Final Fantasy 14 is starting to lose appeal because...

Meh, if your bored just quit, what can you do?

I used to play WoW then I got bored and quit, true story. What do you want? A cookie?

Too many rpera

Take a break and don't feel ashamed. There's nothing wrong with playing other games and coming back.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

Forum join date =/= game join date. Started in 2.0 beta, took a break at 47 or something because they lowballed XP gains and I didn't want to grind AV, came back, hit 50, leveled other classes a bit, took another break until shortly before the Heavensward head start.

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Thanks for the resume, we will let you know in 5-10 days.

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Originally Posted by Vinta

Take a break and don't feel ashamed. There's nothing wrong with playing other games and coming back.

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This.

FFXIV is loosing appeal because people play it like it's supposed to be their sole source of entertainment, and then they burn out. That's it. Complaining that it's more of the same is a joke when talking about any other game in the industry.

Take a break, relax. Take a look at some cheap indie titles to tide you over till the next patch. Anyone who looks less at you for it isn't worth your company. Quit shifting tall of the blame for your boredom on to the game itself.

Heck, I'm on hiatus currently. It's a good time to.

Well just to start I want to say, I'm a new player concerning FF14. I started with the release of Heavensward and I can honestly say I have more than enough to do. I already have two jobs at level 60 and I'm working on Summoner right now. I barely started with crafting or gathering but that will be up next on my list of things to do.

Just exploring the world itself is currently entertaining for me but I'm a lore nerd so there's that.

And as someone who switched here from World of Warcraft. I can only say one thing. You don't know how good you have it here. At least you can expect new dungeons and quests to be added in future patches. The latest and last patch of WoW right now consists of 1 new raid and one zone where there is basically nothing to do but grind FATEs (best analogy I can think of). And that content is supposed to last the players there till about June next year. Yeeeeaaah. Warlords also didn't add a single new dungeon past the ones out at release.

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Originally Posted by Tenku

Don't get me wrong, I love this game, but it's losing it's appeal and that's not a false statement. Every patch/update is the same thing: new tomestones to cap, new CT, new something instanced.

How about add a 100 floor open dungeon? (Sword Art Online style)

Yes, an open dungeon that's 100 floors and you can bump into anybody on the server while trying to get to the top.

This game is suppose to be an MMO, but instead falls into the trap of turning everything into instances so you feel like you're not even part of the fantasy world.

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Only that in SAO it wasn't a 100 floor dungeon but the actual game world. So 100 instanced zones with towns, fields, dungeons stacked on top of each other where you could interact with everyone on the current floor you were on. So.... basically what we already have in FFXIV only not in a tower construct.

A free for all dungeon where you could see everyone on your server throwing around spell effects would murder anything but high end PCs also.

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Originally Posted by Hyrist

This.

FFXIV is loosing appeal because people play it like it's supposed to be their sole source of entertainment, and then they burn out. That's it. Complaining that it's more of the same is a joke when talking about any other game in the industry.

Take a break, relax. Take a look at some cheap indie titles to tide you over till the next patch. Anyone who looks less at you for it isn't worth your company. Quit shifting tall of the blame for your boredom on to the game itself.

Heck, I'm on hiatus currently. It's a good time to.

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Nah, if this was the only thing I ever did like people assumes as a form of entertainment, I barely log in and I have trouble stayed logged in on interest even if only for 15 mins to do the expert roulette ever since heavensward hit and the rush of the expansion passed, just disappointing that the incoming content for 3.1 is rehashed watered down clone of 2.1 with less new things.

On my free time I play many other games, though as of late, I'm having a hard time seeing why I should keep subbed to this game which worried me because it used to be so much fun.

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Originally Posted by Tenku

Don't get me wrong, I love this game, but it's losing it's appeal and that's not a false statement.
How about add a 100 floor open dungeon? (Sword Art Online style)

Yes, an open dungeon that's 100 floors and you can bump into anybody on the server while trying to get to the top.

This game is suppose to be an MMO, but instead falls into the trap of turning everything into instances so you feel like you're not even part of the fantasy world.

