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Letter from the Producer, I (1/21/2010)
Hyanmen
Member UncommonPosts: 5,357
Greetings adventurers! I hope you are all enjoying your time in Eorzea.
Well, after a brief spell of users on Japan's most frequented forum referring to me as "The Duck," I'm happy to say things have settled down and it seems that "Yoshi-P" is the current nickname of choice.
I apologize for the amount of time I've let pass since my last post. Today I'd like to take the time to thank all of you for the overwhelming number of responses we received to our recent FINAL FANTASY XIV Players' Poll the First!
This post marks the beginning of my new Letters from the Producer series, which I will continue to post regularly on the Lodestone up until the launch of our official FINAL FANTASY XIV forums. Together with this first letter, I have also decided to make public the results of the first player poll, as well as include information concerning future plans for the game. The post is a bit lengthy, but I hope you all take the time to read it.
FINAL FANTASY XIV Players' Poll the First — Results & Anaylsis
The recent players' poll was available only to users possessing a Square Enix account. We received a large number of completed questionnaires from players in all regions—Japan, North America, and Europe. Here I would like to take some time to go over each of the questions and their responses, and attempt to explain what the results may mean.
1. Which online games have you played before? (Multiple answers accepted)
There is a large amount of data to go over here, so I suggest opening it in "another window" for ease of viewing. The majority of FINAL FANTASY XIV players polled have a history of playing FINAL FANTASY XI, which is a result we here at Square Enix were certainly happy to see. To us, this serves to illustrate the loyalty and passion of FINAL FANTASY fans, and both the development and management teams were truly moved by this result!
This also tells us that the majority of responses to questions dealing with gameplay (from 5 onward) are the opinions of players with experience playing FINAL FANTASY XI. And so it will be operating under that premise that we will be examining the poll responses.
By the way, questions 2 and 4 were included to provide referential data to the management team, and I will not post their results here. Suffice it to say, we are hardly in a position to be providing this kind of useful information to any would-be rivals...^^;
As for the third question, the most common answer was fourteen titles, with roughly 2% of pollees having played over twenty FINAL FANTASY titles. There isn't much to say here other than thank you!
5. How do you spend most of your time in Eorzea? (Choose only one)
JP |
NA |
GB |
FR |
DE |
|
Battle (including levequests and behests) |
47.5% |
64.2% |
65.1% |
69.4% |
71.8% |
Gathering (Including levequests) |
6.7% |
4.9% |
5.4% |
2.8% |
3.9% |
Synthesis (including levequests) |
35.6% |
22.9% |
20.1% |
21.1% |
18.3% |
Socializing |
6.4% |
3.1% |
3.4% |
2.7% |
2.2% |
Other |
3.8% |
4.8% |
5.9% |
4.0% |
3.9% |
Much as we expected, the vast majority of players are spending most of their play time engaged in battle-oriented content, with synthesis activities coming in second. I cannot help but be concerned over the 4.6% result for socializing. This leads me to believe that in its current state, the game is lacking group-oriented goals and means of communication. Rest assured we will be addressing this issue together with the battle system.
6. What is your biggest expectation for the newly restructured development team?
JP |
NA |
GB |
FR |
DE |
|
An overhaul to fundamental gameplay aspects |
73.7% |
72.0% |
72.6% |
67.3% |
57.5% |
An accelerated version update schedule |
15.0% |
16.6% |
16.3% |
23.6% |
29.9% |
Increased communication with the players |
11.3% |
11.4% |
11.1% |
9.1% |
12.6% |
7. Which of the following issues you would like to see addressed first? (Choose only one)
JP |
NA |
GB |
FR |
DE |
|
The Armoury system |
6.0% |
3.8% |
4.0% |
1.9% |
3.6% |
The combat system |
34.0% |
15.3% |
16.5% |
17.2% |
13.3% |
The user interface |
7.4% |
9.7% |
10.6% |
8.9% |
6.9% |
Server response times |
6.8% |
5.6% |
7.4% |
9.2% |
13.8% |
The markets system |
7.2% |
14.4% |
11.3% |
3.4% |
9.3% |
Maps |
3.3% |
0.4% |
0.7% |
0.8% |
0.5% |
Guildleves |
3.0% |
3.7% |
4.5% |
4.4% |
4.0% |
Lack of in-game content |
28.3% |
44.5% |
41.7% |
50.9% |
46.8% |
Other |
4.1% |
2.6% |
3.3% |
3.3% |
1.9% |
8. Which of the following would you like to see implemented first? (Choose only one)
JP |
NA |
GB |
FR |
DE |
|
More story-based quests/mini-quests |
43.7% |
37.0% |
40.1% |
42.2% |
39.5% |
More notorious monsters (NMs) |
2.0% |
2.1% |
1.9% |
2.9% |
2.7% |
More levequests (including new varieties) |
4.2% |
7.3% |
7.8% |
1.9% |
2.8% |
Player vs. player content (PvP) |
4.6% |
3.0% |
4.2% |
3.7% |
3.5% |
Large-scale player vs. environment content (PvE) |
9.3% |
11.0% |
11.3% |
21.2% |
14.5% |
Expanded tutorials |
1.2% |
1.3% |
2.8% |
2.3% |
3.5% |
Auction House |
22.7% |
26.3% |
22.0% |
17.2% |
19.8% |
Other |
12.3% |
12.0% |
9.9% |
8.4% |
13.8% |
Let's take a look at questions 6 through 8 together.
