Trying to understand the negative posts I keep seeing about the Dev Team

[SerLuke]

I started playing the game when Heavnsward came out(I remember downloading the trial on my PS3 and loving it so much I went out and got a PS4 and a copy of the game then there was a 24 hour maintenance where I couldn't play lol), I realize some people have been playing since ARR launch and even before during 1.x but I'd like to think I've at least played the game for a decent amount of time. I used to play FFXI for several years and I feel like I can at least know what I like about this game over that one.

[SenorPatty]

If you also look back on some recent interviews, you can see how the devs are just not keen on player feedback. It's like they just look at metrics without actually understanding what those metric means. They ask for feedback but it feels like they're just looking for the simplest idea to implement and go "hey look guys, we listened, see?".

I can't comment on the lack of content, as a lot of people decide for themselves what is content and what isn't but I can say for certain that the formulaic content argument definitely holds water. Neglected content is another. Wheb Yoshida himself says GC needs a change up, you know it's neglected.

Also everything else Hyomin said is fairly spot on.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

If you also look back on some recent interviews, you can see how the devs are just not keen on player feedback. It's like they just look at metrics without actually understanding what those metric means. They ask for feedback but it feels like they're just looking for the simplest idea to implement and go "hey look guys, we listened, see?".

I can't comment on the lack of content, as a lot of people decide for themselves what is content and what isn't but I can say for certain that the formulaic content argument definitely holds water. Neglected content is another. Wheb Yoshida himself says GC needs a change up, you know it's neglected.

Also everything else Hyomin said is fairly spot on.

A prime example of this is the devs repeatedly doubling down on Pagos with cryptic responses: "Players just haven't found the efficient method yet!" If it's over a month and no one has figured out how your system works, perhaps it's not well thought out to begin with? Complexity for the sake of complexity isn't depth. Alas, this has become a more common response lately, which only infuriates already frustrated players.

As for lack of content. I am someone who does a little of virtually everything, PvP notwithstanding, and I simply run out of things to do before the first month ends. Of course, Eureka was intended to fill this gap but enough has been said about Pagos' issues to fill two novels. I cannot say whether it's the formulaic nature of things or the lack of content outright, however there just isn't enough to do anymore. With the relic held hostage, I am little need to run old content. Which only makes the drought feel worse. Now I do appreciate I am someone with a lot of spare time, thus I will always run into spurts where I've done everything. I have no qualms with that starting to happen say... 7-10 weeks into the patch. When it happens after two... there's a problem.

[Alleo]

Well we had flops like Diadem and gave huge amount of feedback in this forum. Then Diadem 2.0 happened..we still gave feedback and hoped for something better with Eureka..Only to have something which is often called Diadem 3.0. Things like that makes it feel like they dont really listen to our feedback and just do whatever they want even if most of the playerbase dont like it.

At the same time there is the feeling (if this is true or not remains to be seen) that they are listening more to their japanese fanbase and only do something if they complain enough. Even if that might not be true they are imo really bad at communication. We had threads about different problems that went on for ages with pages full of angry customers and either received no message at all or some way too late. Its also a bit bad to see some of the reactions from Yoshida in interviews. I find some of them to be a bit harsh on the playerbase. Also we had threads with questions that we could ask for liveletters but often they dont pick those with the most likes...

Also as an EU player I do kinda feel like a third-rate customer in this game. Be it with limited items, Chaos turning more and more into a meme because of it being so bad and more.

They also have the problem with turning this more and more into a cash cow, and on top of that they do lie to us (or turn on their words) especially when its about housing.

So I dont hate them or anything but I also not that happy about some of the work they do and kinda cringe a bit about the worship, especially for Yoshida. We should be respectful but also should be able to post about the flaws too.

[Edax]

Well we had flops like Diadem and gave huge amount of feedback in this forum. Then Diadem 2.0 happened..we still gave feedback and hoped for something better with Eureka..Only to have something which is often called Diadem 3.0. Things like that makes it feel like they dont really listen to our feedback and just do whatever they want even if most of the playerbase dont like it.

At the same time there is the feeling (if this is true or not remains to be seen) that they are listening more to their japanese fanbase and only do something if they complain enough. Even if that might not be true they are imo really bad at communication. We had threads about different problems that went on for ages with pages full of angry customers and either received no message at all or some way too late. Its also a bit bad to see some of the reactions from Yoshida in interviews. I find some of them to be a bit harsh on the playerbase. Also we had threads with questions that we could ask for liveletters but often they dont pick those with the most likes...

