Why is Yoshi-P so loved for a head dev?

[Lovescake]

He's helped me find peach on so many levels.

http://i.imgur.com/yRyC38k.jpg

[hallena]

Yoshida is very good at creating the illusion of communication with the playerbase. To the point where a lot of people are convinced their input actually matters in the development of this game. He's a very good business man if anything.

Right, because player's suggestion had absolutely nothing to do with aoe stoneskin, Eternal bond's ring teleportation, loot revamp in 3.0, separate lockout for gear and carboncoat in world of darkness, that black helmet thingy that was introduced in 2.4 or 2.45 i forgot, Lockout change in coil, increased drop rate on atma, horse, mirror and ramuh weapons

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Right, because player's suggestion had absolutely nothing to do with aoe stoneskin, Eternal bond's ring teleportation, loot revamp in 3.0, separate lockout for gear and carboncoat in world of darkness, that black helmet thingy that was introduced in 2.4 or 2.45 i forgot, Lockout change in coil, increased drop rate on atma, horse, mirror and ramuh weapons

Well, obviously. They were all planned ahead of time.

[FranSeara]

Yoshi-P Rules!!!

ps:PLEASE KEEP CLASSES IN THE GAME.

[NaliaBrown]

I agree with what others above have said. To us fans, he's like a rock star. A random fan came up to him on the street during the Vegas fan fest and asked if he'd do the Manderville with him. And he did it! Things like that are cool!

[Nyalia]

He means well, he does his best to listen to what people say, he's open/honest about how he feels about things (how many game developers have openly said "Sorry, our game is really terrible, we'll see if we can rework it from scratch for you guys?" The only thing I don't like about him is that he's big on defending game-related decisions that are out of his control (cash shop (made by marketing), housing decisions (made by the hardware team), etc).

My biggest problems with dev to player communication are actually with the NA localization team. I don't like some of their translations. The housing mess was especially amplified by mistranslations causing miscommunication about what Yoshida actually said (the people who are quoting him in their sigs - you do know that's not him speaking, as he doesn't speak English well, but translations of things he said, right?), and the Eternal Bond mess where some players permanently lost game items they paid cash for was caused by mistranslations of the Eternal Bond website (which are still there...) giving wrong impressions.

For what he is in control of, he does a great job. Not everyone working on FFXIV:ARR is amazing, but Yoshida's work seems pretty solid. I mean, you can blame him for everything his team does, especially when he backs them up (like any good project lead should, imo), but that's rather disingenuous.

[Edellis]

No head dev I know from any MMO is loved or liked yet this guy is BEYOND loved.

WHAT makes this guy SO great compare to any other dev from any MMO?

Do you guys know why?

Sure. First lets look at other big names at Square Enix:

1) Tetsyua Nomura...is a visual director, a character designer. And his stories are absolutely dreadful. I liked him alot more when he was just a character designer, now he's directing games, and none of them are getting released. Also, the cast of XV looks hilarious.

2) Motomu Toriyama...well, apparently he's a great event director. So it's no surprise whatsoever that FFXIII was a game that's barely a game and more one 40-hour long event sequence, because he directed it.

3) Hajime Tabata...is the guy behind Type-0, Crisis Core and 3rd Birthday. None of these are bad games. But 2 of them ARE terrible fanservice cash-outs, which is unsurprising seeing as they're all PSP titles.

Now for Yoshida: FFXIV ARR is pretty much the first FF game made since the end of the PS2 (2006) that everyone generally agrees is a great game, critics and fans alike. And this is probably my favorite part about Yoshida, but it's pretty clear that he's a fan of Final Fantasy as a GAME SERIES and a gamer, not just a "game where numbers pop up" or "story-driven experience" with a bunch of black-clad spikey haired wierdos. This is the biggest difference I feel between Yoshida and his team vs. Nomura and the other developers at square enix. Yoshida is clearly a GAMER before anything else, and it shows with his decisions and inspirations. He takes information from the fans as a template, but still relies on his intuition as a developer to not just fanservice the game to death.

Thats why I like the guy. I know you asked for other MMO developers, but I used the ones at SE because honestly, the contrast of the other square enix guys is why Yoshida shines so much imo.


So TL;DR: I think people like Yoshida so much because above all, it feels like ARR is a game that's being developed by a fellow gamer, instead of a director with a success flowchart. ARR doesn't take many risks, and it doesn't really do anything new at all, but what it DOES do feels self-aware and solid enough to work, and that's all that matters -- the game is fun.

[GalkaBikini]

It doesn't take long to realize that Yoshi-P is very passionate about his job and the game, and he's very humble. He loves to laugh and smile, you can tell he loves life. He's very active in the community and he will always be known as the the producer that turned a dying MMO around, which is unheard of. And he does actually play FFXIV a lot, you'd be surprised how few game developers even play their own games... Some people are just looking to make a living - but others are truly passionate about what they do. Everything I've said here about him is 10x when comparing Yoshi-P to any other MMO producer.

[Nominous]

Have you seen how the guy dresses? Anybody with amazing fashion sense like that is bound to be popular.

[JediShecky]

anyone that jumps onto a sinking ship and saves it should be loved.

This is so dead on!