Primed For Adventure

Honestly, at least starting from scratch makes them look less like trashcans. So there is that.

if the choice is

be 99 with literally any gear i want and have zero clue how to play while looking like a trashcan and doing ***tier V1E and struggling

Or

Start over and pretend to learn how to play with no magic button for gear I don't know how to use and appeal to new players

The second option is the winner.

It's a little boring to watch though, all those private servers do the same thing. It is always them in the dunes or qufim island leveling and then the quit. I would rather see end game stuff in my opinion. Some Odyssey farm or NMs...

Yeah, except they're incapable of doing that. Trashcan content for trashcan reps.

As comical as it would be to watch them fail a bumba or mboze, it wouldn't be a good look.

Now, if they had ACTUAL players, showing the intended strats that'd be neat.

I agree with this "new player" stuff having its appeal but 2 hour stream: 30 mins sound checks, 30 mins boat ride, 30 min running around and slapping couple mobs is supposed to be "something to look forward to"? :/ If I never played this game before, watching this stream would repel me instantly.
They could atleast switch it up from time to time with some real "endgame content" imo.

The previous events were them struggling to win V1 easy ambuscade two or three times.

Riveting content indeed.

It was indeed very cringe and bothered me alot. I'm not expecting a W3 clear stream but there has to be a middle between: making a new char and lvling it to Lv 15 -> repeat next stream, and failing at the easiest form of Ambu. I know it's SE we're talking about but yeah.

I mean, it's the quality of the reps.

They literally can't do what they are incapable of doing. That's the root of the issue.

Capable players with the "I can have any gear at the push of a button" could do lots of moderately interesting stuff.

Yeah it's sad to see tbh, they could - not that they aim for it - attract new/returning players again by showing some interesting streams but sadly every time I tune in it makes me frustrated rather than entertained.

What's the point having community reps that are afraid to interact with the community, literally all they do is lurk.

Have you seen the community? Yikes, if they exposed themselves they would be subject to nutcases hounding them as if they can actually change things. It's all on SE not some community reps with 0 power.

Imagine thinking a community rep should "represent" the "community" and play the game they "represent".

What nonsense. How ridiculous.

99% of content and decisions are handled by Japanese higher-ups at SquareEnix; with think-tank / focus-group input and cost/profit analysis. The key word in that was "Japanese".

Having an English-speaking stream once every 3/6 months of random content for 2 hours is just them trying to make a gesture towards the English speakers; much like in the monthly videos how they will use English phrases for like a sentence or two at the start.

As far as "trash reps" digs at the community reps goes, calm down. Not everyone is 1337 hardc0re playurz that min/max every single piece of equipment; especially on characters that are just cookie-cutter generics with quests/items flagged for content and not these player's actual characters. Their hands are also bound by what SquareEnix allows them to do; which likely limits them from doing anything of interest. I'm sure they have directives handed down from higher-ups that they can't even get into publicly.

The directives likely look like:
1. Focus on ___ content this time.
2. Invite random players.
3. Always cover up the Asura chat log.
4. Don't get into anything specific about your job.
5. Be vague.
6. Be friendly.
7. Don't take the troll bait.
8. Ask for suggestions from the community about what type of content to do, but ignore it as we will let you know what we want you to focus on.
9. Push the official Twitter account and the official forums.

Would it be nice if there was hardcore players that min/max every piece and make hand-holding walkthrough streams of all content? Sure. Will it happen? Not likely from official sources.

Primed for Adventure is much like the Assist Channel. Something that sounds good on paper, was created with good intentions, isn't really useful due to limitations, and should have been implemented 18 years ago.

If they were trying to represent for the community they would have duped some currency, merc'd some Omen and Dyna and then sold the gil to a middleman before lining up some buyers for CP and going AFK.

They did a fantastic job of representing the JP community though...

It would be nice if the CM staff just made an official account here just to post a "give us feedback or suggestions" because we know they lurk here anyway. They could literally just post that one thread and it could get a sticky, and that would be all the interaction they would need.

Since most players can't post on the official forums due to being banned years ago and all.

It's not that they need to be the top 1%... they just should be better than the bottom 1%

I mean, I would be embarrassed if the game I claimed was represented by Aya and Danielle

But I suppose you gave up all self respect claiming XI

Are those the real life names of the two Community Reps? Creepy AF that you would know their names and use them here while shitting all over them as bottom 1% garbage-fire players in this thread, if so.

Also, rules:

They're not users, are they?

i think you have to take it as what it is, advertisement. they aren't trying to cater to currently active players, they are trying to reach former players who quit years ago.

they didn't pick "highly skilled" players on purpose, cause people who didn't play for years wouldn't catch the skilled part anyway, they don't know ambuscade, they have no clue what the difference between normal and intense is or how long a run should take on easy.
the majority of players were and probably still are male so they went for likeable/sociable female streamers and the reason you catch them a lot in the starter areas and the dunes is cause they play the nostalgia harp.

