Letter from the Producer for FFXI.

[odericko]

Fortunately for XIV, Yoshi-P recognizes that a lot of its player base is from XI, who tend to close their minds to the rest of the MMO world out of loyalty. It's about making a game that's fun for everyone, not just one type of player. XIV is not going to be XI-2. It's its own thing.

Hm, never said I wanted XIV to be like XI-2, as I'm pretty sure XI didn't have a stamina gauge or repairable gear. Just said I prefer XIV 1.0 over 2.0 mechanics wise outside of the server tech and engine.

I'm not saying someone's wrong preferring one over the other - I was just asked why I didn't like Yoshi-P's direction with the game and answered honestly.

[Luvbunny]

I think FFXI is not doing so bad. A few things could use some tweaks and improvements for sure. Granted this speed leveling style really kills exploration but they did encourage you to explore with Voidwatch and what not. You cannot do Qilin if you have no sky access. I wish they add more Sea Voidwatch lol, then all the noobies will have to do CoP. Though I still think they could do more in terms of reviving dead old contents - areas and put some very interesting gears and accessories to force people to explore.

[Demon6324236]

That reminds me, I originally thought they made Tav VW to small, should have been 3 tiers just like with Zilart and then have the T3s inside of the Sea areas, mimic Zilarts setup since they are such close expansions.

[Camate]

Hello!

I spoke with Producer Matsui about your request for a "Letter from the Producer." It hasn't been decided yet whether or not they will adopt a letter format, but from here on out he would definitely like to increase the frequency in which he posts on the forums.

[Eyeballed]

I actually liked it before he took over more, besides the bad server tech and engine. Things like checking targets for strength compared to you (like XI), the need for players to repair your gear instead of letting NPC's repair to 99% like now, the crafting that took multiple steps to make items, the stamina gauge, the slower pace of the game.

This quote gets me worried most though:

"Completing the quests, getting rewards, huge experience points, or completing a dungeon and getting experience points, that's going to be the key thing to level up your character, not like at the moment where you have to do monster camping or farming, that's not going to work in 2.0."

It seems like he's making it more like the generic MMO when it comes to leveling. Follow a pre-determined path from quest hub to quest hub, doing quests for NPC's to level. That and sitting in town queuing up for a dungeon - it ruined WoW for me when they added that.

I gotta wait and see how big of a role it is though before I judge if it's gamebreaking.

I agree with you on the whole. I don't like what Yoshida is doing with the game. If the majority of content is going to be placed in an instance, what in the sam hell is the point of having an open world? It's about as adventurous and intriguing as the self-checkout at Walmart.

The content-finder sounds great in theory, but you still are bound to waiting in town for others to join. Sounds a helluva lot like sitting in town waiting for an invite to me. And to me, it seems like a PUG across all servers has the potential to be 1000x as bad because you don't know what kind of player your tank or healer is, much less the entirety of your group being as server reputation still accounts for who you do and do not allow into your PUG.

[Lienn]

I agree with you. IMO he's generalizing the game too much. FFXIV had a potential i never saw in another MMO but after the changes it just became a generic korean-like MMO.

I returned to FFXI because i couldn't stand the changes they did to the game...it's like i always said at FFXIV forum... "If you wanted to play FFXI then just go back to FFXI and leave FFXIV for those who like it". I still can't understand why SE decided to make 2 MMOs targeting the exactly same public...instead of bringing new players they're pretty much splitting FFXI population between the 2 games.

About letters from the producer here, i'd just pass. I'd rather have Matsui only posting when it's to bring real info...the last "blogish" letters Yoshida posted really pissed the hell out of me since if he wanted to talk about holidays, trips, health issues and other non-FFXIV related stuff he should use a non-official method, like a personal tweeter or a personal blog, and leave the official forum for FFXIV-related info only.

[Eyeballed]

I agree with you. IMO he's generalizing the game too much. FFXIV had a potential i never saw in another MMO but after the changes it just became a generic korean-like MMO.

I returned to FFXI because i couldn't stand the changes they did to the game...it's like i always said at FFXIV forum... "If you wanted to play FFXI then just go back to FFXI and leave FFXIV for those who like it". I still can't understand why SE decided to make 2 MMOs targeting the exactly same public...instead of bringing new players they're pretty much splitting FFXI population between the 2 games.

About letters from the producer here, i'd just pass. I'd rather have Matsui only posting when it's to bring real info...the last "blogish" letters Yoshida posted really pissed the hell out of me since if he wanted to talk about holidays, trips, health issues and other non-FFXIV related stuff he should use a non-official method, like a personal tweeter or a personal blog, and leave the official forum for FFXIV-related info only.

It's supposedly due to this golden standard of MMO that is widely known as World of Warcraft. That's all good and fine in the world of Blizzard and that game. In the world of Final Fantasy and SE, its fans want to play a FF title, and as far as MMO's go, a title whose standard was set by FFXI. Typically the slogan for a successor is "If you liked FFXI, you're gonna LOVE FFXIV!" Except you can't say that when comparing XI of 2005 and XIV of 2012; They are two entirely different games save Chocobos and Mithras.

[Lienn]

It's supposedly due to this golden standard of MMO that is widely known as World of Warcraft. That's all good and fine in the world of Blizzard and that game. In the world of Final Fantasy and SE, its fans want to play a FF title, and as far as MMO's go, a title whose standard was set by FFXI. Typically the slogan for a successor is "If you liked FFXI, you're gonna LOVE FFXIV!" Except you can't say that when comparing XI of 2005 and XIV of 2012; They are two entirely different games save Chocobos and Mithras.

You know...this is what really made me love FFXIV despite the noticeable server/engine flaws...it was an unique experience, different of what the new dev team offered in the past 2 years and are promissing for ARR.

IMO there was no need to take any of the actions SE took regarding FFXIV and i'm sure that it would have recovered from the bad release in a few months if they just left the dev team do their job.

[Kraggy]

It seems like he's making it more like the generic MMO when it comes to leveling. Follow a pre-determined path from quest hub to quest hub, doing quests for NPC's to level. That and sitting in town queuing up for a dungeon - it ruined WoW for me when they added that.

What you and the others who say you don't this to happen are missing is that group-or-die mob-kill-grindfests like FFXI are destined to fail hugely these days. Gone are the time when significant numbers of players, in the numbers needed to sustain a newly released MMO will tolerate sitting in a place like Jeuno for DAYS at a time LFG.

It's not going to happen, the fact the some people are still playing FFXI doesn't mean that a new game with the same long, drawn out and hugely frustrating leveling process can survive. It won't.

Like it or not, the type of game you and those like you enjoy are dinosaurs (the games, not the players!), their like won't be seen again because, frankly, XI's leveling process sucked royally for many who played it let alone the large numbers of never got past their first month because of it, it's just that at the time of its release and for a short time after there was not much alternative .. and the FF franchise was a huge draw for many.

Luckily for XI, it had established itself sufficiently to ensure its long term survival before other, vastly more accessible games, came along. I have no doubt at all, an FFXI-2 with the same 'group of GTFO' mentality will simply be an abject failure commercially.

[Moppet]

Hello!

I spoke with Producer Matsui about your request for a "Letter from the Producer." It hasn't been decided yet whether or not they will adopt a letter format, but from here on out he would definitely like to increase the frequency in which he posts on the forums.

Hey Camate,

Thank you very much for taking the time to bring it to his attention.

It will be nice to hear from him more.