New Letter from the Producer, XII

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Originally Posted by Cyan

Your statement seems to suggest that you didn't read what I said.
My advice was that I can understand that they are running a few weeks behind, why can't you?

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They are running years behind now and they cannot catch up if they keep delaying basic things.

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Originally Posted by giftforce

You will walk onto the platform and it will say: "take airship to Gridania?"

After clicking yes, you will be teleported to Gridania.

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Ride ze shoopuf? I sorry, I just had to... ;)

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Originally Posted by giftforce

It is what will happen.

Yoshi said so, but everyone chooses to imagine something better, setting themselves up for disappointment.

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Again you instigate something that is entirely untrue. He didn't say exactly how the system would work. This is the exact quote:

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Originally Posted by Yoshida

引き続き活発なディスカッションありがとうございます。
飛空艇についてはご期待も色々あると思いますが、まずは移動問題解消を優先し、
実装コストを考えて、専用MAPがあって長時間の空の旅をお楽しみ頂く…というような仕様にはなりません。
突発的に発生するイベントなりが存在しないと、あまり面白くはないだろうと思っているからです。
いずれ拡張はしていきますが、まずは移動対応を優先、とお考えください（演出はつけます＾＾；）。
Thanks for continuing the discussion on this topic.
Regarding the airship, I understand everyone has different expectations but for now want to resolve the traveling issue first and looking at cost, it wont be where it has it's own map and long time to enjoy the adventure in the skies.
I think it would be more interesting if it had events that suddenly happens and stuff.
Please think of this as something to make traveling easier for now; in time we will add more/upgrade to this (Will add effect/animation^^; ).

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1. Airship Travel will not take a long time - does not mean it's zone in/zone out
2. Airship Travel will not have its own map, meaning it wont be instanced like XI was - does not mean it's zone in/zone out
3. He wants random airship events which would be impossible if it was just "zone in/zone out"
4. They are adding effect/animations down the line probably entering the airship animation like when you get on a boat - does not mean zone in/zone out

If they are more focused on other priorities like, oh I dunno, reformatting the entire battle system, adding dungeons, working on new jobs and a whole handful of other things then having it pushed back to 1.19 is not so far fetched. I'd honestly love to know when you became the best game designer in the known universe. Maybe you should go work for SQEX and speed up their process all knowing master. /kneel

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Originally Posted by Richard

Again you instigate something that is entirely untrue. He didn't say exactly how the system would work. This is the exact quote:



1. Airship Travel will not take a long time - does not mean it's zone in/zone out
2. Airship Travel will not have its own map, meaning it wont be instanced like XI was - does not mean it's zone in/zone out
3. He wants random airship events which would be impossible if it was just "zone in/zone out"
4. They are adding effect/animations down the line probably entering the airship animation like when you get on a boat - does not mean zone in/zone out

If they are more focused on other priorities like, oh I dunno, reformatting the entire battle system, adding dungeons, working on new jobs and a whole handful of other things then having it pushed back to 1.19 is not so far fetched. I'd honestly love to know when you became the best game designer in the known universe. Maybe you should go work for SQEX and speed up their process all knowing master. /kneel

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1.19 will have the system I explained earlier, and then they will build the actual system at a later date. The one they want to build.

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Originally Posted by giftforce

1.19 will have the system I explained earlier, and then they will build the actual system at a later date. The one they want to build.

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When Yoshida confirms it then you may bask in your own glory. Until then way to dodge the entire logical deconstruction given back to you.

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Originally Posted by Richard

When Yoshida confirms it then you may bask in your own glory. Until then way to dodge the entire logical deconstruction given back to you.

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Okay, just remember this post.

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Originally Posted by Cendres

Sing it, SING IT!!!!! Because some people don't seem to be reading the same thing we are or they will never be happy until soloing is not allowed and everyone is forced to party together or die a most gruesome death every time they step foot outside every major city.

Adding content for all kinds of people and playstyles is a GOOD thing. For once I can say that Yoshi is right on with this.

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Agreed!!!

We can sing it now, and when they put bard in the game cause it's comin!

o/` o/` o/`

Ok, ok.. tl;iwria. TOO LONG; I WILL READ IT AGAIN!

