Full translation of Yoshi interview, including his openness to F2P

[skaterger]

[/Quote] Over the years they removed loads of stuff which were deemed too complex in the basic combat game mechanics (such as the defense rating). But it would be too long to go into these details. Most of the complexity went away at the 3.0 patch to yield the curent wow gameplay (which was greatly dumbed down, PVE required much more teamwork before).[/QUOTE]

Amen. They also ended up buffing aoe tanking that patch and nerfing heroics in general. Remember when tanking shattered halls as a warrior tab cycling 5 different mobs. Those were the days. But what really broke the camel back for me was homogenization of classes by giving multiple classes the same buffs like replenishment cause they wanted all classes to be viable for raids. That killed all diversity and killed the game for me. RIP.

[whoopeeragon]

That's discouraging. So many people where so adamant about him sticking with p2p so we wouldn't have terrible cash shop crap and the dreaded F2P crowd. Him being freely open to it just seems so backwards.

I just wish they were more clear and direct with their intentions. Not having to rely on "oh, well we never said this exactly." or "we didn't say we wouldn't do this."

It comes off as disingenuous. These past few announcements make the grounds of trust feel a bit less solid. I guess "concerned" is the best way to put it.

Personally, as much as it is Yoshi's/SE's fault, it as much the playerbase's fault for being overly presumptious as well.

I take a Chinese analogy my parents told me once:

In the past, an Emperor heard an unusual tale. In a rural village, a family had apparently dug up a man buried alive! Dubious about the tale, the Emperor went to the village himself to investigate.

Upon arriving at the family and questioning them, the family laughed, explaining that the rumours were false.

What they had done was build a well. They had used a lot of 'manpower' to build the well, and upon chatting with the neighbours, things got out of hand.

"The family used a lot of man power to dig a well!"

turned into;

"The family had a man in the ground to dig a well!"

which turned into;

"The family found a man in the ground while digging a well!"

which turned later into;

"The family found a man buried alive and dug him out!"

~~~

So I don't doubt that a lot of these 'adamant' people have either been mislead somewhere with change of information. That's not to say that they are entirely wrong.

Personally, about the whole issue regarding his openness to F2P, it doesn't appear to be going F2P anytime soon.

In my eyes, he merely expressed it as an option, much like he also has the option to wipe all our characters and make us start a new character every month, or the option to cram all servers into one. That's all it is, an option.

[Amberion]

This game is too revolutionary and successful ( in terms of target audience/marketing )

Really???? You can't think of any other game out there?

[Sessurea]

Really???? You can't think of any other game out there?

What game went f2p that didn't have to? Do you seriously think FF will ever have to go f2p?

He's basically said this is wow with FF charm. Well, copying wow has gone pretty well for them so far. You see tons of incoming players from wow. In a sense, FF will attract FF fans and wow-style fans alike. How is this gonna go f2p? >8D

It's heart breaking to admit the truth, but FF14 is an ingenius rip-off.

[Flickalado]

Good argument.

LOL I do have my boundaries. I would be outside protesting if breathing was taxed don't worry. Anytime I spend money I cut money from somewhere else to make up for it. I guess to me this issue isn't that big of a deal, but it is all preference. I guess I've played enough mmos to know that the cash shop in one way or another will come to haunt it eventually, especially nowadays.

And I agree with everyone that I do NOT want this game to go free to play ever. Please nononononononono!

[Ravno]

When a MMO is open to F2P, it's usually not a good sign.

[SanjuroXI]

I blame 'Merica!

[skaterger]

Once an mmo goes F2P it cannot go back P2P. So please don't even consider going down this slippery slope!

[Kluya15]

He's so disconnected from the userbase it's not even funny...

News flash. The man behind the redesign and drive of this multi-million dollar project might have a little more intel then you do.

[XanderOlivieri]

Don't feel like joining in with the F2P/P2P discussion so time for quick derailing.

I feel like items that correspond to Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy will basically be a waste after this patch. How are you dealing with that?

Yoshida: After the patch, you won't obtain Philosophy anywhere - it will be replaced with Mythology. There will be a NPC available which allows you to exchange currency at a predetermined rate.

What will happen to Darklight equipment which you were able to obtain for Philosophy?

Yoshida: It will be changed to a normal dungeon drop. It will drop in the dungeons which are added to the high level roulette. Instanced dungeons will have equipment at level 70, Crystal Tower will be level 80, and Turns 1-5 of Bahamut Coil as well as mythology gear will be level 90. The increase in item level should lead to growth on the main job. When we raise the level cap with an expansion and add additional dungeons and field area, that will lead to overall character growth.

Increasing the item level is just one direction, though, we also need to increase the breadth of items available at each level, which we plan to address in the future.

Ok so this has my interest the most right now. Darklight, when 2.2 rolls round will be part of the armor roulette for Brayflox Longstop HM, Ruins of Amdapor, and Halatali HM. I find this to be interesting as those that don't have DL armor as of yet, slower casuals and the players of the future, are now forced to get the items a few pieces at a time. I skipped parts of DL in favor of CT with two pieces already, and I will not collect the rest of the DL before 2.2 cause of how slow I am. This isn't a complaint really, I'm excited for the new dungeons, more so since I have to do them to get the i70 gear that they are to drop. (He specifically says that DL is the drops for the new dungeons being added to the Duty Finder, these are the only 3 I know of.)

In addition to that, he mentions about the current progression of armor with i70 being instanced dungeons (the i55 required ones I guess), i80 being CT (probably hinting that more i80 can appear in CT), and i90 being in BCoB turns 1-5 as well as Myth purchases. He shows how he thinks growth should be, and I sorta agree with his statement, the gear is based on the job. Better gear is job growth in general as you are able to do more in your job, while extending the levels (confirmed for an expansion I suppose), we'll have more interactions that will cause Character growth which to me isn't as substantial as Job Growth.

He highlights that there will be more horizontal progression in the future. We're still taking baby steps at the moment with progression, so it is incredibly nice to see that they acknowledge the wants for horizontal progression. I noticed that he stopped at the currently to be added dungeons but does not mention turns 6-9. I don't know if forgotten or if this shows that there is an ilvl higher than 90 that will be available in Turns 6-9. The Zodiac weapons already show that they will go higher than the current ilvl cap and has potential for individually based growth. Something I can't wait to see happen.

About how much content do you have in mind?

Yoshida: We have about two years' worth of content planned. We've actually been working on the design for 3.0 for a long time now. We've already come up with dungeon names and the number of dungeons, as well as the theme and the name of the new top tier dungeon which will be like the next rendition of the Binding Coil of Bahamut. We've also come up with the look of the city area, as well as the number and theme of the field areas to be added.

However, if we look closer on the development schedule, things are more up in the air. For example, we haven't yet finalized the content for patch 2.3 because 2.3 is still in development and we want to have some level of improvisation available to us so that we can add things based on requests.

New End Game planned for the Expansion to take over BCoB. SWEET! Haven't even gotten to BCoB yet and I'm excited! Also confirmation of a new city to chill in. Ishgard? I'm hoping Ishgard or another area in Coethras. I can see others wanting Little Ala Mhigo. Personally I want in on the Holy See and....secretly want to murder the Dragon hating pompous fools....TTwTT

He dropped a few spoilers for what I saw, and I hope more for what is to come with 2.2 is released. I'm still hoping that there are two or three major things being added that weren't mentioned as of yet to keep secret for last minute hype. The next 30 hours need to speed by.