For players and developers, my opinion about past, present and future suggestions.

[Nakiamiie]

Hello everyone!
First things first, I would like to mention, to avoid confusion, that I have been following many threads on the FFXIV forums since it's opening. However, I was unable to reply to any thread then (and some of them really made me want to do so) because I was in Japan for the past month without my one-time key.
Instead of reopening the debate of many threads, I would like to express myself in a single thread for simplicity and consolidation of my opinions. Hopefully, this will also help the translators get this to the developers.

What really stirred me up, by reading the forum, is the abundance of opinions asking features to 'limit' in a way or another how other players should play. A few examples about that: the debate about jumping (some don't want to see jumping because it annoys them, for example), the debate about PVP (same here, some persons don't want to see that happening because of fear they will be targeted. We should focus on HOW it would be ok, for you, to see it happening), and many more I could mention.
While almost all opinions debated in these kinds of threads hold some points to be taken into consideration, I believe that one criteria should always be taken into consideration when formulating one's opinion or deciding if a suggestion is worth it or not. It is called freedom: freedom to play your character the way you want it to, freedom to customize your character the way you want it to, freedom to engage in any activity of your choice at any time, etc.
Why is that? Freedom in an online game is synonym of fun, because it can reach everyone and harmonize different gaming style for player to player.

My opinion on any suggestion can be summarized as this: does it brings more freedom to the game or does it restricts players to behave a certain way? If it brings freedom, I am for it. If it puts limitations to hold certain players down, I am against it.
Of course, we'll always have bad players trying to ruin others' fun, always. The only way to stop these players completely is by turning off the servers, otherwise, no matter how little a player's freedom in a game is, they will always find a way to make others feel bad. So, does that mean we should promote limitations in the game to try to control them or try to focus on the real aspect that brought us in: entertainment and fun?
I believe in the fun, that's why we all play.
For example, yes I do support jumping ( a free form of jumping). Of course, we'll have some characters jumping around all the time. But that won't be the majority, and, of all the jumping players, not all of them are going to be crazy-immature-jumpers; one person could be trying to catch a particular angle for a screenshot, having a jumping event with their linkshell (whatever this might be, haha), etc. I don't think a valid opinion should include "it annoys me", because you never know what is truly going on on the other side.
Another example, Players-VS-Players. Yes, I do support PVP. No, I am not a fan of slaughtering my friends, so why do I support it? Because I know a lot of persons enjoy it (just look at World of Warcraft's PVP, people do enjoy it) and because under certain circumstances I, too, would make use of it (combat tactics training with friends without putting our lives on the line, for example).
A final example, I do not support full gear restrictions (class based, rank based restrictions to allow players to wear something). I believe it does not promote freedom of play. Being able to wear anything, anytime is a strong point of FFXIV in my opinion. It allows linkshells to have 'uniforms' for their members to wear during meetings, it allows roleplayers to play their characters better, it allows players to try armours and pick clothes to design a unique clothing style for later ranks if they stumble on good deals in the markets, be able to craft items without changing gears or going naked, etc. Of course, I do understand that it can bring a certain form of achievement for some players to have class/rank-restricted armours. But for it to be an achievement, these kinds of armours with restrictions should be very few in numbers, something rare that makes you more unique. If it becomes too common, we are just going back to old rules and what other MMO's are doing, and putting limitations on the players.

So, how exactly can we get such features while making it hard for immature players to kill our fun, but at the same time not having to put limitations on ourselves? That's what the debate in the threads should be. It can be an option to toggle on-off (flag yourself for PVP or not, enable more on-screen information or hide it [aggro icon, for example]), disable display of other characters' jumps (except for running down cliffs and other obstacles) or other visual features, etc.
I believe in the programming skills of the developers and I am sure they can bring to life our ideas, while allowing other players, negative about the idea, to enjoy themselves in their activities too.

Thank you very much for reading.

[Nakiamiie]

Feel free to comment and add to my point of view, everyone's opinion is welcomed.
There were a few views but no comments so far, just saying.

