If I could interview Yoshida.

[Rutelor]

Thank you, RushDivine, for starting this thread and asking these questions. I hear my thoughts echoed in your writing. I'm not Yoshida, but allow me to add my comments to your 3rd query:

3. Many of the original players of XI hold the firm belief that at it's prime it was nothing short of a masterpiece; one worthy of a continuing legacy. What is your opinion of XI at it's prime in the CoP era, what lessons did it have to teach you personally about MMO design; are those lessons in any way influencing you as you develop XIV? More specifically, what did you learn from the mechanisms which fostered the rare community inside XI?

As I have written in another thread, Yoshida used to brag about the fact that he had never played FFXI. As though that were the mark of honor that had landed him the job. And this concerns me. Unless SE seeked to provide him, at great cost of resources and personnel, with an encapsulated repeat experience of what FFXI was at the height of the CoP era, I don't think that feel (and the community it fostered back then) can be comprehended. That game is gone, and so is the culture and the community it helped spawn.

One of the things that made me most optimistic about the original development team's chances, before I ever saw the game, was the fact that I knew Nobuaki Komoto was directing it. He had been the author of both Chains of Promathia and Treasures of Aht Urhgan. However, something seems to have happened, and I have much trouble imagining what. In any event, we all know how that turned out. The usual explanation the pro-FFXI side of the community repeats like a mantra is that "The Man", CEO Wada, hijacked the project and forced decisions on the Tanaka/Komoto team. But that explanation is just speculative, and has never been substantiated. It smacks of an anti-suit bias, and I don't quite see it reflected in the way things have subsequently played out.

I think the pro-FFXI side of the community let its wishful thinking deceive them. SE never had the intention of replicating FFXI, especially at the height of the post-CoP years. That's exactly the model they didn't want to follow. They first tried to lure the WoW crowd with a game designed by their very own MMO masters, who, in the company's eyes, probably more than deserved the try. Chaos ensued, and the company quickly replaced them with a Western MMO expert, who had never played FFXI. We, the FFXI faithful, forget that we weren't the only ones complaining when the game launched. And when the re-structuring came, we thought our cries were being heard. Now, post Jump announcement, and post Gobbue mount, and just as they have told us that a wide array of "standard MMO features" will be considered (from practice dummies to more instanced dungeons) I'm starting to realize that our cries (yours and mine) for depth, complexity, challenge and for that hallowed atmosphere we so learnt to love in Tavnazia, our hopes for that world with its masterful mixture of instanced content and competition, were not the ones the company was willing to listen to.

Yoshida seems to be an admirable manager, and a daring and clear-eyed visionary. He knows how to entrance the community, how to make it feel it's being heard, and he certainly knows how to deliver what he offers. It's only that I just started realizing that his vision of the game is not the one I had wished for, and neither is the Company's. They seem to want a diluted, easy-to-sell product.

R

[Mahayana]

Didn't TERA bomb horribly in Korea?

I mean, it bombed in Korea, where bot-fests like Lineage and Aion thrived. Hell, MMO grinding is practically their national sport. And TERA bombed there. Does that not worry you, slightly?

First off I find that funny that this question is posted in the FFXIV forum... you know, the game that TANKED harder that any MMO I've ever seen?

And I'll answer your concerns.

In Korea, the game was rushed so the content was lacking (That was one year ago though). Then the restless foreigners cracked into the game by stealing Korean Social IDs which I could see would piss a few people off.

Japan had server issues and charged a deathblow ~2700 Yen (35$) a month subscription. In the US it should be around 15$.

I have no worries about Tera. I do worry about others though.

For example, I'm laughing my ass off at SWTOR Ilum crisis and the FFXIV goobbue mount, AKA Operation: Facepalm.

[Mireille]

Nobody wants an XI-HD. Thats not what we're talking about. I just recently said this same thing in another thread...

-Horizontal progression gives lasting value to end-game acquired items.
-Slow leveling gives value to items ranged 1 to Cap, and the level capped content that rewards them.
-Both of these keep you in the game longer.

I have to admit I loved XI best with several 75s, and pre abyssea. The cap increase ruined all my favorite events.