Zepla: Endwalker is the Worst FFXIV Expansion I have played

[Anonemoose]

I kind of understand what anonemoose is saying. It's pretty well known that obsessive FF fans will get extremely defensive over any kind of criticism of FFXIV, and creating a controversial youtube video about it will typically generate a lot of views and discussion which will push a streamer's popularity to greater heights. Just look at this thread. It was created a week ago and already has 1330 replies and 103,740 views.

I'm sure Zepla knows that, and she has an ulterior motive for creating a video like this which is streamers gotta do what they can to stay relevant and in the spotlight. Farming controversy for views is a business strategy for many streamers. I personally think it's fine for streamers to use such a tactic as long as the content is good, but there will always be people who throw shade at others for doing something for attention/views.

And creating a video with the partial motive of boosting her viewer count doesn't make her criticism of FFXIV wrong. It's a great video and great content. The video has many points that a lot of people and I agree with, it farms views, and it draws reactions from angry defensive FF fans all at the same time.

Yep, pretty much this. I was surprised that this thread is still popping off and I've seen that Zepla has already started with the response videos. I'm sure she'll be milking this for weeks (months, even). Very smart business move on her part.

[AlexiaD]

Yep, pretty much this. I was surprised that this thread is still popping off and I've seen that Zepla has already started with the response videos. I'm sure she'll be milking this for weeks (months, even). Very smart business move on her part.

Ok and when should she have done the video then ? Since you criticize the timing of it, when would have been "the right time" ?

[Anonemoose]

Ok and when should she have done the video then ? Since you criticize the timing of it, when would have been "the right time" ?

It's a metaphor, sis. You know that and you're just posting this ironically, right?

[EZGIL]

meanwhile...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srggzF1gXPg

[Lauront]

I kind of understand what anonemoose is saying. It's pretty well known that obsessive FF fans will get extremely defensive over any kind of criticism of FFXIV, and creating a controversial youtube video about it will typically generate a lot of views and discussion which will push a streamer's popularity to greater heights. Just look at this thread. It was created a week ago and already has 1330 replies and 103,740 views.

I'm sure Zepla knows that, and she has an ulterior motive for creating a video like this which is streamers gotta do what they can to stay relevant and in the spotlight. Farming controversy for views is a business strategy for many streamers. I personally think it's fine for streamers to use such a tactic as long as the content is good, but there will always be people who throw shade at others for doing something for attention/views.

And creating a video with the partial motive of boosting her viewer count doesn't make her criticism of FFXIV wrong. It's a great video and great content. The video has many points that a lot of people and I agree with, it farms views, and it draws reactions from angry defensive FF fans all at the same time.

I think though we need to understand why a lot of people are happy that she's voicing these concerns. It is because these are genuinely held complaints they have which, through her reach, will hopefully now have a higher chance of making it through to the developers. It does not alter the fact that streamers face skewed incentives not to bite the hand that feeds them (although in her case maybe that influence has waned, certainly as a proportion of where her average viewership is originating) and that the nasty reactions from the community can act as a strong deterrent against it. This is allied to the fact that, for better or for worse, streamers have become a primary means of delivering feedback to the devs (which is less than ideal) and thus the frustration when those incentives get in the way of that. Those criticisms remain and are entirely valid. The response from many people is more along the lines of "finally, she's acknowledging these issues..." rather than a belief that she 100% must genuinely believe all this. Is she doing this for the controversy or because she likes the game and wants it to improve or both? Who can say but her. There were posts claiming she must be in a bad mental state etc. which did elicit responses saying she has the right to voice her opinion regardless.

So people can keep repeating this may be a cynical business move from her. Yes, it may be. All it's going to elicit is a "maybe yes, maybe no". It's a non-starter for the purposes of this thread. But that's hardly why people are glad she's making the video and it's really not that material to people here whether she herself "truly" believes it or not so much that they want complaints they feel have validity to have a chance to get through to the devs and they believe this is in the game's best interests. Thus, that poster has said it multiple times now and the response continues to be "so what?" Granted, Zepla's viewership numbers have been linked multiple times. She has a more established, long-standing audience with XIV but it's hardly what's drawing the most views on average to her videos...

