An Open Letter to Mr. Yoshida: Patch 2.38

[moggy]

(VROOM VROOM HERE COMES THE TEXT)

Yoshida-san:

I think you knew when you posted the “we’re sorry, but not sorry enough to change anything” post when patch notes started circulating (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t....38-and-Beyond) that the general reaction to the handling of Free Company and Personal Housing was not going to be a good one. There is a whole other dialogue to be had about the handling of things like the inevitable land race that will, once again, consume servers with heavier populations. Last patch, we were offered one new FC housing ward. With only FCs buying plots, on many Legacy servers land was sold out within one to two hours of maintenance ending. Now imagine people rushing to get personal plots in the exact same space as well as free companies trying to obtain THEIR plots. What’s been created here is so far a disappointing disaster.

But as I said, that is an entirely different matter.

What is most upsetting is that it seems the entirety of the FFXIV crew involved in the planning of these subjects was purposely secretive about it until now because of the controversy it would inevitably create. There have been months upon months of conversation where the players were under the belief that personal housing was going to be A) a separate district, not to fall into the landrush of FC districts and B) much cheaper. I know I, and many players, are talking about how it seems that development teams have intentionally been misleading their players to avoid backlash. When players were asking the prices of personal housing, why not just say that it was going to be a lazy rehash of FC housing in which the land race issue will not be solved, but worsened? Instead many people were under the impression – and the development team did nothing to contradict these assumptions, even built up these notions – that personal housing would be something away from the FC stampede. Personal housing was talked about as if it were a selling point to keep people who have been waiting on FC availability for months hoping for something. And while some people may say that the talk of personal housing being different from FC housing was just hear-say, the fact remains that there was a distinct attempt at being vague in order to mislead people into thinking personal housing was going to be its own feature.

FFXIV is a great game. It has come such a long way from what it had once been but ultimately, the practices of the developers and the executives is what makes the experience. People. Want. Honesty. It is not about the price of personal houses being too high, or the wards being overfilled with people who will likely have to wait another patch cycle or three to even be able to glimpse FC and Personal housing. Personal housing was hyped up to be this brand new feature, where people who don’t want to be in a Free Company can spend a decent amount of hard-earned gil to have a home for themselves. What we got was a worsening of an already terrible situation. Furthermore it seems that people are not at all assuaged by the promise of doubling the land available in 2.4. Doubling? FFXIV ARR was proud to boast over 2 million subscribers not long ago. Do you see the issue with releasing limited wards in a game with millions of players all wanting to access content that was promised, especially on servers with a very high number of people?

Even if there were to be hundreds of wards released with a ‘revamp’ of the game’s infrastructures, it doesn’t change the fact that people are upset now and a lot of players are talking about how poorly the announcement in general was handled. This is not Schrodinger’s cat. Just because you refuse to acknowledge the issue does not mean there is both anger and not anger at the same time. Sometimes it’s easier to just disappoint people ahead of time than disappoint them when they’re already angry over being intentionally kept in the dark.

I – and the people who are coming together on this little rant – encourage you take a simple look at the reactions to these decisions around the internet. A simple search through the #FFXIV tag on Tumblr should show you all you need to know about how your players are feeling. Even a quick look around your own forums should tell you everything.

Sorry for the walls of text,

Moggy, his friends and FC, and an angry chocobo.

[BroodingFicus]

You hit the proverbial nail on the head my dear. Land race and wounded expectations aside, the fact of the matter is this whole issue could have been solved if someone had just stood up and said ‘Personal housing is just FC housing. It’s not cheaper, it’s not new, it’s not anything’. You already had a player base of angry FC’s waiting for housing but at least you had the optimistic ‘oh I’ll just wait for personal housing’ lot riding on the left flank. Now? Well, as Moggy says, the forums etc say it all. Some may claim a miscommunication but I can only see an intentional game of smoke and mirrors to keep players from preemptively throwing tomatoes.

[Zephyranthes]

We need over 2.3 million individual land plots...

[Saol_Eile]

It feels more like misdirection and not miscommunication.

