Gamasutra : GDC Austin: Running A Global Community In Final Fantasy XI

[ringthree]

EQ2 is a really good game.................................now.

It simply suffered from a terrible launch and then everyone left for WoW. EQ1 is that nostalga game just like xi will be. People will continue to play it as long as new stuff keeps coming and the servers still have power.

So yeah, I guess FFXIV could suffer from the same problems, but if SE continues to build on it, it will eventually be better than xi for most people.

I think that the main problem with EQ2 was that it was too soon for it's time. I think that FFXIV is much better timed.

[ringthree]

You are right, i'm sure a lot of people don't see these things as important as i do. I know i'm not important to this game, or to SE. I am that 12 dollars to them no matter what. That said, FFXI has not had the success of others. The main reason is because of the communication that lacks between the playerbase and the dev team. If you can't keep your end game players happy, they will leave. While other MMO's grow FF has been getting lower and lower even before they said anything about FFXIV.

Like i said i know i'm nothing as one person, but what i hate in this game, a lot of people hate. Some do not say shit and just leave. I'm sure the same amount that leave don't care, but its about trying to keep that extra % that keeps an MMO at high levels.

FFXI has not had the success of others? Unless by "others" you mean only WoW and those Korean net cafe MMOs, then you are wrong. FFXI for a long time has been a strong but dwarfed second to those games.

WoW still had horrible communication between the playerbase and the dev team well after they had millions of players. And WoW players today still complain about anything and everything just like FFXI players. Even last night there was much gnashing of teeth and slitting of wrists about a nerf to XP in Altrec Valley. The number of "unsub" posts and the whining attached would make any complaint thread about FFXI look like godly praise in comparison.

So, basically what I am saying is that in recognizing your own personal insignificance in the equation, you have again missed the bigger picture. You are wrong when you say that people will leave because of end-game problems. While they are the most important factors for you and I, they are not the issues that most people care about.

Does that make a sad statement about the state of players and perhaps even our society? Definitely. Believe you me, I believe that end-game is what the developers of any game would prefer to work on. At the end of the day though, it's the normal people that pay the bills, and normal people don't worry about end-game, dev communication or anything else that is important to you and I.

I used to think that communication would do a whole lot for SE, but after watching the general reactions to the improved communication that WoW offers their players, I don't believe it would make a bit of difference. The bitchers will still bitchers and the people that don't care still won't care.

If you make a good game people will play it, that's about it.

[Mistress Stowastiq]

I can sympathize with this to an extent. You know what the simple solution to this would have been and could have mitigated 90% of the complaining?

SAYING SOMETHING.

Doesn't merit a front page response?

Order of the Blue Gartr - View Profile: Square Enix Community

Saying anything like "Shit's broke, we're working on it" is all we need. Or you can go the more safer route. "Hey, the community team sees things aren't working as well, we sent this along to the dev team for investigation."

Edits: Added a sentence and grammar.

Sounds like a good idea but I "thought" they had to get permission to officially say anything. If they need to go through the same chain of command to ask permission to address the issue formally, I imagine it is just as lengthy to ask for permission to say, "Hello we are working on something."
Any term is taken in a thousand different points of view and even using the words, "Aren't working as well," is a statement that I guess needs official approval first.

Not sure how many things they can actually say on their own but I would think they had a specific list of guidelines and outside of that, need approval from higher ups, even if it is a generic acknowledgment.

WoW still had horrible communication between the playerbase and the dev team well after they had millions of players. And WoW players today still complain about anything and everything just like FFXI players. Even last night there was much gnashing of teeth and slitting of wrists about a nerf to XP in Altrec Valley. The number of "unsub" posts and the whining attached would make any complaint thread about FFXI look like godly praise in comparison.

I was reading the forums yesterday and today and mostly focusing on the Alterac Valley nerf. I was shocked at the way things were being handled, especially when the admin from Blizz edited the exp nerf part of the explanation he posted in the first place. I was impressed with the close communication in the forums allowed by staff posting regularly but then realized that even with that constant level of clear communication, players will still whine and be generally unsatisfied. It made me consider the difference in XI's lack of communication with developers and community reps. It made me wonder just what I am actually wishing for when I say I would like the communication lines to increase.

[Tagus]

i was talking to stan about this on vent the other day.


isnt EQ1 > EQ2? who's to say that cant happen with FFXI and FFXIV? lol. XI really is a good game, despite my rants about it in the past. you never know what'll happen!

What Richardd said. All of the news regarding FFXIV has a lot of promise, but SE could very easily fuck it all up.

[ringthree]

I was reading the forums yesterday and today and mostly focusing on the Alterac Valley nerf. I was shocked at the way things were being handled, especially when the admin from Blizz edited the exp nerf part of the explanation he posted in the first place. I was impressed with the close communication in the forums allowed by staff posting regularly but then realized that even with that constant level of clear communication, players will still whine and be generally unsatisfied. It made me consider the difference in XI's lack of communication with developers and community reps. It made me wonder just what I am actually wishing for when I say I would like the communication lines to increase.

You have no idea how much I completely agree with everything you have said.

I barely play WoW but I was so incredibly impressed by the amount of information that was coming straight out of Blizzard and specifically Ghostcrawler. And then I looked a little closer and I noticed that the information was largely ignored or any changes were treated with completely asinine responses.

After reading more and more comments and essentially culminating with last nights thread about AV I have come to the conclusion that people that play MMOs are both retarded and assholes. And this is universal. No amount of communication resolves this situation. The normal sane people will enjoy communication, but the loudest asshats are going to overwhelm any good information almost instantly.

Communication is completely irrelevant to the happiness of the player base. This was a crushing revelation for me, but I can see no alternative.

[Yabby]

Communication is completely irrelevant to the happiness of the player base. This was a crushing revelation for me, but I can see no alternative.

So what is the point to saying anything? Just don't do shit and pray they fix it on their own accord? There have been big problems fixed in this game because of the voice of the players. Thinking that the communication is irrelevant might be over doing it. I will say that there are many people that it wouldn't matter for because, well people are assholes. It is about the balance and will always be about the balance.