Live letters have lost their magic - Zepla

God forbid people having emotions and being mournful over the game they deeply enjoyed before, now being in a pitiful state.

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Originally Posted by Exmo

Can you give an example of this happening, please?

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All you have to do is look at the front page of the forums to see the opposite of this happening. Almost every single post is negative, and most of the posts within are echoing that sentiment. Any post that isn't negative turns negative quickly, as forum posters call anyone who disagrees a "white knight."

Some people here are a tad too idealistic. Asking for pragmatism in a video game forum in the year 2025 feels out of touch. People let their emotions fly here freely so it will tend to be more negative or positive. It doesn't really matter as there's not going to be any reasoned discussion here that will lead to some solution. It's just a rough dipstick for gauging the direction of player feedback. In DT's case it's slipping pretty negative so they'll have to address some things. Hopefully they actually do address them.

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Originally Posted by Exmo

Can you give an example of this happening, please?

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How does it come you have 421 posts since November, but you seem to be clueless about what Auro said. That's just ignorant.

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Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

Reasoned and level heads HAVE tried to levy their concerns. All critique or discussion is buried in "GOOD VIBES ONLY" or "YOU'RE JUST A NEGATIVE NANCY."



People have written "laser-focused, good-faith critique" of Dawntrail. There have been forum threads with lengthy posts discussing and dissecting the problems with DT's plot, characterization, world-building, job design, staleness and repetitiveness of content, etc. There have been many of these threads, all done in good faith and with reasonable attempts at discourse. Do you know what happens to those threads?

They get buried in an avalanche of simplistic "I LIKED IT!" or "YOU'RE JUST A HATER, A DOOMPOSTER, A TROLL."

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"Content is stale and repetitive" is vibes-based, it isn't 'laser-focused' at all. Stale how? Repetitive how?

"I liked the Dawntrail MSQ as a whole, but the early sections of the expansion dragged due to an overreliance on cutscenes, and a lack of required player engagement. I would have liked 'x' and 'y' story moment to have been a solo duty, instead of a cutscene or happening off-screen" is me naming the exact issue, pointing out specific moments where this issue cropped up, and offering a direct solution.

See how easy it is?

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Originally Posted by yesnt

How does it come you have 421 posts since November, but you seem to be clueless about what Auro said. That's just ignorant.

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Woah so rude. And yet... I don't see a single example. Maybe you forgot to link it?

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Originally Posted by Exmo

Can you give an example of this happening, please?

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https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...70#post6666270

"The game's fine" is just "I like it" but a slightly different flavor. Said in an attempt to shutdown perceived "doomposting".

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...64#post6665964

Literally you. "The majority of players disagree with you (smiley face)" is only a few words more than "I liked it", which is the implied sentiment of those who you are representing. And the smiley at the end is an implication that you, yourself, agree with them. The entire statement is a passive-agressive attempt to shut down any discourse around the game.

I'm at work right now and I don't have time to dig through the forums, but go look at any thread written by someone in good faith, with long posts about the problems with the expansion, and you'll see that at some point it inevitably gets filled up with "I LIKED IT" posts. I even

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Originally Posted by Exmo

Woah so rude. And yet... I don't see a single example. Maybe you forgot to link it?

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Someone answered that question for you, just scroll a bit up and you will see. Always happy to help.

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Originally Posted by Wasselin

Not for me! I think the live letters are still exciting and always like to watch clips and the news that come from them. I also like how informal they feel - they don't feel like a corporate presentation, but just the devs showing off what they think is cool.

The format, the previews, everything remains the same as they were - except the info they reveal is new. If the style of the presentation is the same, but you don't feel excited, at what point do you look at yourself and wonder if it's you that's changed?

To me it's hard to understand the constant negativity. It's not clear to me from the feedback what would make people happy and I can't imagine what message the devs are able to glean from it. Almost every single thing they do receives criticism and nothing is enough. People have been saying for over a year now that they want a new field operation, but now that it's been announced and details revealed, it's still not enough. I commend the devs for not just throwing up their hands and giving up and just not doing liveletters at all.

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There are a few good videos both on FF14's story structure flaws and also the content cadence.

These I think though while important to be addressed are being made into mountains when they are really molehills. Or since I'm feeling analogy-prone.
Death by a thousand cuts.

