Sakai and Kimura will no longer appear in PSO2 livestreams

[Maulcun]

Producer Sakai and director Kimura revealed that they will no longer appear in pso2 livestreams. The official blog will also no longer be updated.

More info:
https://ameblo.jp/sega-psblog/entry-12420362594.html
https://twitter.com/sega_pso2/status/1064884638630334464
https://pso2roboarks.jp/sakai-kimura-last

[Zephyrion]

That's kind of sad. Anyone knows why ?

[Moffen]

Did KMR finally get fired?

[Kilich]

Are jps happy, or sad about this? Because it seems like an Ep6 prerelease move to please players and shareholders.

[Lostbob117]

That's kind of sad. Anyone knows why ?

They think it's negative for PSO2 to continue appearing on Live Broadcasts and Media related to PSO2. They will still be working on PSO2.


Did KMR finally get fired?

Nope

[Kilich]

So, the players are happy then?

[Kintama]

They think it's negative for PSO2 to continue appearing on Live Broadcasts and Media related to PSO2. They will still be working on PSO2.



Nope

I don't get it, what's the reasoning behind this?

[FantasyHeaven]

I don't get it, what's the reasoning behind this?
They're worse than hitler in japan and rightly so.

[Meteor Weapon]

The jp's seem happy that they will no longer appear in the live broadcast and will hope that the two of them will focus on production but at the same time sad that the two of them will no longer appear. I think having to appear in live broadcast and having to work in the game is exhausting for them, im not sure if its their own decision or the higher ups.

[Arada]

Isn't it linked to the fact Sakai said that PSO2 players were whiners and it backlashed quite badly?

[oratank]

they start working on pso3 full time "Wink wink"

[ArcaneTechs]

they start working on pso3 full time "Wink wink"
my assumptions were the same or that they were leaving to work on another project of sorts. i also thought "well Ep6 is going to not be so great, better jump ship while we can"

-Plans to start working on PSO3 (if they arent already) since 4yrs left of the game
-Ep5 ending so bad its not worth showing up for the backlash
-Sakai/Kimura can concentrate on the game without having to worry about working on stream content etc

[BloodPuddles]

they start working on pso3 full time "Wink wink"

Haha, try number 3 because I'm bad at not ranting. I hope this isn't the case, they need to prioritize making less accessible content for this game. It's way too pandering, the entire game is just grinding out not rare drops and currencies so you can buy the good gear. Everyone shouldn't be able to have everything if they try to get it, it defeats the purpose of there even being a rarity system if nothing is actually rare, just expensive. They need to add things I don't ever expect to get.

Edit: Saffran that's my point, actual players want sick loot and crazy challenges to strive for, shareholders want money. They would make a massive amount more money just off of the Scape Dolls and slightly higher RDR boosts if they made this game more focused on the hardcore gamers, than the no lifers and casuals. A majority of the player base either plays only this because they like Phantasy Star, or sits on this and doesn't play to look pretty. So many more people would be playing this if they knew of insanely hard bosses to fight and crazy rare drops. How they handle the content makes it seem pointless and extremely unappealing to anyone already playing a dozen other games with everything this has to offer. (Other than the great customization, never seen that matched.)

[XrosBlader821]

Haha, try number 3 because I'm bad at not ranting. I hope this isn't the case, they need to prioritize making less accessible content for this game. It's way too pandering, the entire game is just grinding out not rare drops and currencies so you can buy the good gear. Everyone shouldn't be able to have everything if they try to get it, it defeats the purpose of there even being a rarity system if nothing is actually rare, just expensive. They need to add things I don't ever expect to get.

I disagree

[Saffran]

What a player wants out of a game and waht a shareholder wants out of a game are not the same.
Otherwise we wouldn't have smartphone games.
As far as Sakai and Kimura are concerned, this sounds like a move from the higher ups because of the memes hat are created everytime they do something on stream. But of course, with the recent comment and the backlash, the situation really got out of hand.
It kinda proves Sakai was right though. Most vocal players really are entitled whiney bitches.

[XrosBlader821]

It kinda proves Sakai was right though. Most vocal players really are entitled whiney bitches.

That's not what Sakai said but okay.

[otakun]

Most vocal players really are entitled whiney bitches.

Nooo, people are entitled when it comes to spending money and time?! /sarcasm

This is something people tend to forget, just because someone likes a game doesn't mean the company is entitled to their money. If they want the money then they have to do what the customer wants. It's a companies job to figure out how to get a majority of what people want at the cheapest cost. When a company says their costumers are entitled means they are failing to do so and are too stupid or don't want to spend what it takes to give the costumer what they want. Players are customers and no customers means no business, no business means no money, no money ... I'm sure you can figure that out. Sega was showing they weren't listening for months, and people are surprised the playerbase lashed out? It's Sega's fault for not listening in the first place.

[Tymek]

It's one thing to not appear on the streams anymore, but to terminate the blog too? I feel SEGA might have forgotten that the blog is the Phantasy Star Series Official Blog.

[Zephyrion]

Nooo, people are entitled when it comes to spending money and time?! /sarcasm

This is something people tend to forget, just because someone likes a game doesn't mean the company is entitled to their money. If they want the money then they have to do what the customer wants. It's a companies job to figure out how to get a majority of what people want at the cheapest cost. When a company says their costumers are entitled means they are failing to do so and are too stupid or don't want to spend what it takes to give the costumer what they want. Players are customers and no customers means no business, no business means no money, no money ... I'm sure you can figure that out. Sega was showing they weren't listening for months, and people are surprised the playerbase lashed out? It's Sega's fault for not listening in the first place.