SE didn't really invest in the game over a decade and it shows. they don't have pretty graphics or revolutionary new gameplay to show. endgame content like odyssey is a tedious multiple day grind in a boring overused zone with overused enemy models just to get a shot at a boss fight, showing endgame as it really is would be anti-advertisement to that target audiance.

nostalgia and the hope ppl start wondering what it would be like to come back is all they really have.

Next primed for adventure they shout in town for 3 hours to do Odyssey.

I think the difference is if the information is public. One of the NA reps on the Official Forums uses her first name, and she is easily found on LinkedIn. I think the spirit of that rule is to not use the names/PI information of people who would otherwise remain anonymous, not someone who is known to the community.

I skip-watched the stream and am also kinda disappointed, but you shouldn't be angry at two girls trying to produce what is a faulty marketing project to begin with. Be angry at the "system", how CEOs don't care and the in-house marketing office at SE HQ. (See below)

From all the other campaigns and ads I think they are honestly desperately trying to make this game appealing for completely NEW kids to show numbers to CEOs, while in reality most new subs are most probably only returnees and even more alts. I returned last December from a 13 year(!) break and find that stream ridiculous. I needed about two to three months max. to get into current iLvl era and catch up with mechanics, areas, endgame content etc. Also what on earth would I learn from that stream in that regard?

I think this whole thread (like many other) captures the English speaking communities' mood and feel quite nicely. Felt left out and not cared for, being aggressive and verbose in return. (See any similarities to other topics in digital and non-digital space?) Oh wait, it's a two decades old game that has no dedicated development team, two nostalgic directors and doesn't even get mentioned anymore in Square Enix's annual sales report in favor of ridiculous mobile games:
https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/library/pdf/ar_2020en.pdf
You can find that upsetting as much as you like, it won't change. That company also invests in amusement parks and physical arcade machines. Yes.

Maybe if they make it a constant stream and the two girls find themselves enjoying that, rather than "Let me see if I can get Dia on a sheep!". It could actually be a fun adventure seeing them get into end game, where more of the flashy stuff happens that kids today crave for. But then again, SE would get stuck up in saying: Show the story!, and that alone would take 3 years to stream. It's simply a really bad marketing move considering the games' position.

Kudos to the ladies for trying!

What about this statement makes any of you think that you would see any endgame content in the stream? I'm also a veteran and while I would like to see people doing content that interests me, I'm competent enough in my reading comprehension to know better than to look for it here.

Would this stream be entertaining or informative for a new player? That's the benchmark here. The feedback should be "New players always ask about x, please stream more x" rather than "OMG no odyssey? /flamingheap". That actually might explain why so many people dash to endgame and show up with no clue how to play their job...

You must not have ever watched the stream. They literally tell you their first and last names and what their SE forum names are at the start. At the same time it displays on the video feed the same info.

I guess I never really paid attention as their real names seem irrelevant. I spent 100% more time trying to recall how they pronounce and/or spell their in-game names.

ALso, yeah. I guess as "Public figures" of this game, they really shouldn't expect as much anonymity as any ol' generic player on here; especially if they flat-out say their names like you're stating. My post came more from a place of if they were just some random people.

Next thing you know, someone will go telling everyone that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne.

From the couple of streams I've watched (in chunks, not wholesale) I find it really charming. But then, I've never been a hardcore kind of player. I live for stuff like goofy boat rides where you spam emotes and catch fish. Running around and exploring, taking things at your own pace.

Final Fantasy XI doesn't have a very high tempo or flashy visuals. Trying to appeal to an audience interested in those things probably isn't worth anyone's time. Showing players that you can simply have fun with random other players as you help each other out isn't a bad strategy.

I think the whole point is that they just want to show that the game is still up and running. Showing the Asura population is great for morale, and messing around in Valkurm Dunes to evoke nostalgia is probably the best way to get players to return.

These two are mainly associated with FF14, they have a following among that community and their twitter pages are mostly full of things about it and liked by those players.

As such it's pretty obvious that the intention is to try and get ff14 players to also play ffxi, either because ff14 didn't gel with them and they are contemplating quitting or because they can play it during patch downtime instead of another companies game. As such, ofc they want to show the basic leveling and trust acquisition process and not be top tier endgame players. That's the stuff they can learn from places like this.

It's obvious the company strategy has changed from promoting just one game to promoting both now, it's better to have a player play your other game than ESO or WoW when they want a break since both games profits goto the same Square Enix dept.

That's probably why they've been selective of the ways they've adjusted FFXI over the years. Focusing on reducing the tedium rather than increasing the tempo. Even if the "old-school MMO" market isn't the most lucrative, it's better than trying to compete with yourself by having two games in the same market.