20th Vanaversary Reddit AMA

[Alhanelem]

When/what is the nature of the celebration?

I guess you're not aware of the WE ARE VANADIEL site which was specifically created to lead up to this.

What's the surprise?

I'm about 99% certain the "something later on" they were talking about was The Voracious Resurgence.

Where's the celebration? Where are the festivities?

I mean, what do you want? Balloons raining down from the sky? Ball drop in May in Times Square? At least part of the event is literally every content campaign being active as well as new ones the afformentioned site remembering the history of the game along with interviews, reflections, and other stuff.

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.

It's nobody's fault but the players that their expectations were inflated. The thing is, people didn't really talk about it all that much either here or on twitter, basically the places they look, so I don't think SE had any reason to believe we were expecting things they weren't prepared to deliver.

I guess I'm the only one who honestly expected that it wasn't going to be MAJOR NEW CONTENT or the announcement of a remaster or an expansion or something along those lines. SE never said or did anything to imply to me that something of this magnitude was happening. But maybe I'm just living under a rock and didn't see all the player-driven hoopla over something that was expected to happen?

Regardless, someone is sure to ask them a question in the AMA about how they feel SE built up overly high expectations as to what the anniversary was going to bring and ask what SE's response to that criticism is. It would be hard to avoid answeringif as many people feel this way as you suggest.

not just some external stuff.

I mean, maybe you're forgetting that they did in fact announce a new content for empyrean reofrging, the new super weapon line, and they also stated that we're only "halfway" through The Voracious Resurgence, which I actually expecting was going to conclude on the annviersary. It's not like we're getting nothing at all.

You claim your expectations were realistic but imply you still feel let down, even though they discussed and gave dates for new content, in particular a means of reforging empyrean has been awaited for like several years now. It was actually a slightly big deal to me to finally get a date for when I can bring my personal favorite job gear to the forefront again (well, for the jobs I play at least lol).

I don't feel like we got nothing, I feel like we got exactly what I expected- some new content announcements and some past reflection in interviews, and the slew of content campaigns that was likely going to come with the typical anniversary event anyway.

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

No, they are not incorrect or mistaken. Sorry. Carry on bowing before the BG gods if you like, but I can find innaccuracies on BG that are correct on FFXIclopedia and vice versa. And quite frankly, particualrly on quests missions and the like, the details are presented in a better and more friendly way.

Not to mention certain other things like the BG article on Ballista that basically tells people not to do it. A wiki shouldn't be judging the merits of the game features, it should be presenting the information about them without bias. I still periodically hold ballista events- it's a fun release and break from the grind, that's what it's supposed to be and is entirely enjoyable if you don't pretend it's supposed to be something more than that.
While I'm tempted to create an account to fix this, somehow I have a feeling someone would have a problem with it.

[Sp1cyryan]

No, they are not incorrect or mistaken. Sorry. Carry on bowing before the BG gods if you like, but I can find innaccuracies on BG that are correct on FFXIclopedia and vice versa. And quite frankly, particualrly on quests missions and the like, the details are presented in a better and more friendly way.

Not to mention certain other things like the BG article on Ballista that basically tells people not to do it. A wiki shouldn't be judging the merits of the game features, it should be presenting the information about them without bias. I still periodically hold ballista events- it's a fun release and break from the grind, that's what it's supposed to be and is entirely enjoyable if you don't pretend it's supposed to be something more than that.
While I'm tempted to create an account to fix this, somehow I have a feeling someone would have a problem with it.

I wrote that because it is dead content and stating that to someone curious about it while they look for the actual information there is more useful, and no one else was going to edit it. You could only use Clopedia for it because it is so old and unchanged that someone 15 years ago wrote all you needed to know about it because no one edits it there either. As for bias, calling it me bowing to the "BG Gods" is no different a level of bias, if not worse.

Furthermore calling this "telling people not to do it" or similar absolute nonsense is ridiculous:

More over, Ballista and it's successor Brenner, while considered fun are generally just an event in which players enter to test certain spells or abilities for game mechanic research. Ballista and Brenner are long-forgotten and as a result unpopular content. Both events are thus very imbalanced since their release countless years ago.

That is just how it is.

I still periodically hold ballista events

Naturally.

As for finding inaccuracies, there is no room for anyone to talk when they neither fix nor report them. Everyone claims these things, but since they rarely if ever cite the alleged inaccuracies then there is no proof it was even a real inaccuracy. Let alone one of consequence because people like to point at a position that on the border of two coordinates or something similar and yell "INNACURACIES!" I could really drive the whole wiki argument into the ground, but that would require writing a novel that fall upon blind eyes, and is not a good investment.


That all being said, so how about that AMA? Less than 4 days now!

[Catmato]

I'm about 99% certain the "something later on" they were talking about was The Voracious Resurgence.

They started the 20th anniversary in 2020?

I mean, what do you want?

Something. Anything. Maybe an announcement of new content, new gear, some kind of news beyond "here's when you can expect these things you already knew about".

At least part of the event is literally every content campaign being active

Nothing new.

It's nobody's fault but the players that their expectations were inflated. The thing is, people didn't really talk about it all that much either here or on twitter, basically the places they look, so I don't think SE had any reason to believe we were expecting things they weren't prepared to deliver.

Then you clearly weren't paying attention.

I guess I'm the only one who honestly expected that it wasn't going to be MAJOR NEW CONTENT or the announcement of a remaster or an expansion or something along those lines.
...
It would be hard to avoid answeringif as many people feel this way as you suggest.

Do you, or do you not believe that many other people feel the same way I do?

I mean, maybe you're forgetting that they did in fact announce a new content for empyrean reofrging,

Almost a year ago.

the new super weapon line,

Teased in the last TVR update.

and they also stated that we're only "halfway" through The Voracious Resurgence,

Not much of an announcement.

It's not like we're getting nothing at all.

I disagree.

I don't feel like we got nothing, I feel like we got exactly what I expected- some new content announcements and some past reflection in interviews, and the slew of content campaigns that was likely going to come with the typical anniversary event anyway.

I'm glad you're happy. Many people aren't.

[Sp1cyryan]

So we are all in agreement on the importance of this secondary AMA then, right?

[Pixela]

It will be just as useful as the "official" one so why not.

All we will get is "it's too difficult to do that!", yeah it's difficult for me to pay my sub lately too.

[Tarmarkvar]

It will be just as useful as the "official" one so why not.

All we will get is "it's too difficult to do that!", yeah it's difficult for me to pay my sub lately too.

I mean, that's kind of a hollow threat. Businesses don't do well by catering to their most fickle and demanding customers. You are REALLY not as important as you think you are.

[Tarmarkvar]

So we are all in agreement on the importance of this secondary AMA then, right?

It definitely has cathartic value for the vocal minority of people who are displeased with the game but for some reason keep playing.

[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]

It will be just as useful as the "official" one so why not.

All we will get is "it's too difficult to do that!", yeah it's difficult for me to pay my sub lately too.

It may be even more useful. As it may very well draw wild conclusions from bad Google translate interviews and use that as explanations.

I also expect the questions to be better. Even the cheese sandwich tier ones.

It definitely has cathartic value for the vocal minority of people who are displeased with the game but for some reason keep playing.

Not sure dissatisfied customers are so small of a minority. Sure the ones that can't accept how things are rather than how they want them to be, no matter the justification. Will not be happy, but hey as long as they aren't winning over the public sentiment then it is all good.