Petition: Don't allow two home points!

[downfind]

think about it this way, "It will help get the people out of Uldah"

[Mihana]

If anything this gives anima conservative people a good boost, and makes anima abusers a little happier that when they have 0 anima they can teleport to two cities without having to pay that OUTLANDISH 5k airship fee.

I conserve my anima pretty often unless I need it for something big. I'm currently sitting at about 70+ anima and rising. Some reason as of late I just run (Yes run by foot.) or ride my Chocobo from city-to-city. Or in the case I'm traveling between cities I hop on the airship. Really transportation is fine as it is. I'm for the Return feature in fact to Inn rooms, gives me a reason to go travel to my room instead of logging out every night wherever I feel like. Isn't an anima thing, just feel lazy to travel there and enter my room if I can just go "Return", Room, /shutdown and be done with it.

[Dragon]

Petition: Please change Paladin AF armor to Magical Girl outfits (regardless of sex)!

Where do I sign up for this petition? And also a petition to change all job AFs into Magical Girl outfits!?

[Amsai]

Eat a dick. =_=;

I like this person

[NoctisUmbra]

lol he thinks he can block it.

[Mihana]

Can we make a petition to end petitions? Oh how about a petition to end petitions and a petition to counter the end of petitions petition! We could petition that petition and another to petition the end of that petition. Really, is it the only thing people have to do these days? Seems like any time they add the smallest feature people are against it so they throw up some totally pointless petition thinking it will really make a difference. I do not envy the reps or devs who have to deal with this. Next you'll see a petition about Yoshi-P wanting to change his brand of coffee or wear a little more jewelry. IT'S NOT ALLOWED!

[Dragon]

Can we make a petition to end petitions? Oh how about a petition to end petitions and a petition to counter the end of petitions petition! We could petition that petition and another to petition the end of that petition. Really, is it the only thing people have to do these days? Seems like any time they add the smallest feature people are against it so they throw up some totally pointless petition thinking it will really make a difference. I do not envy the reps or devs who have to deal with this. Next you'll see a petition about Yoshi-P wanting to change his brand of coffee or wear a little more jewelry. IT'S NOT ALLOWED!

No, I want my petition for magical girl transformations first... then we'll start petitioning for petitions to be killed on-sight.

[XStruckX]

So getting back to the original topic of this long and drawn out thread, let me actually give my opinion on this. It centers around a few items:

* FFXIV should be fun
* FFXIV should be accessible
* FFXIV should be about choice
* FFXIV should pay for itself and generate profit for Square Enix

FFXIV should be fun
At the end of the day, FFXIV is a game. At the very core, it needs to be fun and entertaining in order to draw subscribers to sign up. One of the main goals of Square Enix in making FFXIV isn't to cater to those who are deeply vested in lore and challenge, but to take in subscription fees, pay the bills to keep the project running. In order to do that, the games needs to be fun. Which leads me to the next bullet.

FFXIV should be accessible
In the revelation that SE is a company that is trying to make money, their driver for making changes to the game is to make sure the game is balanced, has a lot of unique content, and is accessible to a large user base. Even though this is probably one of the harder MMOs to learn and play (so I've heard), it still needs to have options that cater to the more casual audience. Changes like the rested bonus, leve cap, and exp system are all prime examples. People that play 27 hours per day still have their "difficult" and "challenging" content that they can use, however people who play for 1 or 2 hours per day can still extract enjoyment out of their limited play time. I never played FFXI, but hearing about it from my LS mates really makes me glad I never did. As an MMO n00b, it sounds horribly inaccessible. Which leads me to the final point.

FFXIV should be about choice
All of the changes SE is implementing is to make for a better gameplay experience for a very broad audience. I see the changes as items to make the game more time efficient to play. It doesn't make it easier, but it allows casual players to experience more content in a shorter time span. If you are a hardcore player, it doesn't diminish your experience as you can also benefit from the changes (up to a point).

Likewise, you could choose to ignore the changes and get personal gratification that you're doing more than your neighbor to get to the same place. This is a choice you make and you assume all benefits and consequences of your choice. Just don't complain to anyone that you were unfairly disadvantaged in the number of Ifrit wins you could attain because you chose to walk from Ul'Dah to Broken Water whereas another player chose to teleport and get started quicker.

So these changes (I won't call them improvements) are to broaden the amount of choice a player has and bring in more subscribers, which leads to my final point.

FFXIV should pay for itself and generate profit for Square Enix
I would think of you as highly uneducated if you though SE made this game just because they wanted to cater to the hardcore fans. They do want to satisfy the player base but more importantly they want to grow the player base. This is because SE is a business. They are in it to drive revenue, make money, and keep the project self sustaining. Some companies have larger cash bases than others and can afford to keep projects going despite being cost centers (not breaking even or making profit). SE gambled for over a year by keeping the game free-to-play while patches, fixes, and content updates could improve the end user experience. In doing so, they sunk huge amounts of money into development and keeping the servers up, but they did so in hopes that the subscriber base would remain loyal and eventually start paying for content.

