So what exactly is there to Do this patch?

I will die on the hill that we need field operations earlier in the expansion cycle, and ideally it needs to be updated through all the major patches. We've had this discussion about no new content ever since Endwalker dropped that particular ball.

"This has to last us until April."

This will not last half of the userbase until January, and I think setting the bench for January is being generous. They need to course correct hard.

I see the ERPers are out in full swing defending the game's content cadence again.

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Originally Posted by TheGrimace

This will not last half of the userbase until January, and I think setting the bench for January is being generous.

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Surely chaotic Cloud of Darkness will be enough to carry interest through January!

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Originally Posted by ArchlordPie

On a more serious note, the game has plenty of one-time content and plenty of somewhat-repeatable content. You've just done it all already.

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Honestly, I kinda disagree here. We are talking about this patches content here, not things that were added in previous patches.

On 7.1 release, we got:
1 Dungeon -> Playtime somewhere between 15-20 Minutes. Unless you farm it, or get it in roulette, you may never see it again.
1 Alliance Raid -> Playtime about 30 Minutes per week. Sometimes more runs than one if you are really unlucky with loot.
1 Allied Society Quests -> Playtime about 5 Minutes per day. That adds to roughly an hour every month.
1 Extreme Trial Bossfight, which is somewhere between 12-15 (I think?) Minutes long. According to the forums, you only need a couple of hours to learn the fight.
New Loot in already established treasure dungeons. Duration is dependent on party composition and luck.
PVP additions (I'll see those seperately, because while PVP is a good thing for repeatable combat content, it is often seen seperately from PVE stuff)

And aside from that, a couple of cutscene quests that you watch only once and never repeat.

So, the only new repeatable, farmable PVE battle content that we got is the Ex Trial, and a dungeon. And if you are not interested in savage raids, that is pretty much everything you get for 4 months, with the 24 man adding to that once a week. Thats almost nothing considering the time this is supposed to keep people entertained. This is not "plenty", this is meager.
Now, if you do Savage raids, you have it a little better, but still not optimal - 2 Encounters, one very hard one, and one which is a novelty, but still on Savage level.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

Surely chaotic Cloud of Darkness will be enough to carry interest through January!

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it sure will!


All 1 week of it until January lol

We need more systems in place to make content more evergreen. People want reasons to play the game, but the most common carrot that has been in place for over ten years- Tomestones of Poetics- is not a compelling reward and has not been for anyone but new players for years. The only time I have a compelling reason to focus Tomestones of Poetics is when I need them for a relic weapon. Otherwise, I'm constantly returning to the Crystarium or Old Sharlayan to convert Poetics into jewelry to turn into Grand Company Seals to turn into Ventures or Grade 8 Dark Matter. I am bored.

I want to play the game. I enjoy the game. Playing the game without engaging goals is not sustainable. We all want the game to succeed, but for that to happen, changes need to be made and Creative Studio III has not expressed a willingness to evolve. They're afraid to break the mold, but the mold is already broken and they're not acknowledging.

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Originally Posted by TheGrimace

We need more systems in place to make content more evergreen.

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I think that we need more systems that step outside of the "get through the entire game before you can access them" treadmill. The Fall Guys collaboration was a good idea... but with a horrible execution because of the game's netcode.

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Originally Posted by ovIm

Honestly, I kinda disagree here. We are talking about this patches content here, not things that were added in previous patches.

On 7.1 release, we got:
1 Dungeon -> Playtime somewhere between 15-20 Minutes. Unless you farm it, or get it in roulette, you may never see it again.
1 Alliance Raid -> Playtime about 30 Minutes per week. Sometimes more runs than one if you are really unlucky with loot.
1 Allied Society Quests -> Playtime about 5 Minutes per day. That adds to roughly an hour every month.
1 Extreme Trial Bossfight, which is somewhere between 12-15 (I think?) Minutes long. According to the forums, you only need a couple of hours to learn the fight.
New Loot in already established treasure dungeons. Duration is dependent on party composition and luck.
PVP additions (I'll see those seperately, because while PVP is a good thing for repeatable combat content, it is often seen seperately from PVE stuff)

And aside from that, a couple of cutscene quests that you watch only once and never repeat.

