announcement showcase!

[Shougun]

In terms of my hopes? I'd agree, and I also agree with your comments on how this all pivots on whether they intend for XIV to be there for the long haul, or take a backseat to a newer MMO. But I'm going in with very muted expectations... even as to the trailer.

What I'd like to see is for them to expand and improve upon character customisation, primarily.

Bonus points would be Zenos dying off rather quickly in the expansion; a darkness-based caster, be it Time Mage, Necromancer, whatever; good new abilities and playstyle twists for existing jobs (esp BLM/SMN, which I main); more variety in harder content (e.g. dungeon challenge modes); and finally seeing derplander in some caster job in the trailer. But most of those relate to things I don't expect them to touch on until the later fanfests.

Dark job hypeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEee! I don't think dark like it has to be evil or even willingly doing something "bad" but man I really want a dark focused job and if possible also just plainly dark as you go through the checklists. Like in FFXI with blue mage where you shattered your soul. Dante, Vincent, or Yuri - in how they either had some or very little control over the demon/darkness within. Or since I've watched it recently you've the main character in the Sweet Home Korean drama.

Would love for the job to be top to bottom lore to visuals to gameplay feel "dark" (which doesn't mean "black exclusively, no other colors ever" lol, speaking upon the theme of the word and the vibes drawn from the job as you play it). And of course have a lot of magic vibes to it. You know my bias is probably to a dark transformation based job (which I did include a mage transformation as part of the suggested design) but I'd be excited for pretty much any type lol.

Actually pointing at your signature image in vibes, like Sweet Home, or some of the other games I mentioned (Yuri from Shadow Hearts). A job that is clearly resting right on the edge of chaos. As mentioned in the post but also to people who have qualms with the idea of WoL willingly doing something that brings chaos.. is where I point out A. SE did it before, in this game and others, and B. that's fine the lore doesn't have to be entirely willing (like FFXI blue mage, and also like in this game already (lightwarden) and others). Some of the lore could be made much better if it wasn't purely willing (how you have to deal with your job's quest line for example could offer some really fun personal responses to npcs and as well discuss some of the morals of chaos and utilizing fire to fight fire). In real life I'm really hesitant about the idea of fighting fire with fire, just sounds like a great way to burn down the whole neighborhood and bring in many innocents.. but in games I absolutely love the dark fire with dark fire edge of chaos themes (so a job that had a bit of fun on that moral point, while also giving you a bit of an out in that it wasn't entirely willing, could be quite fun).

Some may point out Dark Knight but, I imagine this as a DD job and I've other issues like I just massively prefer playing Paladin in gameplay and features (and the holy knight as a tank is a favorite theme for that- so when playing Dark Knight I mostly just think "I should be playing Paladin right now" lol). Paladin is just my go to main for tanking. Also Dark Knight, imo, doesn't really capture that essence I was trying to point out with your avatar or other games edge of chaos characters. That broken nonchalant confident smile, confident yet two seconds away from exploding into pure chaos and or rage. Although to be fair the story for Dark Knight was fun and does have dark moments - it's definitely a job up there in terms of when I was paying closer attention to the story (not attempting to insult dark knight).

I'm sure you have your own biases on how that is best represented, but just wanted to share mine lol. Long wish for that and especially done by FF's artists who are told to "make chaos".

On expectations- I might be a little "awwww" if we didn't get too much for this 5th but I wouldn't riot if it was more hints and less substance. Mostly I think then my response would rely on presentation. Naturally I don't want to be misled/lied to so I'd prefer if they can't then they don't lol. I'm not "unburnable" but I don't find SE to be just like an EA/Activision or something where if I don't "distrust them" I'm a fool (those companies can still make great games, and they do have talented people even in the bad ones - don't want to bag on the employees, but they've shown time and time again trusting them too much is a shame on you moment).

