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

[Foxer]

The problem with the OFs is you need an active FFXIV account to post in them, so anyone who can post is someone who was happy with FFXIV the way it was in V1, with all its flaws. Those aren't the audience SE needs to be listening to for ARR to be a success. Of course they're all legacy, so all in beta too. SE needs to ensure they send a healthy amount of beta invites to people who quit within the first 3 months, and people who never played at all.

I thought it was just an SE account? That made no sense.

[Sephiroth]

I thought it was just an SE account? That made no sense.

Nah you've always required to be subscribed to FFXIV in order to access them. As the game is shut down you had to be active at the point they shut it down. Of course they did activate a lot of people for the final in-game event too.

[Seravi Edalborez]

So if you think about it there really is not much difference between the OF and the beta OF. Except beta OF is super secret.

That sadly explains a lot.

[Madeline]

It's the same damn people for the most part.

They all felt the need to recreate every shitty thread and mix them in with a few new ones. Since y'know, different game now. Gotta shit it up slightly differently.

[Xanthe]

The problem with the OFs is you need an active FFXIV account to post in them, so anyone who can post is someone who was happy with FFXIV the way it was in V1, with all its flaws. Those aren't the audience SE needs to be listening to for ARR to be a success. Of course they're all legacy, so all in beta too. SE needs to ensure they send a healthy amount of beta invites to people who quit within the first 3 months, and people who never played at all.

Yes and no. I didn't play straight through from open beta onward, usually just around game patches to see how things changed up. Each patch made the game more playable and around 1.21 I started paying to play. At that point it was a passable game with a decent level of content. Nothing spectacular, but the work that was put into it was what reached me more than the actual product. It gave me faith in Yoshida's direction and development team, which has been further bolstered by alpha footage and experience and beta direction. Would I have continued to play 1.23+? Sure, but it probably would have only been a time killer. With the direction and momentum that ARR has, I believe it to be a game I could actually settle in to long-term. That's looking beyond the "physical" evidence of content and mechanics as they stand and more towards Yoshida's direction and responsiveness, but he hasn't disappointed yet. Iwanttobelieve.jpg, etc.

[Nadrojj]

Found this gem today regarding FATE. I love how they are tearing things down before they even try it.

First of all, often not once does someone even bother to say hello to anyone during these events. It boils down to: beat em up fast then zip away. This promotes anti-social behavior in a major way. Who needs to communicate when you can run up and press 123451234512345... win kkkthnxbai.

[nekura]

You don't really need to try it to understand that's what's gonna happen. The same thing occurs in other games with similar systems. It's a trade-off.

[Lucavi]

What an amazing community XIV has.

[Eagleheart]

What an amazing community XIV has.

I laughed.

Then I cried. ;_;

[Lucavi]

They said it first, not me. And then many in BG believed them and argued on their side. These people cannot take it back simply because they've awoken to just how stupid their comrades are. Own it and love it.

[Kachiko]

I haven't understood the whole 'community' argument for about 5+ years now. Sure, in the beginning, when MMO's weren't a mainstream thing, there were actual communities that you became a part of, as that was the extent of the people actually playing the game. Since things went mainstream, that's all gone out the window for the faster, more rewarding pace of gaming that does appeal to larger audiences. Your 'community' now days is your guild and your close friends; everyone else is just along for the ride and aren't required for anything. Smaller games might roll the argument a bit better but its still secondary as those games are trying to snag the larger audience but never do.

[miokomioko]

They said it first, not me. And then many in BG believed them and argued on their side. These people cannot take it back simply because they've awoken to just how stupid their comrades are. Own it and love it.

You're the only one who keeps going on about it.

[Lucavi]

You're the only one who keeps going on about it.

Because it continues to amuse me how people like you were mighty quick to sit on your SE throne and proclaim SE's online community, as a whole, far superior to others. I don't care how long ago its been; you did it, and the community hasn't gone away - its just allowed the shitty parts of it to drown out the logical, sane parts.

You know, the same as the other communities that you accused of having shitty communities.

Fortunately (for me), the OFs aren't going anywhere. The legacy of the superior SE community will continue to propagate itself ad nauseum.

@Kachiko: Of course, but when someone attacks an entire other community, they leave themselves open to the stupidity of their own community. This is what we're seeing here.

[Jamison]

Edit.

Fuck it. No one is going to change their minds about anything.

[Lucavi]

Edit.

Fuck it. No one is going to change their minds about anything.

I'm done as well. Too hype about manthras tomorrow to worry about shitty OFers.

[Spider-Dan]

Because it continues to amuse me how people like you were mighty quick to sit on your SE throne and proclaim SE's online community, as a whole, far superior to others.

Please, tell us more about how laughable the claims about FF's online community are... while you continue to post regularly to a forum about an online FF game that you quit over 2 years ago. Without irony, I mean.

You do realize that the posters to BG are part of the FF community, right?

[Kurokikaze]

I like how they purged the Feedback section... I've no idea how those idiots were submitting "feedback" already without the god damn beta being live.

[Lucavi]

Please, tell us more about how laughable the claims about FF's online community are... while you continue to post regularly to a forum about an online FF game that you quit over 2 years ago. Without irony, I mean.

You do realize that the posters to BG are part of the FF community, right?

Its really no different. Those claiming that FF had a superior community were essentially bashing the BG community who supports other games, and I'd struggle to say that BG's XI or XIV section is any more or less superior than BG's WoW or TERA or EVE Online section.

That's the stupidity in making blanket statements like that. That's the short-sightedness I was laughing at, and drawing attention to. When you bash one community, you bash the entire community. When you praise one community over another, you're essentially speaking for your entire community. Can you, as a SE fanboy, seriously speak for the OF idiots when making the argument that FF fanboys are better than Blizzard fanboys? I don't think you could, and that's what makes the assertion so asinine.

The OF idiots throw gasoline on the fire with every passing thread.

Also, don't be a twit, SD - well, moreso than usual. I tested the shit out of 1.0., but the "finished" product wasn't worthy of playing, so I didn't. I've done the same for 2.0., and if its worthy of playing, I will play. Trying to throw some sort of half-baked "personal" attack into your jargon, as if I'm somehow offended that I didn't spend money on an unfinished, sub-par product, is foolhardy. At the very least, you won't get the response you're probably praying for.

@Kuro: They should have done that from the start. I think the community reps and mods grossly underestimated the amount of vitriol that FF NA idiots can spew out in quick succession.

[Marihoki]

This whole community thing is pretty dumb because people are referring to two completely different communities when they refer the Final Fantasy community

On one hand, you have the out-of-game online community, which diarrheas every idea they have about the game onto a forum, and there is a good chunk of people who have horrible ideas like "WHY DOES THE GRASS LOOK SO BAD QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ" and so on. I'm pretty sure everyone can agree that this vocal minority is horrible.

On the other hand though, you have the actual in game community, which I think when they refer to when they say the FF community is "Superior". This has more to do with the fact that people in the same server had more interaction with one another just due to how the game (both FFXI and FFXIV) was designed. The game forced you to play with other people, and in end game forced you to know who other LS's were, ect. Just in general, good or bad, FF generally had a more tight-knit with a feeling that you knew a lot of the people around you, and those people knew you. In games like WoW where you can get through the majority of the game alone, or can just really play the game with a single guild and not have to worry about others, this sense of a tight-knit community is lost.

If anyone ever claims the FF community being "Superior" then it most likely refers to its in game presence, not the shit that's spewed all over forums.

[Sign]

All of this talk of "community" and bad posts on the OF is giving me this sick urge to try to dig up some of the wonderfully terrible Allakhazam posts from back in the day.