[6souls]

It is with great pleasure that we announce the launch date of the official FINAL FANTASY XI forum. Created to provide a venue for players to connect with each other and submit suggestions on game content, the forum will also serve as a centralized location for the FINAL FANTASY XI Team to monitor community opinion on its future plans.

Read on for the details.

[6souls]

Quote

The forum will initially be launched in beta version in order to test various features as well as server load. Although no limitations will be placed on the forum, features such as character data linking will be unavailable in the beginning. Furthermore, in the event that data becomes corrupted, posts may be rolled back by one day.

Forum Access

While login is not required to peruse the forum, those wishing to post comments and access other forum features must first log in with a Square Enix Account that has been linked to a PlayOnline ID. Please note that an active content ID for FINAL FANTASY XI will also be required.

*PlayOnline IDs cannot be used to log into the forum. Only those who have linked their PlayOnline ID to a Square Enix Account may access all forum features. For information on Square Enix Accounts, please refer to the following page:
US: http://www.playonlin...s/us/about.html
EU: http://www.playonlin...s/eu/about.html
*The use of a Square Enix Security Token is not a requirement.

Development and Operation Teams

Representatives from Development and Operation teams will be participating in forum discussions.

Forum Languages

The FINAL FANTASY XI Forum will be available in Japanese, English, French and German language versions. Players will be free to access any of these languages regardless of their Square Enix Account region.

Although forum support will be offered across the board, posts made by Development and Operation team representatives may not be available in all languages. Posts may first appear in a certain language to be translated at a later time. Posts pertaining to language-specific issues, however, may not receive a translation.

Changes upon Forum Launch

The following changes will be made to existing sites upon the forum's launch.

Official Website

-Topics
Articles such as version update notices, future plans, and Development Team comments will instead be posted on the forum. The role of Topics and the official FINAL FANTASY XI Twitter account (http://twitter.com/FFXI_EN) will shift to that of delivering version update details. The periodic FAQ articles, too, will be hosted on the forum.

-Information
General information and server maintenance announcements will initially be posted on both the official website and forum. However, they will eventually be consolidated in the forum in the future.

Official Twitter Account

The Official FINAL FANTASY XI Twitter account, launched simultaneously in Japanese and English as a venue to facilitate communication with players, will change its role and focus on delivering version update details. Sneak previews on future content and answers to frequently asked questions will instead be posted on the forum.

We hope that the official forum will thrive and become a veritable treasure trove of player discussion and community feedback. We look forward to hearing from you!

http://www.playonlin...280/detail.html

[Vangoh32]

Have they done this for FFXIV? If they haven't they should............NOW! So they can hear what people have to suggest for game improvement.

[draugo]

They need to kill XIV and PS2 support, and give us a proper game, and then advertise and start following some of the lead of WoW so that I can quit seeing shitty free trial for WoW adds on Wiki.

I wanna see some other zones, like far east etc.

[Corrderio]

Vangoh32, on 04 March 2011 - 10:51 AM, said:

Have they done this for FFXIV? If they haven't they should............NOW! So they can hear what people have to suggest for game improvement.

You mean QQing, bitching, and general retards posting useless crap like how ZAM currently is?

[pathwriter]

I want to know what genius convinced SE to invest in this sort of thing at a time when their player population is shrinking constantly and their market share is barely a blip. Perhaps they have some secret plans to revitalize the game, but given what they've done to their offline franchise and their other MMO, that could be worse than letting it to languish and die.

[Corrderio]

pathwriter, on 04 March 2011 - 11:35 AM, said:

I want to know what genius convinced SE to invest in this sort of thing at a time when their player population is shrinking constantly and their market share is barely a blip. Perhaps they have some secret plans to revitalize the game, but given what they've done to their offline franchise and their other MMO, that could be worse than letting it to languish and die.

Well if Yoshi-P was planning on forums for XIV why not XI as well? Either way you are right it came too late for XI.

[What?]

There was no plan all this time for XI, it was always to keep it running with as little effort as humanly possible. What's happening now is a reactionary plan due to the mass exodus of players. Abyssea came about because servers were needing to be merged due to the loss, this improved communication stuff is because the bleeding is still ongoing.

