Random Complaint Thread. No white knighting allowed.

[blythe]

Maybe I'm just extremely pessimistic, but before catching up on this thread I wasn't expecting them to release the results of the poll at all. Did they ever say they were going to?

It just doesn't seem like good PR to release poll results where an overwhelming majority of players express dissatisfaction about major elements of the game.

[Thiefami]

Maybe I'm just extremely pessimistic, but before catching up on this thread I wasn't expecting them to release the results of the poll at all. Did they ever say they were going to?

It just doesn't seem like good PR to release poll results where an overwhelming majority of players express dissatisfaction about major elements of the game.

Their best way to go at this point is to keep nothing but transparency. Of course the players want to see the poll results they will ignore anyway. The illusion of choice is better than feeling as if you had no choice at all. The playerbase wants to hear something, anything. I think it would be a very good idea to have a developer's blog posted twice a week. That doesn't require promising anything, but saying we are working on this, we are tweaking that, even if some features are months off. Not everything has to be a surprise and needs to be kept in the dark.

Kind of pointless, but ever work retail ? When you had a long line of impatient customers they tell you to say some bullshit like, "Thank you for holding everyone, I will try to be right with you." Heh, it really works.

[jPuff]

Kind of pointless, but ever work retail ? When you had a long line of impatient customers they tell you to say some bullshit like, "Thank you for holding everyone, I will try to be right with you." Heh, it really works.

This is actually a really good analogy. It's the fact that silence comes off as dismissive. It's basic people skills.

Maybe I'm just extremely pessimistic, but before catching up on this thread I wasn't expecting them to release the results of the poll at all. Did they ever say they were going to?

It just doesn't seem like good PR to release poll results where an overwhelming majority of players express dissatisfaction about major elements of the game.

Speaking for myself, I didn't ever expect them to release the poll results, because even I can acknowledge that that would probably piss people off even more (can you imagine if it turned out most players voted for PVP or something?). I did however expect them to post something when the poll closed, even if it amounted to "thank you for waiting."

[jPuff]

The illusion of choice is better than feeling as if you had no choice at all. The playerbase wants to hear something, anything. I think it would be a very good idea to have a developer's blog posted twice a week. That doesn't require promising anything, but saying we are working on this, we are tweaking that, even if some features are months off. Not everything has to be a surprise and needs to be kept in the dark.

I remember in a Behavioral Science class that I took, the teacher told us about an experiment done in a factory. Productivity was down, so they passed out a survey asking the average worker what they wanted or needed to help them work better. The majority of the workers wrote "brighter lights on the factory floor." The next day, the powers that be came in and replaced all the lighting to the workers specifications. Productivity went up across the board and stayed that way. Two weeks later, the powers that be started dimming the lights slowly, at rate not perceivable, day by day, until they were back to their original brightness. Productivity did not change at all-- it remained consistently better than before the lights were messed with. When the people running the experiment copped to what they had done, they asked the workers why they continued working harder when the lights were just as dim as when this whole thing started. The answer was "because you cared about what we wanted."

[Lucavi]

Kind of pointless, but ever work retail ? When you had a long line of impatient customers they tell you to say some bullshit like, "Thank you for holding everyone, I will try to be right with you." Heh, it really works.

Its an excellent analogy, and as a guy that worked retail back in college, I agree with this. We used the technique quite a few times, even if it was just employees passing by saying it. Anything, to the customer, is better than seeing employees remaining silent during a huge line, especially that guy and girl over there folding clothes instead of helping "us".

Of course, quite a few people here have adopted the stance that communication and transparency is meaningless unless it is directly packaged with action, so I'd expect a few rebuttals to this theory.

[The Q]

Someone over on Penny Arcade forums is actually arguing that SE is doing "everything right" with what they are currently doing to/with FF14.

LOL oh wow.

[Lucavi]

We'll find out soon enough. That's exactly what I said when OB closed with so many still thinking that XIV was going to be a blockbuster before the end of the year. We know what happened.

Time will tell.

[jPuff]

Of course, quite a few people here have adopted the stance that communication and transparency is meaningless unless it is directly packaged with action, so I'd expect a few rebuttals to this theory.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's important to note that we're not saying please bullshit us-- it's simply observing that so much of the community's animosity could be diffused with the most basic customer relations.

It is sad that I'm having more fun discussing how terrible S-E/14 is than I ever did actually playing the game.

