Are the developers of XIV out of touch?

[Remedi]

The question to ask is:
Are the devs out of touch or The playerbase is actually a multiheaded (and sadly forgetful) beast?

[Rofel]

¿Por qué no los dos?

[Kazrah]

The question to ask is:
Are the devs out of touch or The playerbase is actually a multiheaded (and sadly forgetful) beast?

Little column A because of how long it takes to make changes from feedback and mostly column B partially because devs aren't as transparent about their processes compared to games that allow players to provide infinitely more valuable and credible feedback.

[Alleo]

The question to ask is:
Are the devs out of touch or The playerbase is actually a multiheaded (and sadly forgetful) beast?

Both.

There are decisions were one just question why they did that and some show that they have not taken the behaviour of their playerbase into account. There is also a big problem with their communication, especially with their western playerbase, which should not happen in a global game. (And in a game where the majority is from NA or EU). But the playerbase is also not that easy because they are not one person thus something can be seen differently by a lot of people.

It does not make it easy but in the end this is the case for any company that has customers from different places and cultures. Its their job to make the best out of it and SE could do much better. For example, make sure that you have official translations for any important information, so that the western playerbase does not feel like second rate customers. Be more straight forward with your answer. (And yes I know that this is a cultural thing but you need to get away from that if you want to be a good global player) Have surveys..these are probably the easiest way to get the opinion of the playerbase and let people feel like they can be heard. Increase your customer support..it cant be that there are cases where people get told that they get free shipment and then suddenly its just 8% discount that did not even work..if you let others do certain work for you, make sure that they are customer friendly.

[Remedi]

Idd it's what I think too

[Vhailor]

The question to ask is:
Are the devs out of touch or The playerbase is actually a multiheaded (and sadly forgetful) beast?

I agree with posters above, both. That said, I think to a large extent that is something that can be laid at SE's feet as well. Realistically speaking, they've built FFXIV to target the lowest common denominator, the widest possible audience. Without commenting on the merits of that decision (and it's often typical for MMOs), one of its clear-cut downsides is that community feedback is going to be widely varied, and often contradictory.

This reality demands a minimum of two countermeasures, neither of which SE has done well.

(1) Feedback must be frequently, officially and carefully solicited. Done properly, this can tune out some of the 'background noise' complaints of players, and help get to the heart of important issues that will drive the game's future.
(2) The content design and development process must lead the charge when it comes to delivering fresh experiences that work well, since they cannot rely on consistent and clearly-directed player feedback to inform them of larger structural issues.

That latter point is probably where SE has failed the most spectacularly. Their content design process is incredibly conservative, and tends to view half-assed game system as being 'good enough' until informed otherwise. Glamours are good examples: I'm 99% certain the development team was fine with the original implementation of Glamours, and content to rest on their 'laurels' and not think about it anymore. They also seemed quite happy with the Diadem-style content, because they released the crap twice. Put quite simply, they don't seem to have any sort of creative fire underneath them, any sort of motivation to push the envelope and then - once pushed - to continue pushing it.

Maybe this was the inevitable backlash to the failure of FFXIV 1.0. I'm not sure. Regardless, it is no longer a sustainable model. They've got to start driving development in new directions, much as FFXI did, much as the vastly more successful WoW has done throughout its lifespan. You'll win some and you'll lose some doing this, but so long as a title is vibrantly and consistently evolving, players will stick through the short-term, and minimize the effects of the inevitable missteps. Playing it safe, though, will kill FFXIV over time. They've got to start making changes unprompted, and, of course, listening to players more carefully.

[Remedi]

If you look to how they've been treating pve content you can assure that they are quite scared of displeasing the community. I think that they try to appease every opinion possible even though they miss the mark, I don't believe that there was no1 saying that the loot system was hard for ppl in 24 man and they though to make everyone happy with that crappy system while IMHO if you ask me that was none of their buisness.

Everyone has a fair shot at playing a job in a 24 man as such the player choice was the problem not the design of the game.

If SE keeps this up this game will surely became a cesspoll especially if they are this sloppy in the execution

[Sebazy]

Personally I think it's less a case of Yoshida being out of touch and more a case of SE's internal finance team starving him of the manpower needed to both design and test the content they come up with.

Actual solid content has gotten progressively thinner on the ground since ARR hit, whilst it was pretty much plain as day that the 4.0 job changes were done by a team that was too small and seemingly didn't understand the classes they were wrecking changing. The fact that things were still so rough and up in the air by the time the press preview landed speaks volumes to me. My gut feeling is that SE are taking away talented and experienced developers from Yoshi's team for other projects without giving him the funding or go ahead to replace them.

[Colino]

Makes me wonder if they could just ask for technical help from people who made WoW since they were so inspired from it.

It's not that they're trying and struggling, they simply don't think it's worth putting the money into. That's what it boils down to for any feature or improvement, is it worth the money? If they think not they won't do it.

[Vickii]

[QUOTE=Stormfur;4700433]By that, I don\\\\\\'t mean "he didn\\\\\\'t implement it yet so we\\\\\\'re gonna keep asking till we get it"...but more-so like: [\QUOTE]

With respect I can honestly say that none of the things you just mentioned concern me at all.

What you are doing IS asking over and over again until you get your own way and I think if you think about it, you’ll see that.

Truthfully me and many others tire of the whiny character option/Ishgard housing questions.

I’d much rather they spent this time discussing classes and content like most mmo devs instead of keep getting asked weird costume questions by weeabos.

You keep saying we like you speak for the community, and you don’t speak for me and many others like it or not.