A letter to Yoshida and the development staff of ARR

[Ryel]

I honestly wasn’t sure where to put this, or if it would even be read so I’ll place it here.


The words and opinions following this are my own, I never have nor will I ever claim to speak for the playerbase. Those that do read this entire thing (I’m so, so sorry) are free to agree or disagree with anything I’ve said. However in the interest of keeping things civil I only ask that if you do disagree with anything and want to add or comment that you please do so respectfully not to me but to anyone else who may comment here.

I also want to preface that this is not a topic or complaint about content difficulty so I hope it isn’t misunderstood as such.

I thank you in advance for your time and understanding.


Before i start,

To Naoki Yoshida and everyone on the dev team for FFXIV, I would like to thank you for turning this game around. Your hard work and effort put into reimagining and bringing new life to the realm of Eorzea was a feat that can be described as no less than extraordinary. Together you as a collective crew have done something completely unheard of in the MMO community and that alone was a monumental accomplishment.

To those at Square-Enix who saw the issues that arose with FFXIV ver 1.0 I thank you for giving the game a second chance and allowing it the opportunity to move forward.

And to Hiromichi Tanaka while your vision of FFXIV isn’t the one being carried forward and may not have been one that I personally agreed with, I still thank you for the work you put in and the foundation that you had laid down.


That being said there were a few things I would like to address that have been continuously brought up by the community, some of the things I will mention have gotten responses from the developers and the community team however there are a few things that haven’t.

I was originally a long time FFXI player who decided to try this game during open beta when it was made available, the systems were far from perfect and there was plenty of room for improvement so sorry to say I was one of those players who originally left the game.

I did return however prior to patch 1.19, and for the most part followed the game and its long transition on its path towards 2.0. I remember before jobs were released when Thaumaturges were healers and Lancers were the preferred DPS on Ifrit due to being able to stay out of range of sear also being able to break his horn, I remember when areas like Copperbell Mines and Shposhae were deep dungeons filled with danger lurking around every corner. I remember the nightmare that was trying to travel through the black shroud and the high level monsters that escorted me (rather tried to eat me).


And then the changes began, and honestly many of them were awesome.

The content added from 1.20 onwards held some of the best memories of this game that I’ll have, the introduction of jobs and us no longer needing to rely on base classes was a massive step forward for the game, MNK with it’s elemental fist attacks and Simian Thrash (although sadly it wasn’t perfect at the time), and BLM with it’s terrible elemental destructive power (which might have been a tad too much XD) were things so cool to see in parties it brought me back to those days of playing classic Final Fantasy, it really made me feel like I was in a party of heroes.

And the good just kept on giving, the new storyline with the fall of Nael van Darnus, the introduction of Gais van Baelsar and the events that lead up to The Battle of Carteneau kept me and all of my friends playing each month.

And during all of this I followed your live letters and updates and studied the roadmap waiting (impatiently I might add) for 2.0 to hit, and the servers eventually went down epically, I was totally there for that! Then the long grueling process of holding out for the game to release began.

Before the release I participated in the alpha and beta testing and tried out as many new things as I could (without spoiling them for myself) and loved almost all of the changes that had been made so far.

And then 2.0 hit

There were tons of people everywhere both old faces and tons and tons of new ones, almost all of the people I played with in 1.0 came back and it felt like getting right back into the swing of things. The main scenario quests were fun, new changes to leveling and crafting, new jobs, and a new world to explore it really felt like you and the rest of the team had come through with the things you promised.


But then the questions began to set in and as I’ve played over this past almost full year that A Realm Reborn has been released I started to wonder what has happened to so many of the systems that kept people playing together.

I won’t go into design changes like the larger open world that had existed or the fear and danger that we as players felt trying to navigate Eorzea before. I hope those are things that will eventually return in time as our world expands in the future, the questions I ask are those that come from a personal player perspective and deal with how we now interact with other players in the game.


Why are we still unable to send /tells in dungeons?

This seems like such a small thing at first glance that surely nobody would have missed until you see the dozens of threads that pop up of people afraid of the duty finder. No longer are we able to silently talk to someone, or offer job advice, or even chat with a friend without disturbing others.