See part of the reason I ask for reasoned and pragmatic thinking to prevail isn't to ignore the issues the game has but you got to approach issues brick by brick.
There are so many tiny micro-issues that have compounded into this torrent of ick for lack of a better term.

Like what's a good example...

Wuk Lamat. She's clearly a sore spot for a lot of people let's dive into her just as an example:

I think it's safe to say for example she has way too much focus. After the succession contest of her becoming Dawn Servant, she needed to take a step back from the story.

People will say the story focused on her to much in general but I really feel like the rite of succession as her time to be focused on. After (Especially I felt this in 7.1 it's too much screen time for her)

I also think that the story suffered from having the Twins along instead of keeping them in Garlemald. My logic for this is that it was a perfect leaving off point for the twins. The last 10 years wasn't just - Hydaelyn/Zodiark. It was about Louisoix, and Leveilleur's the Scions.

That story ended and it's truer to the Twins characters to stick around and see Garlemald rebuilt.

People strike issue that the Twins didn't have much to do. Which I agree - but it's more like, these characters are fully formed and don't belong in this story, the twins don't need development because they as of Endwalker are now fully developed.
AND as much as I love them I'd much rather save the twins for a Dalmasca vs Garlemald expansion storyline - and it would make their return feel necessary and warranted.

Krile was another one people bring up... which is peculiar I found - because she kept asking questions involving her earring and her grandfathers letter at each stop. Could it have been done better yes.. and perhaps she could have gotten focused on if say Krile and G'raha had become our new future traveling companions.

Yet... they had G'raha stay behind (again) so strange.

And Wuk Lamat appeared out of nowhere in the final trial of 7.0 SPHEEEENE! I get it people didn't like that. People don't like being sidelined, even though technically Wuk Lamat at least in 7.0 reminded me more of Lyse. We've been in the background before and I was content with being a bit of a mentor... But again this is all subjective and that doesn't take away from people not liking it.

I digress. Those issues became further compounded when you add in Wuk Lamats English voice.
Was the VA perfect? It's subjective I didn't mind Wuk Lamat's voice.

But in looking into Wuk Lamat's VA revealed that they are Trans. What happens after this is discovered? It gets ideologically captured.
Now it's no longer about the performance, but whether this is 'Woke' or not... As someone who has seen many things I love get destroyed in the culture wars.
I don't see Wuk Lamat's VA as really aligned in this culture war shenanigans... I just think the VA was trans. And it's not even reflective of the story or Wuk Lamat's character so what does it matter?

But this is where things entered strange territory. This is the thousand cuts I mean.

So it starts off with.
- Story direction
- Then focus on Wuk Lamat being too much.
- Undermining the WoL
- Not liking Wuk Lamats voice (Just as a performance)
- Ideologically captured discussions and culture wars.


All of these things compound negativity and end up coagulating and thickening into a bigger homunculus monster than there really is.

So the conversation is no longer based in reason but a This, into that, and I didn't like this and I heard this is that. ICK.

It's icky!

Whereas I can see the story stumbling and go - "Well Stormblood was kinda meh but hey after we got Shadowbringers and Endwalker" you know not every at bat is gonna be a dinger.
This homunculus then gets tethered to the lack of midcore content, the lack of midcore content gets tethered to the subscription.

No longer is it "You can take a break when you feel like" <- Remember folk like Zepla used to tell US the viewing public this was good. It's good to take breaks. It's not good for her because she needs to cover the game for a living. For me if I hadn't have been raiding I totally would have skipped 7.1 because that's healthy and reasonable. Because we get a road map telling us when to tune in and tune out.
THOUGH* Obviously for those who want to stick with the game a better shuffling of content next expansion is important I see that as a mistake now... and there were signs of it in EW post 6.0 content.

BUT now we've been in this doom spiral for soooo long now there is the pessimism now there is the apathy, the disillusionment. Now instead of looking forward to the content folk were after, now it's about how long it will take.
So to me it takes all the Good will out of it.
People when they want change (Like Black Mages) should voice their concerns. Criticism should always be in good faith. The idea is you believe things will get better. The temperature and content made people like Zepla however can only be demoralizing and it's reflective in the speech of those who feel the same way and let their negative emotions effect them more because Humans experience and harbor negative emotions stronger than positive.

