The difference between meaningful critique and outright abuse should be pretty obvious, and Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida believes people shouldn’t confuse one for the other.
Most fans of Square Enix’s long-running MMORPG will insist that the Endwalker expansion is brilliant, but staggeringly long server queues made playing it at launch an arduous task. It was an understandably frustrating time for everyone, one that had the development team turning backup production machines into lobby servers. Yoshida told GLHF that he understands why many fans were upset but isn’t keen on vitriol.
“Most (though I’d like to say all…) game developers, including myself, are developing games with the pure motivation of wanting gamers and fans to wholeheartedly enjoy them,” Yoshida said. “However, even with such desires, as human beings, there are times when mistakes or wrong decisions are made. Of course, given that we receive payment for services provided, it’s only natural to receive criticism, and I don’t see an issue with that aspect.”
“However, it saddens me greatly when I see instances where it escalates beyond criticism, such as abusive remarks or attacks directed at the creator as an individual,” Yoshida continues. “Developers losing their motivation to create games and harboring negative feelings toward gamers will not result in good games. Therefore, I believe abusive remarks and needless attacks are only doing a disservice to everyone.”
The folks behind Final Fantasy 14 have repeatedly taken helpful feedback into consideration. Many of the job balance tweaks in patch 6.11 are proof of that.
“Objective criticism from fans cheering us on is a source of great encouragement for us. However, it wouldn’t be good if we focused solely on those comments, neglected self-evaluation and reflection, and kept repeating the same mistakes,” Yoshida explains. “This balance is very important. It makes us happiest when people express their thoughts when they genuinely find something enjoyable or interesting. Of course, I don’t mean to impose this on anyone, but I’m sure the game developers who see them will create games with even more hearty enthusiasm. “
Newfound Adventure, the current chapter of Final Fantasy 14’s ongoing updates, just unleashed the Dragonsong’s Reprise ultimate raid.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.
