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The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's horse year
As I steadily collect another set of holiday hats for little reason other than an inexplicable need to collect these things (and I'd really like to be able to store my Usagi Kabuto while I'm at it, thanks), it's a fair time to look at the next year for Final Fantasy XIV's development. The game launched well, has made some missteps, and the next year is really going to determine how well it can manage over the long term. I'm not pretending that I have a picture-perfect roadmap for the game over the next year, but I do think there are some pretty obvious things to be addressed. There are gaps to be filled in, systems that could stand to be improved, and more systems that would have a positive effect on retention and play. So let's look at what the next year will hopefully bring other than equine headpieces.
The Mog Log: 2013 in review for Final Fantasy XI and XIV
This feels as if it's been a really long year to me. Spending an entire year waiting for a game to re-release is certainly part of the reason why, but it really seems that there were a lot of things going on for both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV over the last 365-ish days. I didn't even do a year-in-review last year because what could be reviewed? One game shut down and was waiting for a full revamp, and the other was just hitting the numbers and moving along. This year, though, has been the big one. The fifth expansion that no one ever expected to release actually came out. The relaunch happened. A whole lot of mechanics got updated. I flew across the freaking country. It was a big year if you were a fan of online games with moogles, even if that year wound up being a lot bigger for Final Fantasy XIV than Final Fantasy XI.
The Mog Log: A week of Final Fantasy XIV's patch 2.1
All right, I admit that the headline is a dirty lie. It hasn't been a full week however you slice it; the patch dropped on Tuesday, and I've only been able to play it for two days before writing this. To make up for that fact, I've devoured Final Fantasy XIV's patch with a zeal I usually reserve for hamburgers, although I still haven't seen everything there is to see. Though if I had seen all of it in two days, that would kind of be a problem anyway... The point is that 2.1 is pretty dang huge, even if it includes one feature that's a massive blemish. So let's take a look at what the patch has to offer, how the various new features hold up, and where the patch falls down -- other than with housing, which is already a great big "fall down" that will be addressed all by itself.
The Mog Log Extra: Final Fantasy XIV's great housing fiasco
This past Saturday morning, Final Fantasy XIV announced free company housing prices in its patch notes for 2.1. These prices did not explicitly include an upturned middle finger and looping sounds of laughter, but they may as well have. This was not a positive move by Square-Enix. With the patch scheduled for release on Tuesday, players had an enormous part of their enjoyment kneecapped immediately and almost arbitrarily. One of the major features of this patch that has been announced and discussed repeatedly is housing, and nearly every free company I spoke with said that this announcement more or less killed any dream of having housing accessible to the players on my server. And they're not the only ones. To say that this has been disheartening is an understatement. Final Fantasy XIV has had an immensely strong relaunch, and this debacle -- and the complete lack of communication from the community team on the issue -- is absolutely astounding. These are not launch woes that almost every game suffers from; this is a result of failing to consider so many basic elements of playstyles and the playerbase.
The Mog Log: Preparing for patch 2.1 in Final Fantasy XIV
All right, everyone, the time is nearly upon us. Final Fantasy XIV is about to unleash its first big patch. Please remain calm and take everything slowly. If necessary, painkillers may be consumed to reduce swelling. Anti-anxiety medications are not recommended. A friend of mine noted on Twitter that the presentation for this patch reads more like an expansion than just a patch, and I have to agree. There is a lot being added to the game with this patch, more than you would expect. I haven't been playing around with it on the test server thanks to the lack of a test server, but we've still seen enough information to have some idea of what comes next. So let's talk about patch 2.1. When it finally goes live, where will you go? What will you do? How can you get the most out of Final Fantasy XIV's major drop?
The Mog Log: There's nothing to say about Final Fantasy XI
At a glance, Final Fantasy XI is doing all right for itself. It's been running for over a decade and has had to deal with only occasional server merges. It launched another new expansion this year. It certainly doesn't have the population that it used to have, but the people who are playing seem happy enough with the game, and that's what matters. And yet for all that I ostensibly write about both of Square-Enix's online games, these days it's pretty much all Final Fantasy XIV. Some readers have asked me why this is. Have I fallen out of love with Final Fantasy XI? Yes. And no. It's complicated. And I think discussing why I'm not writing more about XIV's more classic sibling also bears some discussion in the context of the game as a whole. So let's talk about why there's so little to say about Vana'diel these days, even while Vana'diel continues to be an active environment.
The Mog Log: Thankful for Final Fantasy XIV
A year ago, Final Fantasy XIV had just ended and I was embarking on my long road of speculation about what the relaunch would look like. Today, I am... well, I'm a little bored because I've got to wait until the 17th to get any new content in the game. I could really use a break from chain-running Wanderer's Palace. But beyond those details, I'm pretty darn happy to be playing the game that I've got in front of me. And you know what? It's the time to be thankful if you live in the United States. So while I'm writing this before the annual turkey-induced coma that is Thanksgiving, I'm going to talk about what I'm thankful for in Final Fantasy XIV. For all the quibbles that I do have with the game, the relaunch has wildly exceeded my expectations, and I think it's only fair to give the game some respect.
