The thing Final Fantasy XIV is best known for right now isn’t the interesting world, the flexible class system, or its in-depth crafting — it’s the errors.
Even if you have no interest in playing the game, chances are you have seen some articles or tweets or whatever mentioning how difficult it is just to log into Final Fantasy XIV. This type of thing is to be expected with the launch of a new MMORPG, but Square Enix has been especially slow to alleviate some of that server and player stress.
It was apparent during early access that the game was going to need new servers on launch day. Error 1017 has been plaguing players since Phase 4 of the beta, and Square Enix clearly did not act fast enough.
Accurate.
Naoki Yoshida mentioned during a recent forum post that they realized they were going to need higher world capacities and more servers during early access. The question is, why has it taken so long just to have more servers added? The game needs to have the player capacity for each server raised, but additional worlds would have been an ideal way to relieve some of the pressure on already-established worlds early on.
I know when I began, Coeurl was one of the lower population NA servers and now it is just as packed to the brim as the rest of them. Every server is in this situation — obviously the 5,000 player per world limit is too low.
But I’m not upset
I say all of the above out of confusion, not out of anger. I’m not mad I can’t log into the game anytime I want. It’s a little embarrassing when my friends buy the game and expect to be able to play right away (only to be proven otherwise), but I’m still having a great time. The other people who are actually logged into the game, from what my Free Company and /shout tells me, are having a great time as well.
It’s difficult to be upset in this situation because the game itself is actually really good. It’s not fast-paced or open world, it doesn’t break any genre conventions — but it is basically what I (and seemingly many others) wanted from a Final Fantasy MMORPG.
The world of Eorzea, while small, is very interesting and exciting to explore. Dungeons are fun and varied, Disciples of the Hand (crafting jobs) are amazingly in-depth, the story is interesting enough, and the community is friendly. What more could I possibly want from a Final Fantasy game? The want for a functional server infrastructure aside.
It’s clear that Naoki Yoshida and his team were not prepared for the amount of players the game has garnered already. The man is obviously passionate about the game and his work, and one can only assume the rest of the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn team are the same. It’s just a shame they were so ill-prepared for what could have been one of the biggest MMO launches in the past couple of years.
Fix it before player hemorrhaging
Before I wrote this article, I was heading to Limsa Lominsa to get screenshots for an extensive Culinarian guide. One disconnect and dozens of error messages later, here I am writing whatever you could call this. Who knows how many other people have had a similar experience today, and now many will tomorrow and the day after the next.
Square Enix needs to get this fixed as soon as possible. The game itself is great, but as a player and as someone rooting for this not to have too big of a long-term impact on player numbers, it is inevitable that these problems will chase people away. I personally am not too upset, but the people filing for refunds most certainly are. The more time that passes without functional servers, the more people will leave the game and look elsewhere for their MMO fix.
It’s easy to just refute someone’s complaints with the standard launch day argument, but let’s be real here: these issues are widespread and it looks terrible to the public. Just because you and your Free Company intend to stay with the game doesn’t mean those thousands getting frustrated are. Turn up your nose all you like (I know I have a few times), but this is a serious problem that will affect how Final Fantasy XIV does in the long run. I want these problems to get fixed — not for myself, but for those out there losing hope that they too will be able to roam Eorzea.
(I want to add screenshots to this article, but it will have to wait until I can log back in. Until then, enjoy no pictures!)
Published: Aug 31, 2013 06:15 pm