Opinion: The Development Team should revert to Q&A for Livestreams

Yes. Q&A needs to come back.

It was the only time when it felt like the devs were listening.

Not to be contrarian but did they ever actually do Q&A? All I remember them ever doing was picking the most uninformative and superficial posts they could find and selectively answering them all to give at little actual information as possible. I don’t think they’ve ever taken genuine questions from people, because if they did they’d be immediately be inundated with ‘wtf are you doing to this game’ lol

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Originally Posted by Connor

Not to be contrarian but did they ever actually do Q&A? All I remember them ever doing was picking the most uninformative and superficial posts they could find and selectively answering them all to give at little actual information as possible. I don’t think they’ve ever taken genuine questions from people, because if they did they’d be immediately be inundated with ‘wtf are you doing to this game’ lol

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You're not wrong but there has been instances where they did, notably that infamous moment in late SB when Yoshi was asked "what they planned to do with white mage because the job fucking sucks". I think that's close enough to what the question was and it was quite legendary.

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Originally Posted by Connor

Not to be contrarian but did they ever actually do Q&A? All I remember them ever doing was picking the most uninformative and superficial posts they could find and selectively answering them all to give at little actual information as possible. I don’t think they’ve ever taken genuine questions from people, because if they did they’d be immediately be inundated with ‘wtf are you doing to this game’

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They obviously vet the questions and they should. Because some of them are uninformed, poorly worded or don't fully articulate the issue. Most people are not good at explaining their problem in the correct words, so they say things they don't actually mean and that aren't technically correct.

That's why people often think I disagree with them; I just don't agree with the specific way they described or articulated it, but probably agree with what is driving them to write it.

They tend to allow journalists and content creators to say what they want. Yoshi-P tells them nothing is off limits and they can even ask him personal questions. That's because usually these individuals will present their questions with more maturity.

Maturity, give me a break.
They're too scared to be even remotely confrontational and the all too rare unicorns that do are such a breath of fresh air when it happens...

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Originally Posted by Valence

Maturity, give me a break.
They're too scared to be even remotely confrontational and the all too rare unicorns that do are such a breath of fresh air when it happens...

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They may want to be polite and not confrontational, sure. I don't think they're afraid to ask tough questions though. I think the issue is that many journalists just do stuff like:

• MSQ, latest dungeon or alliance raid
• Glam
• Gold Saucer, Island Sanctuary, seasonal events

So they can only ask him about the most casual topics and lack understanding of issues people on the forums have. The rarity kinda reflects how rare it is for an interviewer to play the game the way people on the forums do.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

They may want to be polite and not confrontational, sure. I don't think they're afraid to ask tough questions though. I think the issue is that many journalists just do stuff like:

• MSQ, latest dungeon or alliance raid
• Glam
• Gold Saucer, Island Sanctuary, seasonal events

So they can only ask him about the most casual topics and lack understanding of issues people on the forums have. The rarity kinda reflects how rare it is for an interviewer to play the game the way people on the forums do.

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They clearly ARE afraid to answer tough questions. The only thing Ive seen them be remotely honest and straightforward about the issues of the game is when the login ques were enormous.
"Please look forward to it" the term ring any bells? Its his PR answer to everything from multi-year QoL Viera hats and chat bubbles

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Originally Posted by Hallarem

They clearly ARE afraid to answer tough questions. The only thing Ive seen them be remotely honest and straightforward about the issues of the game is when the login ques were enormous.

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I've seen him be honest and straight forward lots of times. It's hard to dig up all his lodestone posts, but you can read through his forum post history.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I've seen him be honest and straight forward lots of times. It's hard to dig up all his lodestone posts, but you can read through his forum post history.

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Its easy to be honest and straightforward about most of the things they answer. Nitpicking the easy enough questions. Most of the time we need to get a frigging second hand dubious answer at best. Because some streamer asks at a fanfest "why is your friendlist so outdated?"

They really need to be put on the fire. Again I am arguing big picture here. Lets not cling onto percentages when Yoshi P spoke the truth or not.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I've seen him be honest and straight forward lots of times. It's hard to dig up all his lodestone posts, but you can read through his forum post history.

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No I do agree, Yoshida has often been appreciated for his candor and honesty about things.
The problems start creeping in not when they do acknowledge issues, but when the on reply is either "please look forward to it" or "choto, choto, it's too hard, but we'll think about it". The candor stops halfway through before actual plans and solutions are brought up.

