The burden of being in charge.

[Ruri]

Mistakes will be made but if anyone can correct them, its Yoshi. I still have faith this game will be awesome by 2.0

[Cthulhu]

It is true that we are paying customers and also that we are not childeren (Emotional children aside). However, Yoshida is there exactly to judge what is "for our own good". That's why SE is giving him the salary you mention in your post. I do see us as a community and while I might not view him as a parent, I definitely see him as our head of household. If an idea comes out of the community, be it from players or dev staff, it remains an idea until Yoshida says "Do it" and then it gets done.

Here's how I think this is "vegetables".

A+B-X = "new A"

This is the ever popular option 2. So you order them in terms of populations (JP avg peak, NA avg peak, EU avg peak, or total avg peak?). Axe the bottom 8, you now have 8 blocks to add to your 10 remaining servers. Your objective is to have about a value of 2000 at each peak time. Few of your 8 blocks fit perfectly to remaining servers, but you do the best you can and mash your 8 blocks on. You'll have a few that leave this new server and move to the popularly named server of their choice. The new server might have too many on at some peak times and too few at another because your 8 blocks can only fit together so well.

Pick 10 Worlds, set a limit

In option 4 all the players get dropped in to a pool. Within this pool people align themselves into communities of play style. There are many types of communities that could emerge here. Hard core endgamers what to challenge other elite linkshells to be the first to have 8 memebers clear the new patch content and do a naked run to Fogfens? Isle 1. You like being in a general linkshell and the familiarity of Mysidia? Isle 3. RP? Isle 9. This process happens separately across your 3 language bases, each able to monitor the others to avoid large conflicts. Everyone must chose which community they are going to follow in the merge and those who don't are sprinkled across servers to provide building blocks for new communities to form or old ones to grow on the server. I'm willing to bet you have much more balanced servers at the end of this process. Hence vegetables. Not as good going down as a candy bar, but healthier servers in the end for eating it.

[RathSkybreaker]

I am thankful for this merge, although I do have a handful of "Friends" and or Aquatints from other link shells I have made about 5 friends that I consider friends of mine in real life at this point. I am looking to go with the friends that I enjoy being with the most and the people I hang out with the most, not the 50 other people in a link shell that are barely aquatints /"Friends"... Not only this but I think it is a good thing to shuffle the communities, although it breaks some bonds, it makes strong bonds stronger, and makes way for a plethora of new possibilities.

In general I am extremely thankful for Yoshi-P, I often say that I have hope for this game, but I know that when Tanaka was still around (no offense man, you did great things for XI), the game was falling, and quick.. I feel as if Yoshi P was given the task to climb mount Everest with a days worth of supplies with the trip lasting a few days at the least.

[Vaen]

I have nothing but love for Yoshi-P, even though I disagree with the server merge option he chose.

You can still respect someone even if you disagree with them sometimes!

[ShinChuck]

Got hit by the storm, so I'ma try to keep it trim and succinct, and elaborate as necessary to responses! I responded to the individuals first, then tried to more clearly state my general point at the end. Prepare yourself, TL;DR time!

You can't compare food to game design. You wouldn't want movies to be made by the audience either, would you?

Hmm? To a degree, I would, yes. And yes, to a degree, I know exactly what I want from a movie. People aren't entirely stupid to where they can't pick up on the nuance, or figure out what they like and why.

Does that mean I can specifically angle a shot, or do lighting? Of course not. But I can tell you what I like and back it up with reason.

The main idea was to give EU players a chance to get together with players from the same time zone. If they just go with plan ② (A + B - X ⇒A), the server with X would probably end up being underpopulated, because it's not likely that many players switch if they don't have to. So there was a good reason for it, but apparently most people don't care.

And that's fine, and we agree to an extent on this - but it's all irrelevant to my point. I did not say I was against EU servers, or entirely for Plan 2 - you assumed. That does not explain the lack of clear choice for those who desire, or the transfer of linkshells, or the limit before being randomly and arbitrarily assigned without excusing people who are not currently playing. These are things that unarguably cause confusion and threaten bonds and communication.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: When you smack two servers together, you get two distinct communities trying to coexist (sometimes quite unsuccessfully). With option 4 you're creating entirely new, cohesive communities.

You're also turning off some potential returns who don't want to be slammed into a random server or have to reroll and lose everything, you're potentially destroying bonds, and you're not necessarily creating entirely new, cohesive communities: people are already banding together to name their specific servers, and in many cases you're likely to see much of the same crowd running things. This way, you're still potentially going to have distinct communities trying to co-exist (haven't we always anyway, with Japanese and English?).

And like the previous guy, you're assuming I'm advocating Plan 2. I'm not.

Option 4 is also a last resort, but something like it hasn't really been done before. With that in mind, I wonder what your basis of comparison is? You don't have one.