WoW had to fail a lot to look at its competition and now they are doing better but even WoW suffers from apathy. People who see how it's changed but got burned too many times to feel anything. I don't believe FF14 is deserving of this Apathy. (Not yet anyway)

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Originally Posted by ElysiumDragon

"Content is stale and repetitive" is vibes-based, it isn't 'laser-focused' at all. Stale how? Repetitive how?

"I liked the Dawntrail MSQ as a whole, but the early sections of the expansion dragged due to an overreliance on cutscenes, and a lack of required player engagement. I would have liked 'x' and 'y' story moment to have been a solo duty, instead of a cutscene or happening off-screen" is me naming the exact issue, pointing out specific moments where this issue cropped up, and offering a direct solution.

See how easy it is?

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Yes. Its very easy. It's also very easy to find posts where people have done exactly that. You simply are pretending they don't exist. I've read many posts on here that are a lot more like example #2 you gave than #1. You're just being willfull at this point.

"Content is stale and repetitive" is shorthand for "the basic structure of the story is just 'go to 1 of 6 zones, find out problems in non-voiced cutscene, do chores, get cutscene, go to next of 6 zones. The basic structure of quests is almost always just 'talk to npc, have flappy mouth cutscene with canned animations, go to x on map, click 3 things and/or stand in circle, get attacked by 1 or 2 mobs at best, return to questgiver, rinse and repeat. The rewards structure is always some minor emote or cosmetic, or a meaningless piece of gear that simply increases your ilvl, instead of offering you interesting opportunities to create builds or offer sidegrades. Exploratory zones are mostly a mix of boring FATE grinds and mindless mob-grinding. Raiding offers little more than higher ilvl gear which only is useful in clearing the same exact savage raids only faster. Dungeons are always 'mob pack, mob pack, wall, maybe another mob pack or two or if the devs are feeling particularly spicy a sinlge miniboss, boss' because the devs got tired of wall to wall pulls. The gear progression is always the same boring tomestone grind."

Among many, MANY other repetitive and redundant parts of the game's "formula".


You know full well what people mean when they say it's "Stale and repetitive", you are -again- simply being willful about it.

EDIT Side note: You may not notice it, but we're now living in a "vibes-based world". Reality matters little compared to how people feel about it. I know... I used to be more "facts and logic" myself, but I've learned that feelings don't care about facts, and so the world itself is slipping more into irrationality and "Feels over reals". I don't necessarily like it myself, but it is what it is.

EDIT 2 While we're at it: The train ride battle should have been a playable fight. There should have been a solo instance, similar to the Lakeland battle or the Rhalgr's Reach fight, where we defend Tulliyolal instead of just doing nothing meaningful. There should have been a cutscene or playable section of us and the Scions fighting Zoraal Ja's endless horde of robots, thus being unable to help Gulool Ja Ja in his fight against ZJ instead of simply standing there like a slackjawed idiot while his son cheats and guts him like a kipper. There should have been an echo flashback -similar to the reveal of VAuthry's creation - explaining ZJ's origins and why he had such a massive chip on his shoulder, one that showed the weight of expectation being a "miracle" placed on him and how no one person could ever possibly live up to that expectation. Would you like more? Because I've had months to think about all the things they did wrong that they got RIGHT in previous expansions.

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Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...70#post6666270

"The game's fine" is just "I like it" but a slightly different flavor. Said in an attempt to shutdown perceived "doomposting".

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...64#post6665964

Literally you. "The majority of players disagree with you (smiley face)" is only a few words more than "I liked it", which is the implied sentiment of those who you are representing. And the smiley at the end is an implication that you, yourself, agree with them. The entire statement is a passive-agressive attempt to shut down any discourse around the game.

I'm at work right now and I don't have time to dig through the forums, but go look at any thread written by someone in good faith, with long posts about the problems with the expansion, and you'll see that at some point it inevitably gets filled up with "I LIKED IT" posts. I even

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Neither of these threads are examples of "laser-focused, good-faith critique" of Dawntrail getting buried in an avalanche of simplistic "I LIKED IT!" or "YOU'RE JUST A HATER, A DOOMPOSTER, A TROLL."

