Letter from the Producer LXII

[Physic]

They can say "it's a lot of work!" all they want but I'm increasingly less sympathetic to their plight as time goes on. The game is seriously understaffed. They can only use this excuse so many times before people start to ask "where is our money going?!"

I'm not saying that the devs don't work hard. They obviously do and I respect them for it. One could argue that they work too hard sometimes. But SE as a company needs to get its head out of the sand and staff this game properly imo. It's not like profits are an issue. This is probably one of their most profitable titles.

its not worth it because its not worth it. Every decision they make has a value and a cost, and a benefit, and must be compared to other costs.

Every race is actually less valuable the more races you have, because most players only use one or two races. There is a 1/16 chance that new race is going to be the most appealing race. Then, every race also makes every piece of gear more expensive to make, forever, and increases the costs of every skill with a unique animation/emote, cutscene etc (due to QA and development). And the upfront cost per race increases the more emotes/unique skills/armor etc the game has.

Then, you compare that cost, and benefit, with all the other things you could do with the same money/manhours and sometimes it no longer is worth it.

just because i make 1 million dollars off a tv show, doesnt mean its a good idea to spend 50% of my budget on one actor.

basically, at this point new races are no longer worth how much they cost, that doesnt change no matter how much money i make. Are you going to spend 2x the street value of a car, just because you have a good job when you already have 14 cars? Is that logical?

[Ceasaria]

Every race is actually less valuable the more races you have, because most players only use one or two races. There is a 1/16 chance that new race is going to be the most appealing race. Then, every race also makes every piece of gear more expensive to make, forever, and increases the costs of every skill with a unique animation/emote, cutscene etc (due to QA and development). And the upfront cost per race increases the more emotes/unique skills/armor etc the game has.
[...]
basically, at this point new races are no longer worth how much they cost, that doesnt change no matter how much money i make. Are you going to spend 2x the street value of a car, just because you have a good job when you already have 14 cars? Is that logical?

You can have 14 cars and access them for free, when in FFXIV to play another race you have to pay money (Fantasia).
Normal people and fantasia addict people will for sure allow SE to make great profits once new races will arrive.

[Reeereee]

its not worth it because its not worth it. Every decision they make has a value and a cost, and a benefit, and must be compared to other costs.

Every race is actually less valuable the more races you have, because most players only use one or two races. There is a 1/16 chance that new race is going to be the most appealing race. Then, every race also makes every piece of gear more expensive to make, forever, and increases the costs of every skill with a unique animation/emote, cutscene etc (due to QA and development). And the upfront cost per race increases the more emotes/unique skills/armor etc the game has.

Then, you compare that cost, and benefit, with all the other things you could do with the same money/manhours and sometimes it no longer is worth it.

just because i make 1 million dollars off a tv show, doesnt mean its a good idea to spend 50% of my budget on one actor.

basically, at this point new races are no longer worth how much they cost, that doesnt change no matter how much money i make. Are you going to spend 2x the street value of a car, just because you have a good job when you already have 14 cars? Is that logical?

Much harder to swallow when your largest competitor just modified their engine so they could add 6 new races an expansion.

[Dualblade]

Much harder to swallow when your largest competitor just modified their engine so they could add 6 new races an expansion.

As someone who doesn't play said game, my understanding of it is that those 6 new races are closer to XIV's subraces rather then being full on new races. A little bit more like the difference between Midlander and Highlander.

Also everything I've heard is that it isn't doing much to help retain their playerbase, much less add new people. Again I don't play it to begin with and my sources are almost certainly biased against it.

[Callinon]

As someone who doesn't play said game, my understanding of it is that those 6 new races are closer to XIV's subraces rather then being full on new races. A little bit more like the difference between Midlander and Highlander.

Also everything I've heard is that it isn't doing much to help retain their playerbase, much less add new people. Again I don't play it to begin with and my sources are almost certainly biased against it.

You're correct. I think only one of WoW's new allied races is using a unique model (the Kul Tiran Humans), while the rest are reskins of existing models.

Closer to the difference between a midlander and a highlander than it is the difference between a hyur and a lalafell.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

You're correct. I think only one of WoW's new allied races is using a unique model (the Kul Tiran Humans), while the rest are reskins of existing models.

Closer to the difference between a midlander and a highlander than it is the difference between a hyur and a lalafell.

Not even that it sounds like, as midlanders and highlanders are pretty different. Seems more like the differences in the other races in XIV, as they all are just palette swaps for the most part.

[Reeereee]

As someone who doesn't play said game, my understanding of it is that those 6 new races are closer to XIV's subraces rather then being full on new races. A little bit more like the difference between Midlander and Highlander.

Also everything I've heard is that it isn't doing much to help retain their playerbase, much less add new people. Again I don't play it to begin with and my sources are almost certainly biased against it.

Oh no, it went over spectacularly. They made a fortune in race change/faction change fees. It's the gameplay features in the new expansion that have tanked and the story elements have not gone over well.

Three are pallet swaps, two are in line with midlander/highlander and one is new.