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I was just looking around the forums found this thread wasn't going to say anything at all, then i read your comment and got all crazy feeling on the inside. Whoop Whoop! Why don't we have a 100 floor thingy going on yet! For realz, this video games right? Anime Right? im all excited now lol Thanks Tenku for making my day (Love's all sorts of anime that deal with video games) Ugh i would flip my freaking S$#@ if we got something like SAO! im drooling a little bit (gross)

An mmo is what the player makes it. If you spend you time only looking at the physical rewards of gear then you'll soon get bored. Our community hold events which we create. Our next event is the KG Oscars which we reward members as voted by the FC themselves. "Member of the year" or "largest contribution to the FC" it's a big event for us where we've decorated our house basement to look like an Oscars event.

I admit. An mmo without a goal is a boring one. If you aren't achieving anything then you soon quit. But maybe it's the goals that need to change, not the mmo.

No game is going to provide infintie amount of enjoyment even Final Fantasy XI couldn't do that. You don't need to make a thread telling everyone your bored with the game.

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Originally Posted by Akiza

No game is going to provide infintie amount of enjoyment even Final Fantasy XI couldn't do that. You don't need to make a thread telling everyone your bored with the game.

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Wut. FFXI did provide infinite amount of enjoyment. Even I didn't get to do every single content in the game because there was just so much to do at *end game* (note: not just fluff)! :)

Btw, for those interested in sharing their opinion on this topic, I found this survey on ffxiv reddit. Someone made it for the purpose of compiling all the feedback. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LcQ...?usp=send_form

A lot of you replied with saying that it's an MMO and to have fun with your friends and meet people etc. My argument from the very beginning is that there is not enough open world content that allows you to make new friends, meet new people, or even do stuff with your friends.

I've spent the little amount of time I have to play helping people in party finder clear Ravana Ex and other instances. I refuse to do Alex Savage because it's a huge headache to get a static that can actually do it and we all know those gears will be obsolete in a couple of months.

So the real question is... how do you meet new people and create a bond when everything is instanced and you never meet those people again? (duty finder)

Duty finder is absolutely necessary, but if it's the only thing there is, it's no longer an mmo. It's more like Vindictus.

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Originally Posted by Akiza

No game is going to provide infintie amount of enjoyment even Final Fantasy XI couldn't do that. You don't need to make a thread telling everyone your bored with the game.

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No one wants infinite. We just want alot more then what this game is offering.

If the devs want to negate content this fast and rehash everything. They need to start adding larger quantities of content in each major patch.


The game has a ton of stuff to do, but most of it does the same things as spamming dungeon, except it is about 5-10xs slower. (Aka not worth the time investment anymore.)

Oh and XI was about as close to endless content as possible in a mmo. This is coming from a person who was in a guild for 7yrs on the game that ran 5hrs of non-hnm events 7 days a week on top of about 8hrs of hnm camping a day. Had about 10days off a year for holidays though. So could play the game for nearly 4,600 hours a year for 7yrs and not run out of stuff to do. Was not infinite you are right we did finish several endgame events where all gear was sold or dropped to the ground. If it was not for abysea would of had at least 2-3yrs more before we capped out the guild without any new content added. I can tell you that the people in my guild loved logging in everyday. Same as the people in most of my more casual linkshells I had.

If you have to take breaks from a mmo to wait for content... That is a development problem not a player problem.

The threads are not to inform the mass public someone is bored it is to alert SE to a issue with a group of players who are supporting the game. There is whether the ultra casuals/achievement hunters want to admit it or not an issue with a lot of people being extremely bored to the point of canceling subs waiting for content and the expansion is not even 4 months old. People in the endgame community are quitting/logging in less and less that is a major issue for a p2p mmo.

http://i.imgur.com/LdnJuvk.png

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Right there I found some things for you to do, mate.