So, the only new repeatable, farmable PVE battle content that we got is the Ex Trial, and a dungeon. And if you are not interested in savage raids, that is pretty much everything you get for 4 months, with the 24 man adding to that once a week. Thats almost nothing considering the time this is supposed to keep people entertained. This is not "plenty", this is meager.
Now, if you do Savage raids, you have it a little better, but still not optimal - 2 Encounters, one very hard one, and one which is a novelty, but still on Savage level.

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Except the trial nor the alliance raid are even worth doing because the gear is trash except for welfare catchup. To anyone who did savage its basically worthless?

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Originally Posted by Kaecilius

I will die on the hill that we need field operations earlier in the expansion cycle, and ideally it needs to be updated through all the major patches. We've had this discussion about no new content ever since Endwalker dropped that particular ball.

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That hill is filling up rapidly. Unfortunately, it isn't by the dev team who seems absolutely stuck on this nonsense that they have to drip feed everything to not "overwhelm players!!" Granted, we all know that's at least a partial excuse because they know the patches are hollow enough as it is.

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Originally Posted by Kaecilius

I will die on the hill that we need field operations earlier in the expansion cycle, and ideally it needs to be updated through all the major patches. We've had this discussion about no new content ever since Endwalker dropped that particular ball.

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Holding all the longform content till the x.25/3/35 patches is really hurting this game. Most players have no interest in grinding out Ultimate and a 24-man E9s rehash tlll March when we get the next savage tier to grind out once a week.

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Originally Posted by Purrnauskis

Except the trial nor the alliance raid are even worth doing because the gear is trash except for welfare catchup. To anyone who did savage its basically worthless?

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Hell for healers it’s useless even if you didn’t do savage because it’s chock full of piety right in a patch where they reduce the cost of spells because they think healers are struggling with mana

Catch up on older content, because you only sub for one or two months every 6 - 9 months like I do? No..I suppose not

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Originally Posted by sindriiisgaming

I'm sure im not alone in thinking this, but after next week, heck after today. what is there to even do? or is it just back to clubbing and rp for me? all the things I was really looking forward to chaotic alliance, Planetary exploration... new expo zone.. aren't even in this patch and everything is weekly locked. The ex was cleared by me in just 1.5 hours of prog with only a simple raidplan and some random party finder.

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The new tribe quest certainly disapointed, yes they are always a fast think, but I literally had just to talk to 2 npcs and one fight against a small plant monster.

I'm not sure why ppl think the content is meant to last untill next patch.
Clearly they don't expect you to stick around?
Almost every content release is announced or predectable so you sub when theres a content you want to do...is the design of this game.
If you don't care about EX farm,treasure maps,Ultimate,beast tribe,PVP, you don't need to sub this patch or sub for a month and do everything while you're subbed.
Only FOMO in xiv rn is PVP rewards and you should be able to get it all in a month.
I agree that if we could get exploration content earlier that'll be great but if its gonna cost the quality of it or other content I rather wait.
If there were more gear grinds like super rare drops or upgrades like in other mmos I would've love it,but that'll introduce problem that those mmos have and xiv hasn't.

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Originally Posted by Renaclock

I'm not sure why ppl think the content is meant to last untill next patch.
Clearly they don't expect you to stick around?
Almost every content release is announced or predectable so you sub when theres a content you want to do...is the design of this game.
If you don't care about EX farm,treasure maps,Ultimate,beast tribe,PVP, you don't need to sub this patch or sub for a month and do everything while you're subbed.
Only FOMO in xiv rn is PVP rewards and you should be able to get it all in a month.
I agree that if we could get exploration content earlier that'll be great but if its gonna cost the quality of it or other content I rather wait.
If there were more gear grinds like super rare drops or upgrades like in other mmos I would've love it,but that'll introduce problem that those mmos have and xiv hasn't.

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Why are we paying for the existence of a live service game if the content doesn’t justify it

Yoshi says “oh just sub when you have new content” but can you imagine the result it would have on the game if every person who this patch doesn’t give enough content to unsubbed till the next patch

This game survives on its constant subscription but doesn’t give the player equitable content to what they pay for, telling vast swaths of the playerbase to unsub every time they run out of content if actually acted on would crash the game in a matter of weeks

The game its being saved by the ERP/Mare community and nothing else, SE already knows this so that's why they barely release new content every 5 months.

