Twists and Turns

[OdinelStarrei]

Ok, so this isn't going to be a **** post or anything, and I am not looking to spark arguments...but I am also exceptionally curious about something.

I have heard that in FFXIV's past, there were times that the dev team made game choices that upset a majority of the player base, only for them to reveal a "AHA!" moment and everyone loves the idea. I have asked around for specifics, but I haven't' really gotten the story.

Basically, there are choices are made with the game that I will talk to friends about, but I am told "just wait, they do these things". Or "Yoshi-p is purposely doing these things and we just don't see the bigger picture yet" type of stuff.

So this post is coming more from my naivety and wanting to know. . .What have been some "AHA!" moments that you got to see during productions? I am hoping to just make this post to learn from the smart people, but I guess the follow up question is, do you think we have one of those moments coming up...?

PSA. For reference, a lot of what people talk about recently on forums are regarding combat system and the simplification of that. There are other things that the game does that I question also, but that is really where this question stems from.

If anyone has the info and provides, thank you and I hope all have a great day~

I'll answer your second question first. If you are not immediately on board or generally ambivalent with these changes, you're probably not ever going to be onboard with them. There will be no "eureka" moment where all of us who are pretty negative suddenly realize this is good actually. They'll just go silent by giving up talking about it because it's infuriating, or unsubbing/leaving. Therefore, that leaves the people who are left as the people who were actually a fan of it, with the occasional "insane vocal minority who is never happy about anything" screaming into a void.

People who tell you about "Yoshida's grand vision" and "the bigger picture" or whatever are really evangelizing the man. That's about as unreasonable to think as "Yoshida is purposefully killing the jobs I love because he hates me personally and the community is collectively gaslighting me." You can see this in the amount of people who said in ShB that a lot of jobs were getting foundational adjustments and removals in order to leave space for additional actions and elaboration in subsequent expansions. This largely did not happen, leading to a feeling of loss, or even betrayal. This is a part of why a certain contingent of people are really not a fan of being told to wait until 8.0 for job identity changes. I have been really hostile to several reworks, and there is no AHA moment for me for any of them. Just chagrin, and eventual acceptance for the inevitability of getting let down again and again.

I think people will mention Eureka/Bozja. Something that was maligned at launch, but cultivated a pretty devoted fanbase for exploration content. When exploration content did not return, it left a void in the game for some people. If anything, you can say making ARR in and of itself at the time was a controversial decision that paid off.

Personally, there are several decisions the developers have made since SB that I really don't agree with, and it's been five years. And, lo and behold, I still don't agree with them, and think they made the game's design worse. A degraded experience. But fundamentally, when the developers make decisions, they do it at the expense of someone else in the the pursuit of whatever goal they might have at the time.

Were they actually big brained moves from the development team that everyone now loves? Or did everyone who cared enough to complain, saw that they were not listened to, and left? That's the other side of the questions I think you're trying to ask.

Think about some really reviled things. I'm talking, No need on alliance raid loot. Or the blacklist system. That stuff got or is getting changed, despite justifications from the dev team. Maybe the housing lottery falls under what you're talking about, but that's really a "which poison chalice would you like?" kind of situation.

I'd honestly just stay naive. You'd be better off, imo. There are a lot of disparate voices in the game's fanbase. Agreeing on any one thing is almost impossible unless people are being tangibly hurt. And even then...