Thoughts on players of the community.

[SkizzleofRagnarok]

Greetings all!
I would like the opinions from the 1.0-1.23 and FFXI players that are active on this forum on a few of the things here.

From looking at the replies of many people that are active on these forums it feels like the majority of players are people from WoW who needed an envoirmental change.
SE and Yoshi P are doing a fantastic job as a overall business when it comes to profit from a brand most of us love and enjoy.
5m accounts does not mean 5 million active subscribers we all know this. Still 5 million accounts still mean that its atleast 5m games that got sold for 39,99euros minimum thats amazing!

My thoughts are since the majority of the gamers now out of these 5m accounts are clearly people from a WoW envoirment and gaming mentality do you guys feel like they are controlling the path of this game and their voice is heard more than everyone else?

[Arabian_Wolf]

I only played 1.0 beta for 10 mins then never came back again,

And since then played on 2.0 , the community back then was far more wonderful than now for example:

Back in the days in dungeos when I tell player to DPS marked target when they aren't, they apologize and DPS target then we all laugh and live happily ever after.

Now in HW, I tell them the same, they start arguing about how bad I am in my role (a Tank), nevertheless I argue bit of them till their true colors appear then I vote dismiss them.

Call me brutal but I don't need an elitist douchbag in my group telling me how to play my role (which I am not perfect at but managed to tank most extreme Primals and up to BC T6 pre-HW) when he/she isn't doing his/her role properly.

So yeah sadly more WoW babies mentality is slowly poisoning the game social and playstyle aspects.

[Black_Rose]

i don't know, i think it's rather a trend of how things work these days in MMORPGs.
With 1.0 the game itself played and felt completely different, so it also had a different approach.
but with 2.0 the game started heading more into the mainstream scene.

i think the feedback of players plays a role in development, but not big enough to actually completely change it into something that was only tailored according to that feedback.

looking back to the feedback & the votes that SE held for 1.0 and how it should turn out to be in 2.0, i never really expected this game.
sure, some changes yes, but this game did a complete 180° turn.
looking back at that, i feel like it was in SEs interest to actually turn FFXIV into a mainstream mmorpg.
after all they could have kept working on 1.0 to keep its style and gameplay but change it to make it more comfortable on the players.maybe they didn't have enough trust in themselfs? noone knows.

[SkizzleofRagnarok]

Arabian_Wolf: OUt of a mainstream perspective and a business the concern is getting as much money as possible and make something successful. SE is still a stock company so they have a board and investors etc that also have a final saying in things. You saw the event from 2 days ago. Yoshi P and his gang are working their asses off for everyone. The question then comes down to who is everyone? Its the current majority who maybe? can't handle the overwhelming gameplay of 1.23 or something that FFXI had to offer? That can be a case but also it can be reversed into not underestimating the new market either.
You can be an MMORPG that follows trend and lend elements from everything thats already been there because a market says so out of business perspective or shape the market like Blizzard shaped the path of MMORPG during their prime time and introduce something new. Final Fantasy is a solid namebrand by itself so it can catch someones interest from the start and shape it into something unique. Its ofcourse kinda too late to change course now. SE has two MMORPGs up right now so who knows maybe they can have a new MMORPG aswell thats also a Final Fantasy MMORPG that goes horizontal who knows

[Arabian_Wolf]

@Skizzle: I am seeing that the game already flying close and almost ahead of WoW, as you can see 5m active subscribers in the game right now, thing is with more people the social aspects of the game won't be as good as when the game only had 1m or even 2m subscribers and it is apparant in my previous reply.

[Moonleg]

Skizzle, just ... Let it go, okay? This will never become FFXI-2 no matter how much you lust for it.

[Canadane]

I've played since 1.0 release.
The game has gone under a natural transition. There was a reason 1.0 had to be scrapped, as great as 1.23 was at the end. I still miss 1.0 today, but most players are not me.
I do miss the attention to detail 1.0 had. I miss the weight, the inertia, the motion capture, the transitionless zoning, almost all of it.

But I do not believe the game would have ever thrived, even if it had a proper launch without the negative media attention. It simply wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for the dramatic and drastic rebuild.

If you want to put this to more of a XI vs WoW style player, yes, I do believe that I'm well in the minority. And you need to appeal to the masses, it's the logical thing for any business to do.

All I can do is keep asking for my 1.0 buttocks and tail armour back, hoping one day, it might happen.

[SkizzleofRagnarok]

Canadane: That is why I asked the question to hear the thoughts and opinions of people who where here from the start. Its not even a FFXI vs everyone discussion im asking about how the community looks atm.

[KaiKatzchen]

Greetings all!
I would like the opinions from the 1.0-1.23 and FFXI players that are active on this forum on a few of the things here.

From looking at the replies of many people that are active on these forums it feels like the majority of players are people from WoW who needed an envoirmental change.
SE and Yoshi P are doing a fantastic job as a overall business when it comes to profit from a brand most of us love and enjoy.
5m accounts does not mean 5 million active subscribers we all know this. Still 5 million accounts still mean that its atleast 5m games that got sold for 39,99euros minimum thats amazing!

My thoughts are since the majority of the gamers now out of these 5m accounts are clearly people from a WoW envoirment and gaming mentality do you guys feel like they are controlling the path of this game and their voice is heard more than everyone else?

