Optional Stay Clamp

No. Square Enix’s pockets are deep because the “XIV” aren’t random letters. It stands for 14 which means there were 13 before it. And with the exception of FFXI (their first MMO), each was the gold standard of turn based RPGs at their respective times and were massively successful both in terms of critical reception and worldwide sales.

Most companies in the video gaming sector aren’t nearly as fortunate and have to operate within a limited budget of resources. A development studio can care more about the games they’re creating and the gamers playing them than any other human being has ever cared about anything in the history of the world. But if they don’t cover their expenses and at least squeak out a little profit, they’ll be forced to shut down their servers, go out of business and never make another game again. Nobody wins in that scenario.

Don't forget all the sequels, spinoffs, remakes, films, manga, music... Somewhere in the top 15 of game franchises.

Absolutely. Granted a lot of that didn’t reach the level of success that the core franchise has hit time and time again. But still, the FF brand is bankable in just about every iteration.

Hmm I liked the real anime far more than this new thing.
Also, fun fact the clamp actually is going to save me 1500 source marks... because the toon that would need to spend that much source marks is probably never going to be able to do it (you are required to get the headline for all content in amazon part three to buy the phoenix pet and the regular stuff I know I could do one way or another but I doubt I'd manage to be able to get through the elite content with him in the games current state")

Didn’t we all see an info-graphic showing DCUO was by far the most profitable of games in EG7’s portfolio to point of actually carrying some of the less profitable one? I remember seeing it.

I do not feel they care about me as a customer let alone as one of their gamers due to the lack of actions & communications we have had on their part.

Clamped content is less enjoyable for me than End Game content so I spend the bulk of my limited gaming time there instead. I find myself playing DCUO less & less now anyways, so when Dawnrider does drop in July on FF 14 I’ll prob be spending my summer gaming time there instead.

What does that have to do with FFXIV?!

“Billy is the tallest kid in his class!” Sure, but he’s still 5 and in pre-K…

I’m pretty sure Lebron James is winning that 1 on 1…

Don't worry, someone will come along to correct you and try to mansplain the difference between revenue and profit as if the two didn't correlate.

I am of the opinion if Daybreak/DI would treat us, their customers, with as much consideration as Square Enix gives to their customers, then they too would become more profitable in the long run as well. That’s what FFXIV has to do with this. Naoki Yoshida is passionate about FFXIV and he is passionate about delighting his customers. I just wish we had someone like him here who care so much about DCUO and those who play it.

Your feelings are your own. I’m sure developers here would say they do care and are trying to give us all a great experience. Trying to draw a “feelings” comparison isn’t going to lead to a productive conversation. You’re playing Mom off of Dad and so forth…to get what you want….

You want them to remove the stat clamp…”you feel better”

Jimmy wanted the clamp in place…”now he feels bad.”

Why don’t you care about how Jimmy feels? …see where this is going?

Anyway, I’m excited for the FFXIV update as well

Never once have I called for them to remove the clamp. I’ve expressed my loathing of it, how much I hated it, and how it unfairly takes away my progression and punishes me for being successful, as well as calls for Tier 4-6 to have the clamp loosened, but never have I called for it to be outright removed.

Feelings are what I have to go on, it must be a female thing, idk.

Decisions like clamp will always be polarizing and will pit ( unnecessarily I might add ) one group of players against another group of players as we see demonstrated here. I wish a better solution had been implemented instead of one that sacrifices one group in favor of another.

I hope if there are any developers who care about this game instead of “eh, it’s just a job. I’m just here for the check.” I hope there are people working there who want to see their dreams take flight and create something that dazzles & delights us.

I'm not gonna pretend to know much about Japanese business culture in the video game sector. But it does seem that a lot of the Japanese companies and studios are able to operate with less financial constriction than elsewhere. Square Enix, like I said, has positioned themselves to be self reliant enough to fund very ambitious projects thanks to decades of huge success. But even smaller independent Japanese studios also seem to be able to have more freedom with investors to be ambitious as well.

Although, funding and profiting from the development of a standard format video game vs running a profitable live service game are two very different beasts. But it even seems like Daybreak had more freedom back when they were SOE and under the Sony umbrella. I can't say for sure though.

Well said. I've always said feelings can have their place at the table as long as the person can switch to the left brain and address/consider/incorporate/etc them logically and as objectively as possible.

And yes, when it comes to industries and professions that require high levels of specific education and training, the vast majority of the people actually doing the work, creating the thing, etc are passionate and care very much about the quality of what they're making and putting out to their customers. Even more so when it revolves around a form of creative art which video games are. Nobody is sitting at a workstation coding/programming for a video game for no other reason than they had bills to pay and the opportunity fell in their lap. They most likely worked their a** off to get there because it's what they love to do.

Unfortunately it also takes the work of some stingy, money minded, artistic expression stymieing, bottom line watching types to keep the lights on, the servers running and the bi-weekly checks from bouncing so that those passionate creative types have the opportunity to make a living doing what they love. It goes without saying, the two sides often do not see eye to eye.

