Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

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SnowBall said:
I also found this channel with a similar style and AI videos that associates with him and I wonder if it’s an alt of his or another member of his community.
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oh god damn that just popped into my feed today
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Apparently Yoshi P did a Famitsu interview regarding patch 7.3 and there were some interesting nuggets. The big takeaway from me is that he seems to be expressing frustration at fan perceived solutions re: expanding the dev team, and I think it supports my suspicions about why Dawntrail foundered so badly (basically junior members of the team were given expanded roles and struggled.)

I couldn't find just the plain text of the interview anywhere (looks like it is on Discord), but this is a MrHappy video where he breaks it down:

 
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Well Intentioned said:
Apparently Yoshi P did a Famitsu interview regarding patch 7.3 and there were some interesting nuggets. The big takeaway from me is that he seems to be expressing frustration at fan perceived solutions re: expanding the dev team, and I think it supports my suspicions about why Dawntrail foundered so badly (basically junior members of the team were given expanded roles and struggled.)

I couldn't find just the plain text of the interview anywhere (looks like it is on Discord), but this is a MrHappy video where he breaks it down:

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Got the most juicy parts of the translation, broke it up into chunks so it isn't just one big ass paragraph:
YoshiP apologizes for what happened throughout Patch 7.2, and how the quality attracted dissatisfaction from the players. CS3 has been trying their best to minimize regular scheduled maintenance and emergency maintenance, but apparently failed to do so for Patch 7.2. For that he's very sorry about it. While the final decision was made by YoshiP, Patch 7.2 was the first time in FFX where they released two large scale content in a single patch (Cosmic Exploration and Cresent Isle) and they admit there were several aspects that they didn't manage it properly, mainly due to how swarmed they are in working on these tasks. On top of that, the base system for Cosmic Exploration actually went through redo and remake several times, which contributed to this mess. This also heavily affected QA, because they had to go through the content with so many bugs just before its release and they couldn't finish everything they need to do, and so the obvious visible bugs were fixed, but not for some bugs that can be triggered under several conditions, which prompted them to address via emergency maintenance. The Cresent Isle's blunder that caused community troubles also triggered the need for YoshiP to address them via PLL. The rest is history, and as you see from the past 2 PLLs.

In past PLLs they could have set the time to explain on what's happening in greater detail, but not anymore today so in order to address what is needed, they ended up identifying the issues that currently plaguing the content and the community and acknowledged the blunder, and addressed it (including solutions.) In a way, this was kinda similar to what they had to do back during the Legacy version of 1.0 (the very first PLL), where YoshiP and Foxclon did the same in that kind of format, addressing player's concerns and questions and feedback and directly address what YoshiP is going to take, live.
When asked if YoshiP had something he couldn't relay it in full, it was indeed the part where he mentioned the word "cost":
Yoshida: I used the word "cost" in that broadcast, and I do think that the explanation on that part was insufficient. Of course, even if I were to explain this in detail I'd be told that this is irrelevant to the players and that would be the end of it, since this is a topic that is easily brought up when it comes to this question, allow me to once again provide a brief explanation.Currently, the "FFXIV" (development related) team alone would consist of several hundred staff members. Although the number of members involved has been constantly increasing if you look from the past, we still have to set up our large scale content development to last several amount of patches, or we inevitably won't reach the level where we can offer our customers anything. In contrast to this, people would then think "If that's the case, just add more staff members then", but the actual development speed and quality depends not merely on the number of people, but "the amount of leaders in each section (read: teams)". I believe this is something that is common even in the creation field outside of game development, but we are from the technical field, so it's possible for the hierarchy of “people who can create interesting things” to happen depending on their sense and skill level. Within that, the leaders are born, but the issue is in the numbers. Furthermore, situations where people used to be in the "playing manager" position who creates things of their own while managing their subordinates at the same time end up no longer producing interesting things the moment they start focusing on being a manager does happen once in a while.

