To Square Enix, these are the reasons why I am currently unsubbed from the FF14.

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Originally Posted by ManuelBravo

So over all you got burned out, complain like everyone else over things that have been designed in online MMO's for yours now, you have RL issues, and you lack motivation so finding an outlet by blaming the product. So same as any other previous thread that people have made in the past... -.- and like any other thread; good riddance. Many hated Eureka, many liked it and like most players will resub once new content comes in and will become another useless circle. Feed back takes time to implement so rage quitting is always fun to read. I'm even more surprise that people can't just take a break and say, look forward to coming back once things have gotten better.. kudos on at least being descriptive.

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/atleast10characters

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Originally Posted by ManuelBravo

So you choose to disregard the basic principle of business as a whole?

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Just like you chose to ignore all my counterpoints above?

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being in the programming field you should know the amount of time and testing it takes to implement things that seem like nothing to the consumer, however can take time on the back end. I'm surprised this has note ven crossed your mind.

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Completely irrelevant to an end-user. My understanding of the backend has absolutely no bearing on my expectations as a consumer. People should not be saying oh its ok Yoshi, we know you have spaghetti code to deal with. Not our problem, it's his job to identify solutions and implement them in meaningful and timely ways regardless of the challenge.

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Like any other game phases / patches are meant to implement changes based on feed back. What your suggesting is for people to give it 100% percent, and then come up with more creative solutions later on which in turn can burn out creative minds and make them work harder rather than at a steady step that would be comfortable to the staff.

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No. I am expecting the devs to actually use their brains the first time around they design their content to make sure its actually:

1) Fun
2) Well designed
3) Scalable

We keep getting features that not only miss a mark, but often multiple/all. Then they can FURTHER iterate on pain points, or if there are limited pain points, they can IMPROVE/expand the content.

The problem is that they're constantly fixing existing content because it just isn't well designed, fun, or scalable. It severely limits their ability to design new content, let alone GOOD new content. Not only that, but we're also riding an incredibly rigid content development template that is getting stale.

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Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline

We keep getting features that not only miss a mark, but often multiple/all.

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Who's "mark"? Yours? What gives you the right to define the "mark" for me?

The game has ~600k active characters and there's what, a couple hundred people between forums, twitter, youtube, reddit that are outraged? Heck, I'll round it to 1,000 just to overcompensate. That is LITERALLY .167% of the player base! I'd say they are hitting "marks" pretty well.

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Originally Posted by Remyogic

The game has ~600k active characters and there's what, a couple hundred people between forums, twitter, youtube, reddit that are outraged? Heck, I'll round it to 1,000 just to overcompensate. That is LITERALLY .167% of the player base! I'd say they are hitting "marks" pretty well.

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"A complaint is worth twice a compliment"

And not only people writing on forums/reddit/elsewhere that get angry/happy. Large majority stay silent. But get their own thought... my FC get a 100% unhappyness about the app and get bored by the content, their playtime fell off... not only mine. Where we could. And dont count that majority we had from ARR release to now have left the game. 2 other sometime spoke on forum, long time they left this.

Also, i am not the one who speaks for them, but instead of what you think, there isnt only 0,2% unhappy with the way FFXIV is taking...


Yeah there are also many people liking it, never said all was unhappy. But not because "some are happy" that "those happy are in the good mind"

You speak manytime "the feature is not there so no way to complain" ... i dont see why? the feature is there soon, probably close after 4.3 and we know what we will have at first, we just dont know what they will add to use the mogcoins...

Try to not see only on your garden...

Reason 1 is a big enough reason for anyone to quit. I'm hanging around till POTD 2.0 to see and then will likely unsub untill the next xpac. Truthfully though unless they really knock the next expansion outta the park I probably won't be back.

I read your complaints, and well...ok?

They all just seem frivolous to me.

Complaint 1)
You found out the formula and got bored. Ok? Thats 99% of all games. There is a structure most games follow in some fashion, its what partially defines them, and what is pragmatic. Yes it can get boring, but thats the name of hte game. You expect htem to 'change it up' and completely redesign the game? Even redesigns will be some iterration of what we have, because, well, it works.


Complaint 2)
This is by far the most inane one out of all of them. You can cap on Mendacity by just doing EX roulette 5 days. If you do EX, Trials, and Alliance, you can cap in 3 days. "But Im a DPS Player!" So you have no friends to play iwth? No FC mates? You dont have 1 healer or tank to queue with? Staying up to relative gear lvl is probably the easiest thing to do in this MMO of all the MMOs Ive played. They give you a lot of options, and frankly it doesnt take that much time to do them. 3 Days worth of work for about an hour and a half isnt a whole lot. And if youre doing Sigma/Delta/etc, you shouldnt be having a problem getting to appropriate ilvls even as a casual.

Complaint 3)
Old content gets outdated. Thats the way it works in MMOs. It sucks sometimes cause some of the old stuff is interesting. SE does their best to encourage people to play some of the old stuff (Except Diadem probably, cause that was....yeah). Again though, you dont have FC mates or friends? No one to do stuff with? If youre not making friends or being a part of an FC and engaging with players, youre not going to get as much in the game. MMOs are part social. thats the way it is. Ive gone through all the old content. Still farm some of it for Birds, Ponies, funsies, etc. They come up in roulettes. Again, this stuff isnt hard to get into. Im not seeing your PoV.

