White Raven earring given out at The Rising event 2018

[Naoki_Yoshida]

Hello, everyone. This is FFXIV Producer and Director, Naoki Yoshida.
First of all, I'd like to thank our players for all the feedback and discussion regarding the "White Ravens" reward for the Rising seasonal event─an item which many remember from before the rebirth of FFXIV.

Combing through the global feedback, on top of a business trip and checking the content for patch 4.4, has prevented me from commenting on this issue in a timely manner, and for that I apologize.

I would also like to apologize to those who feel the decision to give away the White Ravens as a reward was unfair or disappointing, as undermining prior achievements was certainly not the intention of the development and operations teams.
We are deeply sorry for this oversight, and we now realize our mistake in not making the item a "replica" in the first place, as has been suggested.


With this in mind, I've put together a summary of what we hope to accomplish with this seasonal event, and how we intend to move forward after digesting your feedback.

- The Rising 2018
This marks the fifth anniversary of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn. It is thanks to the many legacy players who stayed with us since the game's original inception that we were able to effect this rebirth. And now, five years later, with the support of new players from across the globe, FFXIV has grown beyond my wildest expectations.
Even as we develop the game throughout the year, promotional work takes me around the world, and since last year's Stormblood expansion, I've fielded an ever-increasing number of requests to recreate the story and atmosphere of FFXIV's early days in some form.

I've responded by explaining that the story for FFXIV's previous incarnation was, to be completely honest, a shambles. The original main scenario was abandoned─using the shaky servers and systems available, I took the Grand Company scenario and forcibly reshaped it to become the main thrust of the story. It was the sense of impending calamity and expectations for rebirth that made it come alive, which is not something that can necessarily be reproduced. The excitement also came from the legacy players themselves─the sense of community and support which arose from that shared experience.

We've also had requests for a "legacy server," if only a temporary one. Those servers have long been dismantled, and although the source code has been preserved, there is little incentive for us to restore them (some of those servers have, in fact, been repurposed to generate your character images that you see displayed on the Lodestone.)

Others have asked for the story alone to be told on a DVD or in a book, but as I've already mentioned, the plot was plagued with issues, and as I took the liberty of ignoring certain points of lore, it suffers from numerous inconsistencies. I think it's fair to say that it worked precisely because─as the rebirth was described at its unveiling─it was a "once-in-a-lifetime experience" that marked the end of an era.

When the new era of FFXIV began, we gained a host of new players who took to the game with a passion, and we in the development and operations team have as much regard and gratitude for these adventurers as we do for our original veterans.

Our legacy players stood with us through the challenging days of FFXIV's rebirth, but we've had our share of difficulties in the years that followed, and it is through the support of all our players that we've succeeded to this degree.

Despite the many requests, it's just not possible to faithfully recreate FFXIV as it once was. Our stance on the matter has not changed. But we did, however, decide that the fifth anniversary of the rebirth was the perfect timing to provide at least a glimpse into how the game was back then. And thus the theme for this year's Rising was born.

As well as giving legacy players the chance to reminisce, our hope is that the event encourages them to share those memories and experiences with newer players, and in doing so strengthen the game's community. Taking that idea one step further, having the reward be a "replica" is, I believe, more in line with the spirit of the event.

- Plans for the Future
Although some players were of the opinion that the reward was not an issue, many others voiced their disappointment. And the fact that these players came forth is evidence that we failed to give the matter due consideration.

Our legacy players have memories that are tied to that earlier time─I was reminded that the excitement and pride they experienced in acquiring the White Ravens is bound up in the item itself, regardless of its stats or appearance. I, myself, am the sort of person who separates the experience from the physical reward, but that doesn't excuse the failure to consider those who feel otherwise. I intend to learn from this lesson moving forward, and continue to develop FFXIV as a game that everyone can enjoy.


Once again, I offer our sincere apologies to those whom we've upset with our lack of foresight and consideration, especially in a time when we should be celebrating this anniversary together.

It has been five years since FFXIV's rebirth, and nine years since its original inception, and I hope we can enjoy many more to come!

FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer and Director, Naoki Yoshida

[Iscah]

...

Thankyou for responding. I appreciate getting explanations from the dev team.

[Niqote]

I would also like to apologize to those who feel the decision to give away the White Ravens as a reward was unfair or disappointing, as undermining prior achievements was certainly not the intention of the development and operations teams.
We are deeply sorry for this oversight, and we now realize our mistake in not making the item a "replica" in the first place, as has been suggested.

This quote is quite long, so I have cut it down, you can click it to see the full quote.

Thank you for taking the time to reply Yoshida-san.
I would like to ask that some time soon, perhaps when your deadlines allow; that you can kindly fix said mistake and rename the event items as 'White Ravens Replica' especially if they are going to be added to the Mog Station next year.

