Square Enix on FF14: “Players Get 8 Hours a Week” (Site NSFW)

Square Enix have finally clarified how their controversial “fatigue” system for limiting player advancement in Final Fantasy XIV works – players are not after all limited to 1 hour of play a day, but instead to a much more generous 8 hours a week.

[Hellsvacancy]

Y r they doin this? if i buy a game i should b able 2 play it 4 as long as i want, its mine

[gamesR4fun]

psy us ta play the game 10-15 every month

n as a bonus we'll be the mother you never wanted.

[CimmerianDrake]

http://www.dictionary.com

I'd use it, it's your friend. I have absolutely no idea what you were trying to say with this post.

[Coffin87]

He means 60$ for a game could be considered pricey.
He further states that an additional 15$ a month could be considered quite overpriced.
As a result, the limitation of 8 playable hours a week could be considered an unbounded cheek.

Actually I got it the first time reading it. Maybe you're the one who should catch up.

[gamesR4fun]

glad ta see the language nazies are still going strong

n ya the interpretation was dead on paying em top dollar ta b the nazi dictator we never wanted while we got the likes of CimmerianDrake and his ilk happy 2 give it away 4 free.

edit n you know the funny thing is i think its a good idea to encourage players to spend less time in front of a game. Just the way they did it was backwards. Instead of punishing they could reward ie if you log in less than 8/h in a week you get a times 10 bonus ta your xp or something. Not only does it give the casuals a more even playground xp wise the hardcore can still grind away without worry.
Anyways positive reward for positive behaviour = win/win Negative award for normal gameplay = a lot of dissatisfied customers.

[Reibooi]

Personally I'm not really gonna believe much of the crap going around about this system right now.

Chances are it will either be heavily modified or removed completely from the final game.

Those that are in the beta have somewhat felt the the system is scaled up to function more heavily given the fact that the level isn't capped at it's max in said beta and that the final release this system will be almost unnoticeable.

A friend of mine from FFXI who also plays WoW told me that WoW had something similar when it first launched a long time ago but that the system was almost instantly removed. I haven't ever played WoW so I can't confirm it's truth but I know she has been playing WoW since it launched so I trust what she says.

Bottom line is that if this system is in the final game in a way that will anger the player base SE will remove it. They need people to play the game to make money and already they know that this is causing a stink and they are not gonna risk the success of the game over something stupid like this.

[Eamon]

Wait I'm confused.

Is the "8 hours a week" only for people who don't pay for subscription?

Because if you have to pay a subscription for that then S-E must be high.

[CimmerianDrake]

You know, I would have come up with a fitting reply, if I understood a damn word you say. I'm not a grammar nazi, I'm a person who likes to understand what I'm reading.

[SilentNegotiator]

Now there's a furry on the front page.

Get rid of it.

[Tricksy]

1. Most of you were never going to play this anyways.

2. This site just wants hits and N4G is giving them just that. DO not click on this misleading article!

3. Here is an explanation of the system in full- properly translated. Enjoy. http://www.ffxivcore.com/

[dc1]

+Plus for you Tricksy!
Your link was a good read... in fact, I like the idea of scaling/measuring the skill application/experiences. Quite frankly, I don’t have the time to spend 25+ hours a week on any game; specifically a online only multiplayer.

This model would be pretty friendly for me and my elk.

[InactiveUser]

See guys, not 1 hour a day...

1 hour and 8 minutes (and don't forget your 34 seconds) a day.

You guys got all riled up over nothing.

/close sarcasm and desktop calculator.

[TheLastGuardian]

Squeenix really shot themselves in the foot with this one. Who's gonna buy it now?

[dendenmooshi]

it's 8 hours of 200% exp. or 100% extra exp. That means after 8 hours it's 0 extra exp. or 100% exp. Shallow site looking for clicks wins again.

[Pika-pie]

Do people on this site actually ever read the article before the jump to conclusions and dump their hate in the comments section...

Of course you are allowed to play for as long as your like. Your only limited to 8 hours a week of XP grinding. The rest of the time you would spend socialising, doing missions, questing, crafting, exploring, minigames, loot grinding... I would imagine.

I support this and I think its an interesting way to stop the MMOs becoming nothing but a level grind. I used to play FFXI and that game is nothing but a level grind.. And its just not fun but you have little choice. You would spend 95% of the time grinding.

