Lost Faith in Square-Enix as a company?

[Remedi]

That's what happens when you require talking a language that few in the world talk

[Vhailor]

Going with personal insults now?

An insult would be calling you names. I'm simply making an observation. The suggestion that people should ignore - or indeed, are even capable of ignoring - aspects of FFXIV's development that they find deeply problematic, when they're also emotionally invested in FFXIV, is ridiculous. Emotional attachments don't work that way. Thus, you're either ignorant of this basic psychological fact, or you're intentionally tweaking people.

[Rinuko]

An insult would be calling you names. I'm simply making an observation. The suggestion that people should ignore - or indeed, are even capable of ignoring - aspects of FFXIV's development that they find deeply problematic, when they're also emotionally invested in FFXIV, is ridiculous. Emotional attachments don't work that way. Thus, you're either ignorant of this basic psychological fact, or you're intentionally tweaking people.

I am not sure where you got all that from when I was trying to make the point that you either like what they do or vote with your wallet and walk away.

I was saying that I don't like everything they do but it don't make me jump the gun on quiting the game i've invested the past 5 years into or going as far as losing faith in a company.

[Ceallach]

Personally, I could care less if I could buy raid gear for coins. Gear would still be available for free.

Except you'd have to spend money on moogle coins, making the gear not free. Plus that would be an obvious pay-to-win model that would invalidate raiding for gear entirely because you could just buy the gear from the app for actual money through moogle coins, and nobody would be happy with that.

This sort of model is the worry with the app. I hope I'm overreacting and SE doesn't go nearly that far. That's why I don't support it right now.

I was saying that I don't like everything they do but it don't make me jump the gun on quiting the game i've invested the past 5 years into or going as far as losing faith in a company.

This is an awesome point.

[Stormfur]

I haven't lost faith in SE as a company, because I don't put "faith" in them (or any other company) to begin with. I pay them for a service and I gauge the value I get out of that service as a means to determine if I'll stay subscribed. I ask myself many of the same questions the devs asked when creating 2.0 - most importantly - is it fun and enjoyable? To me, it is.

I run a company myself, and have done so for over 15 years now. Yes, money is important, but so is taking care of customer needs. Without customers, you have no money, but you have to walk a fine line between the two. You cannot bow down and give the customer everything, immediately, because this takes away time from other things you're working on. Whether you're a game developer or a CEO or whatever your job is, we all have a finite amount of time. Any good company wants to maximize their use of that time to 1) keep customers happy and 2) work on future content which in turn leads back to 1).

Now, with regard to this app, I'd say that SE is no stranger to the mobile market. They already have several mobile games out that follow this same approach. So it would be no surprise to see them continue to follow this idea of a freemium app for FFXIV. The problem is, as best as I know, all the other apps they have are not based on a subscription MMO (correct me if I'm wrong), and that's where the rub is.

The most glaring thing they didn't do (that I'm aware of), is ask customers what they wanted in an app for FFXIV.

Because I'm betting the answers would be WAY different than what we have. On one hand, you can't fault them for going the same route they've always gone with regard to mobile apps. But FFXIV is a different breed. I don't feel like you can take the same approach here.

Now, asking customers what they want will net you a metric boatload of answers - all of them different. Some of them good and some of them absolutely atrocious, and most fall somewhere in between.

But I bet you'd start to see a common theme.
- Events calendar and schedule - YES
- Send your squadron out - YES
- Send retainers out (provided you have ventures) - YES
- The ability to play freaking triple triad - seriously why is this not a thing. YES

- Anything that gives players an advantage or perceived advantage over those who don't have the paid app - NO
- Anything that "forces" players to log in. They should log in because they want to, not because the app is danging something over their head in a fear-of-missing-out way.

One of the things I've always liked in apps was the notion of little surprise gifts that you got for logging in. Not that you had to, because it seemed somewhat random. Like, "hey! Thanks for being a customer for X years, here's a free kupo nut that you can exchange for a free Fantasia from the Mog Station.

Of course, they wouldn't make money off of it this way, but they'd sure do a lot to build customer satisfaction back up. If I'm gonna pay a monthly fee for an app -- any app -- it had better mop my floors and cook me dinner. I'd rather pay a one-time fee for a companion app, if at all.

[Maero]

Also to add they should inject more of the money they get from subs into this game rather then a large chunk of it going to other projects.
And yes i know business wise they will not do it...

[Tridus]

- The ability to play freaking triple triad - seriously why is this not a thing. YES

I know, right? TT, assigning ventures, and watering my garden are my top 3. Chat in FC/Linkshells is good too.

I mean, TT is perfect for a game on the go. Matches don't take long and it doesn't require a complicated UI to play. That's such an obvious one to me.

[Fhaerron]

I know, right? TT, assigning ventures, and watering my garden are my top 3. Chat in FC/Linkshells is good too.

I mean, TT is perfect for a game on the go. Matches don't take long and it doesn't require a complicated UI to play. That's such an obvious one to me.

Actually I'm fairly sure that the app itself could handle it but it's just the spaghetti code on the servers that's messing up everything.
The app has no doubt better code then the game/servers.

#serverlimitations

[Aerlana]

Actually I'm fairly sure that the app itself could handle it but it's just the spaghetti code on the servers that's messing up everything.
The app has no doubt better code then the game/servers.

#serverlimitations

hum, or ... "more way to use mogcoins later" maybe?
Server cant get more storage. Money can get more storage
game cant allow TT out of game. Money could allow TT out of game

[Stormfur]

I know, right? TT, assigning ventures, and watering my garden are my top 3. Chat in FC/Linkshells is good too.

I mean, TT is perfect for a game on the go. Matches don't take long and it doesn't require a complicated UI to play. That's such an obvious one to me.

GAH. How could I forget the garden?! Freaking YES to watering and fertilizing my plants, provided I have fertilizer.

The overall goal of the app should make some functions inside of the game more convenient for users to do OUTSIDE of the game. As it is, I feel like it's way too centered on marketboard actions and making money for SE.

The sad thing is, we really don't get much in the form of convenience in exchange for our money (for the app) every month. To be honest, I don't think there's anything they could offer that would garner an enthusiastic YES I NEED THIS from me, every single month, in the form of cold, hard cash.

That may be part and parcel for how things work in Japan, but you can't apply that like a blanket over every region and culture served by FFXIV. We weren't even asked what we'd want. Yes, the list would probably be a mile wide, but at least you'd have a pretty good foundation of what could be put into it and even what features you could charge for instead of blindly throwing something at a wall and hoping some of it sticks.

I honestly can't fault SE for taking this tract with this app because it's familiar, well-trodden path for them.

But you know, I honestly feel like FFXIV subscribers are a notch above your average p2w mobile app. Or at least we like to think we are Lots of us have already invested -- some pre-ordered this game practically sight-unseen. others invested years of time on it. If this is what we get after all of that, I gotta say, hard pass.