In his keynote presentation at GDC China, Square Enix SVP Hiromichi Tanaka described steps the company is taking to make improvements to its latest MMO.
Things have not gone well for the latest launch from Final Fantasy house Square Enix. Its most recent MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, has gone through two 30-day-trial extensions.
So far, users who bought the game at launch have gotten 90 free days of play instead of the expected 30.
The company has extended the trial due to widespread complaints about the game from users -- as it rushes to patch the title so users can "be given the opportunity to experience these changes firsthand before deciding to fully commit to the game," the company said in a statement on its official site.
Partnering With Shanda for Improvements
In his GDC China Keynote in Shanghai, Tanaka said, "It's a pity, but we haven't reached the expectations of the players. And of course we are working on it."
This portion of his speech, aimed at the show's Chinese attendees, centered on how the company's Chinese partner Shanda is offering feedback on the game which will help improve the game for all audiences.
Shanda is evaluating the game (which has not yet launched in this territory) and gathering feedback which it is sending to Square Enix -- which the company, apparently, will use alongside from feedback from audiences in the West and Japan, where the game has already launched as a retail product.
Said Tanaka, "We'll make every effort to increase the fun and quality of the game. The proposal from Shanda [takes into account] not only the requirements and feelings of Chinese players, but I think it's good feedback overall for global players. We can update this Chinese feedback into our global system. After the improvement process, we'll try to present this game to the Chinese players."
Auction House Woes
Meanwhile, Tanaka also addressed concerns players have with the game's user-to-user selling system, which was recently skewered in a Gamasutra feature and has drawn widespread complaints. "In a nutshell, the Market Ward system is broken," wrote feature author Simon Ludgate.
Final Fantasy XI, the company's first MMO, which it first launched in Japan in 2002, pioneered the now-traditional auction house system.
Said Tanaka, that system "encouraged interaction between different players. One of the benefits of the system was that it was cross-region, and though it was cross-region we had a communication assist system so players could communicate with each other 24 hours a day. However, because the information on prices was open and everyone knew the prices, it wouldn't cause any mistreatment of players."
However, the company saw a downside -- since all players on all servers and in all regions knew the "right" prices for items, this increased deflation. This encouraged the developers to take a different tact with Final Fantasy XIV.
While Tanaka says that the company was aware that the system, which has players hire NPCs to sell their goods, would create an "inconvenience" for players, the team chose this direction to "avoid some of the disadvantages of Final Fantasy XI's system; players can make some profit out of this deal."
Unfortunately, this "inconvenience" means that players cannot search for a specific item easily and must engage with a huge number of NPCs.
Tanaka's slide during his presentation said that this system was developed because it "makes it difficult for a single market rate to become established, providing the seller with more opportunity to turn a profit."
However, the slide went on to imply that the company may completely backpedal on its new in-game selling system. "We wish to continue observing the current in game market trends before deciding which method, [auction house or NPC market], is better," it said.
Tanaka added that "We can prepare new tools to improve searching."
This game is dead. MMO's CANNOT have bad launches. It is much better to delay the game and have it done right, and this is especially true for MMO's which need a critical mass of players in order for a self-sustaining community to develop. People who cancel immediately due to bugs are generally leaving for good. When will they come back? Maybe a few months to weeks later just to see how the game is. Only problem is, people come back at random times only to find empty servers and no community even if the game itself has been adequately patched and fixed.
Japanese Gaming companies are batting near .000 these days and this is especially true for SE. FF may no longer be a system seller anymore in overseas territories and their new properties have done rather awful.
I was not a fan of FF XIII but it sold a few million copies. I'd like to see a whole host of changes and updates in VS XIII or in XV to bring SE back to their gold standard but we'll have to wait and see.
That said, XIV is just flat-out bad. The crafting system is absurdly complicated, the user-to-user selling system is broken, the combat is somewhat fun and changing professions at any time is quite nice, but all that falls apart because of a bland and incongruous quest system.
Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance, but I played the open beta for around 15 hours or so just before launch and was not impressed. The game is pretty, but that doesn't get you very far in an MMO. Why pay a subscription for a game that isn't fun?
I think it's a little misinformed and idealistic to say that MMO'S CANNOT HAVE BAD LAUNCHES.
Most MMO's have bad launches, at least to the fact that there is no foreseeable way-no matter how much testing has been done- to determine just how the game will play out. MMO's are organic in nature; the large organic part itself being the human population and all the variation that comes with human interaction.