Good Job SE

Besides, 8 Hours a week is a generous allocation. I barley scrape together 8 hours of play time on any game at the moment

[JD_Shadow]

Then you're not getting the whole point of WHY they are angry, and though we should just CALM DOWN until we get an actual clarification as to what in the hell this is to begin with and if this is something that's read too much into or not, I get why.

It's a matter of them telling you that you can't do THIS activity or THAT thing. That you HAVE to do one thing or the other, and that you can't be grinding to get your levels up TO do the other things. What if a quest/mission required you to be a certain level at a certain time, or if you were required to go from point A to B, and the trip went through a certain high-level area, or at least a higher level than the places you began and ended the trip, and you couldn't get there until your grinding lock was up because you wouldn't be able to survive at the levels you were at now? Simply put, this is dictating how some people play, especially on MMOs where part of the whole process is about how you want to use your characters, and how much of a time sink MMOs tend to be (some people play, say, WoW all day on some days, and they would never realize they did so until it actually HAPPENS). The fact that you HAVE a choice is PART of the fun. Some people LIKE to be able to kill anything in sight.

Personally, though, this story and the explanation contradicts what was said earlier. They wanted for people to play all the classes yet this thing would be tied to the character, and you would not get a grinding lock refresh if you changed classes? Which one is it? We got two completely different versions of what this is, and they both came from the same site. And again, like the FF Versus 13 360 rumors, NO ONE at SE is coming forward to give us a clear explanation to what was said earlier. It's like they WANT us to be confused and letting the BAD publicity be the ONLY publicity.

But yeah, you didn't get the point of the argument. Or what MMOs are all about.

And you only spend 8 hours or less a week gaming? How do you do that? Even causal gamers spend more than that a week, let alone those with a full time job or school that game when they can.

[Darkfiber]

If you've actually played the beta you'd know this game is a bugged out piece of shit that's designed completely around wasting your time so they can get more money out of you in the long run. Skip it, trust me. I know there's a lot of Final Fantasy fanboys out there with special edition pre-orders and shit who think this is going to be the best game ever but do yourself a favour and cancel it. You are going to be SOOOOOOOO disappointed you have no idea.

[Reibooi]

... wow

You can tell that the final game is going to be EXACTLY the same as the CLOSED BETA!!!??

What drug are you on that lets you see the future like that?

.....

[vhero]

Your only allowed to earn exp for 8 hours a week?? And they expect people to pay a subscription?? Oh dear this game has got FAIL written all over it... I can see them killing this decision after 1 month when nobody buys the game or those who did who didn't realize cry out and don't pay after the first free month.

[Persistantthug]

When there's Fellatio of the Dead on that site :)

[Abriael]

being in beta I can assess that reality isn't nearly that bad.

What happens in the actual game is completely different because, oh so surprising, Sankaku Complex forgot to mention and/or intentionally misinterpreted a few details (they must have some kind of personal vendetta/hate against SE, since all their articles on their games pour seething hate).

1: every class it's completely seprate in it's surplus/fatigue. You have 8+7 hours before exp reaches zero FOR EACH CLASS. When you reach zero with one, you can still play all the others normally, with full experience. Which is a whole lot different from Sankaku Complex' intentionally misleading headlines.

2: When you're not skilling up a class, the fatigue/surplus for that class recharges gradually, so if you play a couple or more classes (thing that, like in Final Fantasy XI, you will HAVE to do in order not to be completely gimped), you will be able to play them all indefinitely by alternating them. Even if the week didn't expire.

3: The message says CLEARLY that the system isn't set in stone, and that they are looking into ways to balance it to be less restrictive (literally "more palatable"), and also to use the surplus experince lost due to the system to reward players in other way. Obviously the system isn't optimal like this (that's why the game is still in beta), and will be balanced.

In conclusion, sankaku complex translated just the bits they wanted, in order to make the matter look as bad as possible, put a misleading headline on top, and threw their credibility to the bushes. Good job!

[avengers1978]

Congrats, now I won't be buying this game... Try to limit my time, try to control what I do, not gonna happen. I'm a CORE gamer, 100%Gamer, Gamer4Life(G4L), and you think your gonna limit me to 8 frickin' hours a week, hell I could eat that up just leaving the game on and walking away to use the bathroom, get a drink, or go smoke a cig.

