Why this Live Letter Matters

[Renathras]

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Meh, sometimes we get useful information from them. I'm just saying if there's an "we recognize people are upset", it TENDS to come from those. Liveletters are infomercials for upcoming patches. That's what they've been for most of the game's history and all of its modern history.

The other thing, besides interviews, that does what you're asking are Letters from the Producer (the written ones), like where Yoshi P apologized to basically the world for not having enough servers and outlined their plans to help in the short and long term after the EW launch craziness. So that's a possibility as well.

While I DO think a lot of things people here complain about are likely not shared by the playerbase at large, I do think some things have drawn enough notice they might be mentioned. Particularly, even the generally happy-go-lucky big content creators have been complaining about no grindable content and the Relics being a tomestone freebie.

...don't get me wrong, I don't mind them adding a Tomestone weapon that doesn't require timegating (I'm perfectly in favor of this, in fact), but I don't think the Relics should be that. They should be content for people to really sink their teeth into and spend time working on, especially if they want to collect more than one.

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EDIT:

IDK if people in FF14 realize how bad their reputation is among the MMO players in general.

The reputation is different, not bad.

FFXIV's community isn't as toxic as WoWs was when I left, and League of Legends is FAMOUS for having a toxic culture.

FFXIV's culture is known as being welcoming and generally hyper-happy and friendly. The only "complaint" is people that don't like that complaining it's too happy (this is more people playing games where their fellow players AREN'T and trying to cope/be jealous of another game where players actually enjoy the game they're playing...), or "toxic casuals", which is super rare unless you're being a jerk to people, and is also FAR less destructive to a game than toxic elitism is since it's inclusionary rather than exclusionary.

While people accuse the community of being against any criticism of the game, that's never been true - again, if you're not being a jerk about it. I've long offered various criticism of the game and never been attacked by the white knight brigade because my tone was neutral and hopeful and I wasn't "Yeah, this community sucks and the Devs don't know what they're doing or are just in it for the money". That's "being a jerk about it", and will get you destroyed in ANY gaming community where the players don't all hate the game and developers.

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No community is perfect, but a game known for happy and helpful people that don't want people berated for being casual and just having fun isn't a negative thing, no matter how hard people want to spin it as such.

[hunkygladiator]

even the generally happy-go-lucky big content creators have been complaining about no grindable content and the Relics being a tomestone freebie

You can quote me on this. There's a 50% chance Yoshi P will address this issue and if so he might apologize, he's going to say "we wanted a story-based relic/accessible relic/relic anyone can get with any content" but he will not be addressing the real root issue that people want exploratory zones or some combat equivalent.

They have adeptly dodged questions like these for nearly a decade at this point.

Every time they answered questions on healer concerns they've dodged it like this. They simply don't want to explicitly say "we heard your complaints and we disagree/don't care".

Yoshi P is first and foremost, a savant at PR and customer relations.

[Renathras]

Well, first, he's unlikely to "apologize" and doesn't need to. It's not something an apology needs to be done for. A simple "We decided to try this due to feedback from prior Relics, but we'll probably be doing something different next time" would address the problem. I hate the mindset people have these days of "Say you're sorry!". Many things aren't matters of, nor need, apologies. And I hold this as a standard life rule, not related to this game. You apologize if you hurt someone, not if you designed content in a game that people found somewhat meh.

Every time they answered questions on healer concerns they've dodged it like this. They simply don't want to explicitly say "we heard your complaints and we disagree/don't care".

This is more complicated, since there's a problem that's hard to address. The Healer community has several splits in it, and they're trying to figure out how to address all of them. High end players tend to have different complaints than most players in the community. A lot of Healers don't want or enjoy DPS rotations while some do and want to be more Support roles than Healer roles, or some hybrid Healer/Buffer or Healer/DPSer. So the issue is they're trying to address all sides but for whatever reason haven't been able to frame the question or their responses that way, and I'm not quite sure why not.

I think it's because they've decided the majority like healing as it is (for whatever reason/metrics they have), and that the vocal are the minority, but they also don't want to be callous and say "No one cares or agrees with you, we're going to play to the 80%" or something like that. I think the (likely mistranslated) "go play Ultimate" was a reflection of this idea of "For content we're making that few and only the high end do, we encourage you that want that content to play that content. For stuff we're making for more of the playerbase to engage with, we aren't going to do what you want because the majority doesn't want it."

This place - and many online forums about games, for that matter - tends to be an echo chamber, but it likely doesn't represent the general playerbase. None of us can prove it either way, SE has metrics we don't that they use (whether accurate or inaccurate), and they still are mindful of the game's history with Cleric Stance and how deeply that divided the community.

Their issue there is less they are dodging the questions and more they know the answer won't make the people asking it happy and don't want to upset them and are trying to make some content that's engaging to them. UNfortunately, even that content isn't engaging to them. /shrug

[Zsavooz]

More than a trailer, more than "hype," what some players are looking for now is direct assurance that things won't continue the way they have this expansion. One of the key defining aspects about this game's history is how hard they worked to rebuild the trust that was lost after the initial launch - though sadly the issues with Endwalker's patch content has similarly worn down the faith of many players who enjoyed both gameplay systems and storylines that were done away with this expansion.

