[Updated] FFXIV Gameplay by Pookypoo

The Final Fantasy XIV hype got out of control when the first livestream surfaced showing an actual player going by the name "Pookypoo" walking around with her Dunesfolk.

I was in a BlackBerry group as well as an MSN group all chatting with my friends about the Pookypoo livestream when that happened. Yep, I took out my 3G stick and burned my 1.5GB data out of 1GB that I had per month... streaming that live.

After a day, the hype still haven't died and you could still see twitter as well as forum posts regarding the hottest video released yet.

And as the celebrity frenzy that marked the Alpha testing launch dies down, reality is replacing hype - by Pookypoo. Some Japanese even call him "God".

The verdict so far? Oh it's amazing. It's Diablo II + WoW + FFXI, merging the good stuff together! Let the in-game cut-scene (updated) speak for itself.

We couldn't come up with a number of how many Alpha testers were selected. It's safe to say a fair amount, since we do recognize a few names in some of the footage.

"This video is full of win!" says one of the people in the channel while the footage is being broadcasted live. Another said "I was holding back onto FFXIV, not anymore after I saw this!".

The peak viewing was up to 1600 users simultaneously. The channel was under "Slow Mode", meaning each user could only type one message per minute on Pookypoo's justin.tv channel.

Users in the channel were all contributing when Pookypoo was playing, exclaiming "You've learned a new skill!" or "Use those attribute points!" It was amazing to be there, we all felt like we were playing it as well.

Generally, there was a huge amount of players, causing sluggish gameplay and tremendous lag. However, the existence of "instances" was definitely a nice add-on. There were even messages warning you "You are about to enter/exit an instance" - a good move for areas that could eventually contain a large amount of players.

On web forums, as the alpha testing begins, testers voice numerous complements about the game so far. They all seem very positive, ranging from "excellent graphics" to "you could spend a whole day creating your character."

Unfortunately, like other alpha testing, the alpha testers are subject to a non-disclosure agreement, the violation of which unfortunately got Pookypoo removed from the game. There was rage on the forums directed at the person who even called Pookypoo out. However, aren't you all supposed to be testing the game? ^^

"I can't wait to see him get banned," "Ban his FFXI too," and "Ban this website too," were just some of the comments beside the stream. Even with all that harsh content, Pookypoo continued doing his job and reporting bugs as he saw them.

For those that missed the stream, well don't worry. There are other "authorized" website such as famitsu, 4gamer as well as andriasang which contain the alpha-gameplay report. The game will be even better when it launches as the final product. The alpha had lots of restrictions that are expected to be removed before beta such as a limit of physical level to 20, no Miqo'te to play and a non-working chat filter.

After everything, Pookypoo got his account suspended. However, he had his reasons for doing what he did. He explained it clearly on his website (3 different letters). He had a great point: Your fans wanted it. They have waited too long for any worthy information about the game. From the bottom of my heart, I was one of them. I'm sure that's also true for many of the readers who weren't selected as alpha testers as well.