XIV definitely had one of the worst launches in history, but from what I've heard and read, so did XI in Japan and the game is now 8 years old and solid as a rock relative to itself, in my opinion.
Doesn't the fact that they purchased the full game in order to get those "free" 30 days basically mean that they're already "fully commit[ted]" to the game? It's not like they're offering a 7-day trial without purchase or anything..
i was there through most all of beta. and the community was extremely active and expressed concern over the direction of the game. The forums were ripe with well written player insight as to why the systems are likely to fail and what can be done to repair.
The SE team almost never responded to any critical topics. Topics were often discussed over the course of weeks and 1000's of posts and many threads. And much begging for clarity on subject matter by SE, went ignored.
Most of us FF fans and players tried to hold out hope till the last week, but it was very apparent then that SE had no intention of even engaging the beta community on serious issues. Even in the wake of a mass exodus of the core fan base. (in the last few weeks of FF, there will multiple threads and 1000s posts of players stating their intention to reluctantly cancel orders)
That said.. SE gets what they deserve. That game was built on some off the wall ideas born in some other universe. And had no intention of hearing what community had to say. Maybe their ego is too big.. who knows...
I find it funny that it is often other developers that help Activision Blizzard the most. Blizzard just has to keep responding to it's audience and improve their game, and other developers will condemn themelves to be second rate.
Even when Blizzard doesnt do it perfect (e.g. zangarmarsh PVP; vehicle combat) they still do so many other things right.....especailly compared to the self-destructive competition.
I hold out hope for Star Wars:KOTR to at least be a success. It will be interesting.
At least they're doing the smart thing and not charging players a monthly subscription fee until these major bugs are fixed. At the very least, it should help retain a large portion of the hardcore FF/MMO fans who bought the game. However, this game obviously needed more play-testing.
Or, as Mike mentions, listening to feedback and implementing changes. It honestly doesn't take but a couple of hours in the game to realize that isn't working. That's how glaring the problems are. It seems like SE made decisions early on that they stuck to regardless of feedback.
MMOs have become black holes for money. FF14 isn't the only MMO to completely ignore user feedback. The more cash that goes into an MMO the less risk that company takes. In result the more of a failure the product will be. Best chance Square has now is to scrap the game and start over. FFXII could be a great MMO. By this point trying to save FF14 is a waste of money. The fans aren't coming back to that game.
An MMO should never launch unless its in decent working order. once it leaves the 'starting gates' it is subject to review. It doesnt matter how much they patch afterwards, if it fails on launch, it will lose almost all its steam and wither away.
It puzzles me why game companies continue to launch so prematurely. I understand MMO dev is mega bucks, and no team can forever listen to the beta community endlessly... but seriously, strike a balance!
Dont even bother investing in an MMO until you can commit to this philosophy. Blizzard follows this rule, and we all know how they do on their games. Should be a no brainer for the rest of the world of gaming.
Blizzard has such a head start on all other games, and it is obvious to anyone who pays attention that part of the "problem" is Blizzard is so good at watching market trends and watching what other MMOs are trying to do.....than beating them to the punch.....and doing it better.
It was no accident that Blizzard launched Winterspring and fixed there rated Arenas right around the time WAR came out. (And have now gone a step further to introduce rated Battlegrounds)
And right around when XBOXs achievement system took off, Blizzard conveniently introduced achievements into WOW.
Even most of the major Add-ons that are made for WOW are now part of the game (quest helper, threat meter, and now raid bars)
Even remaking the old world was part genius, it fits into the lore and storyline while also updating parts of this huge universe that was all but abandoned.
It is going to take not only a ton of money and time to make an MMO that can be any competition to WOW, but they will have to have something unique to offer as well, something WOW can't just add to their game in a better way.
SW:KOTR seems like they may have something that can do that. But it will be interesting to see how well they develop the unique parts of their MMO without denying the players a "fun", accessible experience.
You're giving WAR way too much credit for tipping Blizzard's hand into evolving multi-year old concepts they were already perceptually working on.
It'd be more fair to say they took a look back at genre fables and follies, especially with some of their staff history at games that pioneered large scale, team vs team PvP; namely Abyss Test Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot, but it's just silly to me when people act like Blizzard completely uproots their packed development plans to thwart games that pose no threat to them.
As for Final Fantasy XIV, it was always doomed to failure. Final Fantasy XI has had such a meager history for updates and content and really squandered what good will they had by developing an interesting, but flawed, base set of systems with all that.
