If there's one department that Final Fantasy 14 fans are lacking in, it's reading, apparently – particularly the MMO's own settings.
It's a tale as old as time: players want certain options, and Square Enix either delivers them or doesn't… or, you know, already has, but folks don't check the settings to make sure what they want is or isn't already implemented in the game before asking for it.
Global community producer Toshio Murouchi jests about this phenomenon during a panel at this past weekend's PAX Australia event, explaining that it happens all the time. "Some of the player group loves A, the other group loves B, so you guys tend to say, 'Okay, how about making it selectable in the config options?"
That's when Square Enix does just that, with a "let's make it happen" attitude" – there are more than 10 years, as Muruochi says, of work poured into the MMO, after all, so the existing settings are "tremendous."
So tremendous, in fact, that players don't bother going through them.
The FFXIV Devs are asking/begging for players to read their configuration settings due to people asking for options that have already been added.from r/ffxiv
They "don't like to read any play guide or the manuals," Moruochi jokes, which… guilty as charged – but we'll want to do just that for the new expansion Evercold.
"In preparation for Evercold, please take time to read through the config options," as the developer kindly tells the community. "That will help raise your quality of life in Eorzea." He's probably not wrong, considering all the new configurations and tweaks coming.
From new jobs like the Bastion to housing changes, Evercold's packing quite the punch of content, and knowing your way around pre-existing settings can't hurt. Some fans think that Square Enix should make them easier to navigate, however.
Over on a Reddit thread about Muruochi's recent words, one person comments that the devs "should redesign the horrible options menus" if they expect players to explore them.
Another suggests the Final Fantasy 14 team "just add a search bar" to make navigation a bit simpler – something I wouldn't be opposed to myself. For now, though, we'll have to make do with the old-fashioned click-and-browse method, I suppose.
