A Letter from the Development Team

[MiqobotKeymaster]

Recently we’ve been receiving a lot of complaints about our development and new features.
Many users are asking:

• “What is the status of new features?”
• “Why is it taking so long to update?”
• “Why is development so slow?”
• “Are you even working on new features?”

And even though we answered these questions many times, there appears to be no end to them. Everyday we read more and more complaints of the same nature, with constantly increasing aggression towards our team.
So we have decided to make another attempt to explain why things are the way they are.

The root of the problem lies in the monetization method we have chosen.
Miqobot has a fixed subscription price with no addons and no hidden payments. No matter how many features we implement, the price of the product remains the same. It means that our sales do not grow and we do not have funds to hire new developers in order to work faster. As new expansions are introduced, features get broken and in certain cases completely dismantled, so we have to spend time on reimplementing old features instead of introducing new ones.
And in the end, this inevitably leads to the development process slowing down.

The only way to break this cycle is to start selling new features as addons.
But the botting market already offers several alternatives which follow this model. By purchasing addons for such products you can obtain any feature you want, however, you would end up paying the equivalent of a yearly subscription price just to get started. This is very advantageous for people who sell ingame goods and accounts for real money and use addons for a long time, but it’s not really comfortable for common players.

When we started Miqobot project, we wanted to make a difference.
We decided to create a simple lightweight application that wouldn’t contain any groundbreaking technologies, wouldn’t use cheats or code injections, would be easy, safe, and would offer as many features as possible for a reasonable price. We knew that this application would not be for everyone. We knew that players who prefer feature-rich products instead and have money to pay for them would choose other products. We knew that some users would only try Miqobot once and leave. And it was totally fine.

What we did not expect is the extreme pressure from the community we face now.
Users who are not satisfied with the current feature pack do not simply leave. Instead, they accuse us of dragging them along, of forcing them to pay the subscription price for nothing. But we don’t understand this point. Our licensing system does not enforce any recurring payments. There are no automatic renewals. If they don’t want to use Miqobot anymore, they can simply stop subscribing and no additional charges will be made.
On certain occasions, they say that Miqobot is worth the price but the lack of new features is disappointing. This statement is incorrect. If they demand more features for the same price, it means they don’t consider the price justified. Then why do they keep making purchases they constantly regret about?
And some users think that the problem lies in development and that it’s all right to accuse our developers of not working enough. We are sorry, but it’s not all right.

Please understand, we are not a big company.
We do not aim to defeat competitors, we do not aim to dominate the market.
We are just a small team of players who want to make a difference.

If you are not satisfied with the current state of Miqobot, then please do not subscribe.
You will do us a great service by relieving the pressure on our team. If we don’t have to answer the same accusations everyday, we will be able to focus on development more and deliver new features faster.

Thank you for your understanding very much.

[3pgbParticipant]

It is unfortunate that some users forget that there are people on the other side trying to get software to work. Having to reverse engineer to get code to link up with all the data in the game and then have it break every patch cycle. Sometimes troubleshooting an issue can take a lot longer than anticipated, even if the solution ends up being simple. So on that note, thank you Miqo team for your efforts. I appreciate the features you’ve added or are working on adding.

Cheers!

[PandaCatParticipant]

I also think that these constant threads demanding new features are an eye sore, on top of being counter productive to actual development. I log in once every few days to check the forums and usually all thats new is a multitude of threads asking when this or that is going to come, it’s annoying that people don’t get that you can’t just magic up new features.
I started paying the subscription for the features that Miqo had, and will continue paying subscription for those features. Anything else you guys add is a bonus, but not necessary for my gameplay in the slightest.
I’m really happy with the work you guys have done already, and if you decide to just use my money to keep the program working, rather than on development, I’m personally completely fine with that.
Please don’t be too stressed or upset about the amount of negative feedback and aggression you’re seeing, if they truly didn’t like the program then you are correct, they wouldn’t pay for it anymore.

[sslong94Participant]

I for one love your program, I say keep it up you guys are going a GREAT job.

[jimjankinsParticipant]

I said this in another recent thread, but will say again here:

I think a lot of this perceived pressure and recent accusations of stalled development stems from the fact that the vast majority of end-users have no idea at all how difficult it can sometimes be to maintain Miqobot, let alone iterate and improve certain features of it. This coupled with the fact that Miqobot is absolutely *best-in-class* compared to all other popularly available bots for FFXIV, and honestly is “groundbreaking technology” to most of us… it’s easy to get carried away wanting to see it improve constantly.

