Final Fantasy XIV Open Beta To Start On August 31

The client software installer for the open beta is out early:   http://entry.ffxiv.com/

Time to cross my hands in hopes I'll get the beta. Reaaaally hope it was smart to trash my pc chance in favor of the ps3 one >>

" The time restriction is very interesting, because most MMOs tend to be a time sink and grindfest. While the intentions maybe good, I fear that this is going to do more harm than good for this MMO.  Not that any other significant MMO has been able to get near close to the quality of World of WarCraft. "

" The only people I see getting angry about this XP limit thing are the people that have no life, and can spend 8-10 hours a day playing an MMO... And those people don't really matter anyway. I mean, it's a small crowd of people.  Any time an MMO launches. There are maybe a few dozen people out of the thousands that reach the level cap within a week. So yeah, that's a super small crowd of people that will be affected by this XP limit thing. The majority won't even notice it.  Not only that. This XP limit thing will only matter for a limited amount of time (during the level up process). Eventually you will hit the level cap, and won't be effected by the XP limit anymore.  All in all, I think people are making a bigger deal out of it than it really is. "

I wouldn't mind any kind of fatigue system if I didn't have to pay monthly for this.

exp cap makes me want to punch kittens. how can u justify a game u pay to play.... when u can only gain as much headway as the FING developers says you can?  
 
FIX IT 

Everyone will log in on day one. 
Eight hours later the servers will be empty for the rest of the week. 
Cancelling my pre-order now.

"Learn how the system works before you knock it."

It seems like Square Enix policy to make a very nice looking game, and then start pruning away the fun. They're getting very good at it.

Blizzard had originally planned a similar fatigue system for WoW, which was a much broader version of it's current rest system.  The original plan was for it to be possible to get anywhere from 4x to 1/4x the normal experience amount depending on how much time you have spent logged out.  The plans were scaled way back due to player backlash, and this could be the same.
 
...Except that SE's primary audience is in Japan, not America, and I don't know if they're raging over this as much as we are.  A more internet cafe centered audience might not mind these types of play restrictions.

im still keeping my pre-order for the collectors edition. the way you can switch classes really has me interested. cant wait

The 8 hour cap is only with one class not your whole character, I'm really not worried about the way the exp system works just because the whole games way of progressing is looking kinda different from any other MMO. Learn how the system works before you knock it.
 
FFXI is not the greatest MMO and yet it still has a pretty good community and a lot of MMO's as old as FFXI can't say the same thing. I really enjoyed a lot about FFXI and seeing how mind bendingly slow that game progressed, I can't imagine FFXIV could be worse.

Was totally excited for this game, then I heard about the XP caps. I'll probably give the beta a go in hopes of being blown away, but it's not looking too good.

Am I understanding this correctly? You can only earn EXP for 8 hours a week and then it just stops? What kind of bullshit is that? Square is essentially putting a cap on the amount of time people can play. And we're expected to pay a monthly fee for this? If a person is willing to put more time into the game, then why shouldn't they be at an advantage? Isn't that how video games work? The more you play, the more rewards you receive and the better you get. This seems like a completely ass backwards way to play a MMO.
 
I know that Square had that guy die because he played for 24 hours straight or whatever. But is this really the best way to deal with this?

Can i play for more than an hour?

The fatigue system is going to kill this game.

The time restriction is very interesting, because most MMOs tend to be a time sink and grindfest. While the intentions maybe good, I fear that this is going to do more harm than good for this MMO.
 
Not that any other significant MMO has been able to get near close to the quality of World of WarCraft.

Honestly it wouldn't be that bad if you could play another character instead, too bad that costs an additional 3 dollars a month per character.  The pricing on this game is flat out ludicrous.  Putting a restriction like this down AND asking for a monthly fee is very questionable.