People are kind of mixing tons of things tho. What happened was not nearly as bad of a thing
> EP5 had the huge backlash in Hero
> PSO crew starts ACTUALLY listening for once, by releasing surveys and trying to fix the mess
> this goes on for a little while, then in a live event, Sakai accidentally said that they couldn't advance their schedule because there were too many complaints that needed to be addressed

The exact statement was nowhere near as bad as "PSO2 playerbase is a bunch of entitled whiney bitches". More like a badly formulated answer that caused him to apologize. It's the reason why the thing didn't make tremendous waves. It's not a defense on some of SEGA's practices when it comes to PSO2, mind you, just setting some facts straight.

Which is also why I wondered about the reason behind such a big reaction, was wondering if something happened on top of Kimura meme and that blunder to warrant them or the higher-ups making that decision. Oh well guess it'll remain a mystery

[Kilich]

Makes me wonder what was happening behind the scenes of Ep5 before its release. They must've known that Hero is way better in power and mobility than others and that a single mode with a single map can't last.

[Saffran]

I know, I know. He only said something to the extent of "as you all know, I'm sure, online game players tend to complain a lot" and he used that as a reason why actual work on PSO2 had not progressed much, because the team had to do plenty of balancing and surveys.

The thing is, at some point you have to draw the line. PSO2 advertised saying "yeah this is sci-fi, futuristic, RPG" and people laughed and stayed all day in the lobby playing dressing dolls. "It's a combo based action game!" Players went and said "lol nope" and for a while players had the same PA on all slots and had to change weapon to access another PA. So Sega made a new meta based around that, and people went after something else in the game and invented the 14 dashes by mixing jump cnacels and lobby action cancels. So Sega invented a new meta with fast-travelling PAs on a few select classes and people bitched and moaned until we now all have the same kind of stupidly broken travel PAs.
It's always the same process. "Hey we made a game" "NO this sucks change it all" - if you're not here to play the game that was advertised go somewhere else for crying out loud.

Otakun > You go to a pizza parlor, you see the pizzas, you pay for a pizza and when you get one you complain because "Hey this sucks I thought there would be no tomato and no cheese and also I can't stomach the crust". You know what, pal? You're not getting a pizza. Get out of the pizza parlor and let pizza eaters eat pizza. You spent that money and that time fully knowing what was coming to you so don't come to me saying you're entitled to your money and time.

It's one thing to see that the diavolo is bigger than the pepperoni and both cost the same prize so you feel cheated and you complain. That's perfectly fine.
You can also complain when suddenly all the nice staff is changed to rude people and service quality dives down. That's very fair.
But you can't go into a pizza place to order pizza and then complain that you actually got a pizza.
I can only imagine the frustration of coming in to work and every day you read complaints about "My HU doesn't play like FO" or "TE/SU doesn't play the same as BR/FI so fix it" or "Where are my 14 stars dude? It's been 2 hours" etc. It's a thing to see "The new class is overpowered please do something" but it's another to have to change everything around because of endless complaints about virtually everything.
Kimura being honest and saying "If we do that, we will simply lose money" was an instant meme and it's still thrown around every time he appears, to the point where the stream is unwatchable. I don't even want to know the level of the stuff he receives in the complaints department.
And now we are in this room and it's awkward...

[otakun]

Otakun > You go to a pizza parlor, you see the pizzas, you pay for a pizza and when you get one you complain because "Hey this sucks I thought there would be no tomato and no cheese and also I can't stomach the crust". You know what, pal? You're not getting a pizza. Get out of the pizza parlor and let pizza eaters eat pizza. You spent that money and that time fully knowing what was coming to you so don't come to me saying you're entitled to your money and time.


Good job missing the whole point of commerce. For one thing, you don't pay for a pizza before being able to see it. Never get delivery before? even they hand you the food first before you hand over the money. I don't even understand how you are far off from the point. Your analogy doesn't even fit with the scenario cause your point only fits for a one time exchange of goods for cash while this is a service.

Using Uber is more of a proper analogy. As an example, lets say I use the service everyday since its cheaper to get to my home from work to use, seems fine for months but then the Uber drivers start getting more and more annoying, not dropping me off at the right spot, playing loud annoying music, talking politics when I don't want to and such, I tell Uber with reviews my concerns and yet I still keep getting bad drivers then they are no longer getting my money cause Uber isn't listening to the fact they have bad drivers. You get it now? Uber and their bad drivers are not entitled to my money cause they provide the service that I enjoyed before if they choose to not listen to my concerns.

[Saffran]

Otakun > I think the bottom line is that you don't consider PSO2 as I do. To me it's a service that I seek. It seems to me that you see it a service that you're owed because you registered to play.

I have a problem with your analogy: if you do use Uber, Uber 'is' entitled to your money. You pay for Uber service and it's bad -> give bad reviews, if your complaining is not listened to then you may stop using the service and Uber stops getting your money. You can't get the course done all the while insulting the drivers and dissing the company and then when it's time to pay simply go "nope, service was not good enough, I'm getting that ride for free". That's not how Reality works.

That's kinda what people are doing with PSO2, but PSO2 is free to begin with. If you don't like it, you can complain. If you don't get listened to, there's nothing you can do except going away, but that's not what people are doing. People are downvoting streams and trolling reviews and harassing the staff and the other players because they think they're entitled to see things changed as they see fit. When SEGA obliges, they complain more, about other stuff. And when Sega complains about the endless (and seemingly baseless) complaints, somehow it's still their fault? Come on.

