Are the developers of XIV out of touch?

[Remedi]

By BC, they were already experiencing 8+ months of content gaps after the last raid before the next expansion would launch (Sunwell launched in March 08, Wrath wouldn't launch until Nov 08), while adding less dungeons during each expansion than XIV is currently on track to add even with the scaled back 2-1-2-1 pattern (assuming 5 major patches like before, we are still on track to add more in one expansion than Blizzard has ever managed with any of WoW's patches).

You're right, they weren't at the the content decline point we are currently at - they were already below it.

There was a huge content gap between black temple and sunwell too, Zul'aman was the only thing in between, but if you cleared Black temple.....ehhhh.......Happy Bear mount? I guess? I mean it was a very good dungeon, but you cared about 25 man prog you had a long wait

[Enla]

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To be fair on that end, you really can't blame anyone else but SE for putting themselves in that situation though. Part of the reason they were in financial difficulties was because of project mismanagement and the sheer bloat they forced into their games that made them almost impossible to recoup costs on. There is a reason the first Tomb Raider reboot was considered a financial bomb in spite of the fact that it sold /very/ well by industry standards. (4 million copies as of the time they released the statement that it didn't meet sales expectations, which were nothing to sneeze at, at the time) That's not even getting into FFXV's hardships that would have ended the franchise, and the money lost after years of work were scrapped, or their justification for putting out Hitman so piecemeal. Their games have always been well received with a few exceptions. They just have a bad habit of throwing too much money at them whilst bungling the development in the process.

[Elamys]

To be fair, Square Enix was in a very bad spot financially prior to ARR. They've had ~4 years of success with this game, but that doesn't mean they're suddenly going to start tossing crazy money at every project or game.

I don't think anyone's asking them to "toss crazy money" at FFXIV but from the way they talk in response to some of the questions, you'd think this game made like $100 a year. This MMO struggles to do basic things any other MMO on the market can do with ease.

They're certainly not struggling now, though. If you're interested in digging into the numbers a little, here's their recent earnings report. http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ne...q4earnings.pdf

There's also this article from last year: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sq.../1100-6454795/

The publisher also called out Final Fantasy XIV as a top performer during the period, with the new expansion, Stormblood, helping to boost subscribers and revenue.

In short, for that year at least, FFXIV was a major income generator for SE but seems to be floundering in being adequately funded. Like Enla said they seem to struggle with balancing the quality of their content vs. the pocketbook.

[Maeka]

Uh, excuse me, I *LIKE* that Motorcycle, because as you said.....

You spend most of your time getting gear for your character. Changing how they look to suit your tastes.

Welp, I do that too, I make my character look like how I want her.



And to complete the look, I need that bike.

And you say "immersion breaking"... because, you know, in a world with helicopter armor and airships without propellers, having a motorcycle is just SO immersion breaking, right? I can hop on a suit of magitek armor that can fly, but a motorbike is just too much. Okaaay.

[Elamys]

Uh, excuse me, I *LIKE* that Motorcycle, because as you said.....



Welp, I do that too, I make my character look like how I want her.



And to complete the look, I need that bike.

And you say "immersion breaking"... because, you know, in a world with helicopter armor and airships without propellers, having a motorcycle is just SO immersion breaking, right? I can hop on a suit of magitek armor that can fly, but a motorbike is just too much. Okaaay.

Yeah, that complaint I don't get. It doesn't seem too out of reach to assume the Allagan Empire invented motorcycles at some point.

[Penthea]

Yeah, that complaint I don't get. It doesn't seem too out of reach to assume the Allagan Empire invented motorcycles at some point.

They probably even had hoverboards.

[Enla]

They probably even had hoverboards.

Plus FF14 has such a weird mix of modern, fantasy, scifi, aesthetics that a motorcycle isn't at all out of place.

[Maeka]

Plus FF14 has such a weird mix of modern, fantasy, scifi, aesthetics that a motorcycle isn't at all out of place.

The Omega facility in Aysz Lla or however you spell it had freaking holographic computer displays, and a giant flatscreen monitor built into the wall that's better than the stuff we have IRL!

Motorcycles were invented in the 1900s and they didn't have computers back then.

They got machineguns (last boss of Doma Castle has one), cannons, chainsaws, missiles, grenades and freaking VTOL jet aircraft (in Meridianum for example).... but a motorbike? Nope, we can't have any of THOSE around!

[Penthea]

The Omega facility in Aysz Lla or however you spell it had freaking holographic computer displays, and a giant flatscreen monitor built into the wall that's better than the stuff we have IRL!

Motorcycles were invented in the 1900s and they didn't have computers back then.

They got machineguns (last boss of Doma Castle has one), cannons, chainsaws, missiles, grenades and freaking VTOL jet aircraft.... but a motorbike? Nope, we can't have any of THOSE around!

Not even that...the garleans have gigantic airships and nobody complains about that, but something as technologically inferior as a bicycle with a motor is somehow immersion breaking? Please xD

[GrumbleBeard]

I typed it only semi seriously. Not a fan of ff7, but I don't mind either way. We have things like the yokai mount. Didn't think anyone would take the comment seriously, let alone so many lol. Still doesn't really make sense when half the world must resort to big birds.