[milohighclub]

bullshit

[Godmars290]

"This system needs to be explained better by sankaku.

First of all, XIV runs on a system that is NOT entirely exp based. In fact it's less of a factor than your skill level. Every skill and piece of armor you can wear and quests you can take go by your skill level. It is what you would think exp would be doing.

In XIV's case though, exp or "Physical level" is across jobs/weapons/skills. you will keep the same physical level no matter which skill you switch to. SE is only limiting Physical Level and NOT skill level.

People will be able to play the game all they want and never have to slow down. The system just isn't what people are used to.

walk away from this post knowing EXP IS NOT THE MAIN ADVANCING FACTOR IN XIV"

Anyone care to confirm this? Any FFXI players?

Could see how this might be okay, so long as level grinding isn't part of gameplay.

[Lekumkee]

I think SquareEnix has alot of explaining to do. This EXP system needs alot of clarification officially from SquareEnix.

[Marceles]

I think Square needs to confirm it, they clearly say XP but they never clarified if it's only for skill level or for both. That would be even more torture because imagine if you got to level 8 and you have to wait a whole week to safely do the rank 10 missions. You have to stare at Bearded Rock forever in the mean time...and then they already have it so you can only do 8 missions every 2 days, so that's more torture for grinders lol.

I doubt Square wants people to even gain skill points if you can't gain XP along with it. Usually my Physical Level is 1-2 levels ahead of my skill points, but the bad thing is since you can't get stronger, there's no point in even trying to boost your skill level when your XP decreases since you can't kill the tougher mobs. All you can do is hope you land as many special abilities in a fight as you can to get the most skill points you can possibly get.

[Arnon]

"In XIV's case though, exp or "Physical level" is across jobs/weapons/skills. you will keep the same physical level no matter which skill you switch to. SE is only limiting Physical Level and NOT skill level."

Your physical level will determine what you're proficient at, so I'm not entirely sure how one could dismiss such a thing. In fact, your skill(job) level doesn't do much of anything aside from grant new abilities and skill points for weapons for said skill(job).

From what I have experienced, your physical level is one of the most important pieces of player progression in the game. I've already written a rant on this, but a lot of the features to player progression are blatantly flawed. In the beta, you're only granted 12 points to reassign, so it sort of defeats the purpose of being able to switch jobs in the first place. Also, I've been told countless times that you'll be able to reallocate all of your points, but why even have a point allotment system if all we're going to be doing is reallocating them every time we switch jobs?

Back in FFXI, there was only a single level, which consisted of your job, which would auto-assign it's points depending on the job/level/race you were, and I'm honestly not sure why they're not doing that, aside from the obvious that they wouldn't want it to be a carbon-copy of FFXI.

So in conclusion, I would state that your physical level is actually more important that your skill level in terms of actually being good at a job. Physical level determines your attributes and resistances. Unfortunately, you're forced to allocate your points into your attributes and resistances, and they don't increase on their own, at ALL. No matter what physical level you obtain, your stats will be stuck at 15 until you place points in them, which again, doesn't work well with the game's mechanic of being able to switch jobs on the fly.

[Prototype]

Since I played 11 for almost 4 years here's what I think (key word THINK) is going on now that I got to read other threads about the whole situation:

1. Those who played FF11 know once you hit 75 you have the option to switch to merit mode to help boost other stats, which 90% of people did with only less than 30 exp in their level then scream for a Raise 3 when they died instead of maxing exp THEN merit burn so if they die/home point they still keep their level. What I'm getting at is (theoretically) you can only level to a certain point however you can merit all you want.

2. Leveling is restricted so you don't go into a fight overpowered then win within seconds instead of actually spending the time to strategize the fight itself. Those who played 11 HATED level capped fights, especially when Chains of Promethia came out and you did Promyvion at 30 then once you hit chapter 8 it was uncapped. Short answer is they want to prevent level capped fights as much as possible since it was one of the biggest complaints from 11. I have been told they did a level synch but months after I quit; if they had the patch before I made my final decision I would have stayed because the level capped fights alone was a big tax on my character, resources, and time.

Again these are just a few things I'm assuming is going on, I could be wrong and I could be not reading certain things right but that's how I see it.

