Dear Yoshi P: What is your vision?

[Azurymber]

Letter from the Producer. They come out on almost a bi weekly basis. Read them. Poor over old ones. You'll find your answers. They won't be definite but they're the best you can get. Also read the 4gamer interviews and the Gamasutra interview. You can then start pinning a philosophy on his style then you'll get an idea, while fuzzy, of his vision.

You need to do the legwork.

I've read pretty well every update and interview and all I see is someone saying "We are fixing the game, it will be fun, we wont tell you when or how but someday it will be fun"

[Sonic_the_Hedgehog]

As someone said, FFXIV is not very feature-rich. FFXIV has like no features. We don't need to know the details of the story and have it spoiled for us, but we would like to know in what guise the lore will be told to us or how it will play (large scale PvE, siege warfare, PvP, dynamic quest chains, sandbox features, player run companies, naval battles, swimming, blah blah blah), and also why they are implementing these features over other features (i.e., what is the design philosophy behind the game and what do they think will make a good MMO that will compete in today's market).


Gosh, you act like we asked what's the meaning of life or something.

Well if you stopped getting banned, Yoshi-P has said he wants to implement most of that stuff you listed. Also they're probably implementing whatever they can get out the fastest.

[Sonic_the_Hedgehog]

I've read pretty well every update and interview and all I see is someone saying "We are fixing the game, it will be fun, we wont tell you when or how but someday it will be fun"

How in the hell are they gonna tell you something that's subjective? The game is going to become fun at different points for different people. Also they've been telling us what they're gonna implement, look at the last two Yoshi-P letters. It's not their problem that you're too impatient.

[weeble]

I wonder what Tanaka's vision for this game was? Did he even have one? I guess it was to create an even bigger time sink than FFXI and to keep people playing as less as possible.

i have mix feelings on this but i think a better one then yoshi's.

i saw, 15man groups grinding like campaign battles all day long. people jumping in and out of these groups in every zone all day long like in ffxi. i saw, well that was all i saw lmao... it was in a great direction though. nothing else from then and now is any different. i don't like the missions(they missing the party play and battles) but i think tanaka might of made them better if didn't launch early, seriously the game was absolutely empty. also grinds, some people acually not delute themselfs to how much hours they play a mmo ..some like grinds. and even without i still say tanaka's only few idea's were absolutely better then yoshi's so far.

[Rhomagus]

In fact, while I am at it, there are many things that make me think there is no real, definitive design strategy.

Once Yoshi mentioned "bringing FFXIV to standard". He said that there were lots of things "MMO players" (ha, like they're all the same!)They share a common thread. expect from an MMO which FFXIV doesnt have. And that he intends now to implement these things.Like proper controls, an involving storyline, a sense of danger, ties to the game world, a mount system etc. etc. They are very broad things. People expect very broad things from an MMO because it's such a broad demographic.

So then you have to wonder: "is there anything else to his leadership than imitating what other MMOs have done?"There might not be. I'm sure if you look deeper you'll find that there is, but if that's as far down the rabbit hole as you wish to go then you're safe to make that assumption.

That doesn't inspire much enthusiasm.That sucks. He doesn't need to. He needs to make good on his promises and be trustworthy. That's his first priority. You don't have the patience, that's your own fault. If enough people think like you then the game will suffer. Then that's the way it will be. Fortunately he stuck to trying to regain trust, but to do that he's not going to make outlandish claims. Read the 4gamer interviews then you'll know. And quite frankly frightens me, because FFXIV is quite an atypical MMO in many respects and I'm glad of it!As am I but they circumvented one of the major things that I thought made it stand apart. I just hope he shows some restraint when he hacks away at the game with the pretense of standardising it.He probably will but he'll design with that philosophy in mind and attempt to differentiate XIV through other means.

Start studying. The quotes I provided in the second post are a good start.

[Rhomagus]

i'm kinda thinking same way user is, there is i'm sure a set goal. ..other then please as many people as possible there must be concrete stem they are building the mmo with. it is all i'm seeing myself in the changes, they started off with a vision to be a specific game and now it's in motion to be a game to please all? but that is the only part of the vision i can see right now.

Because that's the only part of the vision he can confidently offer.

[Azurymber]

How in the hell are they gonna tell you something that's subjective? The game is going to become fun at different points for different people. Also they've been telling us what they're gonna implement, look at the last two Yoshi-P letters. It's not their problem that you're too impatient.

Personally I don't care. I want the game to be successful though and as someone who works in marketing I realize that not having a clear vision when a bunch of better more competitive games are coming out will result in a disaster even if the game gets good.

I'm not asking for him to lay out a bunch of crazy details. Just simply state what his plans for the next year or so are in general. like what he -wishes- he could do. just so players can get an understanding of what FFXIV will be like in the future.

To put it another way, if Yoshi P had to advertise this game 2 years from now what would the ad be like? Would there be epic dragon fights? Zones for pvp? tons of raids? etc.

[weeble]

Because that's the only part of the vision he can confidently offer.

but that one thing made this game absolutely better in my opinion. but either way minus that what do u have... nothing right now. what would we have in same time with tanaka? dunno but i would of liked to have seen that over yoshi's.

[Rhomagus]

As someone said, FFXIV is not very feature-rich. FFXIV has like no features. We don't need to know the details of the story and have it spoiled for us, but we would like to know in what guise the lore will be told to us or how it will play (large scale PvE, siege warfare, PvP, dynamic quest chains, sandbox features, player run companies, naval battles, swimming, blah blah blah), and also why they are implementing these features over other features (i.e., what is the design philosophy behind the game and what do they think will make a good MMO that will compete in today's market).

Gosh, you act like we asked what's the meaning of life or something.

You practically did and judging by the quotes alone it'd be safe to assume that all of that content is a possibility. He wants a Final Fantasy game (which is just as undefinable) full of variety that people with a lot of time or very little time can enjoy and differentiates itself form FFXI and other games within the genre.

But I'm paraphrasing and was something I said I wouldn't do, but if you'd read the quotes and read up on interviews you'd know this. Any more than that you can read the Letters from the Producer. It's there, you just need to do the legwork yourself.

[Sonic_the_Hedgehog]

i have mix feelings on this but i think a better one then yoshi's.

i saw, 15man groups grinding like campaign battles all day long. people jumping in and out of these groups in every zone all day long like in ffxi. i saw, well that was all i saw lmao... it was in a great direction though. nothing else from then and now is any different. i don't like the missions(they missing the party play and battles) but i think tanaka might of made them better if didn't launch early, seriously the game was absolutely empty. also grinds, some people acually not delute themselfs to how much hours they play a mmo ..some like grinds. and even without i still say tanaka's only few idea's were absolutely better then yoshi's so far.

The game probably could have been better if it didn't launch early, but it did and they payed for it. None of what you said makes me think Tanaka's vision was better. Woo 15 man grinds!