A letter to Yoshida and the development staff of ARR

[Zarzak]

XI had flaws but it was overall superior to XIV.

Agreed. And sadly most of the flaws were not addressed in XIV and all the good things about it were changed.


FFXI mostly just suffered because of being put on the PS2 when console online gaming was still new. Very limited UI/no custom channels/etc. Also no visible guild tags (a colored dot next to their name didn't help -_-) so finding a good end game guild on your server was pretty difficult.

The leveling experience was the most fun I've had in an MMO though. "eh I'm tired of playing X class for now" run to town and swap to something else for a while.

[Roris]

I don't mind how it is now, but I can't seem to get over the fact that it seems they want us to only play one class. The tome system, the relic quests, gear lockouts, it all comes down to making sure you don't gear up another job, which is stupid since the armoury system is there so you can be everything, and that's the uniqueness and beauty of it.

Don't forget the shared MND/INT for Summoners and Scholars, it gets badly justified as "important decision making" or "specialization" but it's also just more railroading into a single class, even sillier when the armoury system is one of the game's most promoted features.

All of the features included in 1.23 were under the direction of Naoki Yoshida and his team. Features like Skirmish and Hamlet (that are no longer around), and gear like Darklight and the relics as well as fights like the primals were all fruit borne during that time

It feels like a couple of those features were already planned to be implemented since before 1.0 launched and were either in advanced concept stages or early implementation and coding, they were just allowed to complete them. Hamlet for instance was announced way back since the very early 1.0 days, other stuff like Primal fights including Titan who was even in one of the first 1.0 trailers and Leviathan were almost completed but unimplemented due to various issues, dungeon assets for Dzemael, AV and CC were already in the game since the beginning, most of the music too. A couple of other additions were definitely created from scratch farther along 1.X like job gear and relics though.

[Luciano_Bozzelli]

I should NEVER have to answer someone who asks me for help by saying:

"I'm sorry the game won't allow me to help you, tough luck you're on your own"

I totally agree. I've been saying this game desperately needs Dynamis, Limbus, Sky, Sea, Nyzul Isle, ZNM's... All these great options, not because we want the game to be like FFXI, but because there were no limit to the number of people who could come to these events.

In FFXIV, an FC member logs on and says "What you guys doing?" We are gonna do some primals for Johnny. Can I come help? We are full... No matter what activity you put in place of Primals, the answer can always be we are full...

In FFXI, an LS member logs on and says, "What you guys doing" We are hunting for Sky pops to help Johnny get his Byakko pants. "Can I come help?" Sure, we have a full alliance, so Johnny is gonna drop and form the 2nd alliance, and he'll send you an invite...

I like the things the OP said... We really do need something large scale, end game. Larger and harder than Crystal tower. Where the free company can work as a whole to get better, and not just a few groups of 8 out of hundreds of players.

[EmiliM]

After the discussions from my previous thread in both the English and Japanese forums (here and here if you missed it. Please don't bump them though, it's a done discussion I think) I think I reached some conclusions about these things.

There is no way for the devs/Yoshida to address these concerns in a direct manner without creating more problems (whether perceived or real) elsewhere. At a fundamental level, they cannot afford to divert resources and energy away from creating new contents to deal with these complaints because while it is still debatable that the issued raised in these forums are serious enough to require an overhaul of the system, there is no doubt that an effort to deal with these things at the expense of fewer updates and a lack of new contents will kill the game.

Ultimately, all they can do is to continue to fill out the game with more and newer contents and hope they can do so quickly enough to direct people's attention away from the existing bottlenecks. Instead of focusing on trying to "fix" what is currently there and potentially upsetting even more people if they don't do it well, they really have no choice but to focus on making better contents for the future instead.

In short, you'll need to just stick it out and hope there will be more interesting things for everyone to do in the future.

[Brainberry]

Things are good as is, if coil didnt have a weekly lock out the servers will be filled with sale runs to carry bad people through hard content.

The gear obtained from these instances are top tier and should go to people that earn them, having people that beat it help you isn't going to make you better.

