A Letter to Square Enix: Final Fantasy XIV

Fix it or I Quit

and take my friends with me

Dear Square Enix and Mr. Yoshida:

You have built a game, specifically Final Fantasy XIV, at a point in time that is perfectly aimed at becoming the most popular MMO on the planet.  People have been playing World of Warcraft for years now (myself was included) and have gotten bored with it.

Along comes...FFXIV.  After the attempt at V1.0 of which I was in beta, here is a MUCH improved version.  My hats off to the entire team for that feat. What an accomplishment!

However, in light of events that we are all now very aware of, and mine as well, I have a few problems with your service.

1.) World is full error 1017: Seriously? Did the guys that had the job to calculate the number of players fail miserably at their job? Could you not see that you were to be the next big MMO out there?  I have had the game since Early Access started, I managed to squeak in some time here and there to play a bit.  Most of t he time, I get error 1017, the world is full.  All the while, my friends and family are intermittently allowed to play.  I get home at 7:00pm EST,which as you can guess, servers are already full and there is virtually no chance in hell I will get to play with my friends and family members.

1a.) Playing along, running my Taru around (don't care if you call it a lalafell, it's still a Taru to us FFXI'ers)....disconnected from server, log back in? nope, error 1017.  I was just there and your server kicked me out. Blame my internet connection? Hardly, it's a capable 105Mbps with a latency of less than 20ms. The Xbox 360 never loses a connection in the middle of an online session, not once.

2.) When the worlds are full, I distinctly remember FFXI having a long login queue, sometimes over an hour, but at least there was a queue to show some sort of progress was being made.  Now we play a lottery system to see who gets to play and who clicked "A" first.

3.) Tell me again why I paid good money for something I do not get to play?  In Beta 3, most things worked, no server overload, no real queues.  Good beta test time.  Beta 4:  Error 3102 3 hours in, on a friday evening, Tech support was closed and therefore, missed almost the entire beta because there was a bug.  Ok, t his one was forgiveable...sort of.  You guys saw the huge crowd of people that could not login becuase of this problem.  Instead of taking the server offline for emergency maintenance and giving it a quick fix up, we were basically thrown out on our ass and given an apology by tech support on tuesday (which by then beta had closed on monday)

4.) Error 90000: thought you guys had that fixed?  Still got them. Nothing a quick reboot of the client didn't fix, still annoying as hell in the middle of a fate though.

5.) Support.  Sucks.  48 hour response time? Call Blizzard tech support sometime.  Usually the problem was solved in a couple of hours.  Even during FFXI there were times that tech support took a long time to respond. As my friends and family are leveling passed me and way ahead in the game, I will be left in the dust to fend for myself and beg for help in dungeons and the like or worse, use a PUG.  Don't know what a PUG is? Google it.

6.) You guys don't tell anyone what the hell the problem is within a reasonable amount of time. Not saying you have to give away trade secrets or anything, but damn man, read the responses you guys get in the forums.  173 pages from error 1017 and still no response from Squenix except an apology letter from Mr. Yoshida.  That's fine, apology accepted Mr. Yoshida.  Now please deliver the content and experience we are paying for.

7.) When the world is full, why do I get dumped clear back to the title screen, can't you just simply put me back to the world selection screen? I know it is only 1 extra click but damn guys, that is annoying.


The mechanics of the game are great. The leveling sucks though. Too fast. Everyone is going to hit cap on all characters before the first expansion gets anywhere near completion. I have played maybe 10 hours total so far and have a 15 conjurer, 13 archer and a 10 carpenter. 

Bottom line, 48 hours.  Fix it or I and others I know that have paid will return our unopened games to the distributors to request a full refund.  I refuse to pay for something I cannot use.  In essence, it is like paying for a car that you cannot drive because it will not let you in the drivers seat although it looks good in the driveway.

Note: Time of this posting is in PST, I am in EST, so it is actually 11:34pm here.

Voicemail ... Music

Really? Seriously?  Voicemail music?  What makes you think I listen to your type of music.  I don't want to listen to music while I am trying to call you.  Listening to the ring while I am attempting to call at least gives me some notion that your phone is ringing (even though it may be on silent or I am ignored).

You are not a big business, you have no right to force me to listen to "hold" music regardless of what you think.  The right I have to call you is given to me by you. I do not try to abuse that privilege.  Therefor, you should not abuse my ears by listening to your country music, or rap, or metal, or oldies etc.  What I want to listen to is up to me and that is why we have radios, iPods, etc etc etc.

