Feeling Defeated

[Doho]

While I think timers should remain as is (just because you can enter doesn't mean you must), I hardly disagree with encouraging people to do speedruns.

My first time in CC I was told to not fight anything. We basically just ran through. What is this? [run away!] Online? It's unbelieveable. It's called Disciple of War for a reason.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Yet, when i tell people this, they look at me funny. I WANT TO FIGHT. the only reason i log on is to FIGHT. (and occasionally craft and harvest) BUT MOSTLY FIGHT.

[Payadopa]

Why, thank you.
And here I though I was the only one.
(oh and I mean strongly instead of hardly. I really need some coffee >.>')

[Rizon]

I have been playing FFXIV for over a year now and there has definitely been a lot of positive changes and I have had a lot of fun.

However, lately I have been feeling completely defeated while playing this game. The total reliance on random drops with ridiculously low drop rates for content such as Ifrit, Moogle, raids, coffers, HQ mats, materia, hamlet, and now apparently artifact weapons will require a combination of many of these, is completely un-motivating. (Yeah this is another one of those threads @_@; but this is a major problem in my opinion)

In all seriousness though, this is a game and should not cause the level of frustration, or perhaps even resentment it does. I'm not saying everything should be handed to us, but for some of us bad luck follows us around (I spent a month and a half doing Darkhold to get the Revolutionary Bliaud, done Ifrit probably 100 times and have only a single totem and a bow i cant use to show for it). This game will need to alienate it's players by defeating them in this manner.

Aside from raising drop rate and such, personally, I would like to see most things changed to system like Garuda drops implemented for applicable content. This would provide a sense of accomplishment as well as a motivation to continue doing the content. I would also like to see a system that would allow for trading in a drop you cant use, either to some one who can or to an npc in exchange for one you can. I realize I am reiterating a lot of things already said on the forums, so sorry about that, but I feel that this needs reiterating.

Thanks for your time reading my rant.

Hmmm. I think there are more threads concerning this topic then actual Primal Drops. Could be wrong but not by much

[Onisake]

They literally have to make this content last till 2.0, they are going to make it as grindy, and the most pain staking to keep you in the game as long as possible and to ensure continued subscriptions of players.

Anyone else get seriously irked whenever they see someone say 'They are just making it a grind fest to keep people here and make us keep playing. all they want is our money.' you're still here. you clearly don't care. why bring it up? go do something else if you hate the grind. plenty of free games out there. go play league of legends. go play D3 or starcraft. Go play skyrim. go play vindictus, CoH, or any number of OTHER Games while you wait for 2.0.

Square Enix is a company. they have interests. they have share-holders. profits are a big concern for them. but whenever i see someone say that i dismiss anything and everything they have to say. you don't' know how a company really works. and you especially don't' know how a japanese company works. you have clear misconceptions of business and company culture. just stop talking about it. you don't' know. you CAN'T know what SE is thinking and what their business culture is like. you don't work for them. just let them do their thing. you dont' have to keep playing. you dont' like it walk the **** away.

now honestly. and i mean really use your brain here. How much money do you think SE made off of launch of FFXIV? if you think it was in the black, think again. their next mmo was anounced back in what? 2005? 6 years of development made up in launch? not likely. they were counting on making profit through subscriptions in the long run. now keep in mind there was an extended free period. Now, how much money do you think they've sank into keeping this game alive? How much easier would it have been to cut losses and kill the project before yoshi took over?

To put it into perspective. assuming a $15USD monthly subscription:

a software developer in Japan makes roughly 70k USD a year. that's ~5.8k a month. that means it takes almost 390 subscribers to pay for one developer.

now back in october if you looked at server loads you might see 40k people on during peak times. meaning you might have a total subscription base of 100k. i haven't looked at server log-ins recently. but i'm assuming its lower. let's say half of them stayed on board. 50k total subscribers. which means maybe 9 million over the course of a year. that's enough to support maybe 100 people + overhead if there's an average salary of 70k for all employees on this project. Square-Enix japan reports to have 3.2k employees as a comparison. I doubt they are making money. They might be breaking even on current costs. It's almost guaranteed they are not in the black on this. Keep in mind they need to support the development team, the live team, testers, Quality, servers, marketing, logistics, etc. etc.

