X-Play Review

[JRLCrist]

I had recently watched the X-Play review and was discusted. I wrote them an email and I'd like to hear what you all have to say. I'd really like your thoughts.

Dear X-Play,
I've been a longstanding fan of your show for quite some time and to this date I still am. I am, however, flustered by a particular review. I understand that you do not have the time to entirely inspect every aspect of a title and that the base of your show revolves around a more comical look towards your reviews, and I respect that. However, at which point does the shortened amount of time you dedicate to the analysis of a title create only a biased and rather unfair review for a title?
The title in question is Final Fantasy XI: Tales of Aht Urhgan. I entirely agree with the issues you presented concerning the Xbox 360. However, I don't feel that your review was as complete as it should have been. In order to review such a complex MMO such as Final Fantasy XI, you need to explore all the elements of the MMO instead of briefly cruising through the MMO. As a player of Final Fantasy XI for over a year, I can say that it easily takes a year or more be able to fully grasp the universe presented in Final Fantasy XI in it's entirety. To spend a week on the game and call it a review does no justice to what the MMO has to offer users, not to mention what it offers after having been online for many years now.
I have always appreciated your full reviews, encompassing everything from gameplay to graphics and all the way down to sound. Your reference to the graphics being dated is wholeheartedly correct in every aspect, however I do feel that the gameplay should have been given more credit than it was given. There are far too many aspects of the game to just limit the gameplay portion of the review to just the combat which you seemingly represented from a solo'ing point of view rather than a community point of view which is what Final Fantasy XI is based upon, unlike other MMOs such as World of Warcraft.
Final Fantasy XI is not for the short-lived solo'ers such as those of World of Warcraft. Final Fantasy XI takes time to grasp and delivers very well on a wide spectrum even after a very short time of playing, leaving the newcomer with a desire to explore more. That by no means that it does this for every player, as some players are turned away and desire a faster-paced MMO that they can master in merely a few hours or days. However, to call what you presented to viewers a review is, in my opinion, unfair and unreasonable to Square-Enix and to the users of Final Fantasy XI.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I appreciate your willingness to take in the ideas of your long-standing viewers, and I apologize for giving you one more email among many which attempt to contradict your review. I do feel that it's unfair to you to have to deal with very poorly written and rather incomplete complaints, and I hope I've presented neither in my message. I duely apologize if I have. By all means send me your thoughts, as I would certainly enjoy reading your thoughts and hearing what you have to say. Thank you.

John "Legacy" Crist

[Murphie]

I don't take anything that X-Play says seriously. As a result, I don't get worked up about this stuff!

[TenchiHawkwing]

I haven't seen the x-play ToAU review, but the CoP review they did was kinda crappy, they didn't even get through the Promies and somehow thought they could review the expansion... kinda weak.

[JRLCrist]

If you go to www.g4tv.com you can search for it. Just type Final Fantasy XI and look for Final Fantasy XI Review

[Caspian]

E-mail looks fine, but yeah, what Aelathir said. I take just about everything said on that show with a grain of salt. If I watch it, its to watch the chick on there. I've actually considered muting it before and just watch the video since their jokes just absolutely suck and the guy is a total moron. I don't see the point in reviewing 3 god awful games just to get to a decent game that you give a marginal rating to. (That, and imo a 5 point rating system isn't enough, not enough distinction b/w a 3 and a 4, etc.). I doubt any writers for that show have ever played an MMORPG and have no idea what to expect from it.

[tdh]

Honestly, on a whole they seem to trash FFXI when they get a chance. Every time they talk about a Final Fantasy game, they say how all of them were amazing, and they forgive S-E for 11. All the while praising the disc space WoW was written on. Of course there's the issue that 85% of games get a 3/5. They give a review that sounds really impressive, and they give it a 3/5 in the end.

As much as I enjoy X Play, and wishing Morgan Webb would consent to having my babies (lol), I have never bought a game due to their review. And honestly, the email was a little too well written, and too long, for them to actually read it on air, or even respond for that matter.

[Caspian]

Can Adam even read anything past a 2nd grade level?

[TenchiHawkwing]

OK, just watched the review... basically they unlocked the new jobs, messed around with them a bit, then did a review.

That's NOT the way to review an expansion for a game. They didn't mention Assault or anything, nothing about Imperial Standing, etc etc... that review was premature.

[Shopee]

I blame the script-writers.

I doubt Adam and Morgan write their own lines, but I might be wrong on that.

