Quote Originally Posted by Voidmage View Post
In the end it all boils down to the devs seemingly making a game they don't even seem to be interested anymore.
It's easy to see their passion when they talk so they are clearly interested. Most likely anyone that thinks otherwise isn't reading their emotions.
they don't play it themselves anymore
They are always clear that they raid and cap tomestones.

However, they want to make it work for a casual audience. To make sure this is the case, they get people who don't normally play the game - such as their marketing team or people from other SE office departments to playtest things like Alliance Raids. If they struggle, they nerf it so that it doesn't give them too much trouble. In this way, it's designed to work for people who don't even play the game or have only just returned to the game after months/years.
or Yoshidas extreme excel sheet timeline doesn't allow them any freedom.
That's obviously part of it but this has benefits because it allows for structure, consistency and certainty (for the developers to know what they are making and for players to know what to expect). If a leader goes in without a plan, it doesn't always go well. Having a plan is, oddly enough, where some "leaders" fail at their job.
No one can tell me that they log into the game see Viera not being able to wear hats and go "yes I am proud to be part of that"
Mostly only Vieras and Hrothgars gonna be thinking that. Realistically it's a competence issue. The models don't need adjusting if they can create a version of each hat with a transparent circle on it for the ears. Technically the ears would poke through the model but not look like they are.
Yoshida and Co should honestly do a "best practice" and play other games like they did in the past.
Clearly they do though. They talk about playing other games all the time. For example, they are fans of games like Monster Hunter, League of Legends, Elden Ring, etc. Yet it doesn't translate into the design, does it? Even FF16 or FF15 design hasn't translated over to this game despite demonstrating through collabs that they can do FF16, FF15 or MHW design. Playing other games doesn't seem to change their course much.
The only ones who still seem to have fun working in this game seem to be the music and graphics department
That seems very silly. I've listened to them at dev panels, live letters, seen interviews and blog posts from numerous of their team. They are all having fun across the board... anyone that says otherwise has not been paying attention to their words, interviews, blogs, dev panels, etc.
At least that's my opinion after how half assed island sanctuary was
That was just a competence issue in my opinion. By which I mean - they were working within the constraints of the engine and produced exactly the kind of stuff we've come to expect of the FF14 engine - click this, go to next NPC, click that, use key item, click to catch, etc. I don't think it had anything to do with passion and if you look at the environment, they worked really hard on it - graphics, models, UI. The concept of catching the animals at certain times was sorta fun.