Why do we have to dwell on meaningless issues?

[Karazaki]

so pretty much the last couple producer letters and this last live letter would be pointless, as they answered things would largely already knew lol. i mean it had a few good points but meh haha

Yeah some of them just remind us of what we know already, but I'm glad we still get updates and news.

EDIT: I know there are limits on what they are and aren't allowed to reveal (even if Yoshida and Wada tend to use limit break )

[Quesse]

This thread is great.

Its like a place where we can take the two most meaningless topics on the board and merge them into one super-mega meaningless topic.

[Karazaki]

This thread is great.

Its like a place where we can take the two most meaningless topics on the board and merge them into one super-mega meaningless topic.

Just like Bahamut, this thread cannot be sealed by the twelve.

[Callence]

Ok folks can we all just get a beer and some popcorn now?

[Laiferr]

...But I want to be clear that despite any differences of opinion there are no hard feelings So there's really no need to get defensive...
...What I do have a problem with is your accusations of the development team, when the real problem is not them or this game, but society itself. Unfortunately, the media portrays women wearing rather revealing clothing, which defines our perception of attractive...
...That's because it WAS a joke...is it really so bad for someone to admit they're attracted to the female body, jokingly at that...
...I find that last question of yours to be completely off-base and ridiculous, in spite of whatever sarcasm was intended:
Unfortunately I don't have an actual source for this at the moment, but you do realize that the main artist in charge of gear design is female, right? Anyway, I hope this clarifies things for you a little bit. I'm not sure if you'll even read this, let alone reply, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Spoilering my reply to you as don't want to go off on a tangent too much

Sorry for getting a bit snippy, as I said above I was getting a bit frustrated. To be honest the reading comprehension part was more aimed at other people, too, since some of the replies are just amazingly making up opinions for me.

My counter-point would be that Square Enix are a part of society. They are a form of media. They set an example, albeit within a 'fantasy' game and within the gaming industry. They are our 'leaders'. The joke point, I think that boils down to every debate on mildly offensive jokes ever... For example some people get offended by racist jokes, jokes about gay people, jokes about the elderly, etc. Some people don't, and that's fine, but for me seeing these people I look up to saying such things, it wasn't such a funny thing for me. If it was any old person or player I wouldn't really mind. I'm glad for the reassurance that it was more a misguided attempt at being friendly, of sorts.

My last question was not sarcastic, it was something I had been wondering for a while and didn't want to put such a small question in a seperate thread. No, I didn't know the gear designer is female! If I'm right I was under the impression there is multiple gear designers? And then the guy from FFXII does characters too? Or does he just do promo art...? It would be quite nice to know the whole structure of who does what. Might be a good question for a future Q&A, who works on what.

Erm, maybe we can turn this thread into something positive...? What are peoples favourite kinds of posts? What would you like to see more of? Personally I'd like to see some more art posts, or maybe art challenge posts! I have some cool ideas for fun passing the time posts, but I've been made aware there's a lot of trolling/vitriol here, so it was a genuine question about any other possible forums/communities, preferably ones that have moderators (is there a list somewhere??)

[CSLionheart]

My counter-point would be that Square Enix are a part of society. They are a form of media. They set an example, albeit within a 'fantasy' game and within the gaming industry. They are our 'leaders'.

Well, that certainly is a valid point, but as many before me have stated, at the end of the day we have to accept the fact that Square Enix wants to sell games by appealing to as broad of an audience as possible. It would be great if they were good role models and did things against the norm, but that's simply not a money-making strategy. And after the failure that was 1.0 they need all the money they can get to make up for it. Sure, they are a PART of society but they weren't the ones who started/defined these trends. All they've done is attempted to reach people by giving them what they want to see (in this case, it's sexy gear, which is a part of virtually every MMO anyway).

Mind you, I'm not saying complacency is the answer. For example, if gay people were complacent with not getting married and hiding their sexual preferences our country (I'm referring to the USA since that's my native country) would never make progress. There's a reason why the approval rate of gay marriage is increasing by the year: it's because the gay community is constantly fighting for equal rights. So yeah, I suppose it makes sense to voice such opinions on these forums, since even the smallest voices can be heard.

I suppose I just wish we didn't have to delve into such political discussions. It does technically have to do with the game so I guess I can't say it doesn't belong here. It's rather ironic, but the fact that this thread made the front page proves my point. It seems like the only threads people want to contribute to are those that are controversial in nature. Personally I've started numerous threads about specific gameplay mechanics/features that I wanted to discuss with others but those threads received next to no attention, despite the fact that they're much more relevant to what this forum was originally intended for. So I guess I should change my original question to this: Why must we spend our time having politically-charged debates when there are so many more interesting threads that get swept under the rug?

[Laiferr]

...

Thank you for your response. I can see what you're getting at. I can imagine if it comes up a lot it gets frustrating. Honestly I haven't been on the forums in a very long time. I really didn't mean to tire people out with my post.

Why must we spend our time having politically-charged debates when there are so many more interesting threads that get swept under the rug?

Yes... There are lots of interesting things to be discussed. As you said the controversial threads get the replies (honestly I stopped replying to my own thread as I don't want to bump it). The forum had a much nicer atmosphere and interesting posts/replies when it was first made, unfortunately due to lack of moderation a lot of these nice people left because of the trolling/harassment (I am the only one in my whole group of friends who still posts or reads here, and I am not the nicest of them, haha). Unfortunately not much can be done about this... but it would be nice to encourage some other posts

[CSLionheart]

The forum had a much nicer atmosphere and interesting posts/replies when it was first made, unfortunately due to lack of moderation a lot of these nice people left because of the trolling/harassment

This. Frankly, I wish SE would hire dedicated forum moderators (hell, I'm sure some people would do it as a volunteer job), because our community reps/GMs are simply too busy with other things to be constantly babysitting people.

Also, as a side note, I think part of the reason why people misinterpreted your thread as simply an attack on sexy gear was because not too long ago, when Coliseum gear was first released there WAS a thread doing exactly that, and the vast majority of the community, myself included, thought it was complete BS.

[Azurus]

Thank you for your response. I can see what you're getting at. I can imagine if it comes up a lot it gets frustrating. Honestly I haven't been on the forums in a very long time. I really didn't mean to tire people out with my post.

Why must we spend our time having politically-charged debates when there are so many more interesting threads that get swept under the rug?

Yes... There are lots of interesting things to be discussed. As you said the controversial threads get the replies (honestly I stopped replying to my own thread as I don't want to bump it). The forum had a much nicer atmosphere and interesting posts/replies when it was first made, unfortunately due to lack of moderation a lot of these nice people left because of the trolling/harassment (I am the only one in my whole group of friends who still posts or reads here, and I am not the nicest of them, haha). Unfortunately not much can be done about this... but it would be nice to encourage some other posts

Yeah ol' CS here did a much better job at saying what I was trying to say as I am not sure I actually got across what I was trying to (I was in line at the grocery store trying to type it fast on a smart phone lol) but ya it really comes down to wanting more game systems/art/lore related posts myself. If things keep going as they are I could totally see a thread on how FFXIV could influence Israeli and Palestinian relations. The moment that happens I am out of this game so fast lol

[Cthulhu]

Awwww.... I think we all just saw the blossoming of a new relationship. You two should totally date.