Mark of Tanaka

[Mireille]

not because he's better or worse than Yoshida, but because it would hurt Yoshida's credibility.

Agreed Yoshi-P doesn't deserve any sort of discredit for the fine job he has done so far.

the game never was finished because Yoshida took over before the "retail patch" that was meant to complete FFXIV for release was live...

What retail patch was that? When the game went live I never saw any official mention of a patch that was supposed to finish the game. All I was able to find were references to some game changes planned for winter right after the launch. I had heard a rumor that there were a lot of quests that were supposed to be released with the production launch, but the rumor didn't pan out. I have no idea if that rumor was based on statements from anyone at SE.

Just look at Abyssea...it's what happens when a director actually does not fully understand the concepts or share the view of the former director.

Personally I didn't like abyssea, but I have to admit it did have a lot of good ideas. It also opened up the game for a great many people who played but felt shut out of gear drops from endgame events that took far too much of a time commitment.

Errr all tanaka can ever create is mobs with overpowered AoE and crap drop rates. Let's leave him out of this game as much as possible.

FF XI was a great game and was very addictive, so I don't think its fair to say that of Tanaka. The only thing I can think that was wrong with XI when I started was the rmt, and they were as much a problem as they were because the game was so good they got a lot of business from it.

[Scherwiz]

Errr all tanaka can ever create is mobs with overpowered AoE and crap drop rates. Let's leave him out of this game as much as possible.

You sir have brought the borderline idiotic and moronic back to this conversation, thank you.

[Betelgeuzah]

This thread is like Americans blaming Obama for the pathetic state of their country. They don't know any better but somebody must be found to take the blame nonetheless.

At least it is a real person and not The Devil or something. Still as accurate though.

[Jynx]

This thread is like Americans blaming Obama for the pathetic state of their country. They don't know any better but somebody must be found to take the blame nonetheless.

At least it is a real person and not The Devil or something. Still as accurate though.

It's well known that Tanaka pretty much "Fell on his sword" for SE. Not only did disgruntled players need a target for their hate that was not Square Enix as a whole, so did investors and whatnot.

By laying the blame on a replaceable part of the process (A single man) It's far easier to assure consumers and stockholders that you have everything under control. While Tanaka may have had final say on many things we would scoff at today, he also probably still has many systems in place now and in the future players will enjoy without knowing it was at the end of the day his doing.

Yoshida as a shining new star gives everyone something to look forward to watching grow. We have seen Yoshida taking his first baby-steps in his new roll and even now we are starting to see him grow comfortable in his position and being far less timid in his statements. To think Tanaka has been locked out of the FFXIV development offices is silly, but many people will continue to think he was locked in a small cell for his misdeeds to all MMO-kind.

It will continue until SE needs someone to swoop in and either save a project or come out of left field with something "Edgy". That's probably SE's line of thinking on this issue.

[Lucifer]

This thread is like Americans blaming Obama for the pathetic state of their country. They don't know any better but somebody must be found to take the blame nonetheless.

At least it is a real person and not The Devil or something. Still as accurate though.

I'm very real.

[Betelgeuzah]

Tanaka still has a role in XIV's development. He is in the credits with a position in handling Business relations or something like that.

Producer's job is to handle budget and maintain schedule. Unless his position significantly differs from that of most people under the title of Producer in Japanese game development, he has had no part in the actual game design of neither XI or XIV.

[Kiote]

Tanaka still has a role in XIV's development. He is in the credits with a position in handling Business relations or something like that.

Producer's job is to handle budget and maintain schedule. Unless his position significantly differs from that of most people under the title of Producer in Japanese game development, he has had no part in the actual game design of neither XI or XIV.

Producers actually decide what will be aloud to go into the game. Designers can pitch anything they want, but it is the producer who decides if it merits a place in the game and how much emphasis will be put on it. It is a very significant role that has a Huge impact on the development of a game.

People often make the mistake of believing the "Director" is like a movie director and calls all the shots, but in the Gaming Industry, the Producer calls the shots in the games direction and Directors do the paperwork and schmooze with the suits. Any given game will have Three or Four, sometimes more, Directors(Design, QA, Marketing, etc.).

Director is the higher Ranked Position, but they have less front line impact on the games development.

