After 7 years...

[Hayward]

I'm beginning to wonder if this game is worth the effort anymore. Even before this update, which is about as underwhelming as it gets, I have been losing interest in almost all aspects of the game. Now that so few people are doing Abyssea armor upgrade trials, the game feels less alive than even a few months ago. Let's not even discuss Voidwatch.

With this update, I am almost at the point of wondering why I am buying Crysta. To play a game the developers obviously don't want people to play anymore? To play jobs that are deliberately being underpowered for specious reasons? To fight monsters that cannot be fought alone for items that are necessary for a level cap quest? To accumulate merit points for underpowered weapon skills with unpalatable aftermath effects?

I'm afraid S-E would have done well to just announce the shutting down of the servers after Heroes of Abyssea was winding down.

[saevel]

Honestly, I can hardly find a reason to login anymore. It's just not fun with what they've done post-abyssea. At least in Abyssea I could run around and do random things with small to mid sized groups of people. Now it seems like their trying to force Void Watch down our throats, with it's absolutely horrible loot system.

[Luvbunny]

I am glad I am not alone on this. Everything post Abyssea pretty much sucks and it's back to the hamster wheel grinds of 2003-2006. Just make sure you do not subscribe to FF14 and stop buying any products from SE. The only thing they will listen is the sound of money - nothing else will work. But yeah - the last 18 months have been awesome, glad I was able to enjoy Abyssea.

[Jackstin]

There's loads to do for a new player, it's almost overwhelming. Is it possible the reason you don't find it fun any more is not because the game has got so bad, but because you've been playing 7 years? That's a long time to play a game.

[Vold]

There's loads to do for a new player, it's almost overwhelming. Is it possible the reason you don't find it fun any more is not because the game has got so bad, but because you've been playing 7 years? That's a long time to play a game.

Pretty much every complaint "why am I still playing?" thread is by a long time veteran player. It's a good question. My answer for them is because it's more interesting than watching paint dry. Notice I didn't say more fun, but interesting. When it comes to gaming we humans are a lot like cats. You dangle interesting content in front of us it holds our attention. But eventually we get bored after awhile and it becomes increasingly harder to hold our attention with the same bag of tricks.

Abyssea came in real handy to grab our attention again. I don't think it had much if anything to do with the nature of Abyssea. I guess it had something to do with it because if it were Voidwatch instead then we'd probably have like 10 people still playing right now. I think it mostly had to do with it being the first true addition to the game since sometime in 2008 after WotG started to lose it's new luster. It's been how long since ToAU? that we've been without a serious expansion to the game. People are growing tired of rehashed monsters and zones. I'm sure WotG was no walk in the park but it's no Zilart, CoP, or ToAU. The game just doesn't have enough dev support. So vets have two choices: suck it up and support the FFXI team to show why the higher ups should care or jump ship and do something better with your time.

[Mirabelle]

Abyssea was pretty good for new content. Lots of NM's. A compelling new battle system with weakness proc'ing we'd never done before. Atmas to collect. Abyssites to collect. Seal hunting. +2 item collecting. Empyrean weapon items to collects. Easy levelling with multiple ways to do it.
Challenging battles were a plenty if you chose to eschew brewing everything tough.

Then they add VW which rehashes proc'ing and abyssites. Gives a terrible loot system with no sense of progress for players. All done in old areas with no new mobs other than the NM's (of which many are just variety's of Aby NM's).

I can see why some folks are losing interest.

They need a significant endgame content update but sadly I think they did their best work with Aby and there is no creativity left in the team to develop something even better. If VW becomes the final endgame event, that will be a very sad end for FFXI.

[Camiie]

Hayward and Mirabelle, all I can do is say "ditto" and hit the like button for you both. Totally agreed and I can't say it any better.

[Xellith]

I think many people thought that Abyssea was the start of a new beginning. In actuality it appears to have been the beginning of the end.

[Greatguardian]

I was really excited after this update went live.

There's actually a lot of stuff to do. My friends and I are actually logging in on weekdays for the first time in months.

I'm sorry, but I absolutely can't sympathize with you. I'm having fun.

[Elphy]

I quit ffxi awhile ago after nearly 7 yrs of playing, just here on the forums to see what ppls are saying about the new update. I'm pretty much main gaming xiv right now since that is getting all kinds of good fixes and some fun (although limited atm due to all the fixes) new content. Plus the fact that with the coming of v2 in a year, most of the existing content will be gone. The quests, the primal fights, the rare/ex (or Unique/Untradable as its known there), the nm, the dungeons, etc etc will all be replaced as the new story line sets in. Seems we are going to have a Kefka-esk breaking of the world (which is how they will explain getting rid of the cut/paste job the old devs did on the maps). So its pretty exciting right now.

It seems most the vets that got bored in xi are now the ppl who play xiv. Everyone in my ls played xi for 6+ years, some even did beta on it and left after aby was released. Yes the game still gets a bad rap but thats mainly from ppl who played nothing but the broken version and havent involved themselves too much in the newer stuff, if at all. If you want ff the way ff used to be its the place to go. Especially in playership, very few trolls or thefts in xiv right now. The players, as I said are mostly vets, so they have that honor code that used to exist in xi for the most part.