Letter from the Producer LXII

[PangTong]

I acknowledge the reasoning behind the choice of what races to add as truthful and legitimate, but I still don't accept it as the right decision. If this truly is the last opportunity they had to add new races then they really just painted themselves into a corner by doing two half-races. Did they expect that people would be satisfied and not ask for the missing half? They really ought to have just picked one or the other and saved themselves the headache. They definitely wouldn't be suffering the same criticism they are now if they had. I don't buy the reasoning of "there was a lot of demand for a beast race" either when past polls have shown that a mammalian beast race was by far the -least- popular choice for a new player race option.

As for the decision to not add a new healer: when is the right time to balance healers if not at the start of a new expansion? If they added a new tank because they were having difficulty balancing tanks with just three jobs, what makes them think they'll fare any better with three healers instead of four? I don't buy this reasoning at all, it all just sounds like an excuse to me. They said similar things about why Samurai wasn't a tank but now here we are 2 years later and suddenly a new tank is apparently necessary. I also think it's silly that they count ranged, melee and caster DPS as distinct roles when not only do the players not do that, even the game itself doesn't do that in the majority of its matchmaking. For everything except the Feast, you do not queue as "ranged DPS", it's just "DPS". I suspect the real reason that there is no new healer is because they decided every expansion needs at least 1 new DPS job because a large majority of players only play DPS and nothing else.

It might seem a little unfair to criticize a decision based on genuine resource and workflow constraints, but at the same time the result is what it is. XIV is a product on the market competing with similar products, you shouldn't overlook flaws just because the creators are struggling to overcome them. Sometimes your best effort just isn't good enough. I think people made their preferences abundantly clear, and if the developers actively make decisions contrary to those expectations then they shouldn't be excused.

[Burningskull]

I acknowledge the reasoning behind the choice of what races to add as truthful and legitimate, but I still don't accept it as the right decision. If this truly is the last opportunity they had to add new races then they really just painted themselves into a corner by doing two half-races. Did they expect that people would be satisfied and not ask for the missing half? They really ought to have just picked one or the other and saved themselves the headache. They definitely wouldn't be suffering the same criticism they are now if they had. I don't buy the reasoning of "there was a lot of demand for a beast race" either when past polls have shown that a mammalian beast race was by far the -least- popular choice for a new player race option.

As for the decision to not add a new healer: when is the right time to balance healers if not at the start of a new expansion? If they added a new tank because they were having difficulty balancing tanks with just three jobs, what makes them think they'll fare any better with three healers instead of four? I don't buy this reasoning at all, it all just sounds like an excuse to me. They said similar things about why Samurai wasn't a tank but now here we are 2 years later and suddenly a new tank is apparently necessary. I also think it's silly that they count ranged, melee and caster DPS as distinct roles when not only do the players not do that, even the game itself doesn't do that in the majority of its matchmaking. For everything except the Feast, you do not queue as "ranged DPS", it's just "DPS". I suspect the real reason that there is no new healer is because they decided every expansion needs at least 1 new DPS job because a large majority of players only play DPS and nothing else.

It might seem a little unfair to criticize a decision based on genuine resource and workflow constraints, but at the same time the result is what it is. XIV is a product on the market competing with similar products, you shouldn't overlook flaws just because the creators are struggling to overcome them. Sometimes your best effort just isn't good enough. I think people made their preferences abundantly clear, and if the developers actively make decisions contrary to those expectations then they shouldn't be excused.

When matchmaking through the DF the game does differentiate between melee, ranged, and caster. But if it can't put different dps with different dps then to cut down on queue times it'll stick two of the same together. Otherwise you'd have ranged and caster waiting forever since I "think" those are more played than melee.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

When matchmaking through the DF the game does differentiate between melee, ranged, and caster. But if it can't put different dps with different dps then to cut down on queue times it'll stick two of the same together. Otherwise you'd have ranged and caster waiting forever since I "think" those are more played than melee.

Yep, I usually have faster queues as melee than my ranged/caster friends.

