New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Wolfie]

And autoattack and questhubs are the future of MMOs? Do me a favour and make sense.

For all his failings, at least Tanaka was trying to offer something new. Yoshi doesn't know the meaning of imagination. Everything is just a plagiarism of WoW and EQ. He might as well have said so himself in the interview.

This is not the future of MMO gaming.

Every other upcoming MMO offers so much more than FFXIV is about to start offering, and they did it all without actually plagiarising WoW. Yoshi needs to wake the hell up and realise everything he suggests (steals from WoW) isn't worth implementation.

Please enlighten me as to how Tanaka's original direction, if any, was good.

Yoshida is adding things that have become standards in MMOs, that this one was completely lacking. It STILL lacks dozens of things that are standard in MMOs.

[Reinheart]

who translated this cause it looks like google did... naga jikan no sora no tabi wo otanoshimi itadaku... 'the down-time of the trip is yours to enjoy.' No idea where they found the negative modifier-- unless it was google, then it probably saw the narimasen and flip-flopped everything >:|

also, naka jikan doesn't necessarily mean a long-time, it more commonly refers to a length of time


EDIT:
Literal -- 'the time of air-travel (length of time of air of travel) enjoyment <you can have this>'

You know Japanese? I translated this. You just translated SECTION of the the whole sentence.

Example: I ate a hamburger, but I didn't like it - you just took the part "I ate a hamburger" and assumed that person likes it.

Senyou Map-ga atte choujikan no sora no tabi wo otanoshimi itadaku... to iu youna shiyou niha narimasen.
Enjoying the long travel in the skies... it's not that way

Don't mislead people with crap like that, learn that Japanese language sentence structure is different from English.

というような仕様にはなりません - It doesn't become a specification. (From Excite Translator: http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/)

Here try the whole sentence in Japanese into that excite translator:

There is exclusive use MAP and it doesn't become a specification said that it will enjoy air travel for a long time.

Had to reply to this one, kind of ticked me off...


ALSO it's not NAKA JIKAN, learn to read the JP right if you going to say someone is wrong.
It's CHOU JIKAN - LONG TIME.

[Ashthra]

The thing, gift, isn't that they're trying to offer nothing new -- it's that they're trying to put in things that everyone else has. Do you think they're going to entice players with OMFGNEWSTUFFSZZLIKEWTFDUDES!!!1! without having a battle system that works? Or mail? Or transportation beyond running? Or...you know, anything at all?

The OMFGNEWSTUFF that Tanaka added was unfinished donkey crap. Maybe it could've been good, but not only was it NOT good, everything else that comes standard with every other modern MMO was left out at the expense of this OMFGNEWSTUFF that wasn't even finished properly. You want the game to flounder around even more so we can get the OMFGNEWSTUFF that probably won't ever work "working"? "Hey, guys, we know these systems are crap, but we're intent on seeing it through and making it the shiniest, most rosy-smelling crap you guys have ever seen!" Oh yeah, you're really winning people over now, yes sir.

Afraid that in tearing Tanaka's poor unfinished dream down that they're turning the game into a generic copypasta of WoW and/or FFXI? Well, those are successful. Guess what isn't? FFXIV.

Bring on the bulldozers.

[Richard]

You know Japanese? I translated this. You just translated SECTION of the the whole sentence.

Example: I ate a hamburger, but I didn't like it - you just took the part "I ate a hamburger" and assumed that person likes it.

Senyou Map-ga atte choujikan no sora no tabi wo otanoshimi itadaku... to iu youna shiyou niha narimasen.
Enjoying the long travel in the skies... it's not that way

Don't mislead people with crap like that, learn that Japanese language sentence structure is different from English.

というような仕様にはなりません - It doesn't become a specification. (From Excite Translator: http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/)

Had to reply to this one, kind of ticked me off...

Reinheart to the rescue!

[giftforce]

Please enlighten me as to how Tanaka's original direction, if any, was good.

Yoshida is adding things that have become standards in MMOs, that this one was completely lacking. It STILL lacks dozens of things that are standard in MMOs.

