Massively http://massively.joystiq.com Massively http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Massively http://massively.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - FATEs and dungeons]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/18/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xiv-beta-phase-1-and-2-fates-and-du/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/18/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xiv-beta-phase-1-and-2-fates-and-du/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/18/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xiv-beta-phase-1-and-2-fates-and-du/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

That withdrawal is a very real thing. I'm missing it.
Do you smell that on the wind, my friends? It smells like June is fast approaching, and more importantly it smells like soon we'll be able to welcome the third phase of testing with open arms. Which is good, since I am currently going through withdrawal. I wake up in cold sweats, try to change my class in other games, start up the Final Fantasy XIV beta client in the hopes that someone "accidentally" turned the servers back on... you get the general idea.

To help alleviate this, I'm going to talk about the two pieces of the game from the first two beta phases that are in need of the most polish. While there are places to improve elsewhere, FATEs and dungeons have issues that might need a bit more hammering to fix. Or they might be fine and we just haven't yet seen enough of the game to know everything. Either way, let's get started with the big addition to the game, the system that had no predecessor in Final Fantasy XIV's first version: the FATE system.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - FATEs and dungeons

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - FATEs and dungeons originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>betabetasconsoleconsolesdungeonsdynamic-eventsfantasyfatesfeaturedffff14ffxivfinal-fantasyfinal-fantasy-14final-fantasy-xivfull-active-time-eventsgroup-contentmog-logopinionraidssquaresquare-enixsquenixthe-mog-logSat, 18 May 2013 16:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - gathering]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/11/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xiv-beta-phase-1-and-2-gathering/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/11/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xiv-beta-phase-1-and-2-gathering/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/11/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xiv-beta-phase-1-and-2-gathering/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Fit the pieces together.
We all like to stop and smell the roses. And then we like to pluck those roses, bring them home, and melt them into component enzymes that will allow us access to a temporary attack power buff. Final Fantasy XIV is beautiful, sure, but you need that attack power bonus.

If it isn't obvious, this week's stop on my whirlwind beta tour is the fine art of grabbing items from the landscape and turning them into crafting fodder. Final Fantasy XIV had quite an interesting gathering system at launch, but it also had some pretty serious problems, and so the relaunch had to completely revamp the system while retaining the soul of the original version. No pressure.

Not a whole lot changed in terms of gathering between my time in San Francisco and my time in the beta, but I did have a great deal more time to try out the gathering system. So let's take a walk on the self-sufficient side.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - gathering

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - gathering originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 11 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even with phase 3 in June, I don't think I've got as much time as I need.
We know now that the next test phase for Final Fantasy XIV will not be until June. This is good insofar as the next test will contain a lot more stuff and bad insofar as I want to play. Those of you living vicariously through impressions articles such as this one probably have less of a struggle with this scenario. And there is still a chunk of the first two phases to be discussed, obviously.

If combat is the usual "how" of MMOs, quests are the usual "what." Final Fantasy XIV started out with a handful of quests and gained several more during Naoki Yoshida's tenure, but quests still weren't the main leveling content in version 1.0. That was a function reserved for guildleves, which have taken on a new role in the beta phases just as quests are enjoying an expanded importance. But it's not as simple as that change might imply.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - quests

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - quests originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 04 May 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Talking about this publicly still feels off-limits.
I've mentioned in the past that sometimes plans get changed dramatically between when I plan my next column and when I actually write it. This week, it turned out that I could stop being mum about the Final Fantasy XIV beta. So that meant throwing out plans and starting back over. In fact, it meant starting way over, since I found myself with so many things that I wanted to talk about it was difficult to figure out where to start.

So I'm starting with the obvious. I'm going to talk about aspects of the first two beta phases in as much detail as I can realistically fit into a column starting with one of those obvious cornerstones of video games: combat. This isn't meant to be about impressions so much as dissecting and analyzing what I've played to this point, what is working, and what isn't. If you want to know my more in-depth impressions of killing things in Final Fantasy XIV's early test version, read on.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - combat

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - combat originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>betabetasclassescombatcombat-mechanicsconsoleconsolesfantasyfeaturedffff14ffxivfinal-fantasyfinal-fantasy-14final-fantasy-xivgame-mechanicsgameplaymog-logopinionsquaresquare-enixsquenixthe-mog-logSat, 27 Apr 2013 18:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Mog Log: Pushing back on Final Fantasy XIV]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/20/the-mog-log-pushing-back-on-final-fantasy-xiv/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/20/the-mog-log-pushing-back-on-final-fantasy-xiv/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/20/the-mog-log-pushing-back-on-final-fantasy-xiv/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Push the tempo up.
Among the things I'm reluctant to talk about early when it comes to Final Fantasy XIV are the live letters from Naoki Yoshida. There's always a thread rapidly updating players on what is said during those letters, but that thread is filled with quick translations that may or may not be accurate, and I'd prefer not to analyze and speculate on information that may have been misconstrued. The man speaks in dense blocks of information.