Personally, if Miqobot were to be discontinued for whatever reason, I’d likely stop playing FFXIV entirely. Miqobot really improves my experience playing to that degree. Perhaps if others feel similarly, then our being overly anxious or having unrealistic hopes/expectations is more understandable?

[lulunaParticipant]

I think the aggression you’re experiencing is simply because of the downtime. There is a lot more activity because people are actively checking the forums for updates. People are frustrated by the downtime of their favorite bot. Mix those two together and you’ll get the occasional customer who lashes out.

I think it would be in everyone’s best interest if the forums are restricted during patch days, with a note that in the interest of expediting the restoration of services, the team will be limiting their interactions with the community. Maybe create a dedicated off-topic sub-forum with the explicit understand that the Miqobot staff will not actively monitor or respond to development questions.

Just a suggestion for your own well-being.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  luluna.

[BMercParticipant]

Do not let the few who complain speak for the majority. If i could remember the bot we used back in XI id reference it but unfortunately it the name slips my memory.. I see this as an improved version of that which both are / were exactly what they are. Here’s what you paid for here’s what you get and anything more than that was more of a treat to those who stuck around.

I say keep up the good work and there are a lot like myself who really do appreciate what you guys have done here!

[TheonethingParticipant]

I also have to say that I feel a lot of this stems from the downtime also. It’s a new big patch and we have all gotten lazy because we are used to having Miqo. I found myself on the forums looking for updates as to when it would be back and every time I didn’t see one “It’s been 85 hours and forever days…Since you took my Miqo away” to the tune of ‘Nothing Compares 2U’ would go running through my head because honestly…nothing does compare. There are many more who understand then there are those who want to complain believe me and we really do appreciate everything you guys do. Someone mentioned above that they would probably stop playing XIV if Miqo disappeared…I honestly would have a hard time getting motivated to play myself also.

[AnteroshiParticipant]

I have been a constant subscriber since I found Miqo and will continue to be for as long as y’all keep maintaining the program. I mentioned in another thread at some point, so I won’t go back into big detail here, but I use Miqo to help me enjoy the game and compensate for a slight disability i’m dealing with. I’m nothing but happy with everything you guys have chosen to do and i’d likely even pay more a month than what you’re charging now. I use the bot for completely personal reasons and I never want anyone to know i’m using the program simply because of the stigma and very real repercussions that could come from people knowing that, so i’m very happy with how hard it is to tell i’m using an assist if i’m following safe practices.

For the people you mentioned that constantly complain about the state of the program/features but still continuously pay for the product, sorry, but screw off. If you’re not happy with the direction that the program is being taken then stop paying a sub, buck up, and go find a different product to better suit your needs. It isn’t fair to you OR the dev team to keep pouring money into something that you feel is sub-par just to make yourself feel you have the right to be negative. It isn’t helping you be happy nor is it helping the dev team’s morale to keep trying to put out their best effort on a project that they’re overworked and doing their best on to keep going for the people who do love it. Not trying to be inflammatory here but there’s a point where people who do nothing but complain need to step back and realize it is what it is. I’ve worked in customer service for most of my life and as much as it sucks(on a deep level for me even, cause I always want everyone to be happy) you absolutely cannot please some people and you WILL hear about it. People need to remember that there are actual human beings behind this working their asses off to keep this stuff going and negativity does not help them do their best work or even want to try to do so.

All that being said, thanks for the great work on a program that greatly enhances my enjoyment of this game. Yall rock, keep at it. <3

(and sorry for the poorly formatted paragraphs I should probably sleep soon :v)

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Anteroshi.

[ImmortalOgreParticipant]

The primary thing I have to say towards people who complain that feature X is not added or that the team isn’t working on feature Z Y and M, is to piss off and create your own bot.

No really, do it. If you know how that makes it even better, make your own. Then potentially they will figure out how incredibly difficult and annoying it is to make something like this and and maintain it while still adding new features while old features keep breaking so you need to go back and fix them.

Programming is essentially a Jenga game that always falls on you no matter what you do. Something somewhere will break and it will take time to fix it, and then something else falls.

I’ll remain subscribed to Miqobot as long as I’m playing FF14 and as long as it’s maintained.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t love to have something like the Trust system implemented already, yes I know you’re working on it. However, at the same time, I really couldn’t care less. It will come when it’s ready, be that in a week, or a year, I really don’t care, it’s ready when it’s ready. I’m fairly sure quite a few people share that mindset.

Entitled peasants will always complain no matter what. I work in Customer Service for now, and have been for the past 3 years, and even if my choice of words does earn me a vacation from the forums, so be it.

