So, the Final Fantasy XI dev team?

[Colorful]

Righttttttttt since every mmo out has a update every 2 or 3 months? pfffffff ill have fun high five flip and you will be back like all the others

I do agree that Yoshida's team releases patches incredibly fast (well, other than 3.1), and they're doing a commendable job, but 2-3 months? At this point you're doing nothing but misleading people, and for what reason, there aren't any new players to attract. It's an average for 3.5-4 months, unless of course you include patches like 2.55, 3.05, 3.07 or what have you in which case plenty of other MMOs do it. The difference between 2 and 4 months is substantial.

As for those people saying that they never promised a release date and they're meeting deadlines, just not the ones we wanted. Yes, that is the case but it's also a weak argument and makes you come off as a SE apologist. Everyone knows the majority will quit if this becomes the standard, and as such it's a good thing that won't happen. Just say what the development team is saying, and that's that they needed a break. 3.1 is late, period. People taking this shit is how you gradually get WoW's awful, awful patch schedules. Do you really want that? No? Then don't act like the development team are your buddies and and come up with whatever thing to say to defend them.

[NovaLevossida]

So if you go into a restaurant (fast food or not), and you are informed that due to understaffing (for example) your order will take longer than usual, you'll threaten them with never coming back again if your food is ever "late" again, saying that since you're a paying customer you're entitled to getting your food on time -- despite them warning you that it will take longer than usual.

This is not only a bad analogy that doesn't fit the current problem with FFXIV's content delay, but it is also putting words in my mouth that I didn't say. I never said to threaten SE with "never coming back." That's your words, not mine, so I won't even entertain or validate that argument. Unsubbing for a month or more during a content lull because the dev team dropped the ball? Justifiable for sure. A paying customer always has the option to stop paying if the service doesn't meet his expectations, but that's a fact of business, not an impassioned argument on my part.

As for your analogy, no money has been paid up front before being told about the delay in service. At that point, I'm not a customer; I'm a potential customer. If I don't like the service, I can get up and leave. The difference with FFXIV is that I've already paid for the service, and then the service drops in quality via delays. That makes all the difference in the world.

It would be like if I was paying for an HBO Go subscription and they announce that nothing new will be uploaded in November. That's a drop in the quality in service. Is the old stuff still available? You bet. Is part of what I'm paying for not arriving on time? Yes.

[Noxifer]

I sit down in a restaurant and order a steak. 2 hours later it still hasn't arrived. I ask the waiter what's going on and he replies "Our chef staff has worked really hard today, and they needed a break." I'm not being entitled, nor do I lack compassion, when I get up and walk out.

The difference there being that they didn't tell you until after you had already waited a long time. With this patch, they did say at the release of HW that 3.1 would not be released 3 months after HW - so basically at the time we "ordered" 3.1. And they did provide 'snacks' while we waited (3.05 etc).

I agree that it's annoying to wait, and I want 3.1 to be here already, but that doesn't mean I cannot have compassion with delays.

The cash shop would like to have a word with you. Marriages, Dyes, Minions, Retainers, and much more show what SE thinks of us. They stick exclusive content/items in the cash shop. SE also refuses to solve the growing inventory issue other than recommending that we spend more money on their game.

They already treat us like a suckling pig, you are being willfully ignorant if you think otherwise.

Partly yes. But they do still try to listen to feedback. (If you read the part of my post that you bolded, you'll probably note the word "only". I'm not saying they're not seeing us in any way as a source of income/revenue, but that's not all we are to them, nor is it in our best interest for them to take that stance -- which was the main part of my argument.) =)

This is not only a bad analogy that doesn't fit the current problem with FFXIV's content delay, but it is also putting words in my mouth that I didn't say. I never said to threaten SE with "never coming back." That's your words, not mine, so I won't even entertain or validate that argument.

I apologize for the 'threaten not to come back' -- I confused your posts with Akuryu's comment about "If we have to wait 5 months for 3.2, I don't care what excuse they come up with, because I won't be playing anymore", and that was entirely my fault.

