Honest Feedback: Shadowbringers

[Angellos]

I wanted to give the Devs some honest and hopefully constructive feedback. I first want to begin by saying I have never posted on the forums until now and I was VERY sad to see people calling Yoshi P sexist. Not only is that illogical but it's certainly not the way to get your point across to the man who has devoted himself to his game and our community. So on behalf of the rest of the community, we're very sorry Yoshi P.

With that being said, I do feel as though SE should have known that Gender-Locking anything would result in an uproar after the Miqo'te mess. According to SE's own lore, male Viera are a 1 to 8 ratio of men to women whereas male Miqo'te are a 1 in 16 ratio of men to women. Male Miqo'te are TWICE as rare as male Viera and yet... we can play male Miqo'te. So I do not think their rarity/scarcity should be taken into account when making this decision.

Furthermore, I want to add that I personally do not like the Viera whatsoever; Male nor female. Even considering my utter disdain for the race as a whole, there was too much hype built up around male Viera that the Developers let go on for months only to completely let down the community who was looking forward to them. I feel very BADLY for those who were SO excited only to have the main feature of the new expansion ruined for them.

This community detests outfits and hairstyles being gender-locked and we wish those locks were removed: I don't see how anyone thought gender locking races would be a good idea. I understand that creating a new race, or even a new gender of a new race is a large undertaking that takes time. Voice actors must come into the studio to record audio, texture artists 3D modelers, animators and programmers are all working around the clock. My final thoughts on the gender-lock is: Male Viera and female Hrothgar SHOULD be implemented as quickly as possible. (Even if I hate those darn bunnies.)

Lastly but not least: The Hrothgar feel like an after thought. Their faces are very feline and yet they are flat instead of having a sizable muzzle like most large felines do. (IE lions.) It FEELS as though a male Roegadyn body had Miqo'te hands glued onto it and the Roegadyn's overly tiny skull was kept in place, with a feline face plastered onto it. Dashes of fur added here and there to give it that real feline feel.

Their models need work: And in my honest opinion, the Ronso model should have been used: And much like Elves are Elezen, Dwarves are Lalafell and Humes are Hyur: Call the Ronso here, Hrothgar.

Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion.

[Nightstalker190]

Yoshi-P said in an interview with Mr Happy it's a cost cutting measure, face it folks we got shafted by the shareholders of SE.

[Anesteria]

Yoshi-P said in an interview with Mr Happy it's a cost cutting measure, face it folks we got shafted by the shareholders of SE.

So we're finally getting down to the meat of the subject.
At last.

The problem is, that if this is the current climate, there really isn't much people can do unless... a few things are done that people will most likely not appreciate anyway.

[Wynn_Storm]

Yoshi-P said in an interview with Mr Happy it's a cost cutting measure, face it folks we got shafted by the shareholders of SE.

That is just incredibly disappointing. Its such a shame since FF14 is probably the 2nd biggest mmorpg, right behind WoW.

I personally think this was the time for them to push harder than ever, since WoW is flopping hard right now.

[Eli85]

Snip.

We must have read two different interviews. Yoshi-P never said anything about "cost cutting measures." He did mention that new races are taxing on the development team and are quite costly. What he said and cost cutting measures are two very, very different statements. People really need to understand that new races are (in my opinion) not worth it, given how much time (read: money) is required to make it work, versus what that money could be put towards for actual content. That's what Yoshi-P means. Not that costs had to be cut, but that new races require so much [time and labour] investment, that at a certain point, it is not netting you returns that other content would.

Snip.

Two things people really need to understand. The "player base" is not upset at the gender reveals, or even the no healer reveal. The forum player base, or at least part of it, is upset. That is a fraction of the player base. Do we know if the player base is happy or upset with the news? No, we don't, because we don't know the opinions of nearly enough players, relative to the total number of players.