[Lumbo]

you are close, but you DO keep leveling the Physical aspect. I have been playing the beta some now and the system is quite good imho.

FF14 is an open class game, you can switch class at whim by simply equiping another main tool/weapon. The EXP fade feature only affects the class specific main tool/weapon.

So in other words you can play 24/7 and STILL get full XP all the time by simply rotating skills.

Start by playing 8 hours as gladiator, then switch to the lance and be a "lancer" for 8 hours, then do some fishing (another 8 hours) followed by some cooking (again, 8 more hours full skill and char EXP....) and so on.

You don't even have to do it 8 hours en bloc. You can play as tank in a group for a few hours and then do some crafting or maybe meet up with a group that already has a tank, then you will switch to the caster role by taking your staff out of your pack.... You are expected to fill different roles in FF14, not be a one trick pony.

Its a shame how people, who never tested the system and fail to understand the basics of the game, seem to whine most about the system. And falsely claiming "you are only allowed to play 15h a week" a statement thats so false it hurts.

[Lekumkee]

Looks like my decision of getting FF14 or DC Universe will be an easy one. Great way of f*cking the customers SquareEnix. Who the hell buys and plays an MMO for 8 hours a week? So $15 a month buys me 8 hours of "full experience" every week?

This is a disgusting way of essentially trapping your subscribers into a long term contract if they want to be a high level/elite player, absolutely disgusting and here I thought Activision was bad SquareEnix takes the cake.

[rdgneoz3]

God, so many companies trying to go the casual route. After 8 hours, xp starts to decrease. At 15 hours for the week (which they call "heavy play"), you get 0% of normal xp... Why can't they learn to just give a boost to XP for first few hours played and not penalize the hardcore players...

I hope they just get rid of it. If I pay for a game and a subscription to play it / play it online, I expect to play it as much as I want for the money I pay. Not to be told I can only play so much.

[Sarick]

Most of the gear you get takes months or years to get. Everything in the game is about time syncs. Recently they've started these trail systems where you spend grueling hours doing limit time events just to get a few buffs on the gear.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.or...

[DarkBlood]

looks like I will only pay for Star Wars the old republic as my first mmo, as i dont want my first time to be a horrible experince with an mmo

[Karlnag3]

Good decision. I'm in the beta and "horrible experience" sums it up nicely. Fuck testing this any more, it's now officially a waste of time. Final nail in the coffin there, square.

[Nate-Dog]

This is pretty ridiculous. I'm not getting the game myself but when you fork out how much you pay for a brand new game, plus have to pay a monthly fee to play the thing online, it's a farce if the devs actually say "no, you can't play this for any longer than x amount of time". Maybe SE will come out and say this has all been misconstrued but still, you can't do that to people after charging them to play the darn thing in the first place.

[Godmars290]

More like they're saying that after a set amount of time you wont receive and direct benefit from playing, your character will stop developing to a certain extent, but otherwise I get what you're saying.

[PopEmUp]

hentai pic?

[rdgneoz3]

Because the site its on is NSFW. Give you a clue, one of the books in the little side ads is called "The Big Butt Book".

[Shuklar]

I think a lot of people are misunderstanding that the time cap is on leveling certain things, not on playtime.

WoW even does this to some extent with their crafting system.

[danielle007]

WoW never limits the amount of experience a person can achieve a week, and they never dictate how you should play the game. They really accommodate everyone, while still challenging and rewarding the dedicated players. Square Enix is accommodating no one but the casuals, while actively screwing over the dedicated players.

Also,
"The XP gain limit is not tied to any class/job but is per character."

So if you want to be a one character player, and get to end game content, then you're screwed.

[Shuklar]

I was referring to the crafting system cooldowns. Nothing more.

In this game, instead of crafting cooldowns, they have XP gain cooldowns (timers)

[rdgneoz3]

@Shuklar
WoW doesn't really have crafting cooldowns. They removed cooldowns for some transmutes, and you can always buy a transmute cooldown from someone else or log on one of like 5 other alts on the server and make another for yourself.

"So if you want to be a one character player, and get to end game content, then you're screwed." Yep, you're screwed. Though in WoW you could only be 1 class per character (though some can spec between healer, tank, and dps, or just 2 or 3 dps specs and a heal spec). In FF XIV, you only need 1 character to play all the classes. Only reason for alts would be to play with different friends or such and try different races.