[A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider]

I like the things the OP said... We really do need something large scale, end game. Larger and harder than Crystal tower. Where the free company can work as a whole to get better, and not just a few groups of 8 out of hundreds of players.

If they can do what they're doing for Frontlines, then why can't they do it for another dungeon? Granted, it would be something that couldn't be done on a whim, but it would be nice to see some larger player "required" instances that aren't FATEs.

[Ikeda]

There is no way for the devs/Yoshida to address these concerns in a direct manner without creating more problems (whether perceived or real) elsewhere. At a fundamental level, they cannot afford to divert resources and energy away from creating new contents to deal with these complaints because while it is still debatable that the issued raised in these forums are serious enough to require an overhaul of the system, there is no doubt that an effort to deal with these things at the expense of fewer updates and a lack of new contents will kill the game.

Ultimately, all they can do is to continue to fill out the game with more and newer contents and hope they can do so quickly enough to direct people's attention away from the existing bottlenecks. Instead of focusing on trying to "fix" what is currently there and potentially upsetting even more people if they don't do it well, they really have no choice but to focus on making better contents for the future instead.

In short, you'll need to just stick it out and hope there will be more interesting things for everyone to do in the future.

So it's a choice of slower updates but making this "mmo" more like a real mmo and possibly die or continue down the fake mmo route with faster updates and eventually die off anyways because the game has no real longevity in its current state >.>

[Zarzak]

So it's a choice of slower updates but making this "mmo" more like a real mmo and possibly die or continue down the fake mmo route with faster updates and eventually die off anyways because the game has no real longevity in its current state >.>

^

Never got why people think releasing mroe content every 3 months is a good thing. Especially when it totally invalidates the older content instead of building upon it. Throwing away everything I've done every 3 months isn't a good thing to me.

Though at least my retainers get to sit in full Allegan/Myth gear.......................

[Felis]

I don't remember skirmish much - wasn't that the one thing high level players would swoop down and destroy beforelowbies got to it?)

No, Skirmish was instanced
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fszBu29QHE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh9Se-gv8S0

[Kiara]

Hi Ryel,

Great OP. I definitely agree.

1. Regarding No /tells in Dungeons: This is mind-boggling. Yoshi P's excuse is that he's afraid of harassment. Huh?! We have /Blacklist, but regardless, this was NEVER a rampant problem in XIV 1.0. I don't understand why it suddenly was used as the main reason he won't allow it.

It creates isolation and lockout from friends who may want to get a hold of you, or vice versa. The community is on "MUTE" when you enter an Instanced Raid.

2. More Community Events: Definitely agree that there should be more content that promotes that sense of "community" amongst friends, strangers across any FC/LS. FATEs have turned into mindless mass-zergs and everyone just leaves immediately after.

3. Non-Restricted 8 Person or Less Content. I know we have "Frontlines" (PvP), but for general PvE content, it's really Crystal Tower or bust, and even then, we can only go in with 7 people of our choosing.

One of the best things was the FLEXIBILITY to allow players to Change Jobs in Dungeons in 1.0. It promoted creative thinking, and ways to overcome challenges. But I think it's all tied in to how overly restrictive Yoshi P is making 2.0. He bragged in one Producer Letter that he was monitoring the DPS down to the fraction, in "balancing" various fights. Think about it: He's restricted and locked out players from EVER exceeding what Yoshi P wants for their [Main Stat (STR, DEX, INT, etc.)] per Item Level. Everything feels overly CONTROLLED and "by the numbers / scientific" more than soulful and dynamic and exciting.

4. Repairs: It's a small thing, but "yes," it's baffling that we no longer can help Repair other people's gear. It's minor and people just go to NPCs, but this small thing *helped* build a sense of an "MMO," and community where you could shout or ask for a repair and help others.

How is this a bad thing?

Ultimately, more content, more horizontal content, and less restricted content (not just locked to 4 players, or 8 rigidly), along w/ the above tweaks would go a long way to making Final Fantasy XIV: ARR a much better game.