[Caspian]

Regardless, they deliver them with the acting skill of a 7th grade drama club.

[DakAttack]

Their World of Warcraft accounts wouldn't be free unless they mentioned it in every other review.

Their reviews aren't that good for any game. Combine the "We just played this game for ten minutes until Comcast fixed our internet." attitude with their "We can't even provide game footage beyond the first few moments." with the "I don't even write my own jokes." and the "What? I don't need acting classes!" along with the "I don't see any reason to move out of my mother's basement" attituted from Sessler and you've got yourself a steaming pile pitch only G4 could produce.

I mean, come on Morgan, just take your clothes off already. You know it's the only reason we watch.

[Suteru]

G4 has lost all my respect ever since they took over then DESTROYED tech-tv.

All their shows now insult their former fan base, and try to apply to all the "cool kids" with their new lineup of "omgz fast lanez!"

To be honest, I don't watch it anymore.

[Drive]

To answer the question sent to X-play. I dont' see it as worth being sent because you are looking at reviewing the wrong way. Other then it just being opinion and you also being a fanboy you make yourself out bad. A review, most importantly a MMO isn't a full grasp of something. A MMO can't really be reviewed until it has died out. You can't try and convince someone by saying the begining(2 months) in this game is pretty bland and very strict but later(year) it picks up. First they would have spent 100's of dollars and secondly it also deals with time.

Any review of a MMO isn't a complete look especially if the game is new; of course this isn't new just the expansion. The cons from the start of this game outweighs the pros i think. You taking the review offensivly is in bad taste especially since like you said they can't actually have played the game until they spent a long time with it.

Why let this bother you if it is just a review? They are doing their job and it consists of them getting the pure basics of several games with opinions down in the time span of 30mins.

edit: And taking the time to look at the review of FFXI on their sites(i missed todays episode) they gave them around 4/5's on their scoreboards. I'm suspecting that ToAU must have gotten a 2 if you seem this dissapointed by a review of it.

[DakAttack]

By the by, a rating of five is reserved for the big spenders, namtamba?

$$$

[Mhurron]

Can Adam even read anything past a 2nd grade level?I'd go with yes. When it was Extended Play, or more correctly when it was worth watching before G4 did whatever in gods name they thought they were doing it was a good and interesting review show. However it along with Icons have gone the way of the dodo.

Best explanation for what G4 is now is SpikeTV lite. Even thats not really a fair assessment, Spike does carry some stuff worth watching.

[Drive]

Currently G4 reminds me of MTV. I don't like either. I only really watch G4 when nothing is on comedy central or x-play is on. techtv was much more interesting all around. Screensavers, unscrewed, extended play, etc.

[Kailea]

oh god dont even get me started on Spikes "Video game awards" that show is complet BS.........

[Ziero]

Two things that particularly made me laugh while watching that review

A) they said there was no one playing the game

b) they thought Pup was the best of the three new jobs

This can only mean one thing, they didn't play the game.

[Grizzlebeard]

That's NOT the way to review an expansion for a game.

To be fair, there is no real way you could review an FFXI expansion other than waiting over a year for the devs to dripfeed you sufficient content through numerous updates. Waiting a year for a review of a game kind of defeats the purpose of a review.

[Ziero]

I saw a recent episode of xplay the other day where they were talking about GW: Factions. This came out around the same time as ToAU. They did *NOT* give a full review because they said it was too early to do so for an MMORPG that just came out.

Xplay don't like FFXI

[lufia22]

To be fair, there is no real way you could review an FFXI expansion other than waiting over a year for the devs to dripfeed you sufficient content through numerous updates. Waiting a year for a review of a game kind of defeats the purpose of a review.

IMO, any review for an MMO is just a waste of time. Most of the time the review is done when the MMO/Expansion is first released, often times meaning everything has not been found out or fully explored yet or, in the case of it being a new MMO, the game is still glitchy and has had no content updates. So in all reality, reviews of MMOs are just a waste of time because the game at release is rarely the same later on down the line.

So yeah, you're right. Reviewers most likely review MMOs to keep the fans from lashing out. MMOs are very reviewer unfriendly, so no one can really expect a good "proffesional" review of an MMO. Or maybe I should just say "no one can really expect a good "proffesional" review" and leave it at that. =P

[Kafeen]

The title in question is Final Fantasy XI: Tales of Aht Urhgan
Treasures of Aht Urhgan.

[Ciros]

To me, G4 went down the tubes a long, long time ago. Now, they show one half hour of stuff about games, and the rest of the time is used to show boring shows for slow teens.

