Letter from the Producer, XXIII

[Cichy]

Letter from the Producer, XXIII (01/23/2012)

Hello again, FFXIVers everywhere. Yoshida, here, back for my 23rd letter, and first of 2012.

Incidentally, it hasn’t been a great year so far. I think all the crazy hours around the end of last year finally caught up with me, and for the first half of last week I came down with a nasty fever that really laid me out.

This year, FFXIV service will continue as usual, and we’re going to be surging forward with version 2.0 even more than we did last year to try and meet all of your expectations. Some of you on the forums have been kind enough to express your concerns, however, that all of this effort will be for nothing if I overwork myself into a hospital bed, and you’re absolutely right. So I’ll try to take a little better care of myself. (On a positive note, though, I did find out that the drips they hook you up with at the hospital really get you back on your feet quick!). We’ve also started our subscription billing, so we are more determined than ever to head into another year of putting our all into developing and running the game, and most important of all, to have fun while we’re at it.


Well, work started back up on January 4th, and you know what that means—the planner gang all headed out together to Sensōji in Asakusa (the same place as last year) to get our hatsumōde on. That’s the tradition of going to offer the first prayers of the new year here in Japan, btw.

I splurged a bit on the offering last year (our two project managers failed to snap a picture for evidence…), but since it’s the prosperity of FFXIV that I’m praying for, I figured I’d let my wallet take another hit this year.

http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/to.../7e/2604_0.jpg
http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/to.../7e/2604_1.jpg


(Don’t worry, I made sure it got into the offering box )

Asakusa’s Sensōji is famous for having “cursed” as one of the possible omikuji (strips of paper with fortunes written on them) you can draw there, but I pulled a “small blessing.” It said, “Work hard and all will go well,” so I’ll be working like a man possessed!

Before leaving, we had a nice young woman who looked to have a few drinks in her snap us a group photo. Thank you young woman, whoever you are!
http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/to.../7e/2604_2.jpg

This pic is just the members of the planner team, but not even all of the planners are in this one. Still, I hope this gives you some sense of how huge the FFXIV team is.


And remember that pic of that guy last year that brewed up all those forum storms? Weeeeeell...

http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/to.../7e/2604_3.jpg

Last year’s pic showed Komoto getting a sermon or something from Matsui, but this year he was rocking a red necktie as a headband for reasons that still aren’t altogether clear. The tie was actually a gift given at the New Year’s party (actually a piece of Hitman promotional merch). But since nobody on the dev team ever wears a tie, we all seemed to agree that there was nothing else to do with it but wrap it around a head (sort of another Japanese tradition). And so this happened. The dev team really gets on well with one another, and everyone’s enthusiasm for ridiculousness like this is second to none!


Despite this start to the year, it will be strictly business as we carry on FFXIV’s development and operation. And as we work towards the 2.0 relaunch, for which we know you have big expectations, the dev team and Square Enix will be going all out in the effort to create something legendary!

I hope that the support and encouragement we have been receiving from all of you continues in 2012, and that you all continue to enjoy playing the game as well. See you next letter (I’ll be updating the 1.21 list of changes to the game soon) or on the forums! See you soon!

[Grey Jorildyn]

But no date yet >.<. Grr

[Cichy]

Pay for 14 to keep this guy well fed!

http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/to.../7e/2604_3.jpg

[Thiefami]

I'm all for the dev team being more personable, but I don't know how I feel about having Yoshi as penpal. NewYears prayer, and recovery...that's nice and all, but what about the game?

[vadre]

I like these kinds of posts, but I don't think it would kill him to put a piece of concept art in if the subject is nothing to do with the game itself... Just to keep people looking forward.

[Taliesin]

I'm all for the dev team being more personable, but I don't know how I feel about having Yoshi as penpal. NewYears prayer, and recovery...that's nice and all, but what about the game?

Spoiler: show

[blythe]

Wow, seriously? Why not just wait until you actually have something to say.

[Draylo]

Agreed, that was just a waste of time to read.

[MutamixBubblypots]

I really like how he shared what he and team did for New Years (or there after) it makes us feel closer to the development team, but he should have thrown up a little teaser for 2.0 at the end. Nothing major just a picture and a little line like this; "Hey thanks for your continued support and with your support this is what we're working towards at the end of this year".

[Corrderio]

I'm all for the dev team being more personable, but I don't know how I feel about having Yoshi as penpal. NewYears prayer, and recovery...that's nice and all, but what about the game?

Agreed. With this game going P2P in it's current state I was expecting more about how they expect to address the concerns people have.

[Patriarch]

I'm all for the dev team being more personable, but I don't know how I feel about having Yoshi as penpal. NewYears prayer, and recovery...that's nice and all, but what about the game?

This.

Trolled hard by SE. They are playing games with you now.

[Alkar]

I actually find these letters quite good and it's somewhat reassuring that he's working so hard. It's way better than Tanaka's reign of silence and "We can't do this because of BALANCE!".
News will come, be patient. If you're paying and playing it means that they're doing something right otherwise you'd be doing something else. The thing they really need to focus on now is the server merge.

[Elcura]

SE doesn't care about us because suddenly SE are telling us things about themselves?!

AHHHHHHH! PANIC! RAGE!

Seriously guys? Who gives a shit. If this letter is pointless and like reading nothing at all, then consider it just that and wait for the next letter.

[Lucavi]

But-but where will I channel all my RAGE?!

[Niiro]

Every picture of Yoshi or any other dev not in an office with a frantic, sleep deprived look on their face is not good publicity at the moment.

[Charismatic]

Damn people, okay... seriously? Can we all just admit the only issue with this letter is that he set the precedent of them always having some game info prior to this one?

[Lordender]

I give it an 8/10, the only thing that could of made it a 10/10 troll was to sneak in at the very end that 1.21 was going to be delayed till late feb/early march.

[Thiefami]

No panic, no rage. It's been relatively quiet since they resumed payment on subscriptions. I just feel it defeats the point of an officially translated letter when you do not talk about the game, and instead talk about what you did on Jan4th.

I hung out with friends at their condo rental. They made a big breakfast, which we ate and then drove I them to the airport for their noon flight.

Here is a picture of one of them with a sock tied around their ****.

[Elcura]

Here is a picture of one of them with a sock tied around their ****.

Desk?

[CasualPlayer]

Lmao.....I enjoyed reading every post in this thread. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face on a slow Monday BG.