Final Fantasy XIV Letter from the Producer XXXVI

[Raistlin]

Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki Yoshida released another Letter from the Producer regarding the development progress of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

According to Yoshida, the development team is in the “final stages” of preparing the alpha test version of FFXIV 2.0. The alpha test is currently on track to start sometime around the end of October, just a few weeks away.

The rest of the Letter is devoted to detailing the results of the Player’s Poll (http://home.eyesonff.com/content/1947-final-fantasy-xiv-player-s-poll.html) from last month, where Yoshi asked if anyone would want to play on FFXIV 1.0 after November, even if that data did not carry over into A Realm Reborn. Yoshi said he was planning on reopening the 1.0 servers if 30% said “yes,” and so a few days after the servers are taken down on November 11, 2012, they will be coming back up! However, Yoshida cautioned that if the login numbers drop below 30% of the current players, then the servers can be taken back down.

But it seems like good news for people who are not alpha testers: you can continue playing around and enjoying the community of FFXIV. Maybe not having the data carry over will encourage players to have more fun!

Source: Letter from the Producer, XXXVI (10/05/2012) (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/55751-Letter-from-the-Producer-XXXVI-%2810-05-2012%29)

[Ouch!]

I don't see how having data not carry over for three months of playtime convinces anyone to do... anything.

[Raistlin]

Really? I can think of a number of things, especially for newer players like me:

1. Talking to people you don't speak with outside of the game.
2. Exploring new areas, trying out new things.
3. Just screwing around for the hell out it, taking crazy risks, etc.

The mindset about "everything must be about getting more gil, more exp, and better items" is what often frustrates me about modern MMOs.

[Jinx]

This is sweet!

Even if you aren't getting to keep any of the progress made, a lot of people like to play games for the sake of playing games. It's cool they'll still have that chance, and won't have to go x amount of days without playing. I won't lie, that's something that's bummed me out a bit, and part of why I haven't played much.

[Cloudane]

Excellent, I may finally try XIV when this comes out. It's just that the original game got so much of a slagging in the press that I didn't bother (and XI left me with the impression of a clunky mess on the PC, so I was expecting much the same).

I would hope it's imaginative though. Worst thing about WoW compared with say Everquest is that it's all variations of "kill 15 murlocs and bring me back {some body part} as proof, also they came and stole my {artifact} so please bring that back too" with the only difference being the level of murloc and it gets very old very fast.

[Ouch!]

I shall address these point-by-point. I assure you that I did not mean that the game is only about progress.

1. FFXIV becomes a glorified chatroom. I can speak with everyone I play Final Fantasy XIV with through other media on the internet.
2. What Final Fantasy XIV has to offer at this point is fairly limited, especially for anyone who has been playing for longer than a month. As far as trying new things goes: there are two events I have not participated in (beyond certain battles required for a relic weapon, and forget doing that stuff if progress isn't saved; that's not fun, that's masochism), and I have no interest in one, and I expect I will do the other before the servers close down. As far as exploring goes: the world is getting a re-design for a reason. Aside from the fact that each region is relatively small, they're also extremely repetitive in a visual scale. You've seen one part of the Black Shroud and you've seen it all with very few exceptions. There's nothing left for a majority of players to explore.
3. Screwing around for the hell of it may be fun for all of a week, but that quickly amounts to, "I'm going to go run into this area with level 90+ enemies and see how long I can survive." I don't know what other kind of "screwing around" exists. Really, screwing around for the hell of it seems to amount to, "I'm going to dick around in game and not care how many times I die, because none of the consequences matter." I don't see that as sustaining entertainment for any real amount of time.

The biggest reason that all of this is irrelevant is because there's another thing that, at a point, everyone will be doing with their time. Another environment where these three points are not as boring or crazy. That's called open beta. That's where exploring new places and trying new things will be exciting because it will actually be new. And screwing around and trying crazy things will be the whole point as you try to figure out the new game mechanics.

And guess what? None of that data will be saved either. But at least it's not in the old build of a game with enough problems that they had to remake it from the ground up. I can appreciate that if you've only been playing for a short time and haven't experienced much of version 1.x yet, but I've been playing for a few months now, and I already feel like I've done just about everything the game has to offer right now. There are people who have been playing longer, of course (like BoB and smitten), and I don't understand how they'd feel particularly different.

[Axem Titanium]

As I've mentioned elsewhere on the forums, I am very excited for 2.0, despite only starting to play this game about 2 months ago. Granted, I seem to have finished all content in this game in the space of those two months (which says something about the longevity of 1.xx), but I'm glad I got in when I did so I can observe this unprecedented changeover in a major MMO.

