New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Eldaena]

4Gamer (JP Game site) Interview Translation : http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...JP-4gamer-site

Connect! On (Famitsu) (JP Game magazine) Inteview Translation
1: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...azine-Aug.2011
2: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-%28Famitsu%29

Oh, thanks. ^-^

[Physic]

they ultimately want to tap the FF market overall, and they are hedging their bets on ps3, so marketing to a specific part of the FFXI market (not everyone who played ffxi wants super rare HNMs and 1 year to get to level cap, and 10 different armor sets for their main class) is a bad idea, since ffxi already failed to capture their full audience.

Also since its going to be on ps3, the game requirements will be met by people who just have a ps3, who tend to be more casual than you r average MMO master. I think its a good idea that they take the focus of the game away from leveling, most casual people level by accident. While i think there should be multiple paths to getting stronger, the idea that every MMO must present itself in a grind (leveling in no context) format is not necessarily the only path, so its good that he says they want to take the focus off of leveling.

keep in mind that just because they want to appeal to a wider market doesnt mean they can have no appeal to a niche market at the same time. such a possibility exists within the large framework of MMOs.

They can have interesting quests and adventures for the casual, hardcore challenging dunegeons and bosses for the hardcore (skill wise not time sink wise) They can make it so you have multiple paths to leveling, so that maybe a casual person may do more leves, or quests, and maybe a hardcore person will blast through high level monsters in a team.

For example(at high levels think 40+) if the casual dude can get 24k an hour, that is a signifigant progress, and if the hardcore can get 28k an hour (with no limitations on time, or amount of grind) he is making enough more to be worth it, and will over time make signifigant progress level wise.
in that type of system both become worthwhile ways to level, one with less hassle, but maybe limited in how often, the other has no limitations, is slightly better, and available whenever, but maybe requires a team and a more difficult path.


regardless, Leveling should not be the be all and end all of a FF game, im glad they seem to be taking that angle.

[Reinheart]

I like the direction the devs taking myself, I look at the new system kind of like Playstation Home for those that tried that out and know it, but instead of just your own character you got story behind it "Final Fantasy".

1. If you don't like fighting you have choice of becoming crafter or gatherer class and enjoy the game that way.
2. If you're busy type of person with job/family and don't have much time to party every day of the week they are making it so you can play solo or play with your friends you have already casually.
3. If you're hard core player you can go take down HNM's; Take on Raid Dungeons; Large-Scale PvE
4. If you're PvP type of person they are preparing something for that as well.

they can't work on everything at same time; so they are fixing the root problem first which in their case they wanted to fix the battle system; and also fixing the server issues. With those 2 out of the way they have more chance of working on different areas of the game to change it. I don't see nothing wrong with MMORPG having features where everything doesn't have to involve battle.

EDIT: worded last part wrong... lol added/changed with blue.

[Ashthra]

looking at the servers that all were "full" and now are at low/medium... isn't all "well" to me.
It did a lot of things right but its losing a lot of players every day due to the lack of content. Many are leaving back to wow, what a surprise. But well you know everything. That's not new to me.

They just effectively shut down 20 servers (they're now "trial" servers), but the funny thing is, because of that unofficial server merge, all those low/medium servers are now medium/high/full again. Also, they opened, what, 40 servers at launch? How many was FFXIV forced to open? Oh, and by the way, the most casual and easymode game out there has over 11 million subs (that's at least 2775 times the population of FFXIV currently), and all the other MMO releases failed because they sucked. They were unoriginal, bland, buggy, poorly developed and managed, and when the playerbase realized they got fleeced, they fled in a mass exodus back to their old MMO.

Sound familiar to any games in this zipcode? I'll give you three guesses.

Let me put it this way: even though Rift had to merge servers, the game still has several hundred thousand subscribers more than this game does -- and come to think of it, so do all those "failed" games like Aion, and AoC, and maybe even Warhammer. So, if you have a point that I can't easily refute in 30 seconds, I'd like to hear it.