(I will not bump again unless it gets attention, don't worry.)

[Peregrine]

If the game becomes too free and lax, it becomes difficult to design content for and balance. Overall quality suffers when everything is so free and open that there's no focus and true design. It becomes the hundreds of kinds of made up games you can play with a basketball instead of basketball itself.

When people say they don't want jumping, they don't want it because it diverts development attention away from any meaningful gameplay that could be added with the effort it takes to design jumping, and they don't want it because it breaks immersion to see a 350 pound Roegadyn crashing up and down as they run to the market. It's about the opportunity cost. Instead of jumping, what COULD you have that actually matters?

When people say they don't want a certain feature, they're really saying they want the game to minimize sponsorship of certain behaviors and mentalities behind those features. Your actions and behaviors and mentality reflets on the game's image. As such, it is not only okay to argue against certain features that you don't want your ideal game to espouse, it's what you should be doing.

If no one really knew that a lot of us think people who want agro icons need to just pay more attention, maybe the devs would have never changed the beta feature for it.

Do you want a weapon with no delay just because someone wants to be able to instantly kill anything in the game? Of course not. You are not free to live your life as you see fit in a community game. That's just not how great community products are made. If you like to dress up as a furry and play Jai Alai instead of basketball, just realize that this is a community game and not all of us think that the developers should spend a lot, or any, time on your particular tastes out of freedom's sake.

Opportunity cost is what kills the argument for player choice and freedom to have what they personally want.

[Nakiamiie]

If the game becomes too free and lax, it becomes difficult to design content for and balance. Overall quality suffers when everything is so free and open that there's no focus and true design. It becomes the hundreds of kinds of made up games you can play with a basketball instead of basketball itself.

When people say they don't want jumping, they don't want it because it diverts development attention away from any meaningful gameplay that could be added with the effort it takes to design jumping, and they don't want it because it breaks immersion to see a 350 pound Roegadyn crashing up and down as they run to the market. It's about the opportunity cost. Instead of jumping, what COULD you have that actually matters?

When people say they don't want a certain feature, they're really saying they want the game to minimize sponsorship of certain behaviors and mentalities behind those features. Your actions and behaviors and mentality reflets on the game's image. As such, it is not only okay to argue against certain features that you don't want your ideal game to espouse, it's what you should be doing.

If no one really knew that a lot of us think people who want agro icons need to just pay more attention, maybe the devs would have never changed the beta feature for it.

Do you want a weapon with no delay just because someone wants to be able to instantly kill anything in the game? Of course not. You are not free to live your life as you see fit in a community game. That's just not how great community products are made. If you like to dress up as a furry and play Jai Alai instead of basketball, just realize that this is a community game and not all of us think that the developers should spend a lot, or any, time on your particular tastes out of freedom's sake.

Opportunity cost is what kills the argument for player choice and freedom to have what they personally want.

You speak the truth, too much, misguided features for freedom of game sure would break the sense of direction in a game.
However, I do believe more freedom, not excessive as to try to put anything and everything players ask for, will help developers put in new contents, open new horizons. If a character is able to do more, quests, leves, dungeon design, etc. can be more complex and allow new challenges.
Of course, 350 Roegadyn crashing up and down as you said would seem weird at first, but Final Fantasy never aimed to be a replica of real life, otherwise the Final Fantasy franchise wouldn't have these epic battles, would they? It just depends on HOW a feature is implemented into the game as to fit the world.

Just like you said, obviously, there is also a job for the developers to prioritize certain features over another, but it doesn't we have to abandon an idea for it, especially if it will bring a base for more complex content. That is the "freedom" in Final Fantasy XIV I was talking about: add more to be able to do more, not adding for the sake of adding.

I would you like to thank you for your input, it sure was worth reading.

