A Letter to The Producer

[Cutie_McSnuggles]

I like the thought you put behind this and agree with almost everything you have to say.

Transparency
I really don't understand why this has gone away. I used to know what was planned for XIV and the directions you were taking me. Now it feels like I have a blindfold and can't help the feeling you don't want me to know where the destination is. Roadmaps, as simple as they were, were an important communication tool with the players. Yes, the roadmaps were notoriously late, but it was better than nothing at all. On top of that, I knew the changes you wanted to make. I don't know beyond in game cliff hangers and speculation what's coming next anymore besides the hints at what's around the corner. I also feel that you can benefit in showing us how things will work more clearly before release so you can avoid some of these player backlashes such as Atma or Hunts. You say you have years ahead planned if my memory serves me correct. So please, show us your plans like you once did.

Yoshi has actually talked about this a few times somewhat unofficially. But basically he got tired of people calling him a lair if something didn't come out exactly when he said it would or exactly the way it was first described. Plans change and bugs crop up, and as much as the dev team would like to keep us in the loop they also don't want us to feel lied to if for some reason or another something doesn't happen when they planned for it to happen.

50% of your post can be tldr'd as "i hate fates"

Actually she never said "I hate FATEs." What she said was, "I hate waiting on FATEs" Which I can totally agree with. I think doing FATEs is fun when I happen to run across them, but having to sit there and wait for a specific FATE is not fun.

[Taliph]

Yoshi has actually talked about this a few times somewhat unofficially. But basically he got tired of people calling him a lair if something didn't come out exactly when he said it would or exactly the way it was first described. Plans change and bugs crop up, and as much as the dev team would like to keep us in the loop they also don't want us to feel lied to if for some reason or another something doesn't happen when they planned for it to happen.

Honestly someone that self conscious shouldn't be heading a dev team, let alone producing an a-rate video game.

Edit: all I am trying to say is that yoshi needs to take a lesson from ducks, let the hate slide off his back like water.

[ApolloGenX]

Honestly someone that self conscious shouldn't be heading a dev team, let alone producing an a-rate video game.

Edit: all I am trying to say is that yoshi needs to take a lesson from ducks, let the hate slide off his back like water.

This. It's part of the job... inconvenience to one person or insecurity is no excuse to alter a business practice or provide an inferior customer experience. I say this as someone that is in charge of developing a product... and yes, people can be unreasonable in expectations... that is irrelevant - your job is your job. He could share a more generalized road map... but transparency was great during beta... it really set them apart - now it's gone.

[Tsuga]

but transparency was great during beta... it really set them apart - now it's gone.

It really did feel like we were being listened to in Alpha and Beta, then we could actually see that they were listening. A post would get a dev response and by the next phase we'd see the changes.

I felt like the live letters - though the questions were hand picked by the community reps - were also a great venue for Yoshida and the devs to be upfront about the future of the game, and a great way for them to respond directly to concerns about the bigger picture of FFXIV. Now it just feels like all they are are marketing pushes for the next patch.

[kidvideo]

but having to sit there and wait for a specific FATE is not fun.

You don't "have" to actually do this. You choose to.

[AmyNeudaiz]

You don't "have" to actually do this. You choose to.

If you wish to complete the quest, you have to.

[kidvideo]

If you wish to complete the quest, you have to.

Well, specifically, you need to complete the objective. But you are choosing the focus on that single objective & sit at the spawn location until the fate pops. The act of excluding all other content options is your choice.

I need a fate if Coerthas to finish a book. Rather than wait however long in would take, I ran around doing other fates, ran &/or teleported to hunt coordinates, helped another player defeat a quest mob, used the duty roulette/finder, & dealt with retainers returning from ventures. In the end, I eventually got the fate i needed. When I logged off for the day, I felt I accomplished a lot.

Had I done nothing but wait for a 4 hour fate pop, I'd probably not be very happy about that experience.