Blue Gartr Interview Transcription

[JackDaniels]

WHAT !! no botched synthesis, hip hip horay !

Take the last of your shitty system with you Tanaka.. !

I really like how open Yoshida is being with these question, everything he said makes total sense and I agree with his replies, especially about the addon stuff.

Wondering when this will be implemented.

[Amsai]

Sonomaa (BG): In the 2.0 PDFs, addons were highlighted as something you want to see happen. Tanaka said the same about addons early in XIV's development but we never saw anything come out from it. Will you be releasing a developer kit to help create new addons for the game and show you're fully supported in evaluating and balancing addons? I know one of the most asked ones is a parser for people who like to min/max their damage, and just customizing the screen to look more like what players want.

Square-Enix: Rather than XML or LUA, like World of Warcraft is using, we're thinking of provide this in Flash simply to make it more visual. We'll be preparing a dev kit and providing that with help for the players. Once we get closer to the release of the dev kit (before it's even released), we will talk to the community and show what we have planned to put in it - UI engine, what we're providing - and then we can get feedback. So you could say, "This is not going to be enough, we need this," so we can get that feedback and get as close to what the community wants as possible.

Ragns (BG): When should we be expecting to see this?

SE: We could start now, but we're using SQWT and the situation is that it's such a mess that it's something that players would not be able to work well with. We want to streamline things to make it easy for players so we can get the best addons from the players. We feel that this is going to come with the release of 2.0. So we hope to have stuff ready about the same time.

Sonomaa (BG): I know he wants to work on his custom Final Fantasy I UI.

SE: [laughs] You'll have lots of time to use that screenshot we released and how you want to rearrange that to make it more like Final Fantasy I. With a lot of games, they'll have their addon community. Within BlueGartr, how many would you say are in that addon community.

Sonomaa (BG): A lot.

SE: A lot?

Sonomaa (BG): I'm not even joking. I'm not joking. You're talking the core hardcore player. The parsers for Final Fantasy XI were almost exclusively fixed by the BG community. The unofficial Windower for Final Fantasy XI... most of the addons - the fixing, the creation of that came from the Final Fantasy community, our community. Addons were created by many of our members, including BG members - not forum members.

SE: [laughs] Don't incriminate yourself now!

Sonomaa (BG): Well, Yarnball is the only plugin that has not broken, so I know he (Ragns) knows what he's doing.

SE: [more laughs] We'll make sure the mods you guys make will be able to be used for a long time. We don't want to make it where you make a mod, we change something, and you can't use it anymore. So we want to work with you.

Sonomaa (BG): World of Warcraft does that a lot - every major patch breaks half the addons. That, to me, is a... "Why are you screwing the community so much?" I can understand if something is broken and needs to be changed because it's breaking the fundamental game. But if every patch you have to disable all your addons, it doesn't seem professional. Even though the community may look like amateurs, they are pretty good at what they do.

SE: As you probably know, Japanese game development has been console based for a very long time. This whole concept of addons is very popular in the West, but not something a lot of developers are used to in Japan. They don't know how big of a community that is in America. So getting our developers to realize the importance of this, and not just tacking on something in the middle of a game after it is finished and having problems created that way, we're getting the game ready to accept addons.

I did not like this part at all! For one I am playing on PC, but I'll be ditching that for PS3 ver once it is out. I don't want PC players to have a greater advantage over me, but I would also just view these type of ADD-ONs such as in WoW as SE sanctioned cheating. If you cant learn to get a "feel" for things, then you probably should just not play rather than have the game play itself for you. I also dont want content to start to be designed around having to have these stupid things.

If SE is bound and determined to implement this, then I want Non-Addon or PS3 only servers to be implemented so I can purge myself of this filth.

[Eunys]

If SE is bound and determined to implement this, then I want Non-Addon or PS3 only servers to be implemented so I can purge myself of this filth.

Enjoy being the only person on such a server. As long as they don't allow automated addons it's fine. Big one I can remember from WoW that was over the top for an addon was Decursive where you could spam 1 button and instantly cure anything on any player, they eventually forced you to target/mouse over on raid frame players before letting such an addon to work. Addons if controlled what is allowed do not give any major advantage to a player that a so called paying attention to the game player couldn't have watching combat logs. UI addons/Inventory/Parse addons and such in no way give you an upper hand.

[Preypacer]

Seriously, you can't turn off the "we are God's gift to MMO players and you owe us everything" even for an interview?

The questions were good ones and the responses were interesting but the attitude was painful to read.

You think that's bad, you should check out some of the people in the Eve Online community. You'd think CCP was wrapped around their fingers with the attitude and demands some players put on them.

That said... Great interview overall..