Secondly, this applies to WoW too. If you go to any WoW forum, the sky is most assuredly falling, and all because BFA is a bad expansion. Yet, if you read the investor calls, there is no such panick. Subscriptions suffered an expected decline (you have no chance of sustaining or increasing players a couple months after an expansion launches), but WoW related revenue hasn't fallen off. So like with XIV, it's a fraction of the players who are visibly upset, and it is not reflective of the player base at large.

[wer]

Two things people really need to understand. The "player base" is not upset at the gender reveals, or even the no healer reveal. The forum player base, or at least part of it, is upset. That is a fraction of the player base. Do we know if the player base is happy or upset with the news? No, we don't, because we don't know the opinions of nearly enough players, relative to the total number of players.

I just want to note that it's not just the forums. It's exploded on Twitter, one of the largest, if not THE largest, social media app. Along with other sites such as tumblr. Facebook, too.

Still a fraction, maybe, but it's a whole lot larger than you might think.

[Eli85]

Snip.

Even if I give you it's "larger than I think," it is still, relatively speaking, a woefully poor sample size of the player base's whims; and it is certainly insufficient to draw any conclusions about the inclinations of the player base as a whole.

Snip.

With all due respect to the developer who told you that, there is no logical or rational underpinnings to that statement. Just because a forum goer is very vocal about a particular issue, does not mean there are a hundred of silent assents. If any developer acts under such assumptions, eep, I don't want to play that game.

[Imuka]

With all due respect to the developer who told you that, there is no logical or rational underpinnings to that statement. Just because a forum goer is very vocal about a particular issue, does not mean there are a hundred of silent assents. If any developer acts under such assumptions, eep, I don't want to play that game.

Because thats how a Part of the Software Developers see the Feedback they get.

Not everybody will write a complain about having Problems with the UI of a Software like Anti Malware Software or any other Software and just a small Part of the Userbase will actually write Feedback to the Developers.
Have you ever had a Game, that crashed and you just sat there in front of the "Send Feedback" Window and thougth "Nah, I am not in the mood to write and send a Feedback now" and just closed the Window?".
This is exactly where this way to see it comes from.

If AMD gets comlaint of 100 Users about having Problems with their GPU and a Game, they assume that there is a large Number of Users who are also having Problems but not rushing for their Forum to post about it or writting an Email just hoping for a fix.
Or should they assume that only because there are 100 Users writting a Feedback Email about Problems with Game XY there are just 100 Users having Problems with their GPU and a certain Game and just ignore it?

[Edax]

I think SE believes the profit growth of FFXIV is already capped, so they've moved most of their resources to other projects. All content from now on is going to be developed with more and more limitations.

[Imuka]

I think SE believes the profit growth of FFXIV is already capped, so they've moved most of their resources to other projects. All content from now on is going to be developed with more and more limitations.

I feel a bit different here. For me it feels more like the classical AAA Publisher way.
There are two ways they see Games today:
"reinvest the same as last Year and expect more" or "reinvest less and expect the same as last Year".
And FF14 runs more into the "reinvest less and expect the same amount of Money." direction, creating all those limitations of Money, Time and Ressources.

Both ways sell a Profit and growth of a Company/Franchise to Investors, who do not care for anything outside of the Numbers.

Snip

There is something a Software Developer once told me about complains.
"One loud complain equals 100 silent complains.".

XIV is actually 3rd. Behind WoW and 2007scape according to
But looking at the player counts as a whole shows the MMORPG age has calmed down alot compared to early 2000's. It doesn't look profitable for investors and companies.

Today, this comes down to a guessing Game for those Websites, because no Dev Team is allowed to talk about their Numbers.
Since WoW dropped below the 5 Million Player count, Blizzatd stopped to talk about the Numbers and never answers questions about it.
The same goes for ArenaNet, Pearl Abyss, ZeniMax Online or any of the other Studios.
Because otherwise the Marketing could not throw around Numbers like 14 Million Players, 20 Million Player...etc.