Letter from Producer (4/14/11)

[Abriael]

Firstly, I'm still excited for the patch and changes to come.

But.. noone else disappointed that the Companies according to this letter seem to be nothing like what was envisioned by the old dev team (Player-run guilds). Sure we've seen it coming but still disappointing. Was one of the better ideas of the old team I feel.

Yoshida actually already said that they just prioritzed NPC companies because the game needs content more urgently than a guild system when there already are linkshells.

It's to be noted that one of the reps in the Japanese forum actually talked about a possible expansion of crest customization when player run companies will be implemented. This means that they're still going to be done.

[Alixandir]

Yoshida actually already said that they just prioritzed NPC companies because the game needs content more urgently than a guild system when there already are linkshells.

It's to be noted that one of the reps in the Japanese forum actually talked about a possible expansion of crest customization when player run companies will be implemented. This means that they're still going to be done.

If you are referring to the ZAM interview this is what Yoshida said:

"Before I became producer/director, in the old 1.2 patch notes it mentioned that we will be releasing player Companies. The thing is, we realized that we could bring out player Companies, but then if there's nothing for the Companies to do there wouldn't be any reason to bring it out. We decided to reverse that and first make sure that there's going to be content and stuff for the Companies to do before releasing the Companies. The whole coming danger that's approaching Eorzea is going to play a big part in something for the Companies to do."

Nothing in there really separates "player companies" and "NPC companies". However, the community rep you are referring to seems a little more encouraging.

Yoshida also said: "In some aspect, the Company system will have aspects that are similar to and can link with that Linkshell community. But it's also going to be something larger. It's going to be more of a global type of community on a larger scale."

I guess time will tell.