Full translation of Yoshi interview, including his openness to F2P

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Originally Posted by LordSaviour

Looks like he is opening the doors to Horizontal Item Progression.

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Might be too little too late...

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Originally Posted by Zell

I think that you not realizing you do not represent the majority of the player base is the disconnect. VAST majority of players have never beat Twintania or all three of the primals. That's a fact.

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"WoW is the best.

We need to design after WoW.

WoW. WoW. WoW."

This is the mentality every MMO developer has followed suit and majority of those MMOs flopped hard or had to be relaunched. There's a reason WoW's number's are falling fast and it's not because there's amazing new MMOs out on the market.

lol ... pay for 1 hour hoping to clear coil and tank gets booted for non payment with final boss @ 15%.

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Originally Posted by Nekodar

Perhaps he's better connected with the userbase than you think...

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No, as a vanilla wow player who raided from burning crusade to the beginning of mist of pandaria in what he'd call "hardcore" guilds I can assure you that the current FFXIV difficulty can't be compared to the difficulty of the old wow (even twintania). Furthermore, most of the former wow raiders who starded ARR because the game seemed to go back to the fundamentals of wow actually stopped the game.

Even the current wow is more difficult than FFXIV in heroic modes raids (and it's way easier than it used to be, with only a few bosses currently difficult).

Rather than focusing on F2P like everyone else, I read a lot of good things in this article that make me very happy. The major one that we'll see right away, is the supposed removal of philosophy tomes! While I dont know how we will now get items like Potash and Animal Fat, I'm happy to see this go! I love that he is now going to make it so that darklight will drop in dungeons! What that means for myth and philo items, Im not sure but I like it!

I also like to hear that they've got atleast two years of content planned out. With the rate we've been getting major patches, it sounds like a lot of content :) I'm super happy about this. However, I still feel like we need more lower level content as well to help round out the game. Many more good things in that article but these two were my highlights!

(My only request now: please make fishing more than just a "fun" thing. Make it as useful as the other gathering classes)

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Originally Posted by Moheeheeko

And 90% of the "this is too easy I have nothing to do" posts in this forum are from players that had a 3 year head start.

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P.S Most of the content in ARR didn't exist in 1.0 or 1.23.

Just saying.

Just saying.

As much as I think free to play works fine in some cases, I do not want to see FFXIV go free to play. I'd rather see changes done to make the world more immersive, add replayability to end game, and interesting sports-type pvp minigames so that the subscription fee feels very much worth it to even the most penny pinching of players than for the devs to figure out how the game will be rebalanced around a F2P model.

It takes money and resources to make changes like that to a game, and I want those resources to go to improving the game rather than rebuilding it yet again.

Boy, people sure do take a comment and run with it. "I'm not opposed to the idea of F2P in of itself" "we plan to offer some items for sale, but nothing which effects game balance" = "F2P on the horizon for sure!"
Take a xananx.

Surprised that with all the whining about vertical progression no one has even mention this part - "Increasing the item level is just one direction, though, we also need to increase the breadth of items available at each level, which we plan to address in the future." Certainly more interesting than flying into hyperbolic seizures over pointing out that F2P is just another option out there.

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Originally Posted by BlueMage

He mentioned specifically that people only want to pay for the amount of time they play... could that not necessarily mean F2P as we know it but the potentially for a pay per hour type system?

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Nah that's f2p at it's finest. DCUO made you pay for DLCs you only want. So in FFXIVs case probably like pay for 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, etc and maybe if you spend enough money, you get to play for free for a certain amount of time. Then have to buy something again. It's sad sad sad stuff really.

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Originally Posted by AlexNiculaie

Boy, people sure do take a comment and run with it. "I'm not opposed to the idea of F2P in of itself" "we plan to offer some items for sale, but nothing which effects game balance" = "F2P on the horizon for sure!"
Take a xananx.

Surprised that with all the whining about vertical progression no one has even mention this part - "Increasing the item level is just one direction, though, we also need to increase the breadth of items available at each level, which we plan to address in the future." Certainly more interesting than flying into hyperbolic seizures over pointing out that F2P is just another option out there.

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I did, and only one person snipped my comment and made a condescending remark about it.

"The most important thing to me is that we are honest and upfront in describing the current situation and to keep up with the promises we make. I think we were able to make good on our biggest commitment to players when we finally launched the game.

That said, A Realm Reborn is just getting started. We have concerns about whether the game would be able to survive the waves of subscription with the monthly fee since not many MMORPGs have done so successfully in the past few years. Part of it is that we're still lacking on content, so the planned additions to the game will be addressing this. We can't just sit back and celebrate." -Yoshi P

This is the statement that I think best sums up the F2P interview. He understands the current busy of MMOs and understand what it takes to be sub based. As far as cash shop, people have been asking to buy Fantasia potions and if I remember right, FFXIV v1 was originally going to have you purchase extra retainers until it crashed and burned.

