Naoki Yoshida interview @Gamescom

[Chessala]

Some of those questions were loaded.

I see two people who will likely not get direct access to Yoshida again lol

They really put him on the spot.

GOOD! This is not done enough and he tends to weasel his way out by changing the topic. I loved how they used the food question to demonstrate to him that too much of something you like is not making you like it more.

I like to grind to a certain extend (I love gathering for example) but that doesn't mean it's all I want to do. I tire of the "yet another new tomestone" grind. Only having 2 dungeons in the ex roulette does not make it better. This game has so much potential and it is making me indefinitely sad to see it wasted to only invest in the same things over and over again. I am not saying drop the tomestone system but give people more alternatives. Stop putting retarded limits of 450 on a new tomestone. It does not make the content last longer. All it does is make people not log in after they cap because there is nothing else they enjoy.

And don't drop the "there is so much else to do" argument. Not everyone likes everything. People should not be forced into content they don't enjoy simply because there is nothing else. As for the changes, 3.0 was 2.,0 all over again. There was NOTHING new in the expansion, nothing that made you go "wow, THIS is a game changer". They should strive to wow their players at the very least with an expansion. But why would they? Even on my 5 months break I kept subbing, so they get their money anyway. Even if people only play one day a week, they get their money. The name "Final Fantasy" will carry them for along time and attract new players. They will enjoy the game for a while, eventually get tired of it and leave.

No MMO is perfect. All of them have things that people don't like and things that could be improved. Complaining about the state of a game means you care about it. You want to see it improve so that you can enjoy it too. Even if a game is perfect for you, you will tire of it at some point. That's normal, there is only so much that can be done.

I work with MMOs every day and while I have recently leveled up from being a GM, I know that dealing with communities isn't easy. The are demanding little pricks and everyone thinks they have the best ideas that should be in the game. One of the tasks of a GMs is to gather that feedback and forward it and more often than not, the feedback gets ignored for various reasons (time, money, level of effort etc.).

But that doesn't mean people should stop making suggestions and in Yoshi's case it seems he does not care a lot about feedback that doesn't fit in his concept. He is not very flexible and doesn't like to stray from his ideas. As a producer, he should take all sides into account and make content that enhances the game instead of keeping it at the level it is.

He mentions that if there suddenly there would not be new content, people would miss the predictable and regular content. Of course they would, an MMO cannot live forever without content updates. His way of avoiding the question for variety in content shows that he does not understand MMO players at all. An MMO that doesn't get content dies eventually. It will hang on for a while but eventually the pool of new players is exhausted. A small hardcore fanbase will always stay and in case of F2P MMOs, these hardcore players can keep a game up and running if their pockets are deep enough (we have a few of those games).
FFXIV is a sub game, that means that they need a certain amount of players to have it make a profit. Keeping those players means delivering new content in regular intervals or the players leave eventually. We don't pay a sub to stand in Idyllshire and not do anything (not saying some people don't).

TL;DR: I hope there will be more such interviews, maybe Yoshi wakes up from his bubble and tries to think as a player instead of following his script without variation.