Therefore even if the issue lies in personnel cost, it's not a simple calculation of numbers. While the QA team is planning to increase the amount of testers, it is also necessary to also have "a leader who can allocate staff while considering where those bugs would occur, in order for them to do testing in an efficient manner"Of course we tried to increase the amount of people like these for the past 10 years, but it's not just a simple matter of increasing them.... For this, I believe is also related to the factor of how "there is a critically insufficient amount of online game developers in Japan"
YoshiP is thankful to see the increase in staff members in fast pace due to them being originally players of FFXIV but has the desire to join the development team, and the said team also grew bigger and bigger since. But there aren't many core staff members who can create MMORPG of such scale, even if one were to look at the world itself (and not just Japan), so to say that they can increase the number of staff members is a completely different matter. This doesn't mean they won't increase staff members further, and they WILL spend time raising new talents, but currently they are competing with the scale of FFXIV itself. With their limited amount of personnel cost and a 4 month patch cycle as their objective, their priority is to maintain a certain level of quality. In addition to that, they're also developing large-scale content side-by-side which takes a period of around 2 patches worth. All of these have to be managed, with all specifications checked and implementation done thoroughly. So once again if players were to read this and go "this has nothing to do with us" then it's true that they're right, but YoshiP also created the policy of "if we can't do this then it's our responsibility to at least properly explain why", this particular topic is also something that bothers YoshiP. That said, CS3 is investing a lot more manpower and is diverting personnel to proritize on FFXIV so if you think you're what it takes to make FFXIV a good game then you're very welcomed to apply. Not to mention, players who play this game will always have the advantage of knowing what's best for this game. Even there are voices from non-Japanese developers wanting to join FFXIV but the major barrier is indeed the ability to speak Japanese. Given that this game is developed in Japan itself, non-Japanese developers will need to have the ability to speak Japanese, and that's another issue as well.
When asked about the future plans the dev team have in mind in response to player's feedback regarding the raid system for 48-man has been implemented on "Cresent Isle" in advance, YoshiP plans to do the following where they want to retain the players (have the players remain) in the instance for a period of time after their entry. In addition to this, they also plan to include a system that allows players to see and have a clear idea how many sanguine ciphers they have invested, and determine if they themselves are selected to enter Forked Tower, since displaying all of them could lead into troubles between players. For now they're still in discussion on whether they'll be able to adjust the gimmick at that stage. YoshiP then elaborated that as long as a viable strat has been established, it can be cleared by 24 players with the other 24 players can follow along and clear, and that was the intention. But YoshiP admitted that they didn't adjust properly on that part considering the amount of mechanics that involve collective responsibility. Which is why in Patch 7.3 they aim to adjust it so that it will reach the difficulty they originally envisioned for the content. The next Forked Tower is in development and will be created based on the feedback they received from the players. There are also players who asked for complicated mechanics and thus the devs want to fulfill that wish in some degree.
The original point for Dawntrail is meant to be a "summer vacation" of sorts for the Warrior of Light, so before they start to walk a new path, they'll be involved in being a "mentor" to the young ones where we provide help and advice to them as they seek their own path. For that the story is already been illustrated so far. For Patch 7.3, the theme will involve character's path being set. This is the reason why the Patch title is "The Promise of Tomorrow" (in JP, "The Guidepost of Tomorrow"). In Patch 7.3 you will know what Calyx's aim, and it will involve the WoL itself as well as their future. You will also get to eventually find out the reason behind the WoL walking a journey as a hero once again. In a way it's like your summer vacation is now over.

Regarding Sphene. The relationship between both Sphenes you see in the story are similar to the relationship between the Source and the Shards. And in Patch 7.3 you will see how both paths crossed and you'll get to find out what path will Sphene choose from there on. Regarding the Endless, and how the people of Solution Nine perceive them will reach a conclusion in this patch, for the time being. However, on the subject of "their way of being", along with whether "humans can understand each other" is an eternal theme to ponder on, and also the core elements found in the next story flow for the game. Of course, like how you went through the story from ARR to EW, this story too will continue to be weaved and reveal more in the future. In 7.x, the question being "If a person's memory is preserved, does it equal to being "alive"?" has been presented, and from there on there will be more plans to portray the meaning of living as a human being.
 
Froggy Fresh Sextape said:
The whole "if you think you can make the game better you are welcome to apply but also you need to speak Japanese" thing is so oddly aggressive
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RIPRhongoBongo said:
Probably the board climbing up his ass
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Wouldn't be surprised if that's a higher up decision or some kind of policy everyone just invokes because it's there, with no real meaning. That being said, I can't help but read the interview as "XIV is becoming too big and CS3 just doesn't have the people in Japan to maintain it, despite wanting to throw money at literally anyone that knows XIV or it's systems."'

Edit: also something funny or interesting to note is how many people in the comment section of Happy's video are starting to demand them just drop the "learn Japanese" aspect.
 
Not your Buddy Holly said:
Wouldn't be surprised if that's a higher up decision or some kind of policy everyone just invokes because it's there, with no real meaning. That being said, I can't help but read the interview as "XIV is becoming too big and CS3 just doesn't have the people in Japan to maintain it, despite wanting to throw money at literally anyone that knows XIV or it's systems."'

Edit: also something funny or interesting to note is how many people in the comment section of Happy's video are starting to demand them just drop the "learn Japanese" aspect.
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Imagine the absolute deluge of troons applying they'd have to deal with if they dropped the Japanese requirements. Barf.
 
King Of Braves said:
If you like Diadem you'll probably love the newest crafting content since it's basically a way better take on the whole concept.
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Ehh, I dunno. I prefer Diadem on the whole simply because I can do the crafts fucking ANYWHERE as opposed to being handcuffed to the zone and the Red Alert equivalents can be predicted pretty accurately once you've been around for one, whereas in Cosmic they tend to be a little too random.

The lack of inventory space is nice, though, and I do think that there's a higher degree of complexity to Cosmic stuff, but sometimes I just want my grindy content to be a chance to listen to a podcast or catch up on something, y'know?

Froggy Fresh Sextape said:
The whole "if you think you can make the game better you are welcome to apply but also you need to speak Japanese" thing is so oddly aggressive
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Nah, I think it's more 'please god.'

