Improve quality control for pay to play

[Betelgeuzah]

when they start charging, they need to be able to provide a service competitive with other pay to play games.

Their service isn't even competitive with other free to play games, yet the playerbase is in the tens of thousands.

Maybe they need to do that if they want to make the game profitable in the long run, but that's not even the point of the current subscription schedule. It's there to cover some costs, and that it will do.

That said, right now they don't need to provide competitive service to fulfill their goals pre-2.0. The game attracts certain type of consumer regardless.

That is such an unreasonable request

It is.

Being unable to consider the scope of what is being done to the game, and basing expectations on that is what makes it so. If they were to add a quest and said quest was bugged, that would require more play testing. If they were to rehaul all the algorithms that make the game function all at once, and one detail got released without proper balancing, bitching about it is being entirely unreasonable.

[Blarp]

It is.

Being unable to consider the scope of what is being done to the game, and basing expectations on that is what makes it so. If they were to add a quest and said quest was bugged, that would require more play testing. If they were to rehaul all the algorithms that make the game function all at once, and one detail got released without proper balancing, bitching about it is being entirely unreasonable.

The scope of what they're trying to do is none of my concern. If I pay them money, I have certain expectations on the quality of the content they release. Isn't that how consumerism works? I pay you 20 dollars for cookies. You give me sugar, eggs, and flour mixed together in a bowl. I'm not going to pat you on the head and tell you it's okay because I know it's hard to make good cookies.

[Betelgeuzah]

The scope of what they're trying to do is none of my concern. If I pay them money, I have certain expectations on the quality of the content they release.

Consumers can also have too high expectations. If you aren't taking the scope into consideration, it sure is easy for that to happen.

The fact is that with this scale of changes you wouldn't be paying for cookies, you would be paying for a smorgasbord full of food from all over the globe. If the lobster ends up a bit too salty and your whole evening is ruined because of it, that's the case of expectations being held way too high. If only perfection is acceptable it is the consumer's fault, not the company's if it isn't met.

If this was about a small alteration of an existing mechanic and it was released buggy or unplayable, it is a whole different case and if you can not see the difference between that and rehauling the entire metagame you truly are hopeless.

In this field of work, the standards are lower than what SE has demonstrated with 1.18 and 1.19. Patches are released full of bugs, yet it is still acceptable as long as the content in it is substantial enough. It can't get really more substantial than changing the metagame completely, from algorithms to economy.

[Betelgeuzah]

And even the smorgasbord comparison was a vast understatement. The workload is more akin to preparing all the food for the wedding of the king of Monaco, except much more delicate.

[Ava]

Their service isn't even competitive with other free to play games, yet the playerbase is in the tens of thousands.

Maybe they need to do that if they want to make the game profitable in the long run, but that's not even the point of the current subscription schedule. It's there to cover some costs, and that it will do.

That said, right now they don't need to provide competitive service to fulfill their goals pre-2.0. The game attracts certain type of consumer regardless.

So then all of the loyal fans of the game, and genre that currently play but would rather pay for something that provides more fun, SE shouldn't care if those people quit for greener pastures? You're just a player, so I don't really care what you say and I learned via previous arguments with you that you are as stubborn as a rock, but SE needs to appeal to everyone that plays right now because v2.0 is at the very least a year away (i say at least, because I will not be surprised if it gets pushed back). A year is a lot of time for MMORPG players to get situated elsewhere and forget about coming back, even if they are a fan of Final Fantasy.

Yes, they aren't trying to go into full-blown profit mode, but they still can't be losing players. They need to hold on to enough to keep the game in the public eye because if it falls into the dark while it's getting updated it will require that much more marketing, which isn't cheap. And to hold onto players, they really need to look into providing a competitive service.