You know, when I read this statement in particular, I can't help but think about all the players who were explicitly not at ease when they saw what ill-befitting fate loomed over their favorite roles or jobs.
What about the players who liked non-standard black mage? Who liked that black mage had long cast times and was challenging to optimize for that reason? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you destroyed those elements?
What about the players who liked summoner's highly complex optimization strategy? Who liked DOT management? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you removed that job from the game and replaced it with one of the most shallow, basic DPS jobs to have ever existed?
What about the players who liked when monk had positionals on every main weaponskill? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you reduced monk's positionals to that of every other melee DPS?
What about the players who liked dark knight's riskier playstyle? Who liked its MP management and the original Dark Arts? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you changed dark knight into a reskin of warrior?
What about the players who liked scholar's arsenal of DPS spells? Who liked Miasma, Miasma II, Shadowflare, Energy Drain having higher damage and MP restoration attached, and who liked Selene? Where was your desire to preserve our enjoyment when you gutted Scholar's DPS down to nothing, removed Selene from the game, and turned what was supposed to be a combat medic into a Roman Catholic angel cosplayer?
What about the players who liked astrologian's original card system that featured a variety of random buffs? Who liked the idea of playing a fortune teller that must adapt to the fate of their draw? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you essentially made every card do the same thing with a tacky seal system attached? Or when you abandoned that system to return the variety of utility cards, but removed the RNG and failed to take into consideration how outclassed most of the cards were compared to all the other tools in astrologian's kit?
What about the tank players who liked having to actually manage the party's aggro? Or the positioning of the boss? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you took those qualities away and replaced them with no new mechanics to compliment the playstyle of tanking?
What about the players who tried viper and loved Noxious Gnash for how it was despite the incredibly short time that it was allowed to live? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you saw the overwhelming number of players begging you not to remove it and did so anyway?
What about the players who liked samurai having Kaiten? Who saw the announcement of the change, thought it would ruin samurai's gauge management experience, and desperately begged you to return it? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you ignored them?
What about players who heard you say sage was going to be a more DPS focused healer and then saw it release as a clone of scholar, then to see it live up to the DPS healer fantasy in PVP and not be allowed to ever experience that in PVE? Players who miss healers having more than one basic attack, DOT, and cooldown? Where is your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you went out of your way to assign that identity to a new healer and then fail to deliver?
Tell me, Yoshi P, when are you going to remove Fleche and Contre Sixte from red mage and shorten its cast times? When are you going to rework gunbreaker into a fourth warrior? When are you going to remove ninjustu from ninja and make something easier so that you can't fail it? No one wants these changes, but we all know they're coming anyway. It's just a question of when, right? Because one day your design team is going to look at the small nuances of these jobs, see them as a blemish that needs to be excised, remove something players enjoy, and justify it as "quality of life" or "ease of use" adjustments.
The reality of MMOs is that the game is bound to change over time, and not everyone will like every change. I get that. But I would hope that after years... years of many players expressing their dissatisfaction with the ongoing direction of their role, or their job, that maybe instead of continuing to bulldoze every semblance of depth or nuance in your path, that we could instead shoot for a more happy medium where jobs aren't too hard that they feel overwhelming to the casual player, but still offer more unique elements of mastery that feel rewarding to the players who want to engage with their job's design more.
But its statements like the title of this thread that kind of hurt me, as a player. I've seen and spoken to many players like me who get much of their enjoyment out of MMOs from fun, exciting, and dynamic class design, and yet it feels like we could not matter less to you. You say you want FFXIV to be a "game for everyone" but I guess we don't qualify as a part of "everyone" to you. But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong and we're just misinterpreting your statement from the PCGamesN article and we'll all be blown away come 8.0. I would genuinely love nothing more than to be wrong, so please, Yoshi P... Make me eat my words.
Continue reading...
What about the players who liked non-standard black mage? Who liked that black mage had long cast times and was challenging to optimize for that reason? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you destroyed those elements?
What about the players who liked summoner's highly complex optimization strategy? Who liked DOT management? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you removed that job from the game and replaced it with one of the most shallow, basic DPS jobs to have ever existed?
What about the players who liked when monk had positionals on every main weaponskill? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you reduced monk's positionals to that of every other melee DPS?
What about the players who liked dark knight's riskier playstyle? Who liked its MP management and the original Dark Arts? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you changed dark knight into a reskin of warrior?
What about the players who liked scholar's arsenal of DPS spells? Who liked Miasma, Miasma II, Shadowflare, Energy Drain having higher damage and MP restoration attached, and who liked Selene? Where was your desire to preserve our enjoyment when you gutted Scholar's DPS down to nothing, removed Selene from the game, and turned what was supposed to be a combat medic into a Roman Catholic angel cosplayer?
What about the players who liked astrologian's original card system that featured a variety of random buffs? Who liked the idea of playing a fortune teller that must adapt to the fate of their draw? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you essentially made every card do the same thing with a tacky seal system attached? Or when you abandoned that system to return the variety of utility cards, but removed the RNG and failed to take into consideration how outclassed most of the cards were compared to all the other tools in astrologian's kit?
What about the tank players who liked having to actually manage the party's aggro? Or the positioning of the boss? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you took those qualities away and replaced them with no new mechanics to compliment the playstyle of tanking?
What about the players who tried viper and loved Noxious Gnash for how it was despite the incredibly short time that it was allowed to live? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you saw the overwhelming number of players begging you not to remove it and did so anyway?
What about the players who liked samurai having Kaiten? Who saw the announcement of the change, thought it would ruin samurai's gauge management experience, and desperately begged you to return it? Where was your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you ignored them?
What about players who heard you say sage was going to be a more DPS focused healer and then saw it release as a clone of scholar, then to see it live up to the DPS healer fantasy in PVP and not be allowed to ever experience that in PVE? Players who miss healers having more than one basic attack, DOT, and cooldown? Where is your desire to preserve their enjoyment when you went out of your way to assign that identity to a new healer and then fail to deliver?
Tell me, Yoshi P, when are you going to remove Fleche and Contre Sixte from red mage and shorten its cast times? When are you going to rework gunbreaker into a fourth warrior? When are you going to remove ninjustu from ninja and make something easier so that you can't fail it? No one wants these changes, but we all know they're coming anyway. It's just a question of when, right? Because one day your design team is going to look at the small nuances of these jobs, see them as a blemish that needs to be excised, remove something players enjoy, and justify it as "quality of life" or "ease of use" adjustments.
The reality of MMOs is that the game is bound to change over time, and not everyone will like every change. I get that. But I would hope that after years... years of many players expressing their dissatisfaction with the ongoing direction of their role, or their job, that maybe instead of continuing to bulldoze every semblance of depth or nuance in your path, that we could instead shoot for a more happy medium where jobs aren't too hard that they feel overwhelming to the casual player, but still offer more unique elements of mastery that feel rewarding to the players who want to engage with their job's design more.
But its statements like the title of this thread that kind of hurt me, as a player. I've seen and spoken to many players like me who get much of their enjoyment out of MMOs from fun, exciting, and dynamic class design, and yet it feels like we could not matter less to you. You say you want FFXIV to be a "game for everyone" but I guess we don't qualify as a part of "everyone" to you. But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong and we're just misinterpreting your statement from the PCGamesN article and we'll all be blown away come 8.0. I would genuinely love nothing more than to be wrong, so please, Yoshi P... Make me eat my words.
Continue reading...