It's totally understandable why customers tend to see whole businesses as a single entity. But I always feel for the "left hand" when it's taking the brunt of the criticism over decisions made by the "right hand".

I'm not really trying to perceive it one way or the other, because, as mentioned before, fool's errand. I know my own observations are going to be limited because I can only see what's going on in front of me in the zone I'm in, and things like time of day, time of year, spotlights, seasonals and the small detail that we have over a decade of content available for play that can and will split up the game population from one another will affect what I see going on in the game.

the aregument that is generally given when someone brings up how FF has the clamp but its optionial.. that otion comes were you can run it but you get practially nothing for doing it outside of maybe a chance at a mount or music sheet. but when people coralate how tha game give you the choice. it is also a much much larger community than DC. its still a sub game and has a large playerbase that can support it. this game would be broken even more if the clamp didnt exsist there is barly a reason to do omni now in this game as the content is a joke with how easy it is to complete omni. you just steam roll through the content.

I just dont get the reason. I run omni all the time when somone needs something and asks for help. there are never any issues even when you get qued with out a tank or a healer we just roll through it all. if a piticular instance is hard to a large group of players that content should get brought up spicifically and the devs should care enough about their game to look over that piece of content or that one mechanic that is hanging the most people up. Im sure it exsist but I couldnt name it because i never get hung up but im sure somepeople do.

but those are case by case instances. if they were to just blanket remove the clamp i would just delete the game as it would be a joke at that point and not worth playing as there would be no gratification at completing anything if there isnt even a little challange to it to give you that.. YES we did it moments!

ROFLMAO.


You definitely don't know neurology, this industry or its workers. Quit frontin.

Well, that response was mainly a joke. I'm not really for the removal of the clamp...never have been. It serves a purpose for people that want it...or people that never experienced the content as originally intended (it's still not that way clamped....but it's a bit closer at least).

...but...

Are you still getting 'yes we did it' moments in EEG/Omni now? See...90% of the time I've been in Omni, where there's a struggle and then we overcome it, the struggle is mainly bad players doing dumb things...or doing nothing. The struggle is having to explain and re-explain the same thing a dozen times...or getting a kick vote to pass. Even on a feat attempt, I don't generally get a sense of accomplishment when the accomplishment would be finally getting the 8th person to block vs stand there when Forge master hits his anvil in TSD....or to quit killing Flash in FV so that we can get the reverse order on LB (these were 2 I watched fail multiple times just last week). I sure hope I'll get that level of excitement in CT when everyone hits 'jump' 1 time to avoid the single ring WW puts out, once that run hits EEG.

And there'd be 3 episodes of 'challenge' left anyway....same as we had for years without everyone deleting the game....and Elite runs or CERTAIN feats always had some challenge even at max unclamped-ness. At least as much challenge as they do just because you are grouped with numbskulls today.

You wouldn't get it, I agree. Some people like to have fun and enjoy the game in different ways, and not everyone is content with carrying instances in this environment as well, let alone trying to teach players old mechanics in the process. Not every run is perfect, either. Some are absolute train wrecks that go on for hours, especially if you are blind queuing and using the system "as-intended". To me, this isn't fun and has no "we did it, congrats everyone" factor. It's a "what the **** did I just walk into" moment and it's counter intuitive to promoting an enjoyable gaming experience for the casual player.

It's also been pointed out and proven that progression... the entire point of the game... is moving in the WRONG DIRECTION in clamped EEG content. The more you grow your character at end game, the more you lose a slight percentage of stats in EEG. We've successfully hit a wall, and people like you are absolutely OK with it. At what point do we realize that progression is a joke? Are you going to delete the game knowing you'll never be able to see any real improvement in EEG no matter how much you progress? It's stagnant, repetitive, unrewarding, and boring for no real reason.

From my point of view, if you need a "challenge", there's plenty of Elite content geared specifically for the try hard players. Not everything in the game has to retain the same exact difficulty/duration as when it was fresh content. It's ok for characters to overpower and get through old content quicker, that's the entire point of getting stronger. We should be hitting much harder and taking significantly less damage in old content than what we are currently.

Yeah, they definitely never played Xbox that's for sure lol. Every single instance I tried to help queue for omnibus (after seeing ppl begging for literal hours to queue it), always finally popped into an entirely absolute **** show. I felt bad for leaving but hey, I was just helping queue I don't run that crap lol.

I can't emphasize the need for them to finally come through with the Targeted Adjustments they initially promised, even if an option is off the table or not.

I'm fine with them doing pretty much anything. At this point, I don't really care what they do as long as they improve the overall experience. Making things optional and removing the stat restrictions seems like the quickest method available.

They also specifically said that EEG would have a similar feel to Event level content, and that simply isn't true with how things are now. I don't know if they were too heavy handed with the clamp, or have taken all the extra bonuses too far, pushing out stats from gear that everyone uses just to reserve them for other means of "progression" available, like arts/augs/league buffs. In my opinion... stats are stats. It shouldn't matter where they come from. Heavily limiting stats from gear, just to reserve them for other P2W item/grind stats later on, is just crazy. Those bonuses should be needed going forward... not in reverse.