Why another complex minigame that will probably die in 2 weeks?

[kikix12]

There's a slight difference there. FFXIV is a sub based MMO, so it always begs the question of the incentive you have to play the minigames in FFXIV as opposed to probably a dozen free mulplayer similar minigames online.

It's a game inside a game. Pick up any "party game compilation" and tell me what incentive there is to play any of them for the sake of the game as a whole?! None.

This was made by developers in their spare time to have Mahjong that uses Final Fantasy aesthetics. Having that Mahjong is the whole point of it. It's not to give another method of progress in the game itself.


Look at many single player open world games. Some of them offer simple games like pool or poker. What they offer?! At most a minimal amount of money that is nowhere near what you could get if you played the actual game that contains that "mini-game". That's because they are just time-killers. A sort of "game compilation" of their own. Why buy a pool simulator, close "Blast Everything Around 99" so that you can run that pool simulator...if you can play it in "Blast Everything Around 99" and immerse yourself in it on top of that instead?!

[Arya_Leviathan]

There's a slight difference there. FFXIV is a sub based MMO, so it always begs the question of the incentive you have to play the minigames in FFXIV as opposed to probably a dozen free mulplayer similar minigames online.

Especially for the several months before an expansion, that are usually pretty dry, making people eager to unsub.

You don't need a sub to play most Golden Saucer attractions. You can play mahjong at level 15 with a free trial account. The only really popular online riichi mahjong is tenhou.

[Lambdafish]

My only issue with Mahjong is the time investment. If the cut the round time down to 5 or something it would make me more interested to play. I actually got the hang of it with the novice NPC, but after around round 4 it started to get tedious.

More seriously, the dev team should stop use their money, time and effort doing those things and do more new content, I would have preferred a second dungeon in this patch instead of a mini game that no one will play in a week.

Yoshi P directly refuted your claim. He said that Mahjong was a side project for the dev team during their downtime, and it uses a licensed mahjong engine to run the game. You would have gotten this or nothing. If you want other examples of this, look at 16bit titan, the FFXIV fighting game, and Alexander tactics on youtube, thats what the animation team does in their down time.

[Seraphor]

There should just be a 'short game' option, for half the rounds with half the reward, simple.

[kikix12]

There should just be a 'short game' option, for half the rounds with half the reward, simple.

Yes. This and an actual tutorial are two things that would be welcome. They don't change the rules per se while they make it easier to get into the game for those actually interested. People learn better by doing than by reading after all, so taking advantage of that in a digital format should be a given.

[Alleo]

I also wonder how long Mahjong will stay alive over here, especially with it having asian names and a long playtime for each round. Honestly a mini game was always something that you can do fast, not something which can take over a hour or longer to complete. I am not saying that things should not exist but I hope future mini games will be more easy to learn and faster. (Also if you introduce a popular asian game, please do the same for a western game too I mean we are the majority of the player base after all)

[Raikai]

I - really - wanted to learn mahjong, even though it's a time sink, sometimes I could log in just to play a match.

But.

The rules are presented in texts that are way too confusing to read, like the OP says. The weird asian language names "pon" "richii" etc doesn't help a western player at all too, but that's the lesser of things.

I really wanted a "tutorial" table, in which you play and learn the rules on the fly via tooltips with screen pointers.

[Corue]

I want to like it but as someone who's never played Japanese mahjong before it just feels like Poker but half the rules are made up.
I was hoping the novice table would offer a tutorial and not just be loads of obtuse symbols and words being thrown in my face.
The tutor kind of helps but it's just a wall of text that's impossible to memorise.

[Reynhart]

It's a game inside a game. Pick up any "party game compilation" and tell me what incentive there is to play any of them for the sake of the game as a whole?! None.

I wouldnt pay a monthly fee for a party game. I'd buy it once, and probably cheaper that what I'd have to pay to keep my sub until SH once I've done every interesting content for me.

Look at many single player open world games.

Ok, let's suppose I've done everything I could in a version of The Witcher 3 without Gwent. I wouldn't spend additionnal money for a Gwent DLC just to play Gwent, while waiting for The Witcher 4. Would you buy a DLC to play Spider Solitaire with a FF skin, when you can already play it on Windows for free ?

You don't need a sub to play most Golden Saucer attractions. You can play mahjong at level 15 with a free trial account. The only really popular online riichi mahjong is tenhou.

Indeed. I wonder if some people create trial accounts just to keep in touch with their friends online and play optionnal content during dry time.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Too many rules and too many things to keep in mind while trying to build a hand.. Even after reading through the rules, the first match is pretty much