Final Fantasy XIV: Alpha - The 1st Implementation of a Vision

This blog post is just in response to some of the things I continue to read on both this site and various others in regards to the Final Fantasy XIV alpha and beta.

First of all, I would like to comment on all the worry, anger, remarks of 'fanboyism' and complaints about how good/bad the game is. Basically all the information that folks have seen is covered by the NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement! Which doesn't seem to apply to all somehow...ah wait, yeah thats right, they ignored it) for a reason. It is to stop people misjudging the game and overall experience that will be present come the full release. The people playing the alpha are not supposed to 'enjoy' it. They are supposed to be there to find out what doesn't work, what doesn't play well and other issues, and from what we could gather the first tests where to do with the controls and UI. Even Blizzard have asked sites to take down leaked Cataclysm alpha pictures as the amount of crap they then get spewed onto their forums is incredible. For every person that sees the imagery/footage and thinks "Huh, looks ok, need to see what it is come launch" there is a raging maniac calling out that the Horde gains too many places and the Alliance gets shafted. What do they *really* know of what's going on? Nothing. This is the same for those of us following Final Fantasy XIV leaks and such - we don't know how it actually plays, and we don't truly know how capable a player the one who spread the leak is.

Second of all - they are having this closed alpha featuring players to find out stuff like if the combat is too slow, quick or if it is actually fine. They have a vision for how they want the game to be, and the overall feel of things such as combat and crating, but this is not tied in to a specific speed or the damage that the skills do. I keep seeing comments along the lines of that the game wont change from alpha...I repeat again that no, the vision for the game wont change, but the way that vision is implemented could change massively.

I have a friend currently writing a book, and they have had to continue improving this story over and over again, page by page, chapter by chapter, so that it will finally be fit for publishing at a level that their publisher believes it would be good for an audience. The publisher liked the vision - just not its original implementation. Even the greatest stories will have had major changes and rewrites, but the authors overall vision of what happens won't have changed nearly as much as the implementation of it has. It is the same for gaming! Why would they create something that they then had folk test, with a generally negative feel to it, and then release that, despite putting time and money into the whole testing procedure, that is just crazy.

So, basically, until the game is released don't really worry about things. I can't argue with folk getting annoyed due to shoddy game reporting and such, especially when it targets a game that you have high hopes for, but when it comes down to it ignorance will continue to spread faster than the truth, just make sure you and the folk you want to play with know what the overall score is. Think of what we actually know of the game as well. I'm not sure about you, but minus some fluff and a look at how some weapons look and possible ability descriptions, I know absolutely nothing about this game, or what will happen in it - and until they start officially telling us more things, anything you hear or find out should be taken as a work in progress, until you actually get a chance to play it for yourself come launch.

The developers have a vision, and they want to implement that in a way that players will enjoy - so don't sweat it over the small stuff like damage numbers and speed, these will be fixed to a level that is suitable for the game come the time. Just hope that the testers do their job as asked, and not just go out to be the first to play, and see 'what the game is like'.

Rambling over, return to your lives.