[Zephyrion]

Makes me wonder what was happening behind the scenes of Ep5 before its release. They must've known that Hero is way better in power and mobility than others and that a single mode with a single map can't last.

About Hero they actually half knew.

Subsequent to Hero release, they planned Hero's power being a bit above FI Ep5 start...Oh boi did they miss the mark. They did want Hero to be powerful, but didn't realize how its mobility is actually what made it broken. In terms of raw PA power, Hero did have a similar output to FI...but they forgot having range, mobility, Hero Time and so on completely tipped the scales towards Hero. It's a known fact SEGA doesn't quite understand some of their classes fully.


BQ actually suffered from being a new concept, coupled with some bad design decisions. Original BQ was repetitive and had wonky rank/de-rank issues, match refreshes, fixed spawns, and so on. They did have in mind to progressively add more maps, tower layouts and so on, but had to scrap it to deal with the Hero mess. The reason I believe that to be the truth is Perpetual Madness EBQ. I mean just look at all the new enemy behaviors and ability to self-destruct, the amount of new accidents and events taking place and so on. The story mode BQ maps also were supposed to be whole quests with their own tower placement and waves. You can easily tell they actually planned to progressively add new BQ maps and features with each new Falz, but instead, just dumped all of them into a single EQ due to the backlash it received.

[Kilich]

So, the Hero class was actually the villain of Ep5.

[Dark Mits]

Haha, try number 3 because I'm bad at not ranting. I hope this isn't the case, they need to prioritize making less accessible content for this game. It's way too pandering, the entire game is just grinding out not rare drops and currencies so you can buy the good gear. Everyone shouldn't be able to have everything if they try to get it, it defeats the purpose of there even being a rarity system if nothing is actually rare, just expensive. They need to add things I don't ever expect to get.

Edit: Saffran that's my point, actual players want sick loot and crazy challenges to strive for, shareholders want money. They would make a massive amount more money just off of the Scape Dolls and slightly higher RDR boosts if they made this game more focused on the hardcore gamers, than the no lifers and casuals. A majority of the player base either plays only this because they like Phantasy Star, or sits on this and doesn't play to look pretty. So many more people would be playing this if they knew of insanely hard bosses to fight and crazy rare drops. How they handle the content makes it seem pointless and extremely unappealing to anyone already playing a dozen other games with everything this has to offer. (Other than the great customization, never seen that matched.)Every single game that tried to make its content "prestige" by making it hard to achieve, with no option for the less focused player to see said content even in lower difficulty, ended up shutting down or going into maintenance mode. Check Wildstar for example. Or Rift. Hell, even World of Warcraft was forced to have easy mode because players left in droves when the devs made Heroic dungeons in Cataclysm (the 3rd expansion) require tactics and coordination, instead of just straight zerging (which was the "default" mode of dungeons in the 2nd expansion). Whether we like it or not, players who enjoy challenges are very rare compared to the vast playerbase, and they are definitely not the ones keeping any game alive. As a note also, WoW was considered to be an ez-mode Everquest when it was released, and the reason it was more successful than Everquest was exactly this accessibility and appeal to the (then) casual playerbase.

Also indeed most vocal players act like whiny bitches. A player who enjoys a game or likes the content does not create threads about how great it is; they are actually playing the game. The majority of threads are from people who do not enjoy the game as it is, and want it to change to something more suitable for them. Add to that the sense of entitlement that a lot of people have ("I play this therefore I should be able to see 100% of content without having to put effort"), and the general meme "Anyone better than me is a no-lifer basement dweller, anyone worse than me is a ******ed noob".

[XrosBlader821]

even World of Warcraft was forced to have easy mode because players left in droves when the devs made Heroic dungeons in Cataclysm (the 3rd expansion) require tactics and coordination, instead of just straight zerging (which was the "default" mode of dungeons in the 2nd expansion).

That is like the least named reason for why people left WoW after Cataclysm launched.

[Dark Mits]

That is like the least named reason for why people left WoW after Cataclysm launched.It's actually the most named reason, at least on forums, and with a comment from the then Lead Systems Designer, Ghostcrawler: "There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. :("

Under that are the reasons (in no order):
- I don't know who Deathwing is, but I knew who Arthas was.
- Too little new content (only 5 new zones, compared to the previous expansions of 7 and 8 ).
- Storyline is not cohesive
- 10man raiding sharing lockout with 25man raiding
- Old world changed, it destroyed the world as I knew it
- Uldum (desert zone with ancient ruins and such) is just a giant Indiana Jones ripoff/meme factory
- Vashjir (underwater zone with 3D movement) is hard to navigate

[ArcaneTechs]

Haha, try number 3 because I'm bad at not ranting. I hope this isn't the case, they need to prioritize making less accessible content for this game. It's way too pandering, the entire game is just grinding out not rare drops and currencies so you can buy the good gear. Everyone shouldn't be able to have everything if they try to get it, it defeats the purpose of there even being a rarity system if nothing is actually rare, just expensive. They need to add things I don't ever expect to get.
Yet again, blame the casuals. You have both Eng & JP players who complain about grinding for hours on end for drop only gear and want a Collection File version of drops just so they can get what they want then say theres nothing to do in the game. Lose interest and stop playing because said gear was so readily available. Now I'm all for drop only gear thats GOOD and worth the hunt but hell, people are going to complain no matter what. Huge example is Demonia but im not running on a tangent about that series.