Insofar as your casual = OMGEASYMOOOODE T_______________________T ...You seem to be working under the erroneous assumption that time equals skill, and that "casuals" who cannot devote the exorbitant amount of time required to get this or that done are automatically terrible players who want everything handed to them on a silver platter without a shred of effort on their part. This is the exact same argument I've read on the WoW forums for years from angry raiders who felt that they should be allowed more because they want to waste their life in a virtual world instead of the real one -- or rather, that those who don't want to waste their life in a virtual world shouldn't be allowed to lick their boots, let alone acquire anything of merit while online.

Let me tell you something. I'm a casual player. But I'm also an intelligent one. I may not know everything, but I do my research and learn what I can to be an asset to myself and other players, along with how to be efficient at what I do. I do not, under any circumstances, want everything handed to me. I don't care if raiders or people who play far more than I do get the really high end stuff -- I'm okay with not seeing absolutely everything in the game, so long as I'm not locked out of practically everything if I don't have 4-5 hours to spare getting a PT like I was in FFXI circa-2004. You want the best of the best gear? Fine. But give me the option to get something done in the 1-2 hours I may have set aside after a 10 hour shift that began at 3 am of heavy lifting.

Casuals like myself don't want 'easy', we want engaging. I left Rift not because it lacked content, but it lacked interesting content. All those awesome rifts and invasions that were the central focus levels 1-49, and at 50 we got relegated to an instance-gated gear-grind again? Blah, pass. If they'd given us dailies where we had to spawn and solo certain specialized rifts, I'd have been as happy as a pig in mud. But they didn't, so I left and came here. I don't want easy. I want fun. Rift endgame wasn't. FFXIV any-game currently isn't. If YoshiP wants to change that, they're going to have to entice everyone, not just the minority who feel that unless the game is kicking you in the babymaker with a spiked-toe combat boot every time you change a piece of equipment, it's for children.

God I hate elitism.

Edit: Oh, one more thing -- just because the devs are throwing casual players a bone doesn't mean that the game is now Hello Kitty and all hardcore players are now being tossed on their derrieres and told to go elsewhere. I'm sure they'll emphasize grouping via other means, like dungeons, NMs, and non-instanced elite areas. As they should, if they want to attract a wider audience.

[Elexia]

They certainly had better have a job for each class, and I honestly can't say archers will be entirely thrilled if bard is their job.

Though quite a bit of MMOs with an Archer class and progression tree (i.e RO style) tend to mend around Bard/Dancer (if gender specific) or Ranger/Sniper/Gunner/Etc.

[Rowyne]

Why doesn't he realize that having to go back to the leve counter is a massive deterrent for casual players?

How is that a massive deterrent when casuals don't burn through anima as quickly? It's a design that encourages people to populate the cities in a central meeting place and put in a tiny bit of effort. It's not that big a deal when you're a casual player.

Casuals can log in, do their leves, log out, regeneration of anima commences.

[Rowyne]

Although Wolfie might disagree with me since he's always trolling me with crazy comments like "Your comments are stupid, I wish bats would attack you for no particular reason" or "That makes no sense, why won't you give me your carrot cake recipe, it's as if you're made entirely of indifference and left over turkey" I'll say it anyhow.

OMG I'm still LOL'ing IRL over this. ^

I for one thought Yoshida's (and the team's) assessment and repositioning of guildleves in the game and the way in which they went about it were very reasonable and rational steps to take that give me only hope for the future of this game. They espouse an underlying common sense that's refreshing to see.

Agreed. I never thought I'd see the day when SE realized the underlying problem with boring grinds and guildleve monotony. Common sense indeed.

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

How is that a massive deterrent when casuals don't burn through anima as quickly? It's a design that encourages people to populate the cities in a central meeting place and put in a tiny bit of effort. It's not that big a deal when you're a casual player.

Casuals can log in, do their leves, log out, regeneration of anima commences.

Pretty sure that was sarcasm.

[AeraLucis]

So, are they giving players who have static parties an alternative way to make the same SP as before through leve-linking? Or are most players going to have to take a SP hit until a patch comes around with party-oriented leveling content?

