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FF XI Goes Live in Japan
Castolari writes "Gameforms reports about the Japanese launch of FF XI, Square's online venture with
the series. Apparently, there's some serious technical problems with the
server load as well." They also have some
Screenshots.
I'm still hoping that someone will get the MMORPG right in the not so distant
future.
Check out the World Forge project. It's an open source attempt at creating a customizable MMORPG. They need help too with a bunch of stuff, but what they have so far looks really neat. Good stuff.
Looks like Square isn't the only one having serious problems with their servers ...
I think I speak for the entire population of the Universe when I say: "holy cow."
This game looks good.
The one to beat for this Christmas season, that's for sure. (You listening, MS?)
We're rapidly approaching the point where games will be indistinguishable from real life.
Actually, maybe that already happened.
Something to consider.
Stay safe out there, everyone.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
After their unsuccessful movie venture, Square is walking a dangerous line especially as initial reports are saying that takeup has been relatively poor yet the technical infrastructure is unable to handle even this. Hence, large amounts of dissatisfaction even before the usual problems with cheating and administration...
Check out drac.org for more info (here's their FAQ)
Some of the highlights:
FFXI requires the USB modem and the PS2 harddrive
and CANNOT be played offline.
Anything you can do, I can do meta.
Dammit peoples, what the hell is wrong with you?!
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
You are not kidding.
I had to take the bus to work for a month after playing GTA3...
A. I'd lost the habit of driving on the left side of the road (I live in U.K/Ireland).
B. I had the temptation to mount the pavement to get past slow moving traffic.
C. I could not longer drive 1st person, I'd have to sit on the roof and control the car via a complicated set of cables through the sunroof.
I'm hoping the next version of GTA will have some neato network gaming ability. Imagine being able to hook up with an online cartel, or the thrill of starting a riot with other players or foiling their missions with a well-aimed grenade...
From my Autobiography - "Lifestyles of the Sad and Desperate"...
I don't know about you but for some strange reason playing football (soccer), basketball etc with my mates is for some reason alot more fun than looking at a computer game.
Life isn't watching a TV set, and as good as graphics get, no game will ever equal that feeling as you blast in a shot from 20 yards, or nail a 3 pointer over your work mates.
Games are fun, but if you can't tell the difference between a game and your life... then you need help.
And no game ever will beat the smile you get from your kid first thing in the morning.
Cool game, I might get it, but please... like real life ?
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Umm lets see so Japan tolerates bugs does it.
Japan has Sony, Nintendo, Panasonic etc etc the consumer gods of planet earth. Why do we like them ? Because they work EVERYTIME.
The US has Microsoft, CDMA, Oracle and the gods of bloatware.
They are testing in Japan because ITS A JAPANESE GAME!
Don't be lulled into a feeling that they can't build things better in Japan.... imagine Honda v Harley Davidson in a race.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
> I'm still hoping that someone will get the MMORPG right in the not so distant future.
Are you talking about this MMORPG, or MMORPGs in general? IIRC, FFXI isn't trying anything drastically new in the Massively Online RPG arena (besides being on a console. Whoop.)
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
UO, EQ, AO, AC all had problem starting. Only Camelot had a decent start up and that's only because they've done it all before. Funcom even lost a large chunk of their workforce due to the poor launch and its taken about 6 months to get back on track.
:)
MMPORGs are nothing to be taken lightly and they usually take a minimum of about 2-3 years of development. I honestly don't feel Square is up to the task, a RPG and MMPORG are completely differnet genres and require a completely different approach to games. With thousands of people playing and paying everday your customer service and community connections becomes a large factor, costs, hardware, in game and out of game support, patching, exploiting, bugs and a hundred other things become a daily task that is daunting to say the least.
The other large thing to look at is the console vs. pc. PC users are used to patching things, downloading, dealing with other people, dealing with connectivity issues and with 10 years and counting of online gaming things still work well but not great. Its a slow process and one I don't think the console user is ready for. Your average PC gamer understands ping and packet loss a little bit more and your average MMPORG user knows not to expect to log onto a new server let alone a new game the first week it goes live.
Going from a static game to a MMPORG is like a car making deciding to make planes all of a sudden. Its kind of the same, but not at all.
I congratulate Square in trying to do something new to the console but I think they are going to be nothing more then a guninea pig
So, Round 1 of the console wars is over, with Sony far in 1st place, and Nintendo and the Xbox somewhere in second. (Most of my figures say Nintendo is in the 2nd place slot, but its so close nobody can tell.)
