Dev Team, show me you care about your players because I just don't see it (long read)

[Mihana]

I think the OP has some valid points here, and instead of trying to say "GTFO or shut-up" over this it'd be wiser to try seeing it from both perspectives. Yes, changes are coming and much of them are for the better. Does the Dev Team know what they're doing? Without a doubt. However along the path here many of the people who have supported this game from launch and continue to support it are feeling left out. I for one got the Collector's edition at the start. Personally some changes I didn't like, I found annoying even, but I adjusted over time. Others I saw them and just went "Wow, this is ten times better than I thought it would be like!" and was pleased. However the game I knew from the start, and what we have now, are vastly different. Not every feature they had in the past was awful, it needed tweaking which is what they're doing.

Yet some of the newer changes (class revamps for example) are causes for concern. With each change they do, drastic or not it's yet another thing we have to adjust to, and if it doesn't work, they go back and redo it, again. Many of us did put in time and effort into specific parts of the game, and seeing all that being for waste is like a kick in the groin.

When you started a specific class back at launch you started it because it was the ideal class you wanted, what you intended to play as. Months later down the road, a year in fact, you're told that class is going to be revamped thus adversely affecting your play style. Maybe you played Archer to be a hard-hitter DD (Please don't get into debates about it being OP'd, we know it was and needed to be nerfed.) and then learn you're going to be likely facing a supportive role. You began leveling Conjurer because you expected to play like a Black Mage, now you're being told you need to level an entirely different class because you want to play it. Sure you can level that class, but you've still spent all that time now playing a class you don't want. Same could be said for those who tweaked their gear and equipment just a certain way to be efficient, now they have to gather all new gear, readjust it all, and if they class has gone in a different direction than they expected... They now have to find a new class they actually want to play as and gear that one up all over again. This is the view I'm trying to explain here.

Is it fair that these changes are being forced upon the minority? No, but they're going to happen one way or another. All we can do is learn to adapt to them and have faith that maybe it won't be as bad as we thought. However instead of being rude and nasty about it or just downright hostile, try to understand it from another point of view.

TLDR version: It's not entirely fair to the people who came from the start, but they'll have to adjust. Don't be a douche by ragging on them for it, try to instead understand where they're coming from. KTHXBAI

EDIT: Something I forgot to add, it could be just my perspective... Yet many of these "changes" that have been suggested from the community seem to almost base that they want this game to be another clone of <insert favorite game here> instead of something unique. The armoury system is something quite unique in fact to FFXIV, including the freedom to customize a class as you see fit. Slowly the game is losing some of the traits that made it truly unique.

Still, like I said... We won't entirely know until the final step towards 2.0 if the game will indeed be something unique amongst the MMO's of today, or just another clone trying to be like everyone else out there...

[Chezen]

snip

Really nice post Mihana. I often feel the same way about the changes, but I tell myself that I knew it was going to be under construction when I started, and therefore anything could change. I still will voice my feelings if there is a change I don't care for though.

I have felt like the game has been migrating to be more "wow-like", but there is still a significant enough difference, along with other features coming up, to keep me very interested. In the end, although it won't be the original FFXIV, it still will be unique to itself, I think. We'll see when we get there.

In the case of the shield, for anyone who uses it on another class besides gladiator, I definitely understand why they'd be upset. But though I can understand that, Neptune, I don't think it's fair to say that Yoshi-P doesn't care. I think he cares very much, and has tried to show an ear for his players. But he is one man, and cannot possibly think of everything. Which is the exact point of the forums. Anyone who doesn't like a change, should voice it, but perhaps they should count to ten before doing so, no?