You have Austere NT coming out, here are the following results you'll see here, your team, discord:

- I can't get Austere NT because Sega made it impossible to get, screw these guys
- I didn't farm the boosted UQs knowing fully well Sega did this to prep all of use on the inevitable Austere NT release
- I ran one hour a day of UQ boost and dropped the game because muh RNG
- I just came back to the game and I can't get said gear, once again Sega screwing over the "average" player
- I ran for at least 5-8hrs+ a day and unfortunately RNG just wasn't on my side during these boosts weeks (the only real valid reason here)
- I for whatever reason didn't and can't farm for Invade NT weapons to make Austere NT even though I'm on a team or too lazy to get good and just farm the solo version of the XQ


So, the Hero class was actually the villain of Ep5.
you are literally several streams late for Ep5 problems man

[oratank]

i presume dev want player to move their main to adv class so they can make gameplay base on adv class but player refuse to do so that why every class have to got hero treatment

[Zorak000]

they're still working on the game, this just sounds like people who don't know how development works were mad that somebody wasn't turning the "make game" wheel at every waking moment.

which is kind of gross to see them get their way

[Kintama]

they're still working on the game, this just sounds like people who don't know how development works were mad that somebody wasn't turning the "make game" wheel at every waking moment.

which is kind of gross to see them get their way

Wow, are they serious? This sounds like some cartoon rant, i thought the fact that Sakai showed up during streams was rather reassuring since it meant the dev team was actually there and listening, now what's left, guests and the hype girl with the high pitched voice?

[XrosBlader821]

It's actually the most named reason, at least on forums, and with a comment from the then Lead Systems Designer, Ghostcrawler: "There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. :("

Under that are the reasons (in no order):
- I don't know who Deathwing is, but I knew who Arthas was.
- Too little new content (only 5 new zones, compared to the previous expansions of 7 and 8 ).
- Storyline is not cohesive
- 10man raiding sharing lockout with 25man raiding
- Old world changed, it destroyed the world as I knew it
- Uldum (desert zone with ancient ruins and such) is just a giant Indiana Jones ripoff/meme factory
- Vashjir (underwater zone with 3D movement) is hard to navigate

Well in the forums that might be the case but don't you need an active subscription to be even able to use these forums? In other words people who say that haven't left the game. Outside of the forums almost nobody complains about the game being too hard back then. Iirc correctly Total Biscuit was super pissed that when Cataclysm hit live they reduced the difficulty tremendously, Since he was covering a lot of the test server and was really liking the challenging aspect. In Jontrons Blizzard Rant Video not once had he mentioned the game becoming too hard (a video that was about Blizzard DMCA'ing Nostalrius, a vanilla server). And I could name you a few other videos where WoW content creators point fingers at the overall lackluster quality of the expansion, Cut content like the path of titans feature and raids for why so many people left since cataclysm and not the high difficulty of the content.

[Kilich]

The talk about the casuals reminded me of an old rant about WoW from the streamer Sodapoppin.

[Karen Erra]

Yet again, blame the casuals. You have both Eng & JP players who complain about grinding for hours on end for drop only gear and want a Collection File version of drops just so they can get what they want then say theres nothing to do in the game. Lose interest and stop playing because said gear was so readily available. Now I'm all for drop only gear thats GOOD and worth the hunt but hell, people are going to complain no matter what. Huge example is Demonia but im not running on a tangent about that series.

You have Austere NT coming out, here are the following results you'll see here, your team, discord:

- I can't get Austere NT because Sega made it impossible to get, screw these guys
- I didn't farm the boosted UQs knowing fully well Sega did this to prep all of use on the inevitable Austere NT release
- I ran one hour a day of UQ boost and dropped the game because muh RNG
- I just came back to the game and I can't get said gear, once again Sega screwing over the "average" player
- I ran for at least 5-8hrs+ a day and unfortunately RNG just wasn't on my side during these boosts weeks (the only real valid reason here)
- I for whatever reason didn't and can't farm for Invade NT weapons to make Austere NT even though I'm on a team or too lazy to get good and just farm the solo version of the XQ


Yet the real problem about PSO2 is, it is about 100% RNG. If you got no luck, you are screwed, average player or not. The boosted UQs gave me enough Ares-NT to grab quite a few Austere-NT, but then there is Slave and Nemesis NT. I got a few of these too, but never enough to get any weapon to +35, let alone the weapon type I would have needed for the Austere-NT trade (Rod). For all the drops I got, I never saw a single Slave or Nemesis Rod (and me playing Force, mind you). So basically the game threw all kinds of different weapon types at me, but not the same weapon type to get over the "+35 problem" (which is stupid anyway - probably the most stupid thing of the past 1 or 2 years).

So while I'd say there is some truth in what you say, I can't deny that a lack of luck in the RNG-heavy PSO2 can make things rather difficult for people.

On topic though, I hope that they continue to work on PSO2 and make more improvements and that this doesn't mean the beginning of the end of this game. We still got a few years if their
time schedule is still accurate.

[ArcaneTechs]

Yet the real problem about PSO2 is, it is about 100% RNG. If you got no luck, you are screwed, average player or not. The boosted UQs gave me enough Ares-NT to grab quite a few Austere-NT, but then there is Slave and Nemesis NT. I got a few of these too, but never enough to get any weapon to +35, let alone the weapon type I would have needed for the Austere-NT trade (Rod). For all the drops I got, I never saw a single Slave or Nemesis Rod (and me playing Force, mind you). So basically the game threw all kinds of different weapon types at me, but not the same weapon type to get over the "+35 problem" (which is stupid anyway - probably the most stupid thing of the past 1 or 2 years).