And no game trying to be an MMO should have cooldowns on XP. Learn from WoW, if you were logged off for a bit or a long time, you'd get a xp boost for a while (longer you're logged off, longer the xp boost lasts). The hardcore fans are whats going to keep the game going in the end, don't alienate them by screwing them over if they want to play a lot.

[vhero]

The end of the day you should be able to enjoy the game how you see fit and level your character however much you like to the maxlevel they set.

[JohnApocalypse]

Wow, I can't believe they're even going to give a subscription fee. This game is totally gonna kill WOW (sarcasm)

[bigrob123]

think I'll just wait for GuildWars 2

[Inspector_Max]

Same here.

[SuperStrokey1123]

Agreed, why would i play this game when GW2 looks amazing and has no monthly fees. Just a better value for likely a better game

[vampstreak]

horrible

[Nodoze]

The Square we knew and loved is long dead. I simply don't understand why they feel the need to reinvent experience? They tried and failed with FF13, and now to they are going to fail here.

Hey square, take a peek at WoW. They are literally raking in the cash and they did not see the need to limit play time, or reinvent exp systems.

Square is simply a company that now goes out of it's way to be different, just to say they are different and appear as if they are innovating. Hint...it isn't working.

Perhaps Square needs to look at their own Exp system for the company this generation. They haven't leveled up in quite some time.

[rdgneoz3]

WoW makes money by catering to all groups. They make new raids to appease their hardcore players, as well as new factions to grind rep for items and recipes. And they add new quests and instances, fun events and such to appease the casual players (as well as some of the hardcore, though some instances might not help them / be useful with the raid gear). Hell, cataclysm is adding all new quests for 1 to 60 areas, redoing instances / loot from them, and other things.

Square definitely needs to remove the fatigue before they kill off potential customers.

[despair]

gahaha this is the dumbest thing I ever heard, as others said who in their right mind would pay a monthly fee for only 24 hours in that month of game time. If you're not gaining XP its pointless to play.

I mean imagine fighting a strong boss or something and right before he dies your time runs out and you get 0 XP for killing him. There has to be something wrong with the article, no company is that dumb certainly not square enix.

DC Universe for me then :)

[Pocker]

keeps all you mega nerds from having better characters only because you play 24/7. For those of us who don't live in our parents basements, have no job/friends it evens out the playing field. You nerds can still play 24/7, you just won't be making much progress after that 8 hour cap.

finally it will be about brain power, and what you decide to do with your 8 hours and make the most of that time. Those people will be the dominate PLAYERS.

but sorry to all you butt hurt super nerds.

[danielle007]

If I play more than you, and dedicate my time to getting better at the game, and get lots of practice, then why should you be equal to me?

Answer: You shouldn't. That's really the long and the short of it.

Casual gamers should not expect to be on the same level as people who dedicate all of their time to any game. I think Square Enix is going about this the completely wrong way.

[Killzoned]

Oooo how interesting, Guess what Square Enix you just lost a sale from me! Hello NCSOFT where Guild wars 2 at?

[RankFTW]

When I play an MMO it pretty much destroys my life for a very long time so 8 hours a week is nothing, wtf are SE thinking.

[rdgneoz3]

2 days of raiding in WoW will kill about 8 or more hours...

[Saryk]

I play with my nuts longer than that in a week. Surely there is a typo or miss communication somewhere..................... ......

[GusBricker]

MS said no to the game. They're all about online gaming.

[Godmars290]

While they make people pay to play online?

Are you missing a sarcasm tag or what?

[GusBricker]

They don't cut people off after playing for an hour.

HUGE difference.

[Godmars290]

But Square's not cutting people off, they're just changing a gameplay aspect. One that will likely make some stop playing while they can continue to play.

They don't require a subscription for something that others offer for free, or ask for an additional subscription besides.

[pustulio]

Godmars290

Is the same as cutting me off, i would not play when i see i get 0 XP theres no point.

[Ri0tSquad]

This game is going to bomb.

[Zinc]

Unnamed Scientist 1: Ah, I see the supporting documentation has arrived for our new proof. Excelsior and so on.

Unnamed Scientist 2: Yes, I see that Hiroshi Dojo has created this using Word XP...