To my surprise, this week we got the full translation of the latest live letter, and something that struck me was how much of the game we're still being told is just over the horizon. This is not to say that I don't believe in Yoshi-P; Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 showed that if he promises something, it will be delivered. But there are a lot of things being held back for later, and honestly it's a little disconcerting for someone waiting eagerly for the game to come out.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Pushing back on Final Fantasy XIV

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Pushing back on Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>a-realm-rebornconsoleconsolesfantasyfeaturedffff14ffxivffxiv-version-2.0final-fantasyfinal-fantasy-14final-fantasy-xivlive-lettermog-lognaoki-yoshidaopinionrelaunchsquaresquare-enixsquenixthe-mog-logupcoming-featuresupdatesSat, 20 Apr 2013 18:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's magitek disassembled]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/13/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xivs-magitek-disassembled/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/13/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xivs-magitek-disassembled/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/13/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xivs-magitek-disassembled/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Because I will always discuss giant robots. Always.
I've done a couple of articles on reoccurring concepts in Final Fantasy games before, but this is an unusual one because it seems to barely qualify at times. Final Fantasy XIV has magitek, as did Final Fantasy VI, but those are the only games to refer to it as such. Sure, other games flirt with similar concepts (Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy VII most prominently), but none of them is outright called magitek.

Bit there's still some interesting stuff to unpack when it comes to magitek, even if you don't consider the corner cases as you ought to. At a glance it might look like this is a simple manichean split between two factions, but there's a lot more going on and a lot of importance tied up with the term that can hint as to Final Fantasy XIV's future -- beyond the fact that we'll get to ride some magitek armor.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's magitek disassembled

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's magitek disassembled originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DON'T YOU WANT ME, OHHH-WHOAAOH!
Final Fantasy XI has launched its fifth expansion, and yet I can't bring myself to be as excited as I should be. Longtime readers will recall that the account I've been playing on is younger and lacking in many of the higher-level conveniences such as airship passes and a white mage leveled enough to handle Sneak and Invisible. Put simply, I'm not in a place to just jump right into all of the content that Seekers of Adoulin has to offer right out of the gate.

On the plus side, I do have several conveniences that completely new players wouldn't have, not the least of which is an extensive knowledge of the game as a whole. A new player coming in straight would look at the game and just wind up baffled, and I can't blame him in the least. If you're starting fresh, the game is not welcoming you.

Longtime readers will also know that I've long been a proponent of making the game easier to get into. But is this even worth bothering with? Is the game for players starting at lower levels any more? Is there even a point to easing up the lower-level restrictions any longer?

Continue reading The Mog Log: Don't you want me, FFXI?

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Don't you want me, FFXI? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It also apparently was not for my ankle. That story is relayed elsewhere.
Last week I promised to bring you all of the hard-hitting coverage of Square-Enix's presence at PAX East 2013 as it pertained to Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. So here's that coverage: Both games still exist.

We good? Great. I'll spend the next nine hundred words or so discussing cats, then. Seriously, if you've been following this site or this column, you know everything from PAX East already.

Of course, all of this underscores what I see as a simple fact: PAX was not meant for fans of Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. If you scan fansites and this site for coverage, you would not be blown away by any of this information, and that's fine. It's not actually for you, and I'm going to go ahead and say that it really shouldn't be for you because it would just be preaching to the converted.

Continue reading The Mog Log: PAX East wasn't for us

MassivelyThe Mog Log: PAX East wasn't for us originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Fantasy XI Seekers of Adoulin goes live
Final Fantasy XI's fifth expansion, Seekers of Adoulin, is now running free in the video game wild. If you can catch the wily release, you'll be treated to a pair of new jobs, seven challenging bosses, and a new continent to explore.

While Seekers of Adoulin isn't available for PlayStation 2 players, PC and Xbox 360 gamers are encouraged to hop on board the chocobo train. Players looking to purchase it on Steam may have a little bit of a wait, however.

For more in-depth analysis and previews of the expansion, be sure to read up on the back issues of The Mog Log while FFXI updates.

MassivelyFinal Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin goes live originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week's column has the subtle smoky flavor of hotel wi-fi.
A while back, I was upset that we hadn't gotten nearly enough information about Seekers of Adoulin. That's certainly not the case any more; we've gotten a fair bit of new information about the expansion, which is good considering that Final Fantasy XI players will be seeking the heck out of Adoulin on Tuesday.