The only people I see getting angry about this XP limit thing are the people that have no life, and can spend 8-10 hours a day playing an MMO... And those people don't really matter anyway. I mean, it's a small crowd of people. 
Any time an MMO launches. There are maybe a few dozen people out of the thousands that reach the level cap within a week. So yeah, that's a super small crowd of people that will be affected by this XP limit thing. The majority won't even notice it.
 
Not only that. This XP limit thing will only matter for a limited amount of time (during the level up process). Eventually you will hit the level cap, and won't be effected by the XP limit anymore.
 
All in all, I think people are making a bigger deal out of it than it really is.

The only things bad about this that I've heard come from beta testers. (obviously) but what rattles my cage is that these beta testers are complaining about a game that is in beta. It's a beta, not a demo of the finished product. Their feedback is key, but it doesn't seem like a lot of them are giving it to the right sources.

" Quick Look? Maybe? FF11 was the grindiest thing on the internet, by all accounts, but maybe this one isn't terrible?  It's probably terrible. "

The exp limit totally suits me just fine.  I have a job and goals and stuff you know?
 
That said, I can see why other players are bummed about it.  What if they could do it server-by-server, wouldn't that be great? 

You know, WoW had a system similar to that for experience in beta, except at worst you would end up only being able to earn 25% xp and it only took eight hours for it to go back to normal.  That system didn't survive.  So why Sqaure thinks having an even harsher system than the one Blizzard decided was a bad idea is a good idea is beyond me.

" To clear one possible confusion up, it seems the "8 hour restriction" isn't 8 hours of play time on one character, but "8 hours worth of accumulated exp."  How exactly that's gonna work, I don't know, but for now, going afk in the game won't screw a person over it seems. "

*Closed beta applications were closed as of August 16th.

Open beta apps are forthcoming.

The xp cap sounds fairly flexible.  It's not time based, it was just an estimate they originally came up with and confused the whole issue.  They have 8 "gates" that you go through collecting full xp, then 7 more that gradually decrease the amount of xp you get (they estimate all 15 will take 15 hours.)  However, this regenerates in your downtime, meaning any time you're not gaining xp, and has a total reset weekly.

I'm hopeful for this one, I'm going to at least give it a try.

My biggest complaint about the first game is that it depended far too much on having a hardcore guild if you wanted to do any kind of realistic leveling. The game is so solo unfriendly, and the quests so teeth grindingly difficult/tedious, that I couldn't justify paying the monthly fee.
 
I'll probably give this one a go (just to see if they learned any lessons), but it's really going to have to "WoW" me in order to get me to stay.

I have a key >_>

The worst thing is that Japanese fans will eat this up out of a misguided sense of brand loyalty.

To clear one possible confusion up, it seems the "8 hour restriction" isn't 8 hours of play time on one character, but "8 hours worth of accumulated exp."  How exactly that's gonna work, I don't know, but for now, going afk in the game won't screw a person over it seems.

Quick Look? Maybe? FF11 was the grindiest thing on the internet, by all accounts, but maybe this one isn't terrible?
 
It's probably terrible.

cap on xp gains? LMMFAO..way to KILL your game Square...enjoy your niche.

The fuck is up with cutting the amount of exp you gain after x amount of playtime?

I'll be trying it out.
 
The worst thing I've heard about the game is the 'fatigue' system they're implementing.  I don't know if I will be a fan of that.  

I still don't know about this one, from all i've heard.. it'll be bad.

If you like brutal server crashes or need a taste of Final Fantasy XIV before you bother to hit a store to purchase, the time to experience the former and do the latter is nigh. Square Enix has confirmed that it is kicking off an open beta wave for the game as early as August 31, 19:00PDT in North America, according to RPG Site.

It's unknown exactly how many people Square Enix is planning to let flood its fresh-smelling MMO, but it seems safe to assume that it'll be a substantial number. The game hits soon (September 22), and its servers have yet to take the kind of day-one beating most MMO studios attempt to simulate beforehand. 

This news comes on the heels of a confirmation that the PS3 edition of the game will launch at least six months later than its PC brother as the result of a memory pinch.