Letter from the Producer LIVE Part V (02/21/2013)

[Don Katsu]

Are they going to allow players with created characters to choose their servers when retail launch happens? I have friends that were playing 1.0 in a different server and we are all thinking we want to go to the same server.

[Waraji]

Are they going to allow players with created characters to choose their servers when retail launch happens? I have friends that were playing 1.0 in a different server and we are all thinking we want to go to the same server.

Yes, you should be finding out more about this soon. Keep eyes on official Site. You will have plenty of time to do it too.

[Elcura]

Voila

This should be fun to watch.

[Kurokikaze]

Are they going to allow players with created characters to choose their servers when retail launch happens? I have friends that were playing 1.0 in a different server and we are all thinking we want to go to the same server.

Yes simply due to the fact that we will have regional servers.

[Spider-Dan]

So what you're saying is that you not only don't understand why that was cheered but that you can't read because I specifically mentioned that.

I was clarifying exactly what "antics" referred to; to wit:

I think a false assumption is that BG is somehow what it was in 2006-08 in that it is or will become again a Mecca for all things Final Fantasy MMO related. Oh boy, I remember the days - figuring out Salvage in such a community wide effort, raging against the wiki owners, old Taj and his antics, "botter" lists, and end game drama. (Calling for Help on KB anyone? Twice? ...Thrice?! Greatest moment in Valefor history am I right???) These things made BG great.

BG does not need to return to the days of cheering account hacking to reclaim its lost greatness. There is no more stark example of rose-tinted hindsight glasses.

Your entire post (minus the nostalgia reacharound) could have been summed up in one snippet:

In some ways, BG has turned into a place that it rallied against for so long. We didn't have the OF back then, but there was Allakhazam and Killingifrit and lord were those one helluva carebear haven.

So back then, instead of looking down on OF, BGers were forced to look down on Alla and KI. You're right, that's a huge difference.

[Lucavi]

Yes simply due to the fact that we will have regional servers.

REgional servers, eh? I suppose that's best if they truly want to include PVP as some sort of functional system.

[Nadrojj]

Churchill, after actually reading what you said, I take back my statement. It was nice to hear what you had to say while actually being serious.

I think the lack of information and the fact that the current game is in beta and we are not actively playing it is what is leading to most of these threads with two + pages of shit. I love when I wake up in the morning and see that there is some new information about because that means there is a bit of a buzz going on around these forums. The people who actively post here during the downtime are going to more than likely be the same people who will be having discussions about game mechanics and hopefully ushering in a new level of knowledge and entertainment once we get our hands on the full version of ARR. I look forward to experiencing new game content and coming here to talk about it with you guys.

[Lucavi]

Hard to usher in anything related to the game when the game isn't out. BG's "glory days" of XI was a shit-ton of forum theorycrafting, forum math, and end-game drama. None of that could have happened had XI launched as shittily as 1.0. did, requiring all of... this just to (hopefully) turn it around.

Its kind of pointless to point anything out related to 1.0 or 2.0 as being "subpar" to anything BG was in the past, when you can't even begin to compare the games and their impact on the MMO scene of the day. Plus, niggas had more free time back then; now everyone's got kids and full-time jobs. Everyone was in college and had time to burn back then. I know I personally don't have half the time I had to waste back in 2007.

[solracht]

Hard to usher in anything related to the game when the game isn't out. BG's "glory days" of XI was a shit-ton of forum theorycrafting, forum math, and end-game drama. None of that could have happened had XI launched as shittily as 1.0. did, requiring all of... this just to (hopefully) turn it around.

The theorycrafting, forum math, dataming, strategizing, etc. still happened during 1.0, it just wasn't posted here first.

If the relevant players (top ls members, number crunchers, etc) don't have a reason to post their information here, then they won't. It really has nothing to do with how popular or good the game is.

[Achitophel]

Meanwhile, we'll go play the beta.

But not til Saturday, 7 PST, right? I can make fun of your self-righteousness vis-a-vis some other board of people also talking about anime and shit, while still being in the Beta, right?

[Lucavi]

But not til Saturday, 7 PST, right? I can make fun of your self-righteousness vis-a-vis some other board of people also talking about anime and shit, while still being in the Beta, right?

Uhh.. sure?

[Achitophel]

Good, just making sure you aren't attributing people's laughing at the dearth of intelligent conversation about the game here (as opposed to anywhere else) to their inability to play the Beta: NEWSFLASH (if Churchill didn't hammer it home): THIS PLACE ISN'T SPECIAL.

Or, in terms you might better understand:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/membe...-objection.jpg

[Grey Jorildyn]

The theorycrafting, forum math, dataming, strategizing, etc. still happened during 1.0, it just wasn't posted here first.

If the relevant players (top ls members, number crunchers, etc) don't have a reason to post their information here, then they won't. It really has nothing to do with how popular or good the game is.

A lot of people who would have crunched didn't bother because the game changed significantly with every patch. It seemed pointless to bother spending 3 months to figure something out that was gonna change a month later, just to have to do that all over again.

[Lucavi]

Good, just making sure you aren't attributing people's laughing at the dearth of intelligent conversation about the game here (as opposed to anywhere else) to their inability to play the Beta: NEWSFLASH (if Churchill didn't hammer it home): THIS PLACE ISN'T SPECIAL.

