Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXVI

[Niiro]

There was a light novel someone posted on reddit that made me think of this when I read it:

I go into a boss fight in WoD (Warlords of Draenor) last night and its a routine tank and spank in a heroic dungeon with some dodging mechanics and the usual "don't stand in the fire" song and dance. The fight is hilarious fun because even when I'm in rotation turrent mode, my entire spec (Fire Mage) is all about INTERRUPTING my rotation when my procs come up, because firing out procs and attempting to obtain as many procs as possible is the sole key of maintaining high DPS. The Procs are instant, deal spike damage, and deal the strongest dot among all of my arsenal of spells - and, with good gear, I may get lucky and get to fire off about 7 or 8 of them in a long, hilarious combo of explosions and fun. If I am unlucky with RNG, I revert to refreshing my other dots and falling back into my rotation until more procs are available, while dodging the aforementioned fire and interrupting boss abilities.

Its fun as hell. I'm laughing like a maniacal idiot when I hit my 6th proc that crits. I'm yelling into vent "are you seeing this?" as the numbers fly. I'm having fun. When I'm targeted with an ability, I can move out of the way while still casting if I'm skillful enough to use my abilities. Its enjoyable and it rewards me, the player, for my efforts. I don't feel frustration every time the ground turns orange under my feet in a fight because I know I have to fucking start from scratch.

The reddit post:

There is no excitement in doing what your job does. There are no amazing feats or exploits. There are no "DID YOU SEE THAT?!" moments. There is only the acceptable baseline, and an unusual string of crits/high rolls on damage variance that lead to a slightly higher DPS rating over a given fight. Executing your job's abilities is not exciting, it is not something you grin wildly about and think to yourself "I've got you now, ya unholy jackwagons..." It is, simply put, ongoing tedium designed to keep you pushing buttons while you dance the dance of death.

The whole post is very long but it's also full of valid and well-argued points, I probably wouldn't have read the whole thing but I've got a bitchin cold and can't sleep.

I always find posts like these interesting because I've never really played any MMOs other than XI/XIV so having a more diverse perspective is enlightening.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...oshida_or_the/

Most of the responses seem to be non-arguments about how "this isn't XI" and whatnot, which read like arguments against expecting quality and effort from the XIV team at this point.

[Silenka]

Very good post, very interestingly written, full of good points that most of us around here have been making often enough. Too bad as usual the white knights and apologists will hand-wave it away as simply a guy who can't be pleased like they do every other tirade. There's no changing a person's mind once their dead-set on their opinion and I highly doubt complaints of this nature will have any impact on the actual game but at least we can dream.

Having played other MMOs I will say there are many other ways to do it but as quite a few here are fond of pointing out, SE doesn't have to make a better game when they're already raking in the cash.

[Spider-Dan]

I hate this 'feature' of Swiftcast so much.

Swiftcast isn't eaten by Firestarter F3/Thundercloud T3 (i.e. procs), only by instant spells like Scathe/Aero/Bio.

But what you're saying, sounds like something they could retool Surecast to be since that spell is absolutely useless (alongside Freeze) outside of very, very specific circumstances.

Like Miasma2, Surecast exists almost entirely as a PvP tool.

[Lucavi]

So you're stuck playing the game that actually exists, not the one that should exist. And in the game that actually exists, healer is best in life.

Worry not, friend. I'm not "stuck" playing any game. SE isn't making a dime off of me right now. I never mind speaking with my wallet. When I stopped having fun, I stopped paying. So it goes with any game - so it should go, if you truly care about the product and the experience more than the brand itself.

