Treading Dangerous Ground

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

I agree there should have been a poll on the matter.

When the development team comes to a point where this happens:

There have been comments from Foxclon, but even internally there have been heated debates about the world merge between the development, operations, and QA teams. I will be honest in saying that up until the last minute there was no plan that everyone agreed on. (The reason for this being that every plan had its own set of pros and cons)

that should be a sign that it's time to ask the players what to do. At least then it won't look like a mistake on the developers' part, they just did what the players wanted.

[Elexia]

I agree there should have been a poll on the matter.

When the development team comes to a point where this happens:



that should be a sign that it's time to ask the players what to do. At least then it won't look like a mistake on the developers' part, they just did what the players wanted.

They always ask the players, why do you think XIV is in such a flip-flop state currently? The players.

people on large servers didn't WANT a merge.
people on small servers did NEED a merge

Large server numbers taper off, newly merged servers doing just fine, then what? You still get the imbalance that people feared with option 4. because they're not going to actively merge servers everytime numbers drop each week or month.

This is why option 4 was pretty good, even if the last 3 servers ended up with slightly less people, it would be better distributed and in the future you wouldn't run the risk of untouched servers becoming ghost towns like what would/will happen by doing so.

[darkstarpoet1]

Large server numbers taper off, newly merged servers doing just fine, then what? You still get the imbalance that people feared with option 4. because they're not going to actively merge servers everytime numbers drop each week or month.

This is why option 4 was pretty good, even if the last 3 servers ended up with slightly less people, it would be better distributed and in the future you wouldn't run the risk of untouched servers becoming ghost towns like what would/will happen by doing so.

that had absolutely nothing to do with what my post was about. option 4 was horrid and that's why every language complained about it. this is one of the few issues that the jp and english players both railed against hard.

my post was pointing out an issue with doing a player poll. if a poll question is not worded correctly then the results can represent the wants of some and go against the needs of others.

here's an example of it:

which version of merge would you like to see?
1. straight a+b=c
2. a+b=c with optional transfer.
3. make 10 servers and everyone repicks their servers.
4. no merge is needed at this point.

using that set of answers to that question the people on the large servers could see no need in merge so they would vote against it all together and pick option 4. the people on the small servers actually need a merge, but there is no way they could vote for one without a majority in the large servers voting the same way.

in other words if those poll questions aren't worded correctly to address a need it can wind up going towards a want for some while ignoring the needs of others.

[MeowyWowie]

They always ask the players, why do you think XIV is in such a flip-flop state currently? The players.

No, that's as far from the truth as you can get. FFXIV is in such a state because they completely ignored players' feedback during alpha and beta testing. The biggest thing that they should have listened to was everyone telling them it's not ready for release when it clearly wasn't.

[Elexia]

No, that's as far from the truth as you can get. FFXIV is in such a state because they completely ignored players' feedback during alpha and beta testing. The biggest thing that they should have listened to was everyone telling them it's not ready for release when it clearly wasn't.

So when they polled the players and everyone agreed on an overhaul..they didn't listen?

When people wanted the game to be "more Final Fantasy" they didn't listen?

When people clamored for class definition they didn't listen?

When people wanted an enchantment type system they didn't listen?

When people complained about surplus, they didn't listen?

When people complained about the random nature of SP and fixed it they didn't listen?

When people complained most skills were useless they seriously didn't reform them?


You're right, them listening to players is far from the truth. I mean, every change they did had absolutely zero to do with the playerbase. I think you're confusing them not listening to "GIVE ME ARMOR WITH +9001 STR, DEX, VIT AND ACCURACY AND LET ME SOLO EVEN END-GAME CONTENT" stupid requests as not listening to players.

By the way, they stated the game wasn't ready for release but do you think it was Tanaka's call to push it out unfinished? If you remember how they had literally nothing for the 2010 year beyond FFXI it got pushed out to try to pad things, which means it was if anything Wada's decision, not the people working on it.

[darkstarpoet1]

No, that's as far from the truth as you can get. FFXIV is in such a state because they completely ignored players' feedback during alpha and beta testing. The biggest thing that they should have listened to was everyone telling them it's not ready for release when it clearly wasn't.

this 10000000x.

i know, meowy, you may have a stroke that i actually agree with you, but what you say is completely right.