So tell me again why they are so concerned about keeping a game alive that clearly costs them a ton of money and might break even a couple of years after 2.0 launch? because any logical businessman would have cut losses and pursued more lucrative projects long ago. hell, bare minimum shut the servers down. re purpose the current live team and just wait for 2.0 launch.

know what i think? I think it's because SE truly loves what they do. they take pride in it. they love their fans. they love their games and they want to make them the best they can be. they want us to enjoy it too. even if it means taking a loss. If i have to, heaven forbid, grind a little while because its the easiest thing to implement while they clean up problems, make better content, and make the game better than ever so i can really enjoy it. guess what? i'm not going to complain. because honestly FFXI was the same way. and i loved that game

END F***ING RANT

[Geo]

Because HAMLET DEFENSE will reset duh~

[Vaer]

They should probably replace dark matter in chests with seals. So even if you don't get the ifrit/mog/garuda weapon, you get some seals you can use to buy some green GC stuff, or you can save them to work toward the 25k item for a relic. If you can get quite a bit of seals for an Ifrit weapon, why not give a fraction as a consolation prize when you don't get one?

Then you would be working toward something... Ranking up... Green GC weapons... 25k relic item, crafting/gathering scrolls, etc.

I mean, you can even buy dark matter 20 at a time with seals...

[Jinko]

Agree with the OP, I duno how Yoshi-p thinks this kind of content will keep people playing long term.

Most will up sticks and leave out of pure frustration.

[Xeonerable]

I have been playing FFXIV for over a year now and there has definitely been a lot of positive changes and I have had a lot of fun.

However, lately I have been feeling completely defeated while playing this game. The total reliance on random drops with ridiculously low drop rates for content such as Ifrit, Moogle, raids, coffers, HQ mats, materia, hamlet, and now apparently artifact weapons will require a combination of many of these, is completely un-motivating. (Yeah this is another one of those threads @_@; but this is a major problem in my opinion)

In all seriousness though, this is a game and should not cause the level of frustration, or perhaps even resentment it does. I'm not saying everything should be handed to us, but for some of us bad luck follows us around (I spent a month and a half doing Darkhold to get the Revolutionary Bliaud, done Ifrit probably 100 times and have only a single totem and a bow i cant use to show for it). This game will need to alienate it's players by defeating them in this manner.

Aside from raising drop rate and such, personally, I would like to see most things changed to system like Garuda drops implemented for applicable content. This would provide a sense of accomplishment as well as a motivation to continue doing the content. I would also like to see a system that would allow for trading in a drop you cant use, either to some one who can or to an npc in exchange for one you can. I realize I am reiterating a lot of things already said on the forums, so sorry about that, but I feel that this needs reiterating.

Thanks for your time reading my rant.

It really is a disturbing trend to see so much content reward players by dumb luck rather than skill and/or progression. Sure low drop rates can keep items rare but having that system for almost everything is disheartening.

I hope SE steers clear of this method for 2.0. They want to keep people playing, and this abuse of random number generator will just make players grow weary much sooner.

[Grimwald]

Anyone else get seriously irked whenever they see someone say 'They are just making it a grind fest to keep people here and make us keep playing. all they want is our money.' you're still here. you clearly don't care. why bring it up? go do something else if you hate the grind. plenty of free games out there. go play league of legends. go play D3 or starcraft. Go play skyrim. go play vindictus, CoH, or any number of OTHER Games while you wait for 2.0.

Square Enix is a company. they have interests. they have share-holders. profits are a big concern for them. but whenever i see someone say that i dismiss anything and everything they have to say. you don't' know how a company really works. and you especially don't' know how a japanese company works. you have clear misconceptions of business and company culture. just stop talking about it. you don't' know. you CAN'T know what SE is thinking and what their business culture is like. you don't work for them. just let them do their thing. you dont' have to keep playing. you dont' like it walk the **** away.

now honestly. and i mean really use your brain here. How much money do you think SE made off of launch of FFXIV? if you think it was in the black, think again. their next mmo was anounced back in what? 2005? 6 years of development made up in launch? not likely. they were counting on making profit through subscriptions in the long run. now keep in mind there was an extended free period. Now, how much money do you think they've sank into keeping this game alive? How much easier would it have been to cut losses and kill the project before yoshi took over?

To put it into perspective. assuming a $15USD monthly subscription:

a software developer in Japan makes roughly 70k USD a year. that's ~5.8k a month. that means it takes almost 390 subscribers to pay for one developer.

now back in october if you looked at server loads you might see 40k people on during peak times. meaning you might have a total subscription base of 100k. i haven't looked at server log-ins recently. but i'm assuming its lower. let's say half of them stayed on board. 50k total subscribers. which means maybe 9 million over the course of a year. that's enough to support maybe 100 people + overhead if there's an average salary of 70k for all employees on this project. Square-Enix japan reports to have 3.2k employees as a comparison. I doubt they are making money. They might be breaking even on current costs. It's almost guaranteed they are not in the black on this. Keep in mind they need to support the development team, the live team, testers, Quality, servers, marketing, logistics, etc. etc.