The first thread is OP making a few QoL suggestions, a few posts in the middle where people meet negativity with positivity, which peters out into the standard level of negativity. OP wasn't getting shouted down, conversation wasn't being closed, by positivity.

The second link is literally me saying I liked the game in response to someone saying it's crap, "deal with it" or something similarly dull minded, and my one little post getting inundated with Dawntrail haters. I'm not so powerful that on my own, in twenty words or less, I can bury a thread in an avalanche of positivity.

I personally haven't seen a single example of what you claim despite being active here for the past few months and seeing loads of threads. But, I allow that it might happen and I missed it. If you can provide a better example when you have time later I can give it a look.

Zepla = FFXIV’s Wish version of Asmongold?

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Originally Posted by Kandraxx

Zepla = FFXIV’s Wish version of Asmongold?

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She was the community darling for a while because she was a war refugee, but then she started talking shit about the game.

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Originally Posted by Nadda

It’s disheartening, and I’ve lost respect for her. She made me love the game, but now it feels like she's stabbing me in the heart over a stumble. Forget it. Forget her.

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The worst thing about betrayal is that it comes from someone/something you care about. It's not strange that people have strong reaction when the thing they used to love change for the worse. I mean, your feeling and reaction to her basically is the same as hers toward the game, imo.

And not just you. People called her doomer, grifter, etc. the moment she start criticizing ff14.

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Originally Posted by Kazuke_Miso

https://youtu.be/UnY7PMsV8QI?si=9MCrmXa-iwJ4Is-9



Hearing Zepla talk about the live letter, it really reminds a lot of us just how much wonder and magic has evaporated from the live letters. We still rely on community translators to understand the live letter to this day. The live letters are such a sick joke at this point, and their stale format is a good representation of the staleness of the entire game.

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I'm not sure what you're wanting from a predominately Japanese game.

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Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

Yup. Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard, Epic, Mihoyo... if these companies did what SE/CSIII was doing, they would be absolutely crucified by their players. My brother used to play Escape from Tarkov, and if you white knights of the forums think a little mild and valid criticism of Yoshida (and the game) is toxic and evil, you should see the way Nikita (lead dev of Tarkov) was treated. Being harassed in-game, being harassed on Twitter/X, getting his fancy sporst car keyed, having shoes thrown at him during a live event and being screamed at to "FIX YOUR SHIT GAME, NIKITA!" You might recoil in horror from that treatment, but guess what?

It worked. He fixed his shit. Turns out, anger works. Complaining works, when it isn't silenced and smothered in "goody good-good feels".

And guess what ? I used to be a big white knight for this game myself. I used to get into heated debates about this game with my brother, I thought Yoshida was a rockstar, that he could do no wrong. I've just become so worn-out by this game and these devs that I can't find it within me to praise them for mediocrity anymore.

As long as the White Knights of the Square Enix Creative Studio III Defense Force silence all valid criticism, Yoshida will never fix his shit.

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Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding, but it seems like you are saying that constant harassment, vandalism, and (possible) assault are what players should be doing if they want to see change. I would rather the game stay in its current state than see anyone from the dev team be put through this. It's just not right. I don't care how angry people are.

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Originally Posted by CVXIV

I've only somewhat recently started watching the live letters, and I missed this recent one because it was early for me and I had to leave for work, but unless they are drastically different now than they were back then they seem pretty enjoyable to me

I like how excited they seem and how much they joke around
It's fun to see what's coming up, though it sucks we have to wait so long between patches for things
but I know it isn't for everyone, and it doesn't take away from the major criticisms the game is facing right now

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I agree, and I am excited to see our lord Yoship. He is still happy to be a showman.

I didnt th8nk she made content for ff anymore anyway. I thought she moved to WoW. However, the game has been gutted and damn near destroyed with Dawntrail. I doubt they can fully recover from this. As I said before, the story was the last stronghold they had. That's gone now.

I understand,,,, if my character looked like she got a block embedded in her head I'd be depressed like you.

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Originally Posted by sagacious

I agree, and I am excited to see our lord Yoship. He is still happy to be a showman.