Unnamed Scientist 1: Waaaa!? How dare he try and use such a lesser version of Microsoft Word for such an important supporting document!

Unnamed Scientist 2: Indeed. It seems we will need to have a talk with Hiroshi Dojo to settle this outlandish humiliation.

Unnamed Scientist 1: I see you are wearing your extra shiny magnification goggles today and your ubiquitous lab coat is extra white and suits your form.

Unnamed Scientist 2: Stop devouring me with your hungry eyes!

Unnamed Scientist 1: I have shamed my house.

Hip Janitor X: What the hell are you two scientists talking about? That looks like a bunch of Asian gibberish on a page... and I don't know what you two have going on between yourselves, but this is a place of serious science based business of some kind... got any weed?

[thelifatree]

If that's true by square enix. Probably not a good idea and will get patched anywys

But a site that constantly banishing websites. Is not really legitimate news site. With nude pictures on the site.

With evidence of blurry japanese writing.

with "their" translation. Of what might not be a square enix document. And you can't even read the document they posted if you can read japanese because its so blurry (which I can to an extent)

I'll wait from a source. If it's true many websites will jump on it. and Square will have to answer.

You people are doing witchhunts for no reason

[Xx Ziyad xX]

what up with these pic ? every day i see anime boobs ! its not even hot !

[danielle007]

Why would they actively try to screw over their dedicated players? ... whyyyy?

They should really take a page out of WoW's book.

They let the casuals raid, get some moderately cool gear, but if you don't dedicate time and have a pretty serious guild, you're not going to do hard modes. And the dedicated they let excel and get crazy awesome gear with hard modes.

Plus, no cap on XP... ever. That's accommodating the casuals while rewarding the core, and no one gets butt hurt... except I feel much less cool stepping into raids. Used to be the casuals would never see the content at all.. :) Oh well. Times change.

[Sprudling]

Funny you should mention WoW, because it _does_ actually have a XP limiting system. You slowly gain "reststate" when not playing (and extremely slow if you don't log out at an inn). When you're out of "reststate" you only get half the XP you would otherwise get.

[JD_Shadow]

It's not the same thing, though. You actually get DOUBLE XP when rested in WoW, and once you hit that threshold, then you get the normal XP, but it doesn't go down after that.

THIS is talking about going down until you get NOTHING for a kill...at ALL, even if you turn the game off and come back later in the day when those 8 hrs/week is up. And we don't even know all the details. What if they mean 8 hrs TOTAL. As in if you do one hour of grinding, then 7 hours of something akin to WoW Trade chat (or whatever), and you would STILL end up over limit? What then?

But again, I'm wondering what is the difference here between skill points and XP here, since SE was saying that they wouldn't have XP in FF14, and this explanation just makes it MORE confusing.

[Sprudling]

A XP bonus for not playing or a XP penalty for playing is the same thing. Infact, in the beta of WoW it was indeed a pentalty, but then they changed it to a bonus and reduced base XP instead. Somehow, just by calling it a bonus the whine disappeared, although the effect was identical to the penalty.

But it is as you say. It's only full or half XP in WoW. The penalty never reaches 0%. But then again; XP is the only way to progress in WoW (until you reach max level).

[JonnyBigBoss]

I'm planning to be casual but 8 hours is way too little.

[metalhead]

Now I am so glad I canceled my preorder for this game.

[Rybakov]

game sucks anyway i wouldn't wanna play it for an hour let alone 8

[magnifier]

What the fuck, they just can't be this dumb? Can they?

[Lionalliance]

really utterly ........STUPID!

[Miraak82]

I canceled my preorder a week ago.... no regrets yet

[Nerox3]

go play WOW for the rest of your life then,HOMO

[SuperStrokey1123]

That seems overly harsh...

[Miraak82]

wow , you automatically assume I play wow or any other mmo cause I canceled my preorder .. you sure get my pathetic existence award ,,, go back to your mothers vagina , its the only place you'll ever be loved,, and even she has regrats

[lightningsax]

I'm just not sure about this entire thing, strictly on a cultural basis.

Japan and Korea are known for having a base of customers that hardly leave their TV screen or computer monitor. Ever. There's even a Japanese term for people that never leave their room. Why would one of the biggest Japanese RPG-producing companies out there be the first big company to take some semi-moral stance on MMO playing time? You sit down to play RPG's, and you often stay there for a while. It's more slow-paced than something like COD for a reason; often you take your time and enjoy the view in these games.

