Dawntrail

[Vakna]

As someone who only recently started catching up with FF14 and play solely for the story elements, I finished Shadowbringers/Endwalker which I have to say were some of the best storytelling I've experienced not only in any game, but in any story based media I've ever consumed in the last 30 years. SB/EW were absolute masterpieces in a way that I find difficult to put into words that truly express how much I loved them. Then I started Dawntrail, good lord what happened, it feels like it didn't even come from the same brains that the others did. It feels like WoW all over again where you just got done with the masterpiece that was Legion and now we're going into probably 5+ years of the worst writing and storytelling known to mankind.

[zealo]

As someone who only recently started catching up with FF14 and play solely for the story elements, I finished Shadowbringers/Endwalker which I have to say were some of the best storytelling I've experienced not only in any game, but in any story based media I've ever consumed in the last 30 years. SB/EW were absolute masterpieces in a way that I find difficult to put into words that truly express how much I loved them. Then I started Dawntrail, good lord what happened, it feels like it didn't even come from the same brains that the others did. It feels like WoW all over again where you just got done with the masterpiece that was Legion and now we're going into probably 5+ years of the worst writing and storytelling known to mankind.

It’s a different lead writer for the DT MSQ. After EW the one writing the bulk of the MSQ for SHB and EW got a different job within SE that most people are assuming to be the lead writer for an as of yet unannounced FF17.

[Vakna]

It’s a different lead writer for the DT MSQ. After EW the one writing the bulk of the MSQ for SHB and EW got a different job within SE that most people are assuming to be the lead writer for an as of yet unannounced FF17.

I assumed it had to be something like that, there was just no way the DT writers and SB/EW writers could be the same. If the FF17 thing is true though that should be a treat.

[Yarathir]

I assumed it had to be something like that, there was just no way the DT writers and SB/EW writers could be the same. If the FF17 thing is true though that should be a treat.

DT writing was mostly headed by Hiroi, who hadn't taken on such a prominent writing role before. Shadowbringers and Endwalker meanwhile were heavily worked on by Ishikawa, who kind of retreated into the background after 6.0 and I think was being put on different projects.

One big issue XIV has is that they have a big revolving door policy. New people will join, cut their teeth on XIV, then move to other games. Yoshi-P himself has outright stated that they do this. In that sense, XIV is kind of a training ground.

Which is.... y'know, not ideal. Especially not when XIV is Square's main cash cow, and a lot of people are in it for the story.

[Vakna]

DT writing was mostly headed by Hiroi, who hadn't taken on such a prominent writing role before. Shadowbringers and Endwalker meanwhile were heavily worked on by Ishikawa, who kind of retreated into the background after 6.0 and I think was being put on different projects.

One big issue XIV has is that they have a big revolving door policy. New people will join, cut their teeth on XIV, then move to other games. Yoshi-P himself has outright stated that they do this. In that sense, XIV is kind of a training ground.

Which is.... y'know, not ideal. Especially not when XIV is Square's main cash cow, and a lot of people are in it for the story.

I mean, it is what it is right. At the end of the day we can't influence their business practices so I just take it for what it is. FF14 ended for me with Endwalker (ironically), I might come back at some point if it gets good again but from what I'm seeing and hearing that seems unlikely. There is no point subjecting myself further to something I consider to be low tier fan fiction level storytelling when there are so many other great stories out there waiting to be experienced. Time is a valuable resource and it's just not worth it to waste anymore on FF14.

[StrawberryZebra]

One big issue XIV has is that they have a big revolving door policy. New people will join, cut their teeth on XIV, then move to other games. Yoshi-P himself has outright stated that they do this. In that sense, XIV is kind of a training ground.

Which is.... y'know, not ideal. Especially not when XIV is Square's main cash cow, and a lot of people are in it for the story.

It does make a certain kind of sense though. It lets new hires get to grips with how Squenix write, the internal systems they use to manage it, the software and tools etc.

Remember that it doesn't have to be story content that they're producing. Having the new guy write quest log entries, ambient NPC dialog, FATE text, item descriptions and so on is a good way to get them some hands-on experience in a place where players are unlikely to be critical of the writing quality.

[Skepticalpeepo]

It does make a certain kind of sense though. It lets new hires get to grips with how Squenix write, the internal systems they use to manage it, the software and tools etc.

Remember that it doesn't have to be story content that they're producing. Having the new guy write quest log entries, ambient NPC dialog, FATE text, item descriptions and so on is a good way to get them some hands-on experience in a place where players are unlikely to be critical of the writing quality.

First 10 year = fixing spaghetti code
Next 10 year = training new hires
10 years after that = old developers (which was the excuse for 1.0's failure)

Square Enix is a master of scapegoating. I see much on the horizon. But hope and change ain't the two of them. Given the monotonous cyclic formula of one chore-laden patch after another chore-laden patch; story was all the game had going for it given its high subscription cost. And they managed to drop the ball on that too.

[Arlette]

I see we're back once again to your monthly ragepost. Let's hope you're actually being honest this time:

This is my last post on the website.

I know you're obviously just trolling but I'd be remiss from laughably pointing out how you're calling a standard MMORPG 14.99/month USD subscription as a "high subscription cost" lmao.

Please keep to your word at least once, at least this time, okay?

Thanks.

[Grinning Serpent]

It does make a certain kind of sense though. It lets new hires get to grips with how Squenix write, the internal systems they use to manage it, the software and tools etc.

Remember that it doesn't have to be story content that they're producing. Having the new guy write quest log entries, ambient NPC dialog, FATE text, item descriptions and so on is a good way to get them some hands-on experience in a place where players are unlikely to be critical of the writing quality.