Of course, there's still some air of mystery about the expansion, which is appropriate. Final Fantasy XI's expansions always contain a few new wrinkles that aren't really previewed, and I think players prefer it that way. But there's a lot to talk about, starting with something that I find very interesting insofar as it's launching in the wake of a new philosophy for the game as a whole.

Back in December I talked about how the game's future might be brighter than it has been for a long time. How Seekers of Adoulin works in practice will tell us a lot about whether or not that hopeful future will come to pass or not.

Continue reading The Mog Log: On the eve of seeking Adoulin in Final Fantasy XI

MassivelyThe Mog Log: On the eve of seeking Adoulin in Final Fantasy XI originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>classesconsoleconsolesexpansionfantasyfeaturedffff11ffxifinal-fantasyfinal-fantasy-11final-fantasy-xigame-mechanicsmechanicsmog-logopinionpreviewsSeekers-of-Adoulinsoasquaresquare-enixsquenixthe-mog-logupcoming-releasesSat, 23 Mar 2013 20:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV declares open season on lore]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/16/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xiv-declares-open-season-on-lore/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/16/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xiv-declares-open-season-on-lore/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/16/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xiv-declares-open-season-on-lore/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

I love rewrites, really I do.
Every so often, Final Fantasy XIV throws me a curveball. Case in point: the Lore forum. This was one of those things that was mentioned an eternity ago that I (and quite possibly everyone else) assumed would happen around the fifth of never. But it's a real thing, it exists now, and you can go over and get a lovely rundown of all that racial naming conventions, a primer on Roegadyn language, and assorted other threads detailing important lore tidbits.

If you need more proof that things are different at Square-Enix these days, this would serve as exhibit A. This is the sort of thing that I love. But at the same time, it's something I'm not completely happy about.

I should clarify; I'm entirely happy that it exists. But I'm a little perturbed regarding the timing, and I think there are ways in which its release now is kind of awkward. So rather than unmitigated gushing over the new forum, this week saw a lot of gushing and a lot of frustrated squinting.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV declares open season on lore

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV declares open season on lore originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, the fat guy wrote a column about food. Woo.
Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI are the two games that make me hungrier than any other. It's not because I associate Final Fantasy XI with sitting in my dorm room and eating takeout, although that is also true. It's because these games are veritable buffets of in-game foods. Other games have stepped on the idea of buff food before and since, but in both Vana'diel and Eorzea, a cook can be the centerpiece of your character build.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Final Fantasy XIV had one of the best food systems I've ever seen at the time that its first version shut down. There was subtlety, there was grace, and above all else there was a lot of tasty stuff for everyone to eat. So let's talk about all of that wonderful food, from miq'abobs to bubble chocolate, and let's look back at the state of food from the game's beginning up until the fall of Dalamud. (Or the shutdown in November, if you have no poetry in your soul.)

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's buffet of foodstuffs

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's buffet of foodstuffs originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know I roll legacy, son.
Right now, the world of Final Fantasy XIV players is made up of two separate but equally important groups: the Legacy players who are doing secret things in a beta that they cannot talk about, and everyone else sitting on the sidelines and desperately hoping for an NDA breach that unveils huge amounts of information. (The second group also spends some time hating the Legacy players. It's a delicate balance.) As a result, it's even harder than usual to write something interesting about the game.

So, as prompted by some discussions over on the RPC, let's talk a little bit about what we do know regarding the state of the world. It isn't great, but at the same time, it's better than it could be. There are three main time period to be concerned with, and when they're taken as a whole, there's a lot of opportunity for interesting conflict and storytelling as well as roleplaying if that's your cup of tea.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's five-year gap

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's five-year gap originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Perhaps a redone header is in order with some of the new art. Let me think.
On Wednesday last week, I got on an airplane to head across the United States, starting a long and grueling trip. I spent half of Wednesday in the air, half of Thursday either on a train or in a car, and more or less all of Friday in the air once again returning home. All of this for about two hours of playing Final Fantasy XIV and a couple of interviews, in case you missed everything going live on Thursday.

Would I do it again? In an instant.

There's no way that I can repeat the amount of information that was in the roundup in a single column, so I'm not going to try. What I am going to do is talk about some of the other assorted bits and pieces of my Final Fantasy XIV experience and the surrounding events because it was truly something to see. I've been fairly skeptical up until this point, but I'll say that after sitting down and playing the beta version for a little while, I'm now a believer.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Across the country for Final Fantasy XIV

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Across the country for Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh the things I have seen.
Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV do not take place in the same world. One is not a sequel or prequel to the other, neither game continues the same story themes, and indeed nothing connects them beyond the names and a set of thematic elements. So I enjoy looking at those thematic elements sometimes, for the same fundamental reason that when I was a little boy I occasionally liked to take apart toys just to see how they worked.

