"Overhaul" please stop.

[Edax]

there is just you pressing buttons and getting meaningless things.

Congratulations, you've described every single video game in existence.

FFXIV is effectively becoming the worst Final Fantasy game in the series.

And FFXIV is effectively becoming the best Final Fantasy game in the series. It's is very nebulous statement because you can make that statement with any improvement FFXIV gets.

[Vidu]

Can you please tell me how exactly are minions, mounts, or titles in any way shape or form useful to a crafter’s arsenal? Let’s start there.

Also, if you want to talk about ignoring facts, can you also please tell me how you or I have the authority to criticize or demonize someone who chooses to play the game in a certain way? Whether they be casual or serious players?

If you define "reward" as something that has to be useful, I have to ask you: How are (more) gil or even better tools and gear actually useful?
Specially gil - I talked about this earlier, but they're completly useless and just a bigger growing number by itself until you invest them in things - like glamour-items etc. As crafter you wont need to buy gear, food or potions since you can easly make them yourself - and even if you buy your base-materials instead of gathering them yourself, you look at something like "invest 50k into mats, to make 5 million from the products". so... you're back to just a bigger number. Which can be a goal for people that I dont want to deny them, but its a goal they can already strife to. For me personally gil are useless though and not a good reward (anymore) - I think I have about 250 million scattered around (which probably doesnt seem like a lot to some hardcore-money-markers), but when I looked at the sum and looked what I could get for my money all my motivation to continue crafting for the marketboard (aka for money) went out of the window because theres nothing this gil can actually buy. Wether I have 250 mil or 550mil makes no difference to me. There might be people who like just seeing this evergrowing number, but this number is still not useful for their arsenal.

In regards to gear and tools: Those are a bit tricker, but ultimately, like gil, just means to an end. Which is why they're tricky. Allow me to explain the two ways tools/gear could work:
(1) they make crafting easier - like better gear already does after a certain point. To use certain rotation or macros you need a certain amount of stats and those will allow you to follow an easier, faster and safer rotation. That in turn means that as soon as you hit those stats, any further improvment is useless - or at least not as useful anymore. If you can comfortably craft any item in the game from NQ-basemats in HQ, why would better tools be a reward? You dont need them anymore! I'm saying this because right now I can comfortably craft anything in the game with minimal effort - until new recipes are realesed, new gear is no reward for me. And when new recipes are released, the new gear is something to be grinded for (whatever the grind is - scrips, mats, something new) within the first few days. New gear would only be a reward that took only a short time to earn.
(2) They enable you to craft certain recipes to begin with - kinda like specialists. "Can only craft this item if you got the Ultimate-Frying-Pan!"
This could be a bit more intresting, but has the same potential issues as what I mentioned in (1) on top of a more difficult balance.

In regards to your last point... I didnt mean to criticize or "demonize" anyone who wants to play the game a certain way and I apologize if I came across as such. All I wanted to convey is that I consider it shortsighted and "unfair" to dismiss the rewards the game offers to you, simply because you, personally, dont like them. That is of course your right, but pretending like they dont exist or missrepresenting the way(s) they can be obtained doesnt help your point.
Anyone who just wants to reach the gil-limit is welcome to make that their goal, all the power to them! That doesnt mean that minions, mounts and titles are not worthy rewards - something you're heavly implying, so... what gives you the authority to do that?

To me minions are "useful" because they're cute and I like watching them run around me while I craft (or have them sit on my shoulder). Mounts are useful because they might play a piece of music I particulary enjoy while flying around, gathering the stuff I need for my crafts. And I like to match my title to my outfit (or at least one outfit). Gil are just a useless number or used to buy something else I want to have (so that something else is the real reward). Better tools and gear are just means to an end, aswell. This is just my personal opinion, obviously and everyone else is welcome to find other things of value for themself. But just to answer your question there... as a crafter.

[Dzian]

I absolutely agree with OP on every point he has made. Trust me, I know all companies want is money/numbers. That’s all that matters to them. However, maximizing those numbers should also be a priority. You cannot maximize numbers if you’re only catering to one audience. (Casual oriented stuff) Because if you cater to both types of audiences (casual players and serious players) you get the most out of those numbers.

The issue here is that it that attempt to maxi.ise numbers that totally destroys games a d the primary reason so many AAA franchises have been killed off is because they dumb things down so much that everything that made the game great and popular is lost.

And when you look at some of the most successful games of the last couple of years you'll find that many of them are actually more of the nicher titles than not. Things like God of war a game that was made purely for its fan base. And every decision was quality of product before quantity of sales. And in delivering that amazing product sales came naturally.

