Tanaka retiring from FFXI

[Malacite]

Re: Tanaka retiring from FFXI

I have to agree, much as I hate some of his more recent influences, the guy is still responsible for a lot of my most treasured games. Plus, it's just not cool to kick a guy when he's down.

[Icemage]

Re: Tanaka retiring from FFXI

I give Tanaka all respect for his single-player game credits, but I don't think Tanaka ever really fit the mold for determining FFXI's fate. It took ages for him and the rest of the team under his direction to realize that the MMO playerbase wasn't what they wanted them to be, especially for the players outside of Japan.

FFXI at launch was a grueling grind-fest that didn't just "recommend" getting competent help from other player, it virtually required it. Even in the face of the success of other MMOs like World of Warcraft and the endless complaints from the users. Despite numerous cries about how difficult it was to find party members for help with even the simplest tasks, the dev team for FFXI dragged their heels for years, resisting change to their core concepts even when players left en masse because of the huge learning curve and an inability to find adequate assistance to accomplish goals.

Hopefully whoever gets handed the reins understands where things have gone wrong and is a good caretaker for the game. That's not to say I think the game is necessarily better off today than it was back then, but despite all the poor social design elements in FFXI, at its core are some really great mechanics and some of the best JRPG storylines ever in a video game.

It's just such a shame that so much of this fantastic content was locked behind so much so much drudgework that the vast majority of players never got to experience it. To this day, I still believe FFXI has by far the best story arcs of any other Final Fantasy game (and indeed, better than any other RPG, taken in total), but the 99.99% of gamers out there who never played the game and/or did and never made it to end-game will disagree because they've never experienced any of it, and who can blame them? THAT blame I put primarily on Tanaka's shoulders, and I don't think I'm being unfair in doing so.

What I think of his original concept and delivery of FFXIV 1.0 can't be expressed in polite company. (edit: clarified a statement that was impenetrably difficult to read)


Icemage

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Tanaka retiring from FFXI

Some of the best JRPG storylines ever in a video game.

To this day, I still believe FFXI has by far the best story arcs of any other Final Fantasy game (and indeed, better than any other RPG, taken in total), but the 99.99% of gamers out there who never played the game and/or did and never made it to end-game will disagree because they've never experienced any of it

I couldn't have said it any better.

[Armando]

Re: Tanaka retiring from FFXI

Practically all of my school friends played FFXI at some point. All of them quit well before hitting the Shadow Lord, let alone RoZ or CoP. =/

I can't even imagine how it must've felt to do that insane 50-60 grind and then have SE adjust the EXP tables from insane to slow.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Tanaka retiring from FFXI

Outside of this forum... and back in the real world... I've had something close to 20+ friends play and then eventually quit FFXI around me. I originally started at launch with friends from high school. I pre-ordered the game and built myself a lolawesome computer to handle it at the time. The 5 of us used to play together all the time picking up a 6th when we wanted to party. Of the 5 of us... 3 quit around 4 months in... and the other one quit at around the 2 year mark. I was the only one who ever saw level 75.

After 2 years, I found other friends in college who played... and a few friends of friends and did some server hopping to be with them. We played together quite a bit until even they all got sick of them game and eventually quit.

At that point I became discouraged toward playing the game more because it simply wasn't fun to play alone and I was losing more help than I was getting. So I even quit at that point.

Fast-forward 3 years and I met my buddy Adam through my girlfriend at the time and he and I figured out that we both played still. I hopped ship once again to play with him and we found ourselves on the same server (what are the odds) as 2 Gamestop managers from Mass. The 4 of us played when we could together and even formed a loose-knit community of friends that bloomed into a Linkshell.

Sadly... a year later, one of the guys got a new job and quit the game because of time constraints. Adam quit because the game wasn't fun for him anymore... and the 2 of us who were left parted ways and did our own things.

Adam eventually came back when Abyssea launched because of the way I talked about it... at which point I had started posting here a whole lot more. 3 Linkshells later, he quit... and I focused all my energies into the forum to keep my interest in the game alive. At least here I could talk about it with people who knew what they hell I was saying and actually gave a shit.

Fast-forward to present and it's just me again. The other gamestop manager I used to play with is still around... as is a mutual friend of Adam's and mine who I have deemed criminally insane. They both play on Valefor under the names Chiomoto and Spedbacca respectively.

If you end up seeing Chio around, tell him Yyg (Josh) says hi. If you see Spedbacca, blacklist him... he's among the worst and most selfish players I've ever known and I'm sorry to say that I've made his aquaintance in the real world. I even went out for a beer with him once.

tl;dr = People come, people go... that's the nature of an MMO

[Malacite]

Re: Tanaka retiring from FFXI

FYI, Matsui is taking over XI for Tanaka once 2.0 is out.

So that's a mixed bag, because Matsui is actually pretty good (and IIRC, he was in charge during the sweet period of Abyssea's release and the introduction of VW) and I'm going to miss having his influence on XIV.

[Leggomyeggo]

Re: Tanaka retiring from FFXI

The man is still a legend! you grew up playing games he worked on! you people need a slap in the mouth! no one is perfect wtf have any of you done with your lives that have affected ohhhh ANYONE? let alone millions of gamers! tsh...pathetic!

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