20th Vanaversary Reddit AMA

[Catmato]

That's entirely false, as they spoke of new content incoming and gave specific timelines for it.

Where exactly did they do this? Do you mean this letter? The letter where he talks about nothing new except prime weapons, which the letter admits had already been teased?

It's odd that they've been hyping an anniversary celebration for two years and then just write us a letter with very little information. If that's your idea of a celebration, please don't invite me to your next birthday party.

Sorry it didn't live up to your unrealistic expectations of new expansions or ports

I never said or expected anything of the sort.

[Tarmarkvar]

Did SE ever actually hype up anything big happening for the 20th Anniversary? Or did people just ramp up their expectations because 20 is a nice round number and we are naturally inclined to believe big things on round numbered years? Did they do anything big 10 years ago?

[Dragoy]

Did SE ever actually hype up anything big happening for the 20th Anniversary? Or did people just ramp up their expectations because 20 is a nice round number and we are naturally inclined to believe big things on round numbered years? Did they do anything big 10 years ago?

I think some of it might have been translation making it seem more like there would be a big surprise, but when actually looking at the (English) statements I could find some time ago, I mostly see it like they were more talking about things they have been putting out during all this time.

One such comment here from 2020 [1]:

Yoji Fujito: I’m sure there are some of you who are looking for something on the scale of an expansion, but there are a variety of factors at play preventing us from doing so. Like Matsui-san says, we’re hoping that maybe we can do a fan event, or look at doing more in-game events that are a bit different from what we’ve provided up until now.

1. https://gamerescape.com/2020/04/10/1...y-xi-dev-team/

[Catmato]

Did SE ever actually hype up anything big happening for the 20th Anniversary? Or did people just ramp up their expectations because 20 is a nice round number and we are naturally inclined to believe big things on round numbered years? Did they do anything big 10 years ago?

At the end of the show we mentioned that starting next fiscal year, we're going to focus our development and operations on a long-term goal of the twentieth anniversary. As such, there may be some time where the version updates may feel a bit lighter, but we're hoping to be able to deliver something that can surprise everyone later on.

What's the surprise? Is there an announcement still to come? Lighter version updates seems to imply that there's going to be a larger version update in the context of the anniversary. This is the big one and where it started.

Finally, I’d like to remind you all that we are only a scant six months away from FINAL FANTASY XI’s 20th Vana’versary. We’ve got more fun stuff planned in the lead up to the celebration, and I hope you’ll be with us in Vana’diel every step of the way.

When/what is the nature of the celebration?

That being said, there are still a few months before we can really celebrate, so we’ll keep our nose to the grindstone and not get to fan ahead of ourselves.

Nose to the grindstone on what? Business as usual?

We’re rapidly approaching XI’s 20th Vana’versary!
While I am happy to celebrate this momentous occasion with you all, at the same time the development team wishes we had just a little bit more time!

More time for what? Are they still preparing something?

Only one month to go until the 20th Vana’versary! We’re ramping up in the home stretch to bring you an exciting celebration of 20 years in Vana’diel. The entire team is looking forward to sharing in the festivities right along with you.

Where's the celebration? Where are the festivities?

A letter and some interviews are just fluff to most players. Three years of talking about the anniversary made people hopeful that the anniversary would bring some sort of actual change or addition to the game, not just some external stuff.

I personally knew better than to expect a new expansion, a new job, or anything majorly significant, but I still expected something. Maybe if SE and the development team would communicate with the english-speaking playerbase, they could have toned down player expectations when we were clearly making a much bigger deal about it than they were, at least in regards to the game itself.

[Tarmarkvar]

I personally knew better than to expect a new expansion, a new job, or anything majorly significant, but I still expected something. Maybe if SE and the development team would communicate with the english-speaking playerbase, they could have toned down player expectations when we were clearly making a much bigger deal about it than they were, at least in regards to the game itself.

So what exactly DID you expect? They added master levels. Sounds like they're about to add a new series of ultimate weapons, and reforging of Empyrean armor to +2 and +3 levels. But you seem to have decided that those don't count for some arbitrary reason.

I mean I keep hearing that this anniversary thing doesn't live up to anybody's expectations, but people aren't defining those expectations. Or they are, and the expectations are just unrealistic. I don't know how much you know about software development, but it's not "ask some Star Trek like supercomputer to do things and it happens". If they don't have the staff to implement something, they aren't going to implement it. If the product isn't bringing in enough money to justify hiring additional staff, they don't hire additional staff.

It isn't Square Enix's fault that a couple dozen malcontents let their imaginations run wild and infer statements that were never there. A round number doesn't magically create the business justification or the staff to make a huge remaster that virtually nobody except graphics nerds will care about, or a big new expansion.

[Fawkes]

So what exactly DID you expect? They added master levels. Sounds like they're about to add a new series of ultimate weapons, and reforging of Empyrean armor to +2 and +3 levels. But you seem to have decided that those don't count for some arbitrary reason.

Well for me, because of that quote "we're going to focus our development and operations on a long-term goal of the twentieth anniversary", I expected something timed specifically to the 20th anniversary. I cannot assume he was talking about TVR or master levels or new weapons or empy+3 armor, none of those things happened on the 20th anniversary. And none of them seem very anniversary-related, they seem like regular content updates that are only interesting to current endgame players.

[Sp1cyryan]

What's this supposed to mean? Both the major wikis have their place. Especially when it comes to older stuff in the game, FFXIclopedia is more accurate and less biased (and better organized IMO). But BG has its place as well for the forumulas/statistical data/nerdy stuff. Both sites are still missing various information, but that's because it's all by the users. There is very often information I can find on one that I can't find in the other, in both directions.

It means exactly what I said. There is not a need for two wikis.

Outside of both sites lacking information. Which is obviously the nature of a wiki. The rest of your characterizations are incorrect and mistaken.

This thread is more a shameless plug for your subreddit than it is anything of value, your bias is obvious.

If that were the case then I would have plugged it earlier. This is purely to plug a community event.

[Sp1cyryan]

If that's your idea of a celebration, please don't invite me to your next birthday party.

Sugar free gluten free kosher halal vegan vanilla ice cream cake saved in the freezer since 2019 with bio degradable sprinkles on top served on recycled wood pulp plates. Right after the cruelty free pin the tail on the anniversary. No confetti though, it is bad for the birds.

[Catmato]

saved in the freezer since 2019

I need to know, was it a freezer with auto-defrost? I need to know how freezer-burnt it is.

[scaevola]

Sugar free gluten free kosher halal vegan vanilla ice cream cake saved in the freezer since 2019 with bio degradable sprinkles on top served on recycled wood pulp plates. Right after the cruelty free pin the tail on the anniversary. No confetti though, it is bad for the birds.

His birthday present is the incredible feeling of self-satisfaction you'll grant him when he can look you in the eye and say, "well, nobody told you you wouldn't be getting sugar free gluten free kosher halal vegan vanilla ice cream cake saved in the freezer since 2019 with bio degradable sprinkles on top served on recycled wood pulp plates."