But I still think that it's a better analogy than the HBO one (not a perfect one, maybe, but a better one), since the difference between releasing something every month and then skipping one month is greater than releasing large patches every 3-4 months, and then extending it to 4-5 months (late June to early November -- if 3.1 comes out around 20th of November it'd be five months, unless my math is off).
So instead of waiting 30-40 minutes for your food, you'd have to wait all of 40-50 minutes instead. Or maybe HBO Go go out at the start of the month, saying, "Our usual release of New Stuff at the end of this month will be delayed about a week due to [some reason relating to staff shortage]". Is it ideal? No. Is it annoying for the customers? Yes. Is it entirely outrageous? Not in my opinion.

Yes, there's a difference in the whole 'pay for one thing' and 'subscription', I'll admit that, but I also don't think that the time difference is that much of a deal. This, of course, is my personal opinion. The analogy was also coloured by the above statement by Akuryu which rubbed me the wrong way ^^;

[KaedrianLiang]

There is a patch cycle in this game. Everyone knows it, and everyone knows this one is late. By your logic 3.1 could come out May 2021 and still be "on time".

Just go. You are like a whiny spouse pushing for divorce but also wants alimony for the kids you made with the game.

[Blood-Aki]

A car accident would be completely out of my control. Telling the entire staff to take a month off isn't.

The point of that was to tell him that something unexpected happend and his boss was being unreasonable due to being a very impatient person. But it looks like you failed to see that point. Not much i can help you with there.

There are businesses all across the world filled with people working hard. People take vacations, but the work doesn't stop. You don't shut down production and send everyone home. Maybe a couple of guys are off this week. Everyone else works around their absence. When they come back a couple more can take off. You work out a schedule so people can get their time off, while minimizing the effect on production. That's how it works in the real world.

I sit down in a restaurant and order a steak. 2 hours later it still hasn't arrived. I ask the waiter what's going on and he replies "Our chef staff has worked really hard today, and they needed a break." I'm not being entitled, nor do I lack compassion, when I get up and walk out.

Except in this case you were already warned what would happen, if the chef told you it would be 2 hours late what you just said would have actually made sense.

No matter how hard you try, you and any other entitled kids aren't any more special then anyone else playing this game, You're free to cancel your sub if waiting is unbearable. but for actual decent humans who understand things happen, they are ok with it. Get over it.

[zosia]

Except in this case you were already warned what would happen, if the chef told you it would be 2 hours late what you just said would have actually made sense.

No matter how hard you try, you and any other entitled kids aren't any more special then anyone else playing this game, You're free to cancel your sub if waiting is unbearable. but for actual decent humans who understand things happen, they are ok with it. Get over it.

Does it matter if we were warned or not? It was a rookie mistake. People take vacations all the time without causing their company or project to freeze. Let's hope they start investing in this game enough to have staff for coverage.

[Blood-Aki]

Does it matter if we were warned or not? It was a rookie mistake. People take vacations all the time without causing their company to freeze. Let's hope they start investing in this game enough to have staff for coverage.

It matters enough that some people find it unacceptable. Good thing, however is that the company isn't going to freeze or even suffer a dent in customers because a few entitled kids didn't get their way, so it's not a big worry in the end.

[Akuryu]

Just go. You are like a whiny spouse pushing for divorce but also wants alimony for the kids you made with the game.

I wonder if Square feels that way. It's very easy for you to encourage paying customers to leave. Your job doesn't depend upon it.

A lot of people have quit. If 3.2 takes 5 months, a lot more will. If driving people away from your massively multiplayer online game is the goal... mission accomplished I guess?

[zosia]

It matters enough that some people find it unacceptable. Good thing, however is that the company isn't going to freeze or even suffer a dent in customers because a few entitled kids didn't get their way, so it's not a big worry in the end.

I love the world you are living in where paying customers become entitled children when they are not satisfied with the service. Found the EA employee.

[Blood-Aki]

I love the world you are living in where paying customers become entitled children. Found the EA employee.

and i love the world where you do not understand words you use, or even read correctly, but i'm not about to try teach you the difference, as i'm pretty sure you have issues reading words you do not understand, Move along.