To Devs about Adventurer Plates

[Kes13a]

I’m afraid you have tapped into too niche of a user base to design for them. This is speculation but I would wager the amount of players that would want commendations but would not want their players showing would be minimal at best. So yeah, my opinion on the matter stands. It’s okay if you don’t like it.

so great that you feel everyone in the player base agrees with you

however, I hate to tell you this.. but unless you actually change it, its default is private I believe. which means that people who dont touch it... are set to private. so may not be as "niche" as you believe it is. not everyone is going to put the time in, or find them as useful... as you yourself may think.

never said I dont like the plates, I just have little use for it so havent touched it. huge difference there, and I doubt I am that niche

[Ath192]

so great that you feel everyone in the player base agrees with you

however, I hate to tell you this.. but unless you actually change it, its default is private I believe. which means that people who dont touch it... are set to private. so may not be as "niche" as you believe it is. not everyone is going to put the time in, or find them as useful... as you yourself may think.

never said I dont like the plates, I just have little use for it so havent touched it. huge difference there, and I doubt I am that niche

I just checked a new character I made for a wedding. The default is set to public. But I think I get it. You don't like the idea and would go as far as to borderline spread misinformation to paint it in a negative light. It is safe to assume you are not a fan and this feature would not be for you. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

It seems Square setting it to default public means they want them to be as visible as possible. I would go change it to private for your character.

[Kes13a]

I just checked a new character I made for a wedding. The default is set to public. But I think I get it. You don't like the idea and would go as far as to bordeline spread misinformation to paint it in a negative light. It is safe to assume you are not a fan and this feature would not be for you. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I have no problem with updating the commendation system to use a stock character photo, thats fine.

the problem is when you bring in something like this, which is purely for social purposes, and then force people to use it to receive commendations from running the combat portion of teh game. people do not usually tend to be social in dungeons, not sure if you have noticed. so tying the two together defeats the purpose.

as for your created character, I did notice that as soon as you click on Privacy settings, it is default there to "everyone" as soon as you open it. if you do not modify the card at all, it states at teh bottom *Your plate is not currently visible to other players. Make it public by changing its appearance or settings". that tells me, using my limited comprehension obviously, that if you click okay, and close the plate, or simply never open it at all... it is not public.

tell me how that is misinformation?

[Ath192]

I have no problem with updating the commendation system to use a stock character photo, thats fine.

the problem is when you bring in something like this, which is purely for social purposes, and then force people to use it to receive commendations from running the combat portion of teh game. people do not usually tend to be social in dungeons, not sure if you have noticed. so tying the two together defeats the purpose.

as for your created character, I did notice that as soon as you click on Privacy settings, it is default there to "everyone" as soon as you open it. if you do not modify the card at all, it states at teh bottom *Your plate is not currently visible to other players. Make it public by changing its appearance or settings". that tells me, using my limited comprehension obviously, that if you click okay, and close the plate, or simply never open it at all... it is not public.

tell me how that is misinformation?

You have confirmed it is default to Public if you decide to use the feature and you would have to opt out. If you don't use the feature and do not set it up if simply doesn't show. I would interpret the developers decision as follows:
1. Theres no point in showing a stock adventurer plate that hasnt been set up since it is too generic
2. They can opt out while setting their profile if they customize it

But this is just me. I suppose you have raised a point that makes it too nebulous to fully understand what they intended. We are left with our thoughts on it.

Interestingly enough though, if you do play the new PvP you cannot opt out, a stock up close profile picture of your character is displayed and it is mandatory (caveat I want to add an I think, I certainly havent seen less then 5 profile pics per team so far). So Id say my suggestion is rather mild with a way out compared to what they have implemented currently.

[Kes13a]

You have confirmed it is default to Public if you decide to use the feature and you would have to opt out. If you don't use the feature and do not set it up if simply doesn't show. I would interpret the developers decision as follows:
1. Theres no point in showing a stock adventurer plate that hasnt been set up since it is too generic
2. They can opt out while setting their profile if they customize it

But this is just me. I suppose you have raised a point that makes it too nebulous to fully understand what they intended. We are left with our thoughts on it.

I did not confirm that. I have NEVER touched my plate to modify it, and it says : *Your plate is not currently visible to other players. Make it public by changing its appearance or settings I guess you missed that part
what I said was, as soon as you click on Privacy Settings, the default setting in there.. is "Everyone" (I tried this on another character)

did you follow that now? so that means, by default, if you never touch it, then its private. so people who never open it, will be private. to use your comm system, they would HAVE to set up a plate or change settings. which I am not for.
I AM for using character photos for commendations, but should not be tied to if you have an adventure plate set up, and it is set to public.

I am not sure if you are not getting it because you just want to argue your idea is better or you simply dont get it.