Since you mentioned customization and dungeon content, I personally hope for improvement of their exploration loops and the general sense of "existence" / role play. Like you might point out each job in WoW tends to have something that makes them cute both in and out of combat, FFXIV has the in-combat thing (sometimes, certain jobs are way more pronounced than others), but there is basically zero concept of this outside of bard in FFXIV. WoW does that sort of thing on multiple levels at multiple points of game play, it's not just jobs, or just races, or just a random quest. I really would like to see SE pick up on that thought process (although it's not really important to me on races, I'm fine with that being more same same... but jobs, or the general vibe of being in a location I feel they could improve). Why is dragoon taking more fall damage than any other job? Flip me a table right now, that is anti-role play lol. Small thing like fires in WoW often burn you but here it's like whatever, fire, ground, all the same thing. Now if SE is planning to cool FFXIV off and heat up another flagship mmo.. I guess hopefully they'll take that concept into their next game (and that can be a huge cool new selling point to the game) but if not... still wishing they did it here. That idea pervades many systems its not just that random jump example, like we've nearly no critters that peaceful run about and everything must aggro you for whatever reason. Extra things here and there that make a concept stand out as "that is what that would do.. yeah.. feels right...", like campfires do something. On a far greater aside and more FF specific concept I still miss airships too . . . obtaining an airship was a major memory for me in many FFs.

Although I don't really expect that (role play to suddenly be brought to the fore front).. just wanted to respond to your more specific desires with my own .

[Lauront]

Dark job hypeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEee! I don't think dark like it has to be evil or even willingly doing something "bad" but man I really want a dark focused job and if possible also just plainly dark as you go through the checklists. Like in FFXI with blue mage where you shattered your soul. Dante, Vincent, or Yuri - in how they either had some or very little control over the demon/darkness within. Or since I've watched it recently you've the main character in the Sweet Home Korean drama.

Would love for the job to be top to bottom lore to visuals to gameplay feel "dark" (which doesn't mean "black exclusively, no other colors ever" lol, speaking upon the theme of the word and the vibes drawn from the job as you play it). And of course have a lot of magic vibes to it. You know my bias is probably to a dark transformation based job (which I did include a mage transformation as part of the suggested design) but I'd be excited for pretty much any type lol.

I'm a big fan of warlocks and necromancers, but particularly the Ascian aesthetic. Speaking of dark transformations, one of my favourite in the game is the Ascian Prime form, and its lich-like look. Which apparently also doubles as a way to rekindle long lost romances.

Actually pointing at your signature image in vibes, like Sweet Home, or some of the other games I mentioned (Yuri from Shadow Hearts). A job that is clearly resting right on the edge of chaos. As mentioned in the post but also to people who have qualms with the idea of WoL willingly doing something that brings chaos.. is where I point out A. SE did it before, in this game and others, and B. that's fine the lore doesn't have to be entirely willing (like FFXI blue mage, and also like in this game already (lightwarden) and others). Some of the lore could be made much better if it wasn't purely willing (how you have to deal with your job's quest line for example could offer some really fun personal responses to npcs and as well discuss some of the morals of chaos and utilizing fire to fight fire). In real life I'm really hesitant about the idea of fighting fire with fire, just sounds like a great way to burn down the whole neighborhood and bring in many innocents.. but in games I absolutely love the dark fire with dark fire edge of chaos themes (so a job that had a bit of fun on that moral point, while also giving you a bit of an out in that it wasn't entirely willing, could be quite fun).

Absolutely. This game doesn't really have much scope to play an 'evil' character, for example along the lines of the Sith, but given that darkness is just another cosmic force without any inherent alignment to it, and that you already pick up some dark/forbidden arts, I'd like something that delved deeper into that. Sort of like WoW's warlock. Especially as the Ascians are a bit more accessible to us now than they were before (barring Fandaniel, who is barely one), I'd like to see some room to pick up their arts. Alternatively, some non-"evil" way of incorporating necromancy. As a last resort, a time mage that uses darkness as their primary "element".

Some may point out Dark Knight but, I imagine this as a DD job and I've other issues like I just massively prefer playing Paladin in gameplay and features (and the holy knight as a tank is a favorite theme for that- so when playing Dark Knight I mostly just think "I should be playing Paladin right now" lol). Paladin is just my go to main for tanking. Also Dark Knight, imo, doesn't really capture that essence I was trying to point out with your avatar or other games edge of chaos characters. That broken nonchalant confident smile, confident yet two seconds away from exploding into pure chaos and or rage. Although to be fair the story for Dark Knight was fun and does have dark moments - it's definitely a job up there in terms of when I was paying closer attention to the story (not attempting to insult dark knight).

