Are the developers of XIV out of touch?

[Vhailor]

I see where you're coming from, and I agree that some attempts to plug up the bleeding wounds are better than no attempts at all, but at some point I feel like I really just have to ask myself: "How long am I okay with things that are 'not satisfactory'?"

As you, me, and others have said, the seeming inattention to the long-term feels very real. The complete lack of transparency on whether anything significant is being done to address the game's severe server and code problems is worrisome because it implies an across-the-board lack of room to innovate, expand, and surprise. Character customization, housing, and gear cannot be the only things suffering from these oh-so-often cited limitations--not now and definitely not two expansions from now.

I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Probably the example I find most illustrative is Glamours. The system in FFXI arguably works better than the one in FFXIV, without any of the gear restrictions, Prism costs, etc. This, despite work beginning on FFXI roughly two decades ago, at a time when nobody was thinking about Glamouring in an MMO. That's astonishing, and it makes it very difficult to see FFXIV go years and years without a fully functional system itself.

It's quite possible there are good reasons for all of these things. Maybe SE is sinking the money into a big back-end adjustment to align with the next expansion. Maybe they're making efforts with an eye toward features that no other MMO is offering, and it's taking them longer than adjustments that would allow FFXIV to merely keep pace. I don't know - because there's no transparency. All we hear is that there are limitations here, limitations there, and yet... other MMOs, including XIV's predecessor, somehow solve the problems. It's hard to stomach.

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As to the original topic, I would say that SE seems less out of touch, and more like they're actively and intentionally ignoring us. I get the distinct impression that SE's 'limitations' excuses arise from a lack of motivation more than a lack of capability (though it's entirely possible it's both). I think they're quite content with their position in the MMO market, milking the FF franchise name to a second-place finish with a simple, predictable, easily-maintained F2P-style experience.

[Alleo]

My concern with these constant "That would be a major change so we don't have plans to do that right now" are less the immediate impacts and more the long-term implications...

I just kinda wonder how long in the future they are talking about? They seemingly dont have plans for 5.0 and I cant see that they would work at this between expansion thus earliest would be 6.0...which is at least another 2-3 years (or more) And then its the question of how long they are planning to support the game. So what if they are planning to have 7 expansion thus suddenly more options would not be necessary in their view because there is only one expansion left..I mean ARR was started nearly 5 years ago. How long do we have to wait? 10 years?

Also wouldnt that answer also mean that we wont ever see a new race? Because they also would increase the amounts of possible choices..

Edit: wrong release year

[Corue]

This more or less summed up the QA.

[Stormfur]

I ask four questions with 25+ likes to each one...but none get answered. And it's not like I'm asking for Viera butt sliders or minion catalogs or Ishgard housing or any of the things that have been asked 1,000 times over. Poor YoshiP looked so tired... and I'm sure part of that is jet lag but he just seemed...I don't know, aggravated by the questions. I understand the community team has to tread carefully because they don't want to reveal things ahead of time, or slip up...but when only "safe", fluffy questions get asked, it feels like the OP said, that the devs are not engaged with what the playerbase really wants, even though I'm sure that's not the case.

[Squintina]

I ask four questions with 25+ likes to each one...but none get answered. And it's not like I'm asking for Viera butt sliders or minion catalogs or Ishgard housing or any of the things that have been asked 1,000 times over. Poor YoshiP looked so tired... and I'm sure part of that is jet lag but he just seemed...I don't know, aggravated by the questions. I understand the community team has to tread carefully because they don't want to reveal things ahead of time, or slip up...but when only "safe", fluffy questions get asked, it feels like the OP said, that the devs are not engaged with what the playerbase really wants, even though I'm sure that's not the case.

It's too bad, I really wanted to know the answers to all of yours (I just looked them up) - you'll just have to list them again for next time!

Though..just because they weren't asked in the PLL, doesn't mean they weren't passed on to the dev team for consideration. I always ask a ton of questions on the off chance they pass it on anyway. Keep at it and someday it might get answered (either as a question, or as them actually announcing that they're doing it)

[Stormfur]

It's too bad, I really wanted to know the answers to all of yours (I just looked them up) - you'll just have to list them again for next time!

Though..just because they weren't asked in the PLL, doesn't mean they weren't passed on to the dev team for consideration. I always ask a ton of questions on the off chance they pass it on anyway. Keep at it and someday it might get answered (either as a question, or as them actually announcing that they're doing it)

Why thank you! Yes, I'll continue to ask these things in the hope that they may eventually get an answer.

[Melichoir]

Personally its

Story>GamePlay>Content>everything else. And Character customization falls into everything else. Its not a big deal for me. Not that I dont want or am opposed to more options for character stuff, but when they say things like "Were limited by a graphics engine" and the like, theyre not giving you bullshit excuses. Adding customization options to the body, face, shading, etc can break a lot of things, or cause a wierd graphical problems or clipping. You cant just tack crap onto the engine and not care what happens. Animations can get warped, Armors may clip weirdly, Lighting may get screwed up, cutscenes may get janked up cause of where the camera may have to track, etc. Theres a lot of things they have to consider and check for when doing those kinds of changes. The customization for characters in this game ISNT bad. Its fairly decent for what you can do. Its not perfect, but its not a terrible dumpster fire.


If theyre going to update the engine and what not, thatll happen MOST LIKELY with an xpac, and one thats probably down the road and not the next one. Updates like those are big, expensive, and time consuming. So youre going to have to just kinda be aiite with what you have now.

[GrumbleBeard]

So youre going to have to just kinda be aiite with what you have now.

You can post the list of priorities, but they are all suffering. It's not like character options are being cut so they can do more with other content because those are also dwindling. People have been aaite with what we have for years, but you can't wait forever.

[Melichoir]

You can post the list of priorities, but they are all suffering. It's not like character options are being cut so they can do more with other content because those are also dwindling. People have been aaite with what we have for years, but you can't wait forever.

Im fine with Story, Gameplay, and Content currently. I dont feel theyre 'suffering'. Are tehy a perfect dream? No. Is the game in teh crapper where the Devs are super out of touch and all these things suck? No, not in my opinion. If you think thats the case, then unsub. If you feel therye not listening, then whyre you giving them your money. Invest it in a game that gives you what you want. But for me, this is fine. I enjoy what I pay for, and I dont have any huge beef with whats in ffxiv.

If they add new stuff, Groovy. Im down for that. If they take away stuff, or I feel the quality is lacking, bummer. Ill just unsub and play another game. Devs know this. So I hardly believe theyre "Out of Touch." Chances are theyre servicing communities that are more likely to play the game, and you might just be an outlier.

[sarehptar]

Just coming back in to note that I find Yoshida being exasperated by the repetitive questions very ironic, considering he's been feeding us the same patch content structure on repeat for at least four years.