Lightning Returns Again (Thank you Square)

[Yshnal]

I do dislike it when people perpetuate lies like this.

You've either a. Highly overestimated the amount of origonal content we received in 2.xx that wasn't simply a retool of pending or previously released 1.xx content

Or

You severely underestimate the workload involved in the current content that has been released.

I've stated this before but it bears continual relevance - content you have little to no interest in is still content developed and released. In which case Diadem and Lords of Verminion alone dwarf previous single content patch releases, due to the amount of system work required.

Were they done well? Well, in Diadem's case, no. That's evident. I've yet to really dig into Verminion to give it a go. But they contain more work each than several of the dungeons we've had in this game combined on the coding end.

But this falsehood that we got 'less' because of some arbitrary surface level quantification is, and will always remain silly, even if it does play into the hands of the cynical mass seeking self-validation.

One would think that with the cash shop, with that more subs than what they originally expected and needed to keep the game going, etc., there wouldn't be issues. Yet there they are. Let's see:

• Regardless of LoV and Diadem, 3.1 and 3.15 have been lackluster patches. You just really need to compare them to the amount of work, detail, and core features introduced during ARR's first patches, and you'll notice something strange in your statements.
• 2+ years to get proper european servers. F2P MMOs did it faster than that.
• The Special Task Force (the ones that take care of bots, goldsellers, etc.) consists of three people. For the whole world.
• Understaffed devs without proper vacation time/rest. I'm glad that they finally took some time after 3.0, for the good of their health.
• Overuse of recycled content, and overuse of extreme grinds to make said content last longer (even trivial things that you should do to relax yourself). To make it short, it directly contradicts what they wanted to do some time ago (fun comes first, no F2P stuff, and all that), so I doubt that this all is just a change of plans made by Yoshi-P and the rest of the dev team on their own free will. It was understandable while they were recovering themselves from the hole that they were in, but now? There's something else there.
• Simplification of key features that still have consequences to this day, like cutting corners with personal housing, as I doubt that they're stupid as to not foresee what would happen, or enjoy lying with a game that they seem to love and in which they've put so much time, effort, and sacrifices (2.0 stories come to mind).
• Yoshi-P asking his boss for more servers during a Live Letter. I hope that you don't lose the irony of doing something like that publicly (hint: you don't normally do that unless you're desperate and are trying to force him to act).
• Monthly paid retainers when there's an acknowledged problem with inventory space. Talk about priorities, and about a lack of resources to properly fix it (if their higher-ups let them do that, of course, considering the extra income that they're getting now).
• Sleipnir put into the cash shop just prior to the Odin trial being implemented, eternal bond stuff locked behind the cash shop when it was unannounced that it would go there, scions' minions put there too after there was already a couple of them in-game prior to it (they weren't already designed and ready for production, of course...), etc. Yeah, maybe all of this was casual. Maybe.

I could make the list even longer, but should I really follow? There's a lot of issues related to the game being underfunded (or the devs being with their hands tied on their backs) and not being able to achieve it's full potential, with proof about it everywhere, yet I have to see people come here to say what I quoted. Please, if you want to lie to yourself then go ahead, but don't say that other people are cynics seeking self-validation. At least not when you seem to be doing exactly that. So, you could've stated your opinion without trying to diminish other's, nor insulting them.

I'm glad that they at least released these items for those who haven't done the events. It would not make sense to keep releasing the same events over and over again, and it gives hope for those seeking to get future rewards for cross-over promotions they've missed. Given the fact that my GF was up until six am this past morning trying to get her characters the event items for all of the characters --- it's nice to know the possibility of an alternative that does not physically impact her health may be available.

Actually, there was a better alternative before the cash shop was born, and it made a faint comeback during this year's Moonfire Faire: you could get previous year's items in-game, without double-dipping. Maybe some of us are strange, or stupid, but we prefer to have these things available in the game for every paying customer. Especially in one that we need to pay every month (okay, okay, our subs are optional too), and that doesn't seem to get the money back to it.

To make it clear, if Square-Enix wants or needs to use part of the money made in FFXIV to fund their other projects then, by all means, they should do it (as any company should, too). But what I can't agree with is when they do that when the same project -a game in this case (and it's devs)- making that money actually needs it. And at the same time they have the balls to milk it further with a cash shop that provides nothing good to it, but takes more stuff away from it. As a customer, and when getting into the dev's shoes (if I'm not wrong about their passion for the game), I can't agree with that.

Anyway, congrats on having LIightning's items for sale. But I would have prefered if the event would have come back during the anniversary, with Dragon Quest's one, as a recurring celebration for those new that missed them. It didn't hurt anyone when it happened, and it was better for the game (more content available is better than nothing). Especially when it wasn't developed thanks to the cash shop's money.

[Ilitsa]

[*]Sleipnir put into the cash shop just prior to the Odin trial being implemented

to be fair, the Odin Trial is considered a "hard mode", not an Extreme mode, there has never been a mount in a hard mode trial, so that's slightly irrelevant. Do I wish there was an Urth's Fount EX that dropped Sleipnir? Sure, but I feel making the accusation (directly, or suggestively) is a touch misleading to circumstances.

[Yshnal]

to be fair, the Odin Trial is considered a "hard mode", not an Extreme mode, there has never been a mount in a hard mode trial, so that's slightly irrelevant. Do I wish there was an Urth's Fount EX that dropped Sleipnir? Sure, but I feel making the accusation (directly, or suggestively) is a touch misleading to circumstances.

Hard modes don't drop armor either, so that comparison is moot. The fact is that Urth's Fount was released just after the cash shop, and I'm sure that Sleipnir was originally intended to be put there as a rare drop. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows, but considering that content gets planned way ahead, I doubt that it wasn't thought up way before the cash shop's content was being discussed.