You'll remember that I looked at moogles as they related to the Final Fantasy series as a whole a while back, with the ultimate conclusion that moogles exist to provide an in-universe explanation for mechanical conceits. Chocobos have got to be simpler, though. They're present in both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV, and they're extremely straightforward in both: They're mounts. That's their purpose in the series, isn't it? You ride chocobos. Surely it can't be any more complicated than "fictional method of transportation".

The answer is of course it can. But I think the first step is to look back at the series as a whole.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Chocobos run Final Fantasy

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Chocobos run Final Fantasy originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 16 Feb 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I guess I'm sticking with this header until I get something better.
As I've mentioned before, my first MMO was Final Fantasy XI, and I think I'd be remiss not to observe that a lot of my MMO habits came about as a direct reaction to that game. My love of soloing comes in no small part as a result of the misery of trying to get anything accomplished by myself in Vana'diel, for example. Alts appear to be more or less the same thing.

Saying that having an alt in Final Fantasy XI was counterproductive is like saying that arsenic is unhealthy. This was one of the many traits that Final Fantasy XIV carried over from its predecessor, but it removed any real option of having a second character serving as your bag space expansion because there wasn't a proper mail system to facilitate it. So there was even less reason to pay for an extra character slot there. Alts were just as absent in Final Fantasy XIV's original incarnation.

But this might be changing on both sides of the equation. FFXIV's Legacy players get extra slots for free, after all. Might there be some hope for alts in the future?

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy and the case of the missing alts

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy and the case of the missing alts originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seriously, I have no idea if this header is any good. Feedback is welcome.
Passive sexism is a big deal to me. If it isn't a big one for you, it should be, because at some point high heels and metal bikinis became something passively accepted in games as a whole and that's not all right. MMORPGs on a whole do better than single-player titles, but you still have games like TERA that stick every female character into gravity-defying heels and the legal minimum required for clothing, or Scarlet Blade and its outfits made entirely out of electrical tape and fishnet.

Some games are better or worse about this than others. The Secret World allows you to dress up either gender to be as sexy or as casual as you like, and Guild Wars made a point of keeping skimpy armor as skimpy armor for both genders in most cases. (Although not hardly all.) But the question that's actually relevant to this column is how Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV stack up, and the answer is that they acquit themselves remarkably well. So much so that they're among the most even-handed games I've seen, if not at the top of the list.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy and sexism

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy and sexism originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still playing around with new logo ideas. This is the one I had out of a dozen that I thought came out the best, but I'm still not sure if I like it.
Three years is not a lot of time to do anything. I'm continually surprised by the fact that I've been writing about video games professionally for three years of my life, which is admittedly only 10% of my life to date but still seems astonishing. This also marks the start of the third year of The Mog Log, which means that I've been talking about moogles and cat-women professionally for a tenth of my life.

I use thoughts like that to keep me warm at night.

As always, the anniversary mark is about the time when I look back at the column thus far and see how well it's done as a whole. Last year I wanted to really switch up what I did with my coverage for Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI, and I think that by and large it worked pretty well. So let's do the usual thing wherein I look back, you take a trip down memory lane with me, and we all walk away feeling smarter. Or, if that doesn't sound interesting, you could just go look at some cat pictures.

Continue reading The Mog Log: A year of columns in review

MassivelyThe Mog Log: A year of columns in review originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>columnsconsoleconsolesfantasyfeaturedffff11ff14ffxiffxivfinal-fantasyfinal-fantasy-11final-fantasy-14final-fantasy-xifinal-fantasy-xivmog-logopinionopinionsretrospectivesquaresquare-enixsquenixthe-mog-logyear-in-reviewSat, 26 Jan 2013 12:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Mog Log: Final Fantasy nostalgia]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01/19/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-nostalgia/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01/19/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-nostalgia/http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01/19/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-nostalgia/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , ,

The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
There's nothing quite like Final Fantasy XI. Nor is there anything quite like Final Fantasy XIV. The two are similar enough that you can use one as a substitute for the other in a pinch, but both possess a certain feel that just isn't found in any other game. That's neither good nor bad; it just is.

Watching the trailer for Seekers of Adoulin gave me a powerful blast of Final Fantasy XI nostalgia, and while I could wax poetic about how the game I remember isn't the game that exists any longer, that's not really the point. The point is that for all the frustrations of the games, there's a lot of joy in both. So today I just plucked my top five memories from both FFXI and Final Fantasy XIV to share with you, since I bet that some of you have the same sort of glowing nostalgia. Even if you don't want the good old days to come back (I sure don't), you can still remember them with a smile.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy nostalgia

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy nostalgia originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
Sadly, January 7th did not see the release of the new Final Fantasy XIV benchmark. It did, however, see the release of both the beta tester application and the full trailer for the new version, both of which are relevant to the interests of any Final Fantasy XIV fan. The trailer is likely of greater interest, seeing as how most current fans are likely already flagged as Legacy players and thus don't need to apply for testing, but the point is that both are out there.