[Ath192]

I did not confirm that. I have NEVER touched my plate to modify it, and it says : *Your plate is not currently visible to other players. Make it public by changing its appearance or settings I guess you missed that part
what I said was, as soon as you click on Privacy Settings, the default setting in there.. is "Everyone" (I tried this on another character)

did you follow that now? so that means, by default, if you never touch it, then its private. so people who never open it, will be private. to use your comm system, they would HAVE to set up a plate or change settings. which I am not for.
I AM for using character photos for commendations, but should not be tied to if you have an adventure plate set up, and it is set to public.

I am not sure if you are not getting it because you just want to argue your idea is better or you simply dont get it.

Mmm for my idea to work they would have to make the profile pic display by default like they do in PvP unless they opt out. Commendations should be on by default. I think we like the core of the concept then, and disagree on minor details.

But I probably lean on the I don’t get it. You are just raising points that I just don’t think are a big deal to me? So its not my intention to paint this rigid picture of what it should be, just a general concept the developers would have to discuss and iron the details out for. I give some thought, but not a lot, when people raise these niche points, so I try to answer best I can.

So I guess it makes me happy you would set your profile pics for comms. I would too.

[Ath192]

I have NEVER touched my plate to modify it, and it says : *Your plate is not currently visible to other players. Make it public by changing its appearance or settings I guess you missed that part

what I said was, as soon as you click on Privacy Settings, the default setting in there.. is "Everyone" (I tried this on another character)

I did miss that part. However I still think if you decide to use adventurer plates you have to opt out of them being public. But you have to opt in to use adventurer plates themselves. So yeah… like I said they don’t send the most clear cut message there.

[Myrany]

You need to make this go mainstream to maximize its value. Therefore please remove the little commendation tab at the bottom right of the screen at the end of the dungeon and then:

1. When you exit a dungeon the screen changes to the new commendation screen displaying adventurer plates
2. You click on the one you want to commend or a No Thanks/Skip
3. You load into the overworld

Then, people will actively be very interested in making their plates as cool as possible.

Late Edit, this is more or less what I mean, taken directly from the PVP page and modified with Paint a bit.

Not everyone thinks these plates are a wonderful thing. By tying them to the commendation system you are forcing people who want nothing to do with the plates to use them or never get a commendation again. That just isn't right.

It's great you enjoy them. Glad you have the option to use them. It wouldn't be right to force people who want nothing to do with them to use them.

[Ath192]

Tying them to the commendation system would make them interactive, which I think is more fun in admittedly my own opinion. So I agree with you, it is a preference. People who don't want to do anything with them would just get the stock photo on them like PvP if they don't opt out of the system.

So would you say you are upset that Square Enix forces profile pics on the new PvP mode and that it wasn't right? - It's okay either way.

I have a lot of questions recently due to the responses I've heard here actually.

1. Why do people feel their own privacy is being invaded when a plate for their character gets slapped on the screen? Doesn't the lodestone already give extensive public details if anyone wants to look another person up there?
2. Why would people set an adventurer plate to keep it private? All it gives is stuff you can find out by examining a character in game, which has no way of being kept private with exception of the schedule, which doesnt need to be filled out?
3. Why is there a play schedule on the adventurer plate? It seems too serious, like a job. A small bio field would be more beneficial, and could also allow players to put their schedule there if they desired the info to be displayed. Don't people just log on when they have time? And they may choose not to log on a Saturday despite their adventurer plate saying they should be active?
4. Why are people opposed to a generic MMO character pic showing but they arent opposed to their name showing up on the commendation menu? Isn't forcing peoples names on there already an equal privacy violation? FFXIV doesn't even have enough customization available for a characters to be hyper unique. Whatever character we have is probably shared by hundreds of players in a game with millions of subscribers.

The only two hang ups I really can somewhat see are:
1. Longer loading, by like a second, but sure it can be inconvenient. So you opt out.
2. Offensive poses on pictures. And I do think SE will improve it so that they are more tame in the future. So this isn't a reason not to.

As far as "Forcing people" I view it less as an imperative mandate and more as causing change, which is inevitable. The game forces you to watch cutscenes in the MSQ roulette, it has forced job changes and some people like them some don't, it forces people to wait for weekly caps.

No matter what decisions they make they will tick off a certain subset of players. So all we can is offer feedback on our preferences and see what they choose. Truly what is or isn't right in video game design is relative to the preferences of the people that play it.

However one thing is certain, if they tried to accommodate everyone then there would be no game at all. Because no one agrees on everything. So it would be impossible to create, and I think we are all grateful the game exists. I would have to reject the notion there is an absolute right or wrong that everyone can adhere to when it comes to game design.

[AnnRam]

Not everyone thinks these plates are a wonderful thing. By tying them to the commendation system you are forcing people who want nothing to do with the plates to use them or never get a commendation again. That just isn't right.

It's great you enjoy them. Glad you have the option to use them. It wouldn't be right to force people who want nothing to do with them to use them.

Commendation system already sucks and pretty much 90% of people don't even care or don't notice the tiny little window that suddenly pops in at the end of the dungeon/raid/etc.

If I dont like some people characters rendering and using resources of my computer why I'm forced to see them on my screen? Why I can't make them invisible?.

Now seriously SE can make them completely optional on a new Commendation system