[Raistlin]

Ouch!: I agree with you that open beta is far preferable to an unsaved 1.x version. But considering alpha isn't starting until later this month, open beta is unlikely to coincide with November's shutdown. And I completely understand that FFXIV 1.x has much less to offer a more veteran player like yourself than those of us who hopped on to play the last couple of months for free.

It is depressing to me that you've only played for a few months and already have seemingly done almost everything, but I guess that is why FFXIV is in such desperate need for this complete rebuilding. I didn't realize FFXIV's world and content were so relatively small.

[esthero0nie]

Yay!

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

If they release a ps3 version I might go for that though I'm probably gonna get a good gaming computer so I might jump in eventually if the new version isn't really bad again.

[Shauna]

Glad to see this is sort of coming together finally. It has been a long arduous process for sure. xD Not that I enjoy MMOs and shall be giving this a pass regardless. :3

[opn184]

What happens in an alpha test?

[Nightsintodreams]

Honestly, I am KINDA glad servers will still be around...but it'll make me mad that my progress won't be saved.

I guess I am glad that I belong to a RP linkshell on Balmung though...we don't have to have progress to be saved for that x)

Still would be nice to complete To Kill A Raven though before November 1st...

[Loony BoB]

1. FFXIV becomes a glorified chatroom. I can speak with everyone I play Final Fantasy XIV with through other media on the internet.
I have a friends in-game who prefer to remain anonymous. They may have told me where they live or their first name, perhaps even their age, but they would prefer not to have me know their Facebook or anything like it. I'm not saying we're going to use the game to carry on communicating but I am saying that if 34% of people want the servers to stay up so they can do things like this, then power to them.

What Final Fantasy XIV has to offer at this point is fairly limited, especially for anyone who has been playing for longer than a month.
This is very misleading. Perhaps for people who are super-hardcore and work to a timed schedule and repeatedly do things as a group every day, this might be the case. I've been playing on and off for a year and then consistently for a year and I still have loads of things I've not done, because I've been doing things very differently to you. My group of friends are not often all on at the same time, I enjoy teaching new people how to do things (which generally means failing over and over while they learn), I power-level friends on occasion, I help people I don't know do quests that only help them instead of helping me, etc. I don't have all jobs at 50 despite playing this long, I've not completed a couple of the dungeons yet and I've not beaten a single primal (although I should have by now, to be honest, I've had very bad luck with parties - grrrrr).

As far as exploring goes: the world is getting a re-design for a reason. Aside from the fact that each region is relatively small, they're also extremely repetitive in a visual scale. You've seen one part of the Black Shroud and you've seen it all with very few exceptions. There's nothing left for a majority of players to explore.
Firstly, I would like to correct you by saying that each region is massive. And I mean that. They're huge! It just so happens that they are also extremely repetitive, which I do agree with, and more notably there are only five regions in the game at all. But if you do go and do what Raist mentioned - explore - you'll find that there are actually a lot of little interesting places in the game, unique caves and caverns, NPCs in the middle of nowhere, etc. I have a friend who is taking screenshots all over the place at the moment so she is able to have her own little memories of the game she spent two years playing.

3. Screwing around for the hell of it may be fun for all of a week, but that quickly amounts to, "I'm going to go run into this area with level 90+ enemies and see how long I can survive." I don't know what other kind of "screwing around" exists. Really, screwing around for the hell of it seems to amount to, "I'm going to dick around in game and not care how many times I die, because none of the consequences matter." I don't see that as sustaining entertainment for any real amount of time.
Just because you don't enjoy something doesn't mean 34% of the server might. I mean, I don't enjoy endgame surrounded by hardcore people who scream at you when you don't do things perfect the first time, but some people might like that. :p I play the game to enjoy socialising with online friends in an interactive way, and to perhaps make new friends, too. Not to get a certain item, nor to complete every quest. I have never not enjoyed playing the game when I am surrounded by people like this, whether we are crafting or questing or just lounging around and taking screenshots of Dalamud. :p


The biggest reason that all of this is irrelevant is because there's another thing that, at a point, everyone will be doing with their time. Another environment where these three points are not as boring or crazy. That's called open beta. That's where exploring new places and trying new things will be exciting because it will actually be new. And screwing around and trying crazy things will be the whole point as you try to figure out the new game mechanics.
Firstly, not everyone in the game will be playing Open Beta. Secondly, Open Beta is months away. Seriously. This is basically what SE are offering until then, in all likelihood.

And guess what? None of that data will be saved either.
This is not confirmed, actually. I'm sure I read something about the possibility of transferring your existing character into Open Beta and then having the option to do the same from Open Beta to Release. But I'm not 100% certain on that.