Now, I'm not saying that the developers themselves are out of touch with that part of the culture at all. They do market research; they know. Why would they then take such a risk? There are plenty of competitors out there that will fully reward gamers for their time-honored devotion, and they'll swipe up a good portion of the past FFXI market if this is the case.

Which gets me to the point that this probably isn't the case. This system has to have much, much, much more to it than XP, beyond the conjecture we're forming here based on previous stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if it took a much further backseat to everything else in the game.

...but still. Why would they do that?

[Subzero200x]

lol this is better especially since you paying for every minute that goes by.

[Ultra_Gizmo_64]

exactly

[divideby0]

I need the official dummies guide to understand this...

[hazelamy]

they're not going to make one, the assumption is that if you buy this game you've got being a dummy down to a fine art and don't need a guide. :)

[Roozium]

Wtf is this? I don't even...

If I'm gonna buy a game and then pay a monthly fee, I want to play that game when ever I want and long as I want. Square Enix is frickin' retarded.

[HeartDisease]

i laugh at all you people that think "square will answer" or "do what the fans want". anyone who has played FFXI will tell you that square DOES NOT listen to fans, and they certainly do not answer to anyone.

FFXI players complain about the stupid claim conditions of the games notorious monsters(for a long time the best source for UBER gearz, not sure anymore). did they change it in the many years since the game has been out because that is what their players want? take a guess. also take a guess at what the development team behind FFXIV previous mmo was.... thats right FFXI lol.

the game is simply an HD upgrade to ffXI. has the exact same races and everything. talk about complete lack of creativity. SE should have let the people behind last remnant make this MMO. at least we would have innovative ideas to the genre as well as great imagination and story.

[Biggest]

You obviously stopped playing FFXI years ago. You don't have to search very hard to find that most of everything in the game has changed and most of it due to the player's request. Those NMs you talk about have had changing claim conditions starting as far back as 5 years ago. They've been changed to combat server latency, bots, cheats, game mechanics, etc. Most of the gear has been placed in many other places as well. Since you only mentioned the NMs I will stop there. FFXIV may very well end up as FFXI HD. But FFXI isn't even what you think it is right now. Go read up on it.

[SephireX]

I'm not getting this game now. Square either change this or it won't sell. Period.

[2FootYard]

The most enjoyable part of this game appears to be the scenery so I'll just look at screen shots.

[mittwaffen]

MMO's are DESTRUCTIVE to youth.

Why does China ban Consoles and stuff that pollutes the brain, they want their youth to focus on school and not rot away. MMo's destroy youth, i've seen it enough that I know it isnt EVERYONE but majority of late game MMO players are addicted.

I dont think its the best way to screw over their players, but in North America it is a good thing. This will keep people from sitting there for the whole day and take the short path to play.

[Prototype]

MMO's don't destroy youth, bad parenting and lack of self control does.

If someone wants to spend 18+ hours a day to play a game, it's their right - as long as other responsibilities are taken care of first.

I heard the same argument back when I played FF11 for 14+ hours a day; I still worked, still paid my bills on time, and even found a better job which led me to quit playing because I (not someone else, myself) decided its time to move on.

[Nerox3]

youth dont give a sht bout responsibilites thats the problem .....so Square is doing it for their own good

[TheColbertinator]

What a load of dogcrap.I will stick to the Old Republic and The Agency

[Nerox3]

Great news ,now we wont have lifeless idiots who play all time and harass us :D

i say u r straight,click disagree if ur not :P :P

[jc48573]

Sony asked Square enix to add a time limit so that the customers wouldn't fry their consoles.

[madara0sama]

If they don't remove this retardation the game will fail big time.

[Sarobi]

Hai Guise... i like this site o___o.. oh yeah ff14 stuff umm..carry on

[GigaGaia]

I give it a month before this is totally removed. They will be hammered with complains and there isn't gonna be a lot playing, so they will remove this thing sooner or later.

[CryofSilence]

That seals the deal: no FFXIV for me.