Yeah, I don't really enjoy tanks much, and I don't really care for the DRK quests outside of Fray (which is really the closest it got to what you're describing.) So DRK doesn't fill that void for me - although it's my go to tank if I ever do queue as one. BLM is the closest aesthetically, but it still has some distance to go.

On expectations- I might be a little "awwww" if we didn't get too much for this 5th but I wouldn't riot if it was more hints and less substance. Mostly I think then my response would rely on presentation. Naturally I don't want to be misled/lied to so I'd prefer if they can't then they don't lol. I'm not "unburnable" but I don't find SE to be just like an EA/Activision or something where if I don't "distrust them" I'm a fool (those companies can still make great games, and they do have talented people even in the bad ones - don't want to bag on the employees, but they've shown time and time again trusting them too much is a shame on you moment).

Since you mentioned customization and dungeon content, I personally hope for improvement of their exploration loops and the general sense of "existence" / role play. Like you might point out each job in WoW tends to have something that makes them cute both in and out of combat, FFXIV has the in-combat thing (sometimes, certain jobs are way more pronounced than others), but there is basically zero concept of this outside of bard in FFXIV. WoW does that sort of thing on multiple levels at multiple points of game play, it's not just jobs, or just races, or just a random quest. I really would like to see SE pick up on that thought process (although it's not really important to me on races, I'm fine with that being more same same... but jobs, or the general vibe of being in a location I feel they could improve). Why is dragoon taking more fall damage than any other job? Flip me a table right now, that is anti-role play lol. Small thing like fires in WoW often burn you but here it's like whatever, fire, ground, all the same thing. Now if SE is planning to cool FFXIV off and heat up another flagship mmo.. I guess hopefully they'll take that concept into their next game (and that can be a huge cool new selling point to the game) but if not... still wishing they did it here. That idea pervades many systems its not just that random jump example, like we've nearly no critters that peaceful run about and everything must aggro you for whatever reason. Extra things here and there that make a concept stand out as "that is what that would do.. yeah.. feels right...", like campfires do something. On a far greater aside and more FF specific concept I still miss airships too . . . obtaining an airship was a major memory for me in many FFs.

Although I don't really expect that (role play to suddenly be brought to the fore front).. just wanted to respond to your more specific desires with my own .

I'd have liked to see it with races too, as I believe it's one of those things WoW does really well - very distinctive racial design, including zones - but I think it's probably too much effort for SE to consider for XIV given how it's been designed. Definitely something I'd like for them to consider for any future MMOs. However, I do hope they'd at least think about it with jobs.

My hopes:
- Zenos fails to absorb Zodiark in 5.5, leaving him dead before the expansion launches (and leading head first into 6.0 with Zodiark being free.

Take my money.

[SturmChurro]

In terms of my hopes? I'd agree, and I also agree with your comments on how this all pivots on whether they intend for XIV to be there for the long haul, or take a backseat to a newer MMO. But I'm going in with very muted expectations... even as to the trailer.

I don't see this as being the case. This game will continue to go on, probably as long as WoW continues to go on. Both are insanely popular. All they are ending is this story arc, and doing something else - hopefully for the better, story wise.

[Lauront]

I don't see this as being the case. This game will continue to go on, probably as long as WoW continues to go on. Both are insanely popular. All they are ending is this story arc, and doing something else - hopefully for the better, story wise.

But taking a backseat in this context doesn't mean having it end. After all, XI is still around.

As for being insanely popular... by MMO standards? Sure. Even so, it's a playerbase of around 900k according to the recent census luckybancho did - down from 1,2m earlier on. That's not comparable to WoW at its peak.

If what they're (potentially) planning is meaningfully different to XIV, and had the potential to capture a greater number of players without cannibalising existing subs, would they not consider such an investment?

It's worth reading those links I posted. Based on them, I think they would, and it's implied in the fact that they consider this generation of MMOs to be a bit dated, therefore out of sync with the times, and probably less capable of capturing younger players. So if they just wanted to keep the game running with relatively low-cost, story driven content that kept it at more or less its current player numbers, which provide a steady stream of profit to them, they might do that - that's what I mean by "take a backseat". Steer away from any big investments in it. As the new MMO would effectively be a departure from XIV's style of MMO, they might not even be concerned about sub cannibalisation.