The Mog Log: Lightning fizzles in FFXIV
There's something a bit odd about playing what amounts to a promotional event for a game you won't be seeing for several months. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII promises to conclude the two-part trilogy that its predecessor created, but it's not coming out in the US until February of next year, leading to a minor disconnect. Still, it matters only in the broadest sense; after all, most of the references packed in hearken back to the first game in the set, and I didn't need a pre-order to know that I wanted a gunblade. So I've been following along with Final Fantasy XIV's event and dutifully progressing along the quest chain for the week. But I wasn't terribly impressed all around. I think there were some very nice touches coupled with some really baffling decisions here and there, and the overall effect was rather lackluster. It isn't really the fault of the event so much as a problem with popularity.
The Mog Log: Everything but the endgame in Final Fantasy XIV's 2.1
I can't promise to anyone that this column will not mostly be about housing. I'd like to, but I just can't make that promise. Yes, it's time to analyze Final Fantasy XIV's upcoming patch 2.1 with an eye toward something other than the various direct endgame changes. Truth be told, I think all of these features will still have a pretty big impact on the endgame landscape, but they're not going to have the direct impact of new dungeons or the like. They're going to add money, they're going to offer story, and they're going to offer a place to congregate. Worth noting is that the Lightning event currently running in Final Fantasy XIV is running until December 9th. Does that mean that patch 2.1 is dropping then? I can't say that for sure, but it would make a certain amount of logical sense. So let's turn our eyes to the patch and start speculating.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's patch 2.1 on the endgame
Two months out from Final Fantasy XIV's launch, I haven't had a chance to talk about any of the information we've seen about patch 2.1. That is kind of great. I haven't been thinking extensively about what the next big thing will be because I'm too busy enjoying the game right now. But that patch is approaching, and you'd better believe that it's going to include enough stuff to shake things up again -- enough that I could really write four or five columns just looking forward to what's coming next. First let's look at some of the elements that are going to seriously affect the endgame this week.
The Mog Log: Understanding Final Fantasy XIV's markets
There are lots of ways to make money in Final Fantasy XIV, but the fastest way to increase your riches comes from smart use of the market boards. (Yes, you're not creating new money to enter the system; there are a lot of ways to do that, too. Go do some leves.) This is why I'm baffled at how many people understand the principle but don't understand how to sell things on the markets. Some of this probably comes from the fact that the system is never explained in great depth, but it doesn't help that the system isn't set up to work like many auction systems in other MMOs. So while some of you already grasp this and are enjoying the singular fun of being locked into a pricing war with three other people, others aren't sure how to get their Fleece to sell. Let's talk about some market truths you might not have realized.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV is (not) Halloween
It's my favorite time of the year again. Really; there is absolutely nothing I love more than the relentless Halloweening through October. I love the decorations, I love the genuine scares, I love the humorous antics, and I love the whole atmosphere. So you can be sure that I was as enthusiastic about Final Fantasy XIV's newest incarnation of All Saints' Wake as possible. I was up early just to try out what the game had to offer. Afterward, I was somewhat less than impressed. It's not that I think it's a bad event, just that it's a bit lackluster, something that the game has suffered from thus far on the holiday front. So let's talk about what went right, what went wrong, and what can be improved for the next few years of the game's operation for at least this one holiday because darn it -- Halloween events matter. Unless you really don't like holiday events, in which case I don't know what to tell you.
The Mog Log: Straight on down the line of Final Fantasy XIV's endgame
Well, what do you know. Just before I was going to write a column about Final Fantasy XIV's endgame, the development changed the entire thing. And with such a little change, too. Before Tuesday, the endgame was pretty simple. You had two main instances to worry about and three primals, one of which was only really relevant for a single quest. If you were decked out from all that, you had another challenge to undertake. The actual makeup hasn't changed since Tuesday, but which instances matter and how they're run has, since you now have two ways of getting those all-important Mythology tomestones. For some of you reading, this is all stuff you don't even need to worry about yet. For others, it's the right here and right now that you deal with on a daily basis. So let's look at what the endgame is, what it was, and why I find myself oddly satisfied with it despite the overall sparse landscape.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's best and most disappointing bosses
I don't know if I exactly agree with Naoki Yoshida's stance that Final Fantasy XIV is about group content first and foremost, but darn if the game's group content isn't pretty awesome. I can't remember the last game where I was this happy to queue up and head into a dungeon, even if I didn't have a full group backing me. Which means that I've gotten very familiar with the game's bosses. The best bosses are pretty easy to pick out for me; they're the ones that hit all the right notes in terms of challenge and whatnot. But the expected counterpart is the worst bosses, and... really, there are a lot of factors that can play into the term worst. So, I'm not pointing out the worst as much as I'm pointing out the disappointments. The top five of each, in rough order. Enjoy.
