Tanaka or Yoshi?

[Shiyo]

Quest hubs, instanced dungeons, these two things will do the complete opposite of what Tanaka wanted. He wanted to band the community together and create big airships and boats and headquarters and stuff. Instances(4 man) and quest hubs(solo prob?) will make the community smaller, and grow into small cliques, making this MMO more anti-social, instead of more social.

Tanaka's dream was wonderful. I wish it could've came true ;_;

[Shai]

Quest hubs, instanced dungeons, these two things will do the complete opposite of what Tanaka wanted. He wanted to band the community together and create big airships and boats and headquarters and stuff. Instances(4 man) and quest hubs(solo prob?) will make the community smaller, and grow into small cliques, making this MMO more anti-social, instead of more social.

Tanaka's dream was wonderful. I wish it could've came true ;_;

Well, I'm not gonna lie. I am somewhat excited that Yoshida wants to plan much of his content around groups of 4 and 8. Before you jump my "ship" (pirate raid style) up in arms hear me out. I am the kind of guy who likes low-man activity. I liked fighting Dodore with 4-5 people. (Solo, idk about that, kinda ridiculous) I like having a solid core of friends, skilled people I can trust and depend on. I'm that way in life as well. I have a big network, but a small inner circle.

I kind of wanted Companies to be my big network. I think the content (which I see none of coming down the pipeline) for Crafters & Gatherers should have been Companies. It would give them lofty goals and bind them together for a common purpose. Of course battle jobs can augment that system, but I expected Crafting/Gathering to build it up and everyone to benefit from its services.

I still prefer Assault/Nyzul to Dynamis (just as an example). Finding a time and place for 6 people to team up and head out for adventure is a hell of a lot easier than trying to find 35 (and relying on them in a life/death situation ... lots of Dynamis headaches, very few Nyzul/Salvage headaches ... aside from Tanaka drop rates).

So on the one hand ... I'm not given up on Yoshida. I know it is an "MMO" but I like small group content and big group networking for gear and repairs and ... idk building an airship. Heh. So these new ideas of Yoshida could end up really being good for me, but (as I've said) I lament what I had to give up in the process. Some middle ground might have been nice - and maybe some of Tanaka's "final stages" projects will implement later on down the line, but I sure would have liked something "bigger" to do for the last 5 months aside from grind & wait.

[Munba]

Quest hubs, instanced dungeons, these two things will do the complete opposite of what Tanaka wanted. He wanted to band the community together and create big airships and boats and headquarters and stuff. Instances(4 man) and quest hubs(solo prob?) will make the community smaller, and grow into small cliques, making this MMO more anti-social, instead of more social.

Tanaka's dream was wonderful. I wish it could've came true ;_;

I can't undersand why the two things can't coexist in the future. Player-made Ships and Houses is an awesome feature that hope will be implemented after all the fixes but i really think they didn't trash it. I mean, it's too good to be trashed without reasons.

In any case, i would really like to see some words by Yoshi-P about it in a future letter.

[Shiyo]

Oh I agree 4/8 man content is amazing, I hate big raids and dynamis and stuff, but companies sounded so cool.

Edit: Yes! Both would be awesome and amazing, I'd personally love both companies and the content we're getting. I hope they didn't delete that concept for companies completely. Player built stuff is awesome.

[Physic]

Quest hubs, instanced dungeons, these two things will do the complete opposite of what Tanaka wanted. He wanted to band the community together and create big airships and boats and headquarters and stuff. Instances(4 man) and quest hubs(solo prob?) will make the community smaller, and grow into small cliques, making this MMO more anti-social, instead of more social.

Tanaka's dream was wonderful. I wish it could've came true ;_;

actually im pretty sure tanaka was down with instanced dungeons, he said we were going to have that type of content later on in early interviews, it may or may not be different under yoshida

honestly tanaka had some pretty good ideas, but the game didnt come out at launch, able to let people experience them properly, but thats ultimately his fault, he was responsible not for just the vision, but also the execution. Yoshida hasnt really shown us much in his time, mostly just bug fixes, making the game smoother etc, and what happened is just by doing that, people have begun to see the potential the game had.

But its neither here nor there, we really have no idea yet whats coming, It could be that this game could end up better than ever, of course we want to know what thier plan is, but the reason we dont know, is because it really doesnt matter, they have commited to thier course now, there are a couple of things that look good, lets hope whatever comes doesnt suck.

[Shai]

But its neither here nor there, we really have no idea yet whats coming

This in and of itself is a bother to me, though.

1. Yoshida was brought in to be the front man - to lay it out for us, our connection to the game and what's happening. The opposite of the stand-off, abrasive personality of Tanaka.

2. Yoshida has had since Dec 15 to produce a plan. When I look over that jumbled mess of a chart of planned content, half the time I don't know what any of it means and the other half it says something obscure like "Future Tasks: Announcement of further changes as they arise" What does that mean? Doesn't that imply that ... it's ready, but you might change it? Your ONLY future task is to announce changes? I don't understand. Never does it give a deadline. This guy foreshadows about 2 weeks to 1 day in advance. Heck, 2x now none of us even knew a patch was coming until the fine print showed up in the maint log on Lodestone the night before.