So when they polled the players and everyone agreed on an overhaul..they didn't listen?

actually according to the players poll the majority stated content, not an overhaul, as the main thing they wanted. on what the majority voted for? no, they did not listen.

[MeowyWowie]

this 10000000x.

i know, meowy, you may have a stroke that i actually agree with you, but what you say is completely right.

Lol, no hard feelings. I don't hold any grudges against anyone here. It's just in our nature to argue with each other on these forums apparently.

[Elexia]

actually according to the players poll the majority stated content, not an overhaul, as the main thing they wanted. on what the majority voted for? no, they did not listen.

As much as you want to continually disagree for the sake of it..I know I've passed math and therefore I know that 72% is quite a bit larger than 36%...or am I wrong and it works differently in different parts of the world? Not only that, but between battle system and content, it was a 12% difference, which means the "majority" didn't exactly vote for just content, both were almost equally as important.

Not only that:

11. Would you welcome changes to FINAL FANTASY XIV that would drastically alter the rules already set in Eorzea?




That seems to be..most did agree on an overhaul. So unless I'm reading this wrong, majority would have voted for faster updates and more communication if they "didn't vote for an overhaul"..so yes we are getting what we voted for, an overhaul (What is FFXIV 2.0 then out of the kindess of their hearts?)

[Rydin]

I agree there should have been a poll on the matter.

At least then it won't look like a mistake on the developers' part, they just did what the players wanted.

Because people on the forum tend to agree and not be split 50/50 on every issue

Case and Point....
When SE changed all of the spells to use much more MP... an impromptu poll was set up on the forum and it was dead even, with hundreds of players chiming in, as to whether it was a good or bad change

[Biggs]

Maybe SE should conduct another player poll about this issue, and send out emails about it to get non-forum using players to participate... Or post it to the log in page for the game, that might get people's attentions..

I can't help but wonder if, the day he got on here and read all the negative feedback about his plan, he wasnt kicking himself for no having done so then. Like I said though, it is the potential for this sort of trend in desicion making to become more common that concerns me. As to the actual server merger issue itself, I could care less. I am on Kashuan for gods sake, I would have gladly taken ANY of those options and been pleased my server has been a freaking ghost town since last year.

Yoshi is reconcidering the server merge options because this is a community issue. Not a game play issue. There is nothing wrong with Yoshi stopping and listening to the community on this. Even if it's to vocal minority. It doesn't effect the state of the game from a fundamental aspect.

So by listening to the players on this matter isn't treading on dangerous ground.

If the dev team presented plans for new gameplay systems then retracted those plans because the vocal minority made a stink then yes, the dev team has lost thier backbone.

While the OP has a valid concern if this sets a new trend of Yoshi caving at every QQ that is made on the forums. But on the topic of server merege, You're making a big deal out of something that isn't that big of a deal.

aka much ado about nothing.

Well, when would you like to voice your concern over this sort of trend exactly? Maybe we should wait until they do it again and its to late to stop it over something much more serious next time? I am sorry, but this is an MMO, and to me, player population IS a gameplay issue. This isn't a single player RPG man. I pay a monthly fee to play as part of a community, not sit around Kashuan with only 15 other people talking about the first 2 weeks of the game when we had a few thousand people on our server like it was the good ol days.

If 5% care about the game as to check the forums, so be it. I'm sorry, but if you don't read and post here, you can't be considered as factor. More non factor. Probably could care less where you go. IMO more like 50% and not 5% are ative on the forums. Where did you get your % from?

I got my percentage from the creative portion of my brain that makes up statistics when none are given to me. I am pretty sure I even say in the OP that that 5% is comepletely fictional because SE doesn't give out any numbers. However, the original player poll showed 10's of thousands of hits, and I can assure you there arent 10's of thousands of people that post on here, and all the other forums combined. In an ideal world, there would be and we could all have a pleasant discourse on the state of the game and discuss ideas we may not see eye-to-eye on without flaming the crap out of each other the way we do on here. But the is reality, and the reality is many people want nothing to do with these forums because either they dont use forums and blogging as a means to communicate, or they dont want to put up with a ton of ass clowns that want to call each other white Knights, trolls, and fanboys ever time they dont agree with a post. They shouldnt be ignored or punished by SE for not wanting to deal with some of the crap on these forums. And while I don't have numbers, I can assure you that 50% of the people that play this game DONT post on here.