A Letter to The Producer

Hello, I'd like to first say that I thank the Development team for all of your hard work. I enjoy the game a lot and greatly appreciate the hard work everyone on the team does to keep the players happy. It's a difficult job, but I truly believe you can do it.

A little back story on my history with FFXIV to fully understand my perspective. I tried the game for the first time on a relative's computer in the version 1.0 Beta and I was absolutely stunned by how beautiful the game was and how well done the animations were. After creating my character and picking my class and starting city, I was off right away with a handful of leve quests and took off out of the gates of Limsa Lominsa and went onto try some combat and even with how blown away I was with fascination with the game, for reasons you know very well, I stopped after an hour or so. Fast forward nearly a year later, I heard about the efforts to rebuild the game and as a gamer I found that to be quite inspiring. My interest was sparked and from there you had my support. Eventually I had forgotten all other games and I became a very passionate XIV player even playing nearly every day up until the end of 1.0 and I feel that the game even became a part of who I am, in a way.

Despite my initial distaste (mainly technical difficulties early on), I found my passion again with 2.0 and I still play nearly every day. With that said, my passion is in severe decline with the recent patches because I feel that the players are not being fully listened to. Though I do feel as though you do try to listen to us but go about it in a way that frustrates the players, or as you called them "Citizens".

The Zodiac Quest
This is where I have many problems. The Relic weapons themselves and the quest to get them are meant to be accessible content that caters to casual players and I'm fine with that. In the original quest, it was a great formula. Defeat trials and get my weapon then spend currency to upgrade it. But then came the second portion, Atma.
Although the formula was still "Defeat trials to obtain then spend currency to upgrade", it was done in a bad way. I went from defeating trials to defeating Fates, by no means any sort of challenge. And considering that the team had complied to a request to not include the FATE system in any more events, I felt betrayed. My thoughts were "They said they wouldn't rely so much on Fates for this, but they turn around and rely on it for that instead! Is this some sort of joke?". You listened to us, but you didn't at the same time.
The Animus portion was the new spend currency to upgrade portion to me. I really looked forward to doing it and went in with the bias that it would be fun. But when I got to it, I realized a majority of my time completing my books was just waiting for a FATE to complete it. I am not an impatient person by any means, but I play a video game to play, not to wait and do nothing. It was an outright slap to the face to me to be told "If you want this, you have to stand around and do nothing". I was greatly let down by this, despite the rest of the "upgrade" being so fun to complete.
Novus however, was a shining beacon of how to do things right. Defeat trial to obtain, spend currency to upgrade. We completed Mysterious Maps, which was building on already loved content (maps) to obtain Alexantrite which we then had to spend currency to buy Materia to upgrade. It took a long time, but we actually played the game to do it and didn't have to do any FATE content. But despite this, the stigma is so strong, at least in the NA community, that what I hear said most about those who complete a Novus is "They must really hate themselves to complete that quest" and many people who have even just attempted this quest see it as borderline self punishment.
So my question on this is, are you content with how your citizens view this? If the answer appears to be "Yes we are, even though you are not", then pride in FFXIV would be greatly hurt.

The Hunt
I have never been as excited for anything else in FFXIV since the release of 2.0! The anticipation for this was overwhelming to me. But, you gave us what we asked for in a thoughtless manner. The player base asked for even more open world content and "Notorious Monsters" from FFXI. The goal, I imagine was to help boost player's ilevel to prepare players for the upcoming 2.4 patch and make i110 armor and weapons accessible to everyone. This to me is fine, and the natural progression of the team's design philosophy and I understand this. But in practice it failed to be what was imagined. Even the dailies are distasteful due waiting for Fates. With a fix on the horizon and several threads with many takes on this currently and I will leave it to you to listen to us closely after the patch 2.35 fix.
The question in regards to this would be, are you willing to listen to us when our vision differs from yours? If the answer appears to be "No" and you don't appear to meet us half way, it would hurt my faith in the team.

As far as the game itself goes, those examples will be enough to point out where I see wrongs. However, the philosophy has changed when 2.0 hit success and I think we lost two very important things.

The Voice of The Player
This is by far the most important thing to me. I feel like the players don't have as much of a voice as we used to. You looked to the players to see why XIV 1.0 failed and asked us what we would do about it. When you took our advice, you took a gamble that the community would know what's best. Your gamble paid off and that greatly helped lead to the success of version 2.0 we all know. Please show us again the faith we showed you and let us have more of a voice that just random feedback. Player polls were a good tool that has been thrown away and us players as a resource are too valuable to just toss out like that. So I ask of you, please make the gamble again because the odds are in your favor.

