Tanaka or Yoshi?

[Shai]

I answered no because, although flawed, I thought the game had a great foundation that simply needed adjustments. But now we have a game that looks like it's being rebuilt from the ground up.

I literally sat there for 5 min (on more than 1 question but that one for sure) asking myself "What am I signing off on here?" It made me so uncomfortable that I almost didn't participate at all.

[gifthorse]

I literally sat there for 5 min (on more than 1 question but that one for sure) asking myself "What am I signing off on here?" It made me so uncomfortable that I almost didn't participate at all.

There needed to be an 'I don't know' option. Or a "define drastic changes..." option.

[Spellbinder]

I literally sat there for 5 min (on more than 1 question but that one for sure) asking myself "What am I signing off on here?" It made me so uncomfortable that I almost didn't participate at all.

I can't image anyone who didn't feel the same. To me it felt like "do you want FFXIV, or do you want something else?"

To be honest, I haven't had time to sit down and really play due to school, job hunting, etc. but have kept up with changes to the best of my ability. I think the implementation of the quest hubs, dungeons, and combat changes will give the best indication of where this game is heading. I simply hope it's still a direction that points toward Final Fantasy.

[Shiyo]

Quest hubs, instanced dungeons, these two things will do the complete opposite of what Tanaka wanted. He wanted to band the community together and create big airships and boats and headquarters and stuff. Instances(4 man) and quest hubs(solo prob?) will make the community smaller, and grow into small cliques, making this MMO more anti-social, instead of more social.

Tanaka's dream was wonderful. I wish it could've came true ;_;

[Shai]

Quest hubs, instanced dungeons, these two things will do the complete opposite of what Tanaka wanted. He wanted to band the community together and create big airships and boats and headquarters and stuff. Instances(4 man) and quest hubs(solo prob?) will make the community smaller, and grow into small cliques, making this MMO more anti-social, instead of more social.

Tanaka's dream was wonderful. I wish it could've came true ;_;

Well, I'm not gonna lie. I am somewhat excited that Yoshida wants to plan much of his content around groups of 4 and 8. Before you jump my "ship" (pirate raid style) up in arms hear me out. I am the kind of guy who likes low-man activity. I liked fighting Dodore with 4-5 people. (Solo, idk about that, kinda ridiculous) I like having a solid core of friends, skilled people I can trust and depend on. I'm that way in life as well. I have a big network, but a small inner circle.

I kind of wanted Companies to be my big network. I think the content (which I see none of coming down the pipeline) for Crafters & Gatherers should have been Companies. It would give them lofty goals and bind them together for a common purpose. Of course battle jobs can augment that system, but I expected Crafting/Gathering to build it up and everyone to benefit from its services.

I still prefer Assault/Nyzul to Dynamis (just as an example). Finding a time and place for 6 people to team up and head out for adventure is a hell of a lot easier than trying to find 35 (and relying on them in a life/death situation ... lots of Dynamis headaches, very few Nyzul/Salvage headaches ... aside from Tanaka drop rates).

So on the one hand ... I'm not given up on Yoshida. I know it is an "MMO" but I like small group content and big group networking for gear and repairs and ... idk building an airship. Heh. So these new ideas of Yoshida could end up really being good for me, but (as I've said) I lament what I had to give up in the process. Some middle ground might have been nice - and maybe some of Tanaka's "final stages" projects will implement later on down the line, but I sure would have liked something "bigger" to do for the last 5 months aside from grind & wait.

[Munba]

Quest hubs, instanced dungeons, these two things will do the complete opposite of what Tanaka wanted. He wanted to band the community together and create big airships and boats and headquarters and stuff. Instances(4 man) and quest hubs(solo prob?) will make the community smaller, and grow into small cliques, making this MMO more anti-social, instead of more social.

Tanaka's dream was wonderful. I wish it could've came true ;_;

I can't undersand why the two things can't coexist in the future. Player-made Ships and Houses is an awesome feature that hope will be implemented after all the fixes but i really think they didn't trash it. I mean, it's too good to be trashed without reasons.

In any case, i would really like to see some words by Yoshi-P about it in a future letter.

[Physic]

Quest hubs, instanced dungeons, these two things will do the complete opposite of what Tanaka wanted. He wanted to band the community together and create big airships and boats and headquarters and stuff. Instances(4 man) and quest hubs(solo prob?) will make the community smaller, and grow into small cliques, making this MMO more anti-social, instead of more social.