What amazes me about XIV isn't that it's failing or being damned to a small cult status at best, it's that they've seemingly ignored every single aspect of their first generation title. It's as if it was never made, nor any other game in the genre. It's like XIV was developed in some vacuum with decade old knowledge only. It plays like it is trying to compete with the original Everquest.
I - and many others in my guild - were interested in this game. We have a strong preference for more open class systems and FFXIV ticked most of our boxes.
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Japanese Gaming companies are batting near .000 these days and this is especially true for SE. FF may no longer be a system seller anymore in overseas territories and their new properties have done rather awful.
That said, XIV is just flat-out bad. The crafting system is absurdly complicated, the user-to-user selling system is broken, the combat is somewhat fun and changing professions at any time is quite nice, but all that falls apart because of a bland and incongruous quest system.
Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance, but I played the open beta for around 15 hours or so just before launch and was not impressed. The game is pretty, but that doesn't get you very far in an MMO. Why pay a subscription for a game that isn't fun?
Most MMO's have bad launches, at least to the fact that there is no foreseeable way-no matter how much testing has been done- to determine just how the game will play out. MMO's are organic in nature; the large organic part itself being the human population and all the variation that comes with human interaction.
XIV definitely had one of the worst launches in history, but from what I've heard and read, so did XI in Japan and the game is now 8 years old and solid as a rock relative to itself, in my opinion.
The SE team almost never responded to any critical topics. Topics were often discussed over the course of weeks and 1000's of posts and many threads. And much begging for clarity on subject matter by SE, went ignored.
Most of us FF fans and players tried to hold out hope till the last week, but it was very apparent then that SE had no intention of even engaging the beta community on serious issues. Even in the wake of a mass exodus of the core fan base. (in the last few weeks of FF, there will multiple threads and 1000s posts of players stating their intention to reluctantly cancel orders)
That said.. SE gets what they deserve. That game was built on some off the wall ideas born in some other universe. And had no intention of hearing what community had to say. Maybe their ego is too big.. who knows...
I find it funny that it is often other developers that help Activision Blizzard the most. Blizzard just has to keep responding to it's audience and improve their game, and other developers will condemn themelves to be second rate.
Even when Blizzard doesnt do it perfect (e.g. zangarmarsh PVP; vehicle combat) they still do so many other things right.....especailly compared to the self-destructive competition.
I hold out hope for Star Wars:KOTR to at least be a success. It will be interesting.
No amount of user testing can help that.
An MMO should never launch unless its in decent working order. once it leaves the 'starting gates' it is subject to review. It doesnt matter how much they patch afterwards, if it fails on launch, it will lose almost all its steam and wither away.
It puzzles me why game companies continue to launch so prematurely. I understand MMO dev is mega bucks, and no team can forever listen to the beta community endlessly... but seriously, strike a balance!
Dont even bother investing in an MMO until you can commit to this philosophy. Blizzard follows this rule, and we all know how they do on their games. Should be a no brainer for the rest of the world of gaming.
It was no accident that Blizzard launched Winterspring and fixed there rated Arenas right around the time WAR came out. (And have now gone a step further to introduce rated Battlegrounds)
And right around when XBOXs achievement system took off, Blizzard conveniently introduced achievements into WOW.
Even most of the major Add-ons that are made for WOW are now part of the game (quest helper, threat meter, and now raid bars)
Even remaking the old world was part genius, it fits into the lore and storyline while also updating parts of this huge universe that was all but abandoned.
It is going to take not only a ton of money and time to make an MMO that can be any competition to WOW, but they will have to have something unique to offer as well, something WOW can't just add to their game in a better way.
SW:KOTR seems like they may have something that can do that. But it will be interesting to see how well they develop the unique parts of their MMO without denying the players a "fun", accessible experience.
It'd be more fair to say they took a look back at genre fables and follies, especially with some of their staff history at games that pioneered large scale, team vs team PvP; namely Abyss Test Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot, but it's just silly to me when people act like Blizzard completely uproots their packed development plans to thwart games that pose no threat to them.
As for Final Fantasy XIV, it was always doomed to failure. Final Fantasy XI has had such a meager history for updates and content and really squandered what good will they had by developing an interesting, but flawed, base set of systems with all that.
What amazes me about XIV isn't that it's failing or being damned to a small cult status at best, it's that they've seemingly ignored every single aspect of their first generation title. It's as if it was never made, nor any other game in the genre. It's like XIV was developed in some vacuum with decade old knowledge only. It plays like it is trying to compete with the original Everquest.
Then they announced fatigue.