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[Jennestia]

People are going to bash Tanaka over and over, no matter how much anyone defends him. It was him and his team that were responsible for FFXIV back in 2010, and from what little activity there was in patching the game, delivering content and news, and things of the like, we can now see that Tanaka had no ambitions for the game and it's future -- it was pushed out the door at a very bad time in the pipeline, and the game was nothing more than a skeleton. The one responsible for this, if not solely, was Tanaka for allowing this to happen.

Maybe it works differently where you're from but in Japan, most companies I've worked with it's more up to the ones running a company when something needs to be out, not so much the ones leading a project -- We still have our bosses too. Tanaka said time and time again XIV was not ready up until it was given it's September release date.

When we see Yoshida, we see progress. We see vision

As I said, a lot of updates Yoshida pushed out was from Tanaka's team; The only vision of Yoshida's we seen for sure based on timing was the Job system and up to the conclusion of the 7th Umbral era storyline, and even that is likely the team's idea more so than Yoshi's as the team for the most part is the same, only the managerial portion was reformed.

The FFXIV team needs a strong leader who can guide the game and fulfill his vision of an awesome MMO. I believe that person is Yoshida, and he's done nothing short of miracle work since they started 2 years ago.

So once again, most of the updates "he has done miracles with" were the previous teams when he took over, ARR is pretty much the thing he has done and we're still waiting for actual information, let alone to get it in our hands to see if he truly did perform a miracle or not.

So please, don't say that him wanting everything to perfection is a bad thing - it's what the game needs. The fans, and peers of FFXIV won't settle for anything less than perfection at this point.

This is why I feel XIV has a very high chance of failing, people will expect too much and if expectations aren't met -- well, we've seen what happens to MMOs. I think this is why some people will easily jump on someone for having a different point of view from completely being happy with everything.

[Yucie]

Maybe it works differently where you're from but in Japan, most companies I've worked with it's more up to the ones running a company when something needs to be out, not so much the ones leading a project -- We still have our bosses too. Tanaka said time and time again XIV was not ready up until it was given it's September release date.

As I said, a lot of updates Yoshida pushed out was from Tanaka's team; The only vision of Yoshida's we seen for sure based on timing was the Job system and up to the conclusion of the 7th Umbral era storyline, and even that is likely the team's idea more so than Yoshi's as the team for the most part is the same, only the managerial portion was reformed.

So once again, most of the updates "he has done miracles with" were the previous teams when he took over, ARR is pretty much the thing he has done and we're still waiting for actual information, let alone to get it in our hands to see if he truly did perform a miracle or not.

This is why I feel XIV has a very high chance of failing, people will expect too much and if expectations aren't met -- well, we've seen what happens to MMOs. I think this is why some people will easily jump on someone for having a different point of view from completely being happy with everything.

I wasn't talking at all about Yoshida's work on the current version of the game. Every reference I've made to his work is their development of the 2.0 engine, that content, those new maps, enemies, etc. And Tanaka certainly had his bosses at Squeenix.. however, that's no excuse for how the game ended up. If it isn't entirely his fault (and I still dislike him greatly for the stagnation of FFXI) he's still partially responsible. As Director/producer, it was his job to see to the game and make sure everything was ready, and if things weren't ready, it was still his job to get more of the support and time he needed to actually release the game in even a partially-completed state. Somewhere along the line he failed to perform as expected of him in his position, and that's where Yoshida joined us.

With the re-release of FFXIV, it's not so much about expectation - people have already seen the game fail miserably once, and as a result a lot of gamers have close to zero expectation for A Realm Reborn. The only gamers that might have any expectations for the game at release are the people who are currently playing, and WILL be playing until 1.0 servers go offline.

Since expectations seem very low across the board for ARR, it's Yoshida's job to make sure that the game is released in a condition that feels complete, and feels wonderful; he needs to surprise the doom-whisperers with something amazing, that will turn people's opinions with a one-eighty. But we don't even need to say that at this point - all the current players know that if ARR isn't anything shy of amazing, it will probably fail again. But, throughout the past 2 years, he seems to have done a wonderful job with the engine, possible content, and any other assets, if concept art and screenshots are anything to go by.

Another upside to Yoshida's work is the PS3 version of ARR. It exists, we have screenshots, and it's supposedly going to be released in-tandem with the PC version. I've been to various forums, and I even know people IRL who say "The PS3 version is coming? Can't wait!", which means that the team has access to a market of gamers that have been waiting to play XIV on their console since the beginning. That's a huge plus.

But, by all means, if you only think the game is going to fail, keep thinking that. Games go nowhere when players have that kind of attitude, lol.

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

As I said, a lot of updates Yoshida pushed out was from Tanaka's team; The only vision of Yoshida's we seen for sure based on timing was the Job system and up to the conclusion of the 7th Umbral era storyline, and even that is likely the team's idea more so than Yoshi's as the team for the most part is the same, only the managerial portion was reformed.

So once again, most of the updates "he has done miracles with" were the previous teams when he took over, ARR is pretty much the thing he has done and we're still waiting for actual information, let alone to get it in our hands to see if he truly did perform a miracle or not.

Sorry, but this is pure ignorance. After it was announced that Tanaka will be stepping down as director and Yoshida would be coming in as director and producer, which wasn't exactly a snap judgement by the way, the team stopped developing for a month to follow a new path to salvage the current version. Maybe what you're thinking of are the already made dungeon zones and models created, but the direction and implementation of those things had nothing to do with Tanaka.

If it were up to him, we'd have barbaric and reminiscent systems to XI with a slightly less tedious and grindy leveling system, a thousand unawnsered questions proposed in interviews, no ambition to pull FFXIV in today's standards of MMORPGs, and only make the game appealing to those games in a very niche market. Something had to give. I mean, I had fond memories of FFXI too, but I was also a lot younger then, had more fun and formed a lot of nostalgia, and had more time on my hands. However, if I had the choice to go back or take those same systems and implement it on 2.0's engine with Tanaka's direction, I'd probably look for something else. He doesn't show growth with a community that has grown with his games. It screams stagnant even if you take Wada rushing the game's release out of the equation.

Anyway, the point is there is a clear vision that this isn't the same director when looking at FFXIV today. Nor was it post Tanaka patches. I think so say it was is incredibly ignorant and I'm not even a 100% fan of Yoshida's direction. I just have eyes.

[Yucie]

Sorry, but this is pure ignorance. After it was announced that Tanaka will be stepping down as director and Yoshida would be coming in as director and producer, which wasn't exactly a snap judgement by the way, the team stopped developing for a month to follow a new path to salvage the current version. Maybe what you're thinking of are the already made dungeon zones and models created, but the direction and implementation of those things had nothing to do with Tanaka.

If it were up to him, we'd have barbaric and reminiscent systems to XI with a slightly less tedious and grindy leveling system, a thousand unawnsered questions proposed in interviews, no ambition to pull FFXIV in today's standards of MMORPGs, and only make the game appealing to those games in a very niche market. Something had to give. I mean, I had fond memories of FFXI too, but I was also a lot younger then, had more fun and formed a lot of nostalgia, and had more time on my hands. However, if I had the choice to go back or take those same systems and implement it on 2.0's engine with Tanaka's direction, I'd probably look for something else. He doesn't show growth with a community that has grown with his games. It screams stagnant even if you take Wada rushing the game's release out of the equation.

Anyway, the point is there is a clear vision that this isn't the same director when looking at FFXIV today. Nor was it post Tanaka patches. I think so say it was is incredibly ignorant and I'm not even a 100% fan of Yoshida's direction. I just have eyes.

Couldn't have explained it better myself. Good show, sir.