4Gamer Interview with Yoshi-P!

[Kaurie]

I posted this response on reddit, in regards to

We got several posts from players who wanted to be able to customize not only their character's appearance but also their skills and equipment for a particular job so that they could show some more individuality. This is a topic we've seen come up since the initial release of A Realm Reborn.

Yoshida: Right. So, if we did something like add mode A and mode B for dragoon, eventually people on the internet would examine them and choose which one was stronger. Then, when we created new content, the content would have to be based on whatever was strongest. There would be a lot of discussion about the job states like "that job is too strong" or "that job is too weak" and people would always choose what they felt was best. That's not to say a skill system like that would be negative, but the armoury system itself already allows you to play all of the different jobs. Since we already have that system in place, I'm not expecting that we'll make branches for jobs for the time being.

It irks me so much, it's also not very logically sound.

• I mean you could, for the sake of argument, say that all melee DPS are just melee and each job is a specialization of melee DPS - yet all of them are perfectly viable in statics.
• Further, if you have two sets of DRGs and you know one is better, so you balance content for that one, why wouldn't you - say - balance the weaker DRG spec?
• To say that discussions of "that job is too strong" or "that job is too weak" are not already happening would be naive.
• Then he goes on to say that the armoury system itself already allows you play all different jobs, but fails to mention that you can't actually play all of them at the top level - which is what his entire premise was about

To be honest, what bothers me more is he completely ignored this half of the question

customize ... their character's ... equipment

As in, more interesting stats/horizontal progression etc. etc. Just didn't even acknowledge that aspect of the question.

All of that said, there have been some great replies to me on Reddit arguing against what I said above. Ultimately, it comes down to two people being presented with the same evidence and coming to two very different conclusions. It's pretty clear from the other people responding to me, and to Yoshi, that I'm not going to change their mind. I'm fairly certain they are not going to change my mind. So I've got two choices really.

1. I can suck it up and keep playing this, because even though it's bland and I hate this aspect of it, there are plenty of things I love about it.
2. I can unsub and go play something like Guild Wars 2, or World of Warcraft. I'm actually strongly considering bumping to WoW with Legion, the Artifact Weapons look particularly interesting to me.

On another note, I am also displeased with this..

Yoshida: First you'll select a rank, and then you'll play for three minutes. The training goal is to have enough DPS to defeat it at that rank.

So it won't actually show a DPS number.

Yoshida: Right, it's not a numbers competition. The idea is more like you could specify "people who have defeated XX rank training" via party finder. Working on your skill rotation will be important to defeat them, so by working through this content, you should be able to put out enough DPS to beat content that you couldn't previously clear.

I think this is a very half-assed way of addressing the problem, and will result with all the negatives and exclusions forseen with a DPS parser without actually giving people the tools they need to properly improve themselves in real dungeon and raid settings.
That is:

1. with this you cannot see, real time in a dungeon, how your DPS is comparing to other people. "Ah, I am doing 1400 DPS and the other DPS is doing 1450, it looks like I am in the right ballpark." vs "Oh no, I am doing 900 vs the 1450 of that DRG, maybe I need to figure out what I am doing wrong or ask for tips." Instead, we'll get, "Hey, I completed S rank dummy, so shut up and do your job" when someone may be giving tips.
2. you will not be able to see how your DPS varies - ever so slightly - with slight changes to your opener / rotation / gear changes. These little things can add up over time, and can be the difference between a 1% enrage or a clear.
3. you won't be able to see how your DPS varies on fights. Maybe on an S rank dummy you can clear NP, but go in to Savage and your DPS drops by 60%, because you're dodging AoE's etc. With a real time parser, you could see that change and adjust accordingly. "Oh maybe I need to stutter step or work on positioning better." vs "Hey I defeated an S rank dummy, I think I can handle A1S."