An overhaul to fundamental aspects of gameplay was by far and away the most common response. But an accelerated version update schedule and increased player communication are certainly not to be discounted, as each comprises over 10% of the total results. The responses to these questions have left quite an impression on us, and we will continue to be making numerous improvements to these areas in accordance with your continued feedback.
The issue that players would first like to see addressed is a general lack of game content, followed by changes to the battle system. Looking further, it seems that the type of content most strongly desired is quests and miniquests, accounting for about 40% of the responses. The auction house has also made a solid showing among the responses, no doubt due in part to the fact that, as previously mentioned, many of the pollees are or were FFXI players. My initial reaction was to interpret this as players stating that they want more adventures in Eorzea! More gil and loot!
In line with this, I believe that significant changes to the battle system are necessary to create a style of combat that lends itself to the enjoyment of quests and miniquests. Following that logic one step further, it is equally necessary to bring about significant changes to the user interface to create a UI that lends itself to the enjoyment of the battle system. After all, there is no point in making thorough improvements to battle if the response and usability of the interface isn't capable of conveying those improvements to players.
In line with the above results, we will be bringing quests and miniquests to Eorzea sometime after the beginning of February. Along with this, all of the changes being worked on during the end of last year and the beginning of this year to improve the games playability and user-friendliness will also be released around the same time.
Though the next version update will introduce a relatively small number of changes, preparations are already underway to bring further improvements in the near future via a number of smaller-scale patches, including the release of quests and system-side adjustments. At present, we intend for something new to be released about twice a month. Overhauls to the battle system and user interface will also be ongoing, which will make it easier for the players to enjoy the new quests and content being released. The small-scale, system-oriented updates that will be carried out can best be thought of as the necessary groundwork for the battle system revisions.
We will also be looking in earnest at the possibility of implementing an auction house, as well as continuing to improve the functionality of the item search feature. Once prioritized changes to the battle system have been made, we will continue to balance and adjust guildleve and behest rewards, as well as improve overall user-friendliness. I realize there are many things, but for me the first order of business is to create the FINAL FANTASY feeling. To have players take part in engaging quests that place them in a struggle against an impending crisis that threatens their world. To have those players combine their strength and fight alongside one another. I still can't help but wonder what that ominous four-line poem might portend for Eorzea in the coming year...
9. What do you find most appealing about FINAL FANTASY XIV? (Choose only one)
JP |
NA |
GB |
FR |
DE |
|
World & lore |
22.7% |
26.4% |
27.6% |
33.2% |
24.5% |
Graphics |
49.2% |
35.5% |
32.3% |
15.6% |
44.2% |
Gameplay |
3.4% |
10.3% |
8.9% |
7.3% |
0.7% |
Cutscenes |
1.2% |
5.3% |
7.1% |
2.8% |
13.3% |
Sound |
1.8% |
1.2% |
1.7% |
1.0% |
6.1% |
Online services |
0.5% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.6% |
The FINAL FANTASY name |
9.1% |
13.0% |
15.6% |
35.6% |
4.6% |
Other |
12.1% |
8.1% |
6.8% |
4.4% |
6.1% |
I'm personally of the opinion that the two most popular responses, graphics and the game world, are the main attraction for all FINAL FANTASY titles. I also believe that the number of players who chose the game world option is a strong reason for the aforementioned demand for additional quests and miniquests.
10. Which of the following would you like to see implemented into the Lodestone? (Choose only one)
JP |
NA |
GB |
FR |
DE |
|
Official forums |
20.8% |
29.8% |
30.2% |
22.7% |
29.1% |
Posts by the development and operations teams |
36.4% |
28.4% |
28.0% |
22.2% |
24.6% |
More in-depth Q&A posts |
8.4% |
7.8% |
6.3% |
10.5% |
2.6% |
More in-depth play guides |
12.7% |
17.6% |
19.0% |
22.6% |
29.3% |
More features for individual and linkshell/company pages |
12.4% |
11.9% |
11.6% |
15.0% |
7.7% |
Other |
9.2% |
4.5% |
4.9% |
6.9% |
6.7% |
I'm very grateful for the fact that posts by the development and operations teams was the number one response to this question. In fact, this Letters from the Producer series is a direct result of this. In addition, we will begin a beta phase for the official FFXIV forums in all four languages (Japanese, English, French, and German) around the beginning of March. If all goes well, the forums should be up and ready for public use sometime in early April. I hope you are all looking forward to the forums as much as you are the changes to the game!
11. Would you welcome changes to FINAL FANTASY XIV that would drastically alter the rules already set in Eorzea?
JP |
NA |
GB |
FR |
DE |
|
Yes |
82.0% |
91.1% |
89.5% |
55.0% |
65.5% |
No |
18.0% |
8.9% |
10.5% |
45.0% |
34.5% |
It seems this question started a wave of panic among players about whether or not character data would potentially be wiped. For the definitive answer on that, please see my response to a player's letter below. As for the results, 85% of players answered in the affirmative. This is something that will be in the forefront of my mind when making decisions concerning future updates to the game. I promise to do everything in my power to address as many of the players' demands and desires as I can.