So while I'd say there is some truth in what you say, I can't deny that a lack of luck in the RNG-heavy PSO2 can make things rather difficult for people.

On topic though, I hope that they continue to work on PSO2 and make more improvements and that this doesn't mean the beginning of the end of this game. We still got a few years if their
time schedule is still accurate.
did you not farm these the first time nem/slave NT came out? trying to get them during the Ares NT release was basically needle in a ocean of hay at that point. I farmed when they first released and got the remainder through stones during the Ares NT boost weeks so im not nearly on a struggle like most people

and CFs remedy the RNG to an extent, while they may not be op weapons because of how easy they are to get (thank god its this way since people would just the op gear too fast then stop playing), the drop only weapons will usually be the best and genuinely for good reason

[Zorak000]

I got exactly enough to make 2 austere NT weapons, but I know many people who have put in 10x the amount of time I have and can't even make one austere NT or lumiare weapon


that's what we mean by us having an RNG problem

[BloodPuddles]

My luck is very mixed, I get tons of drops, but rarely ever what I need. But one time I got a Bode leg in my first grind for it. I prefer it that way though, makes it so much more special finally getting it.

[ArcaneTechs]

I got exactly enough to make 2 austere NT weapons, but I know many people who have put in 10x the amount of time I have and can't even make one austere NT or lumiare weapon


that's what we mean by us having an RNG problem
yes im well aware of that but you also had an alternative trade route too, +35 but not max element that still exists. even if you could have only managed one, you could have saved for one Austere NT at least THATS IF you actually put in the time (i keep saying this to the people who just farmed the very bare minimal and thats it, not the people who farmed for way more hours but just bad RNG)

[Reilet]

- I ran for at least 5-8hrs+ a day and unfortunately RNG just wasn't on my side during these boosts weeks (the only real valid reason here)


I'll go cry myself to sleep again. :disapprove:

[Dark Mits]

Sega has already "allowed" us to get a +1 grind with 300 class xcubes, or that PvP item. I think it's time they consider a third way, through crafting materials, even if it is an exorbitant amount (like 10000 gold materials and 10000 saphards).

Or at an even worst possibility, update Weapon Extending to allow Extending the cap on an -NT weapon, again with an appropriate material cost (for example 300x its current grind cap in Gold- and Saphards)



Well in the forums that might be the case but don't you need an active subscription to be even able to use these forums? In other words people who say that haven't left the game. Outside of the forums almost nobody complains about the game being too hard back then. Iirc correctly Total Biscuit was super pissed that when Cataclysm hit live they reduced the difficulty tremendously, Since he was covering a lot of the test server and was really liking the challenging aspect. In Jontrons Blizzard Rant Video not once had he mentioned the game becoming too hard (a video that was about Blizzard DMCA'ing Nostalrius, a vanilla server). And I could name you a few other videos where WoW content creators point fingers at the overall lackluster quality of the expansion, Cut content like the path of titans feature and raids for why so many people left since cataclysm and not the high difficulty of the content.The official Blizzard forums? You always needed an active subscription for them. Fan forums of course didn't.

Streamers do not represent casual players. They're either hardcore or pseudo-hardcore (ie. they spend a lot of time but do not engage in difficult content). Their concerns and remarks always represent players who follow updates on a game, developer blogs, live streams etc.

Your average casual player doesn't do any of that. The average casual logs in, does whatever he thinks of first or appears as a task, and then logs out. The average casual player does not know about intended new features, cut content, or even how the storyline ends (which hardcore players knew through datamining during betas).

The subscription dip at the start of the Cataclysm, which was the worst dip for the game until then and only surpassed by WoD's dip (5th expansion), included mostly players who hit the point of what they could do before requiring them to engage in hard content (the heroic dungeons at lvl85). This was exactly the reason why Cataclysm felt like 2 different games; the latter half was re-designed to make it easy to progress even for non-invested characters. Hence why Well of Eternity (a very much requested raid) was cancelled and replaced with just a 5man dungeon, and why the last raid in the expansion was designed to be exclusively pug-friendly (seriously, Dragon Soul is even today considered the absolute worst raiding tier of WoW). And while I mentioned the worst subscription dip at the start of the 5th expansion, you know again why it happened. Because character progression in the 5th expansion was gated behind raiding. A casual player who didn't participate in progression raiding hit the point of how far he could improve his gear very quickly, and then had absolutely nothing left to do to make it even better. Nothing except go into organized raiding.

[Cyber Meteor]

Sega has already "allowed" us to get a +1 grind with 300 class xcubes, or that PvP item. I think it's time they consider a third way, through crafting materials, even if it is an exorbitant amount (like 10000 gold materials and 10000 saphards).

