Yoshida telling players to go play other games is very damaging to FFXIV

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

You only need to be subscribed about 40% of the year to keep a house if you time it properly.

One month subbed then six weeks unsubbed. Repeat.

Buying a house in a game you rarely want to play when the only way to enjoy the house is to play the game is rather illogical. There are other games to play with better housing systems and no risk of loss that are a better choice.


To be fair, it's not just WoW players. We see it even here - players coming into the forum complaining that they've run out of things to do. Some people have the idea that once they've paid for a game, that game should be able to babysit them 24/7 so they don't have to spend money on other games.

You'll also find it in Guild Wars 2, and in ESO (though I don't think it's as strong with ESO players from what I've seen).

The problem for WoW players is that once upon a time the game was really enjoyable and you didn't feel chained to a treadmill. You wanted to play as opposed to feeling like you needed to play. It's hard to reconcile what it has become with what it used to be.

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You're right, it's not just WoW that has people like that. Tribalism is everywhere. I guess I also fall in that category myself where I used to play only WoW, but almost 2 years ago I came here and I've played nothing but XIV.

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Originally Posted by Neuron

Noaki Yoshida in one interview told that if players are bored with the game or if they have completed all PVE content then they should take a break and come back in the next patch. Frankly speaking this is very damaging to the game and to square enix as a whole because its an mmorpg and players play mmorpg to commit long term. Look at the WoW director, Ion Hazzikotas. He never told players to take a single break from WoW. Infact he gives players new ideas on how to play WoW differently when they get bored or during a content drought but never once he said to take a break.

When I play an mmorpg I play it non stop for 10+ years without taking breaks and I am sure there are millions of players like me who think the same way. Majority of mmo players have no interest in single player games.

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I disagree that taking a break is damaging. In fact, I believe it to be a very healthy thing. If a game doesn't have content you want to play, there's no need to stay stuck to it doing things you don't enjoy. MMORPGs are a hobby and hobbies are meant to be something done for the enjoyment of doing them.

Taking a break doesn't mean one isn't committed to the game long-term. I've been playing since 2014 and have needed to take breaks for various reasons, sometimes they're long-term, other times they're a couple months. If I get to a point where I've done everything I want to do at that time I'll play a different game and check in on XIV every once in a while to see what's new and exciting. Of all the MMOs I've played, XIV's my favorite and the one I'll always return to.

The WoW team has never, and likely will never, suggest their players take breaks. In fact, their modern design philosophy is focused on requiring players to log in every day to do repeatable tasks to make sure they don't fall behind the other players and get locked out of content. CBU3 takes the completely opposite approach. Players aren't required to grind currency/reputation every day in order to stay current. There are multiple catch up mechanics to fairly easily get the ilvl needed to do content requiring it even if one takes months-long or years-long breaks.

I also disagree that MMO players aren't interested in single player games. I've got one MMO installed on my computer and eight single player games. Just looking at the ratio of single player to multiplayer icons on my desktop one might get the incorrect impression that I prefer single player games. I don't. I prefer MMOs, but I enjoy playing single player games as well.

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Originally Posted by FrogDog

It's also YOUR fault that, should you not play the game within 45 days of having your house demolished, S-E just trashes every item you worked for.

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In this case it IS our fault. Originally, personal housing was permanent, as in if you bought a house and never played again you still owned that house. Once demand got high enough the player base started complaining about all of the abandoned houses so the 45 day demolition timer was instituted to give people playing the game the opportunity to buy the plot from people who had effectively abandoned the game. This mechanic was added not to punish people who'd stopped playing, but to benefit those who were. I wouldn't call this disrespecting players' time and effort, rather, I'd call it respecting the player base as a whole. Disrespecting would have been continuing the ownership in perpetuity mechanic.

I've bought and lost houses multiple times over the years due to having to take breaks for RL reasons. Does it suck that it happened? Sure, each one represented a lot of time invested. Could I have continued my sub and logged in periodically to keep it, knowing that I'd play again in the future? Absolutely. Was having a house so important to me that I was willing to do that and keep active players from the chance of owning the plot? Nope.

Even if owning a house is important enough to continue a subscription for, it doesn't actually require playing, you just have to log in every few weeks and interact with an item in the house then log out.

Didn't he say that back in late HW or early SB?
Obviously he has the right mentality, considering how the game is doing better than ever from a business perspective. Literally doing so well they are forced to take a momentary loss because they can't fit all the players they have.

And it's not like 14 is sorely lacking in a variety of content for poop-sockers. Crafting, BLU mage shenanigans, beast tribe stuff, parse optimizations, fishing log, sightseeing, all the side-quest stories, ultimates, mount farming, and all the other stuff.
Like, yeah, it might not be your content that you love the most, but you can't make a game with nothing but your type of content that keeps up with MMO no-lifers. There's just legitimately no possible way to do that. Content takes insanely longer to make than it is to beat. Go enjoy the side stuff if you're desperate for stuff and aren't just another troll hell bent on this old quote that was proven right.

You can still play the game without breaks too, the game has enough content to keep you busy depending on what you like to do.
What Yoshida truely means with that is that he will not implement a FOMO system like Blizzard does with WoW i.e. Torghast that will literally lock you out from content if you miss too much of it until the next catchup phase of course. in FFXIV you will not be left behind with a really hard time to catch up with the current content whenever you return after a break.

