"Final Fantasy XIV helps drive revenue spike"

[Alexandre_Noireau]

Yeah, but GW2 is terrible because dungeon encounters are just a spam fest since theres no tanks or healers.

It was interesting the first time. Became a lot less interesting the many times after. Especially after 3 more chars.

We are talking about level design, not combat.

[Astarotha]

i think one thing ff14 could do to help alleviate the 'hallway' feel of dungeons (although i love a lot of the dungeons in the game, ravels straight up homage to secret of mana is OoO) is have some dungeons circle back on themselves or have slight backtracking, like if abania looped in on itself where you had to get to a console that opened all the doors and released the last wave on you as you crossed back into the second room to get to the boss area

[Krotoan]

i think one thing ff14 could do to help alleviate the 'hallway' feel of dungeons (although i love a lot of the dungeons in the game, ravels straight up homage to secret of mana is OoO) is have some dungeons circle back on themselves or have slight backtracking, like if abania looped in on itself where you had to get to a console that opened all the doors and released the last wave on you as you crossed back into the second room to get to the boss area

Thousand Maws of TotoRak? Dzemael Darkhold?
not strictly loopbacks or backtracking, but loopy. And people hate those.

[linay]

i think one thing ff14 could do to help alleviate the 'hallway' feel of dungeons (although i love a lot of the dungeons in the game, ravels straight up homage to secret of mana is OoO) is have some dungeons circle back on themselves or have slight backtracking, like if abania looped in on itself where you had to get to a console that opened all the doors and released the last wave on you as you crossed back into the second room to get to the boss area

Thousand Maws of TotoRak? Dzemael Darkhold?
not strictly loopbacks or backtracking, but loopy. And people hate those.

I'm thinking Haukke Manor.

[Insertcoins]

That's great and all but given the fact that we're more than likely going to see a repeat of more of the same, i'd argue a cut corner version of it especially with the new races, what does that really matter to me the consumer?

The game driving a revenue spike is great for company heads and shareholders but as a consumer who hasn't seen any meaningful growth to the game itself since the end of Heavensward this means nothing to me. We're more than likely not going to see an increase in quality or quantity in regards to most non-MSQ content and will more than likey see further use of the system's limitations as an excuse as they keep building up technological debt.

At this point they've already fallen back on the "Patch it Later" mentality that Yoshida himself noted as a sign of failure for devs in a GDC following the reboot with Hrothgar and Viera. Sure the story is great and the music is top notch, and Ishikawa and Soken should be proud of it, but exactly what has been done at all in regards to this game's evolution given that it stays to a rigid formula after 3 expansions of player increase? Practically nothing since HW set the formula. The revenue will more than likely not affect the game and we'll more than likely see the same stagnant endgame with minigames added here and there.

I ask again, why does this matter to me the consumer?

You're also not saying what they could even add... as they have added stuff. Euerka is a good example of something new to the game. - Not saying it was good but it WAS new.- Everytime I see that complaint it's always - NOTHING NEW- but if that were the case we wouldn't have half the stuff we have NOW. So what can they add that one... doesn't break the game, two that they can do better then other mmos? And three make more than 10% of the playerbase happy?

[Shougun]

That's great news and props to the FFXIV team (the huge number of you )~! Hopefully the members who saw FFXIV as something worth "flipping" from the 1.0 days and on are going to be part of high power choice positions of the company, like apparently Yoshida has been made- because it's important for those people to ensure the idea of customer faith and delivering a good product is more important than a quick buck. Of course I wish the best for all the talent part of the FFXIV team!

There's a lot of quick bucks to be made out there, and a lot of companies are evidence on how to do that, but if you're wanting to make a brand and image... then you need things like the spirit and heart that made 1.0 into the 5.0 it is today.

I pre-order very few games these days, to be honest I buy few games these days (so the few of the few lol), and quite a number of the companies I might have used to before now I just wait and see because they seem to not care about their image anymore... But a company like CD Projekt Red or with FFXIV and the faith that the team specifically wont just try to pull a fast one (they've demonstrated they care), I still pre-order for.

Anyway, good job and hope the best continues for SE, it's talent, and their games. <3

[BunnyChain]

That's great news, expect to see more oPtIoNal cOsMeTicS as SE will certainly take an increased effort to put its attention where the money is.

[Enkidoh]

I'm thinking Haukke Manor.

Haukke Manor was just a long corridor clevely disguised though by constant doublebacking, but you still had a linear path to do (apart from a few missable treasure rooms along the first floor the only real optional variation was the extra cells in the basement to unlock or the extra room on the top floor once the path to Lady Amadine was cleared). It was still just a linear corridor wrapped inside a cube you were taking from the entrance to the boss (after all, how many actually physically walked back to the entrance after defeating the skeleton bosses in the basement? Every party I did for Haukke Manor always said to "just use Return" to warp yourself instantly back there after that. Every. Single. One. Not one bothered to walk back.).

The whole attitude of "make dungeons less linear" is all well and good, except the reason why dungeons are linear is exactly because players have been demanding it be so! I'm all for variety, but at the end of the day most players just want to get through it as quickly and efficiently as possible and not waste time going down pointless side passages for little gain. So you're not going to see more varied dungeons I'm afraid, because the player tail has been wagging that dungeon development dog since the beginning.

[HumanNinjaToo]

Not trying to offend, but sounds like a lot of people are jaded. No game is perfect. It’s easy to pick apart everything you don’t like about a game. I enjoy FF14. Despite the bad, I am enjoying logging in and playing it. I’m glad they are doing well, I’m glad SE is doing well too, because they’ve made some of my favorite games of all time. I hope they keep doing well, I hope they keep making content for FF14. As long as I’m having fun I’ll keep playing!

[Avraym]

That's great and all but given the fact that we're more than likely going to see a repeat of more of the same, i'd argue a cut corner version of it especially with the new races, what does that really matter to me the consumer?

The game driving a revenue spike is great for company heads and shareholders but as a consumer who hasn't seen any meaningful growth to the game itself since the end of Heavensward this means nothing to me. We're more than likely not going to see an increase in quality or quantity in regards to most non-MSQ content and will more than likey see further use of the system's limitations as an excuse as they keep building up technological debt.

At this point they've already fallen back on the "Patch it Later" mentality that Yoshida himself noted as a sign of failure for devs in a GDC following the reboot with Hrothgar and Viera. Sure the story is great and the music is top notch, and Ishikawa and Soken should be proud of it, but exactly what has been done at all in regards to this game's evolution given that it stays to a rigid formula after 3 expansions of player increase? Practically nothing since HW set the formula. The revenue will more than likely not affect the game and we'll more than likely see the same stagnant endgame with minigames added here and there.

I ask again, why does this matter to me the consumer?

Couldn't have said it better.

It baffles me they'll quickly boost about their high subscription numbers, or quarterly profits, but continue to dish out the exact same amount of content (if not less in recent expansions).

Since i'll try and be constructive here and make some suggestions
- 5-6 Savages instead of 4
- A developed Eureka, not the lazy fate spaming/light farming we've been given
- Meaningful Open World Content / Redesign Hunt System
- Challenging 4 Man Content
- Challenging Solo Content
- Dungeons which are actually difficult