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

Why are we paying for the existence of a live service game if the content doesn’t justify it

Yoshi says “oh just sub when you have new content” but can you imagine the result it would have on the game if every person who this patch doesn’t give enough content to unsubbed till the next patch

This game survives on its constant subscription but doesn’t give the player equitable content to what they pay for, telling vast swaths of the playerbase to unsub every time they run out of content if actually acted on would crash the game in a matter of weeks

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Who asked you to pay for existance?
I'm subbed consistantly because I always have something to do that can be new content or just hang out with my friends,gpose.
If theres really nothing to do and you think you're wasting your money you should obviously unsub.
If they need players to be subbed 24/7 they wouldn't have this format in the first place.

Even I'm at the point where losing my house if I unsub doesn't bother me anymore. I hate the story, I hate woke lamat. I'm in the minority that hates this new gimmicky body horror Baxter stockman dungeon with its cheap pitfall gimmicks. The alliance raid story is more lizard people global domination BS with fakeness, I don't want to spoil the story so I'll use that term to describe the story.

The highlight of the patch was putting on new glasses and unloading the glamour dresser and adding stuff to it as outfits to save 100 slots.

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Originally Posted by Renaclock

Who asked you to pay for existance?
I'm subbed consistantly because I always have something to do that can be new content or just hang out with my friends,gpose.
If theres really nothing to do and you think you're wasting your money you should obviously unsub.
If they need players to be subbed 24/7 they wouldn't have this format in the first place.

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That’s what I’m saying if people actually unsubbed at the rate you are suggesting they do then the game would collapse because you’d enter into a vicious downward cycle of reduced playerbase in lulls making the experience for the remaining players worse. Say you wanted to do eureka, you’d have a far worse time doing it if all the vets who keep it alive simply because they have nothing to do are unsubbed 9 months out of 12, then you get angry and queue for the roulettes…….which have no players to fill them because nobody is playing

As much as yoshi p likes to say unsub when you don’t want to play this game is built on the assumption that people won’t unsub because if they do it stops the cycle of people making the game fun for newer players and the more time the vets are unsubbed the less likely they are to return

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

That’s what I’m saying if people actually unsubbed at the rate you are suggesting they do then the game would collapse because you’d enter into a vicious downward cycle of reduced playerbase in lulls making the experience for the remaining players worse. Say you wanted to do eureka, you’d have a far worse time doing it if all the vets who keep it alive simply because they have nothing to do are unsubbed 9 months out of 12, then you get angry and queue for the roulettes…….which have no players to fill them because nobody is playing

As much as yoshi p likes to say unsub when you don’t want to play this game is built on the assumption that people won’t unsub because if they do it stops the cycle of people making the game fun for newer players and the more time the vets are unsubbed the less likely they are to return

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I don't think that many ppl are subbed and don't play the game atall.
Most ppl I know finds something to do like old content or challenging contents like solo deepdungeons,ultimates or RP/hangout with friends etc.
Ppl already unsub if they really don't have anything to do in the game like some of my friends

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Originally Posted by Renaclock

I don't think that many ppl are subbed and don't play the game atall.
Most ppl I know finds something to do like old content or challenging contents like solo deepdungeons,ultimates or RP/hangout with friends etc.
Ppl already unsub if they really don't have anything to do in the game like some of my friends

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Yeah so those people are basically just filling their time with stuff they have already done to fill time. They are likely also the people who are complaining a lot about the lack of content, they would be the people unsubbing if this hypothetical scenario

People aren’t “playing the game” they are “clinging to the game” and that’s the entire issue

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

Hell for healers it’s useless even if you didn’t do savage because it’s chock full of piety right in a patch where they reduce the cost of spells because they think healers are struggling with mana

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As it is now, I can endlessly spam Holy and watch my mana go back to full before I recast. I don’t think I can run out of mana now in any normal gameplay. Heck, even in a wipe recovery, still can’t run out of mana.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

