Raiders of the Lost Patch


Forum trolls joke of white knights waiting for a "Golden Patch," but what if it's real?

Darkness
surrounds you, perilous traps await you and spiders crawl all over
your back. You’re in a dark cave somewhere in the Black Shroud, mindful
that the slightest misstep could be your last. And you’re in this cave
for one reason, and one reason only -- to find the mythical Golden
Patch, the most coveted treasure in all the land.

After
overcoming numerous obstacles -- including swinging on a whip across a
spike-filled pit (good thing you brought your whip, because you can’t
jump) -- you find yourself face to face with your gleaming bounty. The
Golden Patch sits unguarded on an alter, ready to be taken if you dare
to take it. You approach the pedestal, and then kneel down to behold
the treasure's beauty. You reach for it, but you stop just short. Your
hand is just a breath away.

And that’s when you ask yourself: “Do I believe in the Golden Patch?”



This is the question many fans of Final Fantasy XIV will be asking
as we edge closer to the largest version update this game may ever see.
And if this update is all it could be, then I’m going to proclaim it
as the coming of the Golden Patch.

What exactly is this Golden
Patch which I speak of? Honestly, the first time I saw this term
mentioned was about a month ago in our FFXIV General Forum. Players
have debated the origin of the term, but critics of the game were
saying “the Golden Patch” in reference to the massive content patch
that everyone hoped would be implemented when the game was launched
last September.

The term has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
Just say it: “The Golden Patch.” After so many tweaks and minor changes
to Eorzea over the past several months, a Golden Patch sounds like
just what this game needs -- never mind the fact that the term was
probably invented by forum trolls just to pick on White Knights. I
never heard anyone specifically mention the Golden Patch as the game’s
servers went live. I didn't believe in the legend.

Now, though, I can’t help but wonder -- is the Golden Patch real?

And will it come this month?

In
his tenth Letter from the Producer, FFXIV producer Naoki Yoshida
unleashed an updated grid of updates planned for the game. All of these
changes would constitute nothing short of an overhaul. There’s auto
attack, the company system, the addition of materia, auto attack,
traditional Final Fantasy jobs, instanced dungeons and more. And the
most amazing thing is this could all be implemented by the middle of
June.

Keep in mind, the timeline is far from set in stone, but
Yoshi-P bolded in his letter that these changes were what were planned
up “until summer 2011.” A community representative on the Square Enix
official forum later confirmed this meant changes would happen through
the end of summer, but we still don't know exactly which changes will be
doled out when. In the past, Yoshi-P has told us we could expect at
least the new battle system, new dungeons and new jobs to be released
around the same time.

Just think. In two weeks from now,
there’s a chance you may be able to join a party in Ul’dah, hop on a
mount (let’s hope mounts in this game are covered with feathers and
“kweh” frequently) and ride to an experience points camp anywhere on
the map. Once you’ve reached your camp, you may have dedicated tank,
healer, support and damage-dealing jobs. Or, if you don’t feel like
partying, you could solo, do storyline quests or participate in company
quests -- that’s if your linkshell isn’t about to run one of the new
instanced dungeons.

If all these changes are implemented
simultaneously -- or even in the span of a few weeks -- how could that
not be the manifestation of the mythical Golden Patch?

Most
players will not expect the development team to pull off such a
game-changing patch, and with good reason. After spending hundreds of
dollars on computer upgrades to play an unfinished game, we’ve had to
endure several months of tweaks and small content additions as the
development team worked behind the scenes on larger, more important
changes. We entered a five-star restaurant expecting an exquisite steak
dinner, but instead we’ve been fed ground beef after being forced to
buy our way in. It’s no wonder why some people are so angry with Square
Enix.

Plus, the game needs revisions that aren't listed in
the upcoming patch notes. We desperately need a party search function,
linkshell management tools and a mailbox system. We need more quests
with cutscenes, and the small amount of lag still in the user interface
needs to be completely gone. Square Enix should also continue working
to reduce the game's burden on PC hardware. My computer has two
dual-core graphics cards, and one of my cores recently stopped working.
I can't help but wonder whether FFXIV is to blame.

That said,
the new development team led by Yoshi-P has done nothing to betray our
trust. They’ve done everything they said they would. And now, Yoshi-P
seems to be telling us that all of these game-altering revisions could
be implemented sometime this month. These changes will profoundly and
positively change the way we interact with Eorzea. This game has been
taking shape for months, but this is the patch that could finally give
this game an identity. Although the launch of Final Fantasy XIV turned
out to be a colossal letdown, this development team has given me no
reason to be pessimistic about the game’s future.

If FFXIV
dies, it will ultimately be because Square Enix rushed the game out in
an unfinished state. In the months that followed, too many players lost
faith (or patience) in Square Enix’s ability to turn things around.
When people started talking about "the Golden Patch," they were
conjuring a symbol of what the game has needed since launch -- an
impossibly successful patch to spark a seemingly impossible comeback. I
don't think even the Whitest of Knights took the notion of a Golden
Patch seriously. It was such a ridiculous notion, which is probably why
so many trolls lached onto it.

Yet now, here we are. We’ve come
this far, and now we’re at the alter, and the mythical Golden Patch
seems finally at our fingertips. It’s so close, we could reach out and
take it. Is it wise to put our faith in this patch, after so many months
of turmoil? Will we finally be rewarded for our months of
perseverance, or will we be crushed by a cascading boulder of
disappointment?

What do you believe?