SE Speak and Super Kupowers

So, there has been a fair amount of toys tossed over the new Kupofried quest this week. It would be easy to criticise as a massive over-reaction because SE apparently never intended to restart the event at JP midnight every week. However, I think the strong reaction from the community and the response that was elicited from SE can only be a good thing for everyone in the long run, even if the complaint itself was pretty baseless.

This brings me to my main point: SE Speak. SE can't tell us anything straight in advance. All the version update previews are so vague it's actually infuriating sometimes and only on update day do we actually see what's really happening and generally people are disappointed.

However, I have started to notice a few trends in the various press releases. For example, when they say something has been "adjusted" it means gimped. For example, the exp from attacking Forts was adjusted in the last update. Also, consider "The price of the following items has been adjusted when sold to NPCs". In short, if it says they changed the rate of something but it DOESN'T say "increased", "improved" or "reduced" it means gimped (whether up or down).

We should also pay close attention to the words "slightly" and "significantly". Drop rates in a Salvage area were increased slightly last update. What does that mean? I'd hazard a guess at no more than 0.5%. And this week the loss of materials from failed synths has been significantly reduced. How much is significant? 10%? That's probably a lot, I'd say. If I got a 10% pay rise or someone gave me 10% of my current gil I'd be delighted. On the face of it 10% doesn't seem a lot but I doubt the reduction is even that big.

Anyway, to bring this full circle, what I'm really saying is that you have to read between the lines. SE might not always say exactly what they do mean but they almost never say something they don't mean. So, the Kupofried release said:

"These beatific boons will endure for one week before the quest draws to a temporary close. After a set period of time, the tablets will once more be scattered to the winds, and the quest will begin anew!"

The fact that they specifically mentioned “a set period of time” and DIDN’T just say “the quest will begin afresh every week!” was enough to assuage my fears and make me wonder what all the fuss was about. But then, I am in EU and I was able to run round looking for a tablet before I went to work (I ran from Beaucedine Glacier Outpost to Fei’Yin), so I wasn’t quite so distressed about the start time as our US cousins.

One last thing though: if the reset time is truly random then the quest could still start at JP prime time every week for 6 months. Let’s looking forward to the Q.Q about that.