Lack of communication and transparency from SE, roadmaps for the future?

[Hallarem]

While the Dawntrail story is a big divider for the community and a lot of people are hoping for changes or additions to QoL and Gameplay. I think there is an underlying issue that might be inflaming the situation and not helping in any way to appease some of the community that are frustrated.

The lack of communication and transparency.

Their way of communicating things is either a very dismissive:

- Please look forward to it
- We are working on it
- Its a bit difficult

Or very biased interviews that simply are set up to present features of a patch and not adress any concerns of the community, nor...
Give us a timeframe, behind the scenes, or anykind of indication on what they are working on for this so called "10 year plan" besides things that are coming in the next patch.

Now I understand the need to hide some major features as a surprise, if they are expansion related. But fixes, upgrades, QoL, aspirations, goals, timelines, roadmaps, somekind of a section for live letters called "Looking towards the future" or something similar would help tone down concerns that they aren't doing ANYTHING.

The "hiding everything" was cute at the start, but I think its ran its course. If they intend on keeping customers loyal and subbing for this "10 year plan" I think it's time for a "10 year roadmap" in chunks to alleviate concerns of certain non-hat wearers and more.

Possible subjects:

- Progress with hats for Viera and Hrot
- Progress with graphical updates and a roadmap for it
- Progress with adding various QoL
- Future aspirations on what they want to add or a concern they want to tackle (teaser)

[Kazuke_Miso]

hide some major features as a surprise

The thing is they don't even HIDE anything because the content is so barebones.

But the playerbase for some bizarre reason thinks that they are hiding stuff and to keep players surprised. The only time they have done that is with the MSQ. They don't hide major features because if they did they have nothing to talk about.

This playerbase lets their imagination run wild and ALWAYS, ALWAYS give CBU3 the benefit of the doubt for some reason, even when they promised absolutely nothing concrete.

------------------

Just come down memory lane with me and look at this thread:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-announced-yet

EW didn't get a relic zone and people back then were FULL OF COPIUM

Why would anyone expect relics to be announced or released on a x.1 patch? They are usually x.25 or x.35.

I imagine we'll get to know what the Relic story will be about this time once the Patch 6.1 promotional site goes up... Or at least the quest series' name...

This roadmap did not include "standard content" that we already know about such as extreme trials and savage. Instead they said something along the lines of "we didn't put all the standard content but you'll still get everything else you're used to".

(I'm sorry jeeqbit)

Thread closed, I suppose!

That was a special live letter focusing mostly on the next 10 years, with some small bits about upcoming patches. Wait until the actual 6.1 live letter to complain we aren't being told about things.

I don't want another Eureka or Bozja. One or two stages of fate grinding is fine but having to grind fates to get imaginary levels for 3 patches is stupid. Tie some of it to other content like dungeons, trials, deep dungeons, crafting, hunts, maps and gil. Similar to ARR relics.

And HW. HW has been the expansion where the relic future proofing has held up the best. ARR isn't too bad but the books are kind of a bottleneck. Problem with tying relics to zones or specific instances that need other people is that the ability to complete them after the rush lowers over time.

Island Sanctuaries. You are gonna farm the materials on your island to craft it.

Just look at all the COPING.

FF14 players DON'T PLAY THE GAME. They play WHAT'S IN THEIR IMAGINATION.

After 10 years, you'd think that people will realize this:

What you see in the Live Letter is what you get. Don't hope for more because it's not coming!

[ElysiumDragon]

I fully agree. I believe they showed a roadmap for Dawntrail content, but a wider overall roadmap for other major fixes wouldn't hurt.

I don't think we'll get a new playable race until the Viera/Hrothgar hat issue is fixed, and if I had to give a rough timeline for that... 9.0?

[YukioKobayashi]

This 5,5 billion dollar company cant even give us subtitles for the LL. What do you expect?

[Gurgeh]

...
- Progress with hats for Viera and Hrot
...

It's time the big folk accepted that things are never going to change, and if they can't then maybe it's time to fanta from basic Viera back to basic Miquo/Aura or from xtra Hroth back to xtra lala, or to accept that this games approach to millinery means it is not the right game for you. I recon InZOI will probably have amazing hatware options?

(This post is satire in favour of the status-quo or change, tick whichever suits)

[xbahax92]

Not gonna happen. The "to shy to confront issues" culture is a reliable comfort zone. They're afraid of losing reputation, so the usual plan is to just sit things out.

It's the very same during old Q&A sessions during liveletters. Ask for more info's, but get told "please look forward to it" (except its a cash shop request, which gets immediatly adressed "oh Krile's outfit? you want that?")
They're just to scared of promising things, which they might not keep up.

[Illianaro]

Lack of transparency is a big concern of mine. I want to be wrong here, but It really seems to me like the devs don’t really HAVE a roadmap, internal or otherwise. They’ve seemed directionless. Other than mentioning a “job rework” for 8.0, all we’ve heard from them are general and vague pseudo-statements or non-promises: just enough information that the community fills in the gaps with their own expectations and then gets disappointed when the expectations that they set from their internal interpretations are not met.

In project management, I’ve learned that transparency to your stakeholders is mission critical to the success of any project or program that you’re running. Leaning into and acknowledging issues and feedback builds trust and helps you hold yourself and your team accountable to strategizing and, where appropriate, resolving the issues. Obfuscation builds frustration and destroys trust. You should communicate good news early, and you should communicate about and address issues earlier.

I would rather SE say “we hear your feedback and are currently assessing how best to address the issues that have been raised” than to obtusely misinterpret complaints. I would rather SE acknowledge “we’ve realized that we didn’t have a clear roadmap after Endwalker, and we’re working internally to fix that and identify our path forward so that we can present it to you” than just give out the vibe that they’re scrambling and making stuff up as they’re going along.

[Valence]

( I agree )

I honestly think after all the blunders that have been dropped when they actually tried to speak genuinely (on healing requirements in Abyssos, on healing difficulty or the infamous "go play ultimates", on viera/hrothgar hats being "too difficult, too many items", on encounter and job identity for 7.2 and 8.0, etc), they just shoot themselves in the foot by not putting their money where their mouth is, they've decided to just fall silent and weather the storm and cross their fingers for new content to change minds.

But this is not going to happen until fundamental core issues dont get addressed, and all it would take would be to have Yoshida or their battle designers sit down in front of a camera and talk about everything in detail. And then of course not proceed to do the exact contrary of what they said, that is...

[NaoSen]

When I hear, "We would like to..." I basically class it as never happening. It's the safer bet.

[Exmo]

This community is absolutely terrible at regulating their emotions. They treat every single mention of a possible idea as a promise, and every time some changes or feature doesn't meet their expectations as a betrayal.

The roadmap we get is likely the best they can offer. Game development is difficult. It's very hard to estimate timelines for complicated fixes or novel features without already doing a good chunk of work on it. Meaning you can't provide a reliable timeline for items years in advance of its completion, so including it as a roadmap item would result in a "broken promise" in the community's eyes once the timeline inevitably changes.

The best we can get in terms of a long-term roadmap is the gist of an upcoming expansion. That has to be marketed carefully, because if you spill too early then people will be bored and burned out by the time it comes to advertise the content that work has been done on (concept art, demos, new jobs, duties etc). And that's basically the maximized version of the problem with publicizing a roadmap for smaller items - even if you could miraculously accurately guess the timeline for a feature years in advance of doing it, by the time it's delivered most players will have lost interest. On the other hand, short-term roadmaps are more reliable, more deliverable, and advertise *upcoming* changes for players to look forward to