Final Fantasy XIV Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida recently elaborated on the role and goal of actions like gathering and crafting in the game. To be specific, he explained that the idea is to ensure both remain simple activities people could easily do and enjoy. That way, the in-game economy isn’t disrupted. Keeping FFXIV gathering and crafting “as simple as possible” is a priority, even going forward. [Thanks, PC Invasion!]
Here’s Yoshida’s full explanation on why keeping things simple to maintain a proper balance is a priority.
I’d like the gathering and primary production in the game to remain as simple as possible. The reason why is that it is primary production which serves as the base of supply and demand. If these activities are a pain and take too much time for players, those who partake would drop and the amount of materials produced would not increase. In that case, there is no doubt the economy would head towards its downfall. As such, we strive for simplifications to encourage participation from more players but there’s no fun in merely pressing a button… With gathering, we’re always thinking about striking that perfect balance.
Yoshida also talked to PC Invasion about the future of gathering or crafting in FFXIV. To be specific, he mentioned that, “Gathering will continue to evolve but at any rate I do not want to complicate it.” He also talked about the balance of ensuring individuals have a good balance between gaining experience and items when gathering, even at a lower level.
Here’s Yoshida’s statement regarding the possible future when it comes to ensuring people progress at reasonable paces.
…I make adjustments [on rewarded EXP and items] so that players can use gathered items themselves to level up their crafter jobs simultaneously and, more than anything, level up faster. Accordingly, I plan on adjusting more moving forward in order to ensure players can race through to the higher levels as much as possible. There is also the market principle behind these adjustments. If there is excessive supply of items that any low level players can easily gather, it would eventually surpass demand and their prices in the market would fall.
Final Fantasy XIV is available for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. The Fan Fest will run May 14-15, 2021. This means people can now get the Lunar Whale mount and see the Lego Crystarium.