Honestly, I look at SWTOR after it went F2P and shake my head. It takes them 2 years to get the same amount of content we get in 3 months.

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Originally Posted by Stanelis

No, as a vanilla wow player who raided from burning crusade to the beginning of mist of pandaria in what he'd call "hardcore" guilds I can assure you that the current FFXIV difficulty can't be compared to the difficulty of the old wow (even twintania). Furthermore, most of the former wow raiders who starded ARR because the game seemed to go back to the fundamentals of wow actually stopped the game.

Even the current wow is more difficult than FFXIV in heroic modes raids (and it's way easier than it used to be, with only a few bosses currently difficult).

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You're missing the point... The amount of the type of players you mention is a very small part of the total population.
Why would he mention the 1% when he's speaking in general terms?

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Originally Posted by Tupsi

"WoW is the best.

We need to design after WoW.

WoW. WoW. WoW."

This is the mentality every MMO developer has followed suit and majority of those MMOs flopped hard or had to be relaunched. There's a reason WoW's number's are falling fast and it's not because there's amazing new MMOs out on the market.

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Hmm... cause WoW is not a successful MMO or anything. Its not like the game still makes billions of dollars every year...Why would you ever try to take the good ideas from something that is successful and build off of it?

And I don't know what MMOs you are talking about. The only one I know for a fact is a complete WoW clone is SWTOR. All it had different was voice acted scenes where your decisions didn't mean squat. So after you got max level the game was just WoW in space. When in FFXIV, good parts are used in its composition and its not a direct copy and still keeps the Final Fantasy feel to the game. Trying something "completely new and original" is too risky in the current gaming market *cough XIV 1.0 cough*. As a business you would rather do what is safe and will still make profit while still giving something your players can enjoy.

I don't post in the forums much, but I had to add my voice in.
If I wanted to play a F2P game, there is nothing stopping me from going to play a F2P game.

But I don't. I want to play a subscription-based game.

A subscription-based game is a socioeconomic stabilizer. For one monthly fee, we all get the same content presented to us.
But a F2P game is a socioeconomic divider. It separates and caters to people with lots of money, while those who don't have as much to spend get let in the dust.

I have no problem with little cosmetic items here and there in a sub-based model, but no F2P game will last long on cash-shop purchases if that is all they offer...
not if they plan to put out new content before the rapture, anyhow.

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Originally Posted by AlexNiculaie

Surprised that with all the whining about vertical progression no one has even mention this part - "Increasing the item level is just one direction, though, we also need to increase the breadth of items available at each level, which we plan to address in the future." Certainly more interesting than flying into hyperbolic seizures over pointing out that F2P is just another option out there.

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Probably because a number of the people that's crying about vertical progression are not seriously interested in sidegrades. Soon enough some of the same people will go "why should I get X? It's the same ilevel as Y, just with different stats... not worth getting!"

I just think that if they base our appetite for f2p/p2w off of NA forums, its not hard to see where he gets the impression that we're split on it. So many times I see on the forums that people will want some feature, such as world transfers, fantasia, or name changes. People get no official responses immediately or maybe it's just hyperbole, but it leads to people saying "SE just make this service available and I'll PAY a fee for it" (shut up and take my money, etc etc). It's not hard for someone to read those responses and then say "hmm it seems they don't mind paying for things we could probably easily do for free" (is it really free since we pay subs? that's another discussion). Just food for thought.

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Originally Posted by Balfreid

Hmm... cause WoW is not a successful MMO or anything. Its not like the game still makes billions of dollars every year...Why would you ever try to take the good ideas from something that is successful and build off of it?

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The problem is, simply emulating doesn't mean auto success - That's the main problem they did with their MMOs and it failed hard because as the saying go: "No one does WoW better than WoW."

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Trying something "completely new and original" is too risky in the current gaming market *cough XIV 1.0 cough*

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XIV was unfinished and rushed out - That was what killed it, not being "different", because the only reason MMORPGs still exist to date is because developers trying something different, same with any game genre. Video games would have ceased to become a business if you don't try something different lol.

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Originally Posted by Nekodar

You're missing the point... The amount of the type of players you mention is a very small part of the total population.
Why would he mention the 1% when he's speaking in general terms?

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It was the 1 % of 7.8 millions players back in the days (which was a lot on a MMORPG standpoint). But still I don't think that his comment on former wow raiders liking FFXIV (non existent) difficulty is relevant. By the way I'm not the one mentioning these players, Yoshida is.