There is a certain amount of customers for any application that are complete morons. Usually have a relatively low level of education and limited capacity to understand new concepts and ideas while behaving aggressively and choosing to belittle everyone else for not doing X Y and Z, while they do not understand even the basics of how difficult what they want done really is.

Also, as a quick question for the Miqo team if you lot are actually going to read this, leaving out 5.2 since that one just came out, were you able to catch up to all of the SHB changes or are you still playing catch-up? Just out of curiosity really.

Edit 1: Typo
Edit 2: Typo again
Edit 3: Edited the edits in, makes sense doesn’t it?

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  ImmortalOgre.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  ImmortalOgre.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  ImmortalOgre.

[testytesterParticipant]

To all the jerks that try to pull you down, just tell them to write their own program.
As much as you (and other devs) would like for a more calm environment- a post isn’t going to change that.

Most people are lazy, arrogant, dumb and have no clue about anything, so they’ll just keep on coming.
They voice their opinions (which are wrong) and demand a full team of 9000 devs to fix things the second something gets broken.
There is no escaping them, since they are the majority of people.
Does it sound harsh? It does, but it’s just the way things work.

No point in trying to justify yourself infront of the dumb masses, there is one thing;
Ignore them.

Work on Miqo at your own pace, without randoms pulling you aside and yelling into your ear for X or Y.
Ignoring them might be hard at first – but you (or any other dev) have absolutely no need to look at every single viotrolic response.

I enjoy using Miqo, with all the things it CAN do.
Keep up the good work and I’ll wait patiently for things to get fixed and even new features.

[NegafoxParticipant]

The only way to break this cycle is to start selling new features as addons.

Some competitors have an API so people can develop their own add-ons. It would be nice to help Miqobot in some way. An API so that we can build out plug-ins or add-ons would enable us to help. That’s a feature request, I know.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Negafox.

[YesbotParticipant]

I’m one of those people who can’t enjoy FFXIV without Miqobot. I usually can’t play this kinda game due to my little disability but my friends really wanted me to join them so Miqobot completely saves my life.

Yeah, I might be exaggerating but that’s honestly how I feel.

To some people, she’s just a simple tool but for me she’s precious. Ignore the douches and keep up your good work.

Just remember your tool can save lives at least mine and for that, I thank you.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Yesbot.

[MrsTenshiParticipant]

I subscribed for probably more than a year and I can say I have always been extremly satisfied. Im Mainly using the gathering/crafting feature in all honestly, Im a fix savage raider so I dont see the point of any other feature like battle system since I do that part myself And well im using the bot to gather in my sleep and also craft HQ to make gils for my raid food/pots.

Every patch I dont even mind how long it take to get miquo back to work, its like she get some nice vacation for her hardwork, Take a day or take month and ill still subscribe again.
You guys please you deserves better than that, This is the best bot ive used so far and ever since I tried it I stayed with it cus its so simple and easy to use. Keep up the good work and I honestly dont think miquo need anymore new feature. Dont put so much pressure on yall. Im very satisfied with how things are already! 🙂

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  MrsTenshi.

[hidingfromuParticipant]

I’m sorry. I’m just going to have to be that guy.

This forum has probably the nicest, most supportive, most understanding, most appreciative customers of any forum I have ever seen.

Even when people are criticising your product they take the time to complement the work you do, have done, and the product you’ve released.

The “increasing aggression” you mention must be happening in private messages because I certainly don’t see much evidence of it in these forums. Most of the people who frequent this forum leap to your defence at the slightest perceived insult.

Many product forums are full of vitriolic posts regarding issues, because lets face it, most people only post something when they’ve got something negative to say. This place is the exact opposite, you have literally the nicest customers ever (present poster excepted).

You decided to sell a product, and created forums surrounding that product, everything you mentioned comes with the territory, but in my opinion you are extremely lucky, I have no idea where you plucked these guys from, but you should consider yourself fortunate. I have no idea what percentage of your customers come to these forums, but the ones that do are extremely engaged, helpful, and actively improve your product.

I agree with the comments about patch downtime, and the increased forum activity that’s generated, but again, that comes with the territory.

Maybe it’s like some posters have said, this is the best product on the market, so possibly people are scared they might lose it and so feel the need to be overly protective and positive?

My point is, you should appreciate it. I disagree with most (obviously I can’t disagree with your stated aims and goals) of your post. I know I’m going to take a lot of flak for this opinion, but I’ll be kind of happy about that, because it will prove my point 🙂

Edit 1: Flak doesn’t have a ‘c’ in it :S

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  hidingfromu.

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