Getting feedback from these forums is quite difficult when emotions run high, Perhaps an official survey with meaningful questions would help in this regard.

Faithfully,
Sa'Niquel Amrita.

[Iscah]

I would like to ask that some time soon, perhaps when your deadlines allow; that you can kindly fix said mistake and rename the event items as 'White Ravens Replica' especially if they are going to be added to the Mog Station next year.

They wouldn't be able to do that now. The 1.0 item and the purchased Rising item are, at a programming level, the same thing. It would be impossible to rename only some of them, because it will affect the new and old items equally.

It's still possible, particularly if they've read the reactions and learned from it, that the potential Mogstation version could be a separate 'replica' item instead of the original again, even if they can't change what they put in the event itself.

[ThirdKeyOfSun]

They wouldn't be able to do that now. The 1.0 item and the purchased Rising item are, at a programming level, the same thing. It would be impossible to rename only some of them, because it will affect the new and old items equally.

It's still possible, particularly if they've read the reactions and learned from it, that the potential Mogstation version could be a separate 'replica' item instead of the original again, even if they can't change what they put in the event itself.

Not entirely true. Aside from just being able to sort the items based purely on date of acquirement (which is data that is used in recovering lost items) the people who have the original earring also have a legacy dated achievement stating the date in which they completed Riven Road (Hard). That alone can be enough to flag 'original' earrings and mass change the rest. Whether or not they go that far is another matter entirely though I suppose.

[kikix12]

They wouldn't be able to do that now. The 1.0 item and the purchased Rising item are, at a programming level, the same thing.

It's possible. It's just harder to do.

When you get an item, there is a timestamp in the logs for it. Seeing as the current ones are "fresh" and the other ones are...really old...it's not that hard to program a code that would rename the items gotten recently thus making them separate. I mean...it works exactly as search feature "only in highlighted area" of office programs like Word works.

I mean...It COULD turn a true and blue legacy one into a "replica"...if someone managed to obtain it only after the Rising event hit the servers, that is...

[Tint]

It's possible. It's just harder to do.

When you get an item, there is a timestamp in the logs for it. Seeing as the current ones are "fresh" and the other ones are...really old...

The problem is that whenever you put the earrings into the armoire they technically are getting destroyed and when you take them out a brand new set of earrings will be created.

[dragonseth07]

The problem is that whenever you put the earrings into the armoire they technically are getting destroyed and when you take them out a brand new set of earrings will be created.

Right, spaghetti code is a very real thing. Remember back in WoW when changing the Backpack was avoided because it might just wipe everyone's character? Ah, good times.

[Iscah]

It's possible. It's just harder to do.

When you get an item, there is a timestamp in the logs for it. Seeing as the current ones are "fresh" and the other ones are...really old...it's not that hard to program a code that would rename the items gotten recently thus making them separate. I mean...it works exactly as search feature "only in highlighted area" of office programs like Word works.

That’s assuming that each person’s copy of the earrings exists as a separate item, that can be individually renamed.

I may be wrong (particularly given this game’s strange handling of inventory) but I would assume that each person has “item #123” which would be listed in an item database, currently labeled “White Ravens”. If they change that name in the item database, all the individual copies of that item would now display the altered name. You can’t change it for some of them any more than you can change the title of a website for only some of the pages that link to it. All the links point to the same final address.

Surely they haven’t created a system that stores the name of each copy of the item separately, and requires a find-and-replace check on every user worldwide if they want to rename something? (eg. fixing the recent issue with misnamed silvergrace accessories.) How much more data would that take up?

[kikix12]

That’s assuming that each person’s copy of the earrings exists as a separate item, that can be individually renamed.

Except that's not relevant. The process is the same.

Find copies obtained during X time. Change their database entry. It's only a matter of whether what you change is the name directly or a database entry, really.

What does matter is what another poster said, the way armoire works. That does greatly complicate the matter because the code would need to discern between the item being created by armoire and by another source. Alternatively it would need to check logs for the oldest instance of it being created (if they even have logs from way back). Still possible (and if going the road of differentiation of the source, it would not matter even if someone did claim their legacy earrings during the event, but it may not be possible), but a whole lot harder.

Automation is a very important aspect to database management. Your system does it every time you copy/paste anything. If you'll look more in-depth into games (especially RPG) with names of random NPC's, you'll notice that varied NPC's may have the same names and be editable separately, too. That's because there's more to it than just the visible label. There's tons of possibilities. It is entirely possible for individual items to get unique ID during their creation on top of their database ID. This is used to prevent duping, as the system can catch a duped item by sharing ID with another of the same type. Something that would not be possible through legit methods that all add unique ID. If this was used (I doubt it...it's a bit less obvious and a bit more demanding, while the developers seemingly cannot even follow the obvious good coding practices), one could even change the item database ID's through the item ID numbers.