Reality, noone knows what they want from a MMO. From the existence of the first MMO's and on someone, somewhere complained. Hell, we as humans are truly unsatisfied.
SE is a company and as a company they have to make a profit to exist. If a game goes FTP all the luxury you enjoy now come with a price. A shop selling cosmetic items is not game breaking and is a novelty. Meaning you are not required to purchase a novelty and it will not effect you if you choose not to participate.

Well, SE would start making more money if they add F2P+cashshop. Whiteknights and SE zealots should be happy, no?

I really liked the part of their intention to make the game more complex as soon as the first generation of players had become comfortable with the mechanics. He differentiated between the Japanese players who are currently going through what we went through with Vanilla Wow before it became deeper and more complicated. That really excites me that YoshiP is making it a relatively simplistic combat system with the intention to make it deeper as we evolve from one generation of FFXIV to the next.

That part is very interesting.

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Originally Posted by Tupsi

The problem is, simply emulating doesn't mean auto success - That's the main problem they did with their MMOs and it failed hard because as the saying go: "No one does WoW better than WoW."



XIV was unfinished and rushed out - That was what killed it, not being "different", because the only reason MMORPGs still exist to date is because developers trying something different, same with any game genre. Video games would have ceased to become a business if you don't try something different lol.

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Emulating? No. Building off of? Yes. And the main problem with other MMOs actually "emulating" WoW they had no true magic to the world and game. There was no breath of life (Like this game has.) Which is why this has been done successfully here.

And Yes, FFXIV "was" rushed. But that does not mean the game still could have been playable. The gameplay was stale, slow and had no direction. The world was bland and expansive to the point of being a chore to walk around. (Whats the point of traveling if theres nothing there to see or do then slay random enemies for exp. when all the shit looks the same.) Tanaka was trying "new and different next Gen MMO" (aka just do leves all day.) It didn't fail due to it being rushed it failed due to its direction.

Wait a tick.

Did anyone actually read his comment? Or am I just reading it wrong?

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He differentiated between the Japanese players who are currently going through what we went through with Vanilla Wow before it became deeper and more complicated.

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Actually vanilla wow was much more complicated than the current wow (but I won't elaborate on that here, this horse has been beaten to death on mmo champion over the years). It was dumbed down right before the release of the WOTLK expansion to yield something near the current wow (which is very similar to FFXIV, except that FFXIV has been even more dumbed down).

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Originally Posted by TheUltimate3

Wait a tick.

Did anyone actually read his comment? Or am I just reading it wrong?

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The TLDR was:

He's saying they have no current plans on changing the game to F2P. However, he is open to the idea if the majority of players requested it. But he would never use it as a last ditch effort simply to try to save the game from shutting down.

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Originally Posted by TheUltimate3

Wait a tick.

Did anyone actually read his comment? Or am I just reading it wrong?

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No, they just saw "F2P" in the title of the thread without a negative connotation and started foaming at the mouth.

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Originally Posted by LlenCoram

He's so disconnected from the userbase it's not even funny...

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Go join PF groups or DF groups for something like Titan Extreme and see what I mean. They probably have a win to wipe ratio and for a lot of fights the win ratio is pretty low. There are tons of wipes even on HM Titan still and extreme is far worse. If you are not going in with static FC groups you will see a lot of wipes on something you could beat 10x in a row in a FC group.

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Originally Posted by Stanelis

Actually vanilla wow was much more complicated than the current wow (but I won't elaborate on that here, this horse has been beaten to death on mmo champion over the years). It was dumbed down right before the release of the WOTLK expansion to yield something near the current wow (which is very similar to FFXIV, except that FFXIV has been even more dumbed down).

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I wasn't specifically refer to the difficulty of content, but rather the evolution of combat. After each expansion, they added new stats such as expertise, hit percent, armor penetration... etc. I think that's what he means. He wants people who've never played MMOS before like Wow (aka Japanese FF players new to mmos) to learn the ropes before he starts going deeper and deeper into the combat and mechanics.

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Originally Posted by Yoshida

We see this desire for players who would rather buy items especially in North America.

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( > . > ;;;

Stop ruining my game, NA!

Just a matter of time before f2p lol...

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Originally Posted by Zell

I wasn't specifically refer to the difficulty of content, but rather the evolution of combat. After each expansion, they added new stats such as expertise, hit percent, armor penetration... etc. I think that's what he means. He wants people who've never played MMOS before like Wow (aka Japanese FF players new to mmos) to learn the ropes before he starts going deeper and deeper into the combat and mechanics.

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I didn't refer to the difficulty of content either. Most of the features you're listing were (only haste and armor pen were added at BC) there from wow vanilla (and are currently being removed from the game/ will be removed at warlords of draenor). Over the years they removed loads of stuff which were deemed too complex in the basic combat game mechanics (such as the defense rating). But it would be too long to go into these details. Most of the complexity went away at the 3.0 patch to yield the curent wow gameplay (which was greatly dumbed down, PVE required much more teamwork before).