There's actually a topic out there comparing the various merges, and showing the virtues of others compared to FFXIV.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...mplicated-mess

I'd be shocked if an option like 4 has never been done in the past, to be fair, but even saying that, it's certainly not standard at this point in time.

You're just assuming doom and gloom. Which is all the more reason why you're not qualified to make judgments on game design.

You, my friend, know nothing about me, and I'm not going to tell you. I just don't need to whip it out when someone claims my epeen is too small.

Now, we keep making fallacious appeals to authority here: Yoshi has very little MMO or serious game design experience, and has only done niche arcade games before this, nor does the consensus agree with him on things like these mergers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumen...s_to_authority

I know, I know, I'm opening the floodgates here for the flamestorm. People fawn over him, and he seems like a nice guy, I'm not knocking him on a personal level. But like it or not, it's the truth. Really, look him up - he's not done much, let alone anything of high profile.

I'm not trying to pick on the guy, I'm really, truly not, but these silly arguments of, "He's a game designer, you're not, therefore, your argument is invalidated" have got to stop. It's at best poor debate.

Truth to be told, you know EXACTLY what you want, yes. But since you're not a developer yourself you're most probably pathologically unable to EXPRESS that. There's simply things that are beyond your grasp, and beyond mine, when dealing with things you're not fully knowledgeable of. That's where filtering and analyzing player feedback fits, it's trying to figure out exactly what the players want, taking it from what they're saying.

I do appreciate what you're saying, and I honestly agree to an extent. You might know what kind of food you enjoy, but that doesn't mean you know how to cook it, and ditto for games and designing. There's truth to that, honestly and truly!

That being said, *Square Enix* should know better. When people ask for something, we too often get a bastardized version of what is the standard. Take dyes, for example. We asked for them, SE delivered - but not the way anybody expected, or anywhere near the standard in MMOs. You can't necessarily fault for the player for thinking they don't have to specify every minute detail to a massive corporation like SE, with years of MMO and gaming experience.

If I tell a carpenter I want a wall in my bedroom, I shouldn't have to specify, "And I don't mean made of toothpicks glued together," and I shouldn't have to tell a plumber that my shower should not be made of paper, that it should be connected to the water supply, and that it should not be on the ceiling. I should not have to lean over their shoulders making sure that's not the case. There's a certain degree of standards and reasonable expectations that come in to play.


As a general response to this issue:

It's kind of like the old ideas about the devil: he'll grant you your desires, but not in the way you want. He'll make you the best hairdresser in the world, but you'll be so good, you'll have no repeat business, and your business will fold. He'll give you eternal youth, but it'll be at the cost of life in prison. He'll make you into an all-powerful genie, but you'll be trapped in a lamp (okay, that was not the Devil, that was Aladdin, but you get the point!).

And then a portion of the community says, "SEE! You don't know what you want!" when we clearly do, but Square Enix is going *beyond reasonable expectations and standards* to deliver something that is technically what we asked for, but in a very bastardized, unreasonable manner. If anything, rather than questioning the design credentials of random forum posters, we should perhaps question SE's grasp on the modern MMO market, since they're the ones asking for money, as well as repeatedly misconstruing their base when they ask for something standard, expected and commonplace (and that's another thing that will get me flames, I know!).

No, I'm not calling Yoshi the devil or a shirtless kid from the desert. I'm simply saying, this is what we're up against sometimes in these debates. We ask for something, we get a bastardized version of it from SE that's nothing like the standard, expected or reasonable, and then we get told that we "don't understand what we want" (rather than "SE doesn't know the MMO standard well enough to understand what people are asking for") and SE knows better than the gamer.


(If you're stayed with this from the start, I commend you. I'll even "Like" your next post! )

[ShinChuck]

As if people didn't already want me to shut up, I missed your post. So, uh, I'll blame you. Totally your fault I'm still going. Alright, so let's see...

It is true that we are paying customers and also that we are not childeren (Emotional children aside). However, Yoshida is there exactly to judge what is "for our own good". That's why SE is giving him the salary you mention in your post. I do see us as a community and while I might not view him as a parent, I definitely see him as our head of household. If an idea comes out of the community, be it from players or dev staff, it remains an idea until Yoshida says "Do it" and then it gets done.

I'll give you this - to an extent. However, the fact that we're paying customers does change the field a bit. His goal is not solely to judge what is "for our own good", so much as deliver a product we desire. Now, some of his own judgement does come into play there, but this a transaction, and unlike children and parents, we have a right to ask for certain things, particularly standards.

If I ask for a cheeseburger, yes, there is an extent to which I must rely on the cook's expertise. But it's a two-way street, and if I know I don't like onions, the cook should be respectful of that. It'd be pretty cheeky for the cook, or the guy behind me in line to say, "You're not a cook, he knows better! Deal with the onions!"