I've highlighted the relevant sections:

Jeux Online: What do you think about the future of the MMORPG genre as whole? The 1st gen and 2nd gen MMORPG audiences have gotten older and the newer generation doesn’t seem that interested in MMOs. So, where do you think the future of MMO lies?

Naoki Yoshida: First and foremost, with Final Fantasy XIV, we do believe that this game is at the maybe tail-end of the 2nd generation of MMORPGs. I believe that World of Warcraft was sort of the start of that 2nd generation. Having that kind of strong content-driven MMOs defined the MMORPGs of that generation. With Final Fantasy XIV, I believe this is the newest game within that generation of MMORPGs, but I also feel that we are coming to the very late part of that 2nd generation. So, I feel that there probably won’t be another MMO that is similar to what has already come out.

Even if Final Fantasy XIV were to release further expansions, maybe 3 or 4 more expansions, we don’t believe that FFXIV would evolve into the 3rd generation of MMORPGs.

We would just continue to pursue and perfect what we have so that we aim to become the ultimate MMORPG within our current generation.

In terms of the 3rd generation of MMORPGs, I believe that we would need to have something design that is fundamentally different.

I think there is a very important element, a keyword almost. The younger generation is one thing, but even with those existing gamers that have become older, there is really not a difference between those two parties. Both types of people have become very busy and there are so many different forms of entertainment, a lot of smart devices being out and available and it is more difficult to carve the time to sit down and do content. Previously, we wouldn’t have to worry about it because there weren’t so much distractions that would take us away, we had the time to sit down and do this sort of time-consuming content. But nowadays, when you start playing a game, you might get an email, you might get a text message, friends might want you to go see the latest movie or go out for a drink ; there are so many different things and so much materialistic objects that can distract you.There are all vying for your time.

You may be aware that worldwide we’ve seen games of the MOBA genre or Battle Royale games becoming very popular, games that people can jump in whenever they want, have that sort of instant gratification, and then quit whenever they want. I think that’s a very attractive set-up for the modern gamer or any gamer in this current time basically. And we feel that for MMOs of the next generation, it is important that we capitalize on that. It is something that’s a key element.

We feel that those are very important elements to incorporate if we were to bring a game that moves us into the next generation of the genre. But if we were to divulge more details, I think we would be giving hints to our competitors on our company’s ideas so I think I’m gonna stop right there.

...and...

Games like Fortnite and Overwatch are vying for dedicated, online audiences like MMOs do - as a traditional MMO creator how does that make you feel?

Naoki Yoshida: This is happening because the video game industry continuously evolves. Just taking this example, traditional JRPGs are based on turn-based games. and especially for the youth, they feel that it's quite outdated, they don't really understand.. Talking about the younger generation, someone up to the age of 25, because prior to the time they were born, there was relatively high-spec hardware for their gaming experiences - their character is rendered very realistically and they can actually control the characters directly - by pressing one button, the character will punch the enemies or fire the gun...

That's why we don't feel those types of games are a threat because the basic game is designed completely differently. Because the audience that's playing Overwatch and Fortnite are probably in their 20s, they're a younger audience. If that younger audience becomes our main audience for FF14 or our current MMORPG, then we may need to cater to that new audience and create the excitement that they want from a game. We feel that FF14 doesn't really need to play that role. It should be the next generation of MMOs. But if we want to make an MMO which doesn't require targeting, that would be really difficult. We'd probably need to make some drastic changes to the game where there are text chats, but people are using voice chat and you can choose your play style, you can quit anything, you can come back any time... That kind of generation and time will definitely come, but personally speaking it looks very difficult so I don't want to do it!

I think the main question is whether they could pull together the resource to do it, but a lot of the challenges around this for XIV stem from its combat design and early design decisions, which such an MMO would, by intention, deviate away from.

[Fawkes]

I think by this time we would have had quite a bit of information about the next expansion from fanfests. So we should be getting a pretty big infodump.

Unless everything got delayed by a lot.

[Greyhawk]

Announcement will be a SEKRIT

[KageTokage]

At minimum I'm expecting the trailer for the next expansion and possibly an announcement of the next collab event.