Thank you again to all those players who took the time to complete our poll. I hope that I've been able to appease those of you thinking, "Come on, Yoshi-P. Give us some specifics!" (Sorry, the fact that I haven't up until now is probably more a personality issue than anything else...^^;) Below is a list of changes and additions, some of them already underway, that will be introduced to the game in future version updates. And for those of you who might have been wondering, this list is by no means comprehensive.
Comments
Category
Planned
Current Tasks
Future Tasks
Quests
Tutorials for new players
Planning and implementation of tutorial quests
Introduction of additional quests
Quests revolving around the danger facing Eorzea
Planning and implementation of quests
Introduction of additional quests
Public company quests
Planning of public companies and related quests in Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, and Gridania
Introduction of additional quests
User Interface (UI)
Improvements to the log
Changes to behavior of windows when moused over
Removal of auto-log activation, addition of ablitity to target behind log
-
Automated show/hide feature
Log hidden after certain period of inactivity
-
Revision of text colors by message type
Brighter system messages for easier reading
Increased log tabs
Increased color customization by type
Improvement of dialog windows
(ex. market area selection)
Changes to increase the amount of on-screen data to reduce the need for multiple pages
Revisions to page advancing
Conversion to specialized windows
Improvements to journal usability
Changes to consolidate all current quests and levequests on one screen
Ongoing changes
Additional list entries
Changes to speed up text scrolling, increased further for prolonged scrolling
Addition of a feature to change pages using a gamepad
Adjustments to window size and scrolling position
Consolidation of levequest details on one screen
—
Character jump feature
Examination of the implementation of jumping
Implementation following completion of a favorable examination
Increased visibility of combat damage display
Use of distinct colors for player and enemy damage
—
Adjustments to prevent overlapping of combat text
FINAL FANTASY-esque changes to number pop-up animations
—
Increased usability of maps
Examination of increased refresh rates for more responsive maps
Implementation of chages
Subsequent increase in the number of points and icons pictured on maps
Improved minimap usability
Addition of PC field-of-view display on the minimap
Quest NPC directional indicator
Improvements to camera usability
Changes to prevent random reset of camera distance settings
Changes to allow camera distance settings via gamepad
Changes to notification windows
Changes to window placement
Reduced intrusion of windows when engaged in combat
Changes to increase the specialization of windows
Improvements to targeting mechanics
Changes to allow targeting by type (PC or NPC) when targeting with a gamepad
Examination of target indicator customization
Guildleves
Improvements to guildleve-related information
Command-based display of time remaining until guildleve renewals
—
Additional information when exchanging guildleves
—
Revision and balancing of local leve issuing conditions
Ongoing revision and balacing
Balancing of guildleve rewards
Changes to less popular guildleves in line with reward balances
Further release of new guildleves following balancing
Items, Synthesis, and Gathering
Adjustments to item condition values
Adjustments to lower the rate at which item condition deteriorates
Ongoing balances in line with player feedback
Higher visibility of the optimal rank of items
Changes to the color of item names to convey the disparity between optimal rank and a player's current rank
Currently assessing costs of implementation
Color categorization of item names
Reassessment of the gear affinities
Introduction of gear with rank requirements to create player-oriented goals
Further changes to gear affinities
Revision of battle loot and quest rewards
Ability to obtain weapons and armor via battle loot and quest rewards
Implementation in line with quests
Changes to item stack sizes
Examination of increased stack sizes from 12 to 99
Implementation of increased item sizes after finalization
Increased pace of gathering actions
Changes to the frame rates of action animations to speed up gathering
—
Market Areas
Improvement of market area connectivity and stability
Reduction in the frequency of market area crashes
Ongoing improvements to market area stability
Improved usability of the item search feature
Addition of prices displayed together with search results
Examination of ability to search by specific item names
Examination of an auction house system
Final examination of retainer and auction house systems
Initial planning following final decision
Battle System
Ability to toggle display of head gear
Ability to toggle head gear to allow display of character faces
-
Revisions to party-based skill point acquisition in parties
Improvements to skill point acquisition for parties
—
Changes to enmity calculations
Revisions to enmity algorithms
Ongoing revisions to enmity algorithms
Revision of crowd control actions
Revision of crowd control actions for each class to improve party-based play
Implementation of changes after finalization
Changes to enemy group dynamics
Introduction of enemy group variability, as well as enemy group highlighting to enhance combat visibility
—
Changes to claiming/engaging enemies
Examination and implementation of changes to claiming and engaging enemies
Ongoing balancing of skill point acquisition following initial changes
Balancing of enemy attributes
Changes to enemy attributes and drops
Ongoing balancing as necessary
Addition of beast tribes
Release of beast tribe monsters as both roaming and quest-related enemies
Further implementation in line with new quests
Revision of enemy sizes
Optimization of enemy size for ease of play
—
Design and release of notorious monsters
Release of notorious monsters
Further implementation in line with new quests
Conversion of roaming monsters to notorious monsters
Implementation after finalization
Armoury System
Changes to actions for Disciplines of War & Magic classes
Further changes to enhance class uniqueness
Initial implementation of partial changes
Changes to class names
Possible introduction of traditional names such as paladin, monk, white mage, etc.
