Check out the hottest discussions from the previous week in the FFXIV General Forum.

A lot of interesting information about the future of Final Fantasy XIV has come out over the past couple weeks, thanks largely to the willingness of the development team to sit through numerous interviews with the gaming media. While the playerbase is still buzzing over the news of Version 2.0 (coming in about a year from now), I'm certain the dialogue from Yoshi-P and the development team has helped to spark other conversations we've seen on the forums lately. Compare the conversations now to the rants on the forums seven or eight months ago, and it's safe to say this game's community has come quite a long way. Even harsh critics of the game tend to criticize in a manner that is rational, which is very refreshing.

Anyway, the three threads featured in this week's Hot Read Thursday were chosen for different reasons. One thread highlights a great interview that was translated on the official forums, another is an interesting discussion of the materia system, and the third thread was included simply for the sake of education.

On with the links:

Title: JPGAMES.DE Interview with Yoshida Naoki

More compelling information can be found in this interview with Yoshi-P, but the discussion in this thread quickly focusses on the information about jobs. Even though classes are about to be redefined in Patch 1.20, many people are still uneasy about the future of the armory system and how specialized the new party-oriented jobs will really be. As for me, I have faith in this development team to make a worthwhile revision to the system. They've done a great job so far of revamping the game; no reason to think the job and class system changes will be any different.

Title: Materia System: Good or Bad for the Game in the Long Run?

The OP of this thread voices three concerns about the materia system, specifically whether the system will damage the economy, harm crafters or minimize rare/ex gear. The response from the community appears to be a resounding "no" on the first two points, but a somewhat mixed "possibly" on the third point. Materia can't be melded to rare/ex gear, so it seems logical that a piece of crafted gear with two or three materia stones could be more powerful than a rare drop from a notorious monster or endgame boss. This may or may not be true, but the risk of building a piece of materia gear with two or three stones seems to balance out the potential of having a godly gear piece.

Title: Data Will Be Transferred to 2.0

This thread was made in response to another thread, in which the OP was under the impression that game data would be wiped when Version 2.0 begins -- but that will never happen. The development team has repeatedly stated that no character levels or gear will be wiped when data is ported to Version 2.0. We will be given another chance to choose our race and appearance, but we don't have to worry about losing any of our progress. So, level away!