Or, in terms you might better understand:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/membe...-objection.jpg

I'm a bit forgetful as to when I ever implied otherwise. Please, refresh my memory.

[Seravi Edalborez]

A lot of people who would have crunched didn't bother because the game changed significantly with every patch. It seemed pointless to bother spending 3 months to figure something out that was gonna change a month later, just to have to do that all over again.

That and, if memory serves, stats literally did all of nothing in the early stages of 1.0. and 50/50 CON/THM ruled all. (link) Like significant boost in STR or INT or what have you for barely any effect on DPS, not much formal investigation needed to see it (and the testing that was done only made the message clearer).

The most notable thing I remember happening (prior to major overhauls around 1.19ish) was the discovery of PIE tiers for DoTs. (another link)

[Spider-Dan]

When it comes to BG's role, there's a big part of the discussion that's going unmentioned: job forums.

BG was always good at "big picture" stuff (AV fighting, Salvage info, merit strategies), but when it comes to job-specific information, BG has always been lackluster. If you had a specific question about something that pertained to a specific job, you were banished to Random or What's Better threads, where you can only hope that the first person to respond to your question actually knows what they are talking about. That's a major reason why the creation of the Standard forum was a psuedo-renaissance in BG information sharing; instead of seeing the reflexive "This is advanced?" response or having your answer buried in a hundred-page long thread, never to be seen again, people were encouraged to make threads without worrying if it was advanced enough. As a result, the Standard forum damn near killed off the Advanced forum.

Along a similar line, the job forums on the other sites (e.g. Alla, KI) provided much more insight into the specifics of your job than you could reasonably find on BG. Sure, the general discussion forums were useless, but general discussion forums are almost always useless, so that should practically be expected. There were a LOT of very useful, very detailed job specific threads on the job forums of the other sites, from players that were also known and respected here (e.g. Rukenshin, Archain). And from what I can tell, those kind of posts were still being made to the OF job forums during 1.0; Carraway's ARC guide is a good example.

If you came to BG for the wikiwars and account hacking and kings drama, I guess you're entitled. But if that's the golden age you remember, I feel sorry for you. The only real difference between then and now, in my eyes, is the number of posters participating in the discussions, and that's basically a direct result of the difference between XI and XIV in product quality.

[Kachiko]

I came because of the original drama threads, FFXI tactics information that seemed to pop up first and be fairly reliable, and the random image threads. I stayed for the other game forum sections, that I saw a common interest in, including this one.

[Swag]

I have been a bg boards lurker for a very long time. I don't post much because frankly, I have nothing to add most of the time, don't care about what the boards think of me, or feel the need to post every random/useless thought that pops into my head unlike a few people. Usually if I am on these boards at all it's because I couldn't find anything better to do with myself.

There was almost nothing worth "figuring out" with v1 because like someone pointed out things changed with most every patch so there was no point in doing the mathy parts, which to me was the part of BG that was different from other sites. You can argue with stupid, you can't argue with math.

Now the xiv forums are basically 3-8 people spamming the same kind of drivel you find on the OF, but with an odd and unexplainable sense of elitism.

No one posts anything useful other than what the devs or SE reps post themselves then these same 3-8 people spam the threads with their own personal opinions or nonsensical speculation to interpret the official posts. (Rokiens up in here) You people should just exchange emails and stroke each other about how relevant your opinions are to each other and stop shitting all over these boards. (Does not include translations threads, those are at least semi interesting to read usually)

I have hope that when 2.0 is in full swing and there is actually something to talk about that BG will again be THE board to go to for useful/helpful/intelligent conversation to actually solve things or figure things out. For the last several months it has been no better than the OF and none of you regular posters in here should think otherwise or you are seriously deluding yourselves.

[Vuitton]

I have been a bg boards lurker for a very long time. I don't post much because frankly, I have nothing to add most of the time, don't care about what the boards think of me, or feel the need to post every random/useless thought that pops into my head unlike a few people. Usually if I am on these boards at all it's because I couldn't find anything better to do with myself.

There was almost nothing worth "figuring out" with v1 because like someone pointed out things changed with most every patch so there was no point in doing the mathy parts, which to me was the part of BG that was different from other sites. You can argue with stupid, you can't argue with math.

Now the xiv forums are basically 3-8 people spamming the same kind of drivel you find on the OF, but with an odd and unexplainable sense of elitism.

No one posts anything useful other than what the devs or SE reps post themselves then these same 3-8 people spam the threads with their own personal opinions or nonsensical speculation to interpret the official posts. (Rokiens up in here) You people should just exchange emails and stroke each other about how relevant your opinions are to each other and stop shitting all over these boards. (Does not include translations threads, those are at least semi interesting to read usually)

I have hope that when 2.0 is in full swing and there is actually something to talk about that BG will again be THE board to go to for useful/helpful/intelligent conversation to actually solve things or figure things out. For the last several months it has been no better than the OF and none of you regular posters in here should think otherwise or you are seriously deluding yourselves.

I read this in the most calm and emotionless voice for some reason. But yeah, I agree with you. Sometimes Caleras will show up though and say something about GW2 and 60 FPS and how the world is going to end.

[Cichy]

I agree with Swag. Many times even if you tried to discuss or point out something about 1.0 you'd derailed fast by people who didn't even play it voicing their all mighty knowledge of the genre.