A game for 4 year olds

[RyuDragnier]

This is what Matsuno tweeted. Translation of said tweets is below.

Matsuo: As I mentioned in an interview last year, we omitted Dalmasca because we decided it wasn't a good idea to have the players go through another war story. So, we included something of an epilogue after the Resistance storyline in the form of the Field Notes for some of the characters.

In fact, I played Bozja after its implementation and felt that I had my fill of heavy and tragic war stories (laughs). Also, the war with the empire was part of the 6.0 MSQ, so I thought that would be enough.

In light of the reaction to Save the Queen in patches 5.35 and 5.45, I decided that a Dalmasca chapter set on the battlefield would be unnecessary. Since the 5.55 scenario had already been completed and was being prepared for release, I decided to at least describe the events that happened, so I modified the Field Notes.

[MikkoAkure]

Find me a source straight from the man himself that *he* didn't want another war story. Because far as I know, that's Yoshi talking not Matsuno. Otherwise all you've written are a bunch of paragraphs full of lies trying to justify the ridiculous state of FFXIV's current writing.

This interview with Yoshi-P and Matsuno together talking about all of it:
https://www.famitsu.com/news/202109/27234807.html

This Reddit thread talking about said interview:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...no_and_yoship/

Matsuno's quote on war story:

]もっとも、“セイブ・ザ・クイーン”を終えた今となっては、戦争ものはもう不要かなという感想を抱きました、いちプレイヤーとして。“ウェルリト戦役”もあったので、「ダルマスカは光の戦士の手を煩わせずに解放されました、ちゃんちゃん！」で終わりでいいやって（笑）。

However, now that I have finished "Save the Queen," I feel as a player that I don't need any more war stories. After the "Battle of Wellith," I thought, "Dharmaska has been liberated without bothering the Warrior of Light, chan chan! And that was the end of it (laughs).

いまの『FFXIV』のプレイヤーさんの心情を考えると、戦争ものは違うかなと。それにはいくつか理由があって、ひとつは現在の世界情勢です。コロナ禍で閉鎖的になっていて、ネットではいがみ合っていて、さまざまなものが分断されていて、気持ちいい世界じゃないですよね。その中で、戦争という形でさらなるストレスをプレイヤーに押し付けるのはどうなのかと考えてしまいます。

　パッチ5.55の最後、「ダルマスカで会おう」というフランのセリフがありましたが、じつは削除しようとしていました。ですが、「次はダルマスカ解放戦争で会おう」という意味ではなく「平和を取り戻したダルマスカで会おう」という意味に置き換えれば、削除しなくてもよいかなと。

Considering the sentiments of today's "FFXIV" players, I thought a war story would be different. There are several reasons for this. The world has become closed due to the Corona disaster, people are fighting each other on the Internet, and various things are divided, so it is not a pleasant world. In the midst of all this, one wonders what it would be like to impose even more stress on players in the form of war.

　At the end of patch 5.55, there was a line from Fran, "See you in Dalmasca," which we were actually going to remove. I was actually going to delete it, but I thought that if I replaced it with "See you in Dalmasca when peace is restored" instead of "See you next in the war to liberate Dalmasca," I wouldn't have to delete it.

[aveyond-dreams]

Matsuno did tweet about this :
https://twitter.com/YasumiMatsuno/st...yyHYJk-xVwIVAQ

"As I mentioned in an interview last year, we omitted Dalmasca because we decided it wasn't a good idea to have the players go through another war story. So, we included something of an epilogue after the Resistance storyline in the form of the Field Notes for some of the characters."

They seem to have collectively decided to ended the war story. I'd like to explore Dalmasca without a war going on there. I trust them to create a conflict that doesn't revolve around war like bozja.

That is not the same thing as Matsuno himself saying he didn't want another war story, especially since the other half of that "we" is Yoshi with the string of objectively bad decisions he's made on all fronts in the last year. Again this isn't doing much to dispel the idea that this game is headed for a future wherein the most conflict its playerbase will be able to tolerate is a Loporrit yelling at them for getting a starbucks order wrong.

Games need a conflict. A plot. Something to resolve and get interested in. Whether you acknowledge it or not, wars are a good way to do that. FFIX, VI, IV, etc have wars going on even if it's in the background. So did this game until someone stuck their dorito-encrusted fingers into the story and started ending plotlines left and right with hardly a concrete plan for the future until relatively recently. I do not understand the newfound aversion some people in this thread have to it. It's a video game, not real life.

Though I suppose with some people here that want real life virtues force fed to them at every turn in the obtuse way of preaching EW adopted, it fits in nicely with the way they can play diner dash just like a real life job at a coffee shop. This isn't the makings of the game that I was sold back in 2013. FFXIV has no future worth the time of day if this is what they choose to double down on, and we're long overdue course correction that should've happened ages ago.

With 10 years more of whatever this is supposed to be having people worried, no wonder Yoshi is so eager to have another live letter so soon. He has to reassure the people who feel insecure whenever someone criticizes the current state of FFXIV that things are ok. Right now, they aren't. Whether he can maintain that illusion long enough to last into 7.0 is anyone's guess, but right now I feel that FFXIV failed when it needed to shine most. If they want to continue pandering to this sort then by all means do so, just don't pretend that this is worthy of being a numbered mainline game anymore.

