Are the developers of XIV out of touch?

[Asiragan]

I wish they answered more precisely our questions, because most of them are a must in-game, and not just a simple suggestion. Eg: "For a character customization revamp, we would need to hire more X developers, and that would delay the current patch releases by X months in order to fit the budget".

The questions asked from the forum are most likely given by the CM some hours before the LL, and analyzed by the marketing team, an all powerful being at S.E. it seems. So, even if Yoshida wanted it, I doubt he could say whatever he wanted at an important event like the E3, where all the camera in the world are filming.


You could ask on the forum "Hey Yoshida, why did your game became so bland?" or "We are tired of this patch cycle, any plan to change that during 5.0?" and get 1K likes for each, those questions are most likely to either be ignored, or answered with a joke or a "If you are bored, go play something else" type of answer. Mostly because it would show at the E3 that players are unhappy with the state of the game or that the game itself is stale. And they can't afford it during such a media event.

It feels like FFXIV is a weak and poor MMO that can't make any significant budget for self improving, just the safe content.

This is what strike me the most with this game. Everything seems to stink poverty and it looks like there is so much restrictions that it's a wonder how the game is working right now.
But it seems the game is fine when they want to put useless feature like taking videos and stocking them on the servers so that you can review them from the inn...

[TaranTatsuuchi]

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 don't need more character creation options or a new race right this mcfreakin' instant--I haven't used a fantasia in like two years. But the longer we go without any new options, the more and more obvious it becomes that the game isn't getting the investment and quality of life updates that it needs to remain competitive in the long-term. It's not just character customization options that are suffering. Many requests now are being met with this kind of "We don't have the resources to do that now" response.

The game is okay for the moment. But three years from now, four years from now, will we players really still be expected to be content with four face options, copy-and-paste races, an untenable housing design, subpar glamour and inventory options, recolored gear, below average queuing and cross-server interaction design, bare minimum dungeon content per patch, the same recycled tomestone treadmill? At this point, that's what it feels like. Watching these live letters, reading the community rep responses, I no longer get any sense that the developers intend to sustain this game at any real level above merely operational. There is no sense of "Here is how we are going to continue improving in the future."

The more information I see, the more the words "holding pattern" come to mind...

All these excuses of 'limitations' come to mind...

Inventory; they ran into a block of some sort where they couldn't put more regular inventory, thus made chocobo saddlebags...

Account Items; Apparently they are running short of available keys to use to tie account items to mogstation purchases...

Among other limitations excuses...




I'm of the opinion that they're just going to have to fix their backend at some point...

[Rubiss]

I would question the QA of this game more than anything. Test servers seem non-existent and they constantly release updates that just seem like they were the first iteration (4.0 Scholar didn't even make sense). This game has like none of the money it generates put back in.

[Imakun]

I think they put so much effort into saving the game (and the franchise) that they kind of got stuck into that mentality. Be it willingly or forced by SE to "stay on the safe side", this attitude and mindset cannot work in the long run.

XIV wasn't released last year, the game is FIVE years old.

We have had 2 expansions and really basic elements of modern MMORPGs come up as "difficult to implement", "restricted by limitations" or flat out being dismissed. At the same time, we see the dev team waste resources and time on frivolous things while ignoring basic requests like diversification of jobs and roles, combat mechanics, updates to the engine so it can support better textures and AA, and so on.
They wait for an expansion release to drop significant updates for core elements: why? I'm sure it takes time but things like this need to be prioritized. The ridiculous restrictions put on players by capping stuff is really out of place as well.

I love XIV and what they've done with it considering its beginning, but this isn't 2013 anymore. Move forward, take risks, change.

I honestly believe they're already working on the next FF MMO at this point.

[Tiaque]

I honestly believe they're already working on the next FF MMO at this point.

Your not far off, but remember, they have 3 mmos in circulation right now. FFXI, FFXIV, and the one they wont release to us yet.....likely wont ever but never know depends on how well sales are, and that is Dragon Quest X, which has far more players Japanese players on it than FFXIV does. DQX is still hostage and the sales of the upcoming DQXI and DQB2 will determine if it comes west.

[Cirgellon]

It sounds more like the OP just didn't get the one thing they want, and call them out of touch because they don't satisfy a single persons request. That's kind of a silly attitude...

I play a lot, and I don't care at all about how my characters look. I don't know who you are speaking for in the OP.

Extra character creation options would not have kept your frineds playing a few thousand more hours. People jump between games, period. The game can be perfecf, and many people will still leave it as new games come out, or life takes over. Also, you are never going to get enough content to constantly have new things to do. It takes years to develop normal games, which give you 8-40 hours of play. You are spending hundreds/thousands of hours in this game and giving them little time to develop stuff. That's why MMOs focus on grinding.

[silverlunarfox]

I'm more upset the same questions are asked every single time, when we all know what the answers will be.

I think Q&A's would be more productive for all parties if other questions would be asked other than the usual.

[Squintina]

I'm more upset the same questions are asked every single time, when we all know what the answers will be.

I think Q&A's would be more productive for all parties if other questions would be asked other than the usual.

There were over 30 pages worth of questions. The first 20 pages are mostly non-repeated (people did a decent job of checking to see if someone else submitted it) and there were many new questions. I myself had about 10 questions (beast tribe, character config, command mission, leves as gil sink, and others). I urge you to check out the thread and see that the community did come up with a variety of unique questions - and yes a lot of them are just as highly rated, or close enough, as the ones that were picked.

If it's the same questions, it's because SE chose to do that. They could have filtered out the ones asked before, or the ones they didn't like. My guess is that they wanted to give more definitive answers once and for all, as those "same questions" got the most definitive answers we ever got (such as Ishgard housing not getting a "we'll see", but getting a "if we add more housing, it'll be Ishgard"), in the hopes that the next LL - especially the fanfest ones - will not have them asked again. Or maybe they chose them because they didn't want to reveal too much of anything new - once again to save more for fanfest in November - and having a PLL during E3 was just a PR stunt for the new merch.

[silverlunarfox]

There were over 30 pages worth of questions. The first 20 pages are mostly non-repeated (people did a decent job of checking to see if someone else submitted it) and there were many new questions. I myself had about 10 questions (beast tribe, character config, command mission, leves as gil sink, and others). I urge you to check out the thread and see that the community did come up with a variety of unique questions - and yes a lot of them are just as highly rated, or close enough, as the ones that were picked.

Oh I know, I saw the thread. I just wish they'd go through and actually ask some of the more uncommon questions...

I get its easier to ask certain questions for the sake of easy answers, but it leaves a lot to be desired when at least I for one, am sick of seeing the same questions presented often in the forums that we all know the answers too whether we like the answers or not. But alas, it is also from the forums that they get these questions, so I suppose I should just always expect it. But then, even i felt for yoshi getting those questions, again....his facepalms were glorious.

But again this is just my opinion of the matter.