[CrstyCptSteveWitherspoon]

I kinda gave up on the game. I found an active ls doing leves every night but once you start doing 40's for two weeks straight, getting shit sp for 3 leves then awesome sp for one or two eventually realizing this is all there is until 50, it becomes super dull. Also looking down the road at THM skills after Bio/Dia II I see nothing worth working for aside from sac3. I could probably push through if SE would just open their mouths and say something, anything, instead of giving a two week poll(like it needed to be more than a week long really) and not even giving a 'new' post about closing the poll, just adding some red print saying the poll was closed to their old post(lotta effort there). Posting 'beginners guides' is a joke since there are no 'beginners' anymore, just players holding out hoping the game will change. Checking these forums has also become redundant since all anyone (including myself) does is bitch about SE never talks to us, the game sucks, stupid bugs, lack of population, inflation; then it goes full circle again(not that these complaints are wrong, all are true). Reality is there won't be anything 'new' to talk about until 6+ months from now when they're talking about adding an expansion(note: adding, not actually releasing).

Good luck to you guys that are holding on, I think I'll be sticking to console games for a while since they prove to be much more enjoyable. Demon's soul was actually a lot of fun, but low population for PvP sucks since I run into the same people that own me every time I invade. Maybe pick up some Halo Reach and see how that is.

[Lordender]

There can only be two possible outcomes:

1. Total scrapping of the game to re-release 6+ months down the line that ends up resembling more up to date MMO structure.

2. They're giving up, realized it's going to cost a shitload of money to do such revamping and cutting losses.


I would probably have to go with #1 here, it's going to take forever for them to fix the problems with the game. The entire thing was just bad from the get-go. I thought none of the core design mechanic's made any sense once so ever and that is not just something you fix in 1-2 weeks of time.


I think its time for the C.E.O to go, SE has continued to make bad games for 11 years now. I still don't think they've made a quality FF since 6 and maybe 7.

[Meko]

I don't think they will completely overhaul the game. We have to remember whether or not we like it, they've been working on this game for quite some time. It's not like re-coding the game would be a 6 month thing...I would assume at least a year or more for that. I think what they are looking at doing is making the UI more modern, adding an AH, possibly some common equipment and such from leves and hopefully adding less emphasis on crafting. I'm holding out hope but at this point, I don't expect too much from them based on what we've all seen so far.

[The Q]

Wonder what the Jay Pee are saying, if anything.

[Corrderio]

I don't think they will completely overhaul the game. We have to remember whether or not we like it, they've been working on this game for quite some time. It's not like re-coding the game would be a 6 month thing...I would assume at least a year or more for that. I think what they are looking at doing is making the UI more modern, adding an AH, possibly some common equipment and such from leves and hopefully adding less emphasis on crafting. I'm holding out hope but at this point, I don't expect too much from them based on what we've all seen so far.

This is probably what will happen. As much as I'd love to see the game rebuilt from the bottom up the odds are pretty slim.

While the graphics are great, it did cause SE to have copy/paste terrains a lot, as much as I'd love to see graphics toned down to help fix this that will never happen due to how bit of an update it would be.

Another thing I want to be changed is how many things are server side that should have stayed client, this may or may not be fixed, but it would take a lot of time.

[Hyan]

I think it's quite clear that if they'll go and change the "core", it will be only one feature that will receive that kind of overhaul. Possibly two depending on how they do it.

IMO Combat will have the greatest impact, although I wouldn't say a total overhaul of it is even needed the point of the change is to draw people's attention, not so much fix what's broken. My 2 cents anyway.

They can also quite easily change Eorzea by delaying the first expansion by a year and work on the current areas some more.

The rest of the changes... well, the second UI is coming. Other than that, just flesh the hell out of the game by the time of PS3 release.

[Thiefami]

The biggest deal is creating a live world in my opinion, which they have really failed to do. Interactive npcs, and events would sustain some of the games biggest flaws which is a halfassed class system, (don't get me wrong I do see the huge potential in this), and the other shit that has been talked about to death.

[Hyan]

Yep, there's nothing as lively as a bunch of NPC's doing pre-scripted events. I mean using real characters that inhabit the world in making it more lively? Lol, that would be against individualistic freedom and the American way.

[jPuff]

I think their level of caring is still too low to facilitate a complete overhaul anyway. Judging by their actions in the past few weeks, they do not give any more of a shit than they did before they re-formed the team. It was just an (admittedly clever) PR move that they lacked the good sense to follow up on. If they genuinely cared, we would have heard something by now.

[Hyan]

The amount of meaningless shit on the lodestone = how much they care.

You heard it here first.

..lol, yeah right.

[Siatdiat]

Yep, there's nothing as lively as a bunch of NPC's doing pre-scripted events. I mean using real characters that inhabit the world in making it more lively? Lol, that would be against individualistic freedom and the American way.

What exactly are you saying?

[Siatdiat]

The amount of meaningless shit on the lodestone = how much they care.

You heard it here first.

..lol, yeah right.

Hey guys I'm Hyan, I disagree with like 95% of people and think that communication doesn't matter and even can be worse than no communication.

Save it dude everyone knows, and no one really cares.