Portable Orchestrion

[Brightamethyst]

The request wasn't "turn FFXIV into a first-person shooter" it was "let me pick my music track in the open world" which, I will again remind, is ALREADY A THING YOU CAN DO. The request here is for that system to be slightly expanded to include more tracks and an interface to manipulate them.

This is why developers hate users. They think they know everything when they usually know literally nothing.

"It already does y and z. Just go back and add x. Easy." But it was never designed to do x. The user looks at the front end and imagines how easy it must be, while the devs are look at the back end and know that to add x they'd first have to completely redesign r, s, t, u, v, and w for it to work.

Now in this particular case I don't know the game's code any more than you do, but I guarantee it's not nearly as easy as it looks. It never is.

[Callinon]

This is why developers hate users.

Only jaded (or super arrogant) developers hate users. I've been a developer working on large user-facing projects. This is why I'm completely certain that code can be modified and is not, in fact, carved in stone (or oil on canvas or whatever that was about up there).

I didn't say it'd be easy. I said it was within the scope of possibility because the system already does some of what it would need to do. There'd be no need to create brand new tech here, just some modification to what's already in place.

But it was never designed to do x

The game wasn't designed with flying in mind, we can do that now. Believe me that was a MUCH larger change than is being proposed here.
The game wasn't designed to have collectables, but somehow that's now a thing.
The game didn't ship with duty roulettes. Remember having to spam Castrum Meridianum to cap tomestones? I do.
The game didn't ship with a glamour system. Letting one piece of gear look like another piece of gear? Blasphemy!
The game didn't ship with GPose. Changing outdoor visual effects so that they'd only be visible to the player was a big deal. But changing outdoor audio that only changes for the player is a bridge too far apparently?

I could go on and on.... and on.

[Brightamethyst]

The game wasn't designed with flying in mind, we can do that now. Believe me that was a MUCH larger change than is being proposed here.

Yeah, but it also affects every single player in a huge way. The time vs effort tradeoff was apparently worth it. Personal orchestrion is a cool idea, but not a game changing one the way flying is. Not even close.

But changing outdoor audio that only changes for the player is a bridge too far apparently?

Apparently. Obviously it's not literally impossible to implement, but if it was that easy they probably would have just done it already rather than giving us the same answer year after year

[Seleni]

Only jaded (or super arrogant) developers hate users. I've been a developer working on large user-facing projects. This is why I'm completely certain that code can be modified and is not, in fact, carved in stone (or oil on canvas or whatever that was about up there).

True. Many developers likely don’t hate users; they don’t have to interact with them. They might hate Sales though, who’d promise users a moon when the team doesn’t even have a rocket.

I didn't say it'd be easy. I said it was within the scope of possibility because the system already does some of what it would need to do. There'd be no need to create brand new tech here, just some modification to what's already in place.

A senior developer I’d known often said anything is possible, given resource and time, with the implied caveat that the latter two are the limiting factors.

The game wasn't designed with flying in mind, we can do that now. Believe me that was a MUCH larger change than is being proposed here.
The game wasn't designed to have collectables, but somehow that's now a thing.
The game didn't ship with duty roulettes. Remember having to spam Castrum Meridianum to cap tomestones? I do.
The game didn't ship with a glamour system. Letting one piece of gear look like another piece of gear? Blasphemy!
The game didn't ship with GPose. Changing outdoor visual effects so that they'd only be visible to the player was a big deal. But changing outdoor audio that only changes for the player is a bridge too far apparently?

I could go on and on.... and on.

Assuming you’re a developer for a commercial product, how would you justify the resources needed for this requested change?

Many of the features you listed are available in other competing MMO(s), so the justification was likely not difficult: they are considered needed to stay competitive.

Would this requested change help to increase number of subscribers? Or would it help to retain existing subscriber that would otherwise quit the game? How many users do you actually expect to actually be using this feature, given that it’s limited to music from this game and a couple from other FF series? Could it possibly decrease sales of soundtracks/music? (This might be countered by online store sales of orchestrion rolls) Would the existing license work for vocal songs, or will those need to be excluded from fields?

If the resources needed can be justified, then this feature request might actually get implemented. After all, music seems quite a big part of the FF franchise.

[Callinon]

Assuming you’re a developer for a commercial product, how would you justify the resources needed for this requested change?

Many of the features you listed are available in other competing MMO(s), so the justification was likely not difficult: they are considered needed to stay competitive.

Would this requested change help to increase number of subscribers? Or would it help to retain existing subscriber that would otherwise quit the game? How many users do you actually expect to actually be using this feature, given that it’s limited to music from this game and a couple from other FF series? Could it possibly decrease sales of soundtracks/music? (This might be countered by online store sales of orchestrion rolls) Would the existing license work for vocal songs, or will those need to be excluded from fields?

If the resources needed can be justified, then this feature request might actually get implemented. After all, music seems quite a big part of the FF franchise.

At last, an actual discussion!

I'll freely admit this wouldn't be a banner feature. Unlikely to affect subscriber numbers in any significant way unless you put something else behind it. FFXV allowed you to purchase soundtracks from other Final Fantasy titles (and a few they just made up) to play in your car between waypoints. Did that drive sales numbers? It's unlikely. Was it a nice touch? You bet. So that's a thought. The fact that this request keeps popping up over and over suggests that there's a large enough segment of the population that would be interested in using it, though obviously neither you nor I have the data necessary to give any kind of real answer to that question. Again it'd fall under the "would be nice" category. I can see some potential revenue streams from selling in-game versions of soundtracks from previous games. As much as I hate asking for things to be put on the cash shop in a subscription game, I do recognize that it's a necessary decision point and this feature would open up that possibility. Right now they sell orchestrated versions of FFXIV music on the mog station, but you can still only listen to it sitting in your room. This kind of thing would broaden that potential audience away from being exclusively limited to "people who like to sit in their room."

Music IS a big deal in the Final Fantasy franchise and over the course of 30+ years it's amassed a lot of good music that could be put to productive use here. As to your question about harming sales of soundtracks, I think it's unlikely given the subscription nature of FFXIV and the effort necessary to play said music in-game. It isn't a substitute for playing that music anywhere else and doesn't affect at all those people who aren't FFXIV players in the first place but still enjoy FF music.