That’s what I’m saying if people actually unsubbed at the rate you are suggesting they do then the game would collapse because you’d enter into a vicious downward cycle of reduced playerbase in lulls making the experience for the remaining players worse. Say you wanted to do eureka, you’d have a far worse time doing it if all the vets who keep it alive simply because they have nothing to do are unsubbed 9 months out of 12, then you get angry and queue for the roulettes…….which have no players to fill them because nobody is playing

As much as yoshi p likes to say unsub when you don’t want to play this game is built on the assumption that people won’t unsub because if they do it stops the cycle of people making the game fun for newer players and the more time the vets are unsubbed the less likely they are to return

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If the census numbers are to be believed, it's not the veterans unsubbing. Level 100 numbers have held fairly steady since DT launch while new player count has plummeted.

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

Yeah so those people are basically just filling their time with stuff they have already done to fill time. They are likely also the people who are complaining a lot about the lack of content, they would be the people unsubbing if this hypothetical scenario

People aren’t “playing the game” they are “clinging to the game” and that’s the entire issue

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what?
People are doing what they enjoy.
Many content in the game is replayable so doing that is not clinging to the game,they are playing it.
People aren't robots they don't waste their time on something they don't enjoy.
I don't know why you have to see everything in negative view.
"they would be the people unsubbing if this hypothetical scenario" why? if they are doing something in the game,that means theres stuff they want to do.
It doesn't makes sense for them to unsub.

I pruned my sub back to the bare minimum again. No need of extra retainers rn.

There needs to be more on these early patches. And overall I'm a bit tired of feeling like we are just covering SE's financial f ups and getting no return for it in the game we are paying for. I mean the team is now working on yet more unannounced projects so they are split focus again.

I might do the new Extreme? didn't really try m4s much so i might go back and do that, the other three were fun and stuff. I did the alliance raid once, likely not again, the upcoming savage alliance raid doesn't sound like something for me as I do not like 24 man content

I Mostly just use this game as a social sim at this point... Most patches to me feel pretty empty unless you have raid plans.

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Originally Posted by Renaclock

what?
People are doing what they enjoy.
Many content in the game is replayable so doing that is not clinging to the game,they are playing it.
People aren't robots they don't waste their time on something they don't enjoy.
I don't know why you have to see everything in negative view.
"they would be the people unsubbing if this hypothetical scenario" why? if they are doing something in the game,that means theres stuff they want to do.
It doesn't makes sense for them to unsub.

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To play the game even for 5 minutes, it requires a sub for the month. If a person spends a few hours a week doing their weeklies and logs off, they are still subbed and doing only what they want to do. Is a few hours a week really worth a 15 dollar subscription + an upfront purchase for each expansion (with also a mogstore)? Maybe they keep the subscription because they have a house, some of those weeklies are in a static which they feel obligated to continue, and/or they are simply clinging to the game (i.e. sunk cost fallacy) similar to what Supersnow said. There are a variety of reasons someone would want to cling to subbing to a MMO that they don't feel is worth the money right now. Its a staple of the genre TBH.

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Originally Posted by Renaclock

what?
People are doing what they enjoy.
Many content in the game is replayable so doing that is not clinging to the game,they are playing it.
People aren't robots they don't waste their time on something they don't enjoy.
I don't know why you have to see everything in negative view.
"they would be the people unsubbing if this hypothetical scenario" why? if they are doing something in the game,that means theres stuff they want to do.
It doesn't makes sense for them to unsub.

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There are tons of people I know who literally only stay subbed to keep their housing plots. I would describe that as clinging to the game. They don't want to actively play it, but they fear that one day if the game gets better again or more content, they will wish they had kept their plots which will otherwise become impossible to acquire on most servers.

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Originally Posted by Raim

There are tons of people I know who literally only stay subbed to keep their housing plots. I would describe that as clinging to the game. They don't want to actively play it, but they fear that one day if the game gets better again or more content, they will wish they had kept their plots which will otherwise become impossible to acquire on most servers.

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House demolition keeping ppl subbed is precisely why we will never get instanced housing :)

During this patch? If nothing tickles your fancy, I'd seek out any games I left behind and go play those instead.
Work on hobbies, perhaps check and see if there are any small groups trying to make their own games and improve on their storytelling, take up a new extracurricular activity?
A multitude of things that serve to fill the time away from FFXIV, if nothing in the game piques your interest or entices you. All beneficial, all serve as a means to find productivity in the midst of mundanity.