Tanaka's dream was wonderful. I wish it could've came true ;_;

actually im pretty sure tanaka was down with instanced dungeons, he said we were going to have that type of content later on in early interviews, it may or may not be different under yoshida

honestly tanaka had some pretty good ideas, but the game didnt come out at launch, able to let people experience them properly, but thats ultimately his fault, he was responsible not for just the vision, but also the execution. Yoshida hasnt really shown us much in his time, mostly just bug fixes, making the game smoother etc, and what happened is just by doing that, people have begun to see the potential the game had.

But its neither here nor there, we really have no idea yet whats coming, It could be that this game could end up better than ever, of course we want to know what thier plan is, but the reason we dont know, is because it really doesnt matter, they have commited to thier course now, there are a couple of things that look good, lets hope whatever comes doesnt suck.

[Shai]

But its neither here nor there, we really have no idea yet whats coming

This in and of itself is a bother to me, though.

1. Yoshida was brought in to be the front man - to lay it out for us, our connection to the game and what's happening. The opposite of the stand-off, abrasive personality of Tanaka.

2. Yoshida has had since Dec 15 to produce a plan. When I look over that jumbled mess of a chart of planned content, half the time I don't know what any of it means and the other half it says something obscure like "Future Tasks: Announcement of further changes as they arise" What does that mean? Doesn't that imply that ... it's ready, but you might change it? Your ONLY future task is to announce changes? I don't understand. Never does it give a deadline. This guy foreshadows about 2 weeks to 1 day in advance. Heck, 2x now none of us even knew a patch was coming until the fine print showed up in the maint log on Lodestone the night before.

I feel very in the dark and this guy was meant to light the way. Something isn't right already.

I have never said he isn't capable of making this a great game. I simply don't know, but the fault lies partially on him. He hasn't added anything substantial and he hasn't made any claim that he's going to do so soon. 90% of what he writes is "hang in there, it's coming." My personal favorite was his 1st letter and I'll quote.

No doubt there are very few, if any, among you who have ever heard the name Naoki Yoshida. To be sure, I have never been in the fore on any of the titles I have worked on in the past. I am, however, honored and privileged to work alongside many talented and inspiring colleagues, and with their support have enjoyed making games for a number of years. I am aware that a great many people will think the responsibility of leading FINAL FANTASY XIV is far too large a task for someone so unknown. After all, even my very best may seem no more than a drop in the bucket when considering the sheer scope of FINAL FANTASY XIV. But working together with me are the very talented and very capable development and management teams, whose dedication and motivation are unwavering. I would like to ask you to please put to rest uncertainties that you may have.

Oh, you want me to rest my uncertainties? Oh, no prob, dood. Consider them rested. Wait, wait, wait, you haven't said anything. WHY SHOULD I REST THEM? He's still doing it.

"Don't worry, bro. I got this."
"You got what? What are you going to do? What have you got?"
"This. Just wait. I got it."

[gifthorse]

actually im pretty sure tanaka was down with instanced dungeons, he said we were going to have that type of content later on in early interviews, it may or may not be different under yoshida

He said the exact opposite. He said the team wanted to make a persistant world with no instances except where necessary to keep players playing in the same world. He said instances made the world feel small. I remember this because it was one of the first times i actually wanted to play FFXIV after hearing it.

I don't mind instances if theyre an accessory to the game. But in my opinion, they shouldn't form the basis of the game.

[Duelle]

Quest hubs, instanced dungeons, these two things will do the complete opposite of what Tanaka wanted. He wanted to band the community together and create big airships and boats and headquarters and stuff. Instances(4 man) and quest hubs(solo prob?) will make the community smaller, and grow into small cliques, making this MMO more anti-social, instead of more social.

Tanaka's dream was wonderful. I wish it could've came true ;_;

More rose-colored goggle nonsense. The cliques exist either way. The cliques have a MUCH bigger impact in games like FFXI where your progression is tied to a large group of people. Such games also can stunt someone's growth for not being with the "right" crowd.

As far as the whole "Yoshida hasn't done much", I will say what got him looked upon so favorably was the fact that FFXI made a complete 180 in development not long after he was put in charge. It's not much seeing that SE was ignoring that game hoping players jumped to FFXIV, but its there. The deal breaker with Yoshida will be what happens to the hybrid jobs under his watch. Tanaka has lolDRK (pre two-hander update) and refresh whore RDM under his belt. Hopefully Yoshi-P doesn't go down that path.