Forked Tower very unfortunate incident happened and why I'll quit

[ServerCollaps]

Like I have my own qualms aside from FT but its just so weird to me that this was supposed to be the game for the most casual of casual people. The person who MAYBE has an hour a day a few times a week to play. The fact that you HAVE to organize in discord is crazy, especially when mixed with the initial limitations of the gatcha islands.

why is this the game for the most casuals of casuals? Its about players working together, which takes specific time investments. If you only have 2 or 3 hours per week to play, then theres not a single mmorpg on the market for you. You might want to focus on offline titles then or read a book (for story enthusiats)

[Jeeqbit]

why is this the game for the most casuals of casuals?

Probably because the moment there is something like an Atma grind, the forums get filled with complaints. Ironically, the forums get filled with complaints when there isn't that as well, so the result is a perpetual circle.

That sucks dude. Like I have my own qualms aside from FT but its just so weird to me that this was supposed to be the game for the most casual of casual people. The person who MAYBE has an hour a day a few times a week to play. The fact that you HAVE to organize in discord is crazy

I think they specifically were making this content for people that they don't consider casual, because numerous interviews indicated they were trying to make it content people can do for a while. It was specifically Zepla's video about there being nothing to do long-term like a Field Operation that convinced them to make another one in Dawntrail.

Despite that, it's designed in a way where if you ignore the grinds, you can burn through the story itself very quickly. And I mean insanely quick. Once you get to the Island, you click through a few quests at the starting point, search for some items around the map, complete 1 CE, then you're done and you return to Tuliyollal. For the sort of person that would ignore the grinds, they can do it about as quickly as a seasonal event, depending on CE spawn timing.

I think the main issue is them not appearing to understand that there is a middleground of players between "casual" and "hardcore" that want to play for longer than that but don't want to be scheduling things or having it be serious enough to join a discord.

They're probably overworked (they're taking on like what 2 other projects as well?)

They are not overworked, because Yoshi-P said he creates a work culture where, if they are doing overtime, he forces them to take a holiday. He said he was increasing the patch cycle from 3.5 months to 4 months + holiday to allow for more holiday and prevent them being overworked. He prevents burnout by allowing them to shift around roles if they want to.

The other projects are done by other teams. There are veteran supervisors that watch over multiple projects, but they all have largely delegated their tasks so the workload probably isn't what it would be if they hadn't got teams that they oversee.

they probably aren't being funded properly (supposed to spare no expense)

I still doubt this because if it was the case, Square Enix wouldn't be recruiting, but they are. There's almost always jobs going for FFXIV.

You can have all the resources and finances in the world, but if you make the wrong decisions with them, it means nothing.

the system probably has issues being old (spaghetti code)

Somewhat, but with my programming experience, I think the issues could be addressed if someone actually tried. The issue is more likely that "development resources" are not assigned to old systems. They are almost always assigned to the new patch content, leaving old systems and code to rust. If we are lucky, "development resources" are assigned to improve 5 old issues and that's it.

the current dev team just doesn't really know how to properly make something outside of the homogenized, linear, low effort experience that this game has slowly morphed into.

That's not the case for a few reasons:

1. Many of their team members worked on FF11, which as far as I know, has the opposite of this reputation.
2. The homogenization became really controversial in Shadowbringers, but a lot of the team members working on it also were working on Stormblood, so... it was a decision from the top.
3. As mentioned, it's clearly Yoshi-P's decision to "remove stress" from the game. Since shortly before Dawntrail, he has been admitting this went too far and he has regrets. He has been saying something along the lines of: "if you remove all the pitfalls from a side-scroller, you remove all the stress, but you also remove all the fun."

[PercibelTheren]

If you only have 2 or 3 hours per week to play, then theres not a single mmorpg on the market for you.

This mentality is why the MMO genre is dying out. Young gamers are, overwhelmingly, not interested in MMORPGs. And if the games refuse to evolve with their players - people who usually have jobs and often families, there is no wonder they're struggling.