Or at an even worst possibility, update Weapon Extending to allow Extending the cap on an -NT weapon, again with an appropriate material cost (for example 300x its current grind cap in Gold- and Saphards)

They mentionned a few months back they would look into a way to get a 13* to +35 more easily but that would take time, however the option you suggested got one problem : you can only stack 999 gold/saphard materials, so to use that exhorbitant amount of 10000 or 300xweapon cap, you need to buy material storage :p, where you can stack up to 65000 of a mat item in 1 single storage space, and pay directly from that storage instead of going through inventory. But since this solution potentially involves real money (you can still get SG via AC, even though there are better options now, unless you want a very big amount quickly), it's not gonna be done

[Dark Mits]

They mentionned a few months back they would look into a way to get a 13* to +35 more easily but that would take time, however the option you suggested got one problem : you can only stack 999 gold/saphard materials, so to use that exhorbitant amount of 10000 or 300xweapon cap, you need to buy material storage :p, where you can stack up to 65000 of a mat item in 1 single storage space, and pay directly from that storage instead of going through inventory. But since this solution potentially involves real money (you can still get SG via AC, even though there are better options now, unless you want a very big amount quickly), it's not gonna be doneIt can be done by introducing Plat- materials though, at the usual exchange rate of 10 Gold- into 1 Plat-. Similarily for Saphard into something above it (Emerard for example). So instead of 10000 gold-, they could require 999 Plat -, which is 9990 Gold.

[XrosBlader821]

It can be done by introducing Plat- materials though, at the usual exchange rate of 10 Gold- into 1 Plat-. Similarily for Saphard into something above it (Emerard for example). So instead of 10000 gold-, they could require 999 Plat -, which is 9990 Gold.

That's true but I assume Sega thinks that if they had to introduce Platnia, Platgrimo and Platdest they'd need to introduce Unit counterparts and expand the Weapon and Unit extension system. And tbh I'd like if they did that anyway because Weapon / Unit extension could've been used as a System to keep old Weapons somewhat relevant or at least give them a niche use despite not being mix-max cookie cutter friendly as well as keep players like GHneko happy with Class Addition support items but they completely abandoned that system in EP4.

[Karen Erra]

did you not farm these the first time nem/slave NT came out? trying to get them during the Ares NT release was basically needle in a ocean of hay at that point. I farmed when they first released and got the remainder through stones during the Ares NT boost weeks so im not nearly on a struggle like most people

and CFs remedy the RNG to an extent, while they may not be op weapons because of how easy they are to get (thank god its this way since people would just the op gear too fast then stop playing), the drop only weapons will usually be the best and genuinely for good reason

I'm not gonna lie, I probably didn't farm them as much as a lot of other people did, but I also don't have much free time to use for things like this. But I do what I can to keep up.
I got a few weapons but 90% of the time it's different weapon types. It generally adds up with the problem that BloodPuddles, it's not that I don't get any rare drops but not what I want and not
what I need to finish what I want to finish. Of course me not having as much time as I would like adds to it, too. I just wish the whole +35 thing would not exist. It has been one of the greatest nuisances in the game to me.

[Dark Mits]

That's true but I assume Sega thinks that if they had to introduce Platnia, Platgrimo and Platdest they'd need to introduce Unit counterparts and expand the Weapon and Unit extension system. And tbh I'd like if they did that anyway because Weapon / Unit extension could've been used as a System to keep old Weapons somewhat relevant or at least give them a niche use despite not being mix-max cookie cutter friendly as well as keep players like GHneko happy with Class Addition support items but they completely abandoned that system in EP4.I'm also kind of sad that weapons have "advanced" to 15* rarity, but we're still at 12* for units. I think I would have liked it more if Sega kept us at 14* for 1-2 years more considering their "rarity" in our equipment sets, and instead gave us 13* units with new types of perks.

[kurokyosuke]

... Class Addition support items but they completely abandoned that system in EP4.

Speaking of which, have those even shown up in scratch at all lately? Even support item scratch, at least?

[Tymek]

Speaking of which, have those even shown up in scratch at all lately? Even support item scratch, at least?

I don't think they've been in any rotation since EP3.

[BloodPuddles]

Snip

Oh man Karen, it's been a while. You still running around slaying low level monsters because I have no internet or expansion and am sad the game ended?

[Zorak000]

Wow, are they serious? This sounds like some cartoon rant, i thought the fact that Sakai showed up during streams was rather reassuring since it meant the dev team was actually there and listening, now what's left, guests and the hype girl with the high pitched voice?
and yeah the weird part about all this to me is that they're still going to be working on the game, and well, we're technically still going to have the ARKS Lives to serve as developer Q&A. so yeah all this kinda means is the PSO2 stations got left to them is being a Hype Generator and basis for questions to be submitted for the followup ARKS Live.

it's just I guess now we're going to have to live with the fact that Sakai has to move forward knowing that nobody wants to be his friend, but it'll be awkward because he's still here, and still mostly in charge, it's just he won't be showing himself?

like what are they going to just put a hologram of Gene and Matoi in their chairs now to make the viewers feel better or something? I don't really get what's going on, since this kind of thing is usually paired up with somebody leaving the project or company, but, its not,..

[Touka]

Pretty sure it's because of the backlash from Hero,remember they had to cut out a lot of ep 5 content because they had to reschedule balance patches in.In hindsight this is probably a good thing for Sakai since he's the one in charge and he did get frustrated and said those things about the playerbase which he later had to apologize for.

[Selphea]

I feel like they should rotate Sakai and Kimura out of the team next year. 6 years is a very long time to work on the same game. Even without the backlash they should be allowed the freedom to focus on something else.