[RukoBoshi]

This is what Matsuno tweeted. Translation of said tweets is below.

Matsuo: As I mentioned in an interview last year, we omitted Dalmasca because we decided it wasn't a good idea to have the players go through another war story. So, we included something of an epilogue after the Resistance storyline in the form of the Field Notes for some of the characters.

In fact, I played Bozja after its implementation and felt that I had my fill of heavy and tragic war stories (laughs). Also, the war with the empire was part of the 6.0 MSQ, so I thought that would be enough.

In light of the reaction to Save the Queen in patches 5.35 and 5.45, I decided that a Dalmasca chapter set on the battlefield would be unnecessary. Since the 5.55 scenario had already been completed and was being prepared for release, I decided to at least describe the events that happened, so I modified the Field Notes.

Ah, i didn't see that middle part. I thought not making a war story was a decision made by the whole team, turns out he personally didn't want to tell that kind of story.

Now i really want to know what kind of tale he would have for Dalmasca.

Games need a conflict. A plot. Something to resolve and get interested in. Whether you acknowledge it or not, wars are a good way to do that. FFIX, VI, IV, etc have wars going on even if it's in the background. So did this game until someone stuck their dorito-encrusted fingers into the story and started ending plotlines left and right with hardly a concrete plan for the future until relatively recently. I do not understand the newfound aversion some people in this thread have to it. It's a video game, not real life.

I'm all for a conflict like i said in my post. I just don't feel it have to be a war story, and it's probably what the others in this thread means by that too.
FFVII wasn't a war story, neither were FFVIII or FFX. You can have conflict without wars. There's many differents themes that can be explored. I wouldn't mind another war, i just don't want one at the forefront of the plot.

[aveyond-dreams]

I'm all for a conflict like i said in my post. I just don't feel it have to be a war story, and it's probably what the others in this thread means by that too.
FFVII wasn't a war story, neither were FFVIII or FFX. You can have conflict without wars. There's many differents themes that can be explored. I wouldn't mind another war, i just don't want one at the forefront of the plot.

Alright, then our options are a successful demon invasion from the Void, the unstable sundering collapsing on itself and causing rejoinings, something from outer space landing on the source and causing problems out of the blue, or political conflicts between warring regions. With people in here vetoing anything that would threaten the perfect state of the source, it seems that they are the ones who are impossible to satisfy instead me like how I'm often accused.

To the people who are so worried about something happening to the source: Forge Ahead. Because right now there's a whole lot of nothing going on except for whatever Golbez is twirling his moustache over, and a competent writer would let that lead into either demon invasion or rejoinings.

[RyuDragnier]

Ah, i didn't see that middle part. I thought not making a war story was a decision made by the whole team, turns out he personally didn't want to tell that kind of story.

Now i really want to know what kind of tale he would have for Dalmasca.

Knowing how he writes, likely a telling of people trying to either kidnap or subvert the princess in order to take control of the resurfacing Dalmasca, all while we get caught up in the web of machinations and possibly even have a few plots trying to make us take the fall for her death/disappearance. Possibly with us figuring it out and managing to avoid it thanks to our previous experience with the events surrounding 2.55 and Nanamo. Meaning more of a political drama than anything, with little fighting. But when it comes up, man will there be fighting.

[RukoBoshi]

Alright, then our options are a successful demon invasion from the Void, the unstable sundering collapsing on itself and causing rejoinings, something from outer space landing on the source and causing problems out of the blue, or political conflicts between warring regions. With people in here vetoing anything that would threaten the perfect state of the source, it seems that they are the ones who are impossible to satisfy instead me like how I'm often accused.

To the people who are so worried about something happening to the source: Forge Ahead. Because right now there's a whole lot of nothing going on except for whatever Golbez is twirling his moustache over, and a competent writer would let that lead into either demon invasion or rejoinings.

Well, i agree with that, a void invasion would be interesting and a great motivation to explore Meracydia, since there was a voidgate there.
Again, i don't think people here are against the source being in danger. No one wants the MSQ to be crafting and gathering after all, we all want to put our fighting skills to use.

Knowing how he writes, likely a telling of people trying to either kidnap or subvert the princess in order to take control of the resurfacing Dalmasca, all while we get caught up in the web of machinations and possibly even have a few plots trying to make us take the fall for her death/disappearance. Possibly with us figuring it out and managing to avoid it thanks to our previous experience with the events surrounding 2.55 and Nanamo. Meaning more of a political drama than anything, with little fighting. But when it comes up, man will there be fighting.

That would be really nice. I loved the political focus of ARR and some parts of expansions. I loved it in FFXII and i always like more of this in XIV.
If they could make explorations zones around Dalmasca that would be great.

[Cleretic]

Thinking that the next expansion needs to be about a world-threatening crisis is limiting in both the short and long term, as well as... honestly, quite boring.

