[Stormblood Budget] Where all the money's gone ?

[Remus]

We don't even know everything about this expansion yet.

Too be honest I think we do. It wouldn't surprise me everything they showed at Fanfest and Eureka is what comes in the expansion. They have a live letter coming up and its most likely going to be a repeat of information we know, a video of a new zone and then Q&A. Then the Live Letter in May will be the battle changes and finally expansion time in June.

[akaneakki]

We don't even know everything about this expansion yet.

Yet most of the things they mentioned is something we already had. New things, new server for NA and inventory space is gonna be higher.

[matteoxyz]

It is an expansion of the current game. The budget mainly goes to adding new areas, jobs, dungeons, quests, trials and raids. Any changes are a side-dish and not the main focus.

[akaneakki]

It is an expansion of the current game. The budget mainly goes to adding new areas, jobs, dungeons, quests, trials and raids. Any changes are a side-dish and not the main focus.

I hate to say this, but I will have to. FFXI had expension, many of them actually. In fact they had their first 1 right after 1 year release. The gear formula was pretty much the same, but how to obtain the gear, the raids got different and some were easier, some harder. I wasn't completely the same. 24 man raids we seen and the mechanics are pretty much same and the very very same focus on the content, we would want something different at some point. Diadem just ended up being a fate instance instead. The game needs something thats new for those who cares, which there is many of, those who don't care, can just stick with the old stuff I guess.

[Vidu]

The game needs something thats new for those who cares, which there is many of, those who don't care, can just stick with the old stuff I guess.

To be fair here: We did get new stuff - Aquapolis, PotD, the first Diadem...
And yes, no one liked the first Diadem (myself included), but I feel its still worth mentioning that they tried to come up with something new. To bad it sucked, but its not as if they werent trying to release new content while still keeping the stuff they know works.

[Talraen]

A budget increase doesn't necessarily mean a commensurate increase in amount of content. That's not how budgets work. More money means more planning and more polish as much as more content. And judging by Wrestlemania, I'd say a lot of money for Heavensward is going into marketing, which is an important (and expensive) part of a game's budget.

[Shougun]

The thing is that unlike another big MMO that uses their beta tests as way to generate hype and interest in an expansion (read: WoW with Warlords of Draenor and Legion), we have no idea of what is coming with Stormblood. Like at all.

At least by the time WoD and Legion launched I had an idea of what Blizzard had done with the classes, the very basics of changes to existing systems, and yes, what the first 15 minutes of one of the new zones looked like. So you can't even make a call based on what you see, because there's nothing to see aside from what SE decides to show, and the only way you'll know whether you got a dud or not is by buying the expansion. So players are stuck in a situation where they have to fork over money to see whether the game is going in a direction they like before deciding to continue their sub or moving on. Simply put, players who are skeptical are in a somewhat shitty situation.

We're in the internet age >.>

I still believe his point stands strong, at least I agree with him. The amount of info/hype* control I have from WoW compared to FFXIV at their same points in the timeline is staggeringly different lol. Blizzard has been at this for a while longer so I guess its not weird to expect them to do well (their background experience and size does well for them), but the hype around SB doesn't feel that strong (I am making /no/ assessment on SB and what it has, because its hard to even make one even though we are only months away). *Playing FFXIV over WoW, I mean how they control/deliver their hype (might help that we're on the English to English side with them).

Edit: Although I want to add that if you don't trust a product to be good you shouldn't pre-order it, and you should absolutely remember when you get burned from a company (certain companies I will never pre-order from). But if CDProjekt makes something, sure thing lol. So I agree with you on that point you were making, of course don't just buy stuff if you feel like it isn't worth it - was not disagreeing with that idea haha

I think I had more hype for Legion than SB and I don't even want to buy Legion, I want to buy SB lol. I'm not suggesting it's easy to do.. just that I feel like we're only half loaded onto the hype train and it's supposed to approach the final destination soon. And again, not actually saying SB will be good or bad - need more info. I think part of the problem is they plan for content inside their patches but maybe don't talk about it, Blizzard will mention things to come farther in the future to hype it even though it's going to be like 2 months after release (so what is "in SB expansion purchase" is more than just the first patch and you're sort of dishing out extra for a season pass.. but Blizzard often will preview their "season pass" a little).

I knew so much about the new WoW expansions at this point in the timeline. To add though, I think Blizzard has a stronger history of broken promises in their hype sessions too haha - so I give SE that. Yoshida has been pretty honest imo <3, with some mistakes yes, but fewer than the ones I can recall from Blizzard - like a significant difference (In one presentation from Blizzard they've already said more things that they will but didn't do lol).

It probably sucks being compared to other MMOs though (well any game company vs another lol), especially ones like Blizzard with fat cat pockets and a big base that allows them to earn more over a larger group (don't need as high profit on a specific person), or teams with multiplayer experience (like when Yoshida says something is not possible due to memory*, it seems like that is something a western multiplayer experienced MMO had for a while already.. makes it hard to swallow the answer). *Dye, and things like housing (many of the major western MMO do not have a housing issues anywhere like Balmung does - unless its meant to be a feature like build in actual zones and fight over territory, also many have much larger memory limits even when SE doubles the space for our housing WildStar will /still/ have more space in literally every way (inside, outside, storage, area to put those objects, and everyone gets the area to work with too). We are getting server/inventory changes though, so its not like nothing is being done.

[Kazrah]

The game needs something thats new for those who cares, which there is many of, those who don't care, can just stick with the old stuff I guess.

I care about getting RDM, SAM, underwater content of any kind, a new deep dungeon (because I hate the current one), a new version of Diadem that people might actually want to run, a new raid that makes me want to play the game it's based off of, new stories, new background lore, new systems, new leveling (especially with almost everything at 60), new skills and new possibilities for jobs currently available.

This is new content, and I care because it's better than getting nothing.

[Talraen]

I hate to say this, but I will have to. FFXI had expension, many of them actually. In fact they had their first 1 right after 1 year release. The gear formula was pretty much the same, but how to obtain the gear, the raids got different and some were easier, some harder. I wasn't completely the same. 24 man raids we seen and the mechanics are pretty much same and the very very same focus on the content, we would want something different at some point. Diadem just ended up being a fate instance instead. The game needs something thats new for those who cares, which there is many of, those who don't care, can just stick with the old stuff I guess.

The difference is that in FFXI, many casual players never touched any of that stuff. People were plenty happy to just level in open world content by fighting one or two mob types for hours, and never do anything else because it was too hard to get a party for content. And leveling never changed any more than FFXIV's core mechanics are changing. If they fundamentally change the way the game is played, they risk killing it.

[Zojha]

I still believe his point stands strong, at least I agree with him.

The thing is: I never disagreed that there is a large difference in the information available in advance. What I'm disagreeing with is that from this follows that you have to buy the expansion in order to judge it. I never even argued about hype.

That's really all I'm saying there. People are not stuck in a situation where they have to fork over money to see if the game is heading into a direction they like, people are stuck in a situation where they have to wait for post-release information to see if the game is heading into a direction they like. That's quite a difference.
Like, if you don't like the game right now and consider quitting if Stormblood doesn't live up to your expectations, what's the big deal in cancelling your sub right now, waiting until the expansion release, then deciding whether to move on or re-sub? Why is it so important to do that decision right now? If you're not subscribed, you're not losing any money in the process.

Sure, it would be nice to be able to do that decision right now, but I think that's an inconvenience more than anything.