Announcement of further changes as they arise
Company System
Introduction of public companies
Introduction of public company leaders in each city-state
Announcement of further changes as they arise
Introduction of public companies in Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, and Gridania to combat the threat to Eorzea
Announcement of further changes as they arise
Currently, the above changes, together with other adjustments and additions I have planned, are at about a 30% state of completion. There is still quite a lot to be done, especially when considering that more things will be added to the list. These posts that I will be making will continue to contain a list of planned changes, as well as updates on their current status.
Items on the above list will be removed once implemented, with dated notifications being given in separate posts. Changes that have been newly planned or are currently undergoing testing will be added as they arise.
By no means have the changes announced by the team up through the end of 2010, including planned adjustments and additions to the Lodestone, been abandoned. I will personally be determining which of these are necessary, and when an implementation schedule becomes clear, I will add it to the list above. I'll have to ask you all to make due with these posts of mine until the official forums are up and running. I'd very much like to be able to put the official forums and further community-based changes on the list by the time of my next post...
As I mentioned previously in the poll analysis, examination and planning of changes to the battle system, and related changes to the Armoury system, are proceeding at a very rapid rate, as we would like to implement them as soon as possible. In particular, I would very much like to continue incorporating player feedback into the adjustments being made to the claiming/engaging system, and finalize it it the near future.
Also, please look forward to further news regarding the public company system (not the official name...), as I will be releasing more details on it soon!
I realize that this is already a lot of text, but bear with me just a bit longer... Putting aside any news of changes to the game, I'd like to share with you a bit of an update on the FFXIV team. Enjoy!
I'll begin with a recounting of a visit we paid to Sensouji in Asakusa to offer our first prayers of the new year.
Somebody needs to learn to focus a camera... I made an offering of ¥10,000 (roughly $122 at the current rate), but whoever was snapping the photos at the moment I placed it in the collection box managed to take an even blurrier photo than this one. I know it looks like I roll with a somewhat unsavory crowd, but the entire FFXIV team numbers about four times the people shown here, are there are plenty of good and gentle souls. The unsavory ones are just those pictured in the front here.
And, partaking in the Japanese new year tradition of drawing paper fortunes, the gods saw fit to grant me a daikichi! That literally translates as "big luck," and is the best fortune possible for the coming year. Well, I didn't draw it per se... Actually, Suzuki-san spotted it crumpled up on the ground, so I grabbed it. No sense in letting a perfectly good daikichi go to waste!
But the true treasure of the evening is this masterpiece...
I like to call this, "Now this is the new FFXIV!" Pictured are lead developers Akihiko Matsui (left) and Nobuaki Komoto (right), and the expressions on their faces are simply priceless! Don't worry, they are actually very close friends...really.
Again, I apologize for the long post, but thank you to those of you who have stuck with me this far. I'd like to close by making a response to an inspiring piece of fan mail I received from a certain player.
Dear Kenneth,
I received your air mail, all the way from California. Your letter made me extremely happy and I would like to thank you for encouraging the development team in our efforts.
You expressed concern over whether one of the four keywords I introduced at the beginning of the year, namely reboot, meant that we would be wiping character data. I apologize for any confusion that this choice of terminology may have caused, but rest assured that character data will not be wiped.
This decision was in no way influenced by your letter, but is something that I have been adamant about from the onset. As a personal policy, I would simply never allow it.
Our characters are us, complex collections of memories and emotions, and nobody has the right to take them away from us.
I will be more careful in the future when choosing my words, and regret any anxiety I may have caused among players fearing for their characters' safety.
Please tell everyone on the Kashuan World that Yoshi-P says hello!
I'm already looking forward to writing my next letter! Until then!
Naoki Yoshida, FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer/Director
time wise thatll prolly all be done by this time next year
(and yes i still play)
Ah thank you for posting it here, I just intended to do the same. I really found the data about which otehr mmorpgs you did play very interresting.
Special the similaries and differences from different regions. Not to mention the people once prayed that Warcraft could be so big in Japan but actually is only by 1,2%. Even I thought that it was a bit more. I know the poll is from people that are interrested in Final Fantasy in the first place but it is still interresting data.
There's not that much stuff in there really. Probably will take us to April~ or so.
Some of the things I'm not paticularly thrilled about.
Pugilist to Monk? I wanted to play a boxer that got paid to go around collect debts and beat people up for the Syndicate. Now I get to play a granola eating mountain hermit that punches stuff because as of now there are no kicks or other martial arts or chackra hippy abilities in their skill set.
Public companies: The origonal information we got on companies where we got building and ships to use as an HQ for something that works more like guilds in other games now sounds like it has changed to open faction type content from other games....
But yay for content in any case.
My theme song.