[reivaxe]

I acknowledge the reasoning behind the choice of what races to add as truthful and legitimate, but I still don't accept it as the right decision. If this truly is the last opportunity they had to add new races then they really just painted themselves into a corner by doing two half-races. Did they expect that people would be satisfied and not ask for the missing half? They really ought to have just picked one or the other and saved themselves the headache. They definitely wouldn't be suffering the same criticism they are now if they had. I don't buy the reasoning of "there was a lot of demand for a beast race" either when past polls have shown that a mammalian beast race was by far the -least- popular choice for a new player race option.

Did you happen to read the live letter?

Cause all this is clearly answered in there.

[Eloah]

Did you happen to read the live letter?

Cause all this is clearly answered in there.

I think you are missing his point. Try thinking of it this way, lets say you go out to eat, you're a very picky eater by the way, but you go out and only have a choice between a chicken or pork dish. You are told or its hinted to you by advertisements that you can get either fried or grilled/roasted. Perfect you like both chicken and pork, but think grilled chicken is too dry and fried pork too oily, so you can just choose from the other two options. However, once you get to the restaurant you find out that they only fry their pork and grill their chicken, which baffles you because how hard could it be to do, the other method. You get told "reasons" that admittedly make sense, but ultimately if this restaurant doesn't have any options for you you're probably going to find someplace else to eat. Granted this is a bit of an oversimplification but does present a similar expectation and dilemma. The two meat options are nice, but it's better to have the one option cooked two ways over the two options cooked only one way. It's this wierd dynamic where by limiting the options, you're creating a wider variety of options.

[reivaxe]

I think you are missing his point. Try thinking of it this way, lets say you go out to eat, you're a very picky eater by the way, but you go out and only have a choice between a chicken or pork dish. You are told or its hinted to you by advertisements that you can get either fried or grilled/roasted. Perfect you like both chicken and pork, but think grilled chicken is too dry and fried pork too oily, so you can just choose from the other two options. However, once you get to the restaurant you find out that they only fry their pork and grill their chicken, which baffles you because how hard could it be to do, the other method. You get told "reasons" that admittedly make sense, but ultimately if this restaurant doesn't have any options for you you're probably going to find someplace else to eat. Granted this is a bit of an oversimplification but does present a similar expectation and dilemma. The two meat options are nice, but it's better to have the one option cooked two ways over the two options cooked only one way. It's this wierd dynamic where by limiting the options, you're creating a wider variety of options.

Your example is terrible :/

Let me try to move it around ...

You're already at a joint, you enjoy it! It's got beer and whine and food and games and TV screens to watch the game on and even a karaoke stage! It's basically David Busters or Chucky Cheese. You get your favorite dish all the time (Potatoes I guess) and enjoy all the things you can do there. Now, they offer you 2 NEW dishes ... one's Shrimp and the other some kinda bird. You never came here before for shrimp because it was never offered and you don't eat that kinda bird ... you also enjoy your favorite dish and other activities here or else you would have stopped coming by now. They never promised you a shrimp dish before and when they showed the shrimp in an ad it was only shown cooked 1 way (Fried breaded shrimp). But now you're thinking of going someplace else because they don't make shrimp burgers?

Yeah, this is nonsense.

[Insertcoins]

Your example is terrible :/

Let me try to move it around ...

You're already at a joint, you enjoy it! It's got beer and whine and food and games and TV screens to watch the game on and even a karaoke stage! It's basically David Busters or Chucky Cheese. You get your favorite dish all the time (Potatoes I guess) and enjoy all the things you can do there. Now, they offer you 2 NEW dishes ... one's Shrimp and the other some kinda bird. You never came here before for shrimp because it was never offered and you don't eat that kinda bird ... you also enjoy your favorite dish and other activities here or else you would have stopped coming by now. They never promised you a shrimp dish before and when they showed the shrimp in an ad it was only shown cooked 1 way (Fried breaded shrimp). But now you're thinking of going someplace else because they don't make shrimp burgers?

Yeah, this is nonsense.

Dav and busters? Do you live in Chicago too? And I always thoguht it was dav and busters... the more you learn....

MASSIVE EDIT. Ok.. I thought Dave and busters was only a chicago thing. MY BAD. Crap thats 2 mess ups in one day. TT.TT I'mma go cry in a corner now.