Basically people are finding out now what happens when SE is pressured and put in a corner, had XI's population more or less stayed the same none of this would be happening. It's all a giant badange to help stop the bleeding for both games. Luckily for them stuff like the forums can be applied to both games, but SE would have been content being as minimalist and cheap as possible if XIV had debuted well enough and XI stayed healthy.

Before anyone says SE being as cheap as they were is the norm and that's how all businesses work or should work, Blizzard wants to have a word with you. You'd think copying the MMO leader in terms of consistent effort and high quality would be a smart plan, but nah, fuck up by being overly cheap bastards for years and then run around like a headless chicken when things turn sour. Anyone wondering why this stuff wasn't put in place years ago to prepare for this outcome and to offset it, you're already far more intelligent than whatever monkey is running the show at SE. Stupidity and greed; no decent planning for the future and reduced investment to gain more and more money short term.

[pathwriter]

I think what's bothering you most, What?, is that we're dealing with a Japanese company. Japan is very good at taking an idea and adapting it to suit their needs, which is certainly why they've been a leader in miniaturization. When it comes to actual innovation and thinking up new ideas, they're frighteningly useless. Most of their best ideas are quite accidental (most of the style of anime that has swept the animation world was developed as a function of studios being cheap, not deliberate artistic intervention). Compound the problem with their cultural xenophobia and nationalism and it becomes rather obvious why they never copy a good idea wholesale but try to put the ol' Nippon spin on it... and screw it up. Contrast with Korea who a.) aren't terribly interested in the Western market, anyhow, but b.) will steal any good ideas they can get their hands on and take it to the bank.

Gaming as a whole will be better off when Nintendo and Sony finally topple, hopefully taking most of the other stagnant companies in Japan with them. It's a frightening day when you can look at Microsoft or EA or Activision and legitimately say that they're contributing more to the industry than the superpowers that resurrected it from the ashes of the 1983 crash.

[Logan Draconia]

On a more positive note, I plan on signing up and using it. Been wanting some way to deliver my ideas to SE for ages.

[What?]

Yeah you're right, I keep forgetting it's a Japanese company so it's not like any of this is unusual with how businesses operate there. Still, it's so infuriating for me to watch people in control of multi million revenue streams mess up this badly.

You're mad putting Nintendo and stagnant in the same sentence, though, they've been anything but stagnant this generation and it's paying off. They're like the one and only Japanese game company that isn't fucking up. Activision taking so much money out of the system every year with CoD is hurting the industry I think when every other game has to get out of the way or be crushed. They just let off a couple more hundred people a few weeks ago too. Overall I think we're on the same page though, Japan needs to start getting their ass in gear to try and catch up with the rest of the world, but I don't even know if that's possible sadly.

[pathwriter]

Nintendo's marketing department has been working overtime, but the motion-control casual nonsense of the Wii is an anomaly in gaming, I promise you. Those senior citizens and soccer moms who love Wii Sports are not going to go out and purchase Galactic Sword-fu Battle 3 on the X-Box 1024 or whatever the hell they want to call their next generation. The people who play games for the sake of gaming have long since grown tired of the gimmicky and often bad control of the Wii and there's a reason most people have panned the Move and Kinect. They're a necessary step in the evolution of gaming and it's great that Nintendo found a way to make money on it, but it is ultimately another iteration of the SegaCD: an important step in gaming development but one with almost no staying power in the broader market.

And, really, except for making a rather neat motion control method (props where due, even if its age is starting to show), what has Nintendo innovated in the past 5 years? Oh, look, another game using the same engine as Super Mario Brothers 3. Pinch me!

[What?]

The DS touch pad and 3DS screen are where they've innovated in hardware outside of the Wii most recently. There's other smaller things like GBA linking up to the Gamecube for a variety of things and the wireless adapter that came with Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green. I can name things like analog sticks, rumble and the SNES pad design (and Wiimote design) which were subsequently stolen directly by Sony and still being used, but yeah, I generally think Nintendo's pretty good when it comes to innovating.
In terms of software, I guess going by the highest selling ones that I think innovated entirely I'd point out Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Nintendogs and Brain Age. Whether you want to count titles like Cooking Guide, Style Savvy, or Art Academy is up to you. I could mention some games they've made such as Donkey Kong Jungle Beat that came with a bongo drum, or mention regular games that have innovated in the tradtional gameplay sense without becoming a ridiculous phenomenon or requiring extra hardware, but that's not really important. AR games from the 3DS are going to be big but considering Sony's NGP has it covered can't really credit Nintendo for that.