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Originally Posted by giftforce

They are running years behind now and they cannot catch up if they keep delaying basic things.

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Oh, totally. I mean, pfft, earthquakes.

As of right now trying to appease multiple play styles has just made the game a bland boring mush. So until I have some proof no I won't be happy that appeasing casual/solo people, WHEN THEY DONT ADD ANYTHING ABOUT PARTYING except its being diminished. What if they were like "soloing will get less exp and partiers will get more and a bonus" solo/casual would be just as mad. Jesus christ its effing logic.

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Originally Posted by Ashthra

Oh, totally. I mean, pfft, earthquakes.

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That report was due this morning!
But sir, I cant swim through tsunami waters...

Excuses excuses!

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Originally Posted by TheVedis

That report was due this morning!
But sir, I cant swim through radioactive tsunami waters...

Excuses excuses!

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Fix'd
/10ch

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Originally Posted by zaviermhigo

As of right now trying to appease multiple play styles has just made the game a bland boring mush. So until I have some proof no I won't be happy that appeasing casual/solo people, WHEN THEY DONT ADD ANYTHING ABOUT PARTYING except its being diminished. What if they were like "soloing will get less exp and partiers will get more and a bonus" solo/casual would be just as mad. Jesus christ is effing logic.

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It was the first producers letter of about 3 they are doing before the patch. They already confirmed through the Devs they are adding an XP chain system similar to FFXI so this should put some logical ideas in your mind.

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Originally Posted by zaviermhigo

As of right now trying to appease multiple play styles has just made the game a bland boring mush. So until I have some proof no I won't be happy that appeasing casual/solo people, WHEN THEY DONT ADD ANYTHING ABOUT PARTYING except its being diminished. What if they were like "soloing will get less exp and partiers will get more and a bonus" solo/casual would be just as mad. Jesus christ is effing logic.

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Except that's not what is being said. Read it again? Group play is getting raids, tribe beastmen, quests? Behest is being reworked. And you're NOT happy? lol.... Crafting jobs only got a brief mention too, should we all be up in arms about it because we didn't get any more details?

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Originally Posted by zaviermhigo

As of right now trying to appease multiple play styles has just made the game a bland boring mush. So until I have some proof no I won't be happy that appeasing casual/solo people, WHEN THEY DONT ADD ANYTHING ABOUT PARTYING except its being diminished. What if they were like "soloing will get less exp and partiers will get more and a bonus" solo/casual would be just as mad. Jesus christ is effing logic.

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Appeasing multiple playstyles? What are they appeasing right now? The "I <3 killing raptors/eft/coblyns until my eyes bleed" crowd, the "I like to run around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to find mobs my level to kill" crowd, or the, "I like to purposely get around set mechanics because I don't want to be in the former crowds" crowd? I mean, honestly.

Also, they're adding dungeons. Remember those? The ones that require 4/8 people to enter, and the higher level one of which has been suggested/hoped to faceroll the unprepared? I mean, it sucks that they're nerfing your set way to effectively exploit an incredibly broken sys -- er, I mean, gain levels in the most efficient manner possible, but 1) they're not removing your "Invite to Party" button, and 2) you can still do the exact same thing as you're doing now, if you want; you just might get 1 1/2 levels per reset instead of 2, when the soloist is going to be getting a quarter of that. Your life sucks now. I'm sorry to inform you of this.

And anyway, we already did the, "Soloing will get less exp" thing. That was called the first seven years of FFXI, and currently, FFXIV after about level 30-ish if you choose not to levefail your way to proverbial greatness. But hey, logic isn't for everyone, right?

...Right?

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Originally Posted by zaviermhigo

As of right now trying to appease multiple play styles has just made the game a bland boring mush. So until I have some proof no I won't be happy that appeasing casual/solo people, WHEN THEY DONT ADD ANYTHING ABOUT PARTYING except its being diminished. What if they were like "soloing will get less exp and partiers will get more and a bonus" solo/casual would be just as mad. Jesus christ is effing logic.

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You sound casual-phobic.

By the way, what made this game bland and boring is that it released with no direction or content whatsoever. Nothing to do with casual vs hardcore.