Of course, the new opening movie is the only piece of information we've had about the game for a little while, but it seems worth analyzing and examining even on its own merits. No, I'm not talking about speculating as to whether or not the guy on the horse who looks exactly like Odin is in fact Odin or not (spoiler, doy). I want to talk about what this means for the lore, what the overall effect is, and whether or not this monster of a trailer succeeds at what it's meant to do.

Continue reading The Mog Log: (Over)analyzing the Final Fantasy XIV trailer

MassivelyThe Mog Log: (Over)analyzing the Final Fantasy XIV trailer originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
I'd like to say that 2012 started out with a lot of promise, but it really didn't. Looking back at my predictions for Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV a year ago, I see they weren't perfectly accurate, but they certainly fit well within the margin of error. Very little happened over in Final Fantasy XI's development, and Final Fantasy XIV managed to continue not wowing anyone, albeit partly because of the several delays to version 2.0 that now have it releasing around the middle of this year.

If you haven't noticed a theme yet, here it is: I'm worried that by the time it does launch, no one will care any longer. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

While I've split things up between recaps and forecasts in the past, in this case it's virtually impossible to do so. A lot of what has been done this year is banking entirely on the strength of what will be happening next, so Square was selling 2013 in the midst of 2012. So let's look at the past year for both games and the year to come, with an extra helping of hope and speculation for 2013.

Continue reading The Mog Log: 2013 for Final Fantasy XI and XIV

MassivelyThe Mog Log: 2013 for Final Fantasy XI and XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 Jan 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
Final Fantasy XIV's party setup already makes a bold step away from normal conventions. Where most games these days top out with parties of four or five players, a full party in Eorzea is eight people with according benefits. It's definitely a game of numbers.

This offers some unique drawbacks and advantages all at once. The drawbacks are implied just by the sheer size: It's harder to get three strangers to work with you as part of a team; it's harder still to gather up seven without one person dragging you down through a combination of cluelessness and hapless malice. But considering the pre-relaunch game offered a lot of content that could be done solo or in ad hoc groups of varying sides, perhaps this won't be such an issue in the long run.

So let's talk about the potential advantages. I think the game is uniquely poised to deliver on this front simply because having more people in the party allows you to do things that more modern games don't have the space for -- things that Final Fantasy XI was quite good at doing in party composition, as it happens.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Parties and roles in Final Fantasy XIV

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Parties and roles in Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
Final Fantasy XIV has always sold its class system on the idea that you use it more as an a la carte buffet. Abilities you learn in one class are useful in another class, and as a result, your Gladiator is a mix of several different abilities in a single package. The idea at launch was that mixing abilities and inherent mechanics would produce very different characters based on the needs of circumstance and your personal playstyle.

This is not what happened. Nor is it what happened following the large ability revamp, which actually wound up making cross-class skills less useful in many areas.

When the game relaunches, odds are good that the current system will be largely intact, at least at a conceptual level. (You have your class abilities and then a selection of abilities from other classes that you've learned, in other words.) And it's my hope that on this third pass through the system, the development team gets things just right. But let's take a look at the first two versions first.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's Armoury system, yesterday and tomorrow

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's Armoury system, yesterday and tomorrow originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 22 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
We might not have another roadmap for Final Fantasy XI just yet, but we have the next best thing: a letter from producer Akihiko Matsui talking about what's at least being gingerly planned for the next year. More accurately, it's about delays in the existing roadmap, the state of the game, and what Matsui plans to do about it in the near future.

While the letter itself is a little old at the moment, I'm going to be honest and say that I keep re-reading it amidst a mixture of disbelief and hope. I've been getting up on the same soapbox for almost three years regarding Final Fantasy XI's biggest problems, and Matsui's dispatch by and large seems to indicate that the team in charge of the game right now is aware of exactly these issues and actively wants to correct them.

This is kind of staggering. It's the good sort of staggering, but it's the sort of thing you don't expect to see, especially not from a game with a lot invested in gleefully ignoring the rest of the world. But this could mean that despite FFXI's age, next year could be the best one for the game in a long while.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI's future might just be bright

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI's future might just be bright originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Final Fantasy XIV is doing its best to make a really positive second impression on the gaming community as a whole, but it's still not going to get as much popularity as it might have had without the original launch. The game has an uphill battle to fight, and it needs to really wow people.