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thank you sage cologne for your contribution to the cause

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Originally Posted by Nadda

Zepla bailed on WoW during its hardest times, but the people who stuck around got rewarded. I have no doubt FFXIV can course-correct too—it just takes time. Zepla built the narrative of FFXIV being a safe haven, but now she’s burning it down over a rough patch. It’s disheartening, and I’ve lost respect for her. She made me love the game, but now it feels like she's stabbing me in the heart over a stumble. Forget it. Forget her.

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A stumble that has been ongoing since 2020? Please.

To me the live letter sure was just "eh..."
For one cause I just don't give a damn about the story right now and it may just be eyerolling combined with skipping useless dialogue like 7.0 and 7.1.
The other big factor being shown what we get.....
except we don't get that.
The content-starved community (and no, content from 5+ years ago does not count) has to wait another few months to get what the update promises.

Why should I care? Maybe in 2 months?
But for now it's just barely anything once more.

Imagine another company of a life-service game doing that. They would (rightfully) be called out for that. Smaller ones definitely would get loads of backlash for something like that.
It's not even "you gotta do these things to unlock it so we give people time so everyone can start at the same time after unlocking" no, it's just "no you can't just cuz"

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Originally Posted by Amariel34

Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding, but it seems like you are saying that constant harassment, vandalism, and (possible) assault are what players should be doing if they want to see change. I would rather the game stay in its current state than see anyone from the dev team be put through this. It's just not right. I don't care how angry people are.

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Shooter communities are toxic by default. I'm using that as an example of how even us people who disagree with Yoshida on the direction of this game treat him with far more respect and politeness than other people in other game dev situations would do, even though we're accused of "being mean" and "Angy" and "toxic". I'm just saying he's got it easy compared to some other game devs. Many other playerbases would treat him far worse. We still have a modicum of respect for him. I'm not directly advocating that, but it's hard to disagree that the players got what they wanted in that situation.

What I'm saying is that negativity in and of itself is not actually bad. Anger is a valid emotion, it's ridiculous of society to try and pretend it doesn't exist and stifle it except for when it's politically expedient. Anger and confrontation do effect change.

And even if you do disagree with someone, that doesn't give you a right to shut down their opinion with "NO NEGATIVITY IN THE DOJO! YOU'RE JUST A HATER!"

Especially when it's being presented in a well-thought out manner.

And also... Yoshida? He's not my friend. Parasocial relationships with devs are toxic and harmful as any negativity.

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Originally Posted by Nadda

I feel like Zepla's tone in her video was way over the top—it’s like a neighbor coming to tell me they ran over my dog. Dawntrail has issues, but people are acting like it’s the worst thing ever, as if we’re in WoD/BfA/Shadowlands combined. She’s misrepresenting Yoshi-P’s words like he’s Ion Hazzikostas, which is bad faith stuff. She says, “I’m trying to be positive” while pouring on nothing but depression in every video. Enough already.

The forums are full of vitriol and pessimism, and it’s draining. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. Zepla used to call FFXIV her lifeline, making people believe it was a paradise. But now, she's adding fuel to the fire with endless negativity.

I get that there are valid issues with Dawntrail, and there’s a difference between blind optimism and reasonable critique. But the constant doom and gloom isn't helping anyone. Positive change requires some optimism, not just tearing things down.

Zepla bailed on WoW during its hardest times, but the people who stuck around got rewarded. I have no doubt FFXIV can course-correct too—it just takes time. Zepla built the narrative of FFXIV being a safe haven, but now she’s burning it down over a rough patch. It’s disheartening, and I’ve lost respect for her. She made me love the game, but now it feels like she's stabbing me in the heart over a stumble. Forget it. Forget her.

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Good lord. First of all, this is more than a stumble, this is a gradual decay that's been going on slowly for years. Second of all... You act like she's an ex-girlfriend that broke your heart. She's just a talking head on a screen, why did you put so much of yourself into her? Also, you must not have valued her that much, because you started to hate her the picosecond she disagreed with you.

Unironically, you sound like a cultist. This is how cultists treat people that betray the cult. This is how Scientologists treat people who they feel betray the church. They're "heatbreaking and evil" and they're suddenly the worst person in the world for the sin of disagreeing or going against the gospel of the cult.

oh man, copium players wanted the game to be like SB era when the game is on other direction. Those player need to wake up and accept this game will never U turn back to HW nor SB. You can hope 8.0 be something else, but I think it will go back to SHB at best. Live letter where always boring, you lose interests on game. The live letter does what they being doing since day 1 and wont change it.

