As a regular player of Final Fantasy XIV and a future video game designer (hopefully), it was only natural for me to be interested in the new Samurai class and what kind of role it will play. After all the time I've spent with the game I was curious to see where it could fit, and in doing research I have come across my answer. Originally I was going to present both sides of the argument with Samurai being a damage or tanking class, but now I've decided it should be the former and I even have some design ideas. In hindsight, this type of argument could have been with Red or Blue Mage from the previous Final Fantasy MMO. However, I of course know more about the Samurai with a real-life equivalent as opposed to the mages, so it's a much easier subject to write on. The most difficult aspect I foresee in writing this paper is simplifying all of the technical jargon so a non-MMO player, or maybe even a non-gamer can understand it. 

My first source is the video "FFXIV Heavensward: Should Samurai Be a Tank or DPS?" on YouTube. In it, an experienced MMO and Final Fantasy player known as "Mr. Happy", discusses game developer Naoki Yoshida's stance on the type of class Samurai will be when added to the game. He also gives a bit of history on the Samurai class from Final Fantasy XI, the previous MMO in the series. Using this history, the current state of the game, and of course his own opinion, he comes to the conclusion that Samurai should be a damage dealing class instead of a tanking class. Mr. Happy seems to be interested in adding many classes from Final Fantasy XI into the game, and therefore could be biased to the idea of returning classes. At the same time he also values variety, wanting the first sword-wielding damage dealing class to be added. 

That being said he is still a very knowledgeable player of the game, with many videos explaining how to defeat bosses and raids, class comparisons, and even a bestiary series of some of the enemies in this game. 

The second source I used is the post  "How To Balance an MMO, And How To Stop." In this post made on his own website, game designer Eric Heimburg (previously worked on Asheron's Call 2, currently on Star Trek Online) discusses how to balance an MMO. He discusses things like balancing combat, pre-release gameplay patches versus post-release patches, and simply the fun factor of the game. As a someone who works behind the scenes of game production, Heimburg is focused more on the how the product will be experienced by its players and how well it will sell. He states that ultimately, fun is more important than game balance. Heimburg has been a lead and senior engineer on the well-received MMO Asheron's Call 2, as well as a producer for the less notable Star Trek Online game. This first hand experience makes his article much more legitimate.

My final source is an article by Raph Koster entitled, "The Laws of Online World Design" In the article, he discusses several unofficial rules for making online games such as Hyrup's counter-observation, which states that as monthly fees rise, the player base falls. Hanarra's laws were the most enlightening by far, discussing the gradual growth of the player base of an MMO, and how input from both new and veteran players of a game are useful in their own ways.  Though he cites all of his sources, he admits that he did not contact each person individually for permission to use their ideas. Koster himsef is a video game designer and author, having worked on the game Ultima Online and writing the book A Theory of Fun for Video Game Design.

Though I stand firmly on one side of the debate of Samurai being a damaging class or a tank, I still believe it is a topic that can be argued. Admittedly I'm biased towards a DPS (Damage Per Second) class as it is my favorite, and said interest caused me to easily come up with a plan for how the class could be designed. However if I was more inclined to tanking, I would likely have a better idea of how Samurai could be integrated as a tank class. Regardless, I find my research question to be worth answering and very interesting to write about. 