In the short term it just makes 7.0 a retread of Shadowbringers or Endwalker, going on a world-saving crusade that spans nations, fight horrifying monsters (because not having time to set more local stakes means you have to go hard on more immediately understandable threats), probably go quell the thing that started it all, yadda yadda. Shadowbringers and Endwalker were very popular expansions, no doubt about it, but I think we've all had our fill of planet-threatening armageddons for the time being; doing something else feels much more interesting. (Which incidentally is part of why the Omicrons are a great storyline; basically the furthest possible thing from that, while still feeling useful and interesting.)

And in the long-term... well, 7.0 has the daunting task of setting the stage for what FFXIV does after the stories that have defined it thus far are done; there's no more war against the Empire, no more Ascians, no more primals (or at least, primals not causing the threats we know them for), so what does FFXIV look like after that? It's a difficult question to answer, in no ssmall part because of the stakes; whatever their answer is controls basically the entire game's future, not just for that expansion, but for the storyline that follows it, and whatever comes after that.

And I can tell you right now, answering that question with 'another apocalypse, literally right now' is the worst possible answer, because it establishes that the only state FFXIV can continue to exist in is 'stakes at maximum'. If they don't de-escalate somehow in 7.0, they'll never be able to.

All that's basically a recipe for seeing more localized, political and interpersonal conflicts in 7.0, I think; not only is that more interesting right now, it sets the stage much better for the future. People aren't against those sorts of conflicts in this game, we've just reached the point where the previous motivators and contributors are either dead, done or gone, so we just have to find new ones.

[sidurgu-12]

Thinking that the next expansion needs to be about a world-threatening crisis is limiting in both the short and long term, as well as... honestly, quite boring.

In the short term it just makes 7.0 a retread of Shadowbringers or Endwalker, going on a world-saving crusade that spans nations, fight horrifying monsters (because not having time to set more local stakes means you have to go hard on more immediately understandable threats), probably go quell the thing that started it all, yadda yadda. Shadowbringers and Endwalker were very popular expansions, no doubt about it, but I think we've all had our fill of planet-threatening armageddons for the time being; doing something else feels much more interesting. (Which incidentally is part of why the Omicrons are a great storyline; basically the furthest possible thing from that, while still feeling useful and interesting.)

And in the long-term... well, 7.0 has the daunting task of setting the stage for what FFXIV does after the stories that have defined it thus far are done; there's no more war against the Empire, no more Ascians, no more primals (or at least, primals not causing the threats we know them for), so what does FFXIV look like after that? It's a difficult question to answer, in no ssmall part because of the stakes; whatever their answer is controls basically the entire game's future, not just for that expansion, but for the storyline that follows it, and whatever comes after that.

And I can tell you right now, answering that question with 'another apocalypse, literally right now' is the worst possible answer, because it establishes that the only state FFXIV can continue to exist in is 'stakes at maximum'. If they don't de-escalate somehow in 7.0, they'll never be able to.

All that's basically a recipe for seeing more political and interpersonal conflicts in 7.0, I think; not only is that more interesting right now, it sets the stage much better for the future. People aren't against those sorts of conflicts in this game, we've just reached the point where the previous motivators and contributors are either dead, done or gone, so we just have to find new oness.

WoW seemed to answer everything with "lets cause another apocalypse" and as a result a lot of people gave up on it story wise. Though im not saying its not still popular. Personally id like to see a semi light hearted story for 7.0.

[MikkoAkure]

And in the long-term... well, 7.0 has the daunting task of setting the stage for what FFXIV does after the stories that have defined it thus far are done; there's no more war against the Empire, no more Ascians, no more primals (or at least, primals not causing the threats we know them for), so what does FFXIV look like after that?

I'm interested to see what sort of story appears when Yoshi-P and the writing team are mostly free of the chains that Tanaka's 1.0 brought to FFXIV. Everything up until now has been mostly a continuation of the original story, but expanded upon. Now it's all done and they can tell something new that takes place in the same world. Considering Yoshi-P himself said he thought Garlean gunblades that are just a gun with a sword on it is stupid, there's probably other things he didn't like about 1.0 that he was stuck with.

If they don't de-escalate somehow in 7.0, they'll never be able to.

People aren't against those sorts of conflicts in this game, we've just reached the point where the previous motivators and contributors are either dead, done or gone, so we just have to find new ones.

This is why I was hoping that after EW was dealt with, the WoL would be depowered.

It would solve 2 problems: The problem of being too strong for more mundane threats. And the problem of new players coming into the game. While it was necessary to power up the WoL at first because the Garlean Empire and the Ascians were WAAAAY too strong for Eorzea, if they depowered the WoL after it was all over then not only could existing players who have already completed the story start fresh, but new players could use this as a new launch pad into the game without needing to complete all of the story that happened from say HW-onwards.

While on one hand, it's kinda awkward to play an MMO known for its story and skip it all, but on the other it's a lot to ask new players to do hundreds of hours of it in order to catch up to their friends who invited them to the game in the first place and get established and not burn out without reaching the part of the game everyone else is having fun together on.