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Originally Posted by Ashthra

Appeasing multiple playstyles? What are they appeasing right now? The "I <3 killing raptors/eft/coblyns until my eyes bleed" crowd, the "I like to run around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to find mobs my level to kill" crowd, or the, "I like to purposely get around set mechanics because I don't want to be in the former crowds" crowd? I mean, honestly.

Also, they're adding dungeons. Remember those? The ones that require 4/8 people to enter, and the higher level one of which has been suggested/hoped to faceroll the unprepared? I mean, it sucks that they're nerfing your set way to effectively exploit an incredibly broken sys -- er, I mean, gain levels in the most efficient manner possible, but 1) they're not removing your "Invite to Party" button, and 2) you can still do the exact same thing as you're doing now, if you want; you just might get 1 1/2 levels per reset instead of 2, when the soloist is going to be getting a quarter of that. Your life sucks now. I'm sorry to inform you of this.

And anyway, we already did the, "Soloing will get less exp" thing. That was called the first seven years of FFXI, and currently, FFXIV after about level 30-ish if you choose not to levefail your way to proverbial greatness. But hey, logic isn't for everyone, right?

...Right?

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All you're boiling down to is "moawr unique content"... which is frankly a stupid stance to take because, that's the holy grail of everything. And completely unachievable.

Anything is going to get boring if you run it 20 times a week, and 4 months for a drip more, whether is running around mindlessly slaughtering, or running like a circle through an instance dungeon (300 instance runs, let's go for another!)

IT DOESN'T MATTER!

This is the whole reason that all these things are being rethought. It has to be realistic in the end that no developer can keep you from getting bored if you're not willing to repeat.

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...専用MAPがあって長時間の空の旅をお楽しみ頂く…というような仕様にはなりません...

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...I understand everyone has different expectations but for now want to resolve the traveling issue first and looking at cost, it wont be where it has it's own map and long time to enjoy the adventure in the skies...

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who translated this :mad: cause it looks like google did... naga jikan no sora no tabi wo otanoshimi itadaku... 'the down-time of the trip is yours to enjoy.' No idea where they found the negative modifier-- unless it was google, then it probably saw the narimasen and flip-flopped everything >:|

also, naka jikan doesn't necessarily mean a long-time, it more commonly refers to a length of time :confused:


EDIT:
Literal -- 'the time of air-travel (length of time of air of travel) enjoyment <you can have this>'

I am excited, but I wanted to hear more news on DOL.

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Originally Posted by Fuzball

who translated this :mad: cause it looks like google did... naga jikan no sora no tabi wo otanoshimi itadaku... 'the down-time of the trip is yours to enjoy.' No idea where they found the negative modifier-- unless it was google, then it probably saw the narimasen and flip-flopped everything >:|

also, naka jikan doesn't necessarily mean a long-time, it more commonly refers to a length of time :confused:

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if your translation is an even more accurate portrayal of what they have planned then gifthorse will have an even larger foot in his mouth come 1.19.

What really grinds my gears is that Yoshi and crew aren't even doing anything besides undoing all the work of the previous developers.

They think FFXIV started off on the wrong path and so are destroying the armory system, physical levels, player run companies, etc. All in favour of what?

What are they giving us that is so great? I think they have some good ideas, but nothing Tanaka couldnt have given us. All theyve done is waste 9 months of our time, if you ask me.

Further to the point, they are weak-minded individuals now with no sense of artistic authority. They take absolutely no ownership of the game and instead seek to appeal to the whims of the majority, which they deduce from answers to the leading questions from the polls.

When it suits them!

They'll listen when they want, and then ignore when it pleases them.

They are adding autoattack and quest hubs because "that is what WoW does". Autoattack and questhubs aren't a standard anymore! Look at Guild Wars 2 and ArcheAge and TERA and Blade and Soul. They may have one or the other, but both is not a necessity.

SE pretends it knows the genre, but it doesn't. They are trying to "standardise" FFXIV but are looking at the wrong game to set the standard. WoW is old news.

FFXIV is a next generation game, people! Don't add auto attack and quest hubs and think that solves the problem. GW2, TERA, and B&S will blow your crappy old-school game out of the water if you continue down this route.

