So if you have been following along with the Media-PC build up you know it’s one bad lad and the reason behind it is because I wanted a true all-in-one machine, a do-it-all, no holds barred, balls to the wall beast. OK maybe I am exaggerating a bit but I did want something very powerful and it would be the epicenter of my home entertainment system. The next reason is to play the upcoming FFXIV (that’s Final Fantasy 14 for non-nerds). I knew the game would be pretty demanding once you got in a nice sized group with everything cranked to the max including AA & AF. So anyway lets get back into the topic.
Open beta dropped a few days ago but after I visited the site to download the client Square had posted FFXIV was postponed without a new launch date. I seen the download client on the site but figured I’d wait until whatever issues are fixed and then come back and grab it. I get a new e-mail saying FFXI is ready but when I visit the site again there isnt any download client to be found, figures. So this brings up issue #1, my theory is that FFXI likely had a cap put on the NA (that means USA) downloads and I’m sure there is one for the JP (that means Japanese) also but I bet the JP Beta players heavily outnumber the NA Beta players. So there is it, issue #1 Catering to the JP crowd .
Anyway I search the web and find the client up for download on another site, I found some links back to the SE main site but they were all down. The only thing with the downloaded client is that it was a Closed Beta client but according to the main Beta site the client would work with some updates. I download the client and I am already not expecting to get any updates based on my experience with FFXI on a patch day. Basically because the SE servers are in JP land and everyone in JP land and the NA land are slamming the servers with update request it just kills the servers and causes them to timeout. I remember this with FFXI more than any other MMORPG that I have ever played and that’s a lot. Once again I believe this is mainly due to the servers location which is issue #2.
I fire up the client and I try to update it anyway several times over and no go. I fire it up this morning and same deal, no go. This brings me around to issue #3, sit tight it’s coming. There was something I noticed with the client that reminded me of FFXI and I will need to reference FFXI to explain it. Now when a very large program like FFXI (over 4GB) needs to update do you think its necessary to check every single file? Probably not. Even so the client did this just as FFXI / POL client did. It would check all the file which would take an extremely long time even for a small update and then start updating. Now the real kick in the ass is because of the server instability and downloads timing out sometimes the entire scan would go off just to have the actual download time out. Now as if that’s not bad enough when the download would time out it would close out the download progress completely or in the case of the Beta client it would just close the whole damn program. No biggie right? I mean it already scanned the files so it must have made an .ini file or something to store which files needed to be updated and the versions of those files. Nope, nothing, nadda, it keeps NO record of what it just did so it starts over from scratch scanning files.
Yes were still on issue number 3, this is a big one. Now the worst part is this isnt some anomoly that doesnt happen often, it was actually fairly common that FFXI would start updating and then crap out and force you to start over from the begining. It will make you think your stuck in some endless looping hell because there is no possible way someone could be retarded enough to let this fly through QC.
OK to wrap this up let me say that it’s likely not that someone over at SE over looked something or they just don’t know what their doing. The likely issue is that we all play games to have fun, SE doesn’t design games for us to have fun, they design games to make MONEY and when they make a game that makes money monthly from subscriptions it’s crucial they keep people subscribed. All the seconds they cause you to wait add up and it’s more likely if they shut you down for the day because of time wasters, your just going to do what you wanted to do the next day instead of not doing it at all which means you just subscribed for one day longer. The time wasters don’t stop there either, they carry on into the game with things like, only 1 class can run fast and for a very limited amount of time, instant travel such as warping & teleporting will only take you to a small handful of locations in the world, mass transit is very slow and has long delays between trips and only travels between 3 locations in the world, all locations other then the main 3 will have to be traveled on foot or by chocobo which is the ONLY transportation available to the masses that is faster than running and they are all the same speed and not a whole ton faster than running on foot, and finally let’s not even get started on battles and how you can literally count to 3 locomotives in between player swings (NOT TURNS! SWINGS!).
So that’s it, I’m done bitching and back to praying FFXIV isn’t at all like FFXI because I have had my fill of the game. I played for 3 years steady and 2 more off and on. I designed software for the game which in itself racked up many hours of non-play in game activities. I’m just hoping SE has learned from other MMO’s and see’s that you don’t need to waste time to keep people playing. I also hope they don’t completely cater to the whiners and become like WOW where everything is handed to you twice over and it takes no skill what so ever to hit max level in a month. Let’s all hope SE has learned the ancient Japanese art of balance, control, and speed.
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