Interview with YoshiP - PAX Aus 2024

[Wojnar]

It doesn’t do anything except make the staff lose motivation, and in the end that could potentially damage the quality of our game and take away from what makes this game so interesting.

They damaged quality and made the game uninteresting, which led to alleged hate. Not the other way around ffs. CBU3 had fan support that other studios can only dream of before DT. Looks like blaming community because of studio failures is a new standard in the industry. This whole interview is so bad.

[Drimn]

It's extremely disappointing to watch him take the worst attitude problems that Western devs have had for a decade or so and bring them to his title. He SUPPOSEDLY wants everything blamed on him, even though every time players' criticism of Wuk or the writing comes up, he ducks behind Sena and goes "You wouldn't want to be a transphobic death threat sender, would you?" Absolutely cowardly behavior that dismisses the problems that everyone had with the game, not just people that use the English localization, and frankly insulting to people that have supported his creation and career for years. Is this going to be his new tactic rather than producing content people like, instead phoning it in and hiring abrasive people from politically expedient backgrounds so he can accuse critics of his subpar work of being bigots? Whatever happened to "Yoshi-P only cares about the Japanese players?" They dislike Wuk as well and he can't hide behind Sena when addressing their problems with her. Also, having Ishikawa along for the ride seems like a sort of admission that this expac is becoming a PR disaster and bringing out the old and trusted faces to try to run interference, a lot like Blizzard loves to do with Metzen.

Why double down on more time with Wuk trying to rehab her when you have a character that people really like in Erenville right there? When he's not doing anything other than trying to deal with his trauma, while Wuk supposedly has a whole continent to run? She already came off like a self-absorbed narcissist whose interest in others only goes as far as fueling her whims. What benefit to this image they're trying to cultivate is having her prance around swinging an axe at various ne'er-do-wells when her people are still recovering from a violent and brutal extraplanar invasion, and the other world that got grafted onto her domain as a result of said invasion has an actual baby as a puppet ruling in place of their beloved but recently departed leader? Does he think having more "Speak with Wuk Lamat" makes her look better in that respect?

At this point he should just feel lucky that so many people are upset because that means they still care. That's not going to be a guarantee going forward if they don't start getting things moving in a good direction again.

[Raven2014]

It's extremely disappointing to watch him take the worst attitude problems that Western devs have had for a decade or so and bring them to his title. He SUPPOSEDLY wants everything blamed on him, even though every time players' criticism of Wuk or the writing comes up, he ducks behind Sena and goes "You wouldn't want to be a transphobic death threat sender, would you?"

And here is the definition of insanity. I see game companies do this all the time, but I can't recall even one occasion that it works. Yet they keep doing it, time after time. You see this in movie and Holywood too. It's like these people are just wired differently.

[Hallarem]

"One additional thing, there were comments about how we are too accepting of diversity — some people seem to be disapproving of that. I’m afraid one of our staff members received very negative comments and it almost felt like a personal attack, which breaks my heart, because she worked really hard and these criticisms were not constructive at all. [Editor’s note: Yoshida is referring to the transphobic verbal abuse and death threats that Wuk Lamat’s voice actress, who is a trans woman, has reportedly received from some FFXIV users.] It doesn’t do anything except make the staff lose motivation, and in the end that could potentially damage the quality of our game and take away from what makes this game so interesting. So if there are any sort of criticisms, bring it to me, because I’m the one approving this material. I wanted to reiterate that, please refrain from personal attacks against our staff." - YoshiP

Where was this stalwart defence of Susan Calloway when she had a harrassment campaign set against her and removed from Distant Worlds and had her association with SE cut?

"It doesn’t do anything except make the staff lose motivation"
It is the player base who is losing motivation to play especially when they are gaslighted by a game Director who seems so out of touch.

My best guess. Because Calloway was found liking racist tweets and then buckled down and deleted her twitter. Sena Bryer? Doubles down on every crazy take and if you give critique with logic? Instant transphobe label. I doubt Square want a PR nightmare where all 50 of Senas fans REEEE the loudest in twitter while the 99% of people who dont use twitter stay quiet. Making it seem like everyone agrees with her. Combine that with biased gaming media towards promoting everything trans as a victory of mankind. So defending Bryer in public = instant brownie points and the fans who want quality VA's who dont wild out on twitter = transphobes.

[SummerAnt]

I'm still hella confused about one thing: when did we ever mentor Wookie? Even this interview mentioned that. We only were there as a mercenary at best, cheerleader at worst. The only time we managed to rein her anger is when she was upsetti after her Papa's death... but I think that hardly counts as mentoring.
On a side note, I'm not sure about her complexity either. A box of tissue paper is more complex than her. You can make a tropey character complex and fun, sure... but not at the cost of everyone else's development/screen time.

[ZodaSoda]

I'm still hella confused about one thing: when did we ever mentor Wookie? Even this interview mentioned that. We only were there as a mercenary at best, cheerleader at worst. The only time we managed to rein her anger is when she was upsetti after her Papa's death... but I think that hardly counts as mentoring.
On a side note, I'm not sure about her complexity either. A box of tissue paper is more complex than her. You can make a tropey character complex and fun, sure... but not at the cost of everyone else's development/screen time.

Like i said, If they're truly going to push her more, I just cant see it going well, people who already dont like her are going to be annoyed and even some of the people who tolerated her will probably start saying stuff like "Ok yeah, Wuk is getting on my nerves now, why exactly is she a main of of Post DT?" I already know a few people off the top of my head who tolerated her and were relieved to finished DT and no longer interact with her who are going to lose it when the patch drops and she pops up on screen and god forbid the patch quest say "Speak with Wuk Lamat"

[SummerAnt]

Like i said, If they're truly going to push her more, I just cant see it going well, people who already dont like her are going to be annoyed and even some of the people who tolerated her will probably start saying stuff like "Ok yeah, Wuk is getting on my nerves now, why exactly is she a main of of Post DT?" I already know a few people off the top of my head who tolerated her and were relieved to finished DT and no longer interact with her who are going to lose it when the patch drops and she pops up on screen and god forbid the patch quest say "Speak with Wuk Lamat"

I totally get those people honestly. Yoshi P must realize that if this keeps up, people are going to skip the story out of detachment... or simply leave the game altogether. What I heard is that the first patch quests are mostly pre-written. If anything, Wookie not being on the patch poster is a good sign imo. While I'm not very hopeful, it's worth the benefit of the doubt.

[EponaTBHSMH]

From what I've seen on both social media and here on these forums, there has been a mix of personal attacks against the VA and constructive criticism against the character

So I believe Yoshi P is wrong by saying there was no constructive criticism

But people saying that there hasnt been transphobia mixed in those criticism are also wrong, I dont believe its something that should be downplayed just because its a vocal minority

But the most surprising part to me is why is this still going on in November, surely everyone has finished MSQ by now, and busy doing end game stuff, is the topic coming back just because YoshiP mentioned it?

[Kohashi]

I am absolutely disgusted by how some of you even entertain the idea of death threats and say it's justified due to the VA poor performance and her dumb takes on social media. Nothing justifies that, there is no future for us as a civilization...

[Supersnow845]

I am absolutely disgusted by how some of you even entertain the idea of death threats and say it's justified due to the VA poor performance and her dumb takes on social media. Nothing justifies that, there is no future for us as a civilization...

Nobody is justifying it, people are saying just because certain garbage sends death threats it doesn’t mean that actual Criticism is invalid

The idiots sending death threats should be shouted down with prejudice, that doesn’t mean critisims isn’t valid