Do you think SE looks at class concepts?

If we propose class concepts (with or without art, with or without stats), do you think SE would actually see them and/or consider them or is proposing new class concepts a waste of time?

Yes and no.

I expect they glance over them from time to time to gauge what sort of jobs people want.
But, if you go too detailed into the design of it, they will most certainly not use it, because they're oppose to 'taking' others ideas, and will instead come up with their own stuff, or base it on classic Final Fantasy job designs.

Waste of time.
Its Japanese company with Japanese workers in it, and i dont really think they have any time to read english forum and look out for some concepts in this giant pile of threads filled with spam and complaints on the game.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Yes and no.

I expect they glance over them from time to time to gauge what sort of jobs people want.
But, if you go too detailed into the design of it, they will most certainly not use it, because they're oppose to 'taking' others ideas, and will instead come up with their own stuff, or base it on classic Final Fantasy job designs.

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Pretty much this. It's an means of gauging what people what as far as jobs go, but the actual details are pretty much seen like any other fan art project.

If you have fun making class proposals then it's probably not a total waste of time, if you're doing it because you want it in game then yeah you're wasting your time entirely.

>reads topic title
"Yes"
>reads actual contents of thread
"ahahahaha no"

Yeah of course (mostly), but don't make it super detailed in the hopes they're going to use most of it. I strongly feel they do read and take suggestions here but the vast majority of the time they will spin and deconstruct pieces of the idea when being inspired by it, which is probably a good thing for a cohesive image and other reasons. So of whatever is written they may use/be inspired by a fragment of that.

I would focus more on sharing the core concepts and reasons for the idea over the numbers though, unless you feel you're really good at the math and understand where the job needs to be. As I imagine that is the most likely to be completely ignored in inspiration lol, since they have the big picture and have a very high concern about balance (which a player messing up and them copying the mistake would be.. ehhh haha).

So if you wanted to add a very specific type of inspiration to SE's pool of ideas, I don't think it would be a waste. Adding sparks and kindling to their stockpile, which they may use large portions or just faint whispers of as material for their own concepts. Even as likely only portions of ideas are used having them use kindling like "please add a new healer" vs "please add a new dark theme'd healer with some physical combat skills" could generate a difference in the "furnace" that is creation.

Though on classes- getting your specific idea of a new class is more like becoming president, in that sure it's possible but there is only one every so often and so the chances become exceptionally low lol. Other thing to consider is time delay, as they have plans for quite a ways out so there "maybe later" kindling pile is probably where most ideas go (doesn't mean they wont get used but it's less likely for big concept systems/ideas to be added any time soon unless already being worked on).

Tl;dr.. I think so but the more advance and rare the concept the less likely it'll be used specifically and even when used it'll probably be condensed into it's spirit concept and sometimes fragments of that, so don't get too attached to exactly what you think it should be lol.

I cant help but think they do listen to ideas proposed, as was stated but never the detailed writings of an entire level 1-max skill set, But then again they could just be thinking similarly to how some players, forum posters suggest thematics with light detail. Hard to say,

If you enjoy coming up with them, I wouldn't consider it a waste of time. As for anyone at the company seriously considering them for implementation? Probably not, no. It hasn't happened yet, and honestly most people aren't very good at making practical jobs.

Be careful what you wish for unless you want another Blue Mage fiasco on our hands.

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Originally Posted by Noitems

Be careful what you wish for unless you want another Blue Mage fiasco on our hands.

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Lol, certainly although specifically on Blue Mage Yoshida/Team had this idea of them since the very very early days (like entering ARR time). Talked about it being a sort of side content "book of spells" that you could go around collecting monster skills and competing in an arena, and it wouldn't be a normal job.

At that time, many years ago, there weren't as many Blue Mage fans wanting it a full job (posting), but I did say "plz no" back then lol. Well more specifically I said I'd love for a book of spells and gathering skills, but would really like to play it in normal content. At this point QoL + more OP would be fine.. although I'll still wistfully think about DF lol.

They probably look at "hype" around specific jobs, not at job concepts like how some people list skills and how the job should work. It's probably better to make "what job do you want next" threads than "This is how Alchemist can work as a tank" threads.

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Originally Posted by Noitems

Be careful what you wish for unless you want another Blue Mage fiasco on our hands.

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Nobody wished for our current Blue Mage though ;)

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Originally Posted by MOZZYSTAR

If we propose class concepts (with or without art, with or without stats), do you think SE would actually see them and/or consider them or is proposing new class concepts a waste of time?

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In a word, "no".

Put up what you'd like to see on Tumblr or Twitter, or even here, but be aware that your ideas cannot be legally used by SE.