So I understand why exactly SE decided to put the joke weapons behind maps instead of the more obvious (and sensible) trophy crystals/PvP; if it were with crystals - which just about everyone by now have been sitting on for a long time and have saved up - people could just buy them immediately and that would be the end of it. But by putting them in maps (and I'm assuming the coffers are like a final floor only prize judging by the prices) it's RNG upon RNG, an artificial time padding because there is pretty much cuss-all to do right now.

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Originally Posted by Destati

So I understand why exactly SE decided to put the joke weapons behind maps instead of the more obvious (and sensible) trophy crystals/PvP; if it were with crystals - which just about everyone by now have been sitting on for a long time and have saved up - people could just buy them immediately and that would be the end of it. But by putting them in maps (and I'm assuming the coffers are like a final floor only prize judging by the prices) it's RNG upon RNG, an artificial time padding because there is pretty much cuss-all to do right now.

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The game is bloated with multiple currencies where most of them can't be used because there's nothing to spend them on. A prime example is trophies from PvP series, and yet they haven't added anything since EW patch with the exception of adding portrait stuff for both PCT and VPR with 7.0 release. Last contest weapon were put as tome currency in Radz-at-Han, so why putting them behind maps? They should've been Trophy currency in my opinion.

Cant wait for another slapstick Hildibrand mash up that ruins more of the integrity of the game and turns it into a comedy anime.

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Originally Posted by ArchlordPie

"there's no content"

"but what about the content"

"i don't like that content so there's no content"

^these forums in a nutshell.

On a more serious note, the game has plenty of one-time content and plenty of somewhat-repeatable content. You've just done it all already.

If that's not enough for you, go pick up Runescape, or Brighter Shores, or some other game that's designed for content locusts. You won't run out of content there for a while.

...or maybe you will as soon as you decide "grinds aren't content, so there's no content" and uninstall. Who knows. /eyeroll

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Put this on a freaking plaque

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Originally Posted by Hallarem

Cant wait for another slapstick Hildibrand mash up that ruins more of the integrity of the game and turns it into a comedy anime.

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There has been hildiribrand since 2.X, guess the game hasn't had integrity for 10 years then. Such a non issue

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

Yeah so those people are basically just filling their time with stuff they have already done to fill time. They are likely also the people who are complaining a lot about the lack of content, they would be the people unsubbing if this hypothetical scenario

People aren’t “playing the game” they are “clinging to the game” and that’s the entire issue

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Or maybe the game has stuff to do? You can cope all you want that the people subbed are just RPing in Limsa but our wallet is clearly outvoting the doomers

I just can't fathom why people play the game where the primary gameplay is repeating group battle content for gear and cosmetic/mount rewards and then say that stuff doesn't count as content.

"There's nothing to do"

"What about grinding this fight for the mounts?"

"I don't want to do that, I don't like that content"

"So you're more into role playing or crafting/gathering then if you don't like the raids?"

"No that stuff is boring, I'm not some weirdo who sits around in Limsa all day"

"What content do you like then?"

"I like midcore content"

"So EX fights or the new Chaotic Alliance Raid?"

"No that's sweaty content for hardcore raiders, I mean real midcore content. "

"So like field zones?"

"No I hate Bozja and Eureka they are too grindy and take up too much time"

"So maybe more casual grinds like beast tribes?"

"No those suck because you they are time gated and take up too little time"

"..."

I don't know why some people have any business pretending to think this game could be for them. They want some sort of ethereal form of "midcore" content they can't actually describe. A lot of people are allergic to anything that is battle content that requires PF or some prior knowledge as "sweaty high end raiding" and then complain that normal content is too easy. Not saying that the patch cycle can't be criticized but some of y'all are impossible to please and nothing counts as content.

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Originally Posted by Amh_Wilzuun

snip

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So you come into this thread and make like 30 comments in a row, and then end it off with a strawman argument...Nice

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Originally Posted by TomsYoungerBro

So you come into this thread and make like 30 comments in a row, and then end it off with a strawman argument...Nice

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I’m counting 4. Looks like you’re 26 off!