Live letters have lost their magic - Zepla

[NaoSen]

Also why is a streamer criticizing FF14 something perceived as bad?

It's not but take a look at Xenosys or Arthar's when they criticize among others. They still enjoy the game, still play the game, are open to new things in the game and will be constructive. Zepla just whines, in her dawntrail playthrough you could tell she wasnt even willing to give the story a chance, she'd made up her mind and WAY overplayed her dislike of every single scene. It was pathetic acting.

Criticizing when you genuinely want to like the game vs when you have already decided it's no longer for you and will not like it no matter what happens come across way different.

[yesnt]

https://youtu.be/UnY7PMsV8QI?si=9MCrmXa-iwJ4Is-9



Hearing Zepla talk about the live letter, it really reminds a lot of us just how much wonder and magic has evaporated from the live letters. We still rely on community translators to understand the live letter to this day. The live letters are such a sick joke at this point, and their stale format is a good representation of the staleness of the entire game.

Although annoying, the translation issues weren't even my problem. What took away the magic is my sad conclusion that live letters became disappointment announcements, the latest disappointment being that Occult Crescent will take another 2 months. I will wait another 2 months, then try the new content, then, so I expect, come across a detail or issue that will be promised to be fixed or continued only after the next patch for which I will be teased while waiting another 6 months.

[caffe_macchiato]

It's about time that we started calling the constantly negative content creator or influencers what they really are, attention seekers. I suppose it does pay the bills but the cycle of negativity is super annoying. Are there areas where Square Enix could improve the game and/or communication around it? Sure, but there's also proper feedback channels to communicate through that don't involve farming ad revenue and are arguably a more respectful way to do it.

I do wish Live Letters were a little more professional, so to speak, and used proper screenshots or in-game previews rather pointing a camera at A4 pieces of paper. English translation would be great also but the pacing would fall off of a cliff if they didn't otherwise overhaul the format.

Finally, and this really is the most important part, stop playing FFXIV if you dislike it so much? Square Enix are just a business like any other in this industry and you don't owe them anything. You can take a break, play another game or, find another hobby.

Fully agreed. We in the FFXIV Movement (yes, this is a movement) believe that FFXIV is the best MMO and one of the best games of all time with over 30 million players. If you have a negative opinion about the game, you better not share that or upload a video. Because if you do, that’s attention seeking. You ARE allowed to share positive opinions (thanks Asmon!) but you may NOT criticize our game. Everyone else likes it and if you don’t, just go play other games. This is FFXIV, the game for playing other games.

It's not but take a look at Xenosys or Arthar's when they criticize among others. They still enjoy the game, still play the game, are open to new things in the game and will be constructive. Zepla just whines, in her dawntrail playthrough you could tell she wasnt even willing to give the story a chance, she'd made up her mind and WAY overplayed her dislike of every single scene. It was pathetic acting.

Agreed. If your approval for this game is below a certain value, you may NOT comment on it, even if you do or have played the game. If you don’t have at least a 70% approval for FFXIV, YOU MAY NOT COMMENT ON IT! THIS IS NOT THE GAME FOR YOU! Make sure that your opinion is within acceptable parameters or you are not FFXIV-y enough for our movement.

[Carin-Eri]

It's about time that we started calling the constantly negative content creator or influencers what they really are, attention seekers. I suppose it does pay the bills but the cycle of negativity is super annoying. Are there areas where Square Enix could improve the game and/or communication around it? Sure, but there's also proper feedback channels to communicate through that don't involve farming ad revenue and are arguably a more respectful way to do it.

I do wish Live Letters were a little more professional, so to speak, and used proper screenshots or in-game previews rather pointing a camera at A4 pieces of paper. English translation would be great also but the pacing would fall off of a cliff if they didn't otherwise overhaul the format.

Finally, and this really is the most important part, stop playing FFXIV if you dislike it so much? Square Enix are just a business like any other in this industry and you don't owe them anything. You can take a break, play another game or, find another hobby.

Forced to agree.

Whilst I, personally, have mixed feelings about the current state of affairs I do feel that some of those who're constantly complaining are defeating their own arguments - because if you're constantly complaining and unhappy with how things are with the game, but keep your subscription active anyway, you are communicating exactly what you are willing to accept in the only language they understand or care about.

[Xephna]

They have already lost their magic since EW, and arguably SHB.

[Fawkes]

Who else is old enough to remember we got an exploration zone and a deep dungeon in the same patch?

Yeah it sucked. They should never double up on grindy content. I'm more upset that cosmic exploration and occult crescent are coming out so close together.

[Themarvin]

Zepla has lost all the magic as well...

[RoboticNomad]

Content creators are just downwind of current player sentiments. You'll have creators fall on both sides of the arguments and they just amplify as needed to get their views.
I don't tend to watch the ones that just spew out opinion pieces for that reason. It's just forum posts in video form that people watch to feel validated in their opinions or to rage over their different ""hot"" take.
I just watch the ones that tend to actually do things regardless of their feelings like Cider Spider. He's just out here getting achievements.

[Vesplume]

The live letters do hit different when you're not as invested in the story. I found the trailer interesting but not in the same way I was gripped by trailers in the past, when I needed to know what happened next. I think the new content they announced was interesting even if I'm not in love with the release timeline.

I think the "magic" that was lost is the illusion that these live letters are part of a dialogue between the devs and the playerbase. They've been described that way in the past and were specifically established to be a way for the devs to be clear about upcoming changes to the game. During live letters YoshiP and Foxclon had feeds of the chats from various streaming platforms and might respond to things that were being said in them during the LL. The comment about it being business as usual feels right to me. All the pieces are there except for the faith I had in the devs that existed during previous expacs. Nothing happened during this LL that brought that back, so yeah. It felt different.

[Auro_Seldaris]

It's actually just sad that we've all just accepted that this is the way things are when it would be totally unacceptable if it was EA or Ubisoft doing this lmao

Yup. Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard, Epic, Mihoyo... if these companies did what SE/CSIII was doing, they would be absolutely crucified by their players. My brother used to play Escape from Tarkov, and if you white knights of the forums think a little mild and valid criticism of Yoshida (and the game) is toxic and evil, you should see the way Nikita (lead dev of Tarkov) was treated. Being harassed in-game, being harassed on Twitter/X, getting his fancy sporst car keyed, having shoes thrown at him during a live event and being screamed at to "FIX YOUR SHIT GAME, NIKITA!" You might recoil in horror from that treatment, but guess what?

It worked. He fixed his shit. Turns out, anger works. Complaining works, when it isn't silenced and smothered in "goody good-good feels".

And guess what ? I used to be a big white knight for this game myself. I used to get into heated debates about this game with my brother, I thought Yoshida was a rockstar, that he could do no wrong. I've just become so worn-out by this game and these devs that I can't find it within me to praise them for mediocrity anymore.

As long as the White Knights of the Square Enix Creative Studio III Defense Force silence all valid criticism, Yoshida will never fix his shit.