Do you make a distinction between Wii casuals and people who play on iPhone or Facebook? I don't. Let's imagine that anyone playing games on those platforms will never try other types of traditional games no matter what, how would that be bad for the industry? People will be employed to create those specific games to cater for that audience. Having more people being employed making games, more businesses making money and more people overall playing games, no matter what type of games, sounds like it'd be a benefit for the industry rather than a detriment. And yeah in terms of who's benefitting the industry the most right now you can look at those 3 names listed above, followed by Microsoft. More people spending money inside an industry is never a detriment. HD console games costing 50+ million have hurt the industry, if you need any proof ask the dozens of studios that have shut down.

But of course pretending that people who started playing games waggling remotes, jumping in front of screens or farming crops won't move onto other types of games is ridiculous. You can look at sales figures, surveys and attach rates to figure out if these casuals are buying other games, and they are. No one's claiming all of them do, but a significant portion do if there are games being released at a steady pace.
And that's why Nintendo is shifting their focus from creating motion control games to 2D platformers, which they said at E3, citing Mario Kart Wii as a "bridge title" that's an example of casual users moving onto more core oriented games. Mario Kart Wii and DS didn't sell 25+ million copies on other systems. Mario Bros. Wii and DS didn't sell 25+ million on other systems. Who bought the extra 20 million copies that Double Dash didn't sell? The anomaly in gaming is why people think those extra 20 million copies came from thin air. And if you look at the sale charts, those games are always selling. That's the greatest thing about the Wii and DS, because those are core games selling to brand new people. People can do a lot worse than starting with 2D Mario and Mario Kart, I'll tell you that. Nintendo is specifically determined to make casual Wii and DS owners move onto more core titles, and why wouldn't they, it's good business sense.

Motion controls are simply an easier interface. Once the interface is conquered, which was the main barrier to entry, people who were previously against playing any type of games will naturally become more open to other types of games simply by owning the machine. It's not rocket science. People bought Wiis for motion controls, no doubt about it, but who bought Mario Kart? Mario Kart Wii should have sold 5 million like Double Dash, but it's sold 25+ million and still going. An anomaly is right~

[pathwriter]

I don't consider touch pad tech to be very interesting, unfortunately, given its ubiquity in other sectors of the tech market. I don't actually know what the 3DS does, but apparently it is dangerous to small children, so I'll count that as a win in Nintendo's favor.

As for all the casual pablum... you do realize that there's a reason why Danielle Steele and Stephen King are set for life while writers who produce genuine literature with serious themes and artistic craft generally live in poverty their entire lives, right? I read some hype a few weeks ago that the hottest free app on the iPhone store was some physics puzzler that a 14 y/o wrote on the computers at his local library (yes, Wii casuals and iPhone-exclusive gamers are in the same bucket for me -- where do people like me fit, though, who play Peggle while LFG?). On the one hand, that sounds like a great thing, more people able to get into the market and see success. On the other hand... it's a dead simple physics game programmed by someone who probably doesn't have hair under his arms yet. If something that can get banged out by a comp-sci major in a couple weeks is enough to make $1,000,000, what impoetus is there to create Call of Duty 5, much less a game that's actually worth playing?

Go look up the definition of "pablum" if you haven't already. It pretty neatly encapsulates the problem of thinking that casual gaming is a good thing and beneficial to the industry.

I suppose, in fairness, the rise of casual gaming could have roughly the same impact on the games industry as piracy does. Piracy, according to numerous studies including a recent one published in Japan, either has zero impact on the market or a net positive effect. This is counter-intuitive, but not illogical. Could casual games and gaming have a similar effect? Maybe. I do try to avoid slippery slope arguments, but I fear I'm wandering towards one when I say that oversaturation of the market with quickly programmed money-grab games that get rehashed ad nauseum will destroy the market for more complex but more expensive games. It's bad enough how World of Warcraft has managed to decimate the MMO market with its saturation, but do you really want to see every game you ever loved become a relic of the past as you diddle around with motion controls and accelerometers and touch screens? Keyboard and mouse or a sensible controller are actually more than sufficient means of interface until we develop genuine VR (which will pretty much kill traditional gaming, I predict). Everything else are just toys and gimmicks for technophiles and their followers.