Round 2 has now begun - and it's over before it's even started. Look at the competition:
Sony - spend $150 on a 40 Gigabyte hard drive with ethernet and modem ports. Use with any ISP you with. Developers provide the servers.
The games: Final Fantasy XI, Everquest, and Star Wars: Galaxies
Nintendo - spend $35 on either an ethernet adapter, or a modem. Use with any ISP you want. Developers provide the servers.
The Games: Phantasy Star Online 1 and 2.
Xbox - spend $0 dollars - but you have to sign up for a fee (price unknown, assumed to be $5-$10 a month). Servers maintained by Microsoft (a point that kept that kept EA out of the Xbox online system.
The Games: Um....
This is why I sold my Xbox yesterday. (And have exactly enough in store credit that I could get a new one in case the Xbox comes out with something pretty damn cool.)
But so far, Sony is far and away doing the best job with online gaming, and with their partnership with AOL, and the Linux system on the PS2, I think the fears Microsoft had (as detailed in the first part of the book Opening the Xbox, where the Xbox was mainly a reaction to the fear that the PS2 would become a hoome computer), are all coming true.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Actually after a heavy weekend of it, B kinda came true. That and getting VERY angry when someone cut me up. At that point I decided not to play so much ;)
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
I'm still hoping that someone will get the MMORPG right in the not so distant future.
Cross your fingers. If Neverwinter Nights turns out to be any good, it has the potential to be a peer-to-peer MMORPG. You can supposedly interconnect realms hosted on various machines through 'portals'. Granted, you may not be able to get 1000 users in one specific realm if some schmuck is running it in his basement on an overclocked 486, but with sufficient linking of portals, you can really pretend it's a huge single realm.
-Andrew
The site is down but for those who want to see some screens you can go
here
After looking at the level of detail on this and thinking this is supposed to be multiplayer I don't doubt they have "technical" issues
Some people do not like to go after anyone they don't like. Some people even don't like to fight monsters.
Which is fine! A problem that has often been mentioned in relation to MMORPGs is that everyone wants to be a king, a mighty warrior or a mage, and no one wants to play a peasant, underdog or craftsman. Existing MMORPGS have shown that that is not true: plenty of people do not mind roleplaying such a role. The truly succesful MMORPG will either cater to a sufficiently large group of one particular kind of player, or combine a multitude of play-styles, both within the game-world, and by having different worlds for different people (like the normal and the roleplay servers of Dark age of Camelot). I would prefer the second, since it will result in diversity, and create an opportunity to try different playstyles.
That is the hard part, try and make all of the following play styles and roles viable:
- people who like to play solo
- people who like to team up
- Hardcore / casual PvP'ers
- Both casual and full-time players. A big, big problem with many of these games is that low-level characters cannot join up with the more experienced warriors and go hunting together
- Craftsmen, peasants, merchants, diplomats, etc.
- People playing for fame, for gold, for fun or for company.
Also take in mind that people will switch from one role to the other often.
Next is your environment. You need stable servers and good staff, to help out players in trouble, catch grief players and cheaters, and perhaps provide content as well.
Lastly, players need to have an impact on the environment. This can take many forms, but the idea that your actions matter in the game is a big draw for many people.
Most of todays MMORPSs seem to focus on fighting and/or PvP, and have no viable crafter classes. The ever so popular 1st person view makes having conversations with more than 2 people rather hard Compare looking at a tiny chat window that shows all text around you, to the overhead view of Ultima Online, where speech text appears over the heads of the people speaking. Whatever faults that game may have, they got that part right. Lack of meaningful, non-aggressive interaction and having only combat characters as a viable class makes all the current MMORPGs a rather bland experience. Excepting Ultima Online: I have tried all the others, but I have never given up on that one. It is still the game with by far the widest possible range of play styles.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Anyone have a mirror? I'm bored at work!
My major problem is, while walking, I tend to think, "Hey, I'm tired of walking and that's a nice car! I should just jack it."
I may be wrong, but I'm never uncertain.
I'm to busy looking for hookers to think about all that other stuff. :)
This the bit I am dreading about a multiplayer GTA. Then when you stop for a hooker, it'll really be some huge sailer with a beard playing as a hooker and I'll feel really dirty afterwards...
From my Autobiography - "Lifestyles of the Sad and Desperate"...
Seriously, what's so great about MMORPGs? Do people just like throwing money away? You have to pay to get the game on your system (whether it be PC or console) and then you have to pay a monthly fee to play the game. Let's take a normal rate of $10/month. That's $120/year just to PLAY a game you probably paid atleast $35 to get, plus the cost of an ISP. Does anyone realize that's just stupid? Do you REALLY need a game that never ends, sucks all your money out of the bank, and withdraws you from a real social life? Why are people happy this is coming to the console games?