Proving that Tanaka was bad doesn't make Yoshi good.

One redeeming feature of Tanaka, however, was that he actually took ownership of the game and, under his leadership, the development team still put forth ideas that helped further the genre; tHe armory and crafting systems, for example, and player run companies, etc.

And what does Yoshi give us? The promise of auto attack and quest hubs. These aren't freaking standards anymore!

[Richard]

Prosper? I've seen nothing but systematic destruction of the MMO Yoshi was supposedly put in charge to help save.

Job system? LOL. Wrong game yoshi you fool. At least make it work within the confines of the armory system instead of replacing it!

Who put these ignoramuses in charge?

They don't even have the courage to delete the armory system that they obviously hate so much. They hear some people want jobs so they try to fit an incompatible system on top of another.

You want to hear about mangling an MMO, look no further than Yoshi P.

Im not saying Tanaka is good. Im saying Yoshi has no freakin idea.

/comfort =/ I feel so bad for you lol

[Wolfie]

Proving that Tanaka was bad doesn't make Yoshi good.

Your argument was that Yoshi is bad for the game. I countered that saying that he's adding in features to the game that have become genre standard. Your counter argument to that is that Tanaka was an innovator and his novel ideas were good for the game and/or genre. I'm asking you to back up those claims.

One redeeming feature of Tanaka, however, was that he actually took ownership of the game

Irrelevant. Being a director and/or producer means nothing in terms of innovation or the good of the game/genre.

and, under his leadership, the development team still put forth ideas that helped further the genre; tHe armory

The armor system has been bashed up and down by everyone because it creates homogeneous, bland classes. It's impossible to create any sort of class distinction in it, when its basic premise is that you can equip abilities from any class unto any class. To create distinction, you need to have abilities that are unequippable by other classes -- which is going in the opposite direction of the armory system.

and crafting systems

Also has been bashed up and down because of the monotony involved with crafting, the ridiculous interdependency between crafting jobs, stupidly rigid recipes, and the fact that crafting classes are considered viable main classes (meaning that all main story line quests or content that the devs want everyone to see need to be easy boring snoozefests).

for example, and player run companies, etc.

You mean, guilds? Whooo boy, really innovative here.

And what does Yoshi give us? The promise of auto attack and quest hubs. These aren't freaking standards anymore!

Yes they are.

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

Isn't everything a recreation of something of the past, but with better technology? Nothing is really "new" in MMOs for the past decade. It's just executed correctly and simple minds are intellectually incapable of knowing it's a remodel. That doesn't make it horrible though. It's just going to come down to how it is presented.

Many of Tanaka's visions (which were not totally of his own btw) were all recreations of crap that's been done before. The execution was tremendously off, and our TL;DR and ADD gamer generation, if you don't stick to your base in the first two weeks... you're done. Years of development and a failed launch was enough to push to demote him. Plenty.

If the PS3 version is a dud and the revision of FFXIV is unsuccessful, not only will this game be cut off, so will Yoshida. This is as fair as what happened to the previous director.

[Fleur]

Wow, long thread! I was feeling kind of pessimistic about this game, but this letter gave me a little hope. I am happy to see that the devs understand how, um, disliked the whole leve-based leveling thing is by many people.

And getting people into other cities by making marks for each class only available in the city with the guild is a really neat idea! I do have a small worry about that though when it comes to gathering classes. As a miner, I find that different regions tend to have an abundance of different items. For example, if I want silver (which I do, as a goldsmith), I will go to Humblehearth. Granted, a dedicated gatherer will probably do leves and gathering in at least two regions each cycle. But I do wonder if this could potentially skew the supply of gathered materials in favor of those more common in the region with the associated guild.

And on another note, the stealth ability sounds great. Quarry spots tend to be in caves, which are often filled with skeletons, bats, and other such unfriendly critters.

[Richard]

If the PS3 version is a dud and the revision of FFXIV is unsuccessful, not only will this game be cut off, so will Yoshida. This is as fair as what happened to the previous director.

Exactly. PS3 is the defining point of XIV.