Unofficial Census 2016 for FFXIV

[zosia]

So many Dev responded threads.

I think it's mainly because the JP forum users are much better at keeping discussion limited in single threads. Not to mention it is probably much easier for the JP community managers to relay info back and forth the with the dev team.

I am pretty sure the NA community team is based out of California.

[Sparktacus]

I think it's mainly because the JP forum users are much better at keeping discussion limited in single threads. Not to mention it is probably much easier for the JP community managers to relay info back and forth the with the dev team.

I am pretty sure the NA community team is based out of California.

This. Someone did a translation of the forum and that is what they said. The japanese keep it to one thread because that is how the devs gauge interest. Devs don't read threads they gather the Likes to a thread and react with that information.

[Claymore65]

I think it's mainly because the JP forum users are much better at keeping discussion limited in single threads. Not to mention it is probably much easier for the JP community managers to relay info back and forth the with the dev team.

I am pretty sure the NA community team is based out of California.

That and they don't have a language barrier to deal with. That is a major factor. The community managers don't need to actually translate individual posts or summarize the concerns, they can just suggest a few useful threads, or point out the comments that are useful. The Devs can directly create and post responses without needing someone to translate it for them. The devs can even spend time just reading the forums, should they want to. Keep in mind that translation is neither cheap nor necessarily easy. Part of the reason devs can seem cagey is the (realistic) fear that post-translation they will be drastically misunderstood. It's far easier for them to simply speak in their own language. I feel like the language barrier is a huge part of why the english forums have less direct interaction with the Devs.

[Ibi]

Anyone know what the topics are in the Japanese GD thread? Is there a post like this one in there?

Let me preface this by saying that I cannot read any Japanese at all, so this is all from Google translate. Bold text is the current thread titles on the front page of the Japanese General Discussion forum.

Let's write indifferently the implementation and want to emote ( '· ω · `)
25 pages. Appears to be an emote suggestion thread.

Attrition to write a carefree requests / suggestions / delusion
524 pages. This appears to be the more general suggestion thread, for any ideas anyone happens to have that aren't covered by a more specific suggestion thread.

Set meal
13 pages. I think this is a thread that's discussing the lack of innovation between ARR and HW and lack of depth of content, especially given that someone linked to a reddit thread titled No, it's not you, the game in its current state is boring. They also preface the think by saying what appears to be something to the effect of "Yeah, it's a foreign website, but a lot of JP players feel the same."

Seoul Crystal equipped column in the avatar frame
1 page. I think someone is asking for visible cloaks/capes, and trying to preempt the likely arguments against them.

FF14✕ specter watch collaboration event impressions attrition
38 pages. Yo-kai thread. Second post translation: "It is all messed up feeling because of FATE."

Chat thread
476 pages. First post translation: "It is a chat thread that targets the entire world of players"

For Sukusho of other games
2 pages. I think this one is discussing people using their lodestone diaries to talk about games other than XIV.

,,, The content finder is hard to match
2 pages. A thread that previously consisted of a single post after the 9/4/2013 maintenance, at which point someone noticed that DF was taking longer than before the maintenance to form a group, and necrobumped by someone on 8/20/2016.

Thread to write the figure of the future "do not want this happens" Final Fantasy XIV
67 pages. The premise of the thread is that it's a place for people to post about things they don't want to see happen. Examples from the first page, which is from September 2014, include things like Maat appearing as part of an FFXI collaboration and Ninja being postponed until after 2.4.

- Bragging thread to talk about the play location-cute Raraferu of Raraferu
41 pages. This looks like it might be a screenshot thread, possibly with a focus on lalafell.

Why useless? Armor of Kyasuhira Mirapuri
26 pages. I think this thread is discussing glamour being restricted to armor that your class/job can already equip, particularly that casters can't wear heavier armor.

For the new generation VGA (such as the GeForce GTX 1080)
6 pages. Discussing graphics cards.