This is something I've discussed before. If you haven't read it before, go ahead and do so; I think it's a pretty good piece. Right now, the game needs to show something off that is really unique, something to make people sit up and say, "Oh, now that is neat."

Obviously the game isn't testable yet for many of us. But we have seen the first several alpha test videos. And my reaction thus far has been... well, I haven't actually been sitting in front of my screen with my head in my hands while cursing, but I've considered it as a possible course of action.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's alpha footage so far

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's alpha footage so far originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 08 Dec 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
So what does the completely redone Final Fantasy XIV engine look like? I have no idea. I'm not in the alpha test. Considering I got into the beta last time only at the absolute tail end of everything, I am not really surprised. That isn't the point; the point that I'm meandering toward is that the game could play like the previous version with quests and a lick of paint or it could play like a completely different animal altogether. I have to wait and see, as most of you do.

I will say this, though: I'm hoping Yoshida's awareness of the larger world of MMOs is coming through strongly. Unlike his predecessor, Yoshi-P seems very aware of the fact that there are games out there aside from Final Fantasy XI, and that's not even counting the existing love letters to longtime series fans. That having been said, there are at least a few things I hope he's swiping from the industry for the relaunched version when it finally comes out. As I've said before, it's not enough for the game to just be capable; it has to really stand out, and I think there are a few ideas to draw on in that regard.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Ideas worth taking for A Realm Reborn

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Ideas worth taking for A Realm Reborn originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 01 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
I have several friends who don't play Final Fantasy XIV but still saw the trailer ending the first version. After all, it's been hard to miss. Almost every single person has said the same thing: "It was awesome. I have absolutely no idea what was going on with any of it, but it looked really cool."

This isn't just because Final Fantasy XIV isn't in their rotations. Final Fantasy games are usually dense pieces of work, filled with references back and forth that make sense only if you know all of the players involved and have a solid understanding of the game's magical whoosits. If you've missed some steps along the way to the ending trailer, it's easy to watch and not understand what actually went down, and even if you did, there were some parts that could be really easily missed.

So let's take a step back and look at the story so far. It's not the same as playing through the story for the past two years, but it should at least clarify what in the world happened.

Continue reading The Mog Log: The story so far (and yet to come) in Final Fantasy XIV

MassivelyThe Mog Log: The story so far (and yet to come) in Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
The end of Final Fantasy XIV as we know it provoked a lot of emotions from me, as did the trailer released concurrently. I felt a great deal of sorrow, both for the end of the world and the end of my character's story at the time (which is tied into a lot of roleplaying you don't need to hear about). I felt a stirring of hope for the changes coming to the game and the world. I felt inspiration at the sweep and movement of the events surrounding the conclusion and a sense of awe at what had been done.

I also felt a great deal of frustration at the game's servers and the rather lackluster event itself, but that's kind of an irrelevant discussion. It's a lesson to learn for a next time that won't happen.

Amidst all of these other feelings, I also felt a sense of sadness about certain parts of the game that are going away when it relaunches. There are aspects I'm going to miss about Final Fantasy XIV's first version, even if I know why those aspects need to be removed from a design standpoint. Today, I'm going to look back at those elements, things that we're going to be rid of that I'm still going to sort of miss in the long run.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Stuff I'm going to miss from Final Fantasy XIV 1.0

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Stuff I'm going to miss from Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
It's not really a Final Fantasy game without a good apocalypse, and Final Fantasy XIV is getting just that. We've been watching the slow roll of the end of the world for months now, and as the last few days tick down before the shutdown, it's becoming amply clear just how bad the world is going to get. Everything will burn, everything will fall, and it's down to the last few defenders to fight for the ashes of Eorzea.

And, well, it'll all get put back a couple of days later. But that's not the point.

While the game has been flirting with the apocalyptic prophecies circling around the Seventh Umbral Era since launch, the announcement of A Realm Reborn and subsequent changes set the stage, and since then the game has quite happily pushed the idea that the end is nigh. Speaking as someone who was quite disappointed when similar changes just skipped from "everything's fine" to "after the end" in other games, I was curious to see what Final Fantasy XIV's implementation would look like. And while it's not quite over, I've seen enough to call it -- not perfectly, but very close.

Continue reading The Mog Log: It's the end of Eorzea as we know it

MassivelyThe Mog Log: It's the end of Eorzea as we know it originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Nov 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
Well, the show's over, everyone. Nothing you do in Final Fantasy XIV matters any longer, in both the cosmic sense and the more immediate one. I hope you got what you wanted to get finished all done!