It is interesting to note that they did not include the answers to question two and four. Question two was “Which forthcoming online games do you wish to play?” They had 6 named titles as possible choices but it makes sense they didn’t release this information since it may be useful to would be rivals… or so they say! Question four was “How much time per sitting do you spend logged in with your main character?” I think this information could have been given out but chances are they really did not like the results to that particular question. Note that 3 out of the 5 answers were time spent less than 3 hours, which isn’t that much time. If the majority of the people chose one of those 3 answers then chances are that may the reason they didn’t want to release the distribution.
I know a few people out there are not too happy with so many changes (and possibly more in the future) but I think it is something they have to do especially when it ties to question four. I’ll give you an example, I am currently pretty close to physical level 40, and the current cap in the game is 50. FFXIV is probably the most casual game I have played so far, and it didn’t take too much to get there. Part of the reason is that Disciple of the Hand does give a considerable amount more in physical level experience points. But I was curious to see how many people have “really” put in time with the current system. FFXIV-Pro links with Lodestone and gives a ranking based on several factors, mainly your physical level and the level of each class. I was curious to see how many people were level 49-50 compared to me which is level 40. Currently I am ranked around 30,000 roughly, while the players around 49-50 goes from rank 1 to somewhere around 15,000-20,000. These are rough estimates and its more to give an eyeball estimate to see how many folks have actually played this game after 4 months of release (time taken since the Collector’s Edition started).
That means that out of the 600,000 copies that were shipped out, 4 months and with the current system taken into account, we are looking at only about 15k maybe 20k players tops who have actually invested time into this game. I am about rank 30k and I can tell you I play very casually where most of the time I would log in for an hour or two with three being the max and in rare instances. That leads me to the next point, people in the FFXIV forums comparing this to NGE or New Game Experience from Star War Galaxies. I don’t think you can make barely any comparison between that and Square Enix possibly “pulling an NGE”. Before SWG introduced NGE they had a fair amount of people in the game, roughly 250k which is a decent amount. When the company brought in NGE people left in the droves and never took into consideration any negative feedback (which was quite a few) in the official forums. SWG already had content and was already established to a certain extent. Square Enix on the other hand knows they have to make drastic changes to make this game popular because only having 20k people invested in the game after 4 months does not look good at all. Add on top of that that the game is only 4 months old and there is only one in depth content (the main story broken up into several parts) currently in the game you pretty much cannot compare to what NGE did to SWG. Square Enix is going to add content to where there is currently is none so I am not sure how it can be any worse.
It is nice to see they are going to be bringing in quests and mini-quests starting sometime in February. Maybe something similar to chain quests (and some were really good in FFXI). It seems playability and UI will also be released around that time. I am glad to see his initial reaction was that we want more adventuring and more loot. I guess the Auction House is making a comeback making it the second most wanted item to be implemented from that list (they took note that most of the people who took the poll are or were FFXI players). It seems for the time being they will bring two updates per month possibly starting in February or March which is great. It is really nice to see that most of us selected posts from the development team and having an official forum as the top two things to be implemented to the Lodestone. We may have our forums as early as April which is wonderful. And the best was that more than 85% of the people would welcome drastic changes to the game, something that was sorely needed considering how very few people have invested a considerable amount of time in the game after 4 months.
There are several things I am shocked about. One thing is the jump feature, I would have never thought that we would have that, I was not bothered by not being able to jump, but this is certainly a nice edition. Increasing stack sizes to pretty much most or all items that are stackable from 12 to 99 is a welcome addition considering how FFXI was for so many years. Also it seems the names of the classes will be changed to stuff like Paladin, Monk, and White Mage. The rest of the list looks very promising. Everything in that entire list is currently about 30% complete so it’s a start. I am looking forward to hearing more and seeing those changes finally implemented.
Yoshi-P: Hope
Im really curious if they have reconsidered their subscription model. As it is now, we've been able to keep playing for free and to be quite honest, thats the only reason I log in and Im certain I'm not alone.
At what point do you all think they will have to get to in order to say "Ok, now you have to start paying us 12.99 a month"? I think theyve crossed the point of no-return as far as expecting people to pay a monthly sub. On one hand, it was a necessary move in order to keep interest in the game and save face. On the other hand, ask yourself as a playing member of this MMO what point will they need to reach before you willingly start paying them $12.99 for a single character?
I have a feeling their forcing themselves down the road of cash shop, which IMO isnt a bad idea at all. In fact, going this route along with the planned changes may be whats really necessary to get their player base at a sustainable level. Its already been proven over and over that a cash shop game can make a lot of profit. Will investors allow this though with the amount of funds already spent on the game?
Thanks for posting this, Hyan. I normally only check the Lodestone once or twice per week, so it's not unusual for me to see updates posted here before I catch them on the Lodestone.
In regards to the comment about the 'NGE', I'm one of the people who've posted such concerns. The reason for it is that despite the game's many flaws, even in its current form it has tremendous potential and there are a lot of things I like about the game. If you change the game considerably, there's a risk they'll remove the things I DO like without adding anything I feel is worth the change.
An example of this is the huge response that Mini-quests/story quests received. While not a bad idea persay, I do NOT want this game to turn into another quest grinder, thank you very much. Roll out some non-instanced dungeons, expand the leve system to give us more than three types of leves, more NMs, hidden areas to explore, etc.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who would stop playing the game immediately if it went that route.
@ Dreamscaper
I wouldn't worry too much about the questing.
