They should put actual MMO players on the development team.

[Mijin]

I've decided to redraft the post in order to better explain my argument, as it seems a lot of people were getting confused and angry. If you're interested in the first post you can easily find it quoted below.

In the following text I will explain what is, in my opinion, an easy and cost effective solution to a development problem that stems from a lack of knowledge regarding MMOs.

The current development team has been doing a much better job than the last. The team however lacks in experience when it comes to making, let alone playing MMO's. As can be verified in this interview, the current game director Naoki Yoshida stated that he had to ask members of his team to play MMOs because they were unfamiliar with them. Naoki Yoshida himself has played some MMOs in the past, but he's stated here, that he no longer has time to play games. That being said this is also the first MMO that hes ever worked on, let alone directed.

So my proposition is simple. Find people from all walks of MMO gaming, from casuals to the most elite, and from various games with various history and put them on payroll. Their purpose would just be to collaborate and give feedback on new content and suggestions on how to improve it before it's released, that's all. I'm not suggesting that they do anything else other than that. Obviously the hard core players should be the ones addressed about challenging endgame content, and the casuals lower end progression type content.

I think it's important to note, highly valuing customer feedback isn't a radical idea. Some of this games competitors it very seriously. Some games open beta test every one of their patches just to make sure people approve of the content. This is a much more costly solution that I doubt this game can afford however.

In the following pages filled with flames and trolling, the three biggest arguments and my responses to are as follows:

A= Argument R=Response (paraphrasing)
A: Gamers aren't qualified to make games, they don't know how to code and stuff.
R: Well that's not what I suggest they do, I'm suggesting their job would be correspondence and nothing else.

A: That's what community reps, the QA team, or the forums are for.
R: The community reps aren't enough. The quality assurance team tests for bugs and stuff like that. They have nothing to do with deciding if content will be fun or successful. The forums aren't a reliable source for a number of reasons. The forums are filled with trolls, and because so few XIV players post here things can get very clicky. Very few of the player base posts here, and of them that do post many are inexperienced with MMOs themselves. Trolls go on feeding frenzies with people who make suggestions, most people don't even bother. Who really knows how much information that the community reps hand pick on the English forums actually make it to those in charge in Japan anyway?

A: I'm stupid.
R: You're stupid.

A: You are just trying to get a job.
R: First of all I'm not stupid enough to think that they would ever read this thread. Second of all I already have a job, and I don't speak Japanese. So don't patronize me tyvm. I just want future content not to be idiotic.

A: So what's a real MMO player?
R: I consider someone who has spent a considerable amount of time on at least one title to be a real MMO player. If your looking for a specific answer Lets say 70-100days of actual logged on non-afk play time, that would be your more casual player. Less than that would just be like what we call a noob I guess. Anyone with a considerable amount of time on more than one title and at least 365 days of actual logged in play time at they keyboard and over 5 years experience playing MMOs would me the more hard core. Any more that that would be the elite.


In conclusion I doubt that this thread will ever make it to the eyes of anyone important, however I feel strongly about it so here it is anyway.

This is worth reading also.

[Noir]

They should put actual MMO players on the development team. The people on the design team have extremely limited knowledge with MMOs. Most of them don't even have any history of working on MMOs. I read that one of the conditions for being able to on the 2.0 staff was you had to play a MMO for a little bit to get a feel for how they work, but that isn't enough. They say they consider customer feedback, but I mean come on, how much do they really do that? Not much in my opinion based on the state of the game. Besides even if they wanted to read every post made it's not like they would ever have time, they're very busy. That's why in my opinion they should put actual MMO players on the team.

Maybe like 10 players, four from FFXIV, three from FFXI, and the rest from what ever other games they're trying to copy. Idk about putting people on staff to learn about other games though. That may be against international copyright law... If it is just stick with people who play FFXIV and FFXI.

They could consult them before ever doing anything stupid, and discuss with them what needs to be added or adjusted in the game. I mean, it's not like they would have to pay them much... How many of you would quit your job for a job to play your favorite game all day, even if it was just for minimum wage. I would.

Nonsense. They have ppl that play MMO helping them. Plus like yoshi said. You can't do both. Work at SE, and play an MMO 8 hours day. When do you sleep? Most of them were players before they got hired. When you get to work making games, usually you don't have time to play the games. Know what I mean?

[Tonkra]

Nonsense. They have ppl that play MMO helping them. Plus like yoshi said. You can't do both. Work at SE, and play an MMO 8 hours day. When do you sleep? Most of them were players before they got hired. When you get to work making games, usually you don't have time to play the games. Know what I mean?

eh, i have a work myself and can play MMorpgs.

Its not like that, that SE employees are working 15+ hours each day ;XD

[Hypnotic13371337]

i dont know about working ON the mmo but if they offered me a GM spot, i know i wouldent copy paste responces :l

[Sephrick]

i dont know about working ON the mmo but if they offered me a GM spot, i know i wouldent copy paste responces :l

Or spell check them?

[Jynx]

i dont know about working ON the mmo but if they offered me a GM spot, i know i wouldent copy paste responces :l

Just wait until your answering the 1000th gm call of the day.

[Rjain]

i dont know about working ON the mmo but if they offered me a GM spot, i know i wouldent copy paste responces :l

I've worked in that field and trust me, as much as I hate the copy paste thing, you don't do it you get fired. Simple as that. It is a cliche of customer service.

Don't blame the GMs, blame the bosses.

[Mijin]

Nonsense. They have ppl that play MMO helping them. Plus like yoshi said. You can't do both. Work at SE, and play an MMO 8 hours day. When do you sleep? Most of them were players before they got hired. When you get to work making games, usually you don't have time to play the games. Know what I mean?

Yeah, that's exactly what I said; they don't have time to play so they need to hire people that do... And when you say most of them were players... Players of what? I know Yohi-P has mention playing Dark Age of Camelot and Diablo II, not really much help there. Even if some of them were casuals in the past I'm talking about putting hard core, basement dwelling, elitist mmoplayers on the staff who actually know how a MMO should work.

The DEV team has the technical skills needed but not the design sense... that's the #1 reason that this game has been suffering since day 1 imo. Granted Yoshi-P's teams doing a much better job, they may even salvage this game. However if they want to go above and beyond they're going to have to do better.

[Maxthunder]

Yeah, that's exactly what I said; they don't have time to play so they need to hire people that do... And when you say most of them were players... Players of what? I know Yohi-P has mention playing Dark Age of Camelot and Diablo II, not really much help there. Even if some of them were casuals in the past I'm talking about putting hard core, basement dwelling, elitist mmoplayers on the staff who actually know how a MMO should work.

The DEV team has the technical skills needed but not the design sense... that's the #1 reason that this game has been suffering since day 1 imo. Granted Yoshi-P's teams doing a much better job, they may even salvage this game. However if they want to go above and beyond they're going to have to do better.

I agree with you and the reason why is that Yoshi is taking xiv way to casual. I do believe hardcore players could and would have better suggestions at how content should be designed for all types of players. Unfortunatly if Yoshi continues on this path there may not be an xiv to even play.

[Chardrizard]

No, MMO players tends to have a very biased opinion on what game they wants. It's difficult these days to find a player that are subjective.

The only thing they need is to hire someone that knows how to please majority of players and a way to maintain big playerbase for a longtime span in order to keep the game alive, you just can't please everyone either way.