[Skoal]

I can remember watching the first review for FFXI on Xplay. They kept showing a female elvaan dieing to a forest hare over and over again. I thought it was pretty funny. I went to my parents house to have dinner the other night and was watching xplay. My mother mentioned that Morgan was cute and Adam looked like a complete nerd. I thought that was pretty damn funny. He had only been on the screen for less than 30 secs.

[Ziero]

I only watch it for morgan =/

[Dekuseed]

G4 has lost all my respect ever since they took over then DESTROYED tech-tv.

All their shows now insult their former fan base, and try to apply to all the "cool kids" with their new lineup of "omgz fast lanez!"

To be honest, I don't watch it anymore.
Exactly Suteru, I don't watch the channel anymore either, they put a bunch of garbage shows on it...
And yes I think Extended Play used to be better.
Why couldn't they have just left Techtv alone? :(

[JRLCrist]

TechTV's ratings were dropping and G4 was failing, so they combined into G4 TechTV, then the programming was like 98% G4's stuff so they just kept the G4 title.

[Dekuseed]

Ooooh, k. I didn't know that. =|

[Ziero]

The hell does g4 mean anyway? >_>

[Mhurron]

Why couldn't they have just left Techtv alone? :(The audience it appealed to was too small to be profitable.

It wasn't that great anyway.

[tdh]

I miss Tech TV, especially The Screensavers! I liked a lot of their shows, and the only thing I really check for on G4 now is X Play, and Star Trek: Next Generation really. I kinda liked Attack of the Show when Sara Lang was on there, but then she disappeared, and they completely changed everything.

Brainiac can be enjoyable at times, but it's not something that I'll stop what I'm doing and watch.

I ~believe~ G4TV was Gamers 4 TV, or Games 4 TV. They used to show it in their icon well before the "merge."

For me, the only reason I haven't completely written Spike TV off is because of Star Trek, and CSI mainly. This Blade series is in idle mode now, and everything else is UFC, TNA Impact, and the car shows on the weekends. (I will admit that one of those car shows sucks me in. The two that usually do muscle cars, it's a guilty pleasure.) What happened to Gary the Rat and Stripperella. MXC isn't on as much as it used to be either. Those stupid mindless shows that made you laugh, now stupid and mindless is reserved for UFC and TNA.

[Skoal]

G4 still show Anime? To comment on Tdh and Spike TV, I wrote it off when they stopped showing MXC during reasonable hours.

[tdh]

They used to show like 3 hours of MXC on weekends. Friend would come over, we'd play video games, card games, drink, and laugh until out sides hurt at MXC. Now it's impossible to find. Sometimes when I'm LFG at night I'll get lucky and find it on. I don't care that we've seen some of the same episodes just with different voice over script, it's still funny!

G4 used to have Anime Unleashed at night, did that go away for the "Mid-Night Spank?" Where they show that stupid sock puppet show with the adult models in the hot tub with some B or C rated actor/musician there?

[Cometgreen]

It's their job to review games and to make it as funny as they can, so I could understand the long installation time (though I get annoyed when people seem to write off the entire game because of the time it takes to patch), as well as making it seem like the world is completely empty. The only thing that bugged me is when they keep referencing how great WoW is, and how it has apparently killed every other MMO. Sure, WoW is a good game, and there's no denying that it's the most successful, but they make it sound like you're an idiot if you play anything else.

As for G4 in general, yes, it has become SpikeTV Lite. It's odd that a channel designed for gamers has now reduced their gaming program into a three hour block, which only consists of two shows (one of which is unbearable and overall useless). It's also odd to think that their best game-related show came from TechTV, and not the old G4.

[Omni]

You cant take any commercialized, main stream show/magazine/awards seriously. They have so many factors influencing them that objective reporting was long thrown out the window.

One great example is when the Grammy awards awarded not 1 but 2 of the same awards, 2 years in a row. Greenday and U2 won for the same album twice... ???

g4 probably has large companies breathing down their back like vivendi universal (who owns blizzard) or something of the sort.

the way i see it, you cant objectively review something AND make money at the same time. there will always be a conflict of interest somewhere.

[Mhurron]

but they make it sound like you're an idiot if you play anything else.Of course they do, and it has nothing to do with Blizzard paying them to do so.