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Originally Posted by Zarkovitch

oh man, copium players wanted the game to be like SB era when the game is on other direction. Those player need to wake up and accept this game will never U turn back to HW nor SB. You can hope 8.0 be something else, but I think it will go back to SHB at best. Live letter where always boring, you lose interests on game. The live letter does what they being doing since day 1 and wont change it.

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I can assure you, many of us have absolutely no faith in them whatsoever in returning to the game to the quality standards in HW or SB... Heck, don't really even expect them to return to quality standards established in Shadowbringers. If anything then are just going to continue veering in the direction of removing as many fail states from the game as humanly possible.

I also disagree on the comment about Live Letters... You could feel the enthusiasm from the developers, and you could see the passion put into many of the trailers and the general Live Letters, so even if you weren't as enthusiastic, the game still managed to capture some excitement... Sure they follow the same... 'Schedule' with how that approach the LLs, but passion is absolutely missing.

This thread is everything wrong with the game.

"Nuh uh the game is fine, Zepla is wrong and is stupid."

White knights saying this as sub count continues to drop off of a cliff and the game slides further and further into decline and irrelevance.
The argument "You cant expect the wow tourists to stay" is getting old, now that they are completely gone and the slide continues.

Even as the game begins it's descent into failure, they will still make excuses. "The game had 100 people log in today! It's NOT DEAD!"

Perhaps propping up someone who apparently has no idea how to run an mmo as "MMO Jesus that can do no wrong" was not in the best interest of an mmo?

But, by all means, continue to attack the people passionate enough to complain and try to shout for things to change for the better.
When someone complains, it's a sign that they still care enough to complain. They want things to turn around.

Once they go silent, like a lot of people already have, it's completely finished. That's the current trajectory of XIV. Complete silence, complete apathy, minimal player count.

Who is this and why would anyone put so much stock into someone else's opinion instead of forming their own?

I have lost interest in live letters. They happen early mornings for me. I work swing and get my son off to school. So unless I they happen on my day off I don't try and catch them.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Who is this and why would anyone put so much stock into someone else's opinion instead of forming their own?

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I suppose it didn't cross your mind that people have formed their own opinion, long before Zepla even expressed her own, and that people are just highlighting that some content creator channels express a similar opinion. -- and whether you like it or not their opinion holds more weight than our own to the developers.

Didn't cross your mind though, that's OK

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Originally Posted by Kaurhz

I suppose it didn't cross your mind that people have formed their own opinion, long before Zepla even expressed her own, and that people are just highlighting that some content creator channels express a similar opinion. -- and whether you like it or not their opinion holds more weight than our own to the developers.

Didn't cross your mind though, that's OK

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I thank the twelve it's okay.

I usually watch a summary.

Live letters would be more interesting if the game itself was in a good spot, but currently I don't think it is.

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Originally Posted by NaoSen

It's not but take a look at Xenosys or Arthar's when they criticize among others. They still enjoy the game, still play the game, are open to new things in the game and will be constructive. Zepla just whines, in her dawntrail playthrough you could tell she wasnt even willing to give the story a chance, she'd made up her mind and WAY overplayed her dislike of every single scene. It was pathetic acting.

Criticizing when you genuinely want to like the game vs when you have already decided it's no longer for you and will not like it no matter what happens come across way different.

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Maybe it's because the game has become unfun for most players now? But your attitude is just pathetic.

"You can only criticize the game if you still enjoy playing it!"

Well that's how Dawntrail has reached nearly Stormblood numbers in player population. The feedback from people who used to love the game and has fallen out of love should be important.

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Originally Posted by Nadda

Because I can recognize a reasonable issue without losing myself to despair. I'm nothing but consistent I could levy the issues with Dawntrail here and still find myself optimistic for the future. We are not the same.

Rational pragmatic thinking is different then demoralization, disillusionment, pessimism, apathy and vitriol.

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Originally Posted by Nadda

I feel like Zepla's tone in her video was way over the top—it’s like a neighbor coming to tell me they ran over my dog. Dawntrail has issues, but people are acting like it’s the worst thing ever, as if we’re in WoD/BfA/Shadowlands combined. She’s misrepresenting Yoshi-P’s words like he’s Ion Hazzikostas, which is bad faith stuff. She says, “I’m trying to be positive” while pouring on nothing but depression in every video. Enough already.