In MMOs this also brings true. It's why developers like CCP still make a killing on EVE despite being a fairly niche MMO. And yet games like XIV are constantly trying to real in new players to stay afloat because the players it does pull in generally dont stick around very long because the quality of the game is pretty mediocre really and thus people get bored fast.

Capcom did an interview with kotaku I think it was some time ago now. Where they said the focus on simplifying games for wider audiences is having a hugely negative impact on major franchises. It's one of the big reasons they been doing the resident evil reboots to push the franchise back towards a more in depth survival horror instead of the run and gun shooter it turned into with later games.

And it's something yoshi even brought up at an interview about a year ago. That of the final fantasy franchise is to survive long term. It needs to move away from the mainstream audiences and go back to its fan base.

It's also why free to play is in the state it's in. Once dubbed as the future of all gaming more and more gamers completely avoid it. Because free to play is generally perceived as low quality games that try to milk your money off you fast because you'll be bored of it in a few days. And knowing this essentially means it's not even worth the effort to download.

The industry as a whole is bigger than ever and spends more on games than ever before. And that looks good from a business perspective. But on a consumer level consumers are spending less because the quality of products has dropped significantly. People are maybe only buying 2 or 3 games a year where they used to buy 1 a month or something because so much of what gets released these days is mediocre junk. Even AAA titles which is why so many end up flopping and underperforming.

[Gemina]

Snip.

It's all marketing, right? It brings me back business and economics, and my class divided into groups and could choose between one of three marketing techniques: produce high quality/low quantity and sell high; produce low quality/high quantity and sell low; or somewhere in between. It wasn't a simulation either, we were just given the product to be sold, shown the current supply vs demand on the market, choose how to produce/sell it, and all the groups got rewarded actual money depending on how they did (a little more to it that that, but for sake of sticking to the point).

Interestingly enough, the in-between groups did the poorest. I remember well because me being the even-steven I am, convinced my group to go this route. What I also remember well, is the group that went with high quality/low quantity killed it. Like overwhelmingly so.

Thing is, I'm not actually bringing that up to emphasize on quality > quantity. After all, the group that chose to go quantity > quality still did well; just not as good as the reverse. I actually brought up the class to solidify your point on not having a niche, which is why my group did the poorest; it was because we tried to market to a general consumer, while the other two groups targeted a specific customer. And that brings me to SE's current decision making, which I would imagine cannot be easy.

The FFXIV playerbase as a whole is larger and more diverse than it has ever been, and I am quite sure Yoshi is well aware that the greater a population grows, the less sustainable it becomes and he knows it's happening right now. Hence, his comment. In order to keep FFXIV sustainable so that the playerbase doesn't just devour it like a vicious carnivore and leaving an empty husk of what once was, I think it is going to have to accept some losses. It will be of key importance to maintain their loyal subscribers and not take the for granted. They are the ones capable of developing an equilibrium with the dev team so quality product comes out in a reasonable amount of time that is can sustain the game for years.

[HeulGDarian]

It's all marketing, right? It brings me back business and economics, and my class divided into groups and could choose between one of three marketing techniques: produce high quality/low quantity and sell high; produce low quality/high quantity and sell low; or somewhere in between. It wasn't a simulation either, we were just given the product to be sold, shown the current supply vs demand on the market, choose how to produce/sell it, and all the groups got rewarded actual money depending on how they did (a little more to it that that, but for sake of sticking to the point).

Interestingly enough, the in-between groups did the poorest. I remember well because me being the even-steven I am, convinced my group to go this route. What I also remember well, is the group that went with high quality/low quantity killed it. Like overwhelmingly so.

Thing is, I'm not actually bringing that up to emphasize on quality > quantity. After all, the group that chose to go quantity > quality still did well; just not as good as the reverse. I actually brought up the class to solidify your point on not having a niche, which is why my group did the poorest; it was because we tried to market to a general consumer, while the other two groups targeted a specific customer. And that brings me to SE's current decision making, which I would imagine cannot be easy.

The FFXIV playerbase as a whole is larger and more diverse than it has ever been, and I am quite sure Yoshi is well aware that the greater a population grows, the less sustainable it becomes and he knows it's happening right now. Hence, his comment. In order to keep FFXIV sustainable so that the playerbase doesn't just devour it like a vicious carnivore and leaving an empty husk of what once was, I think it is going to have to accept some losses. It will be of key importance to maintain their loyal subscribers and not take the for granted. They are the ones capable of developing an equilibrium with the dev team so quality product comes out in a reasonable amount of time that is can sustain the game for years.