The Mr Happy video I linked connects this somewhat, as he talks about how he was talking some mechanics stuff around Shadowbringers with Yoshi P and Yoshi P was surprised that Happy caught those things as he wasn't expecting that level of understanding and said something akin to 'please learn Japanese and apply to the dev team.'

It's kind of fucked that there's a serious lack of JP ONRY talent. You'd think that there'd be crossover skills or talents from like just normal game dev or something (like, Yoshi P was a Bomberman dev before joining Square, lol) Is this something that Japan is notoriously autistic about? Like, if you work at McDonald's, you cannot apply to a non-hamburger fast food joint, so kiss goodbye to working at KFC (or whatever?)
 
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I actually looked into Applying for CS3. There are permanent hiring posts for "Narrative" and "Content(Combat) designers". Both you have to turn in your JP application (which is vastly different from western ones), proof of your past work, along with a little exercise. For Narrative you will have to supply a quest line that takes place in a village with a windmill and for the combat one you have to design a dungeon boss. Reading JP Job portals the application process, if you are invited, seems a little out of the ordinary. Instead of a one on one job interview its a multi stages process that always takes place in groups. Since there are a gazillion unwritten rules* in JP business context, a western person, even if they speak Japanese might not survive the group interviews since they will fuck up those rules.


One of my first jobs was actually a 9 to 5 in an office in Japan. If you are a fresh graduate, Japanese or not, you will be sent from your employer to Tokyo to visit a course hosted by some federal branch, teaching you all these rules. What is the order you enter an elevator in? Who has to man the elevator buttons? Same for taxies, planes, trains with detailed instructions of the seat order. All according to seniority within their respective companies/departments. That is nothing to say about the additional grammar you have to learn for talking with superiors or customers. Honestly, Yoshida at least doesn't seem like the type who wants any of that, he is incredibly casual and up front in his interviews, but I have no idea how it is internally.
 
Brandy [◉''] said:
Honestly, Yoshida at least doesn't seem like the type who wants any of that, he is incredibly casual and up front in his interviews, but I have no idea how it is internally.
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I do think that it is very much a Japan doing Japan things here with SE generally being a dumpster fire internally. Whether Yoshi P plays up to that or not, I dunno, but the last time Square tried to do multiple game dev offices (not PR/marketing offices which is what I essentially view things like the LA office to be -- all important decisions are centralized in Japan) in different parts of the world it basically destroyed the company (Square Hawaii) and necessitated the Square Enix merger.
 
I made most of my 750 crafting gear with overmelds and there were times I was questioning my sanity with how I was having fun spending hours grinding scrips and mats out to spend as little money on the marketboard as possible.
 
SnowBall said:
I made most of my 750 crafting gear with overmelds and there were times I was questioning my sanity with how I was having fun spending hours grinding scrips and mats out to spend as little money on the marketboard as possible.
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I have a degree of autistic love for the craft grind.
But also immense rage at the rng of overmelding fucking me in the ass at every opportunity.
 
Well Intentioned said:
View attachment 7800268

Two things:

1) lol at no Wuk Lamat
2) Is this standard for about where we're at in the expansion cycle? Or is this grounds for new panic mongering for the reddit retards?
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The latter.
I'm already seeing swaths of new videos on youtube proclaiming the end of FF14 for the 70th time. This isn't the first time they've had a sale and it won't be the last. Possible scathing hot take coming up.

Revenue is down for sure. It's not the cash cow that it was a few years ago and you can tell by how they are shoveling more stuff into the cash shop to try and make ends meet. But to say that it's dying is an overreaction. Just because something that was once popular falls off it's high horse, doesn't mean that it's going to die for sure and relying on steam alone for numbers or analytics to gauge how successful something is isn't a super accurate way to measure that. Everyone goes on and on about WoW dying, but it's still alive, even if by the thinnest of margins. I expected that FF14 wasn't going to ride it's high forever and that there were going to be low points. In fact I'd probably be really worried if there weren't any at all. Sometimes you need to be humbled in order to improve.

It's just more fear mongering to bait engagement and views. Don't get me wrong, Dawntrail was pretty shit comparatively to other expansions but I feel like a good chunk of the bad rap it gets is because people just parrot the same negative opinions that they hear from others ad nauseam and it just becomes a massive circlejerk of beating a dead horse over and over until it's become a gelatinous pulp. It's not any better when it's positive too for the record. And I understand that people vocal about how much they hate the game and how bad it's fallen are just really passionate enough to even have the will to so openly shit on it because deep down they want to be able to come back, but there's only so much regurgitation of the same talking points I can take before I start questioning if things really are as bad as they are or are people just clapping their hands together like a herd of seals in unison because it's the trendy and accepted thing to do.

That being said I also don't want to discredit the people who do have legitimate criticisms of the game (I'm one of them), but I feel like those fair takes are being drowned out and it's getting harder and harder to tell apart the folks who criticize in good faith (those who actually want the game to succeed) and those who don't (the people who just shit on the game because everyone else is doing it and they want in on the fun).

Feel free to like...sound the retard alert sirens around my head and call me a rose colored glasses wearing dipshit. I always appreciate a good, civil discourse or debate.
 
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