The forums are full of vitriol and pessimism, and it’s draining. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. Zepla used to call FFXIV her lifeline, making people believe it was a paradise. But now, she's adding fuel to the fire with endless negativity.

I get that there are valid issues with Dawntrail, and there’s a difference between blind optimism and reasonable critique. But the constant doom and gloom isn't helping anyone. Positive change requires some optimism, not just tearing things down.

Zepla bailed on WoW during its hardest times, but the people who stuck around got rewarded. I have no doubt FFXIV can course-correct too—it just takes time. Zepla built the narrative of FFXIV being a safe haven, but now she’s burning it down over a rough patch. It’s disheartening, and I’ve lost respect for her. She made me love the game, but now it feels like she's stabbing me in the heart over a stumble. Forget it. Forget her.

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Not agreeing is indeed very irrational. How dare people not like the state of the game and actually have the gall to voice their opinions.

I usually don't like Zepla, but she was spot-on in this video.

If you're like me and don't watch Zepla's vids, watch this one. I think it's a home run.

I hope Yoshi P sees this.

It's not a hate video, it's a mourning video. It mourns a game that we've invested so many years playing and loving and enjoying together. There's hurt in this video, and that's what the community is doing: hurting.

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Originally Posted by Kazuke_Miso

https://youtu.be/UnY7PMsV8QI?si=9MCrmXa-iwJ4Is-9



Hearing Zepla talk about the live letter, it really reminds a lot of us just how much wonder and magic has evaporated from the live letters. We still rely on community translators to understand the live letter to this day. The live letters are such a sick joke at this point, and their stale format is a good representation of the staleness of the entire game.

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With all the tech out now, and they still show previews on printed paper images.... FFS.

They already show everything in a presentation - put your prints in there!

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Originally Posted by Sylpharia

Not agreeing is indeed very irrational. How dare people not like the state of the game and actually have the gall to voice their opinions.

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Again, I don't know where this is coming from, but I have yet to say that giving an opinion is wrong.

Once more, someone comes to dismiss me—belittle me—and use me as a veil, an excuse to justify pessimism and apathy. We all voice our opinions out of love for the game. I assume you want the game to thrive, just as I do. All I've strived for is to lower the temperature.

I’ve never said people shouldn’t share their opinions. In fact, I want people to voice concerns; that’s how things improve. What I am saying is that the conversation often gets derailed when it stops being constructive and turns into a pile-on of unrelated grievances, making it harder to address the core issues.

Yet, even this message is met with disdain, snark, and cynicism.

But this isn’t how you win people over to your point of view. And when you look at the bigger picture, the meta-narrative, positive change only happens when we approach concerns pragmatically—not pessimistically.

When we fuel our words with venom, all we sow is apathy toward the game and demoralization of the player base. It’s not helpful. That’s all I’m saying.

I don't see how your path creates the positive change you say you want—especially when, faced with even a modicum of resistance, your first instinct is to belittle me. We share the same purpose, just different approaches. But being this way will only create disillusionment and misery for the players who read or engage with it. It won’t change the state of the game if we can’t express our concerns without emotionally charged hostility.

In the end, I do believe FF14 will adapt. I have no reason to think otherwise.

But I worry that if this rhetoric continues, much like what happened with WoW, even if the game does improve, people will have been so poisoned by the surrounding negativity—not by the game itself, but by the sentiment—that they’ll never come back.

And I'd rather live through a thousand lulls than see that manifest. This is a community, after all—and it pains me to see good and kind people twist the dagger deeper into the hearts of everyone here. I share the pain, I truly do. But we don't fix the game this way; we only end up wounding ourselves.

Try to sell the game to someone while carrying that heavy sentiment in your heart—it can't be done. But show a blueprint for a better future, and the results become clear. There are many who’ve made critical videos about the game—direct, honest, and addressing the same concerns we all share—yet they do so without demoralizing the public. And that makes all the difference. We want the same thing.

This is not a time for mourning. You can mourn when the game is dead but we're not dead yet. So we should do our best to keep the will of fire alive not snuff it out!

