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

[aveyond-dreams]

I more or less view Yoship as a sort of "grandad" you only see on holidays in the sense that while he gives good gifts...sometimes you end up with a singing fish mounted on a plaque for Christmas instead of the present you wanted. Sometimes he returns the singing wall fish to the store, sometimes he doesn't and insists you take it. However, given the state of the rest of SE I do not support calls for his removals given that anyone besides him will probably be worse.

In any case, his hiccups are occasionally remedied by individual developers with their own passions/ideas such as whatever faction within the team clearly wanted to make male Viera and shared that desire along with no small amount of the playerbase. That, along with whoever said enough was enough with Wow-lock SMN and remade it into an actual Summoner after 8 years of running around in circles, but given how late these changes came in, that class is still missing quite a bit of Final Fantasy summoner staple material. As a director he should have put his own foot down about that way earlier, instead of waiting for the job to implode like it did.

I am also looking forward to Final Fantasy XVI under his management because while he isn't perfect, I trust him to perform the necessary quality control checks on FFXVI so that we get a complete product at launch and not an unfinished mishmash like FFXV was. However, I don't know what to believe regarding the repeated updates of "it's totally almost done guys!" we get every now and then because there is still *nothing* to show for FFXVI since its original announcement. Given how FFXVI is written by some of FFXIV's best writers, along with the promise of a more mature story being confirmed by Yoship not too long ago, I believe that I'll finally be able to catch a break with a more Dragon-Age like game instead of the high school manga storytelling we've been seeing in FFXIV lately.

[Theodric]

I more or less view Yoship as a sort of "grandad" you only see on holidays in the sense that while he gives good gifts...sometimes you end up with a singing fish mounted on a plaque for Christmas instead of the present you wanted. Sometimes he returns the singing wall fish to the store, sometimes he doesn't and insists you take it. However, given the state of the rest of SE I do not support calls for his removals given that anyone besides him will probably be worse.

Rather than his removal, I simply think he needs to take the initiative to reach out to players and ask them what they'd like to see. By reaching out to players, however, I mean actual players. Not streamers with a financial incentive to suck up to the guy or hold back their criticism so that they get invited back to the next media tour.

A survey sent out to all players every twelve or six months would allow a decent amount of data to be gathered. I'm no expert, though I'm pretty sure there's third party companies that exist which could be brought on board to conduct the survey itself and compile the data gathered - leaving Square Enix largely free to just pay someone trustworthy to do it on their behalf.

[Jaquan]

Honestly? I like Yoshi-P but salvaging 1.0 into something playable wasn't that impressive a feat and neither was it something accomplished by a single person. Many of the same people who praise him for it have nothing but contempt for the ARR era these days which is to me an admission that actually things weren't all that great after all.

To a large degree, I'd say it's more so the 'Final Fantasy' name that caused many people to give the game a second chance. Coincidentally, many of the other MMO's that are still chugging along these days also lean heavily on player nostalgia. GW2 has GW1 to tap into, ESO has the various Elder Scrolls games to work with and WoW did very well for itself whenever it referenced the Warcraft games.

But, yeah, the whole 'go play other games' never sat well with me because many of us do that already. It doesn't change the fact that when someone is up to date with FFXIV's patch cycle then there's often a lack of things to actually do that aren't just a tedious grind for the sake of a tedious grind. More content like Crystal Conflict that is easy to just jump right into with no setup would be wonderful.

I'm not sure if it's entirely accurate. Maybe I give gamers too much credit or overestimate their intelligence but trust lost is generally hard to regain. WoW is the perfect example as even now the new expansion announcement is getting mixed reception among those that left the game. From games with failed release don't look further than recent Cyberpunk 2077 which while getting more positive traction still can't get rid of the "unfinished product" and "false advertising" branding it got. So yeah doing it for MMO like FFXIV was an impressive feat though that doesn't mean the game or dev team are beyond making mistakes.

Can't say I'm all that versed in FFXIV but so far I'm glad the game isn't exactly boiling down to "Race to max level where the real game begins" like it did in WoW or even EVE which due to it's skill system basically forced the player to sit down on their ass for weeks before they could try any of the engaging content. In that regard WoW's decline came from the fact that everything in the game revolved around the end game and everything was mandatory so you don't fall behind the curve. Reliance on "Borrowed Power" system that would lose all meaning after you get to the next expansion didn't really help their cause

[Lauront]

yes I did, he didn't suggest anything he just layed out the idea

You don't seem to know what I am talking about - see here.

[Balmung_Griffin]

NFT market tanking just as SQEX sells studios to put into this shit lmao
We now know the next failed venture XIV money will have to cover.

[aveyond-dreams]

The impression that the CEO leaves is not a good one. From the first time I saw him dressed up as FFXIV's Blue Mage of all things, and now to his *love* of NFTs, SE's reputation is taking several blows outside of FFXIV's success.

[Midareyukki]

The impression that the CEO leaves is not a good one. From the first time I saw him dressed up as FFXIV's Blue Mage of all things, and now to his *love* of NFTs, SE's reputation is taking several blows outside of FFXIV's success.

Good think they added a punching bag of him for you to beat up in NieR Automata.

I know Square was never a company to look at what its competition was doing, but other companies got into NFTs and had to back out of them due to backlash. It's not a good investment whatsoever.

[IkaraGreydancer]

An answer that is used like a Swiss knife to dispel one and all criticisms of the game. I'm almost convinced he answered that to intentionally inject this argument into the community for use so that fans can do his job in allaying community concerns for him.

Yet...its not used to dispel all criticism of the game. That's VERY inaccurate

[Raskbuck]

That's because the information they got regarding NFT and the blockchain technology was likely filled with buzzwords and empty promises of the potential revenue they could make. The executives see some people buy and sell these things for an absurd amount of money, and they want in on it.

They seem to have missed the memo that this trend is quickly losing its steam and staying power, and every NFT related video game has failed harder than Balan Wonderworld and Avengers combined. Because these tokens were never made with the intention to penetrate the gaming market; they are speculative tools used as an excuse to launder money and scam people.

It's our modern day snake oil, and SE's aggressive push on the matter makes it really clear as to why they are on the business. We're talking about the same company that is selling a $16,000 USD figurine of Terra, which is grossly overpriced.

Granted, every company out there wants to make money. That's their sole reason of existing. But as a consumer myself, I'd expect a molecule of passion and genuine interest in video games. The current executives have shown anything but, specially by getting rid of beloved IPs like Tomb Raider for a fraction of their worth. And just to push on this venture they seem to be fixated on.

I'm sure the devs and most people down the totem pole are genuine about their passion with video games. But the people spearheading the company have failed to meet my expectations.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Yet...its not used to dispel all criticism of the game. That's VERY inaccurate

It is thoufh, it’s not inaccurate at all. Many many posters including yourself have used that statement countless times to deflect criticism because someone expresses not enjoying some form of content or wanting something new or something changed, in which case people typically use the yoshi quote and say “just unsub”