[reivaxe]

Dav and busters? Do you live in Chicago too? And I always thoguht it was dav and busters... the more you learn....

I mean't Dave & Busters lol, and yeah, I'm from Chicago

Only problem with that is that before, we knew about Viera for quite a long time. We didn't know about Hrothgar. The expectation, then, was that there weren't going to be any beasts, and I'd say reasonably, people expected to be able to make a male Viera.

Now we're in a situation where people want male Viera, and on top of that, people want something they didn't know they wanted: female Hrothgar. So the amount of people left wanting is more than if they had just given us Viera.

There wasn't a "long time", it was a difference of 2 months. Before Hrothgar were revealed they were leaked, first by Blu Fever and then other leakers and finally by the French dub of the game in Feb. These are well known things among people who bother talking about this game online.

And no, just Viera would have let down all those people who wanted a beast race seeing as these are the final additions and they would be using said final addition to add "human, but with bunny ears!" which is far less creative and unique compared to the Scaley Peeps who ALSO got flack at first for being too human but are far more removed from human than Viera.

According to what I saw in support thread, most of active people there were okay with his "slim, handsome, elegant, more like Elezen with Miqo'te face" description ("more like Elezen" doesn't mean copy, I suppose he just wanted to give an idea. And since females seems to be mix of Hyur and Elezens, males could be similar to them). There were also people who wanted to see them shorter than females (which doesn't really mean that they have to look like children. Females are quite tall). And ofc there are people who wants to see another bulky race or wanted to see child model, but I doubt that they are even 1/3 of those who askes for males at all (can't say for sure, since I'm not telepath, and a lot of people don't write anything in threads or do not specify how they want to see them).

Thing is that the Male Viera thread is mostly spam posted on by a hand full of like <10 people, so if those <10 people are cool with an idea it's gonna look popular.

I've seen the drama from the faction fighting on the topic of "which head canon male Viera should get in" spread not just out of that thread but also outta this forum when people started making topics on reddit to gather recruits to bring back here and join the fight. Doesn't happen anymore because the people of reddit down vote the topic of male viera to the pits of hell ... cause the amount of people who want them isn't nearly as big as this forum would lead you to believe.

In truth there's never been a depiction of a Male Viera in a game so there's no centralized, agreed upon idea of what they would look like. So yeah, everyone who wants them can have their own idea they're fighting for and have no clue what the end result would be.

[Insertcoins]

I mean't Dave & Busters lol, and yeah, I'm from Chicago



There wasn't a "long time", it was a difference of 2 months. Before Hrothgar were revealed they were leaked, first by Blu Fever and then other leakers and finally by the French dub of the game in Feb. These are well known things among people who bother talking about this game online.

And no, just Viera would have let down all those people who wanted a beast race seeing as these are the final additions and they would be using said final addition to add "human, but with bunny ears!" which is far less creative and unique compared to the Scaley Peeps who ALSO got flack at first for being too human but are far more removed from human than Viera.

CHICAGO UNITE!!!!! - UP TOP-

[MomomiMomi]

There wasn't a "long time", it was a difference of 2 months. Before Hrothgar were revealed they were leaked, first by Blu Fever and then other leakers and finally by the French dub of the game in Feb. These are well known things among people who bother talking about this game online.

First of all, a leak isn't something you can know. It's only something you can believe. And second, the amount of people who it was "well known" among is a tiny fraction of even the forums, which is a tiny fraction of the playerbase.

And no, just Viera would have let down all those people who wanted a beast race seeing as these are the final additions and they would be using said final addition to add "human, but with bunny ears!" which is far less creative and unique compared to the Scaley Peeps who ALSO got flack at first for being too human but are far more removed from human than Viera.

"All those people who wanted a beast race" weren't all that many people. Even most people who actually want a beast race recognize that it's not a popular thing. But not only did they upset all the people who wanted male Viera, now there are people who didn't know they wanted a beast race who want female Hrothgar now that they've seen it. Thus, the amount of people who want a (female) beast race has increased. So, yes, I believe they have upset more people than if they had only had Viera with both races.