This is long! If you want to skip to the grits, go to the Chocobo Feather. I've heard on and off about Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn for the past few months, and never really paid much mind to it. I really liked FFIV and played FFIX, FFXII, and others, but as the arc for Square Enix rose beyond the 9th installment, it stagnated and fell at about the same time. I'm sure everyone has their own feelings about which FF games they like and don't, and where they feel it started taking a turn for the ridiculous rather than the fantastical. I'll be honest, I didn't grow up with FF. My first SE game was Final Fantasy VII; That's a horrible way to be introduced to such an influential company! After that, I played FFIII, FFIV, FFIX, and FFVII Revenant Wings, which retains today the only Final Fantasy Game I've ever beaten. Yes, I know, I'm a terrible person.
Back in the present, seeing FFXIII and FFXIII-2 did not fill me with confidence for the future of Square Enix. I love their graphics and their beautiful worlds/characters, but I fell out of love with them as a whole. You must be thinking "How can you know you don't like those games if you haven't played them?" and you may be right, but I didn't want to play them. That's why it's sad. A few days ago, my fiance got bored and downloaded the trailer for FFXIV ARR. It was so beautiful, so fluid, and engaging that we got curious. We always liked playing MMOs together, but finding a good one was hard. The PS4 coming out soon gave us hope that we'd be fighting along side each other again in such a breathtaking and stunningly detailed world.
I spent the better part of the following evening trying to download and run the character creation. As I finally got the launcher up, it wouldn't continue on, and subsequently refused to work. I don't know if it was the specs or it downloaded wrong, but it wouldn't budge. I uninstalled it and devised to research later. We looked all around on YouTube and guides, reading about the races and classes, choosing which ones we wanted, thinking about characters for the future, and just how extraordinary it was we were excited for a Final Fantasy game after so many years. We did have one major concern: Is the combat turn based?
No. It isn't. <3
The days grew closer and closer to the release of FFXIV ARR. My fiance was worried a week ago he'd have nothing to do until the next DCL release in Boarderlands 2. This morning, he was worried if we were going to be able to stop playing FFXIV enough to play the DLC. We watched more videos, looked up more forums, and planned to go out to GameStop this afternoon and buy a physical copy, and maybe even the collector edition. We were so excited about the cross-platform servers, the variety of crafting classes, the potential to solo if you don't want to team up, being able to not only multi-class but to still have higher class tiers, multi-use skills, and an astonishingly cheap opening cost (40$ for the game copy, and 13$ a month, plus 3$ for extra character slots later on).
A few hours before we were going to leave, he randomly asked me "You think it's voice chat enabled?"
"Of course it is," I said with a giggle on my tongue, "What possible reason would they have to do otherwise?"
He smiled. "I know, I know, it's stupid."
"I'll check though, just for you," I teased, then did a quick search 'Is FFXIV ARR Voice Chat Compatible'.
We were not only surprised, but, well, felt kind of betrayed. It doesn't look like a big deal (I.E. Use Skype/TeamSpeak) but... I shouldn't have to. I don't want to.
The PS3 is perfectly functional with voice chat (DC Online comes to mind), and I feel it's wholly unfair that anyone is forced to choose between using a third party program or not have any verbal chat at all, even PC gamers, who arguably have the best shot. Even without voice chat, PC gamers still have an advantage with already having a keyboard at their fingertips.
My fiance said it's unfair to gamers because while [He's] playing on the PS3 [I'm] usually on the computer. [He] can't really use Skype because [I'm] on here. Even if [he] did, [he] would have to greatly lower the volume of the TV, silencing the soundtrack that Final Fantasy is known for, but now [he] would have to choose between hearing [his] party or listening to the awe-inspiring music. It does no justice to the music department, who put so much time into their soundtrack, to your friends, who would be ignored if you chose the music over them, or to the game itself, because it forces you to choose.
I don't know how many people suffer from the same situation we do, but I think the principal is the same, that we miss out on one of our favorite parts of FF games.