Dont know if you are what you say cause internet but i do agree that they need to pick a direction they cant keep trying to satisfy everyone cause it leaves everyone unsatisfied . the problem is nobody wants to hear that their "side" wasnt picked sooooo yeeeee i wouldnt want to be in yoshi-p s shoes.

[Edax]

The industry as a whole is bigger than ever and spends more on games than ever before. And that looks good from a business perspective. But on a consumer level consumers are spending less because the quality of products has dropped significantly. People are maybe only buying 2 or 3 games a year where they used to buy 1 a month or something because so much of what gets released these days is mediocre junk. Even AAA titles which is why so many end up flopping and underperforming.

The problem is severe lack of utilitarianism. A entertainment product is suppose to entertain. To make the entertainment product more profitable, they cut costs by cutting down entertainment and even strip out the entertainment to monetize many of the pieces until the product is no longer entertaining for the money it cost. The result is a entertainment product that does not entertain for it's target demographic, resulting in a massive waste of resources.

Of course in our Capitalist society, the businessmen will always strive to make their business more profitable, even if defeats their own function or service to society, like an insurance company that doesn't make payouts to legitimate claims does defeating the purpose of insurance. The result is pure waste. Part of the cause is that video game companies and their budgets became too big so they needed to hire expert businessmen who unfortunately, fundamentally did not understand their own products.

This is a rare example of a business choosing not to increase profits:
"When Costco president W. Craig Jelinek once complained to Costco co-founder and former CEO Jim Sinegal that their monolithic warehouse business was losing money on their famously cheap $1.50 hot dog and soda package, Sinegal listened, nodded, and then did his best to make his take on the situation perfectly clear.

"If you raise [the price of] the effing hot dog, I will kill you," Sinegal said. "Figure it out."

Taking his words to heart, Jelinek—who became Sinegal's successor in 2012—has never raised the price on Costco's hot dog. Incredibly, it has sold for the same $1.50 since the retail club first introduced the dogs to customers in 1984. The quarter-pound, all-beef tube and 20-ounce soda combo appears to be inflation-proof and immune to the whims of food distributors. How does Costco do it?

Simple. When it comes to hot dogs, Costco doesn't price according to what the market will bear. They price according to their own cost and according to the value the hot dogs can afford them.

According to Jelinek, people would pay $1.75, and maybe more, for the deal. But is that extra 25 cents going to be more valuable than the goodwill and foot traffic generated by a combo that's stuck to its price point for nearly 35 years? Probably not. Customers coming in to shop at Costco are amused, satisfied, and fueled by the hot dog meal. If they get it just before leaving the store, they're left with a lasting impression of being treated well. That's worth more than keeping up with inflation." -
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...a-combo-enigma

Most businessmen don't think this far ahead. In fact, how would you get promoted by suggesting you keep prices as they are and don't increase profits? Most of the time it isn't understood that quite often the drive to increase profits results in irreparable damage to the company.

[Metalwrath]

Probably unpopular oppinion here but they are likely making crafting more easier for casuals so it drives a bigger supply of crafts on the items thus crushing the rediculous overcharging a lot of crafters have done in the past.Doing this will ultimatly decrease the value of everything on the mb making it more affortable or attainable for your casual players.This in turn will stear them away from gil buying.

[Edax]

Probably unpopular oppinion here but they are likely making crafting more easier for casuals so it drives a bigger supply of crafts on the items thus crushing the rediculous overcharging a lot of crafters have done in the past.Doing this will ultimatly decrease the value of everything on the mb making it more affortable or attainable for your casual players.This in turn will stear them away from gil buying.

"Hyperdeflation refers to extremely large decreases in the general prices of goods in an economy—or, correspondingly large increases in a money's purchasing power."
Needless to say, this would be very bad for the in-game economy as it destroys progression. One of the problems of FFXIV is there's not much to do in each 3 month patch period. Instant gratification would just make the content dry out even faster.

[Gemina]

Dont know if you are what you say cause internet but i do agree that they need to pick a direction they cant keep trying to satisfy everyone cause it leaves everyone unsatisfied . the problem is nobody wants to hear that their "side" wasnt picked sooooo yeeeee i wouldnt want to be in yoshi-p s shoes.

I don't know what I'm claiming to be; other than maybe a dinosaur. However, I'm of the opinion that there is really only one direction to pick if they want a sustainable mmo, and the direction they're going isn't it.

[Razard]

Waitaminute

Haven't you posted a thread like this before?

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...has-to-be-said.

You got roasted there as well.