Naoki Yoshida's Comment in Regard to Jump Potions/Boost Potions

[Kyonika]

LOL... Everyone and their "the sky is falling" hyperbole whenever something new is coming.

snip

Good points. But, I highly doubt it will be as bad as you, and some others in this thread, make it out to be.

Primarily, I think the story-skipping potions will, in all likelihood, be mainly bought and consumed by very close friends or gf/bf/partner/spouse of seasoned high-level players here already, so they can experience the game together.

Secondly, these potions are a choice. You can choose to use them, or not. No one is going to force anyone to use them - 'cos if they did, that would be a breach of ToS, and SE will ban-hammer the offenders.

Thirdly, it will be less likely that a fresh player will buy this game, plus the expacs, and the sub... and then cheat themselves out of most of the game content with yet another couple of purchases. Those who do will likely be strictly raiders, or will be gil spammers, so they can spam their RMT shite in the new area. Other than those examples, would be sort of newish players (still leveling in ARR) who want to see/preview the new stuff on an alt, then go back to their main and continue the leveling/MSQ progress.

But honestly though... I have like 4 - soon to be 5 - Lv60s, I'm rarely in Idyllshire (except to get gear, or for Tails). I am, however, all over the place, and - more often than not - in the starter cities or in the field leveling my lowbie classes or leveling my horsebird, or hunts, or Aqua, or PotD, or DF/Trials/Raids, or social stuff, or w/e. And there's always ppl around wherever I go. Granted, when the new expac comes out, it will be a mad rush with everyone and their uncle's dog's best friend's baby chihuahua bum-rushing the new areas and enjoying the new stuff. But that's normal anyways - regardless of "jump potions."

The bleak picture you paint seems to imply that everyone new & old will buy up the story-skip potion and a leveling potion for every job they don't have at 60, thus somehow leaving little reason to visit the old areas anymore (which makes no sense, btw). And that can't be more further from the truth. For one, do you think that most subscribers have like $325 to just blow on one character - just so they can get into the new area, and have all jobs at 10 levels less than max ... aaaannndd, still have to grind out all those out to max? Really? 'cos I can't see that happening. Secondly, according to the OP, they are only seeing like "about 27-29%" of newbies buying potions, and only after they've gone through 30 levels of free trial. And that's only in the China/Korea markets as of now.

Those numbers will be different in JP and in EU/NA markets. And, if SE sees more of a problem than a solution with this in any of those markets... don't you think they won't just pull it off that market's Mog Station?

Like, eg... NA players go bonkers and start demanding that newbies buy potions or some BS. Then SE will go in an be like, "nah-uh NA, we're gonna take these potions off your market; 'cos you aren't using them right." It's called adaptive analysis: if it isn't working as intended, then they will revise measures/methods to undo/mitigate the damage caused. And then monitor, analyze and adapt as needed.

These potions are more of a business decision, rather than to try to mess with players, or band-aid fix the game, or some such ... Since, y'know, the dev teams' jobs hinge on the continued success of this game.

Also, it's not confirmed yet if SB will indeed be gated behind HW. It may only be gated behind ARR ... or it may only be gated behind Lv60. It is only being inferred as gated, based on the wording in the OP. Regardless though, these potions are going to be the reality in 4.0, and time will tell how it all works out. I, for one, remain optimistic that these potions will serve the greater good.


Seriously, people, we all just need to take a step back and chill.

[Keitou]

Primarily, I think the story-skipping potions will, in all likelihood, be mainly bought and consumed by very close friends or gf/bf/partner/spouse of seasoned high-level players here already, so they can experience the game together.

Honestly, it really depends. Because I had close friends who would rather experience the early game first before buying a jump potion. And... It didn't go so well. They were disappointed in the game, and they did not want to go through the hassle of buying something just to play with me. Their lingering feelings about ARR didn't improve the situation either. I can guarantee you that almost every new player, whether it be a friend, close friend, will think about the game their playing first, before they buy a jump potion just to play with their friends.

[Fawkes]

Secondly, these potions are a choice. You can choose to use them, or not. No one is going to force anyone to use them - 'cos if they did, that would be a breach of ToS, and SE will ban-hammer the offenders.

SE are the offenders. They're the ones making the potions. And no one is going to directly force you to use them, but if they are the only solution SE provides to the problems they address then new players will have to either choose to buy them or choose to burn out.

Secondly, according to the OP, they are only seeing like "about 27-29%" of newbies buying potions, and only after they've gone through 30 levels of free trial. And that's only in the China/Korea markets as of now.

It's not 27-29% of newbies, it's 27-29% of all players. Which likely means more people buying potions than there are newbies. Unless the game is surging in sales right now I would not expect much more than 10% of the population to be new. According to the OP just under 50% of people buying potions have been playing for less than 3 months.

[Thaldor]

I can only think of 2 instances where this is the case, castrum, praetorium. The devs acknowledged years ago that it was a mistake that unfortunately cannot be fixed, and their solution was to design HW ending the way they did (far better). So yeah, the amount of times you were pressured to skip important cutscenes in the MSQ is twice (now negated by unsync), because cutscenes tend to happen after you leave the instance.

You may be right it was a long while ago... i am sure it happened for more. i took a break not long after, before the rest of the story came into being... i have only been back 2 weeks and in no hurry to race through content without having time to enjoy it.

Each to their own i guess... all i am saying is giving people a choice isnt that bad.

[Lambdafish]

LOL... Everyone and their "the sky is falling" hyperbole whenever something new is coming.