[silo1991]

I feel like they should rotate Sakai and Kimura out of the team next year. 6 years is a very long time to work on the same game. Even without the backlash they should be allowed the freedom to focus on something else.

i wonder why these 2 fools wasnt kick out of the team since EP4 i mean common , that EP had almost everything against

sloth art direction , sloth gameplay ( for tokyo, RQ and pre adjusted yamato and mother) and the worst part is i felt EP5 had to be the one paying for the broken dishes

and before you guys throw me trash , let me say: someone have to be blame for aprove EP4 to begin with not sure if was sakai and kimura or somebody else :/

[Meteor Weapon]

i wonder why these 2 fools wasnt kick out of the team since EP4 i mean common , that EP had almost everything against

sloth art direction , sloth gameplay ( for tokyo, RQ and pre adjusted yamato and mother) and the worst part is i felt EP5 had to be the one paying for the broken dishes

and before you guys throw me trash , let me say: someone have to be blame for aprove EP4 to begin with not sure if was sakai and kimura or somebody else :/

Despite the english speaking player's negative opinion, JP's somehow don't really care much about it...or im just missing something about JP's opinion on EP4

[Ifrian-x]

People saying we should farm 8 hours a day for weeks at a time make me wonder if they know this thing called a job.
The worst part is that even if we did, we are still tied to RNG and some of us have really screwy RNG.

Point in case, when Ezelion released, i was on paid holidays and since i was actually enjoying the free field farming i did dozens upon dozens of farming sessions with as many boosts as i could possibly have + premium drinks and i have dropped a grand total of one *14 egg and that´s it.

No units, no weapons, none of the relevant loot and not even a miserable solo trigger.

What m i supposed to do then?

I am perfectly fine with good things taking a long time and effort to obtain but then DO NOT MAKE THEM RNG BASED.

[ArcaneTechs]

People saying we should farm 8 hours a day for weeks at a time make me wonder if they know this thing called a job.
The worst part is that even if we did, we are still tied to RNG and some of us have really screwy RNG.

Point in case, when Ezelion released, i was on paid holidays and since i was actually enjoying the free field farming i did dozens upon dozens of farming sessions with as many boosts as i could possibly have + premium drinks and i have dropped a grand total of one *14 egg and that´s it.

No units, no weapons, none of the relevant loot and not even a miserable solo trigger.

What m i supposed to do then?

I am perfectly fine with good things taking a long time and effort to obtain but then DO NOT MAKE THEM RNG BASED.
these boost weeks have more emphasis on collecting stones than getting the actual drop (i only say this because i havent seen more than one Cere drop so far and a few eggs), idk i honestly didnt run coast all this week and now that its being boosted next week some more i may actually run.

however, some of us do work, full or part time + school and STILL find the time to put in hours of farming. it just seems the people who cant find the time are the ones who complain more about not being able to farm consistently(obviously). idk what to tell you really

[oratank]

No units, no weapons, none of the relevant loot and not even a miserable solo trigger.

What m i supposed to do then?

I am perfectly fine with good things taking a long time and effort to obtain but then DO NOT MAKE THEM RNG BASED.

exchange them with yellow stone

[BloodPuddles]

People saying we should farm 8 hours a day for weeks at a time make me wonder if they know this thing called a job.
The worst part is that even if we did, we are still tied to RNG and some of us have really screwy RNG.

Point in case, when Ezelion released, i was on paid holidays and since i was actually enjoying the free field farming i did dozens upon dozens of farming sessions with as many boosts as i could possibly have + premium drinks and i have dropped a grand total of one *14 egg and that´s it.

No units, no weapons, none of the relevant loot and not even a miserable solo trigger.

What m i supposed to do then?

I am perfectly fine with good things taking a long time and effort to obtain but then DO NOT MAKE THEM RNG BASED.

If things were not RNG based there would be no point though. It's just like "Awesome, I spent a preset amount of time repeating this task to get a pretty image and number change in a game." With RNG rarity is actually a thing, so it's actually exciting getting something great. This is a loot based RPG, the entire concept since their existence was to slay monsters in hopes of them dropping sweet gear. When you remove that you're just taking a massive step towards becoming another cliche theme park "I choose what you're doing" MMO. It's like playing Ninja Gaiden and saying "Arrrgh I'm dying too much, make the hardest difficulty easier because I don't have time to get that good."

[Zephyrion]

If things were not RNG based there would be no point though. It's just like "Awesome, I spent a preset amount of time repeating this task to get a pretty image and number change in a game." With RNG rarity is actually a thing, so it's actually exciting getting something great. This is a loot based RPG, the entire concept since their existence was to slay monsters in hopes of them dropping sweet gear. When you remove that you're just taking a massive step towards becoming another cliche theme park "I choose what you're doing" MMO. It's like playing Ninja Gaiden and saying "Arrrgh I'm dying too much, make the hardest difficulty easier because I don't have time to get that good."

While I agree I'm still really hoping SEGA keeps implementing various weapon/stone exchanges. Because there is a whole world between "I put hours and hours of my life and got nothing" and "I put hours and hours of my life and didn't get a shiny, but I actually got resources that let me get a consolation prize"

[Dark Mits]

The "ideal" situation for me is the one where the rewards are not based on RNG, but the rate at which the player can work towards them is based on RNG. For example imagine wanting to kill 99 Krabahdas. You can be lucky and get them within an hour of Ruins farming, or you can spend 10 hours and still be less than halfway (for them moment let's ignore the fact that they have 100% spawn rate in certain content)

Or similar to how Conqueror's Crests worked at the start of the episode: You could get 0, 1 or 2 after completing Crimson Dragon. Unlucky ones would not get any, lucky ones would. But still, the 50 Crests for weekly campaigns still have a massively stronger influence on income rate, which pretty much "devalued" the RNG reward part of completing EQs.

Of course I do acknowledge the rage that a player could experience if they saw everyone else progress at a faster rate than themselves, especially when it swinged from 0% to 200% in the above example.

