Finally Understanding SE's Decision Making (And Why It Won't Change)

[NaoSen]

I've spent more time than I should trying to figure out why SE makes the decisions it does (Features ignored, added and when) , and I think I finally understand why. We're not seen as people in an MMO - we're guests in a theme park with set opening hours.
Think about recent decisions:

The Account ID system implementation
Releasing a raid on Christmas Eve yet ready a week before
Lack of content that can actually be done as friends or FC
The sparse content at the start of what was marketed as the 'most packed expansion'

Compare this to other online games.

Warframe and Path of Exile constantly evolve (Given they get their income via store they have to retain) but also keep a good relationship with their players.
EVE Online thrives on deep player engagement
Other MMOs actively work to keep players engaged and invested

Instead, what do we get?
'We don't have the money'
'It's too much work'
'We want you to play other games'

However, they've built systems like housing and beautiful cities that are designed for players to stay and engage, yet they are resistant to any feedback about improving how we actually interact in these spaces.
The 'we want you to play other games' philosophy might work for a singleplayer game, but an MMORPG is supposed to be about a community, another world. Instead, they rely on housing timers, social connections, and FOMO to maintain subscriptions rather than innovating or changing what gets begged for years, just ignoring what they don't want to hear.

Do you think that there is any redemption arc to be had here?

[Jeeqbit]

Well yes, I've discussed this with people and there is a reason it's called a "themepark MMO" and that Yoshi-P has said he views himself like a government and the player as the citizens. I recently described it as a "pick and mix" https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...00#post6657400



Technically, it is the most packed expansion ever, if you include everything that is coming in the patches. But as my image shows, every piece of content only lasts 5-20 minutes per attempt, so on that basis people will dismiss all the content as nothing. It's mostly like this because they don't want it to be too much of a burden for casual players that just login for a few days for a patch, then move onto the next game, and that's pretty obvious really.

They've not used the "it's too much money" excuse as far as I know and even express a willingness to go over budget. They are almost constantly hiring developers in some department for FFXIV specifically (I know because I check).

The issue is that they think things are "too hard" or "a lot of work", including many things that any programmer, with any codebase, could achieve in a short period of time. There are so many ways to think outside the box if there are infrastructure issues. It comes down to either that their team is too divided up so one person can't just implement a feature on their own causing it not to be implemented at all, or that some of them don't believe they can do things that they, in fact, can.

[HunkyMarauder]

The issue is that they think things are "too hard" or "a lot of work", including many things that any programmer, with any codebase, could achieve in a short period of time. There are so many ways to think outside the box if there are infrastructure issues. It comes down to either that their team is too divided up so one person can't just implement a feature on their own causing it not to be implemented at all, or that some of them don't believe they can do things that they, in fact, can.

aka incompetence

[Jeeqbit]

aka incompetence

Basically that. It would help if they just proactively went and tried to hire all the modders and tool developers. Because they have had these problems for 12 years now:

• Armoire issues.
• Glamour Dresser issues.
• A housing crisis.
• Problematic buff and debuff limits that break rotations.
• Slow packet and battle processing code that 2013 multi-threaded hardware probably shouldn't struggle with, nevermind 2025 hardware.
• "Difficulty carrying things with the player" across physical servers.
• Inability to revisit linkshells, such that they created an entirely different version of them called CWLS.
• Daily DDoS of their NA servers that, while I admit are difficult to prevent, there are ways to think outside the box like creating multiple routes to the server and proactively diverting player clients to a different route when attacks are happening.

In addition, the struggle with viera and hrothgar hats for half of the game's existence now.

[HunkyMarauder]

Basically that. It would help if they just proactively went and tried to hire all the modders and tool developers. Because they have had these problems for 12 years now:

• Armoire issues.
• Glamour Dresser issues.
• A housing crisis.
• Problematic buff and debuff limits that break rotations.
• Slow packet and battle processing code that 2013 multi-threaded hardware probably shouldn't struggle with, nevermind 2025 hardware.
• "Difficulty carrying things with the player" across physical servers.
• Inability to revisit linkshells, such that they created an entirely different version of them called CWLS.
• Daily DDoS of their NA servers that, while I admit are difficult to prevent, there are ways to think outside the box like creating multiple routes to the server and proactively diverting player clients to a different route when attacks are happening.

In addition, the struggle with viera and hrothgar hats for half of the game's existence now.

Yeah but they are completely incapable of hiring anyone who isn't Japanese because apparently the language barrier is too strong lmao

One wonders how studios like CD Projekt Red manages to communicate internally with people from all over Europe.

Yet another self-own by the Japanese resistance to globalization.

[Arrius]

Yeah but they are completely incapable of hiring anyone who isn't Japanese because apparently the language barrier is too strong lmao

One wonders how studios like CD Projekt Red manages to communicate internally with people from all over Europe.

Yet another self-own by the Japanese resistance to globalization.

They really still don't like hiring outside sources, and the outside sources don't like the harsh limitations Japan imposes upon them.
Overwork culture, global lower-than-average salary, affordable for very low living standards of housing, and the language problems being one of the biggest reasons.

