The answer to the question everyone has been asking.

[Gemina]

I've attempted to counter arguments revolving around the financial state of SE. Some people seem to think SE is made out of money, and only sees things like (# of subs * monthly fee) + cashshop = unlimited funding. This is hardly the case, and the Final Fantasy franchise has quite literally kept their whole rig above water for years now. If FF plummets, so does SE baring another hailmary success, which they are also known for.

We players devoted to SE are almost like a cult. Their games have brought us a profound amount of joy and memories, frustration and tears, and has created communities. Despite this success, they are not as successful as some of the other gaming development companies out there. Not even close. They've overcome a lot of challenges trying to stay true to their culture while appealing to the western audience. They have more than compensated in regards to this.

Us westerners though. We don't care, do we? We pay for a product, and we expect on-time delivery of quality material. 'nuff said. From a business standpoint, I suppose that's fair; as is delivering reskinned content so long as it is of the same quality as the previous. I definitely think we could be more understandable instead of standing around shaking a finger. But along with reskinned content, quality has also gone down. And I also believe this isn't how they roll in Japan, if we want to tie things to culture.

[Kurando]

This is hardly the case, and the Final Fantasy franchise has quite literally kept their whole rig above water for years now. If FF plummets, so does SE baring another hailmary success, which they are also known for. .

Perhaps internationally, but locally in Japan Dragon Quest is actually bigger than FF. In the off chance everything goes to crap and FF is no longer the money bringer, SE could probably just return to its home market with more DQ installments. Although in recent years DQ has found much more fame in the West, so that could be their saving grace, not to mention other titles like Nier have done really well.

[Gemina]

Perhaps internationally, but locally in Japan Dragon Quest is actually bigger than FF. In the off chance everything goes to crap and FF is no longer the money bringer, SE could probably just return to its home market with more DQ installments. Although in recent years DQ has found much more fame in the West, so that could be their saving grace, not to mention other titles like Nier have done really well.

Possibly. I remember some early installments of DQ, and really enjoyed it back in the day. Would be nice if it could gain more popularity internationally along with continued FF success. That would definitely go a long way to increasing their budget.

[MicahZerrshia]

I definitely think we could be more understandable instead of standing around shaking a finger.

We are consumers and SE is anything but an indie developer. We don't need to be understanding, esp with a game that has been out as long as XIV has, by now they should have been able to develop multiple kinds of content as well as worked the bugs out of them. But telling a playerbase to be understanding to a multimillion dollar company who hasn't done anything innovative with a game outside of how they spin the same ol same and dodge any sort of reasonable questions does not deserve sympathy, East or West, from people who are paying exorbitated amounts of money considering its a game with a box cost and a sub, as well as the other things they wanna charge us for.

When you make an MMO or any game there should be a period of understanding by the playerbase post launch to get bugs worked out and such, but certainly not this far out and certainly not for a company of this size. You are basically saying that we should all be apologists and white knights and that is even more unhealthy to a game and a game company than being critical. And I believe one of the reasons the playerbase is so critical is because they refuse to open any sort of dialog with us. All Yoshida does is answer pre-approved questions that make XIV sound like the most amazing game ever or simply refuses to answer.

A game developer in 2018 should be able to answer questions that have been asked for years instead of hiding behind a curtain and acting like everything is fine and dandy when clearly its not.