Mr. Naoki Yoshida, have you forgotten your own "Three Easy Steps to Failure"?

[Audson]

In light of the ongoing criticism of Dawntrail and your recent responses in interviews, let's explore:

1. An unhealthy obsession with graphic quality

Dawntrail is planned as the first major graphic update. However, have you been overly focused on very specific graphics, such as the grass and every polygon on Lalafell faces? It took the first benchmark and players flooding the forums to point out that there is more to the game than just grass and Lalafell. As a result, for the first time, there was a "patch" for a benchmark.

2. A surprising lack of MMORPG knowledge among development team members

Does this also extend to the writing team? Is your current writing team lacking the knowledge and experience needed to create a compelling story within the current MSQ structure/formula? It seems so, especially if you thought that main story quests should have been side quests.

3. The mindset that the solution to every problem could be patched in a future update

Did you approve the Dawntrail story under the pretense that any "weaknesses" in the story would be addressed later following player feedback?

This is just one slide in a presentation written by you, Mr. Yoshida, about the lessons learned after 1.0 and the launch of 2.0. And it’s not just this one slide. There are a few others that seem to reflect forgotten lessons: "Fun comes first; if it isn’t fun, you’re doing it wrong" or "Never back down; always aim to amaze."
How about "Learn to listen and adapt. A complaint is worth twice as much as a compliment. The silent always leave first. If players are complaining, it means they still care."

I work in a certain design profession where we were strongly taught in college to "take criticism for what it’s worth." We receive criticism from the deepest pits of the seven hells to the pinnacle of the heavens.
For example, "You dumb [redacted]! This is the worst color placement in history!"
What worth does this kind of dripping toxic statement have?
Simple: it highlights the effect of color placement.

[Talamh]

All points you bring up has been present since ARR, and you were blind to them back then.
So why now? Why is Dawntrail the sticking point to you all.

[Reimmi]

All points you bring up has been present since ARR, and you were blind to them back then.
So why now? Why is Dawntrail the sticking point to you all.

You are out of your mind if you think all 3 of those have been a problem since arr lol

[Dante131]

All points you bring up has been present since ARR, and you were blind to them back then.
So why now? Why is Dawntrail the sticking point to you all.

because it is bad just simple as that. its boring provides nothing intresting so far. While HS SB ShB and Endwalker had an intresting story DT just made me fall asleep like ff16 tbh. QoL changes doesnt exist because the graphic update is here which in my side havnt changed much but brought some funny bugs not gonna lie. While the other things been enjoyable some others enjoyed the battle systems like in SB. Considered for raider the best expansion was SB. See people are not talkin DT like they do because they hate it, most just want the game beeing good again and evolve. I dont know why its so hard to understand this.

[Dorito_Burrito]

We receive criticism from the deepest pits of the seven hells to the pinnacle of the heavens.

Just wanna say congrats on making a sentence clunkier than anything in FFXIV right now.

[All_Nonsense]

Just wanna say congrats on making a sentence clunkier than anything in FFXIV right now.

.....he quoted Lahabrea during his monologue in the Ultima trial. Athena also says it during her trial (being his wife and all and the heart of Sabik, from which he likely got the quote).

[Jeeqbit]

It's hardly an unhealthy obsession with graphic quality. It's quite healthy for the game to be getting an upgrade to graphics after 10 years. And it has happened to other aspects than what you said, such as all faces especially Elezen and Roagadyn, clothes, shaders, lighting, weather and system (such as better AA and dynamic resolution).

Most of their team (talking hundreds here) play the game. And many of them play other games, including Yoshi-P, and you can see the inspiration from those games in the content. Like how Solution Nine is basically cyberpunk and they even admitted it when revealing it. Given many WoW developers have played FFXIV even by Yoshi-P's account, it would surely stand to reason that the reverse is true.

They never tend to patch the story, even if people didn't like something. The only real exception is when they revamped ARR and older dungeons and this was after years and years of everyone asking for it to the point that it was "obviously needed".

As for fun, that is subjective and down to opinion. Obviously it is fun in his opinion. And he aims to amaze in the sense he is always looking for a way to create a "high-fantasy" story. An ishgardian knight of the round in the clouds fighting the dragons? A war to liberate nations and dethrone the ruler? Visiting a faerie kingdom and saving a world engulfed in light? Defeating the elder primals, stopping the final days, meeting the ancients in the past and traveling to the edge of the universe? Finding the city of gold, long rumored and dreamed of by giants, and ending up engulfed in part of another world that underwent turmoil, to stop the Queen of Alexandria from abusing souls?

[Uncle_Jafar]

I don't know what "overly focused on graphics" means but the game looks great if that's what you mean.

[Calysto]

1 - the graphical update was wasted on XIV, it was still great before.
FF7 remake is a thing, but it's a complete remake not just a coat of paint.
It should have been FFXI getting an update (graphics on par with 14 and "modern" UI), not 14.

2 - Writing aside, the rpg aspect of the game is getting stream-lined into an action/ddr boring mess for "balance reasons"
The gameplay diversity butchered into a few flavors with different colors of sprinkles.
For DT, most job got one(1) extra m&m as topping.
A while back, we had interesting flavors mixed trough AND a specific topping. Chocolate and Caramel worked great ; Mustard didn't ; Mayo was strange but interesting. These are now removed for artificial coloring.
Bringing back writing, the lack of job quests & lore leave these favors bland because "Writing quests for 20 jobs is too much work". I don't think it's more work than the graphical update, and in 10 years you'll just have a shallow story and outdated graphics.

3 - "Job homogenization" has been a problem since ShB. Thousands of complaints, mostly unacknowledged for 7 years, and we got a "it'll be for 8.0".
Except you lost and kind of trust some of us had for that to works.
We gave feedback for years here, yet they almost always go with their idea and back it with "players feedback" that comes from nowhere.

[Eyrilona]

Thousands of complaints, mostly unacknowledged for 7 years, and we got a "it'll be for 8.0".

You know you are in a weird market when them responding to complaints after seven years still actually makes it one of the faster response times among the large MMO companies, no?