Are the developers of XIV out of touch?

[DarkDedede]

They had to repeat the most boring fc ability imaginable, airship runs, with sub runs. They jsut keep wasting time on minor things.

I wouldn't mind airship ventures if the system produced some actual useful goods, with a constant enough demand. Apart from the "rare" materials, the more common materials are produced in such abundance that it far exceeds the demand for any of it. The market ends up being oversaturated with loads of materials that no one is buying, because no one needs any of it. Of course that doesn't stop the airship venture system from producing more and more useless market fodder anyways.

If some one told me that that an actual human being was had the actual responsibility of overseeing this game's economy, I would be shocked. There have been so many instances where some new update or addition has completely ruined some portion of the market, I find it hard to imagine anyone is paying attention.

[Shurrikhan]

Duty Recorder was a complete waste of dev resources. It demonstrated a clear lack of perspective from the devs. Normal players aren't going to use it because they don't care nor do they do content where accountability/performance is important. Savage players can already accomplish the same thing live via FFLogs or Twitch without having to go through a bunch of stupid hoops and limitations.

This. It ended up another in an ever-growing list of resource wasted either by fundamental non-necessity or because it lacks the design quality enough to be sufficiently convenient. Compare it to SC2 replays, for instance. XIV's is largely useless apart from minor RP value. SC2's is disgustingly useful to virtually every skill and interest level. XIV's is inconvenient. SC2's is a simple button in a score screen that you were already looking at, and, once saved, viewable at any time from anywhere.

For those who haven't cared enough even to try out said Duty Recorder, the list I'm referring to is what would include things like the Glamour Dresser (used begrudgingly), most of the Mentor System (used primarily for intentions divergent from design), and many a Golden Saucer game...

[KisaiTenshi]

I wouldn't mind airship ventures if the system produced some actual useful goods...

I don't like these kinds of features because they're not gameplay, they're RNG, and they're the kind of cruft found in mobile games to make up for lack of development skill. There are tonnes of mobile shovelware out there that has less gameplay than games from 1988. Since the mobile space is basically designed around freemium "trade time for money" cash grabs, there is a reason why these kinds of things are fundamentally rubbish.

If I select a retainer venture, airship venture, squadron mission, etc. I expect to be able to play something, not come back in 18 hours to see if I win the RNG lotto. I would not be surprised if these mini-non-games in the CN/KR version cost money to trade off time, and exist because of that market.

This. It ended up another in an ever-growing list of resource wasted either by fundamental non-necessity or because it lacks the design quality enough to be sufficiently convenient. Compare it to SC2 replays, for instance. XIV's is largely useless apart from minor RP value. SC2's is disgustingly useful to virtually every skill and interest level. XIV's is inconvenient. SC2's is a simple button in a score screen that you were already looking at, and, once saved, viewable at any time from anywhere.

For those who haven't cared enough even to try out said Duty Recorder, the list I'm referring to is what would include things like the Glamour Dresser (used begrudgingly), most of the Mentor System (used primarily for intentions divergent from design), and many a Golden Saucer game...

The Duty Recorder was something introduced too late into the lifecycle of the game. It is still the only way as PS4 user can do anything remotely like what some pc players do with unauthorized tools.

It has two uses that SE kinda missed the boat on
1) Machinima, this kind of thing would have made "Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light: Season 1" that much easier to produce, as the game engine could be used to play back any arbitrary combat or overworld data, and to make "cleaner" videos, one could change NPC's or players to protect their privacy or exaggerate a gag or something.
2) Combat replay, which is what it seems like it was designed for, but someone could produce an unauthorized tool to record all the incoming packet data and then play it back on the client offline and accomplish the same thing. Since the current version is tied to the maintenance cycle, it seems like it literately does something like this, where it's playing back the data as it was recorded, and is thus not compatibile after maintenance due to whatever minor adjustments or cleanup is done.

The Duty Recorder could easily be the next best thing for video producers the game has where you could play the Duty on the PS4, and then replay it on a PC at 4K later to produce your youtube video, and have the game client render the video slower and higher quality than recording it live would.

[Alleo]

and the difference from a forum goer is...? I said they use them to guage, not that they take them as stone cold truth.

I think the difference is that streamers do make money of FF14 while normal forum posters dont and just play it as a game they can drop. I am not saying that Mr Happy or other famous youtube streamers would only praise the game but I am also not sure if they would truly be negative about it. Be too negative and they could lose invitations or interview rights with SE. But again I am not saying that its like that just that this could be the case for some.

And even if streamers have thousands of viewers still would not make them a good way to get info (and I know you said that it was not your view either) because they still dont know if people simply watch it because of the person or because they like the content.

