Whenever someone walks in on me playing FFXIV, and let's say I'm Crafting or Gathering, and this person starts watching the screen, I get this feeling of judgement. They're looking at the screen watching me select synthesis options and watching the incredibly slow and uninteresting animations on repeat. I become embarrassed knowing that they may be thinking, "This guy sits in a chair doing this in is free time?"

To spare myself the embarrassment, I normally time my crafting for when my girlfriend jumps in the shower. When she's done, I'd then switch to something else as to avoid judgement.

The truth of the matter is, FFXIV was originally intended to be a pay to play game. With Gathering and Crafting classes intended to be as center-stage as any battle class, I'd say Tanaka was out of his mind to think that people would pay to play the Crafting and Gathering mini-games.

I think an incredible solution to solving the problem of player-embarrassment and FFXIV's lackluster profits, the Crafting and Gathering games need to be spiced up. The mini games should be visual puzzles that induce thought and strategy - a different puzzle for each kind of tool used. This way each job feels different from the next.

Also, because of the emphasis on crafting and gathering, it shouldn't take longer to level a craft to 50 than a normal job - remember, the ultimate goal is to create a game that people want to pay a monthly subscription to play.

Or... another solution is to totally deemphasize crafting. Remove the mini-game altogether. Make each synthesis pass or fail, and focus on the battle system instead - making it one where players wouldn't mind spending a good portion of their free time for years to come.

Square-Enix's Net worth has dropped 33.0808081% since September 27th. You want to make money? If you want people to rebuild Square-Enix's net worth, and if you want Crafting & Gathering classes to be as upfront and important as any other class, they need to be fun and awesome.

As it stands now, I challenge any of the developers to level a craft or gathering skill to rank 30 in their free time.



Warm regards,

-BR