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Yet it's still the same thing again and again, so I guess you didn't get the point of the OP.
There's an obvious lack of content in this game. Keeping yourself busy doesn't mean you're enjoying it. It just means that you're bored enough to do such repetitive things. The content shouldn't be made in order to keep you busy, it should be made to make you enjoy playing. As a result, let me tell you what is happening at the moment for a lot of players :
For players who bother capping eso : exp roulette (2 dungeons only) > alexander story mode > cap on thursday (if you play week nights) > wait until tuesday
For those who are not bothered : log in for Alex savage and don't play at all otherwise or stand afk in <name a zone> doing nothing.
I don't speak about Red scripts/Blue scripts because crafting is close to irrelevant and can be removed from the game without any harm at this point.

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Originally Posted by Enyalios

An mmo is what the player makes it. If you spend you time only looking at the physical rewards of gear then you'll soon get bored. Our community hold events which we create. Our next event is the KG Oscars which we reward members as voted by the FC themselves. "Member of the year" or "largest contribution to the FC" it's a big event for us where we've decorated our house basement to look like an Oscars event.

I admit. An mmo without a goal is a boring one. If you aren't achieving anything then you soon quit. But maybe it's the goals that need to change, not the mmo.

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Are you saying that people who have another PoV are wrong? If I want to see some Oscars, I turn on my TV watch MTV awards or Oscars ceremony. I'm not saying that you're doing it wrong but this is what I would have done because that's not what I'm looking for in a MMO. But I understand your underlying question is "What are we expecting from a MMO".

People are asking for fun and still other people come here suggesting "grind" as a form of it. Oh well...

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

I have tons of things to do too. I really don't have the time to do it all. Seems those who are mainly focused on war/magic battle related game features run out of stuff to do. There is only so much content of that sort that SE can make and that doesn't take forever to get through.

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There's a lot of things to do. There's only a few things I enjoy to do.

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Originally Posted by Melch

There's a lot of things to do. There's only a few things I enjoy to do.

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I think this quote right here sums up what the majority of the dissatisfied side are saying.

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Originally Posted by Xatsh

Oh and XI was about as close to endless content as possible in a mmo. This is coming from a person who was in a guild for 7yrs on the game that ran 5hrs of non-hnm events 7 days a week on top of about 8hrs of hnm camping a day. Had about 10days off a year for holidays though. So could play the game for nearly 4,600 hours a year for 7yrs and not run out of stuff to do. Was not infinite you are right we did finish several endgame events where all gear was sold or dropped to the ground. If it was not for abysea would of had at least 2-3yrs more before we capped out the guild without any new content added. I can tell you that the people in my guild loved logging in everyday. Same as the people in most of my more casual linkshells I had

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I know very little about XI: How much of that was there at launch? In the base patch of the first expansion?

Genuinely curious, just for a point of reference.

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Originally Posted by Phireblast

I think this quote right here sums up what the majority of the dissatisfied side are saying.

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That is understood. The point though is that there is only so much content that SE can make. It's designed to be a broad range of things to do. If someone only enjoys one thing or a very few things they are going to get bored. I fully understand his point but the fact is if you're not into doing lots of things you won't get as much out of the game. I'll read some are only interested in one role for example and don't want to level others. We'll that's fine but when you've fully geared that role and finished the content you're not going to have a lot else to do.

SE can't be making just a lot of things that one person likes to do, they make different things for different tastes and hopefully they'll appeal to most people.

I am still having a lot of fun with Heavensward. I am not a top 10% raider either. The game is fun if you enjoy it and find things to do in it. If you cannot then you should play something else for now.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

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Well, they are coming closer with the airship explorations on 3.1... If they keep their promise, we will soon have more 1-2 players content, chocobos inside dungeons etc. I'd also like retainer battles/guiding, a better way to train them than selecting Field Exploration and wait 18 hours.

Also random-generated dungeon maps with random boss encounters from past dungeons, something like Grand Chase's Eclipse (RIP). NO GEAR rewards, but rare/metal dyes and higher drop rate for rarer items (like Whisker and Forewing).

If a game is totally centered around "gearing" (something that, for people like me who dislikes hardcore content is useless) it's bound to become boring and outdated leaving a billion dungeons/bosses that no one cares or does anymore, and making it a even worse pain for new players to get into the game.

