I'd like to introduce this post as Yoshida has begun to publicly admit corrections are necessary to the game.
I intend to walk through my thoughts on this, wholistically categorizing what I've seen pile up over my time in this game in the hope it provides help to the team in getting things back on track.
Let's start out with what an MMORPG is conceptually supposed to be: A persistent world you become immersed in. The baseline story is supposed to make the player feel attachment to that world. The content structure should revolve around this open world, induce the community to populate it, and preferably to do so in a way that builds friendships and rivalries among the player base that people enjoy engaging with. Unified immersion should be the end goal.
Every decision should be checked against this axiom, and the design team should be wracking their brains to make it better fit that axiom at all times.
That said, I'll start delving into individual topics, using examples, below.
1 - The open world
Over the course of this game's life, it has drifted away from the above concept, and the best example is the relic content.
Casual content like the relic process used to incorporate all elements of the game's systems and push all progression in the open world, be it through crafting, commerce, or open world combat.
Over each subsequent expansion, this wholistic approach was gradually broken apart, until Stormblood when even the world combat was moved into an instance, leaving the open world desolate and empty.
The relic process is just one example of this, but it's a good one which illustrative of what has happened everywhere else in the game.
Despite the intervening innovations of phasing zones (applied even on a per-player basis), buff-based adjustments to difficulty and even the function of player kit, we instead have everything crammed into instances, constraining individual players and atomizing the community.
Instead of being able to queue for harder content while doing casual, you're stuck in an instance. Instead of the open world being populated and thriving, it's empty.
Again: there should be a focus on removing from instances anything that can be removed from instances. This is an MMORPG, not a lobby-based game.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Continue reading...
I intend to walk through my thoughts on this, wholistically categorizing what I've seen pile up over my time in this game in the hope it provides help to the team in getting things back on track.
Let's start out with what an MMORPG is conceptually supposed to be: A persistent world you become immersed in. The baseline story is supposed to make the player feel attachment to that world. The content structure should revolve around this open world, induce the community to populate it, and preferably to do so in a way that builds friendships and rivalries among the player base that people enjoy engaging with. Unified immersion should be the end goal.
Every decision should be checked against this axiom, and the design team should be wracking their brains to make it better fit that axiom at all times.
That said, I'll start delving into individual topics, using examples, below.
1 - The open world
Over the course of this game's life, it has drifted away from the above concept, and the best example is the relic content.
Casual content like the relic process used to incorporate all elements of the game's systems and push all progression in the open world, be it through crafting, commerce, or open world combat.
Over each subsequent expansion, this wholistic approach was gradually broken apart, until Stormblood when even the world combat was moved into an instance, leaving the open world desolate and empty.
The relic process is just one example of this, but it's a good one which illustrative of what has happened everywhere else in the game.
Despite the intervening innovations of phasing zones (applied even on a per-player basis), buff-based adjustments to difficulty and even the function of player kit, we instead have everything crammed into instances, constraining individual players and atomizing the community.
Instead of being able to queue for harder content while doing casual, you're stuck in an instance. Instead of the open world being populated and thriving, it's empty.
Again: there should be a focus on removing from instances anything that can be removed from instances. This is an MMORPG, not a lobby-based game.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Continue reading...