#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[Kes13a]

I am hoping SE will start communicating soon on this matter, it is almost impossible they haven't heard about it by now. If they didn't or they decide to ignore it, then their ego's might have become too big and a wave of subscription cancellations might be the slap they need, just like it happened to Blizzard...

thats my hope as well. I want to stay in FFXIV, generally, I enjoy the world, I enjoy the look, I enjoy everything on one character. I enjoy healing when I get to do it, not so much into dps, but if I feel dps-y, I can switch to a different job for that.

do I expect a 180 degree about face? not at all. thats unrealistic. what would be nice is actual communication one way or the other. Yoshi P saying "oops, we may have gone too far" is nice and all, but I want something a bit more concrete than "wait and see what happens in 8.0!!!!"

we need to know if there is room in the lifeboat for healers, or if we are going down with the ship, and SE is the only entity that can answer that.

[Kes13a]

Man, that's kinda sad that WoW is paying more attention to its players than XIV is, considering that game's recent history.

you know... a thought occurred to me. what if Blizzard isnt listening to its players... but seeing the issue there.. and making this announcement to try and lure some of its players back from FFXIV? wont work for me, I have no interest in WoW anymore, but it does kind of read like "HEY! we value our healing community! come play with us, we want your $15 a month...."

[Kozmakis]

you know... a thought occurred to me. what if Blizzard isnt listening to its players... but seeing the issue there.. and making this announcement to try and lure some of its players back from FFXIV? wont work for me, I have no interest in WoW anymore, but it does kind of read like "HEY! we value our healing community! come play with us, we want your $15 a month...."

In my workplace, I do researches from time to time and they usually show that in a subscription business, it's easier to re-acquire a lapsed subscriber than someone brand new to the product. It drives higher lifetime value (LTV), and that's a key metric for retention, as retention drives up to 20x more revenue than acquisition. (varies per industry) So yeah, if they are doing that, I'd say it is a smart move!

[Wildheaven182]

I'm still utterly bewildered by this. Why healer? The role that is traditionally tasked with keeping everyone else alive. DPS is right there, that's the "I don't want responsibility" role unless you're doing something with enrage. Otherwise, you can manage to not press your buttons and you're still fine, the fight just takes longer.

Think like... conservative minded. It's viewed as derogatorily feminine for one. Very feminine. That's actually why they make even the male outfits practically skirts and dresses, they figure no one will play a healer on a male character unless you want to look like a femboy. Rip sexy buff teacher archetypes i guess xD

But it's more of a cultural feeling than a definitive description.
Partly stems from ww2 war culture and bushido. The japanese battle culture valued attack, offense and aggression above all else. The antithesis of a healer archetype. Theres also shame culture. If you are injured, you have failed and are now a burden to society. Rather than be treated by medics or doctors, they would prefer to die honorably in combat.

It's just a powerful cultural force that has echoed down the decades into something as subtle as looking down on the healer role of a video game.

Shame culture would be why they dont want situations where healers have to heal at all. Of someone has to be healed by the healer, it's a mark of shame that you wasted someone else's time, supposedly. Its a function of honor vs. Shame rather than a function of a fun gameplay style.
Lastly, wabi-sabi is a cultural tenet that can be misunderstood easily, but its about accepting imperfection. Perfection within imperfection particularly in a natural sense. At first. That is just the starting point, it's like, the natural imperfection of something is a moral that is inspiring to perfect it.

Anyway, that may be the driving feeling behind the continuous perfect execution of aoe mechanics to the point of choreographed swimming, rather than the implementation of anything new. Dodge the aoe. Now dodge the aoe faster. Now instead of moving out of the aoe, find the safe space left from the giant aoes. Now find the safe space in the puzzle of aoes. Now faster... etc.

Perfection, shame, offense.

[Ramiee]

Nay, it's the reverse. Japanese and Korean MMO's don't do strict class adherance, and tie the entire role to one character model. So you end up in a game that either has too many DPS and not enough healers, or a game with too many healers and not enough DPS because the character models aren't pretty enough.

Meanwhile Western MMO's are universally ugly, and do strict class adherance (dual classing at most due to them nearly all being based on DnD.) Which means that Western MMO's usually spend very little of their budget on the art, regardless if they are large or small (look at a game called "Dark and Darker" to give you an idea) and instead focus on the mechanics

I'm specifically talking about western tab target MMOs. Almost all I have played are way more open in role design then current FF14. The only ones as strict as FF14 are ones from the 2000s.
GW2 has tons of dual roles and multi roles in each class for example. Also I don't understand why you are bringing up the art design in relevance to this? I know people who think FFXIV is ugly and other JP MMOs too because the women look too young or doll like and the armour and weapons don't look cool to them. Why is people's personal preference on art design relevant to MMO trinity design?
Also the thing about multi classing, is not common at all in Asian MMOs. FFXIV is like the only game that lets you change class on the same character. This isn't an Asian MMO common game design this is unique to this game.