This does not mean that what we do as a community doesn't matter; it always matters. It matters whether the servers are on or off. And that segues nicely into the latest community brouhaha that I've been witnessing, which is essentially a roleplaying schism handled in the way that only roleplaying schisms can happen. Roleplayers are one of the only groups that can still be just as active regarding a game we're not currently playing, odd though it might seem.

I've touched on the Final Fantasy XIV roleplaying community more than once in the past. For some of you, I'm sure this is more or less irrelevant. But seeing as how the game's last save has taken place and there are no more relevant discussions to be had regarding drop rates, quest difficulty, or anything else, would it really be so bad to take a step over and look at how the character-building half lives?

Continue reading The Mog Log: Roleplaying (community) drama

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Roleplaying (community) drama originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
The current version of Final Fantasy XIV is redefining the term "lame duck." This is a duck that is so lame it can no longer move under its own power, relying instead on a specially trained squad of ducklings to occasionally move its head toward food. How it trained the ducklings, I don't know; that's not really the point. It's not a perfect analogy.

We're very close to a final character copy and a server shutdown, at which point... the servers get turned back on again, I guess. Naoki Yoshida quite openly stated that if there is a large enough chunk of players who wanted the servers back on, he will make that happen, even though nothing more would get saved. This raises a variety of questions -- chiefly, why anyone would want to keep playing the game with the explicit understanding that the whole game is getting rolled back before too much longer, but I'm not one of the ones who voted for the reactivation.

But as we enter the final phase -- which is basically just through early next week, if you're not keeping track -- it seems as if it's worth discussing the servers going down and then coming back on. Really, what else do we have to occupy our minds regarding Final Fantasy XIV right now?

Continue reading The Mog Log: When the lights go off in Eorzea

MassivelyThe Mog Log: When the lights go off in Eorzea originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
You could be forgiven for losing faith in the prospect of Final Fantasy XIV ever coming out for the PlayStation 3. Yes, it had been a promised platform, but it wouldn't be the first MMO to abandon console promises. Heck, the development team is still working on fulfilling some of the promises made by the original team; it could be forgiven for putting that one on the back burner.

But it's a real thing. We've seen the screenshots, and we know that two years after the game's initial launch, we will finally get to play around in Eorzea on our televisions. (The "we" in this case refers to fellow PS3 owners.) This is sort of a mixed blessing.

This isn't a column about console gaming compared to PC gaming; I really don't care which platform you prefer, and it's also not the point. This is a column about the fact that Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV are both going to be console games as well as computer games, and that introduces some interesting wrinkles.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Consoles and the online Final Fantasy

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Consoles and the online Final Fantasy originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Oct 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
Square-Enix has long had a very different approach to MMOs compared to the rest of the world. In some ways, this is understandable; I know that every company operates in its own way. But where American and European companies are playing the electric guitar and Korean companies are playing keytar/acoustic duets, Square seems to be bringing out the xylophone to do a heartfelt rendition of Long Distance Runaround. (For those of you not willing to click the link, that song is not normally played with a xylophone.)

As a result, on one level I'm not surprised that we know virtually nothing about Final Fantasy XI's next expansion beyond the upcoming jobs and the fact that it's not going to be released for the PlayStation 2 here in America. I am also completely baffled that in the time since the expansion's announcement we have heard nothing about it. We first found out that the expansion existed in any form back in June, and we've learned pretty much nothing new since... and that's not a good sign.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Where in the world is Seekers of Adoulin?

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Where in the world is Seekers of Adoulin? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
Not so long ago I was getting upset at a lack of hard information on Final Fantasy XIV's relaunch. (All right, I was getting upset at a lack of hard information on stuff to make people currently long gone care about the game, but that was tied into a lack of hard information.) Over the last two weeks, we've received a lot of hard information on the relaunch.

Well played, Naoki Yoshida. Well played.

Metacommentary aside, we've actually gotten some useful bits, chiefly in the form of a fully translated Letter from the Producer LIVE and an update on what's happening with items and money when the relaunch happens. There's a lot of information to hit there, so I'm just going to take it piece by piece and cover what I see as the highlights. I wouldn't say that this information really fixes some of the communication concerns I've had, but it certainly mollifies me for the moment.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Reacting to FFXIV's relaunch information

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Reacting to FFXIV's relaunch information originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
Has it really been two years since Final Fantasy XIV launched? My collector's edition box was purchase two years ago, and I wrote my last anniversary column a year ago, so I guess it must have been. And yet I still don't feel as if it's actually happened yet.

You'll note that last year's column was mostly about what happened as a result of the game's launch. That wasn't by accident. Launch led to a massive restructuring of the game's design team, and not too long after the one-year mark, the team announced that it was basically remaking the game from the ground up. That fact has dominated the past year, and it's impossible to overstate the importance that announcement has had for the Final Fantasy XIV community. Everything circles around the promise of 2.0 these days.

