So we don't have enough devs

[Archaell]

The common notion in the community is that we lack the manpower to get more content, features, unique gear etc. per a patch and then the content gets also released half-baked with some promised adjustments in the future...

I have been wondering about one thing. Why can't we increase the number of developers then?

My assumption is that we lack funding to hire more staff.

So here is the question:

Would you mind paying let's say 1 additional dollar/euro etc. per month if the money was only used to pay for additional developers/designers working on and only on FFXIV?

[kaptainpancake69]

There is definitelty a lack of asset creators. Textures, models, animations etc.

[raelgun]

snip

A large part of the issue also stands with developer allocation, they have added more vanity and fluff features in this expansion compared to 2.0 and it shows, 2.0 had more complete content released at the expense of vanity. The game doesn't need more hairstyles or costumes, it needs more interactive complete content, before people ask its different staff, the programmers and animators will do it both for vanity and combat content.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

A large part of the issue also stands with developer allocation, they have added more vanity and fluff features in this expansion compared to 2.0 and it shows, 2.0 had more complete content released at the expense of vanity. The game doesn't need more hairstyles or costumes, it needs more interactive complete content, before people ask its different staff, the programmers and animators will do it both for vanity and combat content.

No, they actually will not. Making vanity stuff and combat animations are vastly different fields that have substantially different requirements. You cannot just shuffle someone who does hair design into combat and interactive content. There is a reason Yoshi is expressly asking for two experienced staff specifically for raid oriented development. The reason we see a lot of vanity additions beyond people liking it, is the people designing that would literally have nothing else to do.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Its not a question of how much revenue FF14 generates. Its a question of how they allocate that revenue.

I suspect that a significant chunk of the revenue goes towards their "general funds" rather than "FF14 operating funds" or "FF14 development funds" ... and from "general funds" goes to FF15 or some other game that SE is developing. An increase in FF14 revenue is likely to largely go towards "general funds" rather than "FF14 development funds".

[Remus]

From what I remember from a Interview Yoshi-p didn't say they don't have the funds to hire someone. The problem was that they need 2 skilled developers who can speak japanese to do battle content and it seems finding 2 skilled developers have proven difficult. They don't want to train someone from the ground up because that could impact the schedule for releasing content..

[Archaell]

Its not a question of how much revenue FF14 generates. Its a question of how they allocate that revenue.

Of course I am also worried that the gil would be bleeding into other projects. That's why I am talking about the situation when the additional money would be paid under the promise of being used for FFXIV and nothing else.

From what I remember from a Interview Yoshi-p didn't say they don't have the funds to hire someone. The problem was that they need 2 skilled developers who can speak japanese to do battle content and it seems finding 2 skilled developers have proven difficult. They don't want to train someone from the ground up because that could impact of the schedule of the release of content.

Good point. In the longer run it would be better to train more people tho rather than keeping the team undersized forever. Also they could hire a translator or something and get foreign developers on the project with more funds at hand.

[Zafrei]

From what I remember from a Interview Yoshi-p didn't say they don't have the funds to hire someone. The problem was that they need 2 skilled developers who can speak japanese to do battle content and it seems finding 2 skilled developers have proven difficult. They don't want to train someone from the ground up because that could impact of the schedule of the release of content.

Exactly this, Yoshi has hinted heavily in the past that the only thing holding back recruitment is a lack of skilled candidates, not funds.

[Catwho]

From what I remember from a Interview Yoshi-p didn't say they don't have the funds to hire someone. The problem was that they need 2 skilled developers who can speak japanese to do battle content and it seems finding 2 skilled developers have proven difficult. They don't want to train someone from the ground up because that could impact the schedule for releasing content..

For those who don't work in software development, there's a famous axim called Brooke's Law: "The more manpower you add to a late software project, the later it becomes."

When you add new developers to a software team, you're not going to get anything near the high output out of them that you would from your other devs. My office recently added new folks - it takes about six months for them to be allowed to tackle tough projects without supervision. (As an analyst and designer, I was able to hit the ground running and start cranking out software specifications within a month.)