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Originally Posted by Nadda

Try to sell the game to someone while carrying that heavy sentiment in your heart—it can't be done. But show a blueprint for a better future, and the results become clear.

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I want to remind you that we are consumers. Customers. We are not selling anything and it's also not our job to manage the community. You can blame SE for actually all of this. There are no mods communicating with us on the forum and feedback gets ignored. You are making yourself their clown if you try to do their job for them. People will not listen to you because they are not looking for your response, they hope that their complaints are eventually loud enough to be heard by the company.

Nice speech, though, very emotional, I will give you that. But this is pointless.

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Originally Posted by yesnt

I want to remind you that we are consumers. Customers. We are not selling anything and it's also not our job to manage the community.

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Exactly this. We are paying them. If you can post on this forum, it means your subscription is active. We are paying them.

9 years ago, moderators would respond to posts and let people know that their feedback is heard. That doesn't exist any more. When's the last time a moderator actually acknowledged a forum post? It's been YEARS. It feels like we're speaking to deaf ears.

We don't know where the disconnect is, here. A moderator is reading our messages, they're checking to see if it violates the Terms of Service, and they go on their merry way. Are they sending this feedback to the higher ups? Who knows. We have absolutely no way of knowing that.

Maybe they are, and maybe it's the higher ups ignoring it. Or maybe it's Yoshi P ignoring it. Who knows. But there are clearly people who are doing a terrible job at Square-Enix that used to interact with the community.

The REAL issue is that those moderators reading this, the higher ups, and even Yoshi P are being paid by the people in this forum. And people are getting tired of subscribing. Instead of leaving quietly in the night, they're vocalizing their concerns, fears, sadness, and even anger. Do you know how many companies would KILL for this kind of feedback from their customers when something was going wrong? Focus groups are paid for what has been contributed on these forums.

Reality is, the moderators are being paid by us. The higher ups are being paid by us. Yoshi P is being paid by us. And if there's any disconnect right now where Yoshi P isn't hearing the concerns and cries of the community, then something is horribly wrong.

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Originally Posted by Auro_Seldaris

Good lord. First of all, this is more than a stumble, this is a gradual decay that's been going on slowly for years. Second of all... You act like she's an ex-girlfriend that broke your heart. She's just a talking head on a screen, why did you put so much of yourself into her? Also, you must not have valued her that much, because you started to hate her the picosecond she disagreed with you.

Unironically, you sound like a cultist. This is how cultists treat people that betray the cult. This is how Scientologists treat people who they feel betray the church. They're "heatbreaking and evil" and they're suddenly the worst person in the world for the sin of disagreeing or going against the gospel of the cult.

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Gradual decay? Calling me a cultist for advocating constructive criticism? I’m not here to defend the game blindly. I care about it and want to focus on fixing things, not tearing them down.

The tone has become too negative, and this thread proves it. Positive change requires some optimism. Balanced neutral pragmatic and diagnostic non-emotionally charged verbiage to hyper-focus grievances in a logical format.

Zepla’s influence matters. She helped grow the community, but now her words are driving people away. That’s why I push back. We should be building up, not tearing down.

If she still values the game, her approach should inspire hope, not foster hopelessness. As a public figure, there’s responsibility for what she says and how it affects the community.

Your view seems to be that the game is doomed. I’m pushing back against that. The devs have the lion's share of the blame, but if we, as a community, can’t encourage hope, we’re also killing the game.

Words have power. We need to wield them carefully, especially those with influence.

Let’s lower the temperature. Critique without demoralization. There's nothing disagreeable with that approach.
Acknowledging overstepping and where things can go too far is just as important as the criticism itself.
If we desire the success of the game surely we can do it without driving our own people away.

If you want to snap somebody out of being a FF14 player it's not speaking to Wuk Lamat that'll do it - A Zepla video or your own words just might.
Eventually, FF14 will adapt and change, just like WoW has. Let’s ensure we don’t create an apathetic community like WoW’s, but instead, inspire people to return and enjoy the game.
What the game has to offer is still thousands of hours of enjoyment for newer players, we offer the best free trial experience of the major MMOs. I want to keep those players here.
Be critical, but let’s keep it constructive—less doom, more hope. (I'm saying this hoping this breaks through - Optimism! I esuna your doom!)