Note: The following is simply my opinion.

Hi Skizz~!

Ok I would like to respond to this - but I will say this, I feel the title of the thread does not match the end result question that you are asking. When I clicked on this I thought you wanted people opinion on the community and how it has progressed since XI and 1.0 - The resulting question at the end was not the question I thought it would be, so it comes out more of a:

I thought: What do we think about the players and community?
But I feel it is: Who do you think is controlling the path of the game?

So last question first - Whose voice do I feel is being heard more?

In my mind the people who are on the forums are being heard, regardless of what gaming background they come from - that said I feel like a majority of the player base does not come to the forums so a small percentage of actual players are being heard. Seeing these games are here for feedback, of course the people that have issues with the game are going to be the larger majority - it is a proven fact (at least in the good old US of A) that people are more prone to complain about something they have an issue with, then give praise on something that they enjoyed or thought was done well.

Example: Two families go to dinner - one has a wonderful, perfect A+ time. The other has the worst experience of their life and will never go back. Who is more so going to speak to the manager of the place, or take the time to call the corporate office and give their feedback. Of course it will be the unhappy family.

And thus it works with this game - those who do not like things about the game are more apt to come here and complain, ask for change and be far more vocal over their frustrations. But those who enjoy the game, or do not wish to take the time to actually give feed back because their dislike is so minuscule it is not worth the effort - are more apt not to bother. So the people shaping this game, giving feedback and letting their voice be heard are most likely the people who are more so vocal over things they dislike - regardless of them being XI players, 1.0 players or players from another MMO. Now that does not mean everyone on the forums is here to complain - but judging from the threads - Yes people more so come here and post when something has happened that is not of their liking.

As for the reason I thought this thread was about - Thoughts on the players of the community:

There is defiantly a disconnect between players now and players then. Call it the new generation of players or whatever you wish to call it. But as I continue to play MMO's I find myself running into more and more players that can come of rude, negative and toxic.

Back in XI ones server was their world and the community was very much about protecting that. If there was a rude, mean or whatever player their name was very known. They were basically outcasts and no one would help them and the community (itself) protected one another. It was very rare that you ran into a mean player, or had someone be rude. They knew that it would be spread around like wildfire and could hurt their progression so people tended to be kind to one another or at least polite. It was very much a 'if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all' mentality. At least this was the experience on my server.

In 1.0 which I played since Alpha - well of course the community was nice because for the most part all you had were the loyal hard core fans who wanted to be there and wanted to play. They wanted to help make the game better and give feedback. Once again your server was your world and if a player messed up people knew it and avoided that person (and I knew a few, believe me). The forums were balanced and polite because we were all trying to help SE improve a game that we felt was a good base - but needed to be improved upon.

2.0 is when I feel things started to change. Of course when a game gets popular it's going to attract a lot of players and that is wonderful for SE and their bottom line, but yes people are going to see a lot more players that aren't the sweetest people.

Also the fact that ones server is no longer their world, to me the Duty Finder is like money, a necessary evil. People don't really have to worry about their reputation on their server or getting things done. They can be kind sweet wonderful people - or rude mean and harassing individuals and there is nothing the community can do but report them. I think we all know that the GM's can't jump on everyone every time someone's feelings get hurt - so who knows how many complains are actually looked into. The GM's do what they can and I appreciate what they do - but I'm not going to believe they can cover 100% of everything that is turned in.

So now we are in a game where you are tossed into a situation where people can act as they please - they can't be blacklisted and unless they do something that is just beyond inappropriate, chances are they won't get in trouble for being reported. A good reputation no longer matters because people can do as they like and don't need a 'community' to help them - they can hop in the DF and get whatever they need despite how they may come off or treat others.

I think if SE took away the DF, and people had to only work and interact with people on their own servers we would see a big change in attitude. Now it would depend on community. Now it would depend on how they would treat one another. Now it would depend on a person reputation within a very set society that could blacklist them in a heartbeat.

So has the overall feel of the community changed, yes. I feel grateful on a daily basis that I know so many wonderful people on my server that I can play with - or at least take a few of them into a DF with me. It has made my experience in the game a million times better. Now if only the whole community could treat one another with respect, if it did I think this would be one of the best MMO's out there. Unfortunately this is a pipe-dream and unless either SE takes away DF and makes people responsible for their reputation on their server or gives us a Data Center blackslist for DF all we can do is continue to be good people and helpful - and try and avoid the negative ones.

Over all I feel that the community here is a very good one - but you know what they say, it only takes 1 bad apple to spoil the bunch and because people are more apt to remember the times they were treated badly, than the times they were treated well. That is why there are tons of posts on 'was kicked from DF' or 'this person did this to me and it made me so mad', but you never see people posting about good experiences that they had, or when people helped them and were kind to them.

[StrejdaTom]

I believe the game is going in the direction YoshiP wants. I think that community has the ability to shape the game a bit by its suggestions but the core of the game is what YoshiP intended. I would like FFXIV to go more in the way of FFXI, but if I remember right, YoshiP is looking up to other more successful MMOs so it might look like he is listening more to suggestions connected to these games while he is just shaping the game as he intended.. and in my opinion there is nothing wrong with that, because if people from SE didn't follow their initial idea, the game would end up in shapeless state.

I would like to repeat that this is just mine opinion, I can't see into devs' heads.