[Kiara]

Where do they think their casual audience is supposed to come from?

According to their own poll most players are XI players or FF players. All FF games are 30-60hrs of gameplay, not that casual.

XIV requires absolutely state-of the art PC to run at reasonable frame rates. How do these aspects reach an average casual player again?

If I hadn't followed the FF series very closely for the past few years I wouldn't even know XIV exists let alone what kind of game it is.

This is probably just me but I feel like they're trying to reach an audience that just isn't there to benefit from and while doing so they're turning against their old fans who given the state of the game are the only players they have left at this point.

Casual games are usually played on the web-browser or as apps while waiting for a bus. It's not deep enough to hold interest of players for years while paying a monthly fee for that kind of service.

Hi Seif,

Definitely some valid concerns. But I think there might be some confusion about what "Casual" means. A lot of people equate "Casual" to mean "Grandma or Parent that plays FarmVille."

But I think "Casual" in this case is "someone that doesn't have a lot of time on their hands any more, but still appreciates games." It's less hours devoted to playing a game, not "Mainstream" which is what you're referring to.

Definitely if Yoshida-san is trying to target the "Mainstream" audience - Wii Bowling and FarmVille / Facebook "gamers" - then, you're right. I think FF XIV is going to fail horribly at capturing that audience.

I know plenty of friends and relatives nowadays that have graduated, have a new job, are starting a family. They used to like games a lot, but no longer have time to spend 4 - 6 Hours Per Night grinding or doing major events. But they still miss playing games like an RPG, or chatting with friends / making new ones online.

One friend of mine used to play every single Square and JRPG around. Now she's about to start a family and doesn't have that insane amount of time to devote to RPGs any more. But she wants to try and play once in a while.

I have another friend who was a crazy fighting game fan, devoting months and months to practicing combos, etc. He has a family now and can't game very long, but wants to still enjoy games with friends when there's time.

I've run into quite a few players on my server that aren't "hardcore gamers" by definition. FF XIV is the only game they play, and they don't spend very long playing. Maybe log on, chat with people, try some local levequests, do some regional leves (battle), and then log off (after only 1 or 2 hours).

I think that's what Yoshida-san means by "Casual." Just less time, but still wants to get a good online game experience.

In that way, by making the changes he's discussing, I think FF XIV could work that way. Making Guildleves Solo-focused, with good SP, and better Rewards... having them be something someone can do, after a long day of school or work, hop on and play for an hour or so, and hop off, without trying to LFP for 1 - 2 hours and then go and grind for another few hours is a good thing.

And the entire game isn't "casual." Yoshida-san said it right at the start of the letter:

Mind you, that’s not to say that the entire game should be casual. Rather, there should be elements that can be enjoyed in a lighthearted way, for example, after coming home tired from work or school... To elaborate, content that can be enjoyed with little fuss, that doesn’t demand large time investments—up to an hour, say—or require a party to be formed.

But come weekend, players have the choice of undertaking more elaborate adventuring, forming parties with linkshell members and/or likeminded adventurers to accomplish mutual goals. Light parties can exploit the versatility offered by classes to conduct forays into beast tribe settlements, something that a lone adventurer would find grueling. Full parties, on the other hand, can immerse themselves in fine-tuning job configuration in preparation for their bid to obtain rare items in advanced battle content. Disciples of the Hand can outfit the battle-inclined with equipment boasting the requested attributes. And last but not least, Disciples of the Land can set about gathering ingredients based on current class and materia crafting demands.

He's been quoted already as saying the R50 Dzemael Darkhold is going to be "hard" and requires some good strategy. It sounds like FF XIV isn't going to be *all* "casual," not in the slightest.

Now, is it a mistake to try to target "casual" players in this sense? (Those that have a little less time on their hands.) I don't know. I think there are many people out there that appreciate games but don't have the time to devote 3 - 4 Hours camping HNMs per night. Time will tell if he's right or not.

As long as he provides some interesting, challenging content that many of us on the forums want (more "hardcore" or "challenging" / "engaging") in addition to this new focus, then I think FF XIV will be fine.