Yoshi-P: Flippant dismissal of player criticism is a poor look for a lead developer.

[Deveryn]

I worked for many corporations before and need to be in close relationships with mangement because I did ERM. At most corporations it is mandatory to have a "dedicated spokes person" who is chosen to speak for and on behalf of the company. There is a literal agreement that these people must sign that they will approach public audiences in a way that will not tarnish or diminish the reputation and thereof the sales possibilities in any manner. Now, because of his position Yoshi P might have something different to this, but to say that customers cannot influence how a grown up adult (that represents a corporation) is just wrong. IF you work at a bank and you are a manager and you see that one of your colleague approaches customers in a way that will send mixed feelings, you can literally fire them based on that. I worked for a bank as well and this was very common. If you cannot "speak well" -so to speak, - in stressful situation, then you are going to lose customers, therefore profit.

PR is very important for companies and reputation is one of the main risks many companies focus on. Especially in today's world where there is an instant flow of information and bad news usually make bigger headlines than good news.

The live letter itself is very much an informal event. It always has been. I'm sure they're very serious and all business the rest of the time. The LL is a time to relax and loosen up. Yoshida-san is a fellow player talking to other players about what's coming up next. A little joke here and there doesn't seem out of bounds, considering the comments that likely show up in that ongoing flood.

They don't have to do all this. They could just have a letter and a slideshow and a very inhuman feel to the whole thing. Is that what you'd like to see? Maybe he should stop chatting with content makers when an expansion is coming up. I imagine the commentary on the forums would be even worse.

[Raven2014]

I worked for many corporations before and need to be in close relationships with mangement because I did ERM. At most corporations it is mandatory to have a "dedicated spokes person" who is chosen to speak for and on behalf of the company. There is a literal agreement that these people must sign that they will approach public audiences in a way that will not tarnish or diminish the reputation and thereof the sales possibilities in any manner. Now, because of his position Yoshi P might have something different to this, but to say that customers cannot influence how a grown up adult (that represents a corporation) is just wrong. IF you work at a bank and you are a manager and you see that one of your colleague approaches customers in a way that will send mixed feelings, you can literally fire them based on that. I worked for a bank as well and this was very common. If you cannot "speak well" -so to speak, - in stressful situation, then you are going to lose customers, therefore profit.

PR is very important for companies and reputation is one of the main risks many companies focus on. Especially in today's world where there is an instant flow of information and bad news usually make bigger headlines than good news.

So here we have a tradition where the top designers of the game sit down to have a fun, organic, and holistic talk with the community before each major patch ... and you're making a case for it should be another pointless, soulless, scripted by lawyers event? The kind companies like EA or Activision do?

Hell, I thought people hate PR/Corporate talk, or is that just me? Between this and the way the community jumped at him for his opinion on NFT, people just want to nitpick what they don't want to hear. Well, if your goal is to eventually make the communication between the dev and players strictly become a list of bulletin point written in standard PR language with a triple checker from corporate lawyers, I say keep going because the community is doing a fantastic job of making that happens.

[Sebazy]

There are people that actually take things seriously and give proper feedback which reaches the team.

Could you cite your sources on this?

I've made multiple well researched, written and concise feedback posts and threads, some of which are pushing 200 likes.

None of them have ever so much as been acknowledged and certainly not acted upon to my understanding, and I'm certainly not the only one here.

<snip>

Agreed in general, the live letter format is excellent all told and ripping up the playbook isn't the way to go. The issue is that Yoshida has repeatedly shown himself to be a bit out of touch with his player base pretty much right from 2.0 when he told us we were playing Warrior wrong. IMHO the production team suffers a little from firmly believing that they know best when that's not always the case. By being a little more receptive to community sentiment pretty much all of these faux pas could have been avoided.

[Reap00]

It is this exact dismissive attitude that many players are starting to take umbrage with.

Healer criticism? Go play Ultimate (despite the Ultimates being able to be solo healed)

Glamour Criticism? Instead of fixing a broken system, we just simply made it bigger.
Take what we give you and like it.