WoW is the most popular MMO among the people they would like to have its players as viewers. By trash talking other games as much as the players do they make it seem like they 'get' WoW players. They are trying to form some sort of connection between them and trash talking WoW players. Since many WoW players believe that you have to be stupid to play anything else, G4 and many other 'reviewers' want to display the same attitude. You would be more likely to watch and trust a show and network that displays and holds to the same ideas that you hold.

[DakAttack]

I stopped watching Spike TV when I found out TNA didn't mean, well, didn't mean the right kind of TNA that I was looking for. But hey, if man on man action is your thing more power to you.

Spike TV is made out of television shows that other channels didn't want, except MXC. That was the only thing they had going for them.

[little ninja]

Morgan can have my chidren, an Adam should stop wearing stripped shirts. hes a total loser. they wont make him look taller next to that smokin hot morgan.

a poor review can be blamed on a poor Release. seriously ive done a billion assaults an besieged. ive finished all the new missions. 4 months so far nothing new, shit they couldnt even put in AF for the new jobs. that right there fails big time. not to mention the areas are not at all apealing. talk about bst haters. ><

lol an besides i liked adams comments on the dunes. ** cricket cricket **

[Inferknite]

Morgan is NOT hot.

She needs to invest in some chap stick :/

[Caspian]

I think Morgan's hotness is directly proportional to how much cleavage is showing. (I think the other appeal is that its a decent looking woman who is talking about video games. Every nerd's wet dream)

[little ninja]

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/polnews/news8089.shtml

an this is why u give crappy review to FFXI an S.E, seems we are gonna suffer for a week, an end up with no chobis or new missions,

[Grizzlebeard]

Heh, it always made me feel warm when they took the game down 6pm to 10pm GMT and when I logged back in there was nothing new in the game. So, when is the next version update, end of August?

[Spinnthrift]

I don't mind those resets much... bring some moobs into the time zone so I can claim/ToD them. ^^

[Solostaran]

Greetings,

I have read these posts and agree with most of you in their assessment of X-play. I was a huge fan of ZDTV, which became TECH TV, but due to losing my job I was out of the cable loop for a few years. When I got it back I was jazzed to be able to nerd-out on tech tv again, only to find they pushed it to the very END of the channel listings, sandwiched in between Fitness TV, the NFL network and Nickelodeon GAS (Which is the only way I could've found it- I love old Double Dare reruns :)). I was disappointed at first to find a network devoted only to gaming, but quickly got hooked and it even reignited my love for the hobby. Sadly though this wasnt' to last either, as they revamped the channel and changed some of the best shows: Icons=GameMakers while Icons became a bad 'Inside the Actors Studio' for skaters and the 'gen-Y' crowd, Filter went from a decent show listing game-related topics to a bad Wild on E! wannabe, the list goes on...but I'm sure y'all know that.

That being said I have never really taken X-play's reviews very seriously and rarely agreed with them. Adam is annoying and Morgan seem slike she's trying WAY too hard; the equivalent of someone in their very first job interview pretending to know everything about the pending employment but really blowing smoke-the boss doesn't buy it, and neither do I. I know she's on there to show that gaming can be cool for ladies as well and to make the prepubescent boys/adult men quiver, but come on! Never mind the fact that, to me, she reminds me of a young Sigourney Weaver, and I never found Dana Barrett or Ellen Ripley to be a real libido starter ya know? I know I may get flamed for this opinion lol but she's not really all that and a side of fries to me.

Onto the review. I didn't agree with their review of FFXI: ToAU (surprise) and personally, even though I've only been playing it for a month now, I haven't been able to quit. Thank goodness I'm a teacher and have my summers off or this might've gotten me in trouble for calling in sick those first few days lol. I even got my brother hooked on it and he blames me for his addiction now lol. I've never found the world to be empty (I'm only on shiva so this may be biased) and even though I've only seen a few zones so far, La Thiene Plateau is pretty deserted, as most are running to/from the dunes and I was surprised Bastok is as quiet as it is, but other than that I've found there to be plenty of people and interactions. But as I was starting to doubt my decision I remembered almost everything that has been said here already and one thing more: these game reviewers (Not adam-who at MOST might get in 10 minutes a day I'm sure...and Morgan, well I'll leave the fantasy going for everyone) have only a few hours possibly days to grind through these titles and develop an opinion about them to give to the hosts to read before moving onto one of the hundreds more being pumped in there by grads from Westwood College; great commercials by the way lol. So in that respect I do forgive them. All in all a rant on G4 and X-play that really accomplished little, but I feel better :).

Thank you for your time,
Solostaran

[Takiri]

add the following.

P.S - World of Warcraft < FFXI! woot