So, I'm trying out the open beta...
Set-up an account. Downloaded the installer. Fixed up the client. Created a character. Played a supershort tutorial on a boat killing a few jelly fish. Get thrown off in a huge town. Take on a quest from some dude that's introduced in a cut-scene. Wander around aimlessly talking to every NPC (no voice-overs!). Find the exit to the questing area after a long while. Walk up to a monster at the designated beginner questhub. Get killed. Stay dead. I'm not prompted to the next step. I'm dead, lying on the ground. Forever. Asking strangers for advice. No answer. Chatting functionality so unwieldy, nobody chats in this game.
Anyways. This game suffers from horrible pacing and tutorial structure (there really ain't much of a tutorial there and well, as for pacing, you're dropped off in one of the capital cities without a clue what's going on and nothing to do in terms of quests). Horrid UI - especially the chat window is the worst piece of crap and lacks all modern functionality. Extremely insular social design (there's only /tell and /say - no general channels at all, nobody actually chats at all). Unwieldy camera with a mind of it's own.
The hour or so I spent with the game I was mostly shouting at the screen in disbelieve. Never have I played a more clunky game. Never before have I seen as much ignorance in a major MMORPG developement in terms of functionality and responsiveness. FF XIV Open Beta is the worst MMORPG Experience I've had in my life. Literally everything is so much worse than anything else out there. It's an unwieldy blocky piece of ignorant gamedesign that can't stand up to any of its competitors. It's just that bad. By hour one, I'm usually already hooked on the avarage MMORPG. Did a couple of nice questlines. Got level-ups and loot and new skills. Here, I just wandered around aimlessly in a huge city. Read a shit-ton of useless fluff. Got one quest. Fought one monster looking like a plant vagina. Got killed and stayed dead forever.
That said. I'm gonna try and figure out how to fucking reclaim my fucking life. Wispers didn't help, because people don't know how to fucking make a /tell. The internet doesn't have a clue. I must be stupid. Or I ran into some kind of bug that didn't prompt me to the next step after death - like a corpserun or a menu pop-up or a resurrection point. This shit is messed up beyond belief. Also - who in his right mind dares to come out with a brandnew MMORPG in 2010 without full voiceovers? That's just fucking retarded. The competition will eat you alive.
P.S. the fucking client updater playing shitty tunes in a loop for hours on end doesn't help either. Nor does any of the horrid candy JRPG music in the 'effin game. It's like taking a candy cone and driving through my tympanic membrane.
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