I get it. You're stuck with the resources you have and the engine you're working with, but flippantly dismissing player criticisms over a system they find subpar is simply a bad look.

I think it just bothers you because you know he is right.

[Sebazy]

I think it just bothers you because you know he is right.

Is he though? I'd say he has a pretty solid track record of being wrong with his comments in this manner.

Warriors being played wrong in early ARR? - Nope, healing a PLD was just significantly more efficient, a rather big deal back when MP was at a premium.

SCHs DPSing whilst WHM did all the healing in late ARR/early HW? - Again, clearly and demonstrably proven incorrect because he couldn't accept that Rouse>Whispering Dawn was a bigger DPS gain than anything Selene bought to the table.

There's plenty more where that came from. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Yoshida is a bad figurehead, quite the opposite in fact. But blindly taking whatever he says as gospel isn't the greatest of ideas. He's no less human than any of us and alas, we all get it wrong from time to time.

[Reap00]

Is he though? I'd say he has a pretty solid track record of being wrong with his comments in this manner.

Warriors being played wrong in early ARR? - Nope, healing a PLD was just significantly more efficient, a rather big deal back when MP was at a premium.

SCHs DPSing whilst WHM did all the healing in late ARR/early HW? - Again, clearly and demonstrably proven incorrect because he couldn't accept that Rouse>Whispering Dawn was a bigger DPS gain than anything Selene bought to the table.

There's plenty more where that came from. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Yoshida is a bad figurehead, quite the opposite in fact. But blindly taking whatever he says as gospel isn't the greatest of ideas. He's no less human than any of us and alas, we all get it wrong from time to time.

You won't find a more passionate lead developer in the industry.

[IkaraGreydancer]

You won't find a more passionate lead developer in the industry.

Careful saying things like this. You'll be lumped in with the Yoshi Worship camp here by many folks

[Kaurhz]

Remember people; it's NOT Ok to try and make a joke and pick a little fun at something you know is an inherently inadequate system. But it is OK to call people lazy, stupid, and incompetent, apparently.

[Sebazy]

You won't find a more passionate lead developer in the industry.

He's certainly up there. IMHO I think a part of the issue is that since he himself is actually pretty competent at his own game, he tends to take a bit of a stubborn stance with his own opinions and as a result, frequently seems to dismiss community views that don't align with his own vision.

It'd be interesting to know how many of his team play at a similar level and how he receives their feedback. Whilst little to go on, Yoshida dismissing his healer 'tester' because he 'got too good' is kind of concerning to me.

Remember people; it's NOT Ok to try and make a joke and pick a little fun at something you know is an inherently inadequate system. But it is OK to call people lazy, stupid, and incompetent, apparently.

I've not seen anyone in this thread trying to suggest that Yoshida's team are lazy or stupid. This thread is already built on a foundation of misconstruing comments, lets not make it even worse thanks?

FFXIV's team are anything but lazy, it's quite the opposite infact. The game has outgrown the team and for whatever reason be it finance, the inability to lure developers out of more lucrative mobile games or simply Yoshida preferring to keep a small team, they are falling short of expectations on a regular basis.

[Kaurhz]

He's certainly up there. IMHO I think a part of the issue is that since he himself is actually pretty competent at his own game, he tends to take a bit of a stubborn stance with his own opinions and as a result, frequently seems to dismiss community views that don't align with his own vision.

It'd be interesting to know how many of his team play at a similar level and how he receives their feedback. Whilst little to go on, Yoshida dismissing his healer 'tester' because he 'got too good' is kind of concerning to me.



I've not seen anyone in this thread trying to suggest that Yoshida's team are lazy or stupid. This thread is already built on a foundation of misconstruing comments, lets not make it even worse thanks?

FFXIV's team are anything but lazy, it's quite the opposite infact. The game has outgrown the team and for whatever reason be it finance, the inability to lure developers out of more lucrative mobile games or simply Yoshida preferring to keep a small team, they are falling short of expectations on a regular basis.

No, you're right but it has been a fairly common occurrence amongst other threads, which is the point.