"I realize there are many things, but for me the first order of business is to create the FINAL FANTASY feeling. To have players take part in engaging quests that place them in a struggle against an impending crisis that threatens their world. To have those players combine their strength and fight alongside one another. I still can't help but wonder what that ominous four-line poem might portend for Eorzea in the coming year..."
You bring up some really good points Voodoo. See here is the thing; Square Enix wants to avoid becoming a statistic like almost every other AAA MMO has in the past 6 years where they are reduced to 2 or possibly 4 servers. Because once you get there, there is almost no chance of turning back. The only really good example is Eve Online, and hence Square Enix would have to “pull a CCP” if they ever got that low. I gave a pretty lengthy example on Eve Online on one of the previous threads, but I will try to put it as short as possible here. They pretty much only have one competition or two at most while Final Fantasy XIV has quite a bit, and on top of that offers very similar things as far as fantasy MMO games are concerned.
Square Enix is going to try as hard as possible this year to make it so they don’t have to consider F2P or the cash shop model as an option. You have 2 huge generations as far as MMOs go (You can break this further I am sure, but it is for the sake of simplicity). You have the 1995-2004 groups and the 2004-2011 groups. If you look at the popular games from the earlier generation, most of them did have shaky starts, but also MMOs back then were still at its infancy (excluding MUDS) and also information traveled way slower than anything compared today. Most of the popular ones had enough time to breathe, and actually thrive and grow to the point that a majority of them like Everquest, Ultima Online, Everquest II, Final Fantasy XI to name a few were able to get half a dozen or more expansions out to the public and in some cases making those games much more awesome. For example if you were to take away all of FFXI’s expansions you will be left with a shell of a game with 6 jobs.
Square Enix got a pretty good shake up and is realizing the MMO world and competition around them. Times have changed and if you look back in the past 6 years, even though most AAA MMOs that started really bad did make a few to moderate positive changes, you will see that even with a good amount of changes, that did very little to bring back everyone else back except to keep the small hardcore fans in each game. All those games have either shut down, been reduced to 2- 4 servers for the most part, or they have changed their model from P2P to F2P or cash shops while others are heavily considering this change sometime in 2011. This is something Square Enix wants to avoid at all costs and try to make the game enjoyable for a much wider audience.
One of the questions they avoided to release the results to the public were the “How much time per sitting do you spend logged in with your main character?” If you look at the Lodestone or the results here on this page, you can clearly tell that they have statistics on pretty much everything, even on stuff they did not ask or release. Like for example they probably know how many times you crafted certain items, or how many times you used standard, even to the point they know every second you have logged on into the game. 3 of the possible 5 choices they were players logging on for less than 3 hours which isn’t that much time.
To answer your questions, I think once they see a good number of people logging in for 3 hours or more, and they get feedback from future polls that the majority of the player base is happy is when they might start charging as well as give a definitive release date for the PS3. As far as the numbers of members they would need to make that decision, I would say at least 200k maybe 100k as the bare minimum. Will Wada and the investors/committee members/share holders give Yoshida all the time that he needs or whether they start putting too much pressure or thinking about making another change to the team is yet to be seen as how fast the changes come. Not only that but those changes have to be well received not only by the hardcore diehard fans but also a considerable amount of other players as well. If by the end of the year these changes are not enough an impact to bring enough people and just keep the core base, then the question becomes whether the core base is enough to sustain a profitable long term service of this game.
By the way Dreamscaper you won’t have to worry about the quests being a grinder for the most part. If you look at FFXI I would say 95% of the quests did not give any experience at all. They were more for fame and getting to know the people and towns around you, some of the story chains from those quests were really well done, and I am not even talking about the storyline missions which most were awesome full of cut scenes and memorable fights. Some quests did give nice rewards and some were done to give vanity items to fix up your house for example. Square Enix did quests differently than 99% of the other MMOs out there, none of them felt or were made as a grind because most of them were non-repeatable as well. This is one of the major things fans from FFXI miss. If people come from other games they will look at it and think instantly quest grinders which they are not.
They probably should add quests to grind for sp. This game is a grinder. Grind mobs grind leves grind synths. Might as well add grind quests and give us more ways to get sp and gil as well as an interesting story.
My theme song.
Same. I would never touch the game again if they announced it was going F2P with a cash shop/microtransactions. Pretty much everyone in my linkshell in-game stated the same.
I hear that statement a lot, though... mostly from people who are more attracted to the idea of it being free than anything else about the game itself.
To me, them announcing they're ready to implement a subscription fee would be an indication that they feel it's ready and justifies one. I think they would have to feel pretty confident in it, as as well as confident that current players would agree, to do so.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Regarding to the time logged in with the main char i am very happy i only need 2 (sometimes 3) hours every second day to play with my friends and have a decent progression.
The times i stay online for 4 to 8 hours per day are really gone and will not come back.
I also play LOTRO the same amount of time and theres is no more time left to invest nor do i have the interest to sacrifice so much more time.
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
I'm happy that quest content will be one of the first things added, as long as the npcs handing out quests are not marked. I have always prefered having to talk to npcs to see if they have anything for me, ffxi style, instead of just looking for symbols over their heads.
the struggle to free myself from restraints becomes my very shackles
There is still no sense of duty in this game. No direction.