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Originally Posted by HyperiusUltima

The reason why you've lost the playerbase's trust

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Gonna have to stop you rrrriiiiiggggghhhhhtttt there chief.

First of all, the people you are addressing:

Do. Not. Read. These. Forums.

I don't know how 20 years of MMO devs absolutely ignoring the hell out of their general forums has somehow not become common knowledge, but every DAY someone's in here addressing the devs like they expect it to do something.

Secondly, and this more applies to your "reason you lost trust" bit there:


They do NOT CARE about losing your "trust", bro. Not even a teeny tiny (toy) bit. Nope. No sir, no way no how, not an erg, not a speck, not the smallest quark of care do they give for your "trust", so let's have a stop on that nonsense.

They care about losing your MONEY. If youre still giving it to them, they have what they want.

I'll say it again, because it cant be said enough:

No MMO Dev is ever, EVER going to care about what you want past the point of money transfer. Even the ones who in ancient days made a little show of "humility" and addressed "the community" (whatever thats supposed to mean) about how "they're sorry" and aaaallll the other greatest hits only did that performative nonsense because their bosses said to.

You are a *payer*. You are not a decider. You're not a shareholder. You're not a financial investor. The developers DO NOT REPORT TO YOU. These... egotistical nonsense threads where people uselessly try to @ the devs to "have a conversation" are wasting time and energy on something no one who could help would ever care to read.

You. Pass. Butter. That's your function. That's what you do. You either pay or you don't, thats the sole choice you get to make. No really. That's it. Fear it, deny it, dread it, it's the truth all the same.

If they're doing something you *really* cant stand, then you revoke your money. Send the only message they care about. But do it with some dignity.

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Originally Posted by klu

Gonna have to stop you rrrriiiiiggggghhhhhtttt there chief.

First of all, the people you are addressing:

Do. Not. Read. These. Forums.

I don't know how 20 years of MMO devs absolutely ignoring the hell out of their general forums has somehow not become common knowledge, but every DAY someone's in here addressing the devs like they expect it to do something.

Secondly, and this more applies to your "reason you lost trust" bit there:


They do NOT CARE about losing your "trust", bro. Not even a teeny tiny (toy) bit. Nope. No sir, no way no how, not an erg, not a speck, not the smallest quark of care do they give for your "trust", so let's have a stop on that nonsense.

They care about losing your MONEY. If youre still giving it to them, they have what they want.

I'll say it again, because it cant be said enough:

No MMO Dev is ever, EVER going to care about what you want past the point of money transfer. Even the ones who in ancient days made a little show of "humility" and addressed "the community" (whatever thats supposed to mean) about how "they're sorry" and aaaallll the other greatest hits only did that performative nonsense because their bosses said to.

You are a *payer*. You are not a decider. You're not a shareholder. You're not a financial investor. The developers DO NOT REPORT TO YOU. These... egotistical nonsense threads where people uselessly try to @ the devs to "have a conversation" are wasting time and energy on something no one who could help would ever care to read.

You. Pass. Butter. That's your function. That's what you do. You either pay or you don't, thats the sole choice you get to make. No really. That's it. Fear it, deny it, dread it, it's the truth all the same.

If they're doing something you *really* cant stand, then you revoke your money. Send the only message they care about. But do it with some dignity.

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That was a lot, Robin.

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Originally Posted by ty_taurus

That was a lot, Robin.

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It always is, Batman.

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Originally Posted by Valence

No I do agree, Yoshida has often been appreciated for his candor and honesty about things.
The problems start creeping in not when they do acknowledge issues, but when the on reply is either "please look forward to it" or "choto, choto, it's too hard, but we'll think about it". The candor stops halfway through before actual plans and solutions are brought up.

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I'm not sure why people are clinging to the "please look forward to it" phrase so much. That's usually used in reference to new or upcoming features or implementations, and I believe it's meant sincerely because from their perspective it is a patch they have worked hard on making textures, models, environments, etc. They are doing a small preview of what is upcoming to get people wondering "what will it be like" and then that phrase is meant to be a natural follow on from that. If it's used in reference to something that should have been done ages ago, it's probably just out of habit given they've done it for over a decade now. Using that phrase doesn't mean they can't also give explanations for why it took so long or apologize for it taking years.

I think the bigger issue isn't that phrase but rather what gets delivered itself and whether it is satisfactory ie. FT issues, aggressive enemies rarely attacking in OC or being a threat, overlooked story issues, etc.