You know when a MMO is done right? When you can drop the game, come back months later, and not be weeks - months behind in power grind to catch up and do the current grind and have fun through and through. Granted, WoW: ShadowLands has done a great job of the grind not being as bad to play but it's still there.... FFXIV has none of that feeling.

I'll use myself for an example. After ShadowBringers first tier of Savage, I got tired of looking for a MC - sHC static that felt "right". I often found myself just logged in and sitting there not wanting to do anything. Waiting for the right static to finally reach out to me; because I was on that train of End Game play only, ride or die (I still somewhat am on that) from WoW. So, I decided to unsub from FFXIV and come back later. I waited until 5.3 or 5.4 (whichever released with the last tier of Savage) to return to the game. Felt like I never left. Had a ton of story to play through, new dungeon, new Alliance raids, and new Normal raids. Even found a new Static to do Savage with at the time.

Yoshida was right. It was okay to drop the game. I didn't feel behind. I didn't feel like I was cheated out of my money. I didn't feel like I had to stay subbed to keep playing at a moments notice to not fall too far behind to spend more time later catching up. I can play FFXIV at my own pacing, when I want to. I can finish my weekly grind on Tuesday or Wednesday and do nothing until the following week if I wanted to. WoW doesn't have that. Never has since I started playing it since Pre-Legion.

There's nothing wrong with taking a break from playing FFXIV. In fact, when I get tired of doing FATEs after Savage, I'm probably going to drop my sub and wait until the next tier to return. It's not like I have to keep playing. There's plenty of other games that I want to play. Way too many in fact. Like, I've been wanting to finish playing through Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. Or what about all the games I never got to play growing up? I have over 110 of those alone through GOG. I wish more games had leads like Yoshida that took the meaning of "Drop the game and come back later" to heart; because it's really nice to just stop playing and come back at a later time and never feel too far behind.

Really WoWs philosophy of you must be subbed and playing at all times to keep up is about to be their downfall. All the people that have since left the game and either come here or elsewhere will not be able to return easily. They will be forever behind the grind treadmill that WoW insisted on keeping up.

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Originally Posted by Neuron

Noaki Yoshida in one interview told that if players are bored with the game or if they have completed all PVE content then they should take a break and come back in the next patch. Frankly speaking this is very damaging to the game and to square enix as a whole because its an mmorpg and players play mmorpg to commit long term. Look at the WoW director, Ion Hazzikotas. He never told players to take a single break from WoW. Infact he gives players new ideas on how to play WoW differently when they get bored or during a content drought but never once he said to take a break.

When I play an mmorpg I play it non stop for 10+ years without taking breaks and I am sure there are millions of players like me who think the same way. Majority of mmo players have no interest in single player games.

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If you just play the same game then you'll burn out and stop playing entirely. The fact that he encourages people to play other games while waiting for new content tells you a lot about how amazing his character is. Of course, you should know what he's like with his other interviews, he deeply cares about this game and his community. The mogstation has only one purpose, to generate revenue that is 100% returned to the game, not for the pockets of anyone but to the development of side quests like Hildibrand, Scholasticates, housing items you get in-game etc... He doesn't care about you as a number, he cares about you as a player. His goal is to make you happy and for you to have fun.

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Originally Posted by Illmaeran

In this case it IS our fault. Originally, personal housing was permanent, as in if you bought a house and never played again you still owned that house. Once demand got high enough the player base started complaining about all of the abandoned houses so the 45 day demolition timer was instituted to give people playing the game the opportunity to buy the plot from people who had effectively abandoned the game. This mechanic was added not to punish people who'd stopped playing, but to benefit those who were. I wouldn't call this disrespecting players' time and effort, rather, I'd call it respecting the player base as a whole. Disrespecting would have been continuing the ownership in perpetuity mechanic.

I've bought and lost houses multiple times over the years due to having to take breaks for RL reasons. Does it suck that it happened? Sure, each one represented a lot of time invested. Could I have continued my sub and logged in periodically to keep it, knowing that I'd play again in the future? Absolutely. Was having a house so important to me that I was willing to do that and keep active players from the chance of owning the plot? Nope.

Even if owning a house is important enough to continue a subscription for, it doesn't actually require playing, you just have to log in every few weeks and interact with an item in the house then log out.

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When i did the quest to unlock housing for the first time, i was interested in it up until i looked up what was involved, how limited it was, how they are strong-arming you to buy a house if you want to raise your chocobo with your own effort other than just coughing up gil and how unsubbing, which i new i would do for many times, would cause it to get demolished and sold to someone else. Then i didn't even consider buying a house, since i'd lose it in one or two months with 100% guarantee.

Yes, i doesn't require playing, only paying, so they are exploiting FOMO of people who are susceptible to such weakness. And that was my entire point. Still, since it obviously isn't going away, this is just pissing in the wind, as it has always been.

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Originally Posted by Neuron

Noaki Yoshida in one interview told that if players are bored with the game or if they have completed all PVE content then they should take a break and come back in the next patch. Frankly speaking this is very damaging to the game and to square enix as a whole because its an mmorpg and players play mmorpg to commit long term. Look at the WoW director, Ion Hazzikotas. He never told players to take a single break from WoW. Infact he gives players new ideas on how to play WoW differently when they get bored or during a content drought but never once he said to take a break.

When I play an mmorpg I play it non stop for 10+ years without taking breaks and I am sure there are millions of players like me who think the same way. Majority of mmo players have no interest in single player games.

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Without breaks?! HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?! ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN?!