If SE think they took the wrong path when they started development, gosh, then where the hell do they think they're going now? Certainly not the right path, Ill tell you that much! Tanaka had the right idea with player-run companies and ships, because these things were novel features that many games CURRENTLY DO NOT OFFER.

FFXIV cannot expect to win favour by offering nothing new. Am I the only one that sees it!?

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They think FFXIV started off on the wrong path and so are destroying the armory system, physical levels, player run companies, etc. All in favour of what?

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Rebuilding the core systems of the game so it wont fail at PS3 release? They didn't destroy the armory system; its still there and isn't going away. Physical levels were never needed. Player run companies are still in the works for a later date after the rebuilding of core systems which has already been confirmed.

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They are adding autoattack and quest hubs because "that is what WoW does". Autoattack and questhubs aren't a standard anymore! Look at Guild Wars 2 and ArcheAge and TERA and Blade and Soul. They may have one or the other, but both is not a necessity.

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Hack and Slash battle doesn't work with their gamestyle or engine. This has already been discussed a million times. Dunno if you've played TERA or not but the game is based on quest hubs. There are also quest hubs in GW2. Do a little more research before you spout more trolls.

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FFXIV cannot expect to win favour by offering nothing new. Am I the only one that sees it!?

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You are the only one that constantly trolls the same points over and over again because SE won't design the game that you would like. Yes, you are in fact the only one that sees it.

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Originally Posted by Richard

Rebuilding the core systems of the game so it wont fail at PS3 release? They didn't destroy the armory system; its still there and isn't going away. Physical levels were never needed. Player run companies are still in the works for a later date after the rebuilding of core systems which has already been confirmed.



Hack and Slash battle doesn't work with their gamestyle or engine. This has already been discussed a million times.



You are the only one that constantly trolls the same points over and over again because SE won't design the game that you would like. Yes, you are in fact the only one that sees it.

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You're all just blind, meek, sheep. The lot of you. Digesting and regurgitating anything SE gives you.

Everything you just told me (publicity talk) I could have read in an interview.

Tanaka's team gave us a mangled game with monumentally bad design flaws, poorly implemented features, multiple core problems, and zero direction. All of his "novel features" were thrown right back into his face because they were so so s***ty.

Yoshida understands what makes MMOs work, and even if he won't be making the next hallmark MMO, at least he'll turn this s*** ship around.

FFXIV at launch was next generation coaster and toilet paper.

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Originally Posted by giftforce

You're all just blind, meek, sheep. The lot of you. Digesting and regurgitating anything SE gives you.

Everything you just told me (publicity talk) I could have read in an interview.

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lol poor gifthorse.

I believe 99% of people who look at FF14 will be of similar opinion in the Tanaka era FF14.

Everything should be rightly "retracted".

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Originally Posted by Wolfie

Tanaka's team gave us a mangled game with monumentally bad design flaws, poorly implemented features, multiple core problems, and zero direction. All of his "novel features" were thrown right back into his face because they were so so s***ty.

Yoshida understands what makes MMOs work, and even if he won't be making the next hallmark MMO, at least he'll turn this s*** ship around.

FFXIV at launch was next generation coaster and toilet paper.

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And autoattack and questhubs are the future of MMOs? Do me a favour and make sense.

For all his failings, at least Tanaka was trying to offer something new. Yoshi doesn't know the meaning of imagination. Everything is just a plagiarism of WoW and EQ. He might as well have said so himself in the interview.

This is not the future of MMO gaming.

Every other upcoming MMO offers so much more than FFXIV is about to start offering, and they did it all without actually plagiarising WoW. Yoshi needs to wake the hell up and realise everything he suggests (steals from WoW) isn't worth implementation.

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Originally Posted by kukurumei

I believe 99% of people who look at FF14 will be of similar opinion in the Tanaka era FF14.

Everything should be rightly "retracted".

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Agreed. Tanaka was the cancerous tumor slowly killing this game off. He gets put on the back burner and things are starting to finally prosper.

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And autoattack and questhubs are the future of MMOs? Do me a favour and make sense.

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The future of MMOs is obviously what you say it is. You should design your own and I'm sure you'll have a larger sub base than WoW.