Every call to attention on someone’s performance is a confrontation, a WHM that misses a cure, or a WAR that doesn’t voke, or a PLD that forgets Shield Oath, each and every small mistake is now a broadcast in party calling them out in front of an audience.

I won’t claim this sort of thing has happened to me personally but I have seen it happen to others, or I’ve seen people take something the wrong way because it appears to be an attack. Are the /blacklist feature and GMs not enough to cover any issues that occur in /tell?

Additionally: is it really so important to keep repair NPCs around that it prevents the reimplementation of the system allowing us to repair other people’s gear, especially now that we’re able to repair in dungeons again?

I understand the need to remove gil from the economy but I was under the impression that was why NPC repairs we’re priced rather highly to begin with, I fear the reason people had a problem with this was because we weren’t and still aren’t able to repair other’s gear anymore, something that was invaluable in 1.23.


What happened to Community content that Free Companies and Linkshells could do with each other?

What happened to content like Skirmish and Hamlet? Content that allowed variation and was laid back?

Skirmish was great, two types of gauntlets with one allowing us to fight a preset variation of trash pulls leading up to what was probably the most hilarious Treant in FFXIV outside of the pinecone bomb lobbers that used to inhabit the Black Shroud. And the other, a back to back fight against some of the nastiest creatures we had faced so far in our adventures, enemies like Coincounter and Chimera.

Hamlet was pretty fun too and probably one of the more unique events we’ve ever had. Actual content where crafters and gatherers could participate and get in on the action, granted the point system and paying for hamlets weren’t the most ideal but the Hamlet battles themselves were awesome.

What about Chocobo Caravans? Honestly where did these go? These were great and added some flavor and depending on when you did it, usually allowed you to meet and hang out with new people.

If this stuff is coming in the future then by all means I’ll sit and happily wait for it to make a return, otherwise I’m quite saddened to see most of this stuff is not here anymore.

I see that we’re getting hunts and maps are a good step forward, more stuff like that is great and is the kind of thing players are desperately craving.


Why are we unable to change classes in Instances anymore?

I can’t count the number of times I’ve queued into something and felt powerless because a Tank left or disconnected while I was on DPS and I was unable to swap to tank and take over while the party sat there and waited for one to queue in progress.

Or even the times when I was on PLD and we simply didn’t have the DPS to defeat one of the bosses and I could have swapped jobs with a party member to down it.

Free swapping used to be encouraged, some strategies even utilized it, so why is it now we’re forbidden from doing so? How many failed dungeons, trails, or raids that people have left or disconnected from could have been able to recover had people in the party been allowed to adjust their composition?

And most importantly:


Why is the only true endgame encounter gated behind an eight person weekly lockout when Free Companies can hold 512 people, friends list can hold 200, and Linkshells can hold 128 people x 8 linkshells?

This is honestly the hardest part for me to approach here because it’s been brought up so many times by so many other people, and yet still seems to be the largest issue we’re facing at the moment.

The game currently feels as if content is designed like an arrow that eventually points you towards coil if you’re making any sort of progression. Gear from dungeons raises Ilvl in increments and the echo makes sure that people are always trying to catch up before they get left behind. All in all it’s a good thing that everyone should be able to at least try and attempt to experience the content available.

Then it sets in.

Someone joins an FC or LS, they get help through primals, they catch up through CT, they make friends and chat with their buddies, and they learn their job and get their ilvl up and now comes the time for them to do coil.

And this happens:

“Sorry we have a static.”

“I would love to help you but I’m already cleared for the week so I’m locked out.”

“I’d make a static with you but my times don’t match yours.”

And this is more common than most players are willing to admit. I feel the restrictive nature of coil’s lockout has led to more frustration and animosity across the community than anything else if not only for the reason that going by the previous coil’s example took it six months to be made accessible.

I’m not talking about the difficulty either because honestly the difficulty is fine as it is, purely the option to be able to play with the people we have made friends with and done all these other things in game with is suddenly cut to a halt when faced with the wall that is coil.

Whether a player likes it or not they are now forced to try and schedule their game time around the lives of seven other people or risk not doing what is arguably the most fun endgame content the game has to offer with the people they want to play with.
This becomes twice as apparent when considering the Armory system that makes this game so unique and fun.