There has been hyperbole on both sides, and it has generally been shut down or corrected, this does not change the validity of the against argument. You can call us overdramatic all you like, and we will just call you short-sighted back. This leads to flame wars and close mindedness and ultimately ends the (important) debate. You might disagree, but shutting down arguements by calling them hyperbole says more about your stance than ours.

The outcome of the jump potion is a weird one, because your argument is exactly right, on a player end it is a really good thing, it helps players achieve what they need to do, and makes the game far more accessible. I acknowledge that, but there is more to it than that. You might call it overdramatic, but people are looking at the trends, and the fact is that "gated" content is still being added to within the MSQ and there is no sign that that will change, we aren't saying change nothing, but something does need to be done about the cracks that are being side stepped around (for example - if the jump potion has the ability to flag all quests as complete, have certain unnecessary quest chain clumps that can be flagged as complete for free, i.e most of 2.1-2.55), and the devs need to futureproof the content that is currently in development to allow future expansions to be accessible at launch before thinking about the jump potion (it sure as hell isn't happening after because the jump potion IS the solution).

Secondly, these potions are a choice. You can choose to use them, or not. No one is going to force anyone to use them - 'cos if they did, that would be a breach of ToS, and SE will ban-hammer the offenders.

They are a choice, for now. As said above, if gating continues, how long will it be until the MSQ is too steep of a hill to realistically climb, how long until the only managable way to get to endgame is a paid jump potion? You are only looking at the state of the game right now, take a step back and actually look at what the jump potion means for the game, taking into account everything, not just the benefits.

Note: This is still a potential for the Chinese/Korean markets as well.

Like, eg... NA players go bonkers and start demanding that newbies buy potions or some BS. Then SE will go in an be like, "nah-uh NA, we're gonna take these potions off your market; 'cos you aren't using them right." It's called adaptive analysis: if it isn't working as intended, then they will revise measures/methods to undo/mitigate the damage caused. And then monitor, analyze and adapt as needed.

This gave me a chuckle. There is no off switch to a jump potion. Once it has been released it will only be updated, never removed. The reason? The devs won't even nerf jobs due to backlash, and removing the potion is the same admitting that it was a mistake, which affects player trust, and on top of that there will be further segregation because of the lucky people who "paid to jump to 60 and I can't ". Imagine it like them removing housing and rebuilding it from the ground up, it's just not happening.

These potions are more of a business decision, rather than to try to mess with players, or band-aid fix the game, or some such ... Since, y'know, the dev teams' jobs hinge on the continued success of this game.

Seriously, people, we all just need to take a step back and chill.

"Dev teams jobs hinge on this....people need to step back and chill" So do you want us to not think about the issue carefully or do you want us to give the devs the full picture of what could potentially happen with a jump potion? Make up your mind, because I'm going to continue to be sceptical and look at the issue from all angles.



EDIT FOR THE DEVS/COMMUNITY TEAM: I know it was mentioned at some point at fan fest, but to aid discussion and give all the necessary information, can we have some clarification/confirmation on whether or not 3.55 part 2 MSQ completion is necessary to enter Ala Mhigo? This information is very important for many peoples stances on jump potion.

[Laerune]

I guess players who find leveling crafting and gathering classes tedious, can now pay their way to level 60. I already have few LS members who can't wait till they release those potions.

[aesteval]

I guess players who find leveling crafting and gathering classes tedious, can now pay their way to level 60. I already have few LS members who can't wait till they release those potions.

While we don't have firm confirmation either way, the level boost potions aren't mentioned to include crafting and gathering classes. It looks like, without absolute confirmation, to be battle job potions. Not expecting to see level boost potions for crafting and gathering from this. They're wholly optional and these potions appear to be focused on shortcutting past mainly mandatory stuff (roulettes being the most optional unlock.)

[Lothian]

I think a lot of you lack perspective because you guys have been playing this game, consistently, throughout patches/etc; you haven't had the opportunity to be overwhelmed by what may be a thousand or so consecutive story quests in order to unlock level 60 content.

The vast majority of these quests, also, are just "Teleport here" "Teleport there" "Teleport back here" "Teleport back there" "Teleport here again".

I've recently come back to this game and have brought about 10 or so friends with me. Almost all of them have complained at length at the poor quality of the main scenario questlines as well as the constant repetition of the same nonsense over and over; and the fact that they're ALL mandatory in order to play more enjoyable content (raids/trials/etc) makes most people just skip through them; otherwise many feel they'll never catch up to their friends and be able to play with them.

Frankly, the story feels incredibly gimmicky and poorly done in the way that it's presented, and almost all of the new people I see coming into this game are turned off by it. Many stay, but many as well leave, and few have a good impression of the way FFXIV handles quests after the ordeal.

This Jump Potion is brilliant. I honestly don't think most of the people advocating against it have any idea as to how droll and boring most people consider the quest progression to get to Heavensward.

[SpookyGhost]

"The MSQ and lack of community at lower levels is boring and puts a large amount of people off the game, thus resulting in them quitting. So obviously the solution is to force everyone into buying a 21$ potion to skip everything and then pretend like it's not forced even though it will completely destroy any community at all at low levels and still keep the boring and dreadfully long MSQ completely intact as it is now."

[Madepossible]

But spooky when I do low level roulette or something I always love the new players, their so nice - imo they don't have an arrogant attitude compared to most Gilgameshians lvl60+. I think low level dungeons are fun with new ppl, they really are like excited when it's their first time XD.