[final_attack]

If things were not RNG based there would be no point though. It's just like "Awesome, I spent a preset amount of time repeating this task to get a pretty image and number change in a game." With RNG rarity is actually a thing, so it's actually exciting getting something great. This is a loot based RPG, the entire concept since their existence was to slay monsters in hopes of them dropping sweet gear. When you remove that you're just taking a massive step towards becoming another cliche theme park "I choose what you're doing" MMO. It's like playing Ninja Gaiden and saying "Arrrgh I'm dying too much, make the hardest difficulty easier because I don't have time to get that good."

Well, that's what makes CF great, no? If they apply to every single weapon in-game (from the worst to the best)

People can choose to get the item via RNG for a sense of pride and accomplishment I'm sorry, or for those that only want 1 specific item / don't have the time can choose to get CF can get it and be happy about it (happy customer = more chance to support the game, no?). And CF still takes time to complete too.

The CF system will support both .... unless people who want get the item via RNG wanna enforce the rng-based for everyone, of course.

Making people can freely choose what equipment they want, kinda balance it out and making difficulty of designing content easier too, I think?
Since the devs will know "almost" everyone will have around same power level (equipment wise), with the only difference is with player skills / build.

Though in this case, it's changed from rarity to "power rank" or something (with not much power difference between each weapon on same rank, hopefully, but using different gimmick / playstyle)

[Saffran]

I'll be honest, I didn't care for any of those 13 stars that are required for Austere NT. I got some, kept some, then we had a pinata of 14 stars and I just ditched them.
Ah, well.

[XrosBlader821]

I know that Pickup Stone Online 2 gets meme'd a lot but a lot of this Game's RNG issues could be alleviated if endgame quests dropped Stones that you can eventually exchange for the weapon you want. And then you realize that we've already been here, Galeru, Yurgundur and Caligula + Dark Nero Crystals were able to give you the weapon you wanted if the Quest itself didn't want to and even all the Advanced and Extreme Quests dropped stones that gave you access to decent gear.

However with EP4 Sega seems to have wanted to end the Memes by replacing stones with time limited CF, Orbit is a perfect example of that. Instead of making all Orbit weapons available from Mining Defense 4 Stones @ Zieg they held off on half of the weapons and only distributed the other ones via Mining Defense 5 and if you wanted to reduce RNG with those newer Orbit weapons you had to be active during that period of time because outside of the recent Summoner CF all CF are temporary. I know this seems absurd but a lot of this game's issues can be traced back to EP4.

Getting a weapon to +35 wasn't an issue prior to NT weapons being released because you only needed one copy of a weapon anyway (element can be maxed via other means). And OT weapon Grinding isn't that big of an RNG issue since they added +30% Grind success rate to the Excube shop. EP5 seems like they're trying to go back to what we had back prior to EP4. we have a mix of CF and stones Crests and poor Zieg can't catch a break. If 2019 Weapon badges give Jutus then this will further reduce RNG when it comes to obtaining a Endgame weapon, since Evleda CF is here to stay for a long time. But especially now that we're getting 14* CF and they're limited to 1 Weapon per CF I hope we'll start seeing more permanent Collection files instead of ones that are limited to a certain time period which players might skip due to a new game releasing or irl business (or just being burned out because Sega can't produce substantial content fast enough).

[Ifrian-x]

Getting a weapon to +35 wasn't an issue prior to NT weapons being released because you only needed one copy of a weapon anyway
And that´s another issue that is made even worse by RNG.
I do have some of the weapons required for Austere but, some of them, i will never be able to get them to +35 since i got random ones.





And this is probably my biggest issue right here.

Most MMORPG make it so that content from an episode/expansion stays available and ready for players to take at any given time so even if you have RL committments or other things to do, you can still keep up, as long as you are willing to work hard on that older content at your own pace.

Not so much on PSO2.

Someone like me, who has put hundreds and hundreds of hours into the game and has probably a much bigger played time than most top geared people, as i have been here since the beta, has a much smaller progression that people who joined half a year ago but could focus farm at the right time.

It does not feel right, but it it what it is, i guess.

I still have fun on PSO2 and i enjoy the story and the EQ´s for all their flaws, so it´s not like it´s a deal breaker for me.
But i would ironically, probably play and farm a lot harder if i felt like my effort means something.

But here you cannot do that, here, if you missed the right week or you were working an intensive business period during a patch deployment you are essentially screwed no matter how many hours you put into the game right after that.

[NightfallG]

If things were not RNG based there would be no point though. It's just like "Awesome, I spent a preset amount of time repeating this task to get a pretty image and number change in a game." With RNG rarity is actually a thing, so it's actually exciting getting something great. This is a loot based RPG, the entire concept since their existence was to slay monsters in hopes of them dropping sweet gear. When you remove that you're just taking a massive step towards becoming another cliche theme park "I choose what you're doing" MMO. It's like playing Ninja Gaiden and saying "Arrrgh I'm dying too much, make the hardest difficulty easier because I don't have time to get that good."

the irony of the first part of your post existing alongside using a single-player game that isn't a skinner box as an example. what a contradiction. one's skill based (Ninja Gaiden), the other's a slot machine.

this kind of logic is foolish and the fact of the matter is, games are entertainment, effectively toys. wanting them to be a slot machine for poopsockers with the luxury to nolife it is goofy as hell and is genuinely a sign of a person with problems.

[Kilich]

I think some might miss the draw of rng loot games, trying to maximize your chances for the moment you get lucky and boast about it before your team, rising your character above what was possible. Same thing as in tabletop games, MH, or older mmos like WoW.