I haventt played EvE online in 6 months. I still have an active account. Why? CCP made a good game. They had a direction, they stuck to it. Back when MMOs were fail if they didnt have 2 million or more, EvE had 25K logging in and they didnt bow. The reamined true to EvE and I respect that, enough to pay a sub just to skill up a pilot. Even if it's a real possibility I wont ever go back.
SWG destroyed thier game. They are the laughing stock of the MMO world and I have 3 accounts active right now. It was my first MMO and I had alot of fun in it. I go back every now and then. Stay around for 4 or 5 months and leave. They lost most of it but they have some respect left. I feel a connection, like in EvE.
FF14? I wanted it when I first started. I wanted to grow in this game, be a part of a shiny new virtual world. I'm losing that small spark of affinity day by day. The game isnt MMO magic.They need to make it that or it will fade away.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
What I liked?
- Graphics
- Animations
- Sound
- For the Harcore
- In depth crafting
What I didn't like?
- No Jump
- Boring bland world
- So many invisible walls
- Lots of zones are like coridoors
- UI
- Uninteresting Death Penalty (needs to be made into an actual punishment)
- No quests
- Nothing to do but grind
- Voice acting sucked
- The Intro was boring as hell
- Lack of tutorial made everything confusing, like I still don't understand how the class system works
- lackluster character creation
etc.
I could go on and on for what I didn't like but the main thing the game needs is something to do because currently what it does have is a few boring starter quests and then a big grind in an empty world.
This looks like a good start. I must say that they are really in for an uphill battle. They have some incredible competition coming this year. I hope they can get things done before everybody moves to greener pastures.
Despite my utter hatred for XIV's current state, I still hope SE can turn this game into the experience I had with FFXI. If they can fix* the classes and add meaningful content (AF Armor quests, job advancement quests, Zilart-type quests, etc.) then I would be pretty happy with the game. The world could use some interesting landmarks and charm as well.
*After playing XI and dabbling in all the jobs, I can say each and every one of them had a very unique feel to them and really had a sense of identity. The classes in XIV are beyond bland. They all play almost exactly the same. In XI, there was a huuuuuge difference in playing my Bard and playing my Samurai or Ninja. I'll just never understand why they deviated so far from what had proven to be so successful for them. Had they launched with the content and polish the game had during Rotz they would have had instant success from the XI players alone.
Bah, that's enough... I just can't talk about this game without getting pissed off and dissapointed.
They launched XI when it wasn't ready, and it proved to be successful to them. So they did it again.
There isn't really anything else to understand.
They couldn't have went with the same job system for this game either way. It was way too restrictive for a party based game.
Yes, XI was terrible at JP release, however the market has changed drasticaly between then and now. Standards are much higher, and if you think SE didn't understand that upon releasing XIV you'd be extremely naive. It's pretty clear after reading all of the apologies that SE knew the launch of XIV was an unmitigated disaster; being a billion dollar company, I'm sure they did their research and knew that releasing a game in the state that they did in 2010 would not fly.
The idea was for them to LEARN from XI and implement ideas (not an exact replication) that had proven to be so successful. You claim that the lesson they learned was that if they release a game in terrible shape early that they can easily be successful... if you don't see a problem with that I'm not sure what else to say to you.
If you re-read my post I didn't advocate that they copy the classes from XI. I said that I missed the sense of identity and uniqueness that each and every class from XI had. That currently does not exist in XIV.
I'd like you to explain to me what problem there is. They did it once, and it worked. And if it works, they will do it. And they did. You didn't provide any logical explanation as to why else they released the game in it's September state, you simply stated that they did know it wouldn't fly but they did it anyway. Really? That's not much.
They learned several things from XI (which carried over to XIV), and if you think that they were all things that would benefit the playerbase, you are naive. If they can get away with something, they will do it. XI showed that there's a lot of things they could get away with. Those lessons did not carry any weight in this game, but that's something they predicted wrong.
As for my comment about the job system, it wasn't "proven to be successful", it was proven to have significant flaws so they couldn't keep it for this game.
I think most of us can agree that it is true that we have seen how things have changed drastically whether it is standards, expectations, the amount of competition, and the consumer player base in the past 10 years or so. The problem is whether Square Enix knew about all of these differences in detail or whether they even cared to begin with. I am sure that they knew to some extent that the game was going to take several hits here and there, but I don’t think they truly understood the scope of how bad things could possibly turn out with such a release. They were too embarrassed with releasing the results from one question from the poll asking players how much time they spend in the game. And considering FFXIV PRO links with the characters from the official Lodestone website, you can pretty much make a ballpark figure of how many folks “really” invested time into this game 4 months after release. Sure they probably knew the numbers were going to be low… but I don’t think they were expecting numbers to be so low to the point that currently only 15k-20k actually have placed any significant amount of time into the game, nor expecting such a negative backlash from hardcore fans, fans from the series, North American fan sites and the Japanese forums(especially the Japanese forums), everyone in between and most of the reviewers even to the point that Naoki Yoshida could not even commit to a 2011 PS3 release on his last interview. Personally I think they might release it in 2011 but till Q4.
