A look at Final Fantasy XI
I like to broaden my horizons with games, I download and play many many different MMO's simply to play them and see how they work.
Today I seen an advert for a free trial of Final Fantasy XI, so I downloaded it and installed it.
Before I could play it however, it required me to make an account with Play Online. Fair enough I suppose, they need my details to play.
Then I seen what details they wanted.
First name
Middle name
Last name
Date of Birth
Address (!)
Post Code (!!)
Phone Number (!!!)
Country of Origin
Internet Provider
Approx internet speed
Model of PC
Did I upgrade my PC in order to play on Play Online?
What other MMO's do I play
Do I have a vial of virgins blood
Am I willing to offer my firstborn child to satan
Ok maybe not those last two, but it got bloody rediculous!
So I entered it all in and tried to play. Now I'm a regular reader of Bannable Offenses, it's a really funny blog. Recently he played a trial of WOW and his first post nicknamed the game World of Patchcraft, due to the multiple patches needed to get the game to playable status.
So I assumed FF11 wouldn't need much, if any, patching to play. Oh how wrong I was... eight hours. EIGHT FREAKING HOURS! I've done fresh installs of WoW that don't take more than two. EIGHT HOURS!!!
So I spent my entire day doing other stuff waiting for it to download. Now this 8 hours is on top of the 2 it took to download the downloader. So 10 hours in total to play it.
So I log in... and am greeted with an 800x600 highly pixelated screen stretched across by 1600 x1050 monitor. This doesn't bother me. I understand that I probably need to get into the game in order to change the graphics. So I just enter.
Queue a 5 minute uninterruptible intro yacking about the history of a city I don't give a rats ass about. At least World of Warcraft lets you SKIP the intro video.
So I get in the game (Eventually) and the first thing I try to do is change the graphics, so I press Escape. You know Escape, top left corner of the keyboard, the standard Menu button? Well it did nothing... Or any of the F keys. It's at this point I realise that cursors don't move, nor do WASD. So I try to click to move, that doesn't work either.
I believe very firmly that if a player cannot pick up a game in a short amount of time they will drop it without giving it another chance. I know this because I am one of those players. But I promised myself to give FF11 an honest try, even if I end up not liking it. Eventually through mashing of many keys and pushing nearly every button on my keyboard I learn that the arrow keys on the Numpad move your player. I also learn that the regular arrow keys control the camera and the dash (-) on the numpad opens the menu.
Finally I think! Lets up this resolution and get playing! ... wait... where's the graphics option... WHAT!? There's NO Graphics option in the Config menu!? You mean I'm stuck with this horrid 800x600 pixelated trash stretched across my screen!? Now this annoyed me. I understand FF11 is old, but NO GRAPHICS OPTIONS!? Sure I can change my window colour (woo) but so what? I want to change my quality and resolution.
So I decide to ignore that for now and try and do something in game. Like a quest or something. Or kill a baddie. The controls are very non-intuitive, getting used to numpad movement is awkward. There is no option for changing this. We are the numpad, you will be assimilated, resistance is futile.
Anyway I can't find a single quest or monster or anything. I have no clue what to do, I'm given no tutorial mode, no help, no noob tips, no basic "go kill 10 boars for me" quest to begin with and I've no idea how to tell the difference between a player and an NPC. I'm just thrown in the deep end right off the bat.
At this point my patience had reached its limit. I've played FREE MMO's with better tutorials. So I went to the menu and told it to shut down.
>>Shutting down in 30 seconds<<
...
you serious?
Longest 30 seconds of my life.
Download time + install time = 10 hours
Playtime = 10 minutes
I love Final Fantasy games, but 11 fails hardcore. Sorry, but I'm going back to
....It's at this point that someone would come along and criticise me for not giving it enough time. That had I looked under xx menu in xx area of the game or launcher that I would have found the Options I'm looking for and that the game gets more enjoyable after time.
You sir, miss my point. My point is that this game is not noob friendly. It did not, anywhere, inform me of what to do, where to go or how to change any settings. If I need to jump through hoops simply to change my resolution, then my distaste is justified. I shouldn't have to. The era of steep learning curve games is over. World of Warcraft may be more casual than most MMO's, but they do a damn better job of teaching people how to play.
Edit: Laura just pointed out to me that as she uses a laptop that doesn't have a numpad, she would be unable to play FFXI.
