Tom Goldman said:
Calamity said:
So the Escapist is now featuring classic "WoW does X better" flame bait threads?
As much as I don't agree with XIV, this is pretty sad.
I agree with Calamity, sorta. While I think he has missed this particular point (even if the headline
is basically just flamebaiting by making an intitially unqualified WoW comparison), the level of bias in general seems pretty .. sad, yeah. While this hasn't reached the hate-wagon levels of sankaku complex, it's a real sod nobody's bothered to even try looking at the nice parts of FF XIV - which, again, some people are really enjoying, myself included.
By my own opinions crafting is fun, the setting is really nice, the graphics are lovely (and this is a viable positive however much people may dismiss it), the combat system's interesting and requires a bit of pre-planning and mid-battle strategy, the NPCs are well-written, as is the story, the music's nice, the character creation's better than any game I've played since Phantasy Star Universe..
Oh and guess what? I
like the Market Wards system. Others do, too. We all accept they aren't perfect and could stand a good few UI improvements, but I vastly prefer this setup to auction houses, which turn me off most games in which they're the key market foundation.
People are getting
really good at ignoring the fact that some people just happen to enjoy things that drive other people
nuts. For instance, me? I hate WoW. I absolutely cannot stand it for every time I've tried playing it. The tone, the setting, the art style, design philosophy mid-game and at character creation, the systemic considerations.. every time I have attempted to play WoW, I have come away feeling ill. Do I, therefore, decry its design decisions as stupid and the game itself as bad? Of course not. There are people enjoy it no matter how much I fail to understand how they can penetrate the things make me feel sick about it.
The Escapist really needs to watch its bias levels, at least on the front-page newsfeed.. Thus far it's just been toeing the controversy with this particular reporter making mildly inflammatory comments like 'Selling Items Impossible in Final Fantasy XIV' and 'some of the [EVE Online] players in question might have to reconsider what they're doing with their time - and money' (the latter of which was especially ill-researched given said players were almost certainly paying no real-world money into EVE
at all), but there's a fine line between reporting controversy and playing to the the hate-wagon. You start crossing that line when you dismiss the existence of positive aspects and/or opinions. Though, I
was pleasantly surprised by the more even-handed closing paragraphs.
S'cuse the wall.
Oh and here, my FF XIV gripe:
WHY ARE THERE NO CHAT BUBBLES? WHY IS NOBODY ELSE EVEN BOTHERED BY THAT?!
How can you people stand only having the log window? There is NOTHING more immersion breaking than log-restricted chat!