They have made decisions in the past that made the players feel that they are out of touch with the world… or the universe for that matter. Even Naoki Yoshida commented that “Up until now, we were too preoccupied with making FFXIV as different from FFXI as we could.” This is something even Beta players picked up way back when, but they were greeted with pitchforks and torches from people defending the game citing that it was impossible that Square Enix would make a game completely (or almost) different just for the sake of being different and nothing else… not taking into consideration lessons learned from FFXI, fun factor, ease of use, etc. etc. Personally I found this quote from another forum to be interesting:
“Note: I hope I do not offend anyone here who does not share the same viewpoint/outlook of this game as I do. The intent of this post is not to "prove a point" or make a claim that, because XXX says so, this is how it is going to be. I just want to share with you all what I heard from someone who has some experience in the industry.
So I was in a big family dinner last night and met up with one of my distant cousin who was in the gaming industry. After learning that he had some working experience with Japanese game developers (he was with Microsoft Game Studios working directly with Sakaguchi and Takehiko Inoue on Lost Odyssey) I asked for his opinion on the current state/future outlook of FFXIV.
Knowing my passion with FF (he heard all about how I "ruined" my last couple years in high school thanks to FFXI, my parents' favorite story to share among relatives)... he was hesitant to voice his opinion at first... but after I kept on reassuring that I wouldn’t “flip out” or hate him for bashing my most beloved game series, he paused for a few minutes, let out a long sigh, and pointed out the following:
One of his biggest concerns is with the Crystal Tools (sorry if I didn’t get the name right... trying to remember everything that he said) engine that SE uses for FFXIV. He mentioned a lot of shortcomings with this engine, but one thing that stuck with me was, “more suitable for console platforms.”
He then said that it is not impossible for developers to make radical improvements on the UI and game mechanics, but in terms of the global gaming industry, he has the least faith in Japanese developers (especially with larger game companies like SE) to make such drastic changes and pumping out quality product under such circumstance and pressure (which surprised me a bit hearing such comment from him, since he’s half Japanese who’s been working primarily in Japan and China for the past decade).
According to my cousin, he only worked with SE once, but just from that one experience he had a strong feeling that everyone in SE from an art lead to a game producer seem to have the attitude that “we educate consumers on what good games should be, by making these games.” “Such mentality, or perhaps pride, would certainly make sense back in the 90s, but definitely not now in this day and age” my cousin said. And he believes is what ultimately led to the current failure with FFXIV. As SE grew too complacent thinking that they could do no-wrong, since even their first attempt at the MMO (FFXI) was eventually a success… and now they are in a position that they have NEVER been before, being forced to open up to the consumers and start translating feedbacks (which they never really needed to care about before) to high-quality contents… they have never worked this way before, and I do not know if they can adjust in time, especially with all the bureaucracy in a big company like SE.
After I told my cousin about what Yoshida has done (player poll, seems open and candid on what needs to be done), he agrees that Yoshida is doing everything “right” in front of the public, but his concern is with all the roadblocks and obstacles that Yoshida needs to overcome on the backend… motivate/push his staff to do stuff that are above and beyond on what they are accustomed to, fighting all the bureaucratic battles in a work environment with their culture that resists "change" to get the results he needs.”
My biggest concern with the above quote is Naoki Yoshida versus everyone (or almost everyone) else in the company that fits into the whole “resist to change culture mentality” and the ability to get the changes out to the public in a reasonable amount of time, and that those changes that we want don’t end up being watered down versions that had to go through a lot of red tape. Red tape is only nice for holiday presents… and maybe one other thing.
How about they take a look at recent MMORPGs release? Tell me how many recently released rushed out MMORPGs that didn't fail? The answer is: zero.
BTW, your defense doesn't make SE looks any better, it makes them looks like they've been sticking their heads up their arses for all these years and they see their fans as a bunch of idiotic sheeps who would swallow anything released with SE's name on it no matter how shitty it is.
You can't be serious with these remarks. It seems like you are condoning the approach SE has taken with this game and this just baffles me.
One of the big complaints was that SE kinda developed FFXIV in a cocoon, not watching and listening to what was going on outside of the SE world. This is what bit them in the ass. Arrogance is a dangerous thing and SE proved it.
Any company that has one more braincell then a goldfish will take what works and elaborate on it AND also take a peak at what is living at their target audience. And please don't forgot to look at the competition, because you sure can learn a thing or two.
No, just explaining it. That seemed to be your problem- you didn't understand what's up. I came here to tell you exactly that. I do not include my opinion, because it is completely irrelevant. They did what they did, for reasons stated above.
I don't care about you stating the facts everyone knows already. Arguing is pointless because there is nothing to argue.
SE realized that most of the features in XI didn't "work" for what they were designed for in this game. What they didn't realize is that some of those downsides were still better than what fixing them would accomplish. Client side UI caused botting which SE couldn't control. AH system made crafting not a worthwhile investment. RMT ran over their game without proper roadblocks in place and ruined the economy. Job system restricted and pigeonholed grouping and made it only suited for the hardcore.
And I'm still not condoning anything. While trying to fix one problem they caused worse problems in the process. No opinions, only facts.