Reid Disrupt The number of disclosure and update
3 pages. The first post of the thread includes the graphics from the official Eorzea sentence that showed the Gordias clear rates. In general, the thread seems to be discussing that, although a number of people appear to be expressing frustration that without knowing the total number of subscribers, the number of clears aren't that useful.

Eoru THERE cafe
4 pages. Eorzea cafe thread.

Add and improve feature requests in Mentor system
54 pages. Mentor system suggestions.

Moruboru & Michael of English course
1 page. I'm not all that clear on what this one is about. I think it's related to Fernehalwes, possibly them wanting him to provide information about English, possibly also about foreign players and the localization process. This is certainly the one I'm least clear on.

Mira pre-collection!
79 pages. Glamour screenshot thread.

About Eternal band]
11 pages. A thread about the Eternal Bond ceremony, with the first post commenting on Yoshi-P saying very specifically that it's not a wedding/marriage, even though it has almost everything in common with one.

I want equipment of this look!
61 pages. Glamour request thread.

I want to save hairdresser hairstyle change.
1 page. A request to be able to save the results of using the aesthetician directly from that interface, rather than having to back out to the character selection screen to do so.

So many Dev responded threads.

As other people have said, the Japanese forums consolidate threads more than the English forums, so even if we had similar numbers of Dev posts, they'd have a much greater percentage of threads with a Dev response.

They have a 524 page suggestion thread, where we'd be more likely to have 524 threads of different peoples suggestions.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

snip

That plus outside the generic "we'll look into it" replies, devs never say anything unless they have an actual answer they can readily give, which probably explains why fluff content like glamour/emotes/pets/etc are given answers so quickly whereas the main meat of content like raids or battle content take longer to get a reply back.

[Lorielle]

Oh Zo. It's fun watching you go back and forth. But you definitely should just leave it be. We've been a spinning record for quite some time now. Just let things happen. uvu

[Blackcanary]

Let me preface this by saying that I cannot read any Japanese at all, so this is all from Google translate. Bold text is the current thread titles on the front page of the Japanese General Discussion forum.

Let's write indifferently the implementation and want to emote ( '· ω · `)
25 pages. Appears to be an emote suggestion thread.

Attrition to write a carefree requests / suggestions / delusion
524 pages. This appears to be the more general suggestion thread, for any ideas anyone happens to have that aren't covered by a more specific suggestion thread.

Set meal
13 pages. I think this is a thread that's discussing the lack of innovation between ARR and HW and lack of depth of content, especially given that someone linked to a reddit thread titled No, it's not you, the game in its current state is boring. They also preface the think by saying what appears to be something to the effect of "Yeah, it's a foreign website, but a lot of JP players feel the same."

Seoul Crystal equipped column in the avatar frame
1 page. I think someone is asking for visible cloaks/capes, and trying to preempt the likely arguments against them.

FF14✕ specter watch collaboration event impressions attrition
38 pages. Yo-kai thread. Second post translation: "It is all messed up feeling because of FATE."

Chat thread
476 pages. First post translation: "It is a chat thread that targets the entire world of players"

For Sukusho of other games
2 pages. I think this one is discussing people using their lodestone diaries to talk about games other than XIV.

,,, The content finder is hard to match
2 pages. A thread that previously consisted of a single post after the 9/4/2013 maintenance, at which point someone noticed that DF was taking longer than before the maintenance to form a group, and necrobumped by someone on 8/20/2016.

Thread to write the figure of the future "do not want this happens" Final Fantasy XIV
67 pages. The premise of the thread is that it's a place for people to post about things they don't want to see happen. Examples from the first page, which is from September 2014, include things like Maat appearing as part of an FFXI collaboration and Ninja being postponed until after 2.4.

- Bragging thread to talk about the play location-cute Raraferu of Raraferu
41 pages. This looks like it might be a screenshot thread, possibly with a focus on lalafell.