[Hanayumi]

Yeah pretty sure its going to be some expansion info, prolly w/e info we would've gotten for 1st fanfest. I believe they're looking into doing some kind of major virtual fanfest later on, but for now it'll be the usual droplets of info.

[StriderShinryu]

It's going to be interesting given that they'll probably still want to be careful about what exactly they do reveal (and there may be stuff they would have normally shown but that just isn't ready yet because of COVID delay). I'm sure we'll be getting at least some of the new expansion news but I wouldn't be shocked if we didn't get more than the name, a teaser trailer and maybe just a hint of the new job(s). I'm guessing it's going to be a slimmer reveal than some people are thinking it may be.

[Shougun]

Just realized I hardly addressed the OP, go me XD..

what's everyone think will be announced?

Future FFXIV content, including some portion of expansion information. From the trailer (probably?) we'll get hints of setting and jobs but if there is more than one job it'll not be both jobs then (saving some info for later), wonder if there will be any alien/space like visuals. Less likely but kind of hoping for a special FFXVI content drop as well.

any chances it will have expansion/job details since by now we should have had at least 1 fan fest and are behind on details only 1 patch left for the expansion and we have had no details on 6.0 at all.

I think it's likely some portion of the job details would be revealed, likely not being guaranteed... Either through strong hints in the trailer or just blatantly "oh btw" after the media completes. If there are two jobs I feel one will be kept a secret, if there is going to be two jobs and a limited job then it might be one job hint and limited job details.

anything anyone specifically wants to hear about?

Design philosophy and goals for the expansion, marrying content reveals with inspiration and desires, as well as the general future for the game, hopefully with a passion and voracious apatite to keep FFXIV (and SE in general) on that ivory hill. Like I'm not saying "next expansion if it doesn't do X then it's going to suck", that'd be silly, but say for example WoW has consistently improved old systems as they move forward and FFXIV is getting to that age where /if/ the game is going to continue to be their flagship it would be nice to see a sign of that idea that they are going to polish and re-kit it then when needed (as an example their glamour log, in comparison to most other major mmos, is pretty bad - to be fair it is totally functional, it does most of the job it needs but it's just like... would you rather drive the beat up car or the brand new fancy luxury vehicle? lol). However if they intend to make a new mmo after FFXIV's main saga concludes I'm not expecting them to rekit FFXIV too much- but I definitely would like to 'feel' an excitement for the future of their game(s). This may be difficult given covid and crunch together. . . but just thinking to myself it would be nice to feel that child like wonder and excitement.

Not feeling the need to over promise or lie, just being excited to talk about what they actually have (don't Cyperpunk me lol).

These feelings carry onto their next announcement too not just this one (if they weren't excited here it's not like I'd be "well RIP SE" lol).

More tangible points, besides major features that demonstrate an effort to push the envelope past whatever was already clearly readily possible I also really enjoy environments. For me it was fun to hear and see them talk about how they attempted to push the verticality of their zones as much as their engine could handle without exploding all over the place, I was pleased that they worked hard on that and I feel it was worth it (and hope they continue with like thoughts). Naturally jobs can be really fun, but say if it was a limited job JUST like BLU or Chemist I might be more ambivalent (or sad depending on the limited job), so jobs are not a guaranteed massive hype to me (although they totally can be). I make a note "just like BLU" since there might be different interpretations of the system that I might think are interesting, just not BLU (this isn't a blue thread so stripping down many reasons into one shallow point would simply be "I've no value in PF exclusive designed content", but that is a massive simplifications of a multi-point reason on why I'm not a fan /that/ interpretation). For example of they made a transforming based normal job I'd probably have an internal trainwreck of excitement, massive hype. Or if it was a limited job designed /actually/ for solo play (PF may be allowed but it at no point was part of the design consideration), maybe interesting. But if it was like "yo more BLU but now it's this transforming gimmicking that we couldn't think of creatively working in a normal situation even though many other mmos figured it out" I'd probably be very very disappointed. Which all to say is of course I want to hear about the jobs but my response to what I hear may vary, meanwhile I'm near 100% confident that whatever the environment is revealed I'll be excited.