Not because they don't care, but because, as a business, they have to be extremely careful about where and from whom they get their ideas. Art and stats would definitely be a non-starter. You aren't on their payroll, and, once posted, they cannot use any of it because of future copyright liability.

Requesting consideration for a class that is already part of the Final Fantasy game-scape would probably be fine.

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Originally Posted by Shougun

Lol, certainly although specifically on Blue Mage Yoshida/Team had this idea of them since the very very early days (like entering ARR time). Talked about it being a sort of side content "book of spells" that you could go around collecting monster skills and competing in an arena, and it wouldn't be a normal job.

At that time, many years ago, there weren't as many Blue Mage fans wanting it a full job (posting), but I did say "plz no" back then lol. Well more specifically I said I'd love for a book of spells and gathering skills, but would really like to play it in normal content. At this point QoL + more OP would be fine.. although I'll still wistfully think about DF lol.

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Yeah the reality of the spells doesn't make me think that in any type of normal content it would be too much. Just making the bosses immune to death and resist stunning would be completely fine and I can see the job be very interesting with more new spells to add. It'll be fun to see what they do with the HW primals now that the cap will rise to 60.

DF would be nice even if they just restrict certain spells that break the dungeons at their current levels.

I enjoy doing class concepts but I consider them a “fan fiction” sort of thing. It’s like when I write fan fiction for Destiny or even Star Wars; however for FFXIV it’s fun to think up jobs regardless of how outrageous or completely ridiculous it is lol. I still want a Chemist Healer though... or GEO Healer... but as someone stated above it’s a JP company I doubt someone would completely translate a job concept.

I don't know how high up chain of command would look at English forum ideas specifically. I am willing to bet that there are employees of SE at varying levels of influence who read things either to keep track of fandom tone or just for fun. Even if there are legal requirements not to look when it comes to job concepts to avoid potential overlap/have plausible deniability if accused of idea theft... at least a few people are likely to peek over on the sly.

I think there is some tracking in the sense that they know in terms of healers there has been interest in a Chemist/non-caster variant and some kind of dark healer, possibly in the vein of necromancer. They are also probably aware that they are currently under scrutiny specifically for healer, particularly since it has been a subject in multiple interviews too. I don't think they pay much attention to designs or mechanics if they do read them, because they want freedom to develop that independently.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

Nobody wished for our current Blue Mage though ;)

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Making it a healer would actually make a better use of a concept than what we have now. :p

More than likely they have people that read reddit/forums/etc to help gauge interest on certain jobs for analytics, but that's about it.

A LOT of player designed job concepts are wildly imbalanced, unfeasible or rooted more in fantasy than in practicality to FF14's gameplay, so even if you were to garnish a concept with a ton of gameplay mechanics and descriptions, none of it would even be 0.1% considered as they have their own battleclass design people that would design the job themselves.

So if you're hoping Square would consider them? The answer is no, it'd be a waste of time. If you want to write them to simply have fun? By all means, have fun!

I'm guessing SE keeps their finger on the players' pulse as far as reading what jobs the playerbase would like to see added to the game. But actually delving into the abilities and descriptions someone posts? Definitely not. Not only are those generally not well-balanced, but if it became clear that a job they added to the game had abilities and concepts suspiciously similar to some drabble a player threw together on the forums, it would likely open them up to litigation. It's similar to the reason that authors will often avoid reading fanfiction based on their works, as they would need to carefully avoid copying any of the stuff they found there.

So, no, not only does SE not draw inspiration from fan-created classes, there's even a chance that creating those fan-created classes REDUCES the chance that SE will ever add anything similar. Something to chew on, the next time the creative urge strikes! XD

(On the other hand, we DID get Flying Salmon...)

They probably see and glance over what people want, but using concepts? Naaaah they've got a team to actually design these things, they might hand them a short list of the things people are discussing but at the end of the day its the job of designers to design not copy.

I'd also say they probably pay more attention to what people are speculating about when it comes to advancements of the current classes, because at least then the audience is already playtesting the content and not just theorycrafting hypothetical content.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Yes and no.

I expect they glance over them from time to time to gauge what sort of jobs people want.
But, if you go too detailed into the design of it, they will most certainly not use it, because they're oppose to 'taking' others ideas, and will instead come up with their own stuff, or base it on classic Final Fantasy job designs.

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This is probably more or less the bulk of it. But I would like to point out that if people are doing a group think tank about ideas or concepts and that gains traction, they will probably take parts or queues from it and rework it to be more in line with what they think is good for the game. If the feedback is pertinent, theyll see it, particularly if its community generated and not one person posting their own idea.

That being said, I have fancied an idea of creating a thread for art orientated people where we just start posting concept designs for Glamour or Housing decorations. Since they have competitions on the regular to add stuff to housing, Im more inclined to believe that such a thread would be monitored by the devs if it got traction.