[jc48573]

make FF14 (and FFXI) an online game to begin with

[EXID]

they're not saying you can only play for 8 hours a week. they're saying after 8 hours the xp you gain will start to decline until eventually you get nothing. you can still find loot and stuff, though, so you can still find stuff for your character even though you're not getting xp along the way. i guess this is their way of keep everyone around the same level for the initial release, at least. it's an incredibly stupid move considering they're charging you a monthly fee, though...

[RandomGamer]

What a stupid system.8 hours a week LOL too funny there are times I got over 8 hours in a day on some games .

It is true what others have said.Other MMO you pay a monthly fee and you can play as many hours a week as you want to.Yet here they force you to play as many hours as they want you to.Mighty big rip off if you ask me.

[Beahmscream]

This is a very strange move... The only way this would work is if they decrease the monthly fee drastically. Still though what the eff?

[dkgshiz]

This game is nothing but a joke now.

[kesvalk]

okay here is the deal, you pay $60 plus a monthly fee of $15, but you can only play 8 hours per week...

prolly you will only be able to intall it 3 times and the serial will be computer locked and if you don't use the serial for at least 1 session per 3 days, you serial expires...

welcome to the new generation of gaming, brought by ourselves to ourselves...

yay for gaming stupidity! \o/

PS: and i am sure lots of ppl will buy it and it's sequel (that will launch next year).

[rmatthe5]

First of all the fee for the game is only 13 dollars. And You can play all the time you want but you will have to change classes to get more experience.

[Knightofelemia]

This is so not worth my cash now I played 11 and had the monthly fee. I spend 60 for FF13 and a monthly fee to play it online for what 8 hrs a week so not worth my cash

[lizard81288]

is filled with porn videos and hentai....and porn pics. nice to see some up and cumming tits, errr i mean up and coming stars.

not safe for work.

....so ah~ whats this article about?

[SolDojo]

Um, I hate to sound like I'm being a pure reactionary speaker here but, if this is true, I'm going to cancel my CE preorder, lol.

And never look back.

EDIT: Just go read the info on ffxivcore.com ...

[GigaGaia]

They say we can switch classes after 8 hours ... the thing is that we don't care about most of the classes and we want to play on one specifically.

Seriously, SE just raised their middle finger to the hardcore players just to please a few people who have no time to play. Seriously, I say **** those people, they're ruining what could be a great game.

Biggest disappointment is that there is no summoner job. That alone makes this game pretty lame.

[hazelamy]

hardcore players? even the most casual player is likely to hit that limit before the week is up.

and it says switching classes won't affect the time limit, it's actually per character, not per class.
so you'll be forced to buy extra character slots to make continued play worthwhile.

[hazelamy]

unless i'm a lot worse at maths than i thought 8 hours a week is just over an hour a day.
and now it's per character? so changing job or class wont reset it? you get one character slot and have to buy more by the way.

i really hope they're not planning on charging people for playing this.
maybe they got scared because of that lineage lawsuit, hopefully when that case gets laughed out of court SE will see sense.

any xbox owners upset they're not bringing ffxiv to 360, don't be.

m

[hazelamy]

oh and drops and loot aren't affected.
so the gold farmer bots wont be affected but the legitimate player will.
i swear the more i read about this game the less i'm interested in it.

[mr.selfdestruct]

Square-Enix why are you pushing me away? I want to love you but it's getting harder and harder when you keep acting like giant douche-bag. Are you tring to lose me as a fan? If so you are succeeding at it. I still have hope please fix this by march and the PS3 launch!!!! I know you can do it.

[PXSausage]

I love that this story says "a much more generous 8 hours a week," as compared to an hour a day... yea, an extra hour per week is sooooo generous.

[Dno]

http://www.ff14news.com/
This is basicly how it works. i played the beta for a long time and did notice surplus xp but i didnt know what it was for. this sucks and SE better think about this.

[Wizziokid]

Well this MMO is going to fail. Square don't seem to understand the MMO market.

DCUO, Star Wars: TOR, Guild Wars 2 say Hi

[kiddster58]

Cant post article, being too long.

a couple things to point out is it wont take a week to reset, they have stated doing other things and being logged off will slowly reset the number. The reason people saw it so much in the beta is because they were getting more exp than they were suppose to because of a glitch. Like they said expect the exp limit to be increased and the time shortened. Just to be clear you can play for more than 20 hours a week and not hit this limit