Yoshi P - Your next live letter, DT msq and the damage to the brand

[Zackneifein]

The playerbase is in the millions. The complaints are in the thousands. And, generally speaking, people commonly rant and complain, but don't praise. Like others have said... "just look at the forums and the active threads."

Exactly. Do just that. Then consider maybe 1 in a 1000 have issues. Maybe even 1 in 100. If 99 of my customers are happy and 1 isn't, I'm doing a great job.

What you are saying can be said about everything in life. A restaurant as 1 star on google ? Don't worry, there has been thousands of client, only fifty peoples rated it, it should be good.
Dawntrail is awefully reviewed everywhere by players, and is dead last even by critics, most of content creators are disappointed.

But you are right, let's just stop saying anything. No more complain, no more criticism. But I don't want you to come crying when "those who don't go on forum" will just stop playing the game when the quality will be too low and that FFXIV will die.

[Archeron]

Most people will be silently discontent. They will not voice their opinions publically. That doesn't mean "99%" of people are satisfied. Just look at the reviews for this expansion. Make the comparison to practically every other expansion including ARR. It's low across the board. Does that look or sound like satisfaction to you? All of the content creators pretty much unanimously agreeing that the MSQ was weak? Or just survey people in the world yourself and tell me 99% of them were happy with the expansion.

The mediocrity in this expansion is unacceptable. Square is a multi-billion dollar company, they do not need you defending their honor. If you truly appreciate mediocrity there are plenty of other MMO's out there that deliver on that promise. I for one will not accept mediocrity. When something is garbage in this game, it deserves to be criticized in the hopes that they entertain the feedback on the next iteration.

By no means is this a "Shadowlands" tier expansion either. But its concerning enough we're on that path with such a low quality work being put front and center before us. It must be critiqued, and the course corrected. Huffing copium and placing faith in the writers, or Yoshi P or anyone else in CBU 3 does nothing but encourage more of the same weak ass content.

[Themarvin]

To be honest, the story would be understood better with time, because it has some serious critical points that we are all facing... and we don't like the videogames pointing them out as the MSQ does rather clear.

That is why there is some kind of hate, the way things are turning.

And nope you can't aim it on individual NPC's either, that is more finding scapegoats and trying to create a mob for it.

[MozGos]

DT MSQ made me miss Zero and her antics in EW post 6.0 patches. There has been such a drop in writing quality since 6.0 finished it's not even funny.

[illutian]

Having not played into DT yet, but getting a general sense of it.

I feel like they should have ended EW with the WoL 'giving it all' to stop the end. Which left us pretty messed up; like our Aether tether is almost broken (aka almost ended up like Thancred). But we're still the WoL at heart so when DT's trouble simmer to the top, we head off to help Wuk. But not in the role of 'hero' but as the role of 'mentor', which harkens back to (as I understand) FF14 1.0 with the Companion - apparently it was a a "newbie adventurer" and we were sort of mentoring them.

That right there would cover why, again from what I gather, the WoL isn't the center of attention in regards to the story.

Then, as the MSQ (and expansion) progresses we see signs of our tether mending and becoming strong again...strong enough to take up the mantle of Hero.

As for the other issues of VA performances, sometimes you just get 'bad takes'. I'm sure we've all seen a movie or two where a 'top tier' actor "phoned it in".

For me, I look forward to eventually getting that vacation I've so earned after saving the world like..a dozen or so times.

[OMGJesuis66]

It's less a matter of "sweeping something under the rug" and more a matter of looking at it practically. When someone gives feedback about a specific piece of the game and provides a suggestion they'd like to see, it's useful. When someone goes to ridiculous hyperbole, trashes everything about the game, and demands they fundamentally change it to suit that person...that's an immature take from someone so far gone they really need to just move on for everyone's sake, including their own health. Same goes with personally insulting the developers, voice actors, etc., often with "arguments" that ultimately boil down to "you wrote a different story than the one I wanted, therefore it's bad and you're bad."

And yes, I think "cabal" is an apt word to describe what goes on around here. Look at how they cheer each other on and "upvote" comments en masse that just belittle the devs, other posters, etc.. When the group cheers on people acting like kids on a grade-school playground, I think they deserve to get called out on it. So yeah, by word choice fits I do believe.

This sentence is the ideal description of people here sometimes.

[Carin-Eri]

(Gamescom this weekend)

[Powercow]

But not in the role of 'hero' but as the role of 'mentor', which harkens back to (as I understand) FF14 1.0 with the Companion - apparently it was a a "newbie adventurer" and we were sort of mentoring them.

The Path Companion in 1.0 was more of a fellow adventurer who was just a little less heroic than us. After a near-death experience with Gaius, most of them (they have different dialogue depending on their race/personality) say they think of calling it quits... and since that's the last time they ever show up, I'm guessing that's exactly what happens. They give up where we don't.

This is only speculation, but I feel like the 1.0 team had grander plans for the Companions, but it ended up being cut because of either technical issues (the few times we fight alongside them, it was a mess -- the first fight against the Amal'ja they were so insanely squishy that it was nearly impossible at launch) or because the new story direction after Yoshida's team took over decided to leave them out. Given how abrupt their exit is, if it was planned for them to vanish from the story it would have made more sense and been much more dramatic for Gaius to have actually killed them. Would have also given us a personal grudge against him, despite all the aid he gives us later.

Oh but uh, back on topic, yeah I'd like to see how the team responds to the criticisms, but I wouldn't expect anything until like 7.2 at the earliest in terms of story changes. 7.1 is likely more or less done already.

[FuwafuwaMii]

Did people look back at Stormblood and Lyse and say "will Yoshi-P please address the irreparable damage this expansion has given the FF brand?"

Yep, that's how this community rolls. 5 year olds who throw themselves to the ground and roll around kicking and screaming if they don't get what they want.
But it happens every time, so it's predictable.

[CNitsah]

Yep, that's how this community rolls. 5 year olds who throw themselves to the ground and roll around kicking and screaming if they don't get what they want.
But it happens every time, so it's predictable.

Yeah, let's act as if it was the majority of critics done to dawntrail. I don't know where you live, but the vast majority critics pointed the problems of dawntrail. Like Wuk Lamat overshadowing everyone to a never seen before point in FFXIV, creating a sense of suffocation with the character, even with some people that liked the character, or the fact her development is inconsistent (she seem to grow in the middle segment to return to her starting point in the last segment). Or all the incoherences pointed in the "tribes" stories.

But yeah, let's pretend the majority of people are 5 years old throwing a tantrum.