Lately, there’s been more and more discussion and comments revolving around the topic of FFXIV’s development cycle, how patches went from typically being 112 days apart to 126 days leading into EW and quickly up to 133 days which is now the standard. Yoshi P has tried to open up about the challenges the team has faced with budget and the lack of talent available for expanding the team—challenges that play a large role in the glacial pace of FFXIV’s development.
I am, in part, sympathetic to issues of budget and manpower. These are issues that are generally outside of a team’s direct control and are more than likely above Yoshi P’s authority, or that of anyone on the team. And I strongly believe in the importance of healthy work-life balance for all involved. It’s neither healthy for the team, nor the long-term health of a game to overwork everyone. Having said all that, however, the reality is that the quality of the game still needs to stand on its own, and FFXIV exists in a highly competitive market. There are other live service games capable of producing fully voiced main story quests, new bosses and combat challenges, new explorable regions filled with rewards, seasonal events with also voiced stories and a variety of different activities, and more in the span of as little as 6 weeks. FFXIV may not have the resources to produce content like this, but it still needs to compete with other games that do. One question that I’d like to pose to Yoshi P if I could would be: “How do you plan on competing with those games?”
My belief is that FFXIV needs to develop a philosophy of ‘work smarter, not harder.’ This game is roughly 12 years old, yet when I look at the game’s extensive list of backlog content beyond the MSQ, I see dozens of examples of ‘one-and-done’ type content, content that has long since been abandoned, and content made to be experienced once and never again. If FFXIV is going to thrive on a slow-burn development cycle, I don’t think this is the type of content they should be investing in. Rather, this game needs incredibly strong and creative design ideas that have the power to last. This doesn’t specifically mean rewards worth grinding, but more importantly content that feels fun and exciting to play over and over—content that isn’t the same every time.
It’s not so much that the time between patches is too long but rather that the balance of downtime given vs time worth spending is off, and that needs to change or FFXIV will likely continue to decline. With the right design ideas, it’s entirely within their ability to produce a better balance with content that offers more value per hour of manpower, and may even allow the team to shave down a week or so from the development cycle if the quality of the work is strong enough. But that’s also far easier said than done. Yoshi P and the development team have a big challenge to overcome, and the question is whether or not they are up to the task. I highly doubt a few hours of creature collecting with Beastmaster for a series of one-and-done challenges in the twilight hour of DT is going to suffice.
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I am, in part, sympathetic to issues of budget and manpower. These are issues that are generally outside of a team’s direct control and are more than likely above Yoshi P’s authority, or that of anyone on the team. And I strongly believe in the importance of healthy work-life balance for all involved. It’s neither healthy for the team, nor the long-term health of a game to overwork everyone. Having said all that, however, the reality is that the quality of the game still needs to stand on its own, and FFXIV exists in a highly competitive market. There are other live service games capable of producing fully voiced main story quests, new bosses and combat challenges, new explorable regions filled with rewards, seasonal events with also voiced stories and a variety of different activities, and more in the span of as little as 6 weeks. FFXIV may not have the resources to produce content like this, but it still needs to compete with other games that do. One question that I’d like to pose to Yoshi P if I could would be: “How do you plan on competing with those games?”
My belief is that FFXIV needs to develop a philosophy of ‘work smarter, not harder.’ This game is roughly 12 years old, yet when I look at the game’s extensive list of backlog content beyond the MSQ, I see dozens of examples of ‘one-and-done’ type content, content that has long since been abandoned, and content made to be experienced once and never again. If FFXIV is going to thrive on a slow-burn development cycle, I don’t think this is the type of content they should be investing in. Rather, this game needs incredibly strong and creative design ideas that have the power to last. This doesn’t specifically mean rewards worth grinding, but more importantly content that feels fun and exciting to play over and over—content that isn’t the same every time.
It’s not so much that the time between patches is too long but rather that the balance of downtime given vs time worth spending is off, and that needs to change or FFXIV will likely continue to decline. With the right design ideas, it’s entirely within their ability to produce a better balance with content that offers more value per hour of manpower, and may even allow the team to shave down a week or so from the development cycle if the quality of the work is strong enough. But that’s also far easier said than done. Yoshi P and the development team have a big challenge to overcome, and the question is whether or not they are up to the task. I highly doubt a few hours of creature collecting with Beastmaster for a series of one-and-done challenges in the twilight hour of DT is going to suffice.
Continue reading...