Two concerns: I hope crafting isn't reduced to WoW levels (I cringed when the BG guy used WoW's system as a reference of "how it should be"). I agree it's far too tedious as it is now... but at the same time, clicking one button, watching a % bar climb to 100% and magically having a completed item at the end is rather lame. Worse still, being able to click "Make All", walk away, bio break, make a sandwich, come back and magically have your items crafted with ZERO interaction required at all is way too far the other way. It's barely even a "crafting system" at that point.

I'm glad they've at least noted there being more requirements for a higher chance at a HQ item. For sure someone will find a way to complain that that's "not fair" or "too much effort" as well.

My other concern is that they're real careful about what kind of power they give players via the add-on system. If they're using a Flash-Based system, then it's possible that SE can sorta "back-load" what functionality the players have access to, via use of drop-downs or pre-defined widgets of some sort. If that's the case, then there's no worry for abuse since access is limited. If it's wide-open, however.. I can only imagine what kind of shenanigans is going to be pulled by some players.

[Preypacer]

I did not like this part at all! For one I am playing on PC, but I'll be ditching that for PS3 ver once it is out. I don't want PC players to have a greater advantage over me, but I would also just view these type of ADD-ONs such as in WoW as SE sanctioned cheating. If you cant learn to get a "feel" for things, then you probably should just not play rather than have the game play itself for you. I also dont want content to start to be designed around having to have these stupid things.

If SE is bound and determined to implement this, then I want Non-Addon or PS3 only servers to be implemented so I can purge myself of this filth.

Actually it's usually that the players create the add-ons in order to get around the content.

Instead of having to pay attention to what the raid-boss is doing and react accordingly... Just let the add-on tell you what to do and when to do it! Instead of having to watch the HP bars of people in your group and knowing, from experience, when to heal... let the add-on tell you when to heal!

I always find it hilarious how many players who gloat about how "elite" they are and look down at "lesser players" rely so heavily on add-ons, walk-throughs and wiki guides to succeed. They're "elite players"... yet they need all these automated doo-dads and "color-by-number" walkthroughs to succeed.

The even greater irony is when they're scolding other players who don't require those things, telling them to "learn to play".

But anyway... We'll see how it all pans out with the add-ons I guess.

What would be nice to see is a restriction placed on creating add-ons that undermine high-end/raid-type content, or tougher missions... so players have no choice but to actuall win by playing and paying attention, rather than just pressing the right key when their add-on tells them to.

[JackDaniels]

I did not like this part at all! For one I am playing on PC, but I'll be ditching that for PS3 ver once it is out. I don't want PC players to have a greater advantage over me, but I would also just view these type of ADD-ONs such as in WoW as SE sanctioned cheating. If you cant learn to get a "feel" for things, then you probably should just not play rather than have the game play itself for you. I also dont want content to start to be designed around having to have these stupid things.

If SE is bound and determined to implement this, then I want Non-Addon or PS3 only servers to be implemented so I can purge myself of this filth.

It's either level the playing field for ps3 and pc players, or have people break the ToS by having illegal add-ons. I'm in favor for the option of not feeling dirty because I can see other people's TP.

[Jinko]

If SE is bound and determined to implement this, then I want Non-Addon or PS3 only servers to be implemented so I can purge myself of this filth.

Yoshi-p said he would implement addons into the UI of the PS3 version for things that become popular, at the end of the day you are choosing to pick up the PS3 version so you can't really complain about this.

Instead of having to watch the HP bars of people in your group and knowing, from experience, when to heal... let the add-on tell you when to heal!

Speaking from experience I see !!

Obviously not seeing as that is not the case.

[Clydey]

Seriously, you can't turn off the "we are God's gift to MMO players and you owe us everything" even for an interview?

The questions were good ones and the responses were interesting but the attitude was painful to read.

It is worth noting that the BG on Rabanstre is not affiliated with the bluegartr site owners.

[Vaer]

WoW crafting system is winning? Hell, i hope Yoshida dont turns this game into a WoW 2.0 because they think the BG ppl are talking for the majority....

Yes, the crafting in XIV is boring, but better than this worthless easy-prey crap from WoW.

Seems like they are shooting for a compromise. Maybe an FFXI-like system where it's a dice roll that is just a couple of seconds, or you can opt for a "longer" system like the one now but have a higher HQ chance.

The best crafting system would have to go to Vanguard IMHO.

[Blarp]

WoW crafting system is winning? Hell, i hope Yoshida dont turns this game into a WoW 2.0 because they think the BG ppl are talking for the majority....

Yes, the crafting in XIV is boring, but better than this worthless easy-prey crap from WoW.

I'd rather crafting be simple and quick than tedious. He mentioned that there would be a quick system in addition to the more complex one. Ranking up a craft is absolutely miserable IMO. If I'm watching a movie and pay more attention to that movie than the video game I'm playing, then whatever I'm doing in that game is poorly designed.