Think I'm a fan-boy? You're right. Think this horrible game and it's predecessor are dead yet? Not quite.

The New
Final Fantasy 14 is being completely rebuilt from, for the most part, the ground up to create a brand new Final Fantasy 14 v2. From today, November 3rd, the (new) FF14 team will continue to release patches every two months until June/July of 2012, at which point they will merge the old with the new, a new engine, a new UI, a new game-play design, a new everything! Finally, around November/December of next year, they plan to release a new client (free of charge) and finally bring the PS3 into the mix - with a free trial of course.

This obviously brings a lot to the table. As with before the game was released initially, it had the potential to be either amazing or flop completely, which it obviously turned out to be the latter. The game has been free-to-play since release due to the unfinished nature of the game, however, sometime around December this year, subscription fees will begin again.

The Old
Even I, a huge Final Fantasy Online fan-boy, could not get trapped inside the world of Eorzea. It was large, beautiful, and full of nothing. After struggling past the horrid UI and badly designed, non-customizable controls, the story and quest system were so far detached from the actual game, nothing made me want to play the game. It reminds me of something like a candy that may look and smell sweet, but actually tastes horrible - there was simply nothing to make me want to play the game.

Don't get me wrong, however. Even now, the game has come a far way since release. There have been major battle-system, UI, questing, and character improvements. But this still isn't enough to keep me interested for more than a few weeks to a month or two. I recently tried to get a group together to play FF 14, and while it started off well, after a few weeks it felt like we were doing the exact same thing over and over again...

To Come
So, next year around this time, the FF14 team is planning on releasing version 2, which will basically be a completely new game, new world, same theme. The events from the Divine Chronicles will still exist, but a new chapter will have turned in Eorzea. The best part is, they're letting the realm decide how the story will turn out (so they say, anyway). Soon (January?), a large geographical anomaly will appear and the players will be invited to check it out. Only time will tell what is going to happen.

To check out the official timeline, summary of updates, concept art, and detailed short-term updates planned, visit FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone, scroll down to the bottom, and click the 'download' links (they open a pdf file in a new tab).