What's makes an MMORPG fun? - 4Gamer chats with the Producers of FFXI, FFXIV, and DQX

[FJerome]

That was a great read, thank you.

[tymora]

Saito:
Yeah, back then it'd be like I'm getting my gears back even if it takes me 5 hours (wry laugh).

Yoshida:
I wouldn't be able to go to work with my gear left behind in the dungeon (laugh).

I can so relate to that. At the end of the day in Ultima Online, people just went ahead with the "concept" of "disposable" gears that you can replace quickly and easily.

[gadenp]

Great Interview. Sad but true that nowadays people always seem to just post negative feedback.

Every single MMOrpg too date I have played, according to their forums are extremely bad and not worth playing or deeply flawed, etc, etc. Even WoW.

Recently it is gotten to the point that even offline PC games I have played are all bad and not worth playing or have major issues according to the forums, etc, etc.

So basically if I believe all the forum posts, I would never play any game again ......

Also it seems to be that the average age and life experience of posters on forums have decreased, or it might be that I am getting older.

[Arkista]

Thanks for posting.

Yoshida:
You'd have people like Aoki-san, who is the head of the world design team in DQX, almost not showing up at work at all so we'd end up having meetings with him in Norath (the EQ game world) instead.

lol. Good old days to skip school or work to play a video game.

[Tupsi]

Great Interview. Sad but true that nowadays people always seem to just post negative feedback.

Do you think any MMOs would survive if you have only the people who say the game has no flaws and is absoultely perfect left feedback? I think that's partly why the genre, heck, gaming in general stagnated and there's very little..'innovation' coming out because "this works so why change it?"

That's also why indie games are basically taking the spotlight because they decide: "Why change it? Because it's time for something new." And you'll never get that kind of point across if you say everything is perfect, as in if you say anything other than the game is perfect, it's deemed 'negative'.

Also it seems to be that the average age and life experience of posters on forums have decreased, or it might be that I am getting older.

Average age has definitely dropped and you are also getting older, so it's a bit of both. Games becoming more accessible = designed to a point it can reach any age group more easily and as of now the 'oldest generation' are all moving on.

[Spellbinder]

Do you think any MMOs would survive if you have only the people who say the game has no flaws and is absoultely perfect left feedback? I think that's partly why the genre, heck, gaming in general stagnated and there's very little..'innovation' coming out because "this works so why change it?"

That's also why indie games are basically taking the spotlight because they decide: "Why change it? Because it's time for something new." And you'll never get that kind of point across if you say everything is perfect, as in if you say anything other than the game is perfect, it's deemed 'negative'.

Please bear in mind there is a difference between negative feedback and constructive feedback. The latter is sorely lacking.

[Tupsi]

Please bear in mind there is a difference between negative feedback and constructive feedback. The latter is sorely lacking.

Even when you see constrictive feedback people still deem it negative because it's not praising.

[Spellbinder]

Even when you see constrictive feedback people still deem it negative because it's not praising.

Whether or not feedback that is, in fact, constructive is seen as negative will depend on the person who reads it, as the way it is interpreted varies from person to person. Having said that, there is a very clear distinction between posts like the following:

Post A: This game sucks... (do not insert reason for dissatisfaction, insert vulgar language, insert condescending comments toward the developer and other posters, regard posters as white knights if they disagree, regarder posters as black knights if they disagree, regard posters as stupid if they disagree, suggest posters go play a different game if they disagree, etc.)

Post B: The game is good, but I feel like (something) is not quite what it should be... (insert reasons for dissatisfaction, ideas for how to improve "something", invite people to discuss)

This is my personal opinion, but feedback similar to Post A can be seen much more frequently than Post B.

[HakuroDK]

Even when you see constrictive feedback people still deem it negative because it's not praising.

You talk as if the number of constructive posts was equal to the number of destructive posts. In about 80% of all the feedback I read that is meant to be "constructive criticism", there are often threats of leaving the game, openly insulting the developers for being incompotent and/or malicious, and generally having a very bad attitude about things.

It's not hard to make it constructive, just have some manners when bringing something up.

[gadenp]

Do you think any MMOs would survive if you have only the people who say the game has no flaws and is absoultely perfect left feedback? I think that's partly why the genre, heck, gaming in general stagnated and there's very little..'innovation' coming out because "this works so why change it?"

Agree that we should provide feedback to constantly imrpove the games with love.

Please bear in mind there is a difference between negative feedback and constructive feedback. The latter is sorely lacking.

But as Spellbinder mentioned, The way many people write feedback nowadays (not you, I like the polite and non-insulting way you responded to the issue in my post, not towards me) is quite negative and does not come across as constructive.

What I dislike in forums nowadays is the negativity of many posters and posts and the extreme way some post that makes each game come across like the worst game in the history of life ever (aka way worst then it is actually is). At least so far FF14 forums have not descended into name calling and personal attacks that sadly some forums have gone the way towards (aka WoW at one time).