Airship explorations look like glorified treasure hunts to me, but feel free to prove me wrong SE.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

That is understood. The point though is that there is only so much content that SE can make. It's designed to be a broad range of things to do. If someone only enjoys one thing or a very few things they are going to get bored. I fully understand his point but the fact is if you're not into doing lots of things you won't get as much out of the game. I'll read some are only interested in one role for example and don't want to level others. We'll that's fine but when you've fully geared that role and finished the content you're not going to have a lot else to do.

SE can't be making just a lot of things that one person likes to do, they make different things for different tastes and hopefully they'll appeal to most people.

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Try to level Chocobo from 19 to 20
Try to level PvP rank from 44 to 45
Try to breed a racing Chocobo

That is exactly the problem, SE is FORCING us to only do one single thing even if we like to do "other" things too...

Players dont get bored from "nothing to do", they are getting frustrated from "no progress whatever they do" and frustration results in throwing the content away...
When too much is thrown away you find yourself login in, doing daily and logout because you just do one single thing and getting bored...
Just look at some achievements, what is SE thinking how many time we are spending "gaming"?
Most of the time when SE is coming up with a time schedule we have to make the "game" into a part time job.

In most games on higher levels where xp gain becomes a long time farming, they add some distraction as an ability system where you can level your companions or skills to have something with lower level to level up. That way you can forget about the big delay from your high level main character and have some progress with shorter time farming... In FFXIV we have many to do, but everything stands alone, we can not ride the racing chocobo and level it while we fight and level ourselfs (character level the high farm grind while racing chocobo can be the faster farm), we can not level our pvp while having our chocobo companion out (pvp rank the high farm grind while chocobo can be the faster farm)...

Its losing its a appeal because everybody ripped through the expansion, mostly only play one job, what else is there for them to do....

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Originally Posted by BubblyBoar

Aren't.....we getting new content in 3.1? As in something we never had before? Airship explorations are a totally new thing aren't they? They are open world too, not instanced. So.....???? What are the complaints about, it not being here right now?

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How do we know it's not going to be instanced though? Even if the area can hold upto 100+ players, it's still instanced if you can't go through a zone line and access the area, and since they said you'd go to Ishgard and speak to some dude to access the zone the exploration, it's likely to be "instanced". I'm being an ass though, if it can hold more than 30 players and is a very wide open map, where we can actually drive the airships I'll be happy (or at least get to ride on them and not just some loading screen to the next island).

I think when people ask for open world content they mean content in preexisting areas though. You know, the areas the dev team spent so much development time on, only for us to never go there again on our level 60 battle classes. :p I don't think Hunts are a viable solution in the future either, it's not fun content. Back near the launch of 3.0 areas with a hunt monster were so packed that loading would sometimes take 30+ seconds, and that only delayed getting to the hunt so it was pulled and many people missed out, only leading to them bickering among each other. Hunts initiated by a party of 8 by picking up a hunt from the board and then finding clues in the area (or a treasure map like system) summoning the hunt, and then taking it down with your party of 8 would be a better way to do them imho.

No game can keep people entertained 24/7, true. I dont expect any game to be able to do that.

I think ffxi is ok and I enjoy other games as well. They all have something I enjoy....to a degree.

Does ffxiv stand out as something "special"? I would have to say no, to me its an average MMO, fair enough. :D

Allowing us to gather 450 tomes on each job/week would have been nice imo PAIRED WITH alternate ways to gather them that involves outdoor content (hunts? or a brand new idea??)

I also know that the many housing suggestions I have made in the past would have kept people occupied for huge amounts of time.
Designing a zone and home from scratch takes months to finish with stunning results and would have kept me (any anyone who is creative) occupied far more then the 0 amount of time I spend with housing now.

Housing went from something potentially exciting to a very basic, and quite frankly a boring few minutes. Average.

Again that's just my personal beef. I am hugely grateful to other games for what se lacks, but still appreciate that this game is "ok".