[Remedi]

There's no difference both are opinionated and both can and will drop games, streamers more so if that is not even profitable. Also maybe It's been just me watching him complaining about a damn PTR every time or being very critical of many aspects of the game by saying just as anybody else why they even added [insert random feature here] to the game because nobody asked that.
So ye they are both humans and prone to the same mistakes

Even though you say it's not a good way to test the waters, it's something that not just SE but many other companies have been spending resources on, they are using them for promotions and invite them to press events, they listen to their feedback for sure or at the very least they are interested in their opinion.
Take this however you will but it's a fact.
Or I've imagined streamers at SB press event or KH3 press event

[RiyahArp]

If some one told me that that an actual human being was had the actual responsibility of overseeing this game's economy, I would be shocked.

It makes sense when you realize they manage it to blunt the power of RMT. One thing the decisions do is manage to make an economy where gil is purely optional, and that prevents RMT from getting a foothold in actual gameplay. They remember FFXI, where RMT early on got so powerful that you had hyperinflation for goods, and player MPKing over notorious monsters. Side effect is that, well, gil is purely optional.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

OMG... if they only get info from onesided viewpoints of streamers, that is a big issue. mr happy will never criticize things of the game, no matter how bad they are. I do not know about the other streamers, but they seem to carry a big bias.

Have you actually watched Mr Happy's stream? He routinely criticises FFXIV. Counting Stormblood alone, he and the podcast he hosts criticised Eureka's frequent delays, poor job balance, Recorder, PvP, the general ease of Savage, Ultimate's hiatus and so on. The only difference is he's not nearly as aggressive about it. Just this wait he was delighted Yoshida claimed they had no idea how to develop Blitzball (thank god).

The Japanese raiders have three times the clear rate of hard content than NA. That is not NA "players don't want to be helped" that is a particular NA raider mindset that is offputting to doing the content. You can't tell the NA players who don't want to be treated like garbage to go move to the JP servers, because then the JP players would be upset with the rudeness of the NA players, and then SE would likely cease working on that content entirely because the NA players can't be civil.

You act as though JP players are incapable of rudeness. Look up 2chan sometime. It's a JP community entirely designed to blacklist, shame and ridicule players they deem bad, whether it's due to low skill levels or simply bias.

As for clear rates, JP clears are higher due to their willingness to put up with lesser skilled players. You will frequently find players with little to no business being in Savage. While this is equally true regarding NA, the tolerance levels are far lower. NA, admittedly, has a more entitled attitude. Although raiders can exhibit such hostility, it often comes from the lower end players who believe they deserve a clear simply because they want one. You also have to consider the different mindsets overall. JP approaches content with the intend of clearing everything because they feel obligated. NA, meanwhile, will not bother with things they have no interest in. Speaking on averages, of course.

Regardless, overall clear rates are more than double your bias estimation. We have data which supports this. And said data purposely cuts off before content becomes unsyncable or players are able to out-gear it.

[Shurrikhan]

The Duty Recorder... has two uses that SE kinda missed the boat on
1) Machinima, this kind of thing would have made "Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light: Season 1" that much easier to produce, as the game engine could be used to play back any arbitrary combat or overworld data, and to make "cleaner" videos, one could change NPC's or players to protect their privacy or exaggerate a gag or something.
2) Combat replay, which is what it seems like it was designed for, but someone could produce an unauthorized tool to record all the incoming packet data and then play it back on the client offline and accomplish the same thing. Since the current version is tied to the maintenance cycle, it seems like it literately does something like this, where it's playing back the data as it was recorded, and is thus not compatibile after maintenance due to whatever minor adjustments or cleanup is done.

The Duty Recorder could easily be the next best thing for video producers the game has where you could play the Duty on the PS4, and then replay it on a PC at 4K later to produce your youtube video, and have the game client render the video slower and higher quality than recording it live would.

And had it managed those things (though I'll also append, for players more like myself, the ability to timestamp and 3D-annotate a replay to that wishlist) and was more convenient to access, I'd be praising the hell out of it. But placing three steps down the path to greatness does not greatness make. It ends instead as meandering and a waste of tile-stones.

Airships, Squadrons, Palace of the Dead, much of the Golden Saucer, even the Job Gauges* all reek of someone very, very jaded -- yet nonetheless optimistic that players have would have no distinct tastes, needs, or creativity to disappoint -- figuring "Hey, that'll do it! Don't spend a day more on this. It's enough to be a thing."

*I mean, who okays a giant, gaudy graphic that won't remotely see use for another 30+ levels? It's like it was decided that we needed a (far later) selling point shoved down our throats to show that "a thing very much does exist!" -- even if needlessly and less intuitively than what it replaces, addition/revision for its own sake.

When something doesn't prepare the way for an eventual goal that your players can get behind, nor is useful in itself, it's out of touch.

[Remedi]

I can agree to that idd

[DarkDedede]

It makes sense when you realize they manage it to blunt the power of RMT. One thing the decisions do is manage to make an economy where gil is purely optional, and that prevents RMT from getting a foothold in actual gameplay. They remember FFXI, where RMT early on got so powerful that you had hyperinflation for goods, and player MPKing over notorious monsters. Side effect is that, well, gil is purely optional.

If that were the case, they should do a better job distributing shards, and not requiring cobalt materials in so many FC workshop recipes.