[Betelgeuzah]

Producers actually decide what will be aloud to go into the game. Designers can pitch anything they want, but it is the producer who decides if it merits a place in the game and how much emphasis will be put on it. It is a very significant role that has a Huge impact on the development of a game.

Director is the higher Ranked Position, but they have less front line impact on the games development.

Producers control the game, as in they are the ones who make sure that the upper management's demands are met. They aren't actively developing the game, but they do consult with the directors to ensure that the intended aspects are handled in a timely and accurate manner.

So while the producer is the boss of the game, the director(s) control the actual staff. That said it is unfortunate that the game's previous director openly admitted that he was not capable of performing as a director and preferred to solve game design problems rather than to lead the workforce. In XI the only issue is the lack of allocated money to the project. Either way- if the directors who consult the producer state that a Marketward system is a good thing and that the UI should be serverside and if the upper management's demands are met with those design decisions, the producer's job is done.

If the director is too busy playing with legos and the designers are incompetent enough to come up with design that they can't keep under control it is a much bigger problem. Tanaka got the boot, but so did the project management as a whole pretty much, with Tanaka singlehandedly taking the blame. XI has a much more balanced team, if not as competent as people would like, Tanaka is just a chest piece in the equation ensuring that Wada is happy and that the product is out on time. Whatever design the directors and designers come up with is their responsibility. Tanaka can't be everywhere. He doesn't decide what means the designers use to lengthen the content with the resources available. He simply gives them the resources to work with, and makes sure that something comes out of it.

[Altanas]

Perhaps if the moogle pre requisites were expressed in a more positive way they would be acceptable. Such as, defeating each NM adds a percentage increase to drop rate to weapons or guarantees for each player 1 nut per NM killed in the pre requisite.

This is similar to surplus xp that was expressed in a negative fashion, and accumulated surplus xp should have given a bonus (but the bonus was never decided or implemented, and the whole system was removed in the end).

I am sure the dev's are stumped at the moment. The pre-requisites are no different than say Sky, Sea, ZNMs from 11 for example (farming something before an actual boss fight). If we start removing the pre-requisites we will never have content like that which people ask for. Another way which could have been more acceptable was have the moogle battlefield a larger instance in itself with all the NMs inside the BC, you can fight them or ignore them and go straight for the moogles in a clearing or something - people would then be applauding SE for complex BCs I'm sure. Lose lose situation x.x

[Mireille]

Perhaps if the moogle pre requisites were expressed in a more positive way they would be acceptable. Such as, defeating each NM adds a percentage increase to drop rate to weapons or guarantees for each player 1 nut per NM killed in the pre requisite.

They did. Kill the 5 NMs and you have a chance at a drop. If you are just helping your ls you don't have to kill the NMs. I think you may be on the right track with the idea that 1 NM might give you a 1% chance, and all 5 might give you a 5% chance. It then makes sense for each subsequent fight to grow harder in order to get that next 1%.

I am sure the dev's are stumped at the moment. The pre-requisites are no different than say Sky, Sea, ZNMs from 11 for example (farming something before an actual boss fight).

In sky and Sea you usually could find places to fight where agro wasn't an issue, and if you did get agro the link was something that an outside party could kill for you while the alliance was focused on the NM. The problem here is you can be instantly wiped by an EP mob that walks up behind you when the NM is 10%. They could have done it better by moving the Morbol and the Spriggan to a place more like the tree, monkey, or pig. Those were manageable fights, and the walk really is no different than sky events where you sneak through the shrine, or run on the edge of the path and not near the blue platforms. Someone always forgot, but they could run though a nearby door and zone, or you just raise them and move on. If you had to fight Faust in the corridor surrounded by magic agro and got wiped every time the whm cast cure on the tank people would have raised hell about it.

By laying the blame on a replaceable part of the process (A single man) It's far easier to assure consumers and stockholders that you have everything under control.

It's normal for a manager to take the blame for the rank and file employees mistakes. The rank and file can't make decisions on behalf of the company, and work under supervision that is supposed to prevent their mistakes from harming the company. When that fails the failure really does reflect a problem at a higher level, and that's what a board wants to see dealt with. Managers can be let go with a severance, and businesses will sometimes help the manager find a better job elsewhere which keeps it amicable and that benefits the business more than a messy breakup. This is just a talking point, and I'm in no way trying to say that's what SE did here.