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i still clearly remember that at the end of the summer vacation ten years ago, my friend told me: "ff14 national server is about to open, and now is the best opportunity to get involved."

ff14 refers to "final fantasy 14". it is the second online mmo in this old jrpg series. it is also the first time that the main game of the series has entered china through official channels.

a congratulatory video recorded by game producer naoki yoshida ten years ago for the upcoming national server

so was it actually the best time to get into the trap? i'm afraid even the friend who wanted to play with me may not really think so.

when the ff14 chinese server was first launched, most of the players in the game were players who had returned from the japanese server. most of the reasons why people come back are to take advantage of the small number of players to grab the first kill of a difficult dungeon, or to buy a house in their favorite land, or just because the optional consumption model of the national server's point card monthly card is more cost-effective. ... as for how long the national server can operate, no one knows. a friend took the initiative to recommend it to me, but he was also worried that no one would play the game and the game would be shut down.

after all, ff14 started with a "celestial collapse" in japan. version 1.0 was completely criticized by players from content to servers, forcing se to abolish the original team, shut down the game, and completely redo it.

this was not a problem for the se family. at that time, everyone recognized that japanese manufacturers “couldn’t make online games”—the content design and narrative couldn’t compare to “world of warcraft"european and american factories represented by "can't compete with korean online game companies in art and action, and their production capacity and commercialization cannot compete with chinese online game companies. the world-renowned jrpg in the stand-alone era could not earn any dividends during the heyday of mmorpg.

after naoki yoshida took over ff14 and launched version 2.0 of "a realm reborn", the overall content of the game has indeed undergone earth-shaking changes, and its reputation in japan and the number of people online have increased significantly. but this "improvement" is still relative - under the original low expectations, everyone felt that the new content was pretty good and "playable." but to say at that time that this game will become more and more popular in the future and become one of the best mmorpg benchmarks in the world is a bit like saying "the storm is going to be popular", no one will take it seriously.

ten years later, however, these have become a reality. ff14 surpasses all previous fantasies about japanese mmorpgs.

as the latest 7.0 version of the game "legacy of the golden xi" was launched on the chinese server a few days ago, i, who did not fall into the trap because of my friends' amway back then, can now sincerely say: "now i have indeed fallen into the trap" final fantasy 14’s best chance”.

the first thing i want to say is that ff14 has always been the most newcomer-friendly among the existing popular mmorpgs. it is probably not the only one, because this friendliness is rooted in the underlying system of the game.

for example, most mmorpgs will focus on how to quickly catch up with the progress of the large forces and experience the latest content as the versions change. no one will ask old players to accommodate new players.

but that's what ff14 does.

the most representative one is the "newcomer system" in the game - after new players enter the game, as long as they have not played for 300 hours or completed the main mission before the latest version, their character names will be accompanied by a "bean sprout" logo. people will know you are "new here."

correspondingly, there is also a "mentor system" in the game. old players can apply to become "mentors" to help newcomers become familiar with the game. the character name will also have a "mentor" logo.

unlike the common "mentor-disciple" or "comrade-in-arms" systems in other mmos, there is no binding relationship between mentors and bean sprouts in ff14. in theory, newcomers can ask for help from any player with a mentor logo, and even veteran players who are not mentors are usually more tolerant and friendly towards douya.

this eventually formed an omnipresent atmosphere - almost every bean sprout will encounter the situation of being chased and interacted by enthusiastic old players in the first few days after entering the game, stuffing game coins and various props, and imparting various experiences. new players who receive help usually pass on this practice as they mature.

in order to construct this kind of atmosphere in the game, the production team almost went to the point of "obsession".

a typical example is that version 2.0 of the game has a dungeon called "the final battle of the sky curtain magic city". it is almost the first large-scale dungeon that new players will encounter. it has a certain degree of challenge and difficulty, and more importantly, it contains a fairly long dungeon. the cutscenes alone last for nearly half an hour, and no player is allowed to skip them. this copy is also called "animation city".

you can easily think of why the production team did this - so that newcomers who are conquering this dungeon for the first time will not be urged by other players to skip these animations, so that they can truly immerse themselves in the plot.

in order to ensure that newcomers can match up with teammates as soon as possible to play this book together, "animation city" is also one of the most efficient channels in the game to obtain character experience. old players who need to level up will queue up to this book every three days.

so you can easily realize some of the negative experiences brought about by this design - after all, the pure new players who play these books for the first time are in the minority, and the majority are those who meet in this book every day for leveling, but everyone still have to watch these anime over and over again.

this approach may seem a bit rigid, but after all, who doesn’t go through the rookie stage?

on the other hand, this has also become a kind of screening, that is, only players who agree with this newcomer-friendly value are more likely to stay in the game. in the end, a community environment unique to ff14 was formed.

there are few games that can hold offline events on a regular basis like ff14.

not long ago, in august, ff14 held an offline fan festival in guangzhou. tickets for the two-day event are hard to come by, and you have to draw lots if you want to be eligible to purchase them.

from october to november next, the ff14 chinese server 10th anniversary exhibition will also be held at the shanghai music and digital association game museum operated by our travel research agency. on the night when the event was announced, all the players who came to sign up crashed our servers.

scan the qr code in the picture above to make an appointment for this exhibition for free without purchasing a ticket.