I feel very in the dark and this guy was meant to light the way. Something isn't right already.

I have never said he isn't capable of making this a great game. I simply don't know, but the fault lies partially on him. He hasn't added anything substantial and he hasn't made any claim that he's going to do so soon. 90% of what he writes is "hang in there, it's coming." My personal favorite was his 1st letter and I'll quote.

No doubt there are very few, if any, among you who have ever heard the name Naoki Yoshida. To be sure, I have never been in the fore on any of the titles I have worked on in the past. I am, however, honored and privileged to work alongside many talented and inspiring colleagues, and with their support have enjoyed making games for a number of years. I am aware that a great many people will think the responsibility of leading FINAL FANTASY XIV is far too large a task for someone so unknown. After all, even my very best may seem no more than a drop in the bucket when considering the sheer scope of FINAL FANTASY XIV. But working together with me are the very talented and very capable development and management teams, whose dedication and motivation are unwavering. I would like to ask you to please put to rest uncertainties that you may have.

Oh, you want me to rest my uncertainties? Oh, no prob, dood. Consider them rested. Wait, wait, wait, you haven't said anything. WHY SHOULD I REST THEM? He's still doing it.

"Don't worry, bro. I got this."
"You got what? What are you going to do? What have you got?"
"This. Just wait. I got it."

[gifthorse]

actually im pretty sure tanaka was down with instanced dungeons, he said we were going to have that type of content later on in early interviews, it may or may not be different under yoshida

He said the exact opposite. He said the team wanted to make a persistant world with no instances except where necessary to keep players playing in the same world. He said instances made the world feel small. I remember this because it was one of the first times i actually wanted to play FFXIV after hearing it.

I don't mind instances if theyre an accessory to the game. But in my opinion, they shouldn't form the basis of the game.

[Shai]

Yoshida is the kind of guy I'd like to kick back with and have a few beers and play a few video games.

Tanaka's the kind of guy I'd like to be making the next Chrono Trigger game - and I don't mean 3DS port.

[Richard]

So many dead horses have been kicked in this thread its almost making my legs ache just reading it. Just let it die already for the love of god.

There is one irrefutable principal that everyone who plays FFXIV needs to understand completely and fully: What happens between September 2010 and PS3 release doesn't matter. Server population: doesn't matter. Content added: doesn't matter. Lack of transparency you say? From 2003 to about 2007 Square Enix was almost so closed-mouthed about FFXI that you'd scarcely believe they were even behind the game at all. Be thankful that you people actually get Letters From The Producer once a month >_> Did any of you actually play FFXI JP release to Rise of The Zilart? It was one year of a terrible MMO. FFXIV is going to be: one year of a terrible MMO.

Square Enix is stalling with minor, irrelevant content patches and updates because 90% of their focused market is in the PS3 players. The majority of Japan doesn't play on PC they are console gamers. Both Yoshida and Tanaka and SE understand this. When the game launches in PS3 so will the majority of its content being worked on. Also no one can deny that 75% of the core game design was terribly flawed to begin with. Those flaws are going to be the main focus of the team to get it ready for PS3 launch. If you expect more than that you will be sorely disappointed.

Not one of you in this thread knows the direction they are going to take with dungeons, companies, quest hubs, ect. Raging at purely speculative ideas makes you seem a toddler. Rage at the patch notes when they come out if you don't like them.

[Arik]

G'mornin. I wanted to respond to Shai, but I'm on my phone at work so I have to try to keep it simple. First off, I gave your response a "like" because despite the fact that we seem to disagree about Tanaka's effectiveness, you did raise valid concerns about Yosihda. And while I unfortunately don't have the time right now to respond to all of your rebuttals, I'll focus on one. The SP situation.

When we first started playing, we were killing mobs....no biggie. Well, what was happening is that we would go out and kill a mob and get 237 total SP. We would them go and kill the same type of mob and get 14 SP. Ridiculous. But the worse part was that when players asked why the huge RNG based discrepancy in SP gained, Tanaka didn't take an objective look at valid player concerns and make adjustments. He simply punished the players more for having the audacity to speak out about it. He gave us a lower, static SP number, and considered the matter closed. Under the old system, the most efficient way to get SP was to remove all gear, equip the worst weapon you had, and whail on mobs.

That was what Tanaka gave us.
That system was fundamentally flawed, from the ground up, and that's what Tanaka gave us.
This isn't speculation or theorycrafting.
That was inexcusable.

Last thing....sorry the metaphor didn't resonate, but what I was trying to imply is that FFXIV is the most beautiful game I have ever seen(Porsche), that for he most part absolutely does not function the way a game should(no engine, holes in the floor to propel the car...as opposed to simply having an engine).