[Kes13a]

In my workplace, I do researches from time to time and they usually show that in a subscription business, it's easier to re-acquire a lapsed subscriber than someone brand new to the product. It drives higher lifetime value (LTV), and that's a key metric for retention, as retention drives up to 20x more revenue than acquisition. (varies per industry) So yeah, if they are doing that, I'd say it is a smart move!

I suspect that re-acquiring would only work on people who left for certain reasons. for people who have become disillusioned with the company, game design or something else, losing them means... they are gone. that frail little tie of loyalty is broken. if SE were to announce anything, even a "sorry but it is what it is now, and we hear you but we are going to work on all jobs in 8.0" or even "sorry, we are ditching healers" then that goes a long way to a desire to stay or go. an apparent indifference to the game issues... is not going to help their cause... or their retention.

the announcement for WoW may make them keep their mouths shut, because then they might be seen as "just following WoW's lead" if they make an announcement now. either way, I feel thy are running out of time to retain the ones that may leave, and leave permanently, due to their complete silence.

[Kozmakis]

I suspect that re-acquiring would only work on people who left for certain reasons. for people who have become disillusioned with the company, game design or something else, losing them means... they are gone. that frail little tie of loyalty is broken. if SE were to announce anything, even a "sorry but it is what it is now, and we hear you but we are going to work on all jobs in 8.0" or even "sorry, we are ditching healers" then that goes a long way to a desire to stay or go. an apparent indifference to the game issues... is not going to help their cause... or their retention.

the announcement for WoW may make them keep their mouths shut, because then they might be seen as "just following WoW's lead" if they make an announcement now. either way, I feel thy are running out of time to retain the ones that may leave, and leave permanently, due to their complete silence.

Yeah, I agree with you. I am enjoying being a DPS way more than a healer in FFXIV, but I am considering whether I'd enjoy going back to healing in another game more than playing DPS in FFXIV... I can imagine not being the only one thinking about it.

[Isala]

Yeah, I agree with you. I am enjoying being a DPS way more than a healer in FFXIV, but I am considering whether I'd enjoy going back to healing in another game more than playing DPS in FFXIV... I can imagine not being the only one thinking about it.

I just keep thinking about my time in SWTOR and WOW as a healer... And I'm just like, "Man. I could be blasting people with healing rockets, riding my heat gauge for all its worth, and having a hell of a time." or "Man. I miss cycling my DoTs, keeping my Atonement up, and blasting the crap out of everything with Penance."

There's plenty of times to think these thoughts, mind you, as we spam 1 for most of a fight.

[SenorPatty]

I just keep thinking about my time in SWTOR and WOW as a healer... And I'm just like, "Man. I could be blasting people with healing rockets, riding my heat gauge for all its worth, and having a hell of a time." or "Man. I miss cycling my DoTs, keeping my Atonement up, and blasting the crap out of everything with Penance."

There's plenty of times to think these thoughts, mind you, as we spam 1 for most of a fight.

Man, you just made remember my time as operative healer in store. Bioweapon skills, stealth out of combat to remember, kolto tanks ticks, stim packs...you were always busy doing something. If you ran out of resource, you also had a button to regen that but you could also had one or two combat actions you could take to bring some of it back up.

All of this at normal gameplay level. You didn't need to enter hard mode or nightmare level to feel engaged. You can feel all that across all levels of gameplay as a healer.

[Isala]

Man, you just made remember my time as operative healer in store. Bioweapon skills, stealth out of combat to remember, kolto tanks ticks, stim packs...you were always busy doing something. If you ran out of resource, you also had a button to regen that but you could also had one or two combat actions you could take to bring some of it back up.

All of this at normal gameplay level. You didn't need to enter hard mode or nightmare level to feel engaged. You can feel all that across all levels of gameplay as a healer.

Right? Like it's absolutely insane to me how many people defend this because that's how "casual content is supposed to be"... It's really not. Every single MMO I have ever played has had more engaging healing, even while leveling, than XIV has at max level. It's so stupid, man. I'm so damned tired of people eating this dog crap, and claiming it's chocolate.