earlier in 2022, the ff14-themed haidlin café restaurant had already opened in shanghai daimaru department store. at a time when the concept of "two dimensions to save offline shopping malls" had not yet emerged, it had already become a pilgrimage site for a small number of game enthusiasts in the country. to this day, reservations must be made in advance every day to have a smooth meal.

what is worth mentioning is that many players do not just visit this coffee restaurant once in a while, but visit it regularly, such as when new content is released in the game, new events are held in the restaurant, or on their birthdays or when they have dinner with friends.

the foundation that supports all of this is, of course, that ff14 has a large enough domestic player base. however, there are many games with more players than ff14, but it is difficult to find a second similar example.

the formation of such an environment is inseparable from the fact that as mentioned above, the production team of ff14 will very clearly convey some values ​​through the game content, including "being friendly to newcomers", and there is more in the game plot. such as "be loyal to your friends", "see others with empathy" and so on.

of course, many other games usually contain similar plots, but almost no games implement these values ​​at the system level, so utilitarian players will eventually account for the majority of the environment.

only ff14 is indeed trying to create a "utopia". players will naturally expect this atmosphere to break through the virtual world and come offline to become a reality.

in addition to the above-mentioned activities with official participation and leadership, ff14 players are also the player group that holds the most themed weddings in real life that i have ever seen, almost creating an industry.

being able to do this is inseparable from the very complete wedding theme activities in the game. the process includes booking a church, preparing and inviting guests, and then officially holding the wedding. there is a complete "proofing", which depicts the ff14 players. the ideal wedding scene, everyone is naturally more willing to move it offline.

during the epidemic, many players chose to hold weddings in games instead of real weddings.

again, there have always been many cases of people getting married in mmorpgs and getting married in real life, but it is completely different for them to become normalized to a certain extent like ff14.

so looking back, what my friend said ten years ago, "now is the best opportunity to get into ff14", is certainly not a lie. behind this sentence, it means experiencing the magnificent adventure plot earlier, meeting like-minded friends earlier, and the positive impact all this may have on real life.

in this case, why do you say that the current 7.0 is the best opportunity to get into the trap?

the most important point, of course, is that the story of the game has finally entered a new chapter after ten years.

the success of ff14 is inseparable from the creation of the game's story and characters. the "animation city" mentioned above is also an aspect of the game's emphasis on plot performance. no other mmorpg will give such an action in ten minutes. players are broadcasting videos.

from an mmorpg perspective, this is indeed a double-edged sword.

from versions 2.0 to 6.0 of ff14, the main storyline actually tells a complete story. if players skip between old versions to experience the latest content, they have basically given up a large part of the fun in the game, and it is almost impossible to participate in the interaction with the player community.

many characters are shaped one by one in a long story line, presenting multiple aspects.

of course, this story that has been told for ten years is not exciting every moment, but if players want to experience the most exciting climax at the end of this adventure, they have to endure the lengthy and redundant parts, which hinders many players. one of the thresholds for entering the pit.

until now in 7.0, the story has finally reached the starting point of a new stage, and the adventurers set foot on a previously unknown new continent. now new players can indeed experience the latest plot stories directly. they do not have much direct connection with the previous version of the plot - of course, if you are willing to make up for the old content, you can still get a better experience.

it's finally a holiday

in fact, the plot of the current version 7.0 has some mixed reviews among players. mainly from the perspective of old players, the story of 7.0 seems a bit "industrialized". it just uses new characters to play out a similar plot to the past. so far, the new character with the highest reputation is the villain lizard, because of his words and deeds. the mannerisms are at least more personal rather than a carbon copy of a popular character from the past.

but if you are a new player who does not understand the past stories of ff14 - then the 7.0 script is the essence of ff14's creative experience in the past ten years, representing sophisticated narrative, precise rhythm control, and just the right sensationalism...

in addition to the plot, the game's graphics and model progress have also received major updates with this version change, which has alleviated the "old-fashioned flavor" to a certain extent. coupled with the new professions painter mage and viper swordsman, including the new mechanisms added to the dungeon, the game has added a lot of playability content, enough to bring a sense of freshness to both new and old players.

of course, it also brings more new memes from the local community

can ff14 survive another 10 years? probably no one can answer this question yet, but what is certain is that the game has indeed ushered in a new beginning that is better than it was 10 years ago.

some time ago, masahiro sakurai, the producer of "super smash bros." released a video to apologize to players, saying that his game takes up too much of players' time, and that everyone could use this precious time to experience other interesting games. thing.

in fact, earlier, ff14 producer naoki yoshida expressed a similar point of view in an interview: "everyone is very busy now, and everyone has many different hobbies that take up time." so he feels that a game is not enough you should find ways to occupy all of the player's time. his design concept is to allow players to do other things without any burden after playing each updated content of ff14; if they want to return to ff14 again, they can easily return and catch up with others.

in an era when everyone in the industry was talking about dau and user stickiness, this concept seemed very alien, but naoki yoshida felt that it was precisely because of maintaining this characteristic that ff14 has grown into what it is today.

this kind of "nervousness" is probably indeed a relatively unique design personality of japanese game producers, and may even be one of the reasons why japanese mmos couldn't be made in the first place.

but the facts ultimately prove that when you design a game and leave more room for players to pay attention to their own lives, players will also leave more room for you in their real lives.