Its not that ffxiv is losing its appeal to me, my standards of what to expect for entertainment have just lowered to se's.

It simply doesn't bring the best from other games into it ..they did add flying and I love that and they did an excellent job it that.

They should have grabbed the # of raids/dungeons from wow, the housing and glamour/dye from Rift, the amount of outdoor content and sheer variety from ffxi, etc.... to make it actually stand out as different from the rest.

I realized over the past while that se is happy with an average game though, so there's just no point hoping for better or wasting time trying to suggest fun things. Make the best of what we are tossed and run with it for as long as you can.

FFXIV imo is going to do just fine over time, but not exceed baseline in content or desgin. They are happy with that, which is cool ,it is their game.

Enjoy it for a couple things and that has to be good enough.

Again, just realizing it will remain average. :D

I've turned super casual and have focused entirely on one job instead of mass leveling all my classes like I did in 1.0 > 2.0. I do my daily and I log off to find another game to play. I'll continue supporting and playing FFXIV, but I crave new content. Not rehashed expert dungeons and crystal tower with a hint of primals. We need something NEW. Really. It's easier said then done, but I reaaaaally crave something new all together.

Problem is 2015 now.
If you look at brightside another game is pretty much same staff, but different storyline.
FPS still FPS with shoot people
Car race still just with better look
Sport still just with better look
MMO still lvl char and kill mob/other and farm and raid
Fighting game still beat crap out each another

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Originally Posted by Sawamura

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Halo, Call of Duty and Counter-Strike are all very different from each other.
Project Cars, Rocket League, Need for Speed, Mario Kart and Grid are all very different from each other.
Every sports game is different from each other unless they're successors, but hey, they can't change much there. I guess you could count Blood Bowl?
MMOs tend to be very samey so I'll agree there, but there are exceptions.
Super Smash, Tekken, Guilty Gear and Street Fighter are all somewhat to very different too.

Your posts making me think you have a very limited experience with video games, they're not the same stuff with a different storyline (some don't even have a storyline).

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Originally Posted by Colorful

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FPS still is shoot people....... Do halo or CoD or CS don´t shoot people?
car race still use car? don´t they? Rocket league basicly use car to play soccer.
sportgame still is sportgame with better look at you monitor.Trust me with this one.
MMO exception wouldn´t be that much different
different fighting still beat crap out of each another.

This kind of thread will keep going merry go round is what I actually mean.

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Originally Posted by Sawamura

FPS still is shoot people....... Do halo or CoD or CS don´t shoot people?
car race still use car? don´t they? Rocket league basicly use car to play soccer.
sportgame still is sportgame with better look at you monitor.Trust me with this one.
MMO exception wouldn´t be that much different
different fighting still beat crap out of each another.

This kind of thread will keep going merry go round is what I actually mean.

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Then I guess all games are the same, because they're just clicking on whatever peripheral you use. Everything in life is exactly the same too I suppose, since it's information being relayed through you to perform whatever you're doing.

If you boil it down to it's very core, yeah it's going to be "similar", but they are vastly different games.

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Originally Posted by Sawamura

Problem is 2015 now.
If you look at brightside another game is pretty much same staff, but different storyline.
FPS still FPS with shoot people
Car race still just with better look
Sport still just with better look
MMO still lvl char and kill mob/other and farm and raid
Fighting game still beat crap out each another

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MMO is not a genre! *sigh*

If you like to compare sport games (car racing) or FPS (First Person Shooters) then do it correctly with RPG (Role Play Game), because FFXIV is a RPG genre! Fact.
You can compare RTS (Real Time Strategy) games too because older Final Fantasy games had more strategy components...

MMO is a sub genre who only describes network settings! *sigh*

So it should be: RPG = leveling up and customise character. In most RPGs you gain experience points with beating up some Monsters but also there are RPGs where you have duells only and leveling up with fighting each others (Street Fighter Style). Same as there are simulation games where you level up with "decisions" depending which "path" you will walk... and so on! To say RPGs are just "lvl char and kill mob/other and farm and raid" is wrong!

