Life as a Final Fantasy 14 Developer Might Not Be So Great Right Now
Final Fantasy 14, an MMO that’s absolutely exploded in popularity in recent years, has released a major expansion: Endwalker. It was highly anticipated and very well reviewed, but it didn’t come without issues. Delays were long and queue times were longer, which left many players frustrated in a way that was very visible to the developers.
Apparently, that “feedback” was toxic enough that Naoki Yoshida, the game’s director, had to do something. What you see below is a translation of a statement he made in this video.
“After 11 years of journey with players up to this point it does make me feel that the language used ended up a little overboard there,” said Yoshida.
“I mean, I can take it, even though it doesn’t make it less bad, but staff members will feel really down after getting those words when they gave their absolute best into trying to create something where everyone can enjoy, and this may end up making them no longer create things that are fun from there on.”
For those who’ve seen issues like this crop up before, I’m sure you know exactly the kind of harsh words Yoshida’s talking about. Devs get praised when players love the content they make, but frustrated players can get very creative with their insults. So when it’s bad, it’s very, very bad.
Yoshida went on to illustrate a path forward for Final Fantasy 14‘s playerbase.
“So I have only one request to [all] players out there – please imagine that you’re speaking face to face with a developer whom you may not know his name nor face and imagine how they’d feel before sending your feedback over, and I’ll be happy if people can do so politely.”