Final Fantasy XIV BETA Sign Ups Open

[Raedon]

Square Enix has started accepting requests to join the beta testing phase for its massively multiplayer online RPG Final Fantasy XIV.

Players interested in joining can go to the game's official website and sign up to participate.


Final Fantasy XIV is scheduled to release in 2010 for PlayStation 3 and PC blah blah etc etc.

[kupomogli]

The beta testing is only for PC right now. I'll beta test for PS3 maybe, but my PC probably can't even run this so I'm not even going to try and get in.

[portnoyd]

Woot, applied. Thanks Raedon.

[gokugohandave]

I wonnder if a 5500gx would run it? Ill be waiting for the ps3 beta as well.

[Tempest]

I was in the FF IX beta for the PS2. Maybe I'll get in on this one as well.

Tempet

[AB Positive]

I'll give it a go - I had some fun with XI back in the day.

I think I have a 6500 or so in my setup, here's hoping that's enough

[BHvrd]

Nice, wish they had one for DC Universe cause between it and FFXIV I will be playaing one on the ps3 for sure. Went ahead and signed up for pc beta though as seeing what it is like ahead of time could shift my choice, hopefully it's alot like FFXI with more flexible combat cause really other than that I have no gripes with FFXI's formula.

[NayusDante]

I've got a decent rig, hope I get in this time. I applied for the FFXI beta, but didn't make it. I'm definitely excited about this...

[kupomogli]

When I was playing FF11 it was a massive grinder but I heard some people say that it was changed in an update later on to have less grinding and enemies gave more exp percentage now. On FF11 you had to get into parties just to grind because eventually the enemies you could beat solo started giving you no exp. If this is true and FF14 isn't the grinder FF11 was, then maybe I try it out.

Obviously not on my PC which wouldn't be able to handle it. Maybe a rental and try it out a month.

[Valkrazhor]

When I was playing FF11 it was a massive grinder but I heard some people say that it was changed in an update later on to have less grinding and enemies gave more exp percentage now. On FF11 you had to get into parties just to grind because eventually the enemies you could beat solo started giving you no exp. If this is true and FF14 isn't the grinder FF11 was, then maybe I try it out.

FFXI has gotten a lot easier to progress through since its release but you still need help to complete nearly anything worthwhile in the game. This wouldn't be a problem if the community was great but due to the games archaic, grind-filled and unforgiving nature this isn't the case. Since people have to invest so many real life hours simply putting a party together or doing whatever needs to be done, if another person makes a simple mistake or isn't a total master at the game they will get called out like no other. To add on top of this, some things require alliances to complete and gathering 12 people or so for one, with correctly balanced jobs, equipment, and skill can take hours and hours. I remember waiting around nearly 16 hours once trying to form an alliance to get some rare item in the game. It's a total bitch. I wondered why I was even playing. I felt as if Square should be paying me instead of me paying them!

The biggest problem with FFXI though is that gil is way too scarce. You have to compete for farming spots with others to have a chance at making gil, and even once you get a decent spot to farm which isn't filled with people, it takes hours and hours to make a decent amount and nowhere near enough to buy the nice gear in the Auction House. To add to this, everyone farming around you is usually agitated since the gil is harder to earn than real life money so they will spout rude comments to you or whatever it may be. Not to mention that Square has gimped the already low sale price of items from most popular farming spots to attempt to prevent automated bots from farming these places and selling the money for real life currency. Don't even get me started on camping notorious monsters either... Like the ones that only spawn once every 24 hours and you are waiting in a room with 10+ other people, all of which who are totally rude and act as if they are your worst enemy since the competition is so fierce and the time wasted so high. The only way to really aquire the great gear in the game is to be part of a LinkShell which is incredibly active so they can wait those 24+ real life hours alongside you to try to increase your odds of claiming the fight with a monster spawn and get your item. Though to be part of a decent one you will have to literally sign your life away, for obvious reasons. Notorious monster hunting is so stakes filled, competitive and exhausting that once the monster of desire finally spawns you will either have a heart attack if you see it unclaimed, will shoot yourself if you see it claimed by another party, or even worse you will claim it and after killing it it will not drop the item your after and you will sit there for another 24 hours straight in complete agony. It's more stress-filled than most any real life event will ever throw on you.

After countless hours of FFXI I am sick and tired of that game for good and the reason for this is the community. The reason the community is bad though is a combination of the game being quite old at this point and the fact that the game is harder than real life work in the real world. After typing all of this, it reminded me how happy I am to not be playing it anymore.

On a positive note, FFXI has a killer job system. The best in any MMO to date. I love that you can do multiple jobs with a single character since after hours with you character you tend to get attached a bit to him/her and it sucks to have to start a new one once you max out a single job in other games. I did have some great times with the game but those great times were heavily overshadowed by the bad. Probably the best thing that came out of FFXI was that for being the last person out of thousands to register for one of their conventions I won a FFXI soundtrack boxed set signed by all the developers and others involved with the game.

Anyways, I am pretty confident that FFXIV will make a change for the better. They have to if they want to compete with other popular MMO's of today. I think they know this though because they have been modifying FFXI as much as they can recently to try to make it more accessible. It just will never be a very accessible game though. Anyway, here's hoping I get to join the beta for the new one.

[Jorpho]

I was in the FF IX beta for the PS2

Um...

If this is true and FF14 isn't the grinder FF11 was, then maybe I try it out.

It would be a clever approach if they left FF11 for those who like grinding (!?) and then had FF14 for more "casual" gamers.

[BHvrd]

Fileplanet subscribers can now take part in the beta (limited keys):

http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/final-fantasy-xiv/

[MarioMania]

Where's the 360 version??

[NayusDante]

They couldn't reach an agreement over Xbox Live. Funny, because they did with FFXI...

[Tron 2.0]

Where's the 360 version??

FF14 is exclusive for the PS3&PC so no 360 release.

Though i wish there was a beta for the PS3 version i know i would give it a try.

[c0ldb33r]

I tried to sign up for the beta.

It's a frustrating experience.

Done - don't care. Won't buy the game.

[betamax001]

Urghhh where do I get this "code" why do I care? I probably wont buy it because of monthly fees...blaaaah

[BHvrd]

Urghhh where do I get this "code" why do I care? I probably wont buy it because of monthly fees...blaaaah

You totally missed out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Final-Fantasy-XI...eo_Games_Games

[NayusDante]

Open beta was SUPPOSED to start tonight, but it was postponed due to bug reports. Isn't that a bit like saying, "We can't test for bugs because we found some bugs."

Regardless, the downloader is now available.

North America Page - http://entry.ffxiv.com/na/index.html

[NayusDante]

Well, the open beta is open now, but the page to get a key just times out.

Also, we have two threads about the game now, which could probably be merged.