But at least it's not in the old build of a game with enough problems that they had to remake it from the ground up.
In all honesty, this is no longer that game. If the game was released as it is now then the rage would probably have been far less if not at all. It's stable, it has content. If they had the entire ARR team also working on the game as it is now (if it was released like this, in other words), it would probably be doing amazingly by now.

I can appreciate that if you've only been playing for a short time and haven't experienced much of version 1.x yet, but I've been playing for a few months now, and I already feel like I've done just about everything the game has to offer right now. There are people who have been playing longer, of course (like BoB and smitten), and I don't understand how they'd feel particularly different.
Because we have souls, Zach. And we play with fantastic people we happily call friends.

Raist: Don't worry about the content. If you play as often as you have been, you'll need to play for years upon years to reach where Ouch! is now. xP Just enjoy exploring the world and messing about. Time it with TSoL, Boobs and maybe Bleys. Enjoy yourselves! That's how the game should be played. You don't have years, obviously, as the servers are going soon.

[Ouch!]

[quote]What Final Fantasy XIV has to offer at this point is fairly limited, especially for anyone who has been playing for longer than a month.
This is very misleading. Perhaps for people who are super-hardcore and work to a timed schedule and repeatedly do things as a group every day, this might be the case. I've been playing on and off for a year and then consistently for a year and I still have loads of things I've not done, because I've been doing things very differently to you. My group of friends are not often all on at the same time, I enjoy teaching new people how to do things (which generally means failing over and over while they learn), I power-level friends on occasion, I help people I don't know do quests that only help them instead of helping me, etc. I don't have all jobs at 50 despite playing this long, I've not completed a couple of the dungeons yet and I've not beaten a single primal (although I should have by now, to be honest, I've had very bad luck with parties - grrrrr).

You can have all your other points, because they ultimately just come down to differences in our approaches to the game, but let's not pretend that Final Fantasy XIV is remotely difficult. You don't have to be super-hardcore to accomplish what I've accomplished. Especially because someone who was super-hardcore would have accomplished that and more by the end of the summer. I won't disagree that I play a lot (especially the past month since I've been working from home), but keep in mind I've been out of town for over a month since I've started playing, so we're looking at everything I've accomplished in about three months of playing.

I don't view what I've done as super-hardcore. Super-hardcore is the couple I know who just leveled four classes each to 50 in the past week. And you know what? They are some of the worst players I've ever had the misfortune of partying with. They're so bad at this game, that one of them--after playing for over a year--has still not grasped the basic motion controls. They've both done more in this game than I have.

Let's not make any illusion about this game being difficult. It certainly won't take Raistlin "years and years" to accomplish what I have. I'm not saying he's gonna get it done before the first, but come on. You said yourself the biggest reason that you haven't accomplished a lot in the game: you will keep failing the same things over and over because you want to help new people. That's all well and good, but even one person who doesn't know what they're doing can make an easy fight like Ifrit (Hard) difficult. I'm not super-hardcore just because I play with a group of about a dozen people who know what they're doing. I also don't appreciate the implication that I don't also help people out with things that have no benefit to me. I just draw the line at "I'm helping you" and "Let's own trout" time.

[Loony BoB]

You can have all your other points, because they ultimately just come down to differences in our approaches to the game, but let's not pretend that Final Fantasy XIV is remotely difficult.
I disagree. If you aren't told exactly where to stand, exactly what to do, have people tolerant enough to put up with you failing your first five attempts, etc. then you will struggle immensely at any primal battle, let alone the later Grand Company/Dalamud quests. Again, some of them will be easier when you have the time to do them 20 times over, sure, but not everyone has that amount of time nor the people to do it with. My LS is amazing, I love them, but to get us all on at once without one or two of us held up with something else is nigh on impossible. Endgame in this game is designed to be difficult and the only reason anyone might think it isn't is because they either have epic gear or they have been trained to do exactly what they are told from day one. There is nothing more helpful, though, than having a group of people who you can play with consistently. I wish I had this, but I don't. We don't all hop on every night, we don't schedule times at all - we are a social LS. I don't have a static. If this game is ridiculously easy then I don't want to touch a game considered to be hard by you. :p

You don't have to be super-hardcore to accomplish what I've accomplished. Especially because someone who was super-hardcore would have accomplished that and more by the end of the summer. I won't disagree that I play a lot (especially the past month since I've been working from home), but keep in mind I've been out of town for over a month since I've started playing, so we're looking at everything I've accomplished in about three months of playing.
Just what have you accomplished, then? I'm starting to think we're playing different games. :p