[Cichy]

There is no excitement in doing what your job does. There are no amazing feats or exploits. There are no "DID YOU SEE THAT?!" moments. There is only the acceptable baseline, and an unusual string of crits/high rolls on damage variance that lead to a slightly higher DPS rating over a given fight. Executing your job's abilities is not exciting, it is not something you grin wildly about and think to yourself "I've got you now, ya unholy jackwagons..." It is, simply put, ongoing tedium designed to keep you pushing buttons while you dance the dance of death.

this just perfectly describes what my biggest problem with 14 was

[Whaleporn]

I'm at the point where I'm considering letting my sub lapse, the only thing that I'd regret is losing our FC house. My friends are all done with the game because we tried raiding and it was basically simon says with cool downs. I've already posted something like what was said on the last page: 14 doesn't give players interesting tool kits, and in response the types of encounters they design have to fit that boring set of tools. Lucavi's joy at playing a well built MMO class is an example of seeing what 14 is trying to ape. It's baffling that they did so many things right but didn't use the expansion as a playground for pruning and improving the game. Ignoring even how punishing most of the mechanics are (why take away bards ability to dps and move rather then give other classes better options?) classes spend a lot of time casting filler/builder moves to another filler/builder move then they get to use an attack that does something. Warriors have acceptable stance dancing but healers and paladins have to waste GCDs, and their stances often feel like punishments rather then giving the player positive feedback on knowing when to attack and when the bunker down and weather heavy damage.

[Niiro]

(why take away bards ability to dps and move rather then give other classes better options?)

Because it's easier to balance ranged DPS when you just make them casters that do less damage.

[Lucavi]

Because it's easier to balance ranged DPS when you just make them casters that do less damage.

So true. What a lazy approach, but when you shift the majority of your dev. crew over to a bunch of other FF titles currently in development, you can only do so much.

I'll put my money into those projects when they come out. 3.0 doesn't need anymore of mine for now.

[Hioki]

Its fun as hell. I'm laughing like a maniacal idiot when I hit my 6th proc that crits. I'm yelling into vent "are you seeing this?" as the numbers fly. I'm having fun. When I'm targeted with an ability, I can move out of the way while still casting if I'm skillful enough to use my abilities. Its enjoyable and it rewards me, the player, for my efforts. I don't feel frustration every time the ground turns orange under my feet in a fight because I know I have to fucking start from scratch.

Posted in the xenoblade thread. This is how rewarded I should feel when I do any combat in a game. There is nothing more interesting to me than just going crazy with as many insane numbers as I can get.

[Spira]

whoever's recording has a faulty graphic card...?

[Fhloston]

Reddit light novel

Still reading this, but this guy is on point so far.

Bard is, in general, a mess to play, and as a BRD on my alt character Celeste Lilienthal, I'd really rather not go into a great deal of detail as to why I hate Wanderer's Minuet so damned much. It has surely been repeated over and over on these forums. They took a fine job, tied weights to its arms and legs, spun the job 'til it was dizzy, then asked it to go walk a tightrope blindfolded while maintaining DPS. Oh, and Wanderer's Paean.

Fucking amen. Which is what I literally shouted out loud after reading it lol.

There was no effort put into the new Relic quest at all. Even the storyline is nothing but cold pizza thrown in the microwave. 

ROFL! I heard it was redundant from the Mrs, but damn.

[Silenka]

ROFL! I heard it was redundant from the Mrs, but damn.

Yeah. It's the same as last time. Guy researching souls in weapons needs you to awaken your weapon through battles and needs Gerolt to make it with some coercing from Rowena. It's the same exact fucking storyline as previous relic, new and improved with zero fresh battle content. It's pathetic as shit. They didn't even try. They CLEARLY didn't even try. It truly begs the question of why relics had to be delayed for so long.

[Alisha]

that bit about how SE wants to get into e-sports worries me when back to back patches in a row will have had verminion and wolves den 2.0. i'm predicting midas will be a low budget affair because they put everything into wolves den 2.0.

[Hioki]

whoever's recording has a faulty graphic card...?

The game naturally does it if I remember. It's kinda annoying but doesn't sacrifice game play just visual aesthetics. Fortunately it doesn't do it when you get in your mechs and go into cockpit mode.

[Destinye]

that bit about how SE wants to get into e-sports worries me when back to back patches in a row will have had verminion and wolves den 2.0. i'm predicting midas will be a low budget affair because they put everything into wolves den 2.0.

Nah, Midas may be "fine", but it's 3.3 that will suffer because of the 5 variants of Feast they're adding in 3.2, since of course they'll use the excuse that "our resources were added to wolves den as priority blahdeblah."