While I don't know the specifics of the accounting, I think it would be safe to say that SE hasn't actually recouped all of the costs for going with that strategy yet. I'm sure their massive cash reserves were funding the project and they wanted to keep it going. Only the SE management knows what the breaking point is and when they'll "officially" write off the whole endeavor and pull the plug.

With all that said (and I applaud you if you actually read it all), I don't think SE really gives a damn that you don't like the changes. They're making judgments based on what the majority of users want, what will bring in new players, and what will keep people paying subscription fees.

If you don't like the changes to the game, stop playing and stop paying them. I know I welcome these changes and are happy to keep giving them my monthly fees.

Posts should be limited to 1-2 sentences long that way I can read them without having to take my adderall...
I never know what the eff is going on Q.Q

[ChickNorris]

How about a petition to automatically change the word "petition" in a thread topic to the word "twinkie".

Additionally, if you do use the word, then it automatically changes all plural pronouns in the post to singular. This would be helpful in correcting the concept that a post represents anyone but the person posting it.

[Krausus]

So getting back to the original topic of this long and drawn out thread, let me actually give my opinion on this. It centers around a few items:

* FFXIV should be fun
* FFXIV should be accessible
* FFXIV should be about choice
* FFXIV should pay for itself and generate profit for Square Enix

FFXIV should be fun
At the end of the day, FFXIV is a game. At the very core, it needs to be fun and entertaining in order to draw subscribers to sign up. One of the main goals of Square Enix in making FFXIV isn't to cater to those who are deeply vested in lore and challenge, but to take in subscription fees, pay the bills to keep the project running. In order to do that, the games needs to be fun. Which leads me to the next bullet.

FFXIV should be accessible
In the revelation that SE is a company that is trying to make money, their driver for making changes to the game is to make sure the game is balanced, has a lot of unique content, and is accessible to a large user base. Even though this is probably one of the harder MMOs to learn and play (so I've heard), it still needs to have options that cater to the more casual audience. Changes like the rested bonus, leve cap, and exp system are all prime examples. People that play 27 hours per day still have their "difficult" and "challenging" content that they can use, however people who play for 1 or 2 hours per day can still extract enjoyment out of their limited play time. I never played FFXI, but hearing about it from my LS mates really makes me glad I never did. As an MMO n00b, it sounds horribly inaccessible. Which leads me to the final point.

FFXIV should be about choice
All of the changes SE is implementing is to make for a better gameplay experience for a very broad audience. I see the changes as items to make the game more time efficient to play. It doesn't make it easier, but it allows casual players to experience more content in a shorter time span. If you are a hardcore player, it doesn't diminish your experience as you can also benefit from the changes (up to a point).

Likewise, you could choose to ignore the changes and get personal gratification that you're doing more than your neighbor to get to the same place. This is a choice you make and you assume all benefits and consequences of your choice. Just don't complain to anyone that you were unfairly disadvantaged in the number of Ifrit wins you could attain because you chose to walk from Ul'Dah to Broken Water whereas another player chose to teleport and get started quicker.

So these changes (I won't call them improvements) are to broaden the amount of choice a player has and bring in more subscribers, which leads to my final point.

FFXIV should pay for itself and generate profit for Square Enix
I would think of you as highly uneducated if you though SE made this game just because they wanted to cater to the hardcore fans. They do want to satisfy the player base but more importantly they want to grow the player base. This is because SE is a business. They are in it to drive revenue, make money, and keep the project self sustaining. Some companies have larger cash bases than others and can afford to keep projects going despite being cost centers (not breaking even or making profit). SE gambled for over a year by keeping the game free-to-play while patches, fixes, and content updates could improve the end user experience. In doing so, they sunk huge amounts of money into development and keeping the servers up, but they did so in hopes that the subscriber base would remain loyal and eventually start paying for content.

While I don't know the specifics of the accounting, I think it would be safe to say that SE hasn't actually recouped all of the costs for going with that strategy yet. I'm sure their massive cash reserves were funding the project and they wanted to keep it going. Only the SE management knows what the breaking point is and when they'll "officially" write off the whole endeavor and pull the plug.

With all that said (and I applaud you if you actually read it all), I don't think SE really gives a damn that you don't like the changes. They're making judgments based on what the majority of users want, what will bring in new players, and what will keep people paying subscription fees.

If you don't like the changes to the game, stop playing and stop paying them. I know I welcome these changes and are happy to keep giving them my monthly fees.

great post