I don't view what I've done as super-hardcore. Super-hardcore is the couple I know who just leveled four classes each to 50 in the past week.
I don't view leveling as hardcore, I view endgame as hardcore. :p

And you know what? They are some of the worst players I've ever had the misfortune of partying with. They're so bad at this game, that one of them--after playing for over a year--has still not grasped the basic motion controls. They've both done more in this game than I have.
Maybe you're just really fucking good? :p But yeah, motion controls, wow. I wouldn't call them hardcore, ever. Eeeeeeeever. Hardcore isn't how fast you level, it's how seriously you take the game and how much time you invest in perfecting your skills in it. I have leveled up pretty fast and PL'ed about four or five classes to L30 in two days, probably could have done two or three to L50 in a couple more if I really wanted to, but I didn't. Doing it wouldn't make me hardcore. Hardcore is Relic, it's doing raids almost daily, farming primal gear and darklight.

Let's not make any illusion about this game being difficult. It certainly won't take Raistlin "years and years" to accomplish what I have.
I said "if you play as often as you have been" - he's been on once or twice last I checked. If he plays all week he'll be fine, I'm just going by what I'm seeing.

I'm not saying he's gonna get it done before the first, but come on. You said yourself the biggest reason that you haven't accomplished a lot in the game: you will keep failing the same things over and over because you want to help new people. That's all well and good, but even one person who doesn't know what they're doing can make an easy fight like Ifrit (Hard) difficult. I'm not super-hardcore just because I play with a group of about a dozen people who know what they're doing. I also don't appreciate the implication that I don't also help people out with things that have no benefit to me. I just draw the line at "I'm helping you" and "Let's own trout" time.
I wasn't intending on helping them. The parties I join up to just happen to have people who are new to things. You clearly have a LS that has people more dedicated to the game than mine. :p The only person I know like that is Tony and he has a static so isn't available very often. He's still chatting on our LS daily, and is great help on many occasions (he's one of the "main group" on our LS) but yeah, Val/Steely/Ari/Vaughn/Lumos/Smitten/Me/Tony are just rarely online at the same time and if we are, it isn't generally for long. So we shout for help, call in friends, join other shouts and then come across a person new to a fight and that's that. :p Having said that, we got about five people beating Batraal on their first attempt yesterday. :D Was great.

[Ouch!]

I'll offer another reason why someone would consider Final Fantasy XIV easy: because compared to other games in the same genre it is. The level of coordination and movement required during any boss battle is minimal compared to a lot of other games. That said, it still does require coordination, and you're rarely going to win anything if you can't get at least a core of solid people who know what they're doing. Playing with people who don't know what they're doing doesn't mean the game is difficult; it just means you're playing with people who don't know what they're doing.


Just what have you accomplished, then? I'm starting to think we're playing different games. :p

Ifrit Primal
Moogle Primal
Dzemael Darkhold
Cutter's Cry
Grand Company Missions
Second Flame Lieutenant
Hrystmill Hamlet Defense 60,000+
Aleport Hamlet Defense 60,000+

I haven't put much effort into clearing Garuda (only gone on a couple runs, but we've made it to the third form), and I haven't been on a run to try and clear Aurum Vale yet. Also only recently started doing Hamlet; I haven't been on during a Grand Bazaar Hamlet Defense yet. We do them on the fly with a core of at least 5-6 and pick up the others as we need.

Seriously, though. Any game is going to be hard if you're constantly doing everything in pick-ups, but that has nothing to do with the inherent difficulty of a game and everything to do with a rag-tag team of people who have never worked together before trying to accomplish a cooperative task.

[Loony BoB]

Well maybe we'd have been better if you were on our server to fight with us. ;_;

[Ouch!]

Frankly, from the sound of it, because there's a lack of a group of people regularly doing content together, I probably would have rage quit ages ago if I was on your server. D:

[Loony BoB]

Oh, there are a lot of those groups, I'm just not in them. ^_^ Although some of them sound really rude, too. With dramabombs here and there.

[Ouch!]

Oh, the endgame drama is just something you eventually learn to ignore. The endgame group I'm part of caused all sorts of drama just forming. Our social shell had been doing endgame together, but there were so many people (many of whom had never done any of it before) who wanted to go to events that we were rotating party members between runs, leaving people sitting and waiting 30-45 minutes at a time while we waited for our turn. And then when you got in, somebody was always new and we rarely won because of it. So a few of us split off to form our own dedicated endgame group. People left behind (like that couple who really suck at the game who I mentioned) were VERY OFFENDED. Somehow I'm the only person still on good terms with everyone, and I think it may be because they're unaware that I split off...?