What is going on with Square Enix and the 14 team?

[aveyond-dreams]

This is what happens when instead of keeping people accountable, fans silence those who speak against key issues under the pretense of combatting alleged "toxicity." I'm sorry, but what we've seen come out of this patch is in no way acceptable.

Money and resources have disappeared and since FFXVI has nothing to show for it despite the looming promise of a spring reveal, from a company whose definition of fall extended all the way into late November, they are not doing a good job of maintaining my confidence in them.

[Shin96]

This is what happens when instead of keeping people accountable, fans silence those who speak against key issues under the pretense of combatting alleged "toxicity." I'm sorry, but what we've seen come out of this patch is in no way acceptable.

You are 100% correct on that. It's strange in a way. Let's say you have Hrothgar hairstyles without ears, for example? Well someone will defend it. But on no logical base. It's incredibly strange to me.

It's as if they take this as an attack on themselves or their ego. Many have supported this game for years and in no way would they want for FFXIV to be another WoW.

In other words, all they're doing is ruining this game without even realizing it.

[Midareyukki]

You are 100% correct on that. It's strange in a way. Let's say you have Hrothgar hairstyles without ears, for example? Well someone will defend it. But on no logical base. It's incredibly strange to me.

It's as if they take this as an attack on themselves or their ego. Many have supported this game for years and in no way would they want for FFXIV to be another WoW.

In other words, all they're doing is ruining this game without even realizing it.

I know people who complain sound whiny. And often people complain over trivial stuff.

But it's the people who complain that want to see the game thrive. And not every complaint is hare-brained.

Those who are satisfied with the game as-is likely will get bored of it and move on.

[Kyrj]

Between the healer problems for 6 years being ignored, the recent Hrothgar problems where they waited patiently for 3 years and got literal shit, to the horrid job design in 6.1, the pretty controversial story of EW, to now the housing system just imploding on itself. Do the devs just not care anymore? The game is seeing it’s peak, the game is bringing in more money than ever, and yet we’re somehow getting more broken systems. I guess this is what happens when they let the popularity get to their head? They start thinking they can half ass everything and people will continue to stay and kiss up to them. Seeing this community’s history i don’t blame them for thinking that way but…my god. The game is taking such a downward spiral. At this point i’m expecting Ultimate to have some major errors and that would be the icing on the cake.

I remember all the people saying that with the sudden boom of new players coming to FF14 that EW would have to slap hard. That slap you heard? It was FF14 falling on its face in front of those new players. Seriously, this has been the laziest expansion I've seen them do, which makes me think that Yoshida wants out.

[Arzalis]

It's been going on since Shadowbringers, honestly.

People were just kind of riding out the (admittedly great) story and overlooking all the other game/system issues.

IMO, FFXIV is suffering because of FFXVI development. It's obvious CBU3 has manpower related issues. Some part of their team is working on the other game and the timelines line up well enough for a typical game development cycle.

[Kuritzkale]

Personally I think it's a result of them trying desperately to appeal to the non MMORPG crowd. There wouldn't normally be anything wrong with that really, but they've taken it to pretty extreme levels and have simplified jobs repeatedly, and made the vast majority of content in the game braindead easy. Also probably has something to do with the community being overly positive to nearly every change, my guess is they don't really spend much time looking at the places where actual criticism against the game is laid, and just aren't aware of the problems people have with the direction the game is headed.

But then again, appealing to as wide a group of people as you can is a good business strategy, I guess, if all you care about if squeezing as much money out of people as possible and then moving on to the next new player that doesn't stick around for more than 3 months

[shao32]

I remember Yoship saying FFXIV will get way more budget... yeah on marketing bcs i see more announcements of the patch 6.1 everywhere more than content that is not broken or gutted, amace me how they are ok with current roghtgar and viera situations, healers, cut content, broken systems and overall oversimplification that kill job identity of so many jobs already.
I know old Yoship would have never tolerated such things and listen the playerbase but right now seems he is just focus on put the game in low manteinance and maximun profit while he focus on other projects.

[Nabby]

Man, these official forums are wild.

[Mapleine]

Man, these official forums are wild.

The official forums are just the venting grounds, I was venting a bit too until 6.1 rebuilt confidence. They used to be a bit better though, like people were still whiny messes in ARR (me too) but the WoW exodus had a highly obvious effect and some people just found that type of miasma to stew in due to it.

Consider that this is the largest x.1 we've had by a fair clip, and we have the handful of denizens on this forum complaining about the exact opposite right in its wake. Just the roadmap listing for 6.2 makes 5.2 look like anemic by comparison. COVID ran a spike through Shadowbringers, as they stressed about 3 times, and we're barely now recovering. That much is obvious.

I do think people are in the right about job design though. It's not "ruined" or anything but it's on a worrying trend. Healing has always been a confused mess, from ARR to now, it isn't a recent occurance. I really wish they'd just give up on it and make the PvP WHM a reality. XIV is a game about puzzles and patterns, it's scripted and its rough to make exciting healing for that.

So gimmie my damn lily beam and seraph strike.

[Atelier-Bagur]

The official forums are just the venting grounds, I was venting a bit too until 6.1 rebuilt confidence. They used to be a bit better though, like people were still whiny messes in ARR (me too) but the WoW exodus had a highly obvious effect and some people just found that type of miasma to stew in due to it.

Consider that this is the largest x.1 we've had by a fair clip, and we have the handful of denizens on this forum complaining about the exact opposite right in its wake. Just the roadmap listing for 6.2 makes 5.2 look like anemic by comparison. COVID ran a spike through Shadowbringers, as they stressed about 3 times, and we're barely now recovering. That much is obvious.

I do think people are in the right about job design though. It's not "ruined" or anything but it's on a worrying trend. Healing has always been a confused mess, from ARR to now, it isn't a recent occurance. I really wish they'd just give up on it and make the PvP WHM a reality. XIV is a game about puzzles and patterns, it's scripted and its rough to make exciting healing for that.

So gimmie my damn lily beam and seraph strike.

This right here, is the most sensible post Ive seen yet.