Transparency
I really don't understand why this has gone away. I used to know what was planned for XIV and the directions you were taking me. Now it feels like I have a blindfold and can't help the feeling you don't want me to know where the destination is. Roadmaps, as simple as they were, were an important communication tool with the players. Yes, the roadmaps were notoriously late, but it was better than nothing at all. On top of that, I knew the changes you wanted to make. I don't know beyond in game cliff hangers and speculation what's coming next anymore besides the hints at what's around the corner. I also feel that you can benefit in showing us how things will work more clearly before release so you can avoid some of these player backlashes such as Atma or Hunts. You say you have years ahead planned if my memory serves me correct. So please, show us your plans like you once did.

There are more things I would like to touch on, but I feel that I have pointed out my main issues with what's been said. Myself and many other players like me care about the success of this game and your players want to continue to enjoy Eorzea so please, make us feel like you care as much as we do again.

Sincerely,
Amy Neudaiz

How is running the same dungeons over and over more fun than farming atmas? for my it's the same repetitiveness, at least the atma part can be done at your own pace w/o being locked for 20 min in an instance.

For the rest, i agree even though a 50% of your post can be tldr'd as "i hate fates", there nothing wrong about hating them, the fate system was implemented on the worst way possible just like hunts.

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Originally Posted by Renik

How is running the same dungeons over and over more fun than farming atmas? for my it's the same repetitiveness, at least the atma part can be done at your own pace w/o being locked for 20 min in an instance.

For the rest, i agree even though a 50% of your post can be tldr'd as "i hate fates", there nothing wrong about hating them, the fate system was implemented on the worst way possible just like hunts.

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Only a few lines were about Fates. But even then, that I dislike them was not the complaint.

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Originally Posted by Cutie_McSnuggles

Yoshi has actually talked about this a few times somewhat unofficially. But basically he got tired of people calling him a lair if something didn't come out exactly when he said it would or exactly the way it was first described. Plans change and bugs crop up, and as much as the dev team would like to keep us in the loop they also don't want us to feel lied to if for some reason or another something doesn't happen when they planned for it to happen.

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I do vaguely recall that statement, however we still could benefit from more transparency. A general direction as opposed to having a blindfold and given small hints would be a vast improvement and we wouldn't feel "lied to" about specifics.

I like the thought you put behind this and agree with almost everything you have to say.

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Originally Posted by AmyNeudaiz

Transparency
I really don't understand why this has gone away. I used to know what was planned for XIV and the directions you were taking me. Now it feels like I have a blindfold and can't help the feeling you don't want me to know where the destination is. Roadmaps, as simple as they were, were an important communication tool with the players. Yes, the roadmaps were notoriously late, but it was better than nothing at all. On top of that, I knew the changes you wanted to make. I don't know beyond in game cliff hangers and speculation what's coming next anymore besides the hints at what's around the corner. I also feel that you can benefit in showing us how things will work more clearly before release so you can avoid some of these player backlashes such as Atma or Hunts. You say you have years ahead planned if my memory serves me correct. So please, show us your plans like you once did.

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Yoshi has actually talked about this a few times somewhat unofficially. But basically he got tired of people calling him a lair if something didn't come out exactly when he said it would or exactly the way it was first described. Plans change and bugs crop up, and as much as the dev team would like to keep us in the loop they also don't want us to feel lied to if for some reason or another something doesn't happen when they planned for it to happen.

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Originally Posted by Renik

50% of your post can be tldr'd as "i hate fates"

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Actually she never said "I hate FATEs." What she said was, "I hate waiting on FATEs" Which I can totally agree with. I think doing FATEs is fun when I happen to run across them, but having to sit there and wait for a specific FATE is not fun.

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Originally Posted by AmyNeudaiz

Only a few lines were about Fates. But even then, that I dislike them was not the complaint.

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I was trying to read a bit more in depth, you know, the worst part for you, in the first and second points is being forced to do fates, and i'm considering the hunts a fate like system they way they were implemented, again nothing wrong about hating or disliking them, they are just bad implemented, and no one should be forced to play a broken system that only serves as a leveling path, as an end-game requirement.

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Originally Posted by Cutie_McSnuggles

Yoshi has actually talked about this a few times somewhat unofficially. But basically he got tired of people calling him a lair if something didn't come out exactly when he said it would or exactly the way it was first described. Plans change and bugs crop up, and as much as the dev team would like to keep us in the loop they also don't want us to feel lied to if for some reason or another something doesn't happen when they planned for it to happen.

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Honestly someone that self conscious shouldn't be heading a dev team, let alone producing an a-rate video game.

Edit: all I am trying to say is that yoshi needs to take a lesson from ducks, let the hate slide off his back like water.

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Originally Posted by Cutie_McSnuggles

but having to sit there and wait for a specific FATE is not fun.

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You don't "have" to actually do this. You choose to.