I realize everyone's tastes are different, but online games seem extremely expensive to me. Diablo II was a game that never really ended and I just paid a one time flat fee to buy the game. Why would I want to spend even more money to play such a game online?
I've played almost every FF game since FF 1 on NES, and with the exception of FF8, I've largely enjoyed all of them. I am bummed that FFXI is a MMORPG game simply because I begin to wonder if they'll target all their future RPGs for onling play. I will not play online games with the current cost structure (I have a hard time justifying paying $50 for a game and usually wait until they become $20). Square has largely been a reliable source for great RPGs (with a few exceptions), and if they start making online games only, what's left to fill the void? I've always enjoyed RPG games and would be rather upset if they all went online and as such disappeared from my gaming life.
I for one am bummed. Anyone know if FFXII will be online also?
KhyronHere are some of the highlights:
Unlimited numbers of players within one persistent-state world
Advance, Distributed Artificial Intelligence
Every game genre
Multiple, concurrent games
Any connected device
Hot-swappable components
Shared-source developer sandbox
http://www.kubuntu.org/
I once had an experience sort of like B. After playing Spy Hunter a lot (this was back in the days when it was new), one day I had a momentary urge to drive into the back of a red 18-wheeler. Of course it didn't put its ramp down.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
The post implies "Right" has something to do with a bug-free launch. Which Dark Age of Camelot did - it was playable from Day 1. No framerate issues, no server issues - they were the *first MMOG in HISTORY* to get this right. UO had server issues, EQ had server issuses, not sure about AC - but I bet it had server issues, and let's not even get into AO or WWIIO (ie, massive problems that rendered the games unplayable for months).
The other MMOGs had stuff going for them, but DAoC has been the only one with a good launch.
-lw
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
Err so this is why the World Superbikes, 500cc, 250cc and in fact every division is dominated by European or Japanese bikes. This is the very top level of the sport, and not an American bike in sight.
Bloody hell there really is none so blind as those that will not see.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Damn right. Princess Garnet in FF IX has the cutest arse I've ever seen!
"Don't get mad, get a monkey!"
The thing that always gets me is lack of a save button. "Okay, I've got a final in Financial Markets. I'll save before I go in, so that if I do badly I can reload and take it again."
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
You stole my thunder :)
To get a MMORPG right, first take out the first M. In all of my years of enjoying RPG's whether it be pen & paper or video games, I have never enjoyed it with 2500 other people, I only enjoyed it with 4 or 5 other people.
As soon as people realize that camping out spawns is not a true RPG, more and more people will realize that anything multi-massive anything is not the way to go.
My hope is not for NWN to be kickass (because the geek boy in me is wishing to God that it is) but for the game to be revolutionary.
ChozSun
ChozSun.com
I agree with you - some people want to play tradesman, some want to play peasants, and some want to play adventurers. And there's all kinds of other things and shades in between.
The real issue is that you have to allow for this without forcing it. What if nobody wants to play a serf? Ok, that's fine... but how do you replace the function that they were supposed to serve, without making who play the role have to compete too much against the game itself? If they don't serve a function then what's the point of having them at all?
And you have to balance the need/not-needed very, very finely or else things get out of whack badly (look at clerics in EQ - single most necessary class in the game and the single most boring, mind-numbing class to play too, especially at the uber end of the game. My wife played one. I played an enchanter. Neither of us play anymore.)
The craft issue becomes a problem because it's a lot easier to add an item to a monster than it is to add 5 items in various spots in the world and add a recipe to create the original item you wanted to create in the first place. Plus you start entering trust issues with tradesman in a world where there's little recourse.
I am not a gamer, but armed with a little bit of knowledge and common sense, find many posts a bit strange.
People say: 150$ to get online is a lot/not a lot. Well, 150 is the HD + Eth. card, but since you don't need the HD, you can get online for 40$ (price of the Eth. addon).
People say: PS2 doesn't have an advantage because Xbox will have online games, too. Well gee, PS2 has an online game right fucking now. If that's not an advantage, I don't know what is. And FF fanatics will get on the bandwagon, I believe. The Xbox doesn't have a title with a solid reputation and broad following.
Sigged!
Oh, give me a break - a stage musical also lacks many qualities of experience, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hold quality. Got news for you - playing video games, going to see a stage production, playing Nine Man's Morris, or watching Evil Dead with a group of friends is all *part* of "Real Life".
--
evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien