Dear Square Enix!
First of all, I think we are all glad that we got chosen as Alpha Testers and for the opportunity, to push the game a little bit into the right direction. I know that the Development Team is working day and night to let us testers experience the Beta Version of the game as fast as possible, but there are still a few things that I would like to point out and also a few questions, which I know, wont be answered. I will ask them anyways.
1. The Patcher
I guess the outrageous number of threads and posts regarding that matter is hard to oversee, so I guess you are aware of that problem. However I would really like to know why there was no improvement on it in the last 3 months since we started Alpha testing even though the same amount of complains existed on the first few downloads. I know that a large number of problems is caused by missconfiguration on the user side but knowledge about router and network configuration is not something you can expect from everyone. Especially not when the game goes live because the users will thank you by canceling their subscription after the first trial month. On the other side the patcher clogs the download by using maximum upload speed on lower bandwidths while not using the full potential on faster ones. That is also something you should look into.
2. Communication
As a FFXI Veteran since the US release of the game (which I imported) I was never happy about how you were communicating with us. User feedback had less to no impact back then and the developers were always just some mysterious persons behind the game. I am glad you took us all in here this time to finally hear us out but sadly I don't really feel like you listen to us. I miss actual conversation with the developers like every other MMORPG has it these days and that includes more than a monthly 100 word post from the producer and 1 liner news sprinkled over the weeks to make it look like something happens. We want to know what is happening, what problems occur, maybe a dev diary of what happens in your offices or what you are planning to do next. This is a great chance for you to form a bond with your community as long as it is small as a base to build up from so don't miss it!
3. Support
As stated in the User Agreement and in the invitation you don't offer any support while in the Beta Stage and that is absolutely fine with me. However it would still be helpful to have a FAQ with the most common problems or questions or at least a newpost every week that sums up the user solutions of the forums so newcomers do not have to search through 4 pages of threads to find their answers. I also hope that you have a really good 24/7 support team ready to not end like NCSOFT did last autumn.
4. Community Team
I was very disappointed with the FFXI community team and I must admit I haven't seen or talked to them in a total of 6 years. Where are they this time around? This here is a fresh start and it already goes in the wrong direction in my honest opinion. You should bring in the community team here to chat and talk to us and be the bridge between our and your side if the developers don't want to be here themselves. I would really like to hear opinions to feedback from living people instead of getting a "Thank you for your feedback" every now and then.
5. Payment Options
Rumors say that the payment will be limited to Credit Card only which is rather sad in the year of 2010 when there are tons of alternatives. Game Time Cards for example are a must for every big MMORPG these days. Since you bought Eidos, which distributed the Age of Conan GTCs, you should have a good logistic partner on your side to do the same with FFXIV. Beside that I would really like to see ELV for the German speaking regions in Europe or even Paypal. All that aside I really think we would like to have a clarification on that matter.
6. Extra Character Fee
This is something that shocked many players when you first announced it. In FFXI a extra character had the price of 1€ and was mostly used as a bank character. Since FFXIV will be introducing Retainers for a fee of 1€this problem should be solved but 3€for an extra character has a foul taste added to it. A lot of people feel their freedom restricted because they already pay 13 Euro per month and are still limited to one character. I think a second free character slot would make a lot of people feel much better so they can at least play 2 races or on 2 different servers with friends.
This should round up everything.
I want to add that this here is a simple feedback post of me with constructive criticism and I never intended to upset someone.
I also beg the users of this forum to not split this thread up into an argument. You can agree, disagree or add anything that I might have missed, but any argument against me for writing the above will be ignored
Thank you for your time!
Kontrollzentrum
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