In A Perfect World... (Media Tour Wishes)

[Burningskull]

Since Covid is forcing public events to mostly be canceled I'd like to propose something for all players.

Suppose 1 or 2 weeks before the early access period. SE added some phantom servers to the data center list that only have access to maybe one area with training dummies. You would select it like you do data centers on the main menu. On this server you could make a brand new lvl 90, or 80 if you prefer, character, try out the new jobs and run around the new area for a while. Then when early access starts the characters are wiped as tho they never existed, the phantom servers go away and everything goes back to normal.

Yes I know data shall not be named mining exists and thus YES I KNOW this will NEVER happen... but it was a nice thought.

[linayar]

In a perfect world, we'd all log in at early access knowing nothing about the jobs beyond the AF gears. You have leveling period to figure things out, the two Extreme trials, then two weeks before Normal raid, and another two weeks before Savage.

[Deceptus]

In a perfect world, we'd all log in at early access knowing nothing about the jobs beyond the AF gears. You have leveling period to figure things out, the two Extreme trials, then two weeks before Normal raid, and another two weeks before Savage.

With the FFXIV developers track record on a lot of jobs, I think the OP's idea has merit.

When the Shadowbringers "influencer" and pre-patch data came out, healers were extremely concerned with what they saw and people just like you said exactly what you said.

"Wait until it goes live".

There are certain things you don't need to go live to see that the developers have made a mistake. They are not infallible, they've honestly screwed up pretty major a few times every single new expansion regarding jobs.

I'd rather have the data ahead of time than after.

[linayar]

I'd rather have the data ahead of time than after.

The data ahead of time won't do anything if they're not taking feedback on it. They take feedback on the live server as there is no beta/ptr, so I would rather experience the jobs on my own rather than listen to people either complain about it or say wait until it goes live.

[Laphicet]

Won't happen, they're too scared of the tanks/healers lighting a fire under their ass about gutting their jobs even more like what happened during 5.0

And such happening BEFORE the launch could do good harm to the overall hype and cause a drop in expansion purchases and sub numbers.

[SecretIsland]

Since Covid is forcing public events to mostly be canceled I'd like to propose something for all players.

Suppose 1 or 2 weeks before the early access period. SE added some phantom servers to the data center list that only have access to maybe one area with training dummies. You would select it like you do data centers on the main menu. On this server you could make a brand new lvl 90, or 80 if you prefer, character, try out the new jobs and run around the new area for a while. Then when early access starts the characters are wiped as tho they never existed, the phantom servers go away and everything goes back to normal.

Yes I know data shall not be named mining exists and thus YES I KNOW this will NEVER happen... but it was a nice thought.

No thanks. This will only encourage spoilers everywhere.

[Iscah]

What's the actual point of this proposal? Early access to the early access?

Why does it need to happen earlier with dedicated servers and characters instead of simply at the launch?

[StriderShinryu]

What I would like to see happen, and what should happen, is media and content creators should be given streamed access to the game and given a time window to ask the devs questions. Other game companies have already switched over to this format in the past year. No data is stored on external hardware as the content is entirely streamed so there's no fear of data mining and the play sessions can be supervised remotely by the dev or community teams.