I think the biggest reason more people aren't complaining about no voice chat is because:
- They're PC gamers who have easy access to third-party chat groups,
- They haven't been able to log in to the NA servers yet,
- They never used mics before,
- or They never want to hear another annoying, racist, twelve year old talking about ****ing you with his **** or calling you a ******* ****** ******.
In particular, there is a fear that female gamers will get harassed. When something offensive is said, they will leave, and then would to stay away.
- In particular, there is a fear that female gamers will get harassed. When something offensive is said, they will leave, and then would to stay away.
- A gap will appear between those that have/don’t have a mic.
- As this will eat up more bandwidth, there will be more bandwidth costs.
- We will need to create some kind of sound management, like creating an effect so that it's not your “real voice” that is being heard.
- I, myself, am a female gamer. I haven't yet been harassed for being a girl, but maybe it's different in Japan. In any case, there's always a mute or block option in games that have any kind of chat. Even in text chat, the girls would still be harassed, but then they would go ahead and click that little, tiny 'Block User' button.
- It's always been something with any mutliplayer game such as CoD that some game hosts prefer or even require people have a mic. This was particularly evident in the original Black Ops. You know why? It was easier to coordinate/cooperate with your team members if you could speak with them. It makes it easier to instantly talk between your team members about weak points in Zombies, and therefor more fun, because it made the group successful in ascending to higher levels. This can still be done without a mic, because my fiance didn't get a mic into a good while after he started playing Zombies, but you can't beat the convenience of building up a strategy with your party in real time instead of sending a PSN message that takes 5 minutes to type "Leave a crawler and don't kill it. I'm going to go to the bathroom". By the time it's done and sent, the crawler is dead and the next round has begun.
- This was about what I assumed, but it's not even the main concern. I mean, you have the room for all these pretty graphics. They're even cutting back on it at the moment to make more room in the servers for people to actually play in.
- ...Why? No one is asking you to. All I imagined was casually walking down the street and seeing a few people around another PC, their voices low but discernible as an item is being auctioned. I'd keep walking and their voices would eventually fade out with the fog, but as I near a guild, the voices of two guys rise as they discuss who they invited along for a raid. The voice of my party member, who is on the other side of the city, rings clearly in my ear as they inform me that they're done and are waiting for me by the portal. Is that a lot to ask for?
Democrac-y2DFighter84
The fact serious players want to voice chat in tough dungeons is the COMMUNITY'S fault, not the developers. Seriously tho what need is there for voice chats atm other than fun? Tanks know they have to hold aggro, healers know they have to heal and dps know they have to kill stuff. We have the tools we need to coordinate, marking enemies 1,2 and 3 is pretty obvious. I don't want players screaming: "heal me, heal me" "kill it kill it" "tank use your pull, tank use your pull" OOOVER AND OOOVER AGAIN.
You just answered that yourself. The one and only sole purpose of video games is to provide fun to the best of the developers ability. Voice chat helps to add fun. People like fun. in a conversation about video games, fun factor should always be the main focus and priority. You can't state it like fun is some expendable side option. :)
I was looking forward to all the players I could meet by the game having cross-platform servers, but by playing on the PS3, I can't really talk to anyone without paying for, downloading, or adjusting my setup around my PS3. I really feel like Square Enix should reconsider. I also feel like those who do like FFXIV without the voice chat are in the minority because you can change it with little handling by muting people, where as anyone that wants to talk is forced to jump through hoops.
I want voice chat in the game. There's a slight chance I might still buy it when the PS4 comes out, but I don't know. I could only then talk to PS4 players with mics, which would still alienate PS3 players entirely, but that is only due to a lobby you created outside of the game. My final fantasy of playing a good FF game has been dashed aside. Guess I'll just go back to Minecraft.
My Topic References
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/37119-Yoshi-P-comments-on-voice-chat-support
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/678051-final-fantasy-xiv-online-a-realm-reborn/67064180