[DPZ2]

Yeah but they are completely incapable of hiring anyone who isn't Japanese because apparently the language barrier is too strong lmao

It takes about 1100 hours to become fluent in Polish. On average, it takes at least twice that long to learn Japanese or Chinese. Alphabets are a primary problem. Go figure.

So, who would you be more willing to hire, an English-only speaker with no idea what このガイドの目的は、プログラマーにコードを書くための要件を知らせることです。 (not especially functional Japanese, mind you) means outside of Google Translate, or someone who can actually read coding specifications in Japanese?

More importantly, why should a decidedly Japanese company tailor their most important private intellectual property to an English-only programmer just because ... globalization?

[sindriiisgaming]

Basically that. It would help if they just proactively went and tried to hire all the modders and tool developers. Because they have had these problems for 12 years now:

• Armoire issues.
• Glamour Dresser issues.
• A housing crisis.
• Problematic buff and debuff limits that break rotations.
• Slow packet and battle processing code that 2013 multi-threaded hardware probably shouldn't struggle with, nevermind 2025 hardware.
• "Difficulty carrying things with the player" across physical servers.
• Inability to revisit linkshells, such that they created an entirely different version of them called CWLS.
• Daily DDoS of their NA servers that, while I admit are difficult to prevent, there are ways to think outside the box like creating multiple routes to the server and proactively diverting player clients to a different route when attacks are happening.

In addition, the struggle with viera and hrothgar hats for half of the game's existence now.

I've also been angry that they don't hire them or even just freelance them... they're extremely talented and dedicated people with real genuine passion for making xiv better. Yet blaming the language barrier time and time again.. when they have TWO translators. As for redemption. No. These devs will kill their own game like everything else se kills.

When ffxiv is a husk of itself se might legit go bankrupt. Because let's be real the already played the ff7 card and it's not popular. They can't just keep playing it forever

[Ath192]

Basically that. It would help if they just proactively went and tried to hire all the modders and tool developers. Because they have had these problems for 12 years now:

• Armoire issues.
• Glamour Dresser issues.
• A housing crisis.
• Problematic buff and debuff limits that break rotations.
• Slow packet and battle processing code that 2013 multi-threaded hardware probably shouldn't struggle with, nevermind 2025 hardware.
• "Difficulty carrying things with the player" across physical servers.
• Inability to revisit linkshells, such that they created an entirely different version of them called CWLS.
• Daily DDoS of their NA servers that, while I admit are difficult to prevent, there are ways to think outside the box like creating multiple routes to the server and proactively diverting player clients to a different route when attacks are happening.

In addition, the struggle with viera and hrothgar hats for half of the game's existence now.

I really wished they hired English game designers. And not the care bear type. The game of thrones type.

The kind of people that are capable of killing off Wuk Lamat for being too naive, revert Koana into someone who doesn't throw their lives away for a dumb Bison, and as result of mamool ja not winning the throne throwing all of Tuliyollal into a civil war that sets the stage for Mamool Ja leading Besieged attacks against the capital city. Turning the entire world map of Yok Tural into a conquest type scenario where players need to get signet and keep control of the world map for additional benefits. adding needed gameplay to the overworld. It only makes sense as some of the contestants, namely Koana and Wuk brought foreigners to attempt to interfere in the very internal election process and it is a form a cheating because they were too weak to seize the throne by themselves and it was meant to result in chaos.

Furthermore, The warrior of light, instead of being a hypocrite and pretending what they are doing is right or necessary admit they have to go into solution 9 and kill their leadership and shut down all their systems because they are planning on using our souls for their own convenience and it's a them or us scenario. No more apologies, or pretending they weren't people. It was outright murder but it had to be done to save our world.

We need people with actual conviction and capable of making hard choices in this game. Everybody finds a compromise and lives somewhat happily ever after is not satisfying to anyone, it doesn't make a good story, and it definitely doesn't make for a good game.

[AnnRam]

Well yes, I've discussed this with people and there is a reason it's called a "themepark MMO" and that Yoshi-P has said he views himself like a government and the player as the citizens. I recently described it as a "pick and mix" https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...00#post6657400



Technically, it is the most packed expansion ever, if you include everything that is coming in the patches. But as my image shows, every piece of content only lasts 5-20 minutes per attempt, so on that basis people will dismiss all the content as nothing. It's mostly like this because they don't want it to be too much of a burden for casual players that just login for a few days for a patch, then move onto the next game, and that's pretty obvious really.

They've not used the "it's too much money" excuse as far as I know and even express a willingness to go over budget. They are almost constantly hiring developers in some department for FFXIV specifically (I know because I check).

The issue is that they think things are "too hard" or "a lot of work", including many things that any programmer, with any codebase, could achieve in a short period of time. There are so many ways to think outside the box if there are infrastructure issues. It comes down to either that their team is too divided up so one person can't just implement a feature on their own causing it not to be implemented at all, or that some of them don't believe they can do things that they, in fact, can.

Guess what.

All of those "full of packed content that takes a lot of time" rewards you with the same tomes that you will get anyways by just doing 1 roulette every day and nothing else.