If I could interview Yoshida.

[Sephrick]

Mr. Yoshida, I would like to get some straight answers from you regarding the motivations and reasoning behind the direction XIV appears to be going in.

1. Why was XIV so closely modeled after XI in virtually every aspect except play style? What was the reasoning behind the shift from a game model that was clearly very successful in XI. Why isn't the CoP era of XI the new XIV bible? It appears to me that there is still a struggle going on to try and compromise between what XI was and what XIV should be.

2. When you introduce new content into the game such as the very controversial Goobbue mounts, what considerations are given to the games overall tone, theme and direction -- more to the point, is it intentional, are you using specific kinds of content to appeal to a certain demographic? As many people have commented: if you don't like a game item, you don't have to use it. Which is very true but it's not the heart of the issue for many of us. We want there to be consistency within our fantasy world, when you start introducing items that push the fantasy beyond a certain point it starts to verge on absurd and phony which diminishes the overall immersion for some players.

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?

4. I would prefer a straight answer to this question Mr. Yoshida. Even a yes or no response would be acceptable. Will XIV ever be what XI was during the CoP era? I see myself playing on a Mithra, I see that there is Sandy, Bastok, and Windy; even Linkshells... It's all so familiar until I begin to move. Can I eventually expect to find the home I left in XI or not?

Thank you for your time Mr. Yoshida.

1) Tanaka commented on this. It was to allow players of XI who were attached to their characters a chance to create an avatar similar to the one on which they spent so many years.

2) Get over it. The whole thing is blown out of proportion. It's just a fun little gift.

3) It was as much a masterpiece as are the crayon-covered sheets of paper on the refrigerators of parents the world over. XI was a decent game in which I personally invested a lot of time but it was far from the shining example of what a game should be that people make it out to be.

4) What parts of CoP do you want, exactly? If you mean the phenomenal story line, I'm there with you.

But if you're talking about things like a frustratingly long grind for non-flavor-of-the-month jobs, arbitrary fetch missions that require exorbant amounts of time to essentially just clear a hurdle, RMT-dominated economy, the absolute need for at least five other players willing to sacrifice their time to do anything of value and the absurd amount of time spent watching a Moogle spin because a healer and/or tank just wouldn't give your group the time of day because there was no refresher/SATA/Sam army, etc. etc. etc. then no thank you.