So tell me again why they are so concerned about keeping a game alive that clearly costs them a ton of money and might break even a couple of years after 2.0 launch? because any logical businessman would have cut losses and pursued more lucrative projects long ago. hell, bare minimum shut the servers down. re purpose the current live team and just wait for 2.0 launch.

know what i think? I think it's because SE truly loves what they do. they take pride in it. they love their fans. they love their games and they want to make them the best they can be. they want us to enjoy it too. even if it means taking a loss. If i have to, heaven forbid, grind a little while because its the easiest thing to implement while they clean up problems, make better content, and make the game better than ever so i can really enjoy it. guess what? i'm not going to complain. because honestly FFXI was the same way. and i loved that game

END F***ING RANT

tl;dr Just because they're using a bad system that encourages RNG over fun doesn't mean they're entitled "but we love you guys" excuse. If you don't tell a company that they're doing something wrong, they will continue to abuse the consumer. Why do you think we're even getting a 2.0 in the firstplace? Because we told them their game sucked, really, really badly. They need to constantly be reminded that they are still making mistakes, and that we want them to fix them. FFXIV itself hasn't been a profit for SE, and it won't be for awhile, even with 2.0 it'll take years for them to recover from this loss.

If you think the game is "fine" the way it is currently, and there is no way that they could improve on the current design, or the 2.0 design, you are apart of the problem and are an SEdrone.

[Sagagemini]

Anyone else get seriously irked whenever they see someone say 'They are just making it a grind fest to keep people here and make us keep playing. all they want is our money.' you're still here. you clearly don't care. why bring it up? go do something else if you hate the grind. plenty of free games out there. go play league of legends. go play D3 or starcraft. Go play skyrim. go play vindictus, CoH, or any number of OTHER Games while you wait for 2.0.

Square Enix is a company. they have interests. they have share-holders. profits are a big concern for them. but whenever i see someone say that i dismiss anything and everything they have to say. you don't' know how a company really works. and you especially don't' know how a japanese company works. you have clear misconceptions of business and company culture. just stop talking about it. you don't' know. you CAN'T know what SE is thinking and what their business culture is like. you don't work for them. just let them do their thing. you dont' have to keep playing. you dont' like it walk the **** away.

now honestly. and i mean really use your brain here. How much money do you think SE made off of launch of FFXIV? if you think it was in the black, think again. their next mmo was anounced back in what? 2005? 6 years of development made up in launch? not likely. they were counting on making profit through subscriptions in the long run. now keep in mind there was an extended free period. Now, how much money do you think they've sank into keeping this game alive? How much easier would it have been to cut losses and kill the project before yoshi took over?

To put it into perspective. assuming a $15USD monthly subscription:

a software developer in Japan makes roughly 70k USD a year. that's ~5.8k a month. that means it takes almost 390 subscribers to pay for one developer.

now back in october if you looked at server loads you might see 40k people on during peak times. meaning you might have a total subscription base of 100k. i haven't looked at server log-ins recently. but i'm assuming its lower. let's say half of them stayed on board. 50k total subscribers. which means maybe 9 million over the course of a year. that's enough to support maybe 100 people + overhead if there's an average salary of 70k for all employees on this project. Square-Enix japan reports to have 3.2k employees as a comparison. I doubt they are making money. They might be breaking even on current costs. It's almost guaranteed they are not in the black on this. Keep in mind they need to support the development team, the live team, testers, Quality, servers, marketing, logistics, etc. etc.

So tell me again why they are so concerned about keeping a game alive that clearly costs them a ton of money and might break even a couple of years after 2.0 launch? because any logical businessman would have cut losses and pursued more lucrative projects long ago. hell, bare minimum shut the servers down. re purpose the current live team and just wait for 2.0 launch.

know what i think? I think it's because SE truly loves what they do. they take pride in it. they love their fans. they love their games and they want to make them the best they can be. they want us to enjoy it too. even if it means taking a loss. If i have to, heaven forbid, grind a little while because its the easiest thing to implement while they clean up problems, make better content, and make the game better than ever so i can really enjoy it. guess what? i'm not going to complain. because honestly FFXI was the same way. and i loved that game

END F***ING RANT

We have a WK here.
Your math makes totally sense, since FF XIV is their ONLY game. Wait a minute, its not!
They are definetely not making money out of XIV, but i can assure you they are not starving or firing people.

They're not changing the actual content. We'll keep getting the same thing until 2.0
All we can do is hope that they take our feedback and use it to improve 2.0