Newest interview (abyssea was a mistake?)

[Mystaticromance]

Was I the only one that saw this interview as just a public display of the internal analysis of abyssea? Everything has its pros and cons, this interview put some of them in public light. It does not mean that they want their players to be unhappy. Game balance is essential, otherwise you have everyone running around on the same exact job. What is the fun in that?

[Insaniac]

Right, I guess the director does nothing then. lol So much rage.

Because I said that right? The director is obviously a close second. Below him are the directors of the individual aspects of the design. The director is their boss and Tanaka is the directors boss.

[Natasha]

I really cannot believe you people. so disappointed in you~

[Kimble]

Because I said that right? The director is obviously a close second. Below him are the directors of the individual aspects of the design. The director is their boss and Tanaka is the directors boss.

So you honestly think the Producer creates the game, designs it, etc?

I think a lot of people really don't understand what a producer does.

He basically just makes sure shit is done on time and that people are on task and is a middle man better the game developers in the higher ups who pay to have the game made.

You can be in charge of people with out having hands on experience with what they are doing.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Look, in regards to "not that debate again", the most we got out of that interview was Tanaka was involved with both XI and XIV at the same time, and he knew what was going on when they were developing Abyssea. You can speculate on the rest all you want.

[Luvbunny]

Gaming should be about fun, not a challenge, after a hard day at work, the last thing I am looking forward is drama, frustration and "artificial challenge" or waiting for at least an hour or more to get 18 people ready to do this and that. Abyssea and most of ToAU content is awesome (and WoE if only more people do it). The old grind of FFXI is horrible, boring, and beyond retarded - Abyssea put the fun from the get go and make the game more meaningful since now I can just hang out and chill with 1-3 other people instead of having constantly finding 5 people with the "right xyz" jobs. I know some of the few hardcore are looking for the most difficult and the most grind type of content - which they got voidwatch for that - and yet still not happy about that. What SE should do is put out more fun, easy, and enjoyable content that you only need small group to complete (assaults, salvage, nyzul, moblin maze, abyssea) with fast direct access to the battlefields or large content like campaign and walk of echoes where you can just log in, have fun, get your loot and repeat over and over (these are just as boring and grindy as voidwatch, but at least you can jump into the action and no waiting around required).

Personally I think the developer team are just lazy, Abyssea opened a big can of worms that is hard to come up with things better than that. They can easily come up with something similar though - but seems that they are way too lazy even for this. They can also update existing older contents that no one bother to do anymore (including old players) and refresh it with more items. As a company, their goal should be attracting new subscribers and keeping existing ones. Abyssea did amazing for new players since it immediately put FUN & ENJOYABLE content right out of the gate for them. As a 10 years old game, there are still gazillion content to do even for veteran players, but now you do not NEED 18 people for most of these contents.

A lot of people seems to forget how boring the game is before abyssea - where merit party only wants certain jobs, where most of the contents are unaccessible unless you have a dedicated LS, and where everything else is a boring grindfest with artificial difficulty where things take forever to complete. This is a game - NOT a career, NOT work - it should be about fun and enjoyment.

[Natasha]

So you honestly think the Producer creates the game, designs it, etc?

I think a lot of people really don't understand what a producer does.

He basically just makes sure shit is done on time and that people are on task and is a middle man better the game developers in the higher ups who pay to have the game made.

You can be in charge of people with out having hands on experience with what they are doing.

That is every bit incorrect, while that may be 'standard' there are producers who actually 'designed' the project. Producer involvement can vary drastically.

[Natasha]

Gaming should be about fun, not a challenge, after a hard day at work, the last thing I am looking forward is drama, frustration and "artificial challenge" or waiting for at least an hour or more to get 18 people ready to do this and that. Abyssea and most of ToAU content is awesome (and WoE if only more people do it). The old grind of FFXI is horrible, boring, and beyond retarded - Abyssea put the fun from the get go and make the game more meaningful since now I can just hang out and chill with 1-3 other people instead of having constantly finding 5 people with the "right xyz" jobs. I know some of the few hardcore are looking for the most difficult and the most grind type of content - which they got voidwatch for that - and yet still not happy about that. What SE should do is put out more fun, easy, and enjoyable content that you only need small group to complete (assaults, salvage, nyzul, moblin maze, abyssea) with fast direct access to the battlefields or large content like campaign and walk of echoes where you can just log in, have fun, get your loot and repeat over and over (these are just as boring and grindy as voidwatch, but at least you can jump into the action and no waiting around required).

While that is one way to look at games... It is silly to think that ffxi should be this way... from the very beginning the game was treated more like a 'world' and was about exploration, adventure, stories, it was meant to be a long road.

If I want a game that feels like a 'game' as you say, I wouldn't be spending money every month for it and I'd go play peggle or chess or something like that.

[TybudX]

... while anyone with a pulse would understand how the atma system wouldn't outright be reincarnated in future events, there wasn't much reason to eliminate other perks like reasonable drop rates and fights a party or so could handle. I can't think of many who yearn for the old days of HNM drama, point systems, and the hassles of managing 18+ people for an event or two. Current job balance is also pretty laughable...

The thing about 'old' FFXI is that a party could handle most content, provided they had suitable job selection and proper buffs/debuffs. Were drop rates bad? Yes, but bad drop rates were amplified when a group would need to do a single event multiple times for one or two drops that had waiting lists, eg Armlets or RDM hat. It was made worse by groups crippling themselves with terrible job set ups that might include a single BRD or COR, rarely both, maybe one or two healers, an assortment of poorly geared DDs, and a PLD. You would be lucky to see a quarter of the players use any food at all.

Then you would have somebody come along with a couple DDs, a BRD, a RDM, maybe two other people, they would use food, swap gear, use pdt/mdt sets, and just generally crush whatever it was that the larger groups found difficult, due to using tactics SE had intended but the average player seems to think is too much work. These players seemingly had gear fall into their laps... mostly because they spent less time fighting, more time winning, and therefor could cover a wider selection of events in a shorter amount of time. So what did SE do?

They gave us Abyssea. They took the poor decision making skills out of the hands of players and LS leaders alike, forced stacked buffs on everybody, and made it so that no matter how many people you threw at a mob your HP and MP would never deplete from all the TP moves being spammed. They put capped accuracy into the hands of people who thought Toreador's was expensive, capped ratio to people who wouldn't use food because they were just going to die, anyways. They gave gear Haste away like candy to those who championed Denali Bonnet and Askar hat. They made STR so high that people who put Dual Wield and Double Attack on their Nuevo Coselete looked like savants.

And now? They want us to go back to the 'old' FFXI? How dare they expect us to make decent parties and play support roles and use buffs and food and not be retards and simpletons! I want my Crystal Chronicles back, damn it!

[Runespider]

Tanaka was producer of FFXIV, if that job gives so little actual imput into the meat of the game why was he made the prime scapegoat and very publicly fired off it? o.O The game sucking was put squarely on his shoulders by everyone, including SE.

Final Fantasy XIV will undergo new leadership, it has been announced.

Hiromichi Tanaka has resigned from his post as producer of the game and will be replaced by Naoki Yoshida with immediate effect, but will remain on staff as an advisor.

Tanaka's departure is one of many sweeping changes announced for the management of the massively-multiplayer game, with staff from projects including Final Fantasy XI, X, IX and Vagrant Story joining the team.

"First of all, I would like to apologise for our inability to fully satisfy our users with the initial release of Final Fantasy XIV," said Tanaka in a statement to players.

"I take full responsibility for the game's current situation, and have therefore made the decision to step down from my role as producer."