Melbourne International games week Interview about content

[Raven2014]

But there are still older MMOs around that do still use that 'old F2P' model as they have the sort of playerbase who tolerate it; the sort that several people have bemoaned here - the sort who complain about what they don't like but give the game company their money anyway, which sends a message to said company in the only language the company understands or cares about.
Which was one of the reasons I quit the game I used to play; I didn't want to support their business model.

As for lootboxes - was never that bothered about them myself when I played an older game that pretty much built it's business model around them, but certainly had friends who were addicted to them and at least one whom got themselves into a LOT of debt because of them.

Then none of what you're saying really related to anything I'm saying. That's why I specifically said "modern F2P" in my post. All of the F2P I play are 2020+. I hate the fact that every time F2P comes up, the discussion immideately shift to the gambling/addiction because people seems to get stuck with the old bias/stereotype that's hardly applied any more. I wasn't talking about that, what I want to pointed out is objectively speaking, a lot of modern F2P games are just simply ... a better game, specfically they feel like a game made after 2020, whether FF14 felt like a PS3 era game most of the time.


And you know what, I guess that's why you see the shift in Yoshi's tone in this interview. Comparing to the old F2P games, FF14 did really stood a step above and Yoshi knew he was offering something better than the rest of the market. That's why he could say "it's ok people to quit and play other games" because he knew players always gonna come back to FF14 simply because it was the better value. But now I think he's waking up to the fact that it's no longer the case, and the modern F2P games are giving his game a real argument about where players can spend their money.

[genuine_stranger]

Then none of what you're saying really related to anything I'm saying. That's why I specifically said "modern F2P" in my post. All of the F2P I play are 2020+. I hate the fact that every time F2P comes up, the discussion immideately shift to the gambling/addiction because people seems to get stuck with the old bias/stereotype that's hardly applied any more. I wasn't talking about that, what I want to pointed out is objectively speaking, a lot of modern F2P games are just simply ... a better game, specfically they feel like a game made after 2020, whether FF14 felt like a PS3 era game most of the time.


And you know what, I guess that's why you see the shift in Yoshi's tone in this interview. Comparing to the old F2P games, FF14 did really stood a step above and Yoshi knew he was offering something better than the rest of the market. That's why he could say "it's ok people to quit and play other games" because he knew players always gonna come back to FF14 simply because it was the better value. But now I think he's waking up to the fact that it's no longer the case, and the modern F2P games are giving his game a real argument about where players can spend their money.

^This.

I am playing 2 F2P games currently and spend around 20 - €30 a month on them combined. For what it's worth, they offer me a better value per money spent than FFXIV. I can log in for 30*min - 1h daily, make some progress and move on.
Truth be told, I got caught off guard and spent far too much money on one than I'm comfortable with, but that's the stupid tax. Learned my lesson after that.

Compared to 14, where I don't have any meaningful long-term progression for my character, so I log in maybe once every two weeks check on my retainers and log out.

[Jeeqbit]

Compared to 14, where I don't have any meaningful long-term progression for my character, so I log in maybe once every two weeks check on my retainers and log out.

So what is meaningful, long-term progression to you? What do these other games do that makes you feel that way?

I personally feel that FFXIV offers that for me personally, but I get it may not for others if they are not interested in the same things as me.

[Volgia]

I don't know, I find myself disagreeing with a lot of people on this post on why people are leaving the game, some of them are just tired of playing the same game with the same formula for 10 years and the world is currently shifting, the old population that might have started in their 20s are now entering a new stage on life, there's too many variables regardless on how good or bad the content might end up being.

I almost know for a fact that by the time 8.0 drops I'll likely be dropping out of the game, cuz I am ready to move on with my life to something else.

[Raven2014]

I don't know, I find myself disagreeing with a lot of people on this post on why people are leaving the game, some of them are just tired of playing the same game with the same formula for 10 years and the world is currently shifting, the old population that might have started in their 20s are now entering a new stage on life, there's too many variables regardless on how good or bad the content might end up being.

I almost know for a fact that by the time 8.0 drops I'll likely be dropping out of the game, cuz I am ready to move on with my life to something else.

While that's certainly part of the reason, I think there is one important factor to consider is as people get older, they tend to become better with recognizing the value of money. The younger me would usually throw 50-60$ at a new 8-12hours long games without much thought despite having very little me. The current me, despite having a lot more money, are now only buying games which I believe offering me good value. That is why my original argument is mainly about the value offered by FF14.

There is a saying: in business you try to find the maximum amount of money you can charge the customer right before they turn away, and offer the least amount of service before the point they gonna complain. And I can't help but notice FF14 has been trying to do that for years (i.e extending patch time and decrease amount of contents), and now reaching and cross over that breaking point. Especially with how competitors are now offering better value.

[Volgia]

While that's certainly part of the reason, I think there is one important factor to consider is as people get older, they tend to become better with recognizing the value of money. The younger me would usually throw 50-60$ at a new 8-12hours long games without much thought despite having very little me. The current me, despite having a lot more money, are now only buying games which I believe offering me good value. That is why my original argument is mainly about the value offered by FF14.

There is a saying: in business you try to find the maximum amount of money you can charge the customer right before they turn away, and offer the least amount of service before the point they gonna complain. And I can't help but notice FF14 has been trying to do that for years (i.e extending patch time and decrease amount of contents), and now reaching and cross over that breaking point. Especially with how competitors are now offering better value.