Tanaka just needs to make another CoP (pre-nerfs and uncaps) like expansion. He's good at making fun/difficult content! ^-^

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Originally Posted by giftforce

And autoattack and questhubs are the future of MMOs? Do me a favour and make sense.

For all his failings, at least Tanaka was trying to offer something new. Yoshi doesn't know the meaning of imagination. Everything is just a plagiarism of WoW and EQ. He might as well have said so himself in the interview.

This is not the future of MMO gaming.

Every other upcoming MMO offers so much more than FFXIV is about to start offering, and they did it all without actually plagiarising WoW. Yoshi needs to wake the hell up and realise everything he suggests (steals from WoW) isn't worth implementation.

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Please enlighten me as to how Tanaka's original direction, if any, was good.

Yoshida is adding things that have become standards in MMOs, that this one was completely lacking. It STILL lacks dozens of things that are standard in MMOs.

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Originally Posted by Fuzball

who translated this :mad: cause it looks like google did... naga jikan no sora no tabi wo otanoshimi itadaku... 'the down-time of the trip is yours to enjoy.' No idea where they found the negative modifier-- unless it was google, then it probably saw the narimasen and flip-flopped everything >:|

also, naka jikan doesn't necessarily mean a long-time, it more commonly refers to a length of time :confused:


EDIT:
Literal -- 'the time of air-travel (length of time of air of travel) enjoyment <you can have this>'

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You know Japanese? I translated this. You just translated SECTION of the the whole sentence.

Example: I ate a hamburger, but I didn't like it - you just took the part "I ate a hamburger" and assumed that person likes it.

Senyou Map-ga atte choujikan no sora no tabi wo otanoshimi itadaku... to iu youna shiyou niha narimasen.
Enjoying the long travel in the skies... it's not that way

Don't mislead people with crap like that, learn that Japanese language sentence structure is different from English.

というような仕様にはなりません - It doesn't become a specification. (From Excite Translator: http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/)

Here try the whole sentence in Japanese into that excite translator:

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There is exclusive use MAP and it doesn't become a specification said that it will enjoy air travel for a long time.

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Had to reply to this one, kind of ticked me off...


ALSO it's not NAKA JIKAN, learn to read the JP right if you going to say someone is wrong.
It's CHOU JIKAN - LONG TIME.

The thing, gift, isn't that they're trying to offer nothing new -- it's that they're trying to put in things that everyone else has. Do you think they're going to entice players with OMFGNEWSTUFFSZZLIKEWTFDUDES!!!1! without having a battle system that works? Or mail? Or transportation beyond running? Or...you know, anything at all?

The OMFGNEWSTUFF that Tanaka added was unfinished donkey crap. Maybe it could've been good, but not only was it NOT good, everything else that comes standard with every other modern MMO was left out at the expense of this OMFGNEWSTUFF that wasn't even finished properly. You want the game to flounder around even more so we can get the OMFGNEWSTUFF that probably won't ever work "working"? "Hey, guys, we know these systems are crap, but we're intent on seeing it through and making it the shiniest, most rosy-smelling crap you guys have ever seen!" Oh yeah, you're really winning people over now, yes sir.

Afraid that in tearing Tanaka's poor unfinished dream down that they're turning the game into a generic copypasta of WoW and/or FFXI? Well, those are successful. Guess what isn't? FFXIV.

Bring on the bulldozers.

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Originally Posted by Reinheart

You know Japanese? I translated this. You just translated SECTION of the the whole sentence.

Example: I ate a hamburger, but I didn't like it - you just took the part "I ate a hamburger" and assumed that person likes it.

Senyou Map-ga atte choujikan no sora no tabi wo otanoshimi itadaku... to iu youna shiyou niha narimasen.
Enjoying the long travel in the skies... it's not that way

Don't mislead people with crap like that, learn that Japanese language sentence structure is different from English.

というような仕様にはなりません - It doesn't become a specification. (From Excite Translator: http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/)

Had to reply to this one, kind of ticked me off...

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Reinheart to the rescue!

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Originally Posted by Wolfie

Please enlighten me as to how Tanaka's original direction, if any, was good.

Yoshida is adding things that have become standards in MMOs, that this one was completely lacking. It STILL lacks dozens of things that are standard in MMOs.