Why useless? Armor of Kyasuhira Mirapuri
26 pages. I think this thread is discussing glamour being restricted to armor that your class/job can already equip, particularly that casters can't wear heavier armor.

For the new generation VGA (such as the GeForce GTX 1080)
6 pages. Discussing graphics cards.

Reid Disrupt The number of disclosure and update
3 pages. The first post of the thread includes the graphics from the official Eorzea sentence that showed the Gordias clear rates. In general, the thread seems to be discussing that, although a number of people appear to be expressing frustration that without knowing the total number of subscribers, the number of clears aren't that useful.

Eoru THERE cafe
4 pages. Eorzea cafe thread.

Add and improve feature requests in Mentor system
54 pages. Mentor system suggestions.

Moruboru & Michael of English course
1 page. I'm not all that clear on what this one is about. I think it's related to Fernehalwes, possibly them wanting him to provide information about English, possibly also about foreign players and the localization process. This is certainly the one I'm least clear on.

Mira pre-collection!
79 pages. Glamour screenshot thread.

About Eternal band]
11 pages. A thread about the Eternal Bond ceremony, with the first post commenting on Yoshi-P saying very specifically that it's not a wedding/marriage, even though it has almost everything in common with one.

I want equipment of this look!
61 pages. Glamour request thread.

I want to save hairdresser hairstyle change.
1 page. A request to be able to save the results of using the aesthetician directly from that interface, rather than having to back out to the character selection screen to do so.



As other people have said, the Japanese forums consolidate threads more than the English forums, so even if we had similar numbers of Dev posts, they'd have a much greater percentage of threads with a Dev response.

They have a 524 page suggestion thread, where we'd be more likely to have 524 threads of different peoples suggestions.

We really need to be more organized like the Japanese threads are instead of randomly making a Thread we really should be using the search bar to if there is a thread already open like the one we would want to make.

[DPZ2]

"If legion hits it out of the park, this game could easily lose another 150k subs. This game can survive on it's current amount of subs, but another 150k hit could easily eject this game from the sub model right into the garbage free to play market where it belongs."

@Zosia -- is this a quote of something you wrote yourself?

If the answer is "yes", I ask why you appear to torture yourself by playing a game you've already relegated to the garbage heap.

If the answer is "no", I'd like clarification about its initial source, and why you think it somehow contributes to the current conversation.

[zosia]

"If legion hits it out of the park, this game could easily lose another 150k subs. This game can survive on it's current amount of subs, but another 150k hit could easily eject this game from the sub model right into the garbage free to play market where it belongs."@Zosia -- is this a quote of something you wrote yourself?

If the answer is "yes", I ask why you appear to torture yourself by playing a game you've already relegated to the garbage heap.

If the answer is "no", I'd like clarification about its initial source, and why you think it somehow contributes to the current conversation.

Yes, The answer is yes. The reason you are looking for is a simple one. I gave my word to my raid team that I would lead to the end of alex and I do not intend to break that promise. When you lead a raid group, your happiness is secondary to the needs of the team. Sure there are limits, and mine is a12s, but I would not hang my 3-year old raid team out to dry because I think this game is garbage.

Oh Zo. It's fun watching you go back and forth. But you definitely should just leave it be. We've been a spinning record for quite some time now. Just let things happen. uvu

I will be returning to lurker status any day now. I will be neck deep in legion and out of these forums for a bit.

[Ibi]

They have a 524 page suggestion thread, where we'd be more likely to have 524 threads of different peoples suggestions.

To add one more thing to this, you can actually see the number of threads and posts in a given forum from the forum top page.

The Japanese General Discussion forum has 107,404 posts in 2,598 threads (~41 posts per thread). The English General Discussion forum has, by contrast, has 984,691 posts in 36,177 threads (~27 posts per thread).

So the post/thread ratio on the Japanese forum is about a third higher, but much more significant is that there are almost fourteen times as many total threads and over nine times as many total posts in the English forum.