Update: A winner has been picked. Thank you all for participating. The turn out was great!

Another giveaway, same deal, send an e-mail me Tramella1 -at- gmail dot com letting me know which giveaway you want to be a part of  and the best way to reach you in case you are one of the lucky winners. This can be a twitter handle, dummy e-mail, anything you feel comfortable with. If you are coming here from a social media site, you can leave a comment with the same details on the post and that will also act as an entry to one of the two giveaways.

On Saturday, March 30, 2013 around noon time, I will draw names from a hat for each prize.

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Recently, President of Square Enix Yoichi Wada and Producer Naoki Yoshida introduced to the world their plans for their ailing MMO, Final Fantasy XIV. In short, they are going to completely revamp it and start fresh with what they are calling ‘Version 2.0’. To coincide with the revamp, they will also be releasing the PlayStation 3 version. However, before all of that comes to fruition, there is a lot of work to be done to reach that point.

I said revamp, but what exactly did I mean. For starters, they are replacing the existing engine with a new one. They are breaking down the huge zones to create more unique environments. That change will result in losing that seamless experience for a more dynamic environment. Building from the ground up, they are creating a new server system to increase speed and performance. Introducing new unique user interfaces that support the keyboard and mouse, and a gamepad. As an added bonus they are creating new sexes for the existing races e.g., male Miqo’te, female Roegadyn and female Highlander Hyur as well as, bring back some of the classic Final Fantasy classes. Their plan is grand.

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Today, Square Enix held a live Q&A livestream for the anniversary Final Fantasy XIV. We all know that the game isn’t doing very well but the new team has made great strides to making the revisions needed to make the game a success. The trend continues with Producer Naoki Yoshida(Yoshi-P), answering fans question about the upcoming patch, game mechanics, and future content.

Q: Will you make it possible to remember the set actions when switching classes?

A: In an interview the other day I mentioned it would be during 1.19, but it seems like it just barely won’t make it and it is planned for 1.19a.

Q: When will the map will be renewed for XIV? I’ve been waiting for long time…#XIVLive

A: We’ll answer in next live event we hold! However, let me show you something as we are on Live. This is the dev. document about Gridania. As you can see, it’s a very major change! In any case, let me give you more details in the next live event!

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In preparation of Patch 1.18 which is planned to be released July 22, we’ve talked about conceptual ideas, overhauling combat, progression changes, and content additions. The steady flow of information continues. This time we take a look at addition adjustments; removing the new with the old, simplification of the repair system, and Grand Companies officially being introduced bringing faction grinding to the world of Eorzea. Follow along after the break to see what Yoshida and Co. have in store for us.

Miscellaneous Adjustments

Seeking to improve the quality of life within Eorzea, the Fatigue System is being abolished. A system put in place to prevent players from playing one class to long. While the PR spin was that it was put in place to encourage players to try different classes, I interpreted it as more of a anti-gold farming system since the it was a major problem in FFXI until Square Enix invested a lot of money in quashing it. Perhaps it was in place to control players somewhat(bad move), but at least it is being removed.

With the introduction of Raids they have taken a look at the death penalty system. Functioning much like its predecessor you’ll be debuffed when you die. Weakness will reduce your HP and MP by 25% for a few minutes. Now if you die again while in a weakened state you’ll be debuffed again with ‘Brink of Death’ which will further reduce your HP and MP as well as reducing your statistics across the board such as attack power, physical and magical defense, and so on and so forth. I’m cool with that; I believe in having consquences for dying and the best way to penalize is affect the player’s time.

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Another news drop from the Square Enix team on FFXIV. With the mega 1.18 patch comes new battle content in the form of raids. Yes, raids being introduced in an indication of how far of a leap SE made when releasing the game back in September but regardless let jump into what we know about them. There are two areas being introduced, The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak and The Dzemael Darkhold. The Thousand Maws is an abandoned dungeon that use to house notorious criminals but was closed down three decades ago by Grindania when they deemed it barbaric and unworthy. Now the native life has moved in and the players will have to navigate the endless cells and combat feral beasts to figure out what lies in there. The Dzemael Darkhold is an expansive system of natural caverns turn into a defensive stronghold against dragonkind. Recent word however, is that foreign troops have seized occupation of the Darkhold for an unknown reasons.

The Thousand Maws is designed as mid-level content for a party of four and The Darkhold is being designed for max level players for a full party of eight. The time limit for them is sixty minutes and each one requires you to have a specific quest activated. As with raids they tease a variety of rewards and the way you earn them peaked my interests. You can earn rewards from naturally defeating foes, meeting certain conditions within an area and looting various treasure chests you find along the way. It reminded me of the endgame in FFXI where the way you played and what you had to do change between the events. One example is from endgame event called Salvage where you had to do certain things within a map to pop a certain monster or unlock a certain perk and I would love to see this implemented in the raids and other endgame content they offer. Like they say variety is the spice of life and I would like to see more than your standard progression dudgeons found in other MMOs in FFXIV.

Source: FFXIV Raids Unveiled

It has been very quiet on the FFXIV front since the middle of May, but Yoshi-P has slightly parted the curtain to give us an update on the current development of FFXIV. To much joy perhaps even some sorrow auto-attack has finally being implemented and tested. If you experienced FFXIV combat system you’d know that your regular attacks and skills were mixed into the hot bar and you kind of shimmied back and forth on your D-pad or keyboard to do your rotation of skills. With the auto-attack system we can now focus on the special skills we want to perform without having to keep up with our DPS as well. Though with the auto-attack system there is still plenty of work to be done behind the scenes such as enmity adjustments, skill re-balance so on and so forth before it’s perfect but I’m really excited to see SE really throwing down the gauntlet by saying this is what they are going to do and then doing it in a reasonable manner.

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Even with Final Fantasy XIV in a state of repair President Yoichi Wada mentioned briefly during a earnings briefing that they plan to announce another MMO title sometime during the fiscal year. Going on to say that Square Enix aims to operate two to three large scale MMO titles simultaneously, a target that he feels will have a stable cash flow. All the while noting how unsuccessful their current tiltle is and says it is progress is improving but they still need more time before they can produce a grand title worthy of name.

It’s always nice to see company keep on pushing and pushing even when they hit bumps in the road but I’m concerned that they are trying to do to much. They are still working on the titles they announced two years back with Final Fantasy XIII with FFXIII Verssus and Agito now called Final Fantasy Type 0 for the PSP and with the ongoing development on FFXIV, it leaves me wondering if their plate it to high. I’m sure the company is huge but I wish they would focus their weight behind a few titles and get them up to snuff. Though I’m still wondering what kinda of MMO they are going to produce that may or may not carry the final fantasy label.

Source: Andriasang Article & Square Enix Transcript