I myself am sorely disappointed by the housing direction. I wasn't expecting anything big; wards with rows of identical small houses would have been met better by us players.....the price doesn't concern me as much as the fact that on larger servers some peopl just may not ever get to own a personal home, or have an FC house of the size they want. This is disappointing the extreme for me in which some of the people I've been attempting to get to come back or to start playing absolutely will not enjoy this system and simply put won't come back.

Extreme, yes. But personal housing was touted as something completely different and we all expected so much more from ARR as you've been doing right by us for so long here. The secrecy, the misdirection....that hurts more than the implementation. I'm almost waiting to see a gil cost or some other ridiculous requirement attached to the NIN job now.

[BroodingFicus]

I think that really is the most valid point Saol. I don't mind the work. If I have a goal, I'm fine working toward it slowly at my own pace. However, this is not an obtainable goal. I still remember when FC housing released and something along the lines of 'we know this is expensive but we estimate within six months of housing drop everyone can at least afford a small plot if they work at it'. *waves arms around grand gesture style*. We can. Only the part they left out was, they would never give us enough housing for everyone. This is more of the same.

[Eupheryce]

I'm repeating what I said on my blog but:

This really isn't fair to anyone. We were told that player housing wouldn't be as expensive as FC housing and FCs have already been begging for more land because there's simply not enough on the Legacy servers. There was already a land race between Free Companies and now they're throwing all of us--Free Companies and individuals-- into the added wards to make us fight over it like it's Battle Royale.

4 million isn't a lot of money on a Legacy server for many of the DoL and DoH players. It's not.

The challenge that Free Companies faced was rising through the ranks in order to purchase land. Today, I ground through the Grand Company ranks in preparation for personal housing with very little effort on my part. I have 4.5 million saved up, so I could secure a plot if I rushed as soon as the servers open up. But this isn't about me. It's about the Free Companies that have been waiting for months for new wards, and now they have to compete with the wealthy player base. I know Mercs with 40 million gil, and money is no object to them in this game.

Doesn't it make more sense to keep the companies and the individual players separate? Have the individuals compete among themselves, and the Free Companies competing as usual so it's all on fair ground. The difficulty of purchasing land is unbalanced between the two. There wasn't enough land to go around already, so how is this supposed to be seen as a positive addition to the game?

This is just lazy. It would have been better to wait and release quality content, like the separation of personal housing wards like we were expecting, than rush and produce poor results.

[Arky]

Plots before and after the patch.
What's the difference?
None, the house is the same size, has the same features minus the ability to have FC rooms.

Think about how broken the housing system would be, if people individually could buy a small house for 800k.

The housing system would be completely destroyed, it wouldn't make any sense at all for an FC to purchase a house at all. I like the new system, it pushes that sense of community, even for individuals. If you can't make the money alone, work with a community to buy it, it pushes that sense of working together.

In the end, this is an MMO, it keeps the balance and the health of the game. For those concerned about something more personal, maybe you should push for some expansion on inn rooms, it's not flashy, but it would work on the current instance system and they'd only be changing the ability to allow people inside.

[Empressia]

Can't wait for the incoming land grab race and login server exploded after maintenance done hence moar shitstorm on the forum!

[BroodingFicus]

I think you may have missed the point love. Making the money isn't an issue. Anyone can make gil, alone or together, given time. The frustration is that once you reach that goal you still cannot obtain land. There isn't enough to go around and going by the 'apology' we have received, there won't be for a very long time. In fact, after this my bet is it will get worse. At least the 'mercs' etc in question were caught off guard so the FC's might have a chance. That will not be true next patch. Even if they released 10 wards in 2.4, I would bet money they will be swallowed on Balmung in four hours or less.

[Arky]

I think you may have missed the point love. Making the money isn't an issue. Anyone can make gil, alone or together, given time. The frustration is that once you reach that goal you still cannot obtain land. There isn't enough to go around and going by the 'apology' we have received, there won't be for a very long time. In fact, after this my bet is it will get worse. At least the 'mercs' etc in question were caught off guard so the FC's might have a chance. That will not be true next patch. Even if they released 10 wards in 2.4, I would bet money they will be swallowed on Balmung in four hours or less.

I highly doubt this. Hold on to money, be thrifty, then log in and buy a plot. It's fairly simple...