"Aiming for the Game to be Reborn for the 2nd time" - YoshiP Interview

"Fairly big announcement" planned for Fanfest; aiming for the game to be 'Reborn' for the 2nd time"

In an interview with (Korean) media, YoshiP is quoted as having said this:

"Final Fantasy 14 is already facing towards the next 10 years. The Fan Festivals are also planned, and a fairly big announcement is being prepared to be announced. With the determination that the game will be Reborn for the second time, under the goal that the game will evolve into a cutting-edge service, we’re rethinking everything from zero."

Link to summary, although needs to be translated to English: http://blog.livedoor.jp/umadori0726/.../62786347.html

What people will probably glean from this: "We are going to drop another Dalamud for 8.0 and restart from scratch"

What I hope he means: "We're going to fire half the studio and hire people who actually know how to design and develop an MMO"

What he actually means: "We're just gonna pretend most of Dawntrail didn't happen and hope that people start playing the game again"

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

What people will probably glean from this: "We are going to drop another Dalamud for 8.0 and restart from scratch"

What I hope he means: "We're going to fire half the studio and hire people who actually know how to design and develop an MMO"

What he actually means: "We're just gonna pretend most of Dawntrail didn't happen and hope that people start playing the game again"

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The speculation I've seen thus far seems to revolve around the idea that they're planning a 'soft reboot' to allow new players to start the game from a different point.

There does seem to be a lot of discussion regarding the time investment element of playing the MSQ from ARR - Dawntrail, particularly in terms of those players who just want to get to endgame so that they can play alongside their friends.

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

What people will probably glean from this: "We are going to drop another Dalamud for 8.0 and restart from scratch"

What I hope he means: "We're going to fire half the studio and hire people who actually know how to design and develop an MMO"

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Ah yeah the good old american management style where you fire skilled workers as consequence of bad management decisions. (By the way, the most experienced MMO developpers today are the devs working for the two most successful MMOs, which are WoW and FF14. Where else would you find experienced MMO devs nowadays?)

FFXIV's problem aren't caused by a lack of competency. It's caused by a lack of risk taking, and that usually comes from the top. (because it ultimately comes from the financial world where they prefer whatever can be proven to be a safe bet)

But at the same time I don't really believe this announcement, because they can't really shake FFXIV too deeply (if only because they need to keep all existing content in working order: adapting it to any drastic gameplay change would be too much work and removing any of it would have players up in arms).

Maybe if they do a completely separate game, perhaps with some story/world continuity with 14 I could perhaps believe it.

I hope this means a full housing revamp! Everyone should get a house, not just some lottery winners who don't even bother to decorate after winning.

Highly doubt we'll see a flat out "new game" they just dumped a ton of time/money on graphic improvements. At most i could see them bringing over the mobile engine over into the full game. Now storywise likely this means a new starting point for FFXIV, WoL death/rebirth, stuck on an entire new world/dimension, massive time skip, could be a number of things.

I'm optimistically looking forward to what's down the road.

One thing Yoshida-san is *really* good at tho, eye candy (ear candy) and distraction. So I try not to take much of what's stated too seriously until we get down to the nitty-gritty as we approach 8.0's launch date. It's mostly eye candy.

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Originally Posted by Hanayumi

Highly doubt we'll see a flat out "new game" they just dumped a ton of time/money on graphic improvements.

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It depends on how much they are susceptible to fall for the sunk cost fallacy.

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Originally Posted by YumieYumiki

Ah yeah the good old american management style where you fire skilled workers as consequence of bad management decisions.

FFXIV's problem aren't caused by a lack of competency. It's caused by a lack of risk taking, and that usually comes from the top. (because it ultimately comes from the financial world where they prefer whatever can be proven to be a safe bet)

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If what we hear from the devs is to be believed, it's a top floor and a bottom floor problem. Top floor managers and creative directors don't actually know what people like in terms of gameplay or story, which is evident from our experience. We've also been getting the excuse that spaghetti code prevents the development of a lot of features players clamor for, which means that whatever bottom floor back-end dredgers they have working there are also causing problems.

So, trim the fat at all levels. That's why I said design and develop.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YumieYumiki

(By the way, the most experienced MMO developpers today are the devs working for the two most successful MMOs, which are WoW and FF14. Where else would you find experienced MMO devs nowadays?)

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That's easy, just wait for the next Blizzard layoff wave. Or if you need them now, just look to one of those game 'dev' companies comprised of former Blizzard employees, sitting around doing nothing after the YongYeas and Bellulars of the internet apparently stroked and glazed them into a coma. I'm sure they'd love to actually have something to do again. Get to poaching.

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

We've also been getting the excuse that spaghetti code prevents the development of a lot of features players clamor for,

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Did we though? I absolutely cannot tell whether the "spaghetti code" thing is real or a myth invented by players. Even if it's real and the code base is a mess, it's not necessarily the devs' fault. Management if often unwilling to give devs the necessary time and budget to deal with technical debt.