[What?]

That kid won the lottery more or less, why big developers making Call of Duty would want to give up guaranteed, safe money to roll dices and hope they win isn't evidently clear to me. Businesses will blindly approve developing something that has a chance to be slightly more lucrative at the cost of stability? App store isn't sustainable, if it was really that easy to make money everyone would jump on it (which they have of course). With everyone on board at some point there will be a cut off point for new developers, it won't be financially feasible to become an iPhone developer, especially when it relies so much on luck to make money. Traditional games are far less risky to create and profit on.

Even if what you say does happen, when everyone jumps into making casual games eventually the casual game market will stop expanding (or maybe it doesn't amirite). When it's completely full of developers and you can't make a living anymore, they're just going to ignore the other side of the industry that survived for 40+ years and currently makes more money than the music industry? Oh wait, why is that still alive, they should be making casual games not music! Why is every business that makes less money than casual games not making casual games? Come on...

If someone's perfectly content fiddling around with a physics puzzler and wants nothing more, that's a bit of a shame, but I'm not willing to condemn what they look for in a video game and want it to fail because I view it as overly simplistic or think it will take over the world. And it's definitely not a loss if one new person is spending money inside the industry, rather than spending none at all. That money could be used to fund new projects. Will those be casual games? If that market is overcrowded, it might be a hardcore one for increased stability. The only way casual games will somehow completely dominate over hardcore games, despite there being a massive market demanding for those hardcore games, is if there's a fundamental problem with how hardcore games are being sold or made making them unfeasible to create. Then casual games aren't the problem, the hardcore game business model is. Fixing that doesn't require hoping a section of gaming should die due to paranoia.
Having new people brought in with casual games crossing over into more in depth games is unthinkable, despite there being numbers to back that up, but the opposite where casual games take over the world and the hardcore market completely dies is rational and expected? If a market is there it will be catered for. If not by third parties then by console manufacturers, they're not interested in seeing an entire section of the gaming business die because one other side might be more lucrative. Having more than one way to make money is kind of important. Their business model is to expand the market in both sections, they want people to buy casual crap and traditional games, increasing revenue on both sides. Having people buy just casual crap with no plans in place to try and make them buy your other software is lazy business.

[pathwriter]

K, bored now. Especially with the whole "I need to use sarcastic hyperbole to mask my point." I forgot that your idea of arguing is to belittle anyone you're speaking to, so I'll save you the trouble of coming up with more patronizing ways of disguising your lack of content by bowing out now. Enjoy my contempt. In future, try to reserve the bullshit tactics for when someone is actually arguing with you instead of holding a discussion. Normal humans know this.

[What?]

Sorry. Usually when someone states what their conclusion to an issue is without elaborating on how they came to it, instead of taking the time to try and figure out what lead them to that conclusion and discuss how it might be possible for it to be different, because it would take too long and have too many questions, I usually resort to that behaviour in a ridiculous attempt to shorten whatever I'm saying and try to make the other person want to expand upon their own point instead of me having to pick it apart. In other words don't jump from A to D, I want to see A, B, C and D so I know how someone came to their conclusion and try to discuss it. If I feel someone's making broad statements and saying nothing to back up what they think, I'm not going to want to dedicate even more time trying to figure out information I should have been given already so I know how they came to their own conclusion. But of course I act like a despicable cunt from losing my patience and should have said nothing at all, we can agree on that.

[6souls]

Logan Draconia, on 04 March 2011 - 03:00 PM, said:

On a more positive note, I plan on signing up and using it. Been wanting some way to deliver my ideas to SE for ages.

If they're not listening to your Twitter suggestions already, this won't change much on the forums.

[Logan Draconia]

6souls, on 07 March 2011 - 01:39 AM, said:

If they're not listening to your Twitter suggestions already, this won't change much on the forums.

I don't use twitter.