[AshelyRiot]

I understand what your getting at but this so called freedom you talk about ruins the game for myself. All classes are the same just for starters. We should not be allowed to just equip and skill / ws we choose too and have at it (Could go on for days with issues but I wont bother). This game is looking more and more like a single player offline game and the point of an MMO is to play together with others imo. Nothing is memorable why? because it's too easy, You always remember a difficult time you had accomplishing something like obtaining a new class,spells and things such as storyline quests. That kind of stuff makes you feel great after accomplishing the tasks which XIV highly lacks.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

nak don't listen to pere. they got a nasty tude and better you just not tallk with them. Personally games don't need to be pain stakenly hard. If a 400lb galka can be a dragoon and use jump, why is that OK?

Same for aggro icon ffxi had so much stuff that made traveling easier. Yet no one complained. Yet an aggro icon which does nothing but point out what does and doesn't aggro is complained about hitting a rediculous level of hate that has yet been justified. I'm actually wondering the sanity of these ppl. If they hate it so much why even play anymore? No one wants game like everquest anymore. Sad truth. They want games like WoW or DCUO. Personally no one really knows what an easy mode game looks like. FFXIV is not an easy mode game. DCUO is. It is also much worst shape then ffxiv. Yet.... it is also a highly praised game. No show on g4 ever covered ffxiv. Yet they covered DCUO Aion and such. And this was before the failed launch. We gotta change with the times or just not play mmo.

[Nakiamiie]

I understand what your getting at but this so called freedom you talk about ruins the game for myself. All classes are the same just for starters. We should not be allowed to just equip and skill / ws we choose too and have at it (Could go on for days with issues but I wont bother). This game is looking more and more like a single player offline game and the point of an MMO is to play together with others imo. Nothing is memorable why? because it's too easy, You always remember a difficult time you had accomplishing something like obtaining a new class,spells and things such as storyline quests. That kind of stuff makes you feel great after accomplishing the tasks which XIV highly lacks.

Yes, obviously these are issues we would all like to be fixed. I just don't really see how more features that adds complexity to the game would make things easier and break the game?
I, too, feel like all the skills have the same taste (same effect, only different element, for example).
But being able to cross-class skills/traits/abilities is a plus for solo in my opinion. Obviously, you can change that during party. What's more, when you cross-class without having enough affinity, the skills/abilities are less effective, which sounds right in my opinion, you have to work to be able to have enough affinity to make it the same as the original class).
I, too want more class uniqueness, but that doesn't mean cutting down our ability to cross-class. It only means to make each skill/trait/ability fundamentally different, not a copy-paste. Because, in the end, the majority of hardcore players that party a lot will prefer to take 100% effectiveness skill/traits/abilities while in party rather than cross-classing skills. Casual gamers, soloers, or persons looking for originality will make use of that cross-classing feature, two different gaming-style that don't play together most of the time, so no conflict and it allows everyone to play like they want to play, right?
That's what I'm talking about, and it should go well with hardcore players want too.

Features added properly in the context of game add to complexity and freedom, not chaos. Isn't the contrary what we should be fearful off? Players clone of other players: all wearing the same armours, all having the same stats, all using the same strategies. No?

Thank you very much for your comment AshelyRiot! Feel free to explain your point of view more in details, I'm interested.

[Nakiamiie]

nak don't listen to pere. they got a nasty tude and better you just not tallk with them. Personally games don't need to be pain stakenly hard. If a 400lb galka can be a dragoon and use jump, why is that OK?

Same for aggro icon ffxi had so much stuff that made traveling easier. Yet no one complained. Yet an aggro icon which does nothing but point out what does and doesn't aggro is complained about hitting a rediculous level of hate that has yet been justified. I'm actually wondering the sanity of these ppl. If they hate it so much why even play anymore? No one wants game like everquest anymore. Sad truth. They want games like WoW or DCUO. Personally no one really knows what an easy mode game looks like. FFXIV is not an easy mode game. DCUO is. It is also much worst shape then ffxiv. Yet.... it is also a highly praised game. No show on g4 ever covered ffxiv. Yet they covered DCUO Aion and such. And this was before the failed launch. We gotta change with the times or just not play mmo.

Thank you very much for your input!
You nailed a good point: We have to change/adapt/evolve with the times.