What's makes an MMORPG fun? - 4Gamer chats with the Producers of FFXI, FFXIV, and DQX

This was a nice refreshing read. It's nice to see the producers sit and talk casually like that.

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Originally Posted by Ryios

I don't pay 15$ a month for pretty pictures and cool sounds. I pay 15$ a month to have a good time, and I just don't anymore.

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So why do you keep paying for something you don't like?

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Originally Posted by Nekodar

BST, NIN, SAM, DRK and BLU were all added in expansion and were not part of the original release iirc.

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Certainly not the original release, but many NA and EU players fail to realise 'their' releases already included the first full expansion.

I really appreciate the read. It was nice to read that he enjoys his job. It's sad that use players don't share with him how much we love the game. Well I am telling him now. Thanks for providing a great place to chill and make new friends.

Thanks for the post Emilia!

I really feel for YoshiP, he's caught in the middle developing an MMO with a generational divide.

Many like myself, came from and still yearn for those old type MMOs (EQ), they were unforgiving but the unforgivingness gave the game meaning and value. Whereas the younger generation won't stomach the harsh death penalties, the grindy xp and the low drop rate. And I don't think you can have both styles in a single game.

All of my complaints on this game is related to the old play style. I want open world NMs and xp grinding on open world mobs. But if they were to add these the NM drops can't be better then their counterparts or they'd just flipped the game from new to old. If the drop was on par with everything else no one would do it, it's far easier to do join an instance than to chase/camp an NM, wasting development time. And if they were to develop and add open world mobs to xp grind on, again, who would really do them - it's far easier to join an instance dungeon and get the xp than to manually gather a pt, run to the spot start xping and then a member has to leave and need replacing etc etc

Like YoshiP said, you really have to look at it from a developers view. You can't make it like the older games, the players won't pay for it. You really have to balance the game for all types of players, the casual the hardcore and everyone else in between.

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Originally Posted by Ryios

Now I will say this game has great graphics with a fantastic soundtrack. But that stuff is just eye and ear candy, I don't pay 15$ a month for pretty pictures and cool sounds. I pay 15$ a month to have a good time, and I just don't anymore.

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Noticed you failed to mention anything about playing with friends or free company members. No matter how great an MMO is, you'll be miserable playing alone all the time. Half the reason my fc members and I play is just to play together and have a great time. I can make any MMO look horrible by picking out it's faults, but it's an MMO, it's about community and teamwork. And not pointing this to you, but it's also interesting how the majority of people who claim they are bored, are the ones pumping in 12 hours a day. NO game is going to prevent burn-out at that rate.

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Originally Posted by ninesunz

Like YoshiP said, you really have to look at it from a developers view. You can't make it like the older games, the players won't pay for it. You really have to balance the game for all types of players, the casual the hardcore and everyone else in between.

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Indeed, he even said he would like to make every-man-for-himself type of game similar to the early era Ultima Online but it probably wouldn't happen or work ...
He is not making the MMORPG of his dream but something that can cater to "most people" ...

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Originally Posted by ninesunz

You really have to balance the game for all types of players, the casual the hardcore and everyone else in between.

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I hate to say this, but I'd love to see a list of MMO's that tried this and were hits. WoW is by far and large the only exception to the rule. Every game that has attempted to replicate it's formula hasn't lasted long in the Pay to Play market.

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Originally Posted by gadenp

But as Spellbinder mentioned, The way many people write feedback nowadays (not you, I like the polite and non-insulting way you responded to the issue in my post, not towards me) is quite negative and does not come across as constructive.

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A good developer will learn to divorce their feelings and glean the actual constructive bits out of a hostile message. Like Saito says (and obviously gets) - people get worked up and upset because they care. If people didn't care, they'd just bail. Not all people are good at eloquently and rationally laying out their grievances, they just get pissed because they perceive the thing they loved as going south.

Blizzard is awful at this. Trion used to be good at this but lost that spark recently. But from what I've seen of Square Enix at least w.r.t. FF14, they've got it. I hope they keep it - it really makes me happy to play the game.

This was a really good read, thanks for taking the time to translate it. It's nice to see the developer's intimate point of view on the games they make.

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Originally Posted by 3Jane

Quite the opposite. The people who stood by FFXIV 1.0 from launch instead of walking away as many of you did and watched it grow into the wonderful game it grew into by 1.23, are simply showing their concern for a game they had such a high regard for and want to see it survive and prosper. It is not, certainly on my own part anyway, simply complaining from my own partisan position as regards game contend and overall development.
He would do well to pay attention to criticism, not to pander to every personal preference but just to listen to people.

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I think the 500,000 unique daily logins compared to the 40,000 some odd people there were before the game shut down speaks to how well this game turned around. I'm pretty sure the dev team knew not everyone would like all of the changes, but what they did was the best long-term solution for the game in today's market.