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Proving that Tanaka was bad doesn't make Yoshi good.

One redeeming feature of Tanaka, however, was that he actually took ownership of the game and, under his leadership, the development team still put forth ideas that helped further the genre; tHe armory and crafting systems, for example, and player run companies, etc.

And what does Yoshi give us? The promise of auto attack and quest hubs. These aren't freaking standards anymore!

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Originally Posted by giftforce

Prosper? I've seen nothing but systematic destruction of the MMO Yoshi was supposedly put in charge to help save.

Job system? LOL. Wrong game yoshi you fool. At least make it work within the confines of the armory system instead of replacing it!

Who put these ignoramuses in charge?

They don't even have the courage to delete the armory system that they obviously hate so much. They hear some people want jobs so they try to fit an incompatible system on top of another.

You want to hear about mangling an MMO, look no further than Yoshi P.

Im not saying Tanaka is good. Im saying Yoshi has no freakin idea.

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/comfort =/ I feel so bad for you lol

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Originally Posted by giftforce

Proving that Tanaka was bad doesn't make Yoshi good.

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Your argument was that Yoshi is bad for the game. I countered that saying that he's adding in features to the game that have become genre standard. Your counter argument to that is that Tanaka was an innovator and his novel ideas were good for the game and/or genre. I'm asking you to back up those claims.

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One redeeming feature of Tanaka, however, was that he actually took ownership of the game

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Irrelevant. Being a director and/or producer means nothing in terms of innovation or the good of the game/genre.

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and, under his leadership, the development team still put forth ideas that helped further the genre; tHe armory

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The armor system has been bashed up and down by everyone because it creates homogeneous, bland classes. It's impossible to create any sort of class distinction in it, when its basic premise is that you can equip abilities from any class unto any class. To create distinction, you need to have abilities that are unequippable by other classes -- which is going in the opposite direction of the armory system.

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and crafting systems

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Also has been bashed up and down because of the monotony involved with crafting, the ridiculous interdependency between crafting jobs, stupidly rigid recipes, and the fact that crafting classes are considered viable main classes (meaning that all main story line quests or content that the devs want everyone to see need to be easy boring snoozefests).

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for example, and player run companies, etc.

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You mean, guilds? Whooo boy, really innovative here.

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And what does Yoshi give us? The promise of auto attack and quest hubs. These aren't freaking standards anymore!

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Yes they are.

Isn't everything a recreation of something of the past, but with better technology? Nothing is really "new" in MMOs for the past decade. It's just executed correctly and simple minds are intellectually incapable of knowing it's a remodel. That doesn't make it horrible though. It's just going to come down to how it is presented.

Many of Tanaka's visions (which were not totally of his own btw) were all recreations of crap that's been done before. The execution was tremendously off, and our TL;DR and ADD gamer generation, if you don't stick to your base in the first two weeks... you're done. Years of development and a failed launch was enough to push to demote him. Plenty.

If the PS3 version is a dud and the revision of FFXIV is unsuccessful, not only will this game be cut off, so will Yoshida. This is as fair as what happened to the previous director.

Wow, long thread! I was feeling kind of pessimistic about this game, but this letter gave me a little hope. I am happy to see that the devs understand how, um, disliked the whole leve-based leveling thing is by many people. ;)

And getting people into other cities by making marks for each class only available in the city with the guild is a really neat idea! I do have a small worry about that though when it comes to gathering classes. As a miner, I find that different regions tend to have an abundance of different items. For example, if I want silver (which I do, as a goldsmith), I will go to Humblehearth. Granted, a dedicated gatherer will probably do leves and gathering in at least two regions each cycle. But I do wonder if this could potentially skew the supply of gathered materials in favor of those more common in the region with the associated guild.

And on another note, the stealth ability sounds great. Quarry spots tend to be in caves, which are often filled with skeletons, bats, and other such unfriendly critters.

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Originally Posted by BruceyBruceyBangBang

If the PS3 version is a dud and the revision of FFXIV is unsuccessful, not only will this game be cut off, so will Yoshida. This is as fair as what happened to the previous director.

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Exactly. PS3 is the defining point of XIV.