The Mog Log: After the story of Final Fantasy XIV
First of all, putting this front and center: there are spoilers aplenty in the article past the cut. You have been warned, and will be warned again. I wrapped up the main story of Final Fantasy XIV a little while ago, got to see the final cutscenes that last for about a month, and was rewarded with a nice new mount for my trouble. I also got some big metaplot advancement and access to the endgame dungeons that I'll be running until we get more of them, so that was nice. But today I don't want to talk about how Amdapor Keep and Castrum Meridianum do an excellent job of being an endgame without being one, I want to talk about the actual story as a whole. Including the final revelations, the pacing of the plot, and where the game has to go from here. Again, spoilers past the cut. If you have not beaten the main story and want it to remain a secret, please, don't read past this point.
The Mog Log: You've got to make a living in Final Fantasy XIV
There's a lot of stories to be told about Final Fantasy XIV now that I'm back up at the endgame. Amdapor Keep is an interesting dungeon, for example, and the mechanics of tomestones as a whole are fascinating to me. But it also brings me within spitting distance of what some have described as the true weakness of the game, which is that there's no way to actually make money in the endgame. That your repair bills mount and you don't get any further money to back you up, thus opening a drain that never really closes. I honestly find this kind of amusing, because I've made more money since the relaunch than I had when it started. And that's with buying relic precursors, gear, repairs, and so forth. There are some issues with the game's economy, definitely, but some of those issues simply come from people being unfamiliar with how the game handles things like making money. The past several years have taught us how to make money in an MMO, but Final Fantasy XIV doesn't back those ideas up. It's a different paradigm here.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV breaks the narrative rules (and still works)
Monday was the end of the line for me in Final Fantasy XIV, if you consider clearing the last story-based instance in the game the end. (I don't.) The final rush of dungeons ends with at least five different grudge matches that had been built up over the course of the game, villains who were put in their place, and all of the plot revelations you could ask for. None of which I really want to talk about in detail here, because there are a lot of people who have not yet cleared the story. What I can talk about is how the game presents its story, which is straight out of the huge book of mistakes that games are advised not to make. It sends you all over the map, back and forth for fetch quests and to convey simple messages. It gleefully mixes in forced group content along with forced solo content, meaning that you can't even rush the whole thing with a good group. The story only changes in the initial levels based on what nation you start with; beyond that it's the same every time through. And yet it works wonderfully.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's dungeons
My interest in Final Fantasy XIV is not purely about racing to the endgame, but I am well aware there is an endgame. And while I'm easily distracted by the pursuits of other goals such as leveling Arcanist, I'd rather be on the early side to the party. There's nothing wrong with not being the first at endgame, but I'd prefer to beat the rush, if you know what I mean. So my playtime has been focused a bit more toward getting to the end of the story quick-like. This also means going through a lot of Final Fantasy XIV's dungeons. I'm not quite up to the last rush, but considering a lot of people I see are still moving into stuff I left behind a while ago, I'm still a bit ahead of the parabola. So let's take a look at the dungeons along the path from level 1 to level 50 after the initial set (which I covered back in beta).
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's Grand Companies
Wednesday's maintenance came and went, a handful of minor issues surfaced and were quickly squashed, and Final Fantasy XIV moved on. Since the maintenance, I hit a queue once or twice and that was it. This has not stopped several people from crowing that the game has already failed, but most of us have accepted that server issues happen on launch. And you're getting some extra free time out of it in a game whose chief issue is that everyone actually wants to play it. So let's move on and talk about Grand Companies. It's easy to miss the enlistment point in the Companies if you're a Legacy player focusing on other activities, and it's just as easy to enlist and then completely forget about the company since it's a different sort of progress track. So let's talk about what the companies contain, what you can get out of them, and why you should bother caring.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's launch week
It's been a week now since the start of early access in Final Fantasy XIV, and it's been a weird launch. Partly because it's not really a proper launch, it's a relaunch of a game that hadn't been playable for several months and is now back in a form that has changed so much that it's almost unrecognizable. And partly because the servers have sort of been a force of unfettered malevolence; that's definitely an issue as well. Playing the game this week has ultimately been a verbal tug-of-war between two separate but equally important groups. There are the players who can't get in and hold very strong opinions about not being able to get in, and there are the players who can get in and are just playing the game. So it's impossible to talk about the launch week without talking about the launch issues and the servers... which also requires a bit of perspective on MMOs as a whole.