I think people are either taking things out of context, overreacting, or not considering every angle. I didn't read anything that was cause for alarm.

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Originally Posted by Laf

Well, SE would start making more money if they add F2P+cashshop. Whiteknights and SE zealots should be happy, no?

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Come on now, they would be happy with either direction.

If FFXIV remains P2P:

"I told ya! In Yoshi we trust!"

If FFXIV goes F2P:

"I'm glad it's going F2P it means S.E will have more money to make the game better."

I've read what he said and I see that he probably understands why some of us dislike F2P, however I don't know how I feel about his last coment about his openness regarding that. The moment this goes F2P (if that ever happens), or starts selling things like vanity or minions for real money (and no, veteran rewards are a gift for paying the sub that covers the whole game, not an extra that you pay specifically), I'm out for good and I won't look back. I know that it wouldn't be a hit for them as F2P attracts a lot of people, but they would lose more than just players in FFXIV: trust in the company as a whole.

I came here partly because it was a FF MMORPG, partly because of the good job that SE did during the last stages of 1.0 and their goodwill by doing what nobody else had done before by redoing and relaunching the game (instead of taking the easier F2P route as everyone else does), and partly because it was P2P without in-game "extras" that you have to pay for if you want to have. If I wanted a F2P game or a cash shop money grabber I would have stayed in another game, to be honest.

As I've said a couple of times before, I'm all good with selling Fantasia, name changes and server transfers, but anything else and I'll seriously reconsider if I'll keep paying for what I would consider an incomplete service. Especially when some of the in-game systems and features revolve precisely around... well... vanity, so it would be limiting and selling content.

Disclaimer: All of the above is my opinion. Feel free to disagree with it if you really like to pay for every little piece of content (F2P), or pay for content that you're already paying for (P2P with cash shops).

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Originally Posted by Nekodar

All he's saying is essentially that if 90% of the players want it to go F2P, he's not going to stand against them. Try reading the other things he said with regards to F2P as well, not only from this interview, but interviews from the past.

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Im aware of the context on what he said and have read most of his later interviews ... the timing with the MT auto-gathering bank slots (a very common F2P "item") just sucks. Its starting to smell of a very bitter, yet familiar stench most of us have experienced at one time or another from the more recent MMO's.

I've been burned enough times by supposed P2P games that this is enough to put my trust on very shaky ground with SE. :\ Not good.

Issue with F2P is they are actually in reality a P2W games, DCUO is a perfect example to that. I understand why people would quit playing the game if it became F2P because of the F2P games I played like DCUO. P2P is a perfect model or just a straight up Singleplayer game because they are straight forward with how you are to proceed in the game.

While it may be exaggeration, these news have left me a bit disheartened. The retainer news are already treading the line on what I'm willing to accept. If worst comes to pass, such as F2P or a full-blown cash shop, I'll simply quit.

That's discouraging. So many people where so adamant about him sticking with p2p so we wouldn't have terrible cash shop crap and the dreaded F2P crowd. Him being freely open to it just seems so backwards.

I just wish they were more clear and direct with their intentions. Not having to rely on "oh, well we never said this exactly." or "we didn't say we wouldn't do this."

It comes off as disingenuous. These past few announcements make the grounds of trust feel a bit less solid. I guess "concerned" is the best way to put it.

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Originally Posted by Kayo

Im aware of the context on what he said and have read most of his later interviews ... the timing with the MT auto-gathering bank slots (a very common F2P "item") just sucks. Its starting to smell of a very bitter, yet familiar stench most of us have experienced at one time or another from the more recent MMO's.

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It's actually possible they just want to incorporate those attractive features, be it originating or commonly found from F2P or not. It's understandable to have that sort of anxiety towards the possible future, but I really wouldn't look too far into it just yet. Paying to get certain non-progressive things (retainers are not progression/power/meaningfully related) is not uncommon practice, even from back during the beginning of the MMO boom.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Paying to get certain non-progressive things (retainers are not progression/power/meaningfully related) is not uncommon practice, even from back during the beginning of the MMO boom.

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That doesn't make it a good practice, either. Where do we draw the line then?

As far as I'm concerned, if I pay monthly to access a service I expect to be able to access it to its fullest, not to pay for it then be told "oh, but if you want to have access to X feature/content you must pay an extra". To use the extra retainer as an example. We've asked many times for more utility to the armoire or for another retainer to put all the items that we get/collect, including those that we can't store in the armoire because it gets enabled in a later patch. I don't see it reasonable to then go and ask us to pay more to get that, especially when they're making us "waste" retainer space until they retroactively enable the armoire functionality on some items. I don't see that very honest, and much less for a P2P game, do you?