What has that meant for the actual years of the game's operation? Sadly, nothing good. The game has made huge strides, but we as players have been stuck in a nasty little loop.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Two years of spinning wheels in Final Fantasy XIV

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Two years of spinning wheels in Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Sep 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
The more I see about Final Fantasy XIV's relaunch, the more anxious I get.

If there's any doubt remaining in the minds of others, let me be entirely transparent: I'm a big fan of Final Fantasy XIV. Wonders never cease, I know. To say that I'm looking forward to the new version is pretty much irrelevant. Of course I'm going to play it when everything changes over; I'm playing it now and would continue to do so even without the promise of rebirthing realms.

But while I was discussing the game over dinner with Ms. Lady a few nights ago, she said something that struck me as very relevant: "It's going to need to really be awesome to pull me back." And she has a point. I'm getting a bit anxious because the new version thus far seems to set the bar at a very respectable level that's still nowhere near as high as it needs to be, and I wonder whether it's even possible to hit the mark it needs.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Generating a wow factor in FFXIV

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Generating a wow factor in FFXIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
On November 1st, it's the end of the world as we know it. I'll let you know then how I'm feeling.

All right, the game will still be online for another week or so, but November 1st is the last day that any progress is getting saved. You can go ahead and ignore Final Fantasy XIV after that last server photograph, unless you had an urge to spend all of your gil on airship rides but couldn't bear the thought of being broke. Not that you'll even need to worry about that after September 29th if you're not currently subscribed, as that's the last chance for people to come back even if it's just for a short period of time.

It's hard to avoid looking forward to the end of the game as it stands, and the fact that we have a precise timeframe only exacerbates the problem. We've got 45 days until the ending hits, and while I've already talked about what to do with the time you have left, there are questions that need to be asked as we look at the numbers.

Continue reading The Mog Log: It's the countdown

MassivelyThe Mog Log: It's the countdown originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
If you're just joining us after a rousing session of Final Fantasy XIV, this column may not exactly be for you because this week isn't about speculation; it's about discussing the many things that people don't like about Final Fantasy XIV which either no longer exist or are known to be removed in version 2.0.

This might seem like it's kind of silly, but honestly, I think there's a lot of stuff that people not actively following FFXIV don't know about. The game's biggest burst of visibility happened when it launched, just like every other game in the history of anything ever. While the game isn't for everyone now any more than it was a year ago, the development staff has taken pains to address gaps in the structure and improve the play experience for everyone.

So here's an article about just that. And while you might already know the content of the article, the next time you know someone worried about something in the game that's long since been excised, you can point him back here.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Getting up to speed on Final Fantasy XIV as it is

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Getting up to speed on Final Fantasy XIV as it is originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 08 Sep 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
If you read all of the columns I write in a given week, then I believe that you're a wholly fictional creature. But beyond that, you'll remember that my Wednesday column was all about the systems that City of Heroes could comfortably borrow from Guild Wars 2. You may also be expecting the same sort of column here. That is definitely not the case.

For starters, neither Final Fantasy XI nor Final Fantasy XIV is in a state where it can borrow anything. The former is set in its ways, and the latter has a major update around the corner that makes suggestions about mechanics pretty suspect. Furthermore, neither game is really into the whole "borrowing" routine, preferring instead to reverse-engineer a concept into some bizarre reinvention of the wheel that makes both games at once wonderful and incomprehensible.

No, today I'm looking not at mechanics but at lessons for Final Fantasy XIV. The game is going to be relaunching soon, and that's when Naoki Yoshida's core principles will really be put to the test. And as the development team puts the final touches on the game, I think there are a few things to be garnered from the design of Guild Wars 2 that might nudge development around a touch.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Lessons from Guild Wars 2 for Final Fantasy XIV

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Lessons from Guild Wars 2 for Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 01 Sep 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
Subscriptions are dying. There's no two ways about it. Star Wars: The Old Republic is switching over, and whether or not they liked the game, fans of Final Fantasy XIV have no room to throw stones about the game's success. That leaves a handful of holdouts in the normal subscription space, and that doesn't include the next major release on the horizon, as Guild Wars 2 is under the same buy-to-play model as its predecessor.

Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI are two of the holdouts. And in a world increasingly dominated by games without subscription fees, that's pretty significant. So the question becomes whether or not the games will embrace the free-to-play option, whether or not they should, and how this sort of option could work in the game's favor rather than against it. After all, there are some roadblocks to making the system work quite right, but there's a lot of pressure on the market for a change.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy and free-to-play

MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy and free-to-play originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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