Live letters have lost their magic - Zepla

[Rithy255]

If the game is in a bad state and live letters do not show much to look forward to theirs no wonder why live letters aren't interesting.

If the game has stuff to look forward to then live letters will be interesting and exciting.

[Wilford111]

I'm personally tired of everybody saying the game is "woke" -- what does that even mean? Diversity in the characters? Real-life symbolism? The whole concept of "woke" immediately dings off 100 intelligence points from an argument.

I think you can constructively address the game's faults without using deadbrain catchphrases.

Yeah people should drop the word "woke" and call it what it really is - political propaganda.

[MitsukiKimura]

I can say I don't even look forward to watching these as I used to be. It's the same routine over and over. Almost as feels like they are doing their own thing and we're just the audience on mute. I wish Yoshi P would interact and answer questions on stream, anything at this point to make it feel like we're least being heard about things.

[Kaurhz]

Notice how I'm not typically criticising the substance of the complaints in and of themself, but the motivations of those making them? I can say the game's not in a great spot, but also not go full "WOKE LMAO, FFXIV LITERALLY DYING, 4 HOUR VIDEO ESSAY ON WHY EVERYTHING SUCKS AND THE DEVS SHOULD ALL BE FIRED, HERE'S MY HOUR LONG RANT ON WHY THE GAME'S TERRIBAD NOW, AND IT'S ALL THE CASUALS FAULT".

Seriously, why is every other thread on Dawntrail basically the above?

and what grounds do you have to infer what the motivation behind the criticism? Again, people have been ignored, neglected and met with passive aggressive response when creating criticisms for long before this time, and with time, peoples' patience is only going to wear thin over time.

To posit a simple question... If the population is in a decline, and if the trend is statistically visible, and if this decline is associated with the content pipeline, and if the developers show no motivation of changing that content pipeline, then why shouldn't people be more critical of the developers and their structure?

To make it better... People have been making these comments for well over 5 years, and they have been ignored for well over 5 years, and now the population direction is clearly supporting that their pipeline just isn't working -- and guess what? Still ignored.

How much longer do people need to complain in a civil manner.. How many more times must they repeat the same criticism on ad nauseum, how much lower does the population need to decline before the developers realize that maybe they should start acknowledging the issues at least and providing a reason or an outline as to what they are doing, as opposed to vague remarks like "We've been too relaxed"... All of this would be OK, if they could establish themselves against a core demographic, but they haven't.. It's just a constant yo-yo, and people wondering why people take an issue with it.

Now if we want to continue the speculative nature of "What's the motivation for this" -- Why has the response now turned from "Ur a minoritahh", people that enjoy the game are a majoritah.. "Population is increasing"... "This happens all the time" ---- To now being concerned with trying to do psychanalysis on peoples' motivation for making the criticism.

Maybe you aren't encompassed in this, but a lot of people are less concerned with why, or trying to do some reasoning, and are much more concerned with how they can undermine the complaints, and trying to speculate on motivation as a means to undermine the complaint,

This whole thing works in both ways.. Not just the people making the criticisms.

[Veritas-Ancora]

I can say I don't even look forward to watching these as I used to be. It's the same routine over and over. Almost as feels like they are doing their own thing and we're just the audience on mute. I wish Yoshi P would interact and answer questions on stream, anything at this point to make it feel like we're least being heard about things.

I hope this is the biggest takeaway out of this forum thread.

The Live Letters have devolved in respect to audience participation and questions. They no longer exist.

We want them back.

[Loggos]

I'm personally tired of everybody saying the game is "woke" -- what does that even mean? Diversity in the characters? Real-life symbolism? The whole concept of "woke" immediately dings off 100 intelligence points from an argument.

I think you can constructively address the game's faults without using deadbrain catchphrases.

Yeah, I completely agree.

The argument that DT is bad bc "woke" is genuinely ridiculous. The story itself is the most milque-toast and vague "peace is good" kind of story that has been told for decades in all types of medias. This is not ~political propaganda~. DT is barely political at all, it has such a surface-level understanding of society and politics that it rarely says anything meaningful about the state of our world and politics. How have people who complain about "politics in games" made it this far when literally every other expansion is vastly more political lol.

Every "political" theme in DT has been handled in past expacs, but often with more depth:
Colonialism and war actually being bad? ARR. Stormblood (I know SB has been criticised for still being rather shallow in this regard but it was not as shallow as DT).
Religious oppression and a draconic church regime (and war being bad)? Heavensward.
Representation of tribal people and their customs? Au Ra in SB
Exploitation of natives? Merlwyb's story with the goblins where she literally accepts Limsa has been oppressing them and even offers her life as a way to repent for her failed leadership.
Female characters in lead roles and positions of power? Literally since ARR and consistently throughout every expansion.

I'm not saying past expansions handled these themes perfectly and with immaculate philosophical and political depth. But the themes were there and you could feel that there was at least some thought and seriousness put into it even if the outcome was sometimes sub-par.

DT's real problems are all rooted in the quality of the writing, not the themes. There's nothing new in terms of themes in DT. It's writing like giving Wuk Lamat such an overbearing presence that no other character, not even your own WoL, has room to breathe and develop. Erasing the individuality of the scions. Shafting the stories of important side characters like Krile and Erenville. Making the most nonsensical writing decisions that create infuriating flaws ("Releasing Varligamanda? No no, that's not a reason to be disqualified. Also, Bakool Ja Ja is actually good now because people were nice to him for five seconds. Forget everything that happened. "). Avoiding conflict and tension by not allowing Wuk Lamat to fail and instead have the story bend to her needs, robbing her of character growth ("Wow, the completely random decision to hold a festival while people are starving actually solves the problem in the best way possible by pure accident?"). Trying to "tell" a story while showing something different, creating to an inherent dissonance. Like trying to say Koana is not respectful of other people's cultures while showing him caring very much about what people think. Saying the scions will be at odds and fight each other in the rite of succession but everybody is buddy-buddy.

The story of DT could have gone so hard in the hand of a competent team, same themes and everything.

[Xerosleep]

Meh Zepla has hated the game ever since she couldn't blind prog TOP and realised she's not as a good a player as she thought.

In terms of the story they all get as dull as ditchwater due to way too many cutscenes (seriously MGS4 is jealous) so why people moan about DT ill never know, the Trials and Dungeons were top notch so all good.

In terms of content cycle i've literally made a post on the perfect content cycle but when someone comes up with a solution it gets ignored coz people just want to moan.
My suggestion which needs traction if it is to get implemented next expansion is really simple.
Call Savage X.02 not X.05 have a serious X.05 which drops the Exploration Zone and relic, drop Variant/Criterion in there with Criterion giving BIS accessories and upgrade mats, Then X.1 the catch up and Chaotic then X.15 more Exploration such as a 48 man here. IE the content spaced out more rather than waiting over a year.
So Exploration updates in X.05,X.15,X.25,X.35,X.45, X.55. If they need to hire more devs so be it otherwise they will lose players so a worthy investment.

[Lizzit]

>sees zepla
>clicks thread
>op is agreeing with zepla
>immediately stop reading

[Sheriyana]

I love how everyone here suddenly doesn't care about Zepla's opinions anymore now that she isn't just blindly praising the game. Maybe it's possible she and a lot of others came to recognize the flaws with the content offered when the story turned to shit by the end of EW and dropping further off a cliff in DT. She clearly cares about the game still but it's very hard for a story first kind of player to feel attached to the game when the story is what it is right now. Especially when the casual players have been so starved for content since basically the end of Shadowbringers.

[HealerGuy]

The Complainer Queen Zepla and her minions who complain about everything.