I don't think it's about value, tbh, I know people who have played WoW for years and they endured Worlds of Draenors and Shadowlands, and are still going strong. These people are going into their mids 40s, and a lot of people stayed there because of the community they made, not the value the game provided. I think the people that retire out of FFXIV will do so regardless of how good or bad the content and the story are (I still think the MSQ is inconsequential in this matter).

If FFXIV has a weakness as an MMO to make people stay it lies more on how little there is to do as a community, it's a 90% solitary game as it is rn, there's just no content other than savage and ultimate that forces you to play with other people in a meaningful way, you're unlikely to bond over normal raids or dungeons where the content is so easy you can do it with your eyes closed, the less friendly ties you have to the game the more unlikely you are to come back to it.

[genuine_stranger]

So what is meaningful, long-term progression to you? What do these other games do that makes you feel that way?

I personally feel that FFXIV offers that for me personally, but I get it may not for others if they are not interested in the same things as me.

A system, or rather various systems, I can work on which allow me a casual approach to gain and access power for my character.
Gear, power systems, and various other things which I can gradually optimize. I can launch the game, put an hour in and still feel like I made progress in some way, shape or form.

In 14, we just got gear, and if you don't raid, there is not even a point hopping onto that treadmill because it will become irrelevant in the x.2 and x.4 patches.

[Raven2014]

To add to this: If you haven't noticed in the past PLLs they've been aggressively trying to hire new people to join their team, and a telling thing is they are now down to "we don't care about your existing credentials, but if you are willing to learn we will train you". Which to me reads there isn't a large pool of ready developers in Japan

Let me share you this story:

"In ancient China during the time when country was still split into 7-8 different kingdoms, one king ask his minister "how can I attract more talent to our kingdom?" The minister replied "it's simple, just make sure you shower me with great wealth and reward for my achievements". The king did that, and in a few years his court were filled with talents people from other kingdoms".

You know what's the moral of that story? You can buy talent. If anything, the fact SE's willingly scrapping the bottom of the barrel tell me more about their hiring practice than anything else ... and that's not good.

Instead of wasting ton of money in NFT, instead of funding the gigantic bloated of a game called FF15 ... those money were spent on FF14 instead, do you think you even have to sit here and use the "limited talent" as an excuse? Like ... common, you really buy that? It's not like you don;t see killing tittles and great game at other companies. And before you even think about coming up with other angle and excuse, don't bother. I'll tell you flat out right now, it doesn't matter what I'm saying is right or wrong, it's perception. That's why it's a psychology issue.

If I pay 10$ and feel I'm getting dirt, it still pisses me off. But even if I pay 30$ but feel I'm getting premium, that would please me. And that's one of those things I feel modern F2P understand far more than any of triple AAA developers do. When you play these games, you feel like the money you spent are being invested back into making a better game, you feel you're being catered to. As opposed to playing AAA games it feels like you're being offered the least amount of service at the highest possible price, and the money you spent are not being used to create a better experience.

[Daralii]

Let me share you this story:

"In ancient China during the time when country was still split into 7-8 different kingdoms, one king ask his minister "how can I attract more talent to our kingdom?" The minister replied "it's simple, just make sure you shower me with great wealth and reward for my achievements". The king did that, and in a few years his court were filled with talents people from other kingdoms".

You know what's the moral of that story? You can buy talent. If anything, the fact SE's willingly scrapping the bottom of the barrel tell me more about their hiring practice than anything else ... and that's not good.

Instead of wasting ton of money in NFT, instead of funding the gigantic bloated of a game called FF15 ... those money were spent on FF14 instead, do you think you even have to sit here and use the "limited talent" as an excuse? Like ... common, you really buy that? It's not like you don;t see killing tittles and great game at other companies. And before you even think about coming up with other angle and excuse, don't bother. I'll tell you flat out right now, it doesn't matter what I'm saying is right or wrong, it's perception. That's why it's a psychology issue.

If I pay 10$ and feel I'm getting dirt, it still pisses me off. But even if I pay 30$ but feel I'm getting premium, that would please me. And that's one of those things I feel modern F2P understand far more than any of triple AAA developers do. When you play these games, you feel like the money you spent are being invested back into making a better game, you feel you're being catered to. As opposed to playing AAA games it feels like you're being offered the least amount of service at the highest possible price, and the money you spent are not being used to create a better experience.

My understanding of how the current CEO's been restructuring things is that the company as a whole is now cutting corners on the products that have been successful and moving a lot of the talent and money that would be assigned to them to new projects instead. CBU3/CS3 was very open about a lot of the key staff for XIV being reassigned to XVI(which undersold), and after that either got moved to managerial positions or were reassigned to the unnamed project they're working on. I've also seen rumors that they were working on an FF9 remake that got scrapped after 7 Rebirth undersold, but nothing concrete.

[ReynTime]

My understanding of how the current CEO's been restructuring things is that the company as a whole is now cutting corners on the products that have been successful and moving a lot of the talent and money that would be assigned to them to new projects instead. CBU3/CS3 was very open about a lot of the key staff for XIV being reassigned to XVI(which undersold), and after that either got moved to managerial positions or were reassigned to the unnamed project they're working on. I've also seen rumors that they were working on an FF9 remake that got scrapped after 7 Rebirth undersold, but nothing concrete.

Yoshida has gone on record before Dawntrail launched that Creative Studio 3 is not involved in the IX Remake. And the studio in charge of VII Rebirth moved straight to the third and final episode so they're not involved in the IX Remake either, if that's even happening.