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Originally Posted by kidvideo

You don't "have" to actually do this. You choose to.

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If you wish to complete the quest, you have to.

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Originally Posted by AmyNeudaiz

If you wish to complete the quest, you have to.

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Well, specifically, you need to complete the objective. But you are choosing the focus on that single objective & sit at the spawn location until the fate pops. The act of excluding all other content options is your choice.

I need a fate if Coerthas to finish a book. Rather than wait however long in would take, I ran around doing other fates, ran &/or teleported to hunt coordinates, helped another player defeat a quest mob, used the duty roulette/finder, & dealt with retainers returning from ventures. In the end, I eventually got the fate i needed. When I logged off for the day, I felt I accomplished a lot.

Had I done nothing but wait for a 4 hour fate pop, I'd probably not be very happy about that experience.

I like this post. You have a lot of the same concerns I have, and it's nice to see them expressed in a capable manner. Nice post!

I don't recall that relic quests were "meant" to be for casuals, it just happened that way. I seem to remember Yoshi-P saying something about more people getting it than he intended. I could be wrong.

The Novus stigma was materia and in add the stupid fail rato...
The alexandrite was well made, even when drop rato from FATES was way tooo low...

600.000 gil for one materia?! Maybe after a year farming...
Nice RNG if trying to get the materia on your own with spiritbonding, but better dont talk about RNG, working as intended...

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Originally Posted by Renik

How is running the same dungeons over and over more fun than farming atmas? for my it's the same repetitiveness, at least the atma part can be done at your own pace w/o being locked for 20 min in an instance.

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Dungeons can be done very easily, even if you have to do it a ton of times and you know what to expect. Atma is pure RNG and you have no idea how long it will take for you to finish the whole set. That's why no one likes it.

I was expecting the Hunt system to be kind of like FFXII version and be more of a levequest style system... Where you make a group go to the area with the mark log and activate it and then you have to find the monster but it is your parties, instead we got a zergfest that really ruined it for me. In community behaviour and dialog... I have seen more rude people than I have seen prior, its disappointing to me.

Hey Amy, really well written OP!

While I do not feel I'm on the verge of quitting myself, your post parallels my feelings and situation so much. I too was a 1.0 player. I played for the entirety of 1.0, maxed out all of my classes, ran all of the dungeon and completed most story content (outside of the last hildebrand quest and some of the job quests). I consider myself a regular casual, then and now.

After all that we went through together in 1.0 it really does feel like the Dev team, and yoshida have changed. There have been so many well thought out posts outlining the issues with this game on both the jp and na side, there is no way that they are not hearing us, but in most cases they refuse to address concerns and grievances with even a small acknowledgement. It feels like whenever there is controversy in the community over new content SE ops to step aside, and instead respond to requests for doo-dads and widgets, as if the new posts filter is not flooded with complaints and concerns about a handful of significant additions every patch.

These boards were established so that the community could communicate directly with the Dev team, however it feels like it's become a fan board, where any complaint is quickly stifled by members of the community, and is unaddressed or outright ignored by the community reps and devs.

I miss the days when it felt like our concerns about the games direction meant something more than just noise. At this point it feels like the only say we really have is with our dollar, and unfortunately for me that means that most of my friends only come back after major patches, and that pool of people is slowly dwindling.

Apologies for any typos, posting from my phone

I'm glad many of you feel this was well written, I really do hope Yoshida eventually reads this.

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

Dungeons can be done very easily, even if you have to do it a ton of times and you know what to expect. Atma is pure RNG and you have no idea how long it will take for you to finish the whole set. That's why no one likes it.

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More convenient is not more fun, and even if you know how much time it will take, the myth sink TOOK much more time and repetition than the atma farming.

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Originally Posted by Taliph

Honestly someone that self conscious shouldn't be heading a dev team, let alone producing an a-rate video game.

Edit: all I am trying to say is that yoshi needs to take a lesson from ducks, let the hate slide off his back like water.

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This. It's part of the job... inconvenience to one person or insecurity is no excuse to alter a business practice or provide an inferior customer experience. I say this as someone that is in charge of developing a product... and yes, people can be unreasonable in expectations... that is irrelevant - your job is your job. He could share a more generalized road map... but transparency was great during beta... it really set them apart - now it's gone.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

but transparency was great during beta... it really set them apart - now it's gone.

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It really did feel like we were being listened to in Alpha and Beta, then we could actually see that they were listening. A post would get a dev response and by the next phase we'd see the changes.

I felt like the live letters - though the questions were hand picked by the community reps - were also a great venue for Yoshida and the devs to be upfront about the future of the game, and a great way for them to respond directly to concerns about the bigger picture of FFXIV. Now it just feels like all they are are marketing pushes for the next patch.

