There are a lot of ways players approach a massive title likeFinal Fantasy 14. Some do the most challenging raids, some love fishing with a passion, and some hold massive roleplaying events. While some would think that raiders are the intended audience for an MMORPG, the team behindFinal Fantasy 14doesn’t see it that way.
Game Rant had the opportunity to speak to Yoshi-P (Final Fantasy 14’s executive producer Naoki Yoshida) at Gamescom, where he detailed the developers’ approach to the various audiences the game has attracted.Dawntrail’s approach to dyesis a prime example of that approach.
An MMO With No Pedestals
Walking throughFinal Fantasy 14’s world, it’s common to come across peopleusing the Bard job’s Performance systemto make music in the world. Social media is filled with self-identified GPosers who love the game’s photo mode. Every few months, a massive roleplaying festival like Mogstock, A Feast Reborn, or the Great Ishgardian Frostfaire draws hundreds or thousands of attendees over a full weekend.
A lot of these types of players are either using features in the game at their request or employing existing systems in new and creative ways. It might be easy to view these as niche communities, second to those engaging in PvE content or the PvP systems Square Enix has often tried to draw people toward. That’s not how Yoshi-P sees it.
When we look at the situation withinFinal Fantasy 14, there are various different communities, and we try not to place any given community on the pedestal, as it were. For example, there might be the community of players who really like battles, but we try not to place them on a pedestal, because we know that there are other communities as well. Maybe there are people who are really into housing, and they are very particular about their housing.
Housing is a prime example. Players have pushedFinal Fantasy 14’s housing systemto its absolute limit, taking advantage of the wide range of housing items in the game, a handful of glitches within the system, and limitless patience to create absolutely beautiful environments all their own. Player housing can be themed around everything from museums and aquariums to ancient ruins and modern apartments, allowing creative players to express themselves in myriad ways.
When adding content to the game, Yoshi-P said, balancing these perspectives is critical for the team. That’s shown in things like gear design contests or a never-ending supply of new fish, as well as structural additions to things like the bardic performance system—or possibly therumored addition of chat bubbleswhen players interact that are much-requested by roleplayers.
A Community to Dye For
One area where a community got a highly-requested feature was discussed at length in the interview with Yoshi-P–Dawntrailexpanding the gear dying system to a dual-channel system as a massive boon toFinal Fantasy 14fashionistas, who regularly call the game’s transmog system, Glamouring, the true endgame. As Yoshi-P said,
We do plan to continue working on expanding functionality for people who love their fashion. And with regards to the two dye channel system, we still haven’t updated all of our previous assets for the system, so we are working on that, and we should be able to finish all of the existing assets by patch 7.3. That is our first goal right now. But after we get through that, then we will be thinking about what to do next.
Continuing dye-style customization possibly toward, say,Final Fantasy 14’s mounts and minionswould add even more personalization to the already highly customizable experience of traveling the world of Etheirys. But in the short term, just knowing that the dual-channel dye system will continue to expand is sure to encourage the lovers of fashion in the game.
Fashionistas, roleplayers, raiders, and GPosers are all individual communities, sometimes overlapping, within the broader community. And they aren’t the only ones. There are communities inFinal Fantasy 14for just about every interest someone could develop in the game. Some players are even known for their role as exceptional fans of particular characters. In a way, this reflects the kind of way things work on social media as well, explained Yoshi-P.
I think this applies not just for gamers, but in regards to social media in general. Social media has really developed. I think now it’s not a situation where you see like just a big community, but rather there are many different smaller communities who have their own interests. I think this is very much the contemporary situation that we have. So in that regard, it’s not like the old times when you would see many different people just get together with the same trend.
By encouraging these smaller communities, Yoshi-P says,Final Fantasy 14creates a stronger whole. As long as the balance of these communities is carefully maintained, he believes they create a stronger game for everyone. All the individual interest groups, under a wider view, create a lively and activeFinal Fantasy 14.
