Got a email from square today and seams like they are opening the beta for ffxiv for everyone tomorrow, Yey! cant wait to test this out, can still remember when i got final fantasy 6 (ff3 in us/eu) for my snes, and skipped school for 2 weeks

Thanks Tom, you forgot to add your Square Enix account and registration code to the post however.

Apparently it's been delayed now as they still have bugs.

But, back on topic, I am slightly interested in ff14.
After trying WoW, any other MMO that I've tried has just seemed either shallow or broken in comparison. And I'm including ff11 in that (the menu system, combat system, economy/trading and single-player were awful when I tried it).

But it is an older game than WoW, and SquareEnix put a lot of effort into running it.
I like the sound of some of the ideas that are going into the game (e.g. no exp levels and your class is your weapon), and I think if anyone's got the budget to come close to WoW then it's SquareEnix.

But I'm not sold yet though; there were a lot of things wrong with ff11 which I think SquareEnix will need to try hard to fix.
Coming out so close to Cataclysm is also going to be a problem, although most likely it would be wise to wait a few patches before diving into ff11 so that might not be a huge problem.

"Starting on Sep. 2, 2010 at 02:00 (GMT), acquisition of registration code required for FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test will become available."
http://entry.ffxiv.com/eu/index.html

u dont need my code yrick

ye chris seams like u dont need to lvl alts when u wanna change class that would be so imba mid raid ^^ oh we need 1 more holy pala? sec, i'll change my hunter

That said, that's all I seem to do nowadays...

So has been playing the beta for a few days now, and I am not sure what to make of it... First of all I have to say that the gfx and music are just amazing! I mean, rly AMAZING! Blizzard should get Nobuo Uematsu for whatever cost and make him do music for the next x-pack.

At the start of the game u get to see an amazing cut scene that sets the mood for a epic adventure ahead. But when u get to town and in control of your char, u are basically left alone with very little instructions. And from lvl 1-10 there is 1 quest! Well 1 storyline quest. And its rly a pain to find out where to go next. U cant see it on your normal map, and after searching 3 party forums for hours to find some info on the game and how to get on with the quest, some guy mention that u can open a different map from your quest journal that shows were to go... ye and that u can move around on the map with the i-j-k-l keys, none of this info is in the game ofc xD well the game basicly have no info or tutorials at all, very little toltip info and not even a timer for debuffs/buffs u only see that u got them and have to hope they goes away before killing u.

To earn money in the game u have to do so called «leaves» they are kinda daily quests in a way but i think its on a 48 hour cooldown, not 100% sure about this, but anyway u activate them in the adventures guild in town and then u have to go pick them up at a camp site in the forest. Whats rly annoying about this is if u die or the game crashes (it likes to crash a lot btw, oh and did i mention if u alt-tab while in fullscreen the game crashes instantly xD) u have to walk all the way back to town to activate them. From lvl 1-10 there is 8 leaves u can do as a archer and that will maybe bring u up to lvl 4, so its grinding all the way from here, and with the starting areas over populated its not easy to find mobs. And when u find one there is a great chance that u will die. Some of the starting mobs puts a poison on u that can deal upto about 75% of ur hp so with that and a few hits u are dead.

The combat mechanics are strange, but ok, its kinda relaxed, but u still have to spam your keys so its abit stupid if u ask me, But whats rly nice is the class system. Im lvl 9 atm, with lvl 7 archer skill and lvl 4 conjurer skill, and with that i can heal myself while shooting mobs with my bow Once u learn a spell with conjurer (like cure) u can use it as archer with half the effect. its kinda like the system for ff5 but more complexed, changing classes/weapons etc can be abit annoying and the UI is.... dont even know what to say about it, its made for a consol thats for sure...

But as a hole the game got great potential its just that its release date in 1 month and its just so many bugs and things that could be greatly improved. Im not rly sure whats square-enix's plan is, but they dont seam to want to have a mainstream mmorpg that gets millions of subs thats for sure, none under 16 is going to play this.
Link to Gridania's Opening sence