Also as an EU player I do kinda feel like a third-rate customer in this game. Be it with limited items, Chaos turning more and more into a meme because of it being so bad and more.

Something I've noticed when on the World of Warships forums. Wargaming is a Russian company, and us on the NA have to deal with the fact that problems on the NA server can get exacerbated because balance issues are made worse because the devs only listen mostly to the Russian feedback. This becomes a big problem when the RU server has a completely different playstyle then the NA server, and underperforming ships on our server end up getting nerfed because it was performing well only on the RU server.
So I can understand why SE listens mostly to the Japanese playerbase, it's where SE is from. However, the devs in World of Warships do a far better job at communicating with the community contributors, who make videos explaining the dev's intent and explaining the situation. And the forum moderators also pass along information from the devs to the players in response to the latest controversy or questions. The Devs themselves in Wargaming also make videos about development, so we understand just how many hours it goes into modeling just a single ship. Even if the players of World of Warships don't agree with the devs, they understand the situation. I'm just not getting that with FFXIV at all. It feels like there's an Iron Curtain between the NA players and the FFXIV devs.

[Lastelli]

For those players that started their adventure in eorzea during ARR, it's seriously starting to feel like the dev team is just out of ideas and is focusing more on how to make us spend more money on optional stuff while keeping us hooked with rng based rewards and artificially diluted progression systems than on creating fresh and entertaining content. SB is basically a carbon copy of HW at this point, content lacks creativity and ambition, with the possible exception of ultimate raids.

Finally, the bad habit of locking good stuff or desired items behind unsuccesful content just to force players to do it is getting out of hand. They may see some results in the short term, with higher participation in eureka, pvp or whatever, but in the long term this will probably just alienate players. Unfortunately, it's pretty obvious that ffxiv is not a priority for SE anymore.

They're also going too far with mogstation optional items, and they seem to not listen to feedback at all. I think many players just hoped that ffxiv would become a very important game for SE after arr success, but it's becoming more and more apparent that they just consider it a steady source of cash to be used to finance other projects that doesn't require additional attention.

[alimdia]

Just saw a comment on Reddit that I thought would fit this discussion, but it's full of expletives so I'm just gonna link it instead of pasting https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...zs3/?context=1

It's about how despite all the revenue from increased box sales in sb, increased subs and increased mog station income none of it is being invested in infrastructure, and we keep getting the same excuses.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Just saw a comment on Reddit that I thought would fit this discussion, but it's full of expletives so I'm just gonna link it instead of pasting https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...zs3/?context=1

It's about how despite all the revenue from increased box sales in sb, increased subs and increased mog station income none of it is being invested in infrastructure, and we keep getting the same excuses.

Their server excuse has definitely reached a point of being equally infuriating, if only because they use it for almost everything. I get it. The servers were glued together with hope, prayer and duct tape, but that excuse can only fly for so long when you're making money hand over fist. What makes it worse is when they finally do implement something we've asked for, it tends to involve a needlessly convoluted system. Take the Glamour Dresser. How in the world did they not foresight a massive issue with items being destroyed if ever removed from it? Any average gamer, not even FFXIV player, could have predicted exactly what would happen.

And let's not even begin about the supposed inventory limitation that magically wasn't an issue if you purchased premium service for the community app.

[SerLuke]

Just saw a comment on Reddit that I thought would fit this discussion, but it's full of expletives so I'm just gonna link it instead of pasting https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...zs3/?context=1

It's about how despite all the revenue from increased box sales in sb, increased subs and increased mog station income none of it is being invested in infrastructure, and we keep getting the same excuses.

If that money isn't being reinvested into the game, isn't that on SE higher-ups rather than Yoshi P and the Dev Team? I mean I doubt Yoshi P is there going "oh yeah make sure all that Mogstation revenue is going to the FFVII Remake and FFXV DLC"

[Stormfur]

I do feel like they pay more attention to the JP fan-base -- but I can understand it because that's where they're from and that's their culture. It's familiar and it's easily understood. I've even went so far as to have things professionally translated to post there because they matter to me -- as does the game as a whole and the people I've met within it.

I feel like the community team seems to do a pretty good job of relaying things to the devs, but I wish they had the ability to communicate more with us in regards to upcoming changes. They're getting better about that (for example, they posted in the PVP forum about why certain healing changes were made mid-season and it was totally understandable, if not sudden).

We haven't gotten anything like that with Eureka. And that worries me.