FFXIV and SqEnix vs WoW and Blizzard - My Perspective

[Vahlnir]

I have not played Wow in some time. I stopped seriously playing at wrath of lich king and gave up completely after mists of pandaria which I loved from a casual perspective.

My honest thought was the fault tends to lie with the players. There’s a huge element of the player base who are just far too jaded and far too hostile. The 4chan crowd as it were.

I don’t want to judge people but just feel those guys are never going to be happy and seem quite unhappy in life in general. I mean wow was their life.

I’ve seen a few jaded mentors in the novice network always crying about simple jobs and bad players and things and generally they all came from wow. These kinda people treat mmos as life as opposed to a game and it’s just going to be hard to seperate them.

SE tends to pander less and there’s a much younger happier demo in this game in general.

Because of the questionable decisions the WoW developers have made over the last few years, players are jaded and unhappy. Any bad feedback is usually met with condescending Twitter posts or outright dismissal on the forums, usually to the tune of "Yeah, we hear you, but we're gonna do this anyway". They see their way as the only way. It doesn't matter what the players want. The dev team created this rift and it is only getting bigger as time goes on. There is a clear disdain for the player base on behalf of the devs, and the player base has only reciprocated it.

That doesn't make their poor behavior right when it comes to FF XIV, but you should probably try to understand what they've been dealing with. It also isn't all of them, thankfully, but I understand it can be frustrating. I would probably be considered a WoW veteran. I've got 11 years of WoW under my belt and I am also an older player in the MMO world. I've been there from the best of times to their worst. And yet I still consider myself to be pretty friendly. I'd say most probably are after playing FF XIV. That salt is hard for some to let go of though.

On the flip side of things, the FF XIV dev team remains in relatively frequent contact with their player base, acknowledge their issues and address what I'd say would be most of them, for better or worse. They try. I just don't think they quite know what the player base wants sometimes so they take a guess. I also question their priorities sometimes, but at least they are doing things. Again, they try. I wish I could say the same about modern day Blizzard, but...they have stopped trying and caring. So I have too and moved on for now.

[Deceptus]

Because of the questionable decisions the WoW developers have made over the last few years, players are jaded and unhappy. Any bad feedback is usually met with condescending Twitter posts or outright dismissal on the forums, usually to the tune of "Yeah, we hear you, but we're gonna do this anyway". They see their way as the only way. It doesn't matter what the players want. The dev team created this rift and it is only getting bigger as time goes on. There is a clear disdain for the player base on behalf of the devs, and the player base has only reciprocated it.

On the flip side of things, the FF XIV dev team remains in relatively frequent contact with their player base, acknowledge their issues and address what I'd say would be most of them, for better or worse. They try. I just don't think they quite know what the player base wants sometimes so they take a guess. I also question their priorities sometimes, but at least they are doing things. Again, they try. I wish I could say the same about modern day Blizzard, but...they have stopped trying and caring. So I have too and moved on for now.

Bull.

The FFXIV developers have had their moments of extreme stubbornness as well.

In 2.0 The Developers told us we were "playing warrior wrong" despite multiple points of feedback. It took an uproar to get them sorted out.
In 3.0 The Developers told us we were "Playing Bard (aka Bow Mage) wrong" despite multiple points of feedback showing casting made DPS WORSE.
In 4.0 tanks were a mess, especially [DARK ARTS] Dark [DARK ARTS] Knights [DARK ARTS]. They had the worst mitigation of any tank. outside of TBN. It was being used as a crutch.
In 5.0 Healers have been and are still an absolute disaster.

Meanwhile Monk has almost always been in a bad spot.

I'm probably forgetting a major thing or 3 over the years.

Lets not pretend that the FFXIV developers are infallible, white knight them, or keep rose colored glasses on.

Praise them when they do right, and call them out respectfully when they don't.

And you can't say that "Blizz does nothing" when you look at patch notes and see entire sheets of buffs and nerfs changing classes overnight. If anything, IMHO, Blizz listens to pressure too much. They definitely have their favorite specs they want to play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-4u6gn1r4U

[Vahlnir]

Bull.

The FFXIV developers have had their moments of extreme stubbornness as well.

In 2.0 The Developers told us we were "playing warrior wrong" despite multiple points of feedback. It took an uproar to get them sorted out.
In 3.0 The Developers told us we were "Playing Bard (aka Bow Mage) wrong" despite multiple points of feedback showing casting made DPS WORSE.
In 4.0 tanks were a mess, especially [DARK ARTS] Dark [DARK ARTS] Knights [DARK ARTS]. They had the worst mitigation of any tank. outside of TBN. It was being used as a crutch.
In 5.0 Healers have been and are still an absolute disaster.

Meanwhile Monk has almost always been in a bad spot.

I'm probably forgetting a major thing or 3 over the years.

Lets not pretend that the FFXIV developers are infallible, white knight them, or keep rose colored glasses on.

Praise them when they do right, and call them out respectfully when they don't.

And you can't say that "Blizz does nothing" when you look at patch notes and see entire sheets of buffs and nerfs changing classes overnight. If anything, IMHO, Blizz listens to pressure too much. They definitely have their favorite specs they want to play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-4u6gn1r4U

For what it's worth I never said they were perfect. I'm also probably one of the first people to call them out on things I disagree with, and I'm very vocal about it. But if it's between the WoW devs and the FF XIV devs...I'd have to side with them any day of the week, even as I criticize what they do. You really don't know the situation in WoW, do you? They have their favorite specs, sure, but...that's just the tip of the iceberg. They "balance" the game and classes around what THEY want, not what the player wants. They don't really listen to anyone unless they are bleeding subs, and even then it's not a guarantee.