The music, unless in the public free domain is Copyrighted material and is owned by someone or some company.  I highly doubt they gave you the right to use whatever song it is you are using.

Quality.  Need I say more? Most people don't understand the word digital vs. using your phone's mic to record the song.  Which by the way, sounds like shit.  Stop doing that.  Nobody but you understands what song it is or can comprehend the words to the tune even if they did recognize it. For you sound oriented people, it's like a car going down the road with 18's in the trunk and no sound deadening..you don't hear boom, you hear bzzzz from the parts buzzing. (IE: license plate)..dorks.

Listening to music instead of a ring is more like picking up a radio to order a pizza.  Stupid, irritating and mostly, just don't make any damn sense. 

Windows 8 and Sinking Ships

Before you start thinking I am going to bash Windows 8 and tout how it is a sinking ship, I will tell you now you are quite wrong. While I am a proponent for most operating systems, yes, I like them all for different reasons, I have no qualms about using Windows 8 (or 8.1 preview at this time) on my desktop at home.

All you naysayers can just stop.  I am soo tired of listening to how bad Windows 8 actually is.  When asking people why they think that, it is because that is what they heard.  Asking them if they have ever seen it or tried it, they (a very high percentage) have also never tried it!  How  the hell can you sit back and invalidate something when you have not even experienced it? This isn't like skydiving.  You don't need a parachute and you won't die if it fails to start.  Go to your local computer store and give it a try. Navigation is actually quite easy since the "metro", if you will, interface gives you the option of having most things you need right in front of you.

I run Windows 8.  I LIKE Windows 8.  Do I LOVE Windows 8? No. Here's why, the corners suck. really? Ok, for a tablet edition or a touchscreen version..yeah sure great.  For a desktop / laptop version (unless you have a touchscreen), sucks.

Here's a hint Microsoft and you too Mr. Gates.  Most people in the world are right handed. Taking in to account that the English speaking world (and most other languages as well) read from top left to top right, top to bottom, why the hell is the start button in bottom left?  Should it not at least be in the top right? Most controls on most window forms are in the top right.  Why the hell is my super button in the bottom left? I have to go all the way across my desktop to get to that button. (Which by the way is one reason I DO like Windows 8, don't need the button at all).

My parents now run Windows 8 on a new computer. I have only had one phone call from them asking where their contacts were.  Told them, they thanked me and that was that.   I have not had to TEACH them a thing!  Now you tell me how it sucks?  My parents are not ones for change.  They jumped from Windows XP to Windows 8. All I showed them was where the news app was and off they went. (which by the way, Dad loves)

Now for you nay-sayers that HAVE tried it and don't like it.  That's fine. Everyone does have their own opinion.  But keep this in mind as you sit back in your antiquated XP days; you are being left behind calculator boy.  We no longer use abacuses and have moved on to better things.  The world evolves and if you don't you wither and get left behind. XP lacks a lot of the features that even Windows 7 has. I couldn't being to tell you how much I miss 7's snap abilities when I am fixing someone else's Vista or XP machine.  That alone is worth it's weight in gold to me.  You sit back in your cream filled twinkie chair there fluff boy (or girl) and watch as the world will one day quit bailing you out of obsolescence just so your online browser games will work.


Some people are like, you have a touchscreen on that thing right? Nope. Why you ask? Can't justify spending money to buy one today.  Maybe tomorrow, maybe next month. Not today. I have a 32" LED tv hooked up as primary and a 22" 16:9 as a secondary to the side.

Now Microsoft, your turn.  Why in the hell are you still making 32bit systems?  How long have we had 64 processors? I mean come on. Make the jump already.  Innovation inspires advancement and change in business.  I know of some software companies that refuse to update their product simply because you are still creating an operating system that is 32bit? really? Most machines you buy today can easily handle 16GB of RAM or more...and they get stuck with 32bit.  We should all be arguing over whether we should upgrade our 64bit to a 128bit not having the 32bit debate that has been raging for over a decade now.  Vista should have been the last 32bit OS available.  That would have given them (both the consumer and software companies) 2 years to make the switch to 64bit.  2 years!  You guys built Windows 7 in that time! They have no excuse and neither should you.  Cut your programming costs by not offering a 32bit version of Windows anymore and do the world a favor; cause a shift.