So I understand what you're saying, and agree to an extent, we just need to remember that in a two-sided transaction, both parties can have valid points and concerns; the buyer should not simply have all his opinions invalidated.

But I think we ultimately agree on that point.

Here's how I think this is "vegetables".

I should apologize here, I'm sorry. I snipped most of that, because while you have some valid points there, absolutely, it's not really what I was referring to, and I should have clarified from the start. I'm not a one-issue "I want server names ahead of time!" or "I want Plan 2" type (as a side note, not sure why the community is thinking so "in the box" and limiting the possibilities to only four ideas), and my concerns spread beyond those.

My point is that you're still missing conveniences like linkshell transfers, and people who aren't playing during this small window will be thrust randomly into servers upon their return. It goes beyond waiting for 2.0 before resubbing; myself and many others have friends who simply cannot afford to play at this time or who may have serious life issues going on, and will receive a random transfer if they can't hit the window.

*Those* are what I'm talking about when I'm saying modern MMO standards aren't being met, I've yet to see it seriously addressed. Those are *not* ultimately good for us, nor are they meeting MMO standards. Other games typically will allow returning players to choose upon next login, whenever that might be, and it's shocking that guilds won't transfer either, a definite cause for more potential confusion.

So I do appreciate you responding in regards to vegetables and clarifying for me, and I do apologize I wasn't more clear from the start about what I meant. My bad!

[Biggs]

Because you need to be a chef to know what sort of food you enjoy, or even what food is best for you? Walk into McDonald's, "Hey buddy, don't listen to me, just get me what you think is best for me, that's why you're the manager and I'm not"?

Ninja Edit: The whole basis of the entertainment industry is to make products people want and enjoy. If you're not delivering products that make for a happy customer, you are *failing*. SE is paying Yoshi to make happy customers, and make more of them. This is not conducive to happy customers, and the single best argument for is based around a hypothetical "Well, uh, maybe they'll make new, better friends along the line."

Don't get me wrong, I totally am all for player input in a neutral enviroment. I think the player polls that SE has done are spot on the right way to go. They dont require you to be a member of a stupid forum to participate in them, and they take emotion COMPLETELY out of the equation. I just mean that, Yoshi seems to be flip flopping on his decision to use option four of the server merge based on what people on THESE forums are saying. My issue with that is they only represent a very small percentage of the actual player base. So essentially, 5% of the player base for this game are gonna determine what the other 95% of us get. Asking people what they think on these forums is the wrong way to go about it. Instead, I would have been all for a poll that just has you check a box with one of the options you like and thats it. Thats how elections are done, thats how surveys are taken, and that (to me anyway) would be whats best for the community as a whole.

[Cthulhu]

My point is that you're still missing conveniences like linkshell transfers, and people who aren't playing during this small window will be thrust randomly into servers upon their return.

I think you answer your first point. Your second, I would say is a somewhat valid criticism, but this small window of 20 days are right after the new jobs patch. Probably the patch which will have the most inactive players returning to check out the game since billing started and reaching until 2.0 launches. Even if they miss this window by 1 day people who really want to play together will only be separated for 7 months before getting another shot.

Other games typically will allow returning players to choose upon next login, whenever that might be, and it's shocking that guilds won't transfer either, a definite cause for more potential confusion.

A lack of what you called a convenience earlier should also not be shocking. Not excusing SE for not including them, but also not expecting them should be a good policy. After all, Yoshida is building us a new world while dishing out an exclusive plot to us at the same time (This shouldn't be a mantra to be used in every instance, but it does happen to be fact.).

He gives the most people resubbing before 2.0 a chance to pick their server. Miss it and you also get another chance in 7 months. I grant a golden ticket to move to any world that wasn't filled in the merge should be offered to every resub before 2.0, but even in a worst case scenario 7 months isn't too horrible.

[Bulwarkz]

RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

Too many people who play this need to take a chill pill. Nothing in the game is worth getting this upset over.

Exactly - and best sig ever imo, that sums these forums up nicely.

[Dreadnought]

heres what gets me. even if option 2 is selected, it still gives the players the option to change servers.
if your friends were that close to you, then youd either follow them or theyd follow you... so what does that say about these friendships people are so afraid to loose? especially if the option to change servers is going to be there regardless of which option the team goes with. 4 and 2 give you the same options >.>......

unless im missing something, both options are essentially the exact same thing.

also, why does he get sick so much? there are business men all over the world that work just as much as he does and i never hear of illnesses about them. what about actors that film two movies at once? or lawyers that take on several high profile cases at once? idk, it just seems fishy to me. maybe he has an actual health deficiency? just sayen.