Quick Comparison: Info on POL vs Lodestone

[Shai]

FFXI was notorious for leaving players in the dark.

Recent changes in their staff (within the last year) have resulted in a much more open exchange of information from devs to players. None of this "we'll look into it" but real snippets of information about what is definitely coming to the game.

It's pretty embarrassing, considering the new team on XIV was supposed to usher this in for the XIV players and (by comparison) is failing miserably.

POL
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml

Notice their bottom post (about to be pushed off the page) is May 16.
Since May 16, Lodestone has seen 3 updates. The 17b patch I hardly count, but for the sake of argument let's count it.

Lodestone
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/index.html

Honestly I haven't played XI since March 2010. I still check their front page and forums because they actually have continuous content updates that are interesting to read and make me feel like I understand how the game is about to change. Is this really that hard?

I don't want to come down so hard, but we have two (pseudo)separate teams coming up with two completely different strategies of interacting with their consumers. Can you guys take some lessons from whoever the front man is on XI? Whoever's in charge of POL main page updates and linking them to the forums needs to get that going on Lodestone.

Preferably it will link to actual update notes and not "We'll look into it" crap that floods our forum with non-answers.

I'm sorry if this sounds hostile. I'm just embarrassed on your behalf, SE.

PS: And what happened to the quick button to post internet links?
Edit: When I click to edit the hyperlink button is there.

[Bled]

Bump

This is a real problem that seems to have been gotten over looked as of late.

[Rinsui]

Agreed. FFXI update posts are much more precise and interesting to read than those for 14.
Another targeting system fix they are looking into.
How thrilling.

[Shai]

I just told my wife I posted my first "original" topic and when she looked at my comparison said...

"Don't you think Yoshida's letter has a lot of good information, although its mostly vague?"
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/11012

Then I compared that to this...
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/4937

Notice anything different? Such as real deadlines? Accurate forecasting? Pictures? Detailed information? (Edit: ) Yoshida has a lot more on his chart, but he has a whole game to makeover. So of course he has more things but do they all have to be so few useable details?

Lol isn't that Tanaka again now? that would be ironic if they went to him for advice on communication.

I don't think so, but by "front man" I meant the guy in charge of POL/NA. The person who is posting once (sometimes twice) a week with real tidbits of information for fans to turn over in their heads about upcoming content and adjustments.

On the other hand we get "the developers are thinking of ways to improve this" and "Ongoing revision and balacing of Guildleves" as if those statements say anything other than "I don't know, but I will someday."

[Mack]

I just told my wife I posted my first "original" topic and when she looked at my comparison said...

"Don't you think Yoshida's letter has a lot of good information, although its mostly vague?"
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/11012

Then I compared that to this...
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/4937

Notice anything different? Such as real deadlines? Accurate forecasting? Pictures? Detailed information? (Edit: ) Yoshida has a lot more on his chart, but he has a whole game to makeover. So of course he has more things but do they all have to be so few useable details?



I don't think so, but by "front man" I meant the guy in charge of POL/NA. The person who is posting once (sometimes twice) a week with real tidbits of information for fans to turn over in their heads about upcoming content and adjustments.

On the other hand we get "the developers are thinking of ways to improve this" and "Ongoing revision and balacing of Guildleves" as if those statements say anything other than "I don't know, but I will someday."

Yea well wow I would love something like the FFXI roadmap you showed there.

[Shai]

Actually it looks like XI is updating more than 4x a year now, too. There's more than 4 planned in that road map as well as one on the front page scheduled for July that isn't on the road map (as far as I can tell) plus the scheduled release of test servers... Honestly, someone on the XI team needs to brief someone on the XIV team how to communicate better and what it means to give information and gather feedback.

SO WTF SE !? AGAIN
Man, I ranted for years how depressing 4 updates a year can be, and how slow and dragged out their mission release schedule was for Wings of the Goddess. I'm not overly impressed with all the drastic changes to XI in the last year and a half (but many of them are good, I think) but their ability to give the community much needed information and more frequent patching has improved by leaps and bounds.

Then need to spread that butter over here on the XIV side of the bread.

[Bled]

If you look in the JP forums you can see the quick, well thought out, and personable posts there. If NA received half the info JP received we wouldn't have to resort to google translate (which of course leads to miss understandings like Yoshi all ready pointed out).

[Shai]

I just don't understand how they expect us to give them feedback on the vague agendas they talk around without actually telling us about ... I'm not sure what the purpose of this forums is meant to be - other than the Reps occasionally clearing up translation errors in the Letters from Producer. (Helpful, to be sure).

We have so many dev tags and update forums that aren't even being used - at all.

I know it must be consuming to overhaul a battle system, and fix a game that needs this much fixing - but someone should really sit down once a week and type out a few blurbs on the intended next update. I admit I like the presentation of the Grand Company page and the new dungeon tabs (cool lore, bro, but no INFO).

If I had to wait an extra week to get some good "lore" and "hype" spun up that's fine - but this "leave you guys hanging" for weeks at a time is getting real old, real fast. And Q&A that answer 1 out of 50 questions with a definitive answer aren't really fooling me or tiding me over. As I said Q&A gets a 10/10 for great idea, but a 4/10 for quality of responses.

As Rentahampster said in the Gathering thread, maybe you should stick to answers you can actually give so we are actually impressed and not left feeling blown off. It's nice to be heard and it's good to have our suggestions "looked into" but that answer gets annoying by the 25th time you've heard it.

Sorry, I'm really not even as "enraged" as I feel I sound in type. I'm just tired of being strung along like many others. I'd love to actually see some real concepts for content so I can give some REAL feedback. Instead I have to give you "real" feedback on your lack of constructive information.

[Seif]

XI just has bigger updates more often. It's not the pr guys fault that XIV team is having a 12-months-long vacation.

[Bled]

XI just has bigger updates more often. It's not the pr guys fault that XIV team is having a 12-months-long vacation.

I hope they are all enjoying E3...