And they did apologize for the FT issues and gave a lot of explanation in the LL. I didn't see this phrase used for hats. What they specifically said about hats was:

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"I really wanted to make holes in all of them" (for the ears)
"Because it's difficult"
"It's possible, but the implementation is getting delayed"
"I don't like the idea of looking like I'm piercing through something when I'm wearing this equipment."
"It applies to some headgear, but, well, the ability to show or hide ears will now be supported."

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And examples were given where if the design was adjusted for ears being tucked inside, the design of the hat itself would fall apart, and explained how players may want to choose between it accounting for ears in different ways. So you can see that in the end, trying to adjust all hats to not clip was a bigger burden than they thought that is still only half finished, so they just went ahead with this solution instead.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I'm not sure why people are clinging to the "please look forward to it" phrase so much. That's usually used in reference to new or upcoming features or implementations, and I believe it's meant sincerely because from their perspective it is a patch they have worked hard on making textures, models, environments, etc. They are doing a small preview of what is upcoming to get people wondering "what will it be like" and then that phrase is meant to be a natural follow on from that. If it's used in reference to something that should have been done ages ago, it's probably just out of habit given they've done it for over a decade now. Using that phrase doesn't mean they can't also give explanations for why it took so long or apologize for it taking years.

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It's just a common thing for a japanese business to say that became a meme here because it was said so often, and because it's generally weird to always say the same phrase in english unless it's meant to be a catchphrase.

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Originally Posted by klu

Gonna have to stop you rrrriiiiiggggghhhhhtttt there chief.

First of all, the people you are addressing:

Do. Not. Read. These. Forums.

I don't know how 20 years of MMO devs absolutely ignoring the hell out of their general forums has somehow not become common knowledge, but every DAY someone's in here addressing the devs like they expect it to do something.

Secondly, and this more applies to your "reason you lost trust" bit there:


They do NOT CARE about losing your "trust", bro. Not even a teeny tiny (toy) bit. Nope. No sir, no way no how, not an erg, not a speck, not the smallest quark of care do they give for your "trust", so let's have a stop on that nonsense.

They care about losing your MONEY. If youre still giving it to them, they have what they want.

I'll say it again, because it cant be said enough:

No MMO Dev is ever, EVER going to care about what you want past the point of money transfer. Even the ones who in ancient days made a little show of "humility" and addressed "the community" (whatever thats supposed to mean) about how "they're sorry" and aaaallll the other greatest hits only did that performative nonsense because their bosses said to.

You are a *payer*. You are not a decider. You're not a shareholder. You're not a financial investor. The developers DO NOT REPORT TO YOU. These... egotistical nonsense threads where people uselessly try to @ the devs to "have a conversation" are wasting time and energy on something no one who could help would ever care to read.

You. Pass. Butter. That's your function. That's what you do. You either pay or you don't, thats the sole choice you get to make. No really. That's it. Fear it, deny it, dread it, it's the truth all the same.

If they're doing something you *really* cant stand, then you revoke your money. Send the only message they care about. But do it with some dignity.

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Fun fact:
In the Japanese forums, if you point out facts like this on the official forums, your post gets "deleted." What does this mean? Do the devs actually read the forums? Or is someone tasked with forum management deleting posts on their own judgment? At the very least, if you write "you revoke your money. Send the only message they care about" in Japanese on the Japanese forums, it will definitely get deleted by administrator privileges. In another example, a post that simply said "Acknowledge your responsibility of graphics update's consequences and revise it" was deleted. There were no insults or harsh language in it whatsoever. In that sense, the English forums still have some freedom of speech, though that's a separate matter from whether the content of English forum posts actually reaches the devs...Probably they simply do not read all of English forums.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I'm not sure why people are clinging to the "please look forward to it" phrase so much. That's usually used in reference to new or upcoming features or implementations, and I believe it's meant sincerely because from their perspective it is a patch they have worked hard on making textures, models, environments, etc. They are doing a small preview of what is upcoming to get people wondering "what will it be like" and then that phrase is meant to be a natural follow on from that. If it's used in reference to something that should have been done ages ago, it's probably just out of habit given they've done it for over a decade now. Using that phrase doesn't mean they can't also give explanations for why it took so long or apologize for it taking years.

I think the bigger issue isn't that phrase but rather what gets delivered itself and whether it is satisfactory ie. FT issues, aggressive enemies rarely attacking in OC or being a threat, overlooked story issues, etc.

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It's less about the phrase and more about the attitude. Just forget the phrase, it's about the lack of solutions after acknowledgment. We only get acknowledgment and excuses, which is appreciated, but we're always left wanting for actual directions.