2 months of enjoyment out of it.  Even if I quit in that timeframe, I'll walk away with some understanding of what they did well and did poorly.  My own interest in all things MMO will be sated and that's worth the box-with-a-free-month dollars.

Of course, if you guys tell me not to bother when the NDA drops, I reserve the right to reconsider!

[LC]

I got the email as well. I just don't check that account very often.

[Zetor]

Yep, looks like another wave was sent out, I got a mail as well [EU].

[Outlawedprod]

PC benchmark
http://download.nvidia.com/downloads/nZone/demos/FFXIVBenchmark.zip

E3 trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-JIdpHuLKY

E3 demo of new combat (apparently changed after alpha feedback)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eONoACmL5AM

[Reg]

The game looks beautiful which is no surprise. And some of the male characters actually look masculine which is.

[Falconeer]

"I think the battle is very speedy now"

WHAT  

Honestly, that is probably the most boring combat I've seen in a mmorpg since EverQuest 1, we are talking about 1998. Seriously, to make it less (?) dull they had to move the camera around, otherwise it was as "speedy" as a two snails fucking in slow motion.

That said, I am sure a part of me will love Final Fantasy XIV, especially because a game doesn't necessarily have to be quick and speedy, but that video (the combat demo one) is incredibly underwhelming, and the commentary sounds like a joke. If they were smartasses making fun of the game it would make more sense.

[Falconeer]

"I feel like.. uhn... touch them"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq-hDTCtLxk&feature=channel  

[Numtini]

Wow, that was really truly awful.

[Ollie]

"I feel like.. uhn... touch them"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq-hDTCtLxk&feature=channel  

I laughed so hard. Apparently the demo is so awesome that the reviewers' retinas could withstand about two seconds of it.

[Outlawedprod]

I laughed so hard. Apparently the demo is so awesome that the reviewers' retinas could withstand about two seconds of it.

Then you can laugh even more while I point out that they're not reviewers.  The first guy Hiromichi Tanaka is the FF14 producer. 2nd person Koji Taguchi is an anime producer for Squenix I think. Last guy Yoichi Wada is the CEO of Square.

[01101010]

FFXIV: Now with more seizures!

[Draegan]

I can't wait until I'm able to discuss the Alpha client.  Did anyone here, not under NDA, get a chance to play this game?  I haven't kept track of what they've publicly released.

[01101010]

I can't wait until I'm able to discuss the Alpha client. 

Why? Its the alpha client...

[Draegan]

Because I want to.

Edit:
Oh looks like Nonentity got to play.

From the E3 thread:

I think our taste in games differs too much for me to have any specific recommendations though.

Maybe if there's anything special being shown off at E3 for FFXIV though?

Looks friggin' awful. Right click anchors your mouse, and then you move it around like an analog stick to move the camera. Incredibly slow-paced combat. The only difference I could tell between FFXIV and FFXI were that you had little timer bars to tell when you were going to attack again in FFXIV.

Maybe it was just because most of the other decent MMOs that I saw there were all click-to-attack, and MUCH faster paced, but this felt glacially slow. Lots of text dialog for back and forth talking.

[Margalis]

I laughed so hard. Apparently the demo is so awesome that the reviewers' retinas could withstand about two seconds of it.

Seriously?

The video is SE bigwigs being amazed by FFXIV in 3D. It's supposed to be humorous.