That would be what makes sense. But that's not what they did, unfortunately. If nothing else, DT is to me proof that with the current design and cadence of content, FFXIV is *reliant* on a strong central narrative in the MSQ to do well. I'm not a writer or creative so I can't pretend to have advice for them, but I do think that whatever they did with DT (and are continuing to do with it, apparently? I heard the 7.1 MSQ was kind of a wet fart) needs to be fixed for the next expansion. Even WoW couldn't survive two bad expansions in a row (for certain definitions of "survive" - I think when your subscriber base is in the neighborhood of a million fucking people you're "too big to fail" but you can still lose a lot of revenue), and I don't think FFXIV would either.

I also think that they should shift their content pacing around. Put the ultimates in the x.3 and x.5 patches (or x.31, x.51, whatever.) Put the first leg of the field foray in the x.1 patch cycle, BLU or BST update (assuming they will continue to support both) in x.2 along with first leg of relic, first ultimate and second leg of field zone in x.3, BST or BLU (whichever wasn't in x.2) and relic step 2 in x.4, and that leaves second ultimate and any remaining relic, field, etc stages for the x.5 cycle.

Personally, I think they should limit it to one ultimate per expansion and instead diversify harder content. Apparently chaotic is... well, chaotic due to having to manage 3x as many players, but assuming they find the right balance (they probably just need to add more forgiveness for errors into it, since people ragequitting in a 24 player group tends to result in a lot of other people leaving... tune it to the difficulty of a 1st-2nd floor savage instead of 4th floor?) it's a good concept to work on. I'd also like to see more criterion (but *not* criterion savage, as I think those are generally too unforgiving) dungeons - they could quite literally just reuse existing dungeons for that, they don't need to make new variant dungeons.

Making some criterion dungeons could be something you throw newbies at, especially if it's just making like Baelsar's Wall (Criterion) or something. You're reusing existing assets and just tweaking, adding, and moving things around.

- - - Updated - - -

I see we're back once again to your monthly ragepost. Let's hope you're actually being honest this time:



I know you're obviously just trolling but I'd be remiss from laughably pointing out how you're calling a standard MMORPG 14.99/month USD subscription as a "high subscription cost" lmao.

Please keep to your word at least once, at least this time, okay?

Thanks.

And we're back for your monthly raging at the ragepost. Yeah, it's weird they ain't got nothing better to do. But the same applies to you - if you really don't like seeing their monthly ragepost, why not just ignore them?

[Tech614]

Even WoW couldn't survive two bad expansions in a row

BFA and Shadowlands are both considered bad expansions if you gauged popular opinion and pretty sure the game survived.

[Grinning Serpent]

BFA and Shadowlands are both considered bad expansions if you gauged popular opinion and pretty sure the game survived.

After losing a *ton* of players. Blizzard stopped releasing subscriber counts once they started dipping from all-time highs in WotLK so we have no hard numbers to go off of, but it's pretty obvious that they lost a lot of money in the one-two combo of BfA and SL. That was when there were so many tourists from WoW visiting XIV due to smelly racist white streamer man giving it a try that they had to temporarily stop selling EW.

[Tech614]

After losing a *ton* of players. Blizzard stopped releasing subscriber counts once they started dipping from all-time highs in WotLK so we have no hard numbers to go off of, but it's pretty obvious that they lost a lot of money in the one-two combo of BfA and SL. That was when there were so many tourists from WoW visiting XIV due to smelly racist white streamer man giving it a try that they had to temporarily stop selling EW.

There is no need to type out a paragraph trying to move the goal posts. Your claim of WoW not surviving 2 bad xpacs in a row is false. Sometimes you can just admit you where wrong and move on /shrug

[Grinning Serpent]

There is no need to type out a paragraph trying to move the goal posts. Your claim of WoW not surviving 2 bad xpacs in a row is false. Sometimes you can just admit you where wrong and move on /shrug

Even WoW couldn't survive two bad expansions in a row (for certain definitions of "survive" - I think when your subscriber base is in the neighborhood of a million fucking people you're "too big to fail" but you can still lose a lot of revenue), and I don't think FFXIV would either.

This is what I originally wrote. You should maybe try bringing your reading comprehension skills about a first grade level.

[Grinning Serpent]

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/...-of-directors/

Guessing Yoshida stepped down from the board/was finally allowed to step down. I'm curious if this will have any effects on XIV. I feel like most of XIV's strengths and weaknesses are due to his core design and planning, not due to "well Yoshida is too busy with board stuff to have time to do this," so I'm not expecting to see much change.

[Ereb]

Yoshida is leaving FF14???

[Tech614]

Yoshida is leaving FF14???

No, he left the Square Enix board of directors. He is still the head of Creative Business Unit 3 which makes XIV.

- - - Updated - - -

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/...-of-directors/

Guessing Yoshida stepped down from the board/was finally allowed to step down. I'm curious if this will have any effects on XIV. I feel like most of XIV's strengths and weaknesses are due to his core design and planning, not due to "well Yoshida is too busy with board stuff to have time to do this," so I'm not expecting to see much change.

Probably doesn't open up his plate that much since CBU3 is a multi project studio and he has to oversee at minimum 3 games in active development right now(XIV, XI mobile project and their unannounced next single player game). They probably have other shit in the pipeline as well but we know about those 3 for sure.

[AntenoraDK]

Yoshida is leaving FF14???

Nah.

He's stepped down from the Board of Directors.


He's said in the past that FF14 is his baby and he has no intentions of passing the reigns anytime soon.

[Auxis]

So, is it normal to not announce job changes like the speculated BLM changes (based on the Disco Bunny footage that we saw Yoshi using is BLM to showcase?) until release? Is it possible that these BLM changes are an internal build and might not be coming to 7.2?