SE: A humble request

Dear SE and Yoshi-P

I really enjoy playing this game. I started at launch, hated it, shelved it until about three months ago, and since coming back haven't been able to put it down. So many things about it are so great, and it's a complete 180 into the other direction from where it was 2-3 years ago.

However, I feel like perhaps you are starting to rush content in hopes of keeping subscriptions. It will hurt you in the long run.
So my request is simple: Do not release untested content that has not had player feedback and is not in its final form. Personal housing is terrible. The hunts are terrible. The PvP queue is terrible. Chocobo raising is terrible. All of these things could be avoided by

1. Open up a test server. Have your players actually test the content. I guarantee you 95% of these blunders will be avoided.
2. Actually listen to what the players are telling you. Yes we wanted open world content, no we didn't want 10 more Odins or markless FATEs.
3. Re-open that dialogue. You're kind of getting complacent and it shows. An emergency patch for issues that could have absolutely been avoided is unprofessional. Add to that the fact that the patch is just going to add MORE issues (whose brilliant idea is it to make party leaders MANUALLY add new players when they drop? Shouldn't every player be focusing on the PvP game itself and not filling up parties? Isn't that why we have a tool?)

All in all, I think that you need to take a few steps back and really look at what you are doing. This is a sloppy patch and much of the content is out of reach for the bulk of your playerbase (I won't even get into how rock stupid the chocobo "raising" is). Calm down a little bit and look at what you are adding. Variety is nice, but I think that most players would agree that we would rather have polished, playable content than a huge patch of half-implemented random things that may or may not be fixed in the future. Swallow your pride and go back to the vision you had when the game failed, because a few more patches like this and you will be back on the same road.

Those are not so much issues with untested content, but more of a poor choice in design decision.

The QA/QE that SE puts out is a bit more on the upper end for MMO's. Until I see a plague that literally kills off all players in a city (unintentionally) or end game items mysteriously disappear from every players inventory, this game keeps my vote for quality assurance.

With that said, there could definitely be more thought put into the actual execution of some systems that get added in. I'm still very concerned that they felt it was manageable to prevent the ability for an FC to kick it's own member due to housing.

Honestly, 1.23 had more going for it as it was an amazing starting point for the turn around from 1.0 then they took a 180 and went the "standardized" route and well, ARR has a feeling of almost no depth at times. It seems common for MMO devs these days to rush out content even if it is content that can be blown through so I think they're just following the norm that everyone wanted them to.

1. Honestly, even with test servers on other MMOs, updates still remain buggy and tons of oversights because most people treat a test server as an UPDATE PREVIEW more than testing.
2. They are listening in general though, but you also have the: "NO GO BACK TO FFXI" group likely sending SE mixed messages.
3. Just about every MMO including WoW has post update patches to clean up some things and hot fixes for serious issues.

PvP wise, I think it's more of a datacenter thing - On the JP datacenter It's no where near as bad to the point SE needed to make an update to alleviate the problem, it happens but is no where near as bad. I don't know though, it's a bit apparent they're saving their cards for an expansion at this point, when for example in XI they're adding in new features and such every update but due to its age it doesn't seem like "much", but in comparison, it's way more than what they're doing here. I think the biggest problem is he's taking the "theme park standard" to heart a bit much but it's what makes money nowadays.

Let's be honest - It's mostly design direction and he has said he's not diverting from his path since whether one wants to agree or disagree, they should have stuck with the 1.23 and when they said "X will be fixed" they should have fixed it rather than tossed it, I don't know if you touched 1.23 OP, but you'd probably understand a bit more why this seems more like "doing the standard, we don't have to go above and beyond" than anything.

I just want them to show the creativity they have with XI lately - Yes Syrcus Tower looks nice and all..but it's an instance, where's that creativity everywhere else?

1. Most players don't do the same actions they would on a test server. People aren't going to do grindy content on those servers and therefore much of the content still won't be tested. It's a fancy preview.
2. Many players asked for old school FFXI NMs. They are trying to listen to people.
3. This happens in all MMOs. Even ones with test realms.

Might need to simmer down some.

Test realms, as awesome as they seem cause real problems for high end content. Giving people access to the content 2 months before you release it means that all your high end players will use the test realm to figure out the strategies and then when the content goes live you end up with half, at best, the life cycle for your raiders. Many other MMO's have found this to be true and it has caused them to have to spend even more time trying to churn out raiding content.

As mentioned before, few people on a test realm would not test these things the way they would when a patch actually goes live. The Pvp queue may have shown as an issue, but those on a test realm who only wanted to test frontlines probably wouldn't have been withdrawing as often so it would have only shown as a minor effect.

It is definitely the design/direction that seems to be lacking. Short sighted ideas like implementing private chambers and then not taking into account that FC leaders would need to kick an individual that has one show a real lack of vision. They seem to be scrambling to meet the requests without thinking things all the way through to the end. I feel that is why we are having problems with Hunts and Frontlines as well. These are both great ideas, they just didn't envision the effect that the community at large would have on these systems.

As for choco rasing: as sad as I am that there are no mini-games to go with it, it is a viable system and it allows us to level our and other people's chocos without needing to grind so heavily. I only wish they hadn't tied they entire system to gardening such that requires 15 days just to be able to clean out the stall. Truly, everyone completing the quest should have gotten 2 brooms so that there isn't a 2 week delay in being able to actually use the system to its fullest. Again, a design short fall, not a QA one.

Hunts are fun. I like my personal roome. And I wish Choco raising was a bit better but it's not terrible. Please remember you don't speak for everyone when you post.

Thanks

Hunts are a mess, Personal rooms should be Tied to the Inn Rooms, not the FC.

Chocobo 15 Second Video watching, needs to be improved upon.

Like I said in the other thread, what we have now is a FC-exclusive private chamber, personal housing is coming out later.

But I do agree with everything you said.

FFXI has a test server which you were lucky to find 3 people on most of the time you be on alone. People don't test grindy content on test server like hunting NMs all the NMs would be up in a test environment.