The preference for me would be for streamers to be demoted a bit to just be one (rather than a primary) relay of feedback, and for them to lean more on surveys for that, although I think the recent one showed where their current focus lies... fortunately it's got free-form text boxes.

[Stanelis]

Will we get a Zepla Thread for everything she says ?

[PercibelTheren]

It sort of is, money is not just there and just because some big company earned a billion during the year, then you need to cut in all the expenses as well, I don't think you realize the business point of view as in having healthy business running as well, it is not like they can just take funds earned from other other projects, those funds need to be there for these other projects and further development of eg. seequals and new games down that line as well.

SE is not just FFXIV... there is quite the amount of labes branded with SE, you can compare SE to EA and the pick would be easy from where you would buy games from to begin with.

It is also like went right over the head of people that FFXIV is or have gotten new and better servers as well.... and well they need to focus on their main market as well, which is very much Japan and Asian region most of all...

I for one welcomed the new DD, the Critierion Dungeons, have to say I got better used to them later on before the initial release to be honest, and I like the pvp part of the game as well, CC alone can be very intense.

In EW... I barely got into the Extreme Trials did a very little of that... on the first 3 ones... though I would like to get all the mounts from them, but in due time.... SB I just did pretty much everything of note... SHB was a bit 50/50.

I think people expect to get more than what they want to pay for, and long story short... it is cheaper much cheaper to play FFXIV than buying every AAA game that is released based alone on the time spendt playing each game, also uhm... AAA games today has been downgraded to HHH games due to Larion Set the Bar of games with Baldurs Gate 3 and big companies like EA and UBISOFT and more has been out complaining about that they made the game is too good.... ( it is an epic good game ) and they did not even add lootboxes and other kinds of stuff and forced on weird server things.

For games today and the future, you may see an uplift, but you may also see an increased price.

Taking money from one game and using it to fund their other projects is literally what they've been doing with XIV, though. This game is their golden goose. It carries them through years without big releases. It funded all their NFT nonsense. Considering how much of a golden goose it is, the earnings are very clearly not being invested back into the game.

[IkaraGreydancer]

Taking money from one game and using it to fund their other projects is literally what they've been doing with XIV, though. This game is their golden goose. It carries them through years without big releases. It funded all their NFT nonsense. Considering how much of a golden goose it is, the earnings are very clearly not being invested back into the game.

At that point I don't get why folks put the brunt of the blame on Yoshi P instead of SE itself. I'm a firm believer that guy wants the game to be the best it can but he doesn't get the funding needed to do this.
I also think this is why it seems he comes out as lying when he says they can't do something but then a year or so later it gets done. Could be possible at that time they didn't have the money/resources to. It's all murky really.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

At that point I don't get why folks put the brunt of the blame on Yoshi P instead of SE itself. I'm a firm believer that guy wants the game to be the best it can but he doesn't get the funding needed to do this.
I also think this is why it seems he comes out as lying when he says they can't do something but then a year or so later it gets done. Could be possible at that time they didn't have the money/resources to. It's all murky really.

And sadly people dont ever think of, or consider that.
So when the Corporation: that actually PAYS for everything, actually has the final say, people just blame YoshiP because he is the Game Director / The FACE of the game, he takes the blame, despite it being out of his control.

But see, any amount of Rationalization just makes you a Shill and a White Knight.

[Boblawblah]

At that point I don't get why folks put the brunt of the blame on Yoshi P instead of SE itself. I'm a firm believer that guy wants the game to be the best it can but he doesn't get the funding needed to do this.
I also think this is why it seems he comes out as lying when he says they can't do something but then a year or so later it gets done. Could be possible at that time they didn't have the money/resources to. It's all murky really.

If anything, i'm willing to bet that Yoshi-P has stood between FFXIV and the SE executives more than once to prevent even worse outcomes. I trust SE about as much as they moderate this forum, but Yoshi-P at least, I've seen him talk, how he cares about the game, and I'm more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. If/When he leaves for good, I think people will quickly start to wish for the good ol' days.