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Originally Posted by Colorful

Everything in life is exactly the same too I suppose, since it's information being relayed through you to perform whatever you're doing.

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Yep and also yep with very core. Good you notice it finally!

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Originally Posted by Yukiko

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MMO is not lvl char?
MMO is not kill mob/other? So not kill mob or against another player?
MMO is not farm? if you look at Call of Duty as example you rank up want you use X weapon with X rank that is not farm?
MMO is not Raid? Is not mean team up with another player to beat X boss/content?
Also I never said only RPG with those thing.... And I never said RPG at begin.... Though RPG is same as another RPG. Do I need to put up every type of game? sounds tiresome.....

It's boring? No seriously the same old 2 dungeon grind for tomes is the same old crap everyday, I can whole handedly put my hand in the air and say I haven't logged in for over a month now as I have had no inclination to do the 2 same shitty dungeons over and over and levelling new classes just get's absolutely tiresome as well.

I only log on for about 30 mins a day now, just to check on retainers.

I'm waiting for next patch, hope it will add something to do, running the same 2 dungeons for esos just doesn't hit the spot.

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Originally Posted by Kathryn

It's boring? No seriously the same old 2 dungeon grind for tomes is the same old crap everyday, I can whole handedly put my hand in the air and say I haven't logged in for over a month now as I have had no inclination to do the 2 same shitty dungeons over and over and levelling new classes just get's absolutely tiresome as well.

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So don't? You can also get esoterics from treasure maps, Seal Rock, trial and leveling roulettes, and Alexander. You have to play a little more than if you were just spamming expert roulette, but it's not like that's the only way to get them.

For me FFXIV offers still the same amount of entertainment like 2 years ago. Maybe it is so because I never did expert roulettes, or because I was always raiding.. who knows.
I definitely expected more fresh air and content in Heavensward and in this way I am a bit disappointed. I just hope that the new idea to introduce only 2 dungeons with some new content each patch will be well-though and innovative.

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Originally Posted by Dererk

your suggestion isn't helpful not every one feels the need to level every class not to mention you have to gear them when people are already having inventory problems.

Heck some people only play 1 class I know a person who just plays WHM. leveling other classes is in no way to be considered content.

It also didn't help that every piece of battle related content is in duty finder instances. give us real open world content SE.

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Note: I say everything here as someone who is not at all bored with the game, and has plenty to do. However, I can take a step back and see it from others' perspectives as well. So, please bear in mind, that nothing I'm saying here reflects my own current view of the game... ie. I'm not bored or burned out on anything. I can still, however, see places where it could be improved upon.

The thing is, everyone saying they want SE to introduce new content, is implicitly saying "Introduce more content that I will want to do". And, well, I hope you can see the problem there, because it's the same situation in the game now. There is lots to do in the game, but not everyone is interested in it. And there's nothing for that. SE can't make content that's going to appeal to everyone. The best they can do is think up ideas for content that they think/hope players will enjoy, and put it out there.

So, even if they did introduce some new systems and some new types of content - even open world (which I'd like, too) - you'd still have people like those in this thread saying "there isn't enough to do and I'm bored" - because that new content wouldn't necessarily appeal to them.

Also, if they did implement new systems, guess what? Because of the kind of MMO this is (casual-friendly, theme-park), (just about) any new content they introduce has to be "accessible" enough for people to jump in, learn it, and feel like they've accomplished something. The result is you have people swarming the content, burning through it as fast as possible, because any sense of achievement is short-lived before they're hungry for the next reward... and within a short while.. maybe a few weeks, tops, you have people saying "Okay. Finished that. What's next? I'm bored again".

Modern MMOs struggle to keep players engaged long-term because they are, frankly, not designed to keep players engaged long-term. FFXIV fits very neatly under this category. The difference is, a lesser developer, without the ability SE has to crank out new content as fast as they do (which is still too slow for many, apparently) would have gone F2P a long time ago, because they could not keep up with the demand for new content, and would lose too many subs to people who felt it wasn't worth it.