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Originally Posted by Renik

More convenient is not more fun, and even if you know how much time it will take, the myth sink TOOK much more time and repetition than the atma farming.

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And RNG based farming could take even longer than the myth farming itself if the game decided to make it that way, so it's not really that much better.

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

And RNG based farming could take even longer than the myth farming itself if the game decided to make it that way, so it's not really that much better.

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Exactly, it the same, that's what i'm trying to say, knowing a grind will take 1 year is not better than not knowing if it would take 1 week or 2 years, if the grind is just mindless grind then it's bad. for me both are bad, but in a more personal opinion i don't like being locked in the same instances with random ppl over and over.

aaaand thread hijacked. Please try and not miss the point. You have opinions on the grind? Okay but this is not the thread for that.

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Originally Posted by AmyNeudaiz

Letter to Producer

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I am not sure how you remember 1.0 but we were in the dark for the most of it. The combo system, relic quest, work on 2.0, development guidelines, patch expectations, feedback take in, and overall QoL adjustments. Yes there was a large petition on votes, and charts reflecting, and changes that made 1.23 and on bearable but it was not transparency. It was table talk and "hints" that were eventually thrown back at yoshi when he is called a liar.

I think you overestimate people's understanding and acceptance. If full transparency was a good idea (for the most part it isn't) people would see something not complete but functional and rage why its not in the game. Then get it being partial broken as it is not complete and then rage about that while they know its still being worked on. I don't think player feedback is bad, but yoshi or any of the developers talking directly to the players without a filter or at least a delay to double check would backfire more often then it would improve how player feel about the game.

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Originally Posted by Sakasa

(..) people would see something not complete but functional and rage why its not in the game. (..)

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Since Oct,30,2013 i am waiting for AF2 gear... (was from LIVE-Letter IX)

http://cdn4.dualshockers.com/wp-cont...157.jpg?42e955

I feel lke you're off the mark. I do remember quite a few things that were shown off weeks early. For example, they showed off the combo system in 1.2 weeks before release and there wasn't much raging that wouldn't of happened anyway. Even then quelled pretty fast since everyone knew it was coming.

It really does feel like all those polls, roadmaps and letters from 1.0 were just PR fluff to gain people's trust, much needed mind you after 1.0 failed but still. Apparently there's little need for that now that the trust and the success are there, just look at all the people who instantly jump in to defend every little flaw the game has, it clearly worked.

Even if delays are practically a staple of ARR by now a roadmap would still help, just having planned features listed on site instead of throwing out ideas during random interviews and giving vague windows for their implementation, or adding stuff at the last moment no one really expected like Hunts, which were admitted to have been throw in during the last months of 2.3's development without previous planning. I mean surprises are still nice but having a roadmap would also help provide some type of feedback on planned features, feedback that might be even listened to again.

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Originally Posted by Roris

It really does feel like all those polls, roadmaps and letters from 1.0 were just PR fluff to gain people's trust, much needed mind you after 1.0 failed but still. Apparently there's little need for that now that the trust and the success are there, just look at all the people who instantly jump in to defend every little flaw the game has, it clearly worked.

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Even in 1.0 ppl still jump in and Def anyway. White Knight gonna White Knight anyway.

There are stuff they planned out that does not make sense at times. But I seriously doubt the HUNT seals causing a mess number of i110 is intended. Remember the interview when ppl ask and the ATMA drop rate? They didn't want to increase the drop rate becuase they don't want the ilvl to be completely mess up.

They they wanted the Sand and Oil to shorten the gap for 2.4, then why they didn't work on ATMA and Animus?

At least a roadmap would help people that are struggling with the direction of the game. It's not something that would be a presentation of fully fleshed out ideas, but it would let players know the vision developers have for the game. It would also help answer a lot of questions about how things are intended to work - even if they don't work that way at first.

Sharing a vision gives players a platform to provide more meaningful feedback. Rather than just offer complaints - a vision helps direct the conversation so that if something doesn't fit, players can explain why and give examlpes of how something isn't meeting the stated design goals. Without a clearly articulated vision... players don't necessarily understand why things are created how they are, or why changes are made to things that have been released. It creates uncertainty and only ends up contributing to an atmosphere or distrust.

More than a roadmap I would prefer to see the players engaged more in the form of a test server. Large-scale content in other games never goes live without testing, period. 90% of these issues we all complain about would have been found with a brief testing period open to the players.

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Originally Posted by Souljacker

More than a roadmap I would prefer to see the players engaged more in the form of a test server. Large-scale content in other games never goes live without testing, period. 90% of these issues we all complain about would have been found with a brief testing period open to the players.

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This would be nice. Has a test server ever been mentioned as being in the works? Part of me feels like it has been but I don't know if I'm mixing this game up with another one.