The time has come to admit that somewhere down the line, some wrong turns were taken. But as before, this isn't to say that things are beyond any hope of salvation. The promise of the return to exploratory zones for next expansion for instance, restoration content, or similar systems if spoken now would at least give those who lost trust the impression that someone out there is listening and seriously considering peoples' concerns.

Endwalker deserved to be better.

I believe that although imperfect, some short term solutions could include revamping the reward structure for Variant/Criterion dungeon in a massive way, the immediate shift for 6.45 and 6.55 relics to specific content such as those dungeons or other battle content, and adding more appealing rewards to Eureka Orthos such as alternate weapons, gearsets, or even gil rewards. It would be wrong to say that nothing can be done in the near future, which is why I feel it is important to take these decisions sooner rather than later so that there's reasons to stick with Endwalker long term. Because as of now, I struggle to see what I can pursue or do beyond taking a few hours out of patch day to play through 6.4's content and then not returning until 7.0, if the expansion hooks me.

yeah, can't wait. Another solo, trial and dungeon. Please, rinse wash repeat...

[hunkygladiator]

Their issue there is less they are dodging the questions and more they know the answer won't make the people asking it happy and don't want to upset them and are trying to make some content that's engaging to them

That is literally "dodging the question".

Anyways, I just used healers as an example. My point is more that these interviews and live letters are PR campaigns. Even the letters from the producer and public apologies are carefully choreographed PR campaigns, designed to elicit hundreds of videos on how "Yoshi P truly is a director that cares" from the YouTubers. If anyone wants to actually read tea leaves from these PR campaigns (like OP) so be it but vets know the drill at this point.

Also it's just funny if any Western game corporation had developers spending their free time making glowy primal weapons, the media will be outraged and call it inhumane working conditions, somehow since it's Japanese and because they presumably did it out of their own volition for the love of the game, it's being praised and people cheer on Yoshi P and the game devs for overworking. That was back in like HW/SB ish.

Now, in EW, apparently everyone knows they simply love the game so much and work too much so they need some healthy work-life balance and it's praised as a progressive statement against JP work culture.

Lol OK. The cognitive dissonance is just staggering. But honestly it just reflects insanely good PR.

[Semirhage]

"toxic casuals", which is super rare unless you're being a jerk to people, and is also FAR less destructive to a game than toxic elitism is since it's inclusionary rather than exclusionary.

Is it? Or is it simply favoring one toxic group of people over another? True, toxic elitism trends toward being openly mean to other people, but if FFXIV's community is anything to go by, toxic casualism is a breeding ground for smug passive-aggression. I don't find all of FFXIV's community's TOS-sanctioned sneering and snotting about "endgame raiders" from people jealous about other peoples' accomplishments to be inclusive -at all-.

[Oizen]

Imagine if they just took Variant Dungeons, a lacking feature that has no point or real reward outside of a mount
And EW relics, which have no real home outside of being stapled to Hildibrand

and combined them to make it meaningful, seems really fucking obvious in hindsight.

[Kes13a]

I predict this live letter is not going to be any more earth shattering than any other one.

I hope the OP isnt pinning all his hopes on a change in direction mid stream, because I fear they will be massively disappointed

[Dorito_Burrito]

I predict this live letter is not going to be any more earth shattering than any other one.

I hope the OP isnt pinning all his hopes on a change in direction mid stream, because I fear they will be massively disappointed

At this point I'm pretty sure setting themself up for disappointment is their "gimmick". They'll whine about the current state of the game and go away after a while but come back and resub anyway to start the cycle again.

[VelKallor]

On a whim, I decided to try Eureka again. It had been a while, and at the start realised that I was in fact still less than level 2..see I had started with a group years ago and they had decided after ONE run.."yeah I dont want to do this now I have what I wanted..you can do it solo."

Only you cant.

You are relegated to 60 level spells and power, cant use a chocobo to heal, the adds hit like a Mack truck..so no, it isnt soloable. "But...but you can get others to help"...place was deserted. Looking at it, its a long hard grind in which, since its group content, you die over and over again...HARD PASS.

Remove level sync, gimme my chocobo heals, and we can talk. Eureka is not soloable, from what i can see already you need more than one. Exploratory zones are all well and good when they are current, now they are dead zones.

"But MMOs are supposed to be grindy"..to quote Diana from "V"..no thanks. I prefer better odds"

Looking into other media, I found a note in a Reddit thread ( cant find it right now) that less than 10% had completed Eureka, Anemos and Pagos combined..which may very well be the metric which by they also looked at Bozja and came to the same conclusion..it has a limited shelf life.

THAT is a principle issue you are yet to address, OP.

IF you get another zone...tell me, O wise one, how do you propose to future proof it?

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but as an older gamer ( which is becoming more and more the demographic these days since the game population is NOT teenies, never forget that ) but after ten minutes in Eureka alone, this isnt a grind, its smashing my head against a brick wall..all I get is a headache and damaged gear, the wall doesnt care.

The promise of the return to exploratory zones for next expansion for instance,

Ill ask again.

Given your fervent wish for this content, why dont YOU tell us the long range plan for how to future proof it..see, this game isnt just about you and what you want. Bozja is worse, as trying to solo that content is the same as trying to smash a level 80 A rank alone. IF I could use my choco to manage when I pulled more than once accidentally, itd be more manageable..then lets not forget that the FATES etc are designed again as GROUP content..then theres the timer that limits your time inside.

So OP..heres the hole in your argument, exploratory zones are great when they are current..and dead afterward.