Congrats Square. You blocked yourself from the entire laptop market.
Today I seen an advert for a free trial of Final Fantasy XI, so I downloaded it and installed it.
Before I could play it however, it required me to make an account with Play Online. Fair enough I suppose, they need my details to play.
Then I seen what details they wanted.
First name
Middle name
Last name
Date of Birth
Address (!)
Post Code (!!)
Phone Number (!!!)
Country of Origin
Internet Provider
Approx internet speed
Model of PC
Did I upgrade my PC in order to play on Play Online?
What other MMO's do I play
Do I have a vial of virgins blood
Am I willing to offer my firstborn child to satan
Ok maybe not those last two, but it got bloody rediculous!
So I entered it all in and tried to play. Now I'm a regular reader of Bannable Offenses, it's a really funny blog. Recently he played a trial of WOW and his first post nicknamed the game World of Patchcraft, due to the multiple patches needed to get the game to playable status.
So I assumed FF11 wouldn't need much, if any, patching to play. Oh how wrong I was... eight hours. EIGHT FREAKING HOURS! I've done fresh installs of WoW that don't take more than two. EIGHT HOURS!!!
So I spent my entire day doing other stuff waiting for it to download. Now this 8 hours is on top of the 2 it took to download the downloader. So 10 hours in total to play it.
So I log in... and am greeted with an 800x600 highly pixelated screen stretched across by 1600 x1050 monitor. This doesn't bother me. I understand that I probably need to get into the game in order to change the graphics. So I just enter.
Queue a 5 minute uninterruptible intro yacking about the history of a city I don't give a rats ass about. At least World of Warcraft lets you SKIP the intro video.
So I get in the game (Eventually) and the first thing I try to do is change the graphics, so I press Escape. You know Escape, top left corner of the keyboard, the standard Menu button? Well it did nothing... Or any of the F keys. It's at this point I realise that cursors don't move, nor do WASD. So I try to click to move, that doesn't work either.
I believe very firmly that if a player cannot pick up a game in a short amount of time they will drop it without giving it another chance. I know this because I am one of those players. But I promised myself to give FF11 an honest try, even if I end up not liking it. Eventually through mashing of many keys and pushing nearly every button on my keyboard I learn that the arrow keys on the Numpad move your player. I also learn that the regular arrow keys control the camera and the dash (-) on the numpad opens the menu.
Finally I think! Lets up this resolution and get playing! ... wait... where's the graphics option... WHAT!? There's NO Graphics option in the Config menu!? You mean I'm stuck with this horrid 800x600 pixelated trash stretched across my screen!? Now this annoyed me. I understand FF11 is old, but NO GRAPHICS OPTIONS!? Sure I can change my window colour (woo) but so what? I want to change my quality and resolution.
So I decide to ignore that for now and try and do something in game. Like a quest or something. Or kill a baddie. The controls are very non-intuitive, getting used to numpad movement is awkward. There is no option for changing this. We are the numpad, you will be assimilated, resistance is futile.
Anyway I can't find a single quest or monster or anything. I have no clue what to do, I'm given no tutorial mode, no help, no noob tips, no basic "go kill 10 boars for me" quest to begin with and I've no idea how to tell the difference between a player and an NPC. I'm just thrown in the deep end right off the bat.
At this point my patience had reached its limit. I've played FREE MMO's with better tutorials. So I went to the menu and told it to shut down.
>>Shutting down in 30 seconds<<
...
you serious?
Longest 30 seconds of my life.
Download time + install time = 10 hours
Playtime = 10 minutes
I love Final Fantasy games, but 11 fails hardcore. Sorry, but I'm going back to
....It's at this point that someone would come along and criticise me for not giving it enough time. That had I looked under xx menu in xx area of the game or launcher that I would have found the Options I'm looking for and that the game gets more enjoyable after time.
You sir, miss my point. My point is that this game is not noob friendly. It did not, anywhere, inform me of what to do, where to go or how to change any settings. If I need to jump through hoops simply to change my resolution, then my distaste is justified. I shouldn't have to. The era of steep learning curve games is over. World of Warcraft may be more casual than most MMO's, but they do a damn better job of teaching people how to play.
Edit: Laura just pointed out to me that as she uses a laptop that doesn't have a numpad, she would be unable to play FFXI.
Congrats Square. You blocked yourself from the entire laptop market.