A person doesn’t have to create nine other characters to enjoy the other jobs the game has to offer, I can play PLD in one dungeon, DRG in another, and SMN after that. So why with all this freedom to play multiple jobs and the perfect tool available to help and join multiple groups through content are we unable to use this tool?

Why am I not able to go PLD for one coil group and SMN for another if I wish?

The second I go on one I’m locked out for the week on everything, and only makes the resulting experience worse.

Those who are unable to go in the comfort of people they know are now forced into the party finder, which wouldn’t be an issue if the set weekly lockout didn’t make groups feel like they were racing against the clock to get as many runs done as they can.

People are less likely to group with those who are inexperienced if they’re working against a deadline, they’ll simply feel there isn’t a need to wait and teach someone if they can get someone else who is ready to clear it and move on since they have a limited time to do so. This sort of behavior was shown with weekly clear primals already and only became worse when the Second Coil was added to the Party Finder as well.

Honestly as much as I’d like to I can’t blame them, just like as much as I’d like to I can’t blame the people who feel like they’re pressured to buy wins in order to gain “experience”. They’re terrified because the group they should feel comfort with is powerless to raise a finger to aid and teach them and they’re now at the mercy of a playerbase who simply doesn’t have the time to care.

Over the course of time I’ve dealt with the revolving door of creating and managing statics both for the previous and current coil and I will continue to do so as long as it’s the only option available to play with the people I enjoy playing with, however as this goes on I’m watching my friends list get smaller and smaller from the people who no longer log in from the frustration this has caused.

Even with content like CT that is 24 players, just having a large number of people to pull from player wise doesn’t always mean that everyone will want to or be able to play with a certain group, and the more people that become “Coil ready” the more obvious this issue becomes.

I don’t want to make a direct comparison to XI as I feel it would be terribly unfair not only because they are two very different games to begin with but because they also have a large difference in lifespan. However I feel we’re lacking the kind of content that was more variable in members and flexible with the type of lockouts they allowed.

Content that was more along the lines of: Limbus, Zeni Notorious Monsters, Salvage (not counting the drop rates please don’t do that to us), Assault, “Sky” and “Sea”, Outland Dynamis, and Einherjar.

What most of these had in common was the ability to take varying numbers of people or had shorter lockouts allowing us to play with different groups without feeling like we were betraying someone by doing so.

In short it kept the community together because for most everything it was relatively easy to fit in a varying number of people without leaving someone out.

I understand the need to keep gear distribution stable, and the reality of people selling wins and clears. It’s happening now and will most likely continue to happen regardless of whatever route is taken in the future, if I had a perfect answer or suggestion to this surely I would provide one however I’m simply a player, and I can only comment on what I see.

What I do know however is what the power that a community playing together does for a game, people in general will stay around and play much longer after the gleam and shine of that new weapon wears off as long as they continue to play with the people they have fun with.

Availability of jobs and the people around will encourage others to try out new ways to down mechanics if they feel they have the time to do so or can repeat the encounter, I’ve lost track of the number of times when if a group I was in had the ability to redo something we would sit together and think:

“I wonder if we can do that with one tank or no tanks at all.”

“I wonder if we can do that with all White Mages, or how about all Summoners?”

“We should try a full Dragoon party!”

These experiences helped me and the people I would do things with grow as players, if we needed to help someone and our jobs weren’t ideal for a composition we could sit there and bash our heads together to find something that worked, and we could use that knowledge to help others.

With most of the dungeons added being designed around a four person party and the only eight person end game content having this lockout the wall and the disconnect with others is something the player base is feeling, and those who aren’t at that level will be feeling it soon.

I humbly ask for a way for players to continue to play and have fun together in this world you have created.

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To Naoki Yoshida and everyone on the dev team, though I may be one voice in a sea of players I thank you for the efforts you have put into this game so far, and I thank you for the hard work you guys continue to put out going forward, this game would not have been possible if not for every one of you and I would not still be here if I did not enjoy it.

If you have made it this far I thank you again for reading what I have had to say, to you and everyone best of luck in your adventures both in and out of Eorzea.