The trick to this, and it's something newer MMO players don't want to hear, is to implement content that has a much longer effort-to-reward cycle. People who complain about how awful and terrible XI was, will often also say how they played it for years... 10+ in many cases. Well, how horrible could it really have been? Something kept them there and playing. Something kept them engaged. The community had a big part of that (though the community grew out of the same thing I'm getting at here). In FFXI... getting something that was good, and worthwhile took time and effort - serious time and effort - and very often, no short amount of help from others.

Let's look at Artifact gear in XI compared to XIV, as I think this is a great example.

I remember sneaking through Ifrit's Cauldron trying to acquire one of my DRG pieces, knowing I was screwed if I was detected. Talk about a nail biting experience; skulking around, from one coffer position to the other 'til I found it, praying to Altana I wouldn't catch aggro. But man, the joy and gratification I felt when I finally found it, opened it, and successfully snatched that armor into my inventory. Not only had I survived a slow, and tense trek through a deadly, high level area, I'd successfully acquired what I was there for. This was at least a decade ago now, and I still remember that moment clearly. And that was just one piece. The conclusion of the DRG story arc, and the fight to acquire the final DRG piece, the helm, in Temple of Uggelipeh (Tonberry heaven, for those who haven't played XI) also stands out. Awesome stuff.

By comparison, in XIV, you do a couple short, easy quests... and voila.. You have not only your 45 AF, but your 50 AF too! They practically throw it at you in this game. Thus, AF gear - job specific gear - something that, in XI, was a significant milestone for a job - is pretty much meaningless in XIV. Level 50, job-defining gear, and it's obsolete the moment you acquire it. That's kinda sad....

People will say "Well, yeah, but that's because there's much better level 50 gear now". That's correct. And, it's because SE throws new gear around way too often in my opinion. And worse, the new gear they introduce completely obsolesces the previous gear. It's one of the most ridiculous gear overturn rates I've ever seen in a MMO, in this game. XI? Gear pieces - highly sought, even contested gear pieces could take you a long time to achieve... but they also remained relevant for a long time... across multiple jobs.

Anyway... for me, the problem with XIV (and all newer, theme-park style MMOs) is there isn't enough long-term goals to work toward. Not enough meaningful milestones to achieve. So, people burn through the content, without even really trying, and are left saying "Okay, so now what?".

This game needs rare and difficult but oh-so-worth it goals (gear and otherwise) for people to work toward. Such as gear that won't become obsolete in a couple levels (or the next update patch), and that other players will recognize when they see it. This happened a lot in XI (and not only from camping rare NMs, though that was one source of it). That gear looked awesome, was awesome, and lasted a long time.

They could also make other meaningful goals far more challenging to achieve, giving players a long-term to strive for - something they can't finish within a week. In XI, getting Rank 5, and earning your airship pass was a huge achievement. I remember hitting Rank 5 to be kind of an unofficial litmus test for the "dedication" of a player, seeing as how the Rank 4 missions could be very difficult to complete. Unlocking Sky was a major milestone. Unlocking Sea was a major milestone. Hell, reaching Jeuno for the first time was a major milestone, not because of any specific "gating" by the game, but because it was such a dangerous trip to make (a dangerous world is a whole other topic, though :p).

People love to dismiss XI (because it's XI and there's this negative knee-jerk reaction to anything that references it; people often dismiss such statements, without thinking about the larger point being made). But in terms of player longevity, and keeping people engaged and playing, for months and years at a stretch (In almost 8 years in XI, I hardly ever saw people say they were leaving the game for a while 'cause they were out of things to do and were bored), it did a lot of things right. And, no... not all of them were "making people grind forever for them" (a claim that's often exaggerated anyway, usually by people who consider almost any amount of time/effort to be a "horrible grind").

So long as they keep on the development path they're on... and so long as people remain able to burn through content as fast as they do, acquire (and toss aside) new gear as quickly as they do, and there's no long-term goals that people can work toward...this is going to continue to be the case. Just like it is in every other theme-park style MMO.