As someone who actively does all the content in the game, and has been since ARR, this expansion feels very empty by comparison
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While I have my complaints towards the patches of ShB (not as much as I remember from SB patches to do) you have to keep in mind that, compaired to other MMOs, we get A LOT of stuff. Some of that stuff may not be to your liking, but we do get stuff. The only reason we had that long period without much was the pandemic happening.
I don’t know the exact numbers, and I could absolutely just not be remembering correctly... but it would be nice to see some figures on how much money the game pulls in profit wise, and how much of that is reinvested in the game.
We have to keep in mind that:
1) The sub price hasn’t increased since launch, while the value of the money has decreased with nearly 10ish years of inflation.
2) Just perusing the yearly FFXIV census, the overall total of active players hasn’t really increased (hovering between 6-700k players globally)
3) The cost of simply maintaining the game as it gets more content/bloat increases with age.
It just makes sense that they can’t keep up with what they used to do without an increase in pricing or utilizing something like the Mogstation.
All that said the game has been largely fantastic at keeping regularly scheduled updates and at least general interest when compared to games like Guildwars 2. While the gameplay engine isn’t nearly as good or varied as GW2, it does a lot right in areas regarding the schedule and general quality of releases.
While I wouldn’t mind a little more job complexity a la HW era, I don’t expect it..though I expect all my skill bars to be jacked up yet again..as they are with every expansion.
The pandemic did not at all help when it came to droughts of content, pushed back content by months and some were either cut entirely or delayed for 6.0. I know for a lot of people who would've been trapped inside their homes that FFXIV would've been their only way to kill time and keep their sanity. So with that being said I don't wish to demean what others had experienced with ShB, but as I look back on the expansion, it really was just a story expac and nothing else. Sorry, but a redhead catboy can't keep my attention for two years. I can't forgive SE for what they did to my double TK.
Same. I actively do all content the game has to offer, and have since 2.x. (let's not talk about 1.0...)
My sub has never lapsed, and while I've taken short breaks to play new releases, I've never felt I wasn't getting my money's worth, or that I wasn't enjoying the game.
Sometimes I wish they would segregate casual and hardcore players onto different servers. I know it's unrealistic and will probably never happen but it's nice to dream of a peaceful land where elitist gamers can tear into each other far far away from the casual chill base.
Casuals are just as likely to tear into each other as elitists are lmao.
There are toxic people everywhere like the casual chill base "you dont play for my sub" kind whenever you offer them some advice just saying