Complaint 4)

Ok, so you stopped crafting/gathering all together cause your inventory filled up and you decided not to get rid of older mats? Really? And then you dont like doing the relic stuff cause "Oh, new stuff will come out before i finish the old so why bother?"

More and more, it seems like you want easy mode rather than being pragmatic and making decisions about the game. Inventory full? Sell some of it, Vendor it, Dump it and then continue doing the stuff. New content coming? Keep going with what you have (they dont out date it immediately). Beast tribes are kinda a pain to do? Theyre time gaited? Yeah, they do that so you will do them daily. THats part of the game. Sorry if that sucks for you, but if youre going to play, expect to invest time into it a bit. Doing beast tribe dailies doesnt take hours (well after ARR). As I mentioned, it sounds like you want easy mode. You want all the perks of people who dedicate an ok amount of time, wihtout any actual dedication.

Complaint 5)
"I got lazy cause I became nihilistic about the game, now I suck at DPS. Thats SEs fault."
That about sums it up. Getting through Normal mode of Trials is more about understanding the fight mechanics than about being a "Hardcore DPS". If you cant manage that, than thats you not even trying to 'play' the game.

Complaint 6)
SE is dong things you dont like, and yorue not happy. Get in line. Theres are things I dont like about FFXIV (I dont even touch the glamour wardrobe), and yeah I would like it addressed. But there are lots of things I like. Everything you complained about I have no issue with, and actually enjoy. I like the trials, I like the difficulty it takes to be good, I like the side content. I like how I can cap on mendacity with some pretty ok effort on my part. I dont mind storage space or otherr issues. I dont want SE to hand me things that hardcore players get through their efforts, much like I dont want them to hand someone who cant even be bothered to play the game the same things I worked hard for.

Complaint 7)
They dont value you? They create holiday events that have free emotes, glamour, or mounts on a regular basis. Theyre fairly consistent with their role out. The dev team is passionate about not making this game suck, and are attempting to give casuals a way in to see the game, as well as give hardcore players a challange and run for their money. Theyre not gods, theyre not perfect. they will make mistakes. Every developer does. But saying "OH! SE HATES ME AS A CUSTOEMR CAUSE THEY HAVE CAMPAIGNS THAT TARGET CERTAIN GROUPS!" is silly. You ever think maybe they do that so you cant abuse the system? If you know its coming up, why resub when you cna get a free few days by letting your sub run out and using the campaign? They reward active players with events and cosmetics you can get for FREE. They reward people who say "Hey, Imma sub for 90+ days" and pledge their money to FFXIV. They do quite a lot that Ihavent seen other MMOs do. Are they perfect? No. Do they try? Sure.



Yeah, everything you said comes off as "I cant be bothered, and its SEs fault."

Frankly, if this is how you feel, yeah, unsub. This game isnt for you.

In your edit you mention GW2 as being more responsive to it's customer. I have the exact opposite opinion.

Four things GW2 did that annoy the heck out of me:

• Run rough shod over their world's lore. I was a hardcore lore fan of Guild Wars 1. There were so many violations of lore in GW2 that from launch I was annoyed. Let's just start with the most glaring one: the very skin tone of the humans is wrong. The Ascalonians were European in skin tone, and they came to Kryta as refugees. The Krytans are a deep brown skin tone with features that resemble the native people of Australia. In GW2 the Krytans went Caucasian - despite the Ascalonians remaining a distinct enclave in a separate town. Then you have the sky people - that include both humans and charr - and have for centuries. Yet the peace between humans and charr is extremely new and the lore is very clear on the point that the war between them did not have exceptions - certain factors worked to keep these two at extreme odds. These just scratch the surface. Give me a few days to pour over it all again and I'd had a multi-chapter essay on lore violations in GW2... including where GW2 violated not just GW1 lore, but it's own GW2 lore...
• The dungeon fiasco. Laying off the dungeon team and abandoning dungeons because they couldn't figure out how to fix the problem of lacking a trinity.
• Putting the trinity back in with raids - in a way that forced classes into roles that had previously played extremely differently... and now had only one viable role for raids (I am most specifically referring changing the 'ranger' into the 'druid' here - even though I love playing a druid, this was the wrong move and the playstyle of a druid is a nearly complete opposite to that of most people who played ranger before - the ideal 'casual soloist farm pets' class turning into a 100% 'high intensity situational awareness demanding healer'...).
• Graphics settings - the contrast is too extreme, and there is no dial to adjust this. The game exists in extremes of light and shadow. Where half your face can be so bright it is blurred and the other half can be in total darkness... This goes beyond the style - the style is amazing... but for some reason you can't tone down the extremes... Most games have an assortment of graphics settings to fix for an end user's local conditions... Guild Wars 2 does not.

There's more than three... just those three keep popping up for me.

Now you complain about housing... but compared to the home instance in Guild Wars 2... the situation here is amazingly good...

and is a housing plot is too hard to get, you can still get an apartment - and then customize it. Few other modern games offer than. Mostly here, ESO, and Wildstar. Granted of those 3 FFXIV has the worst version... but it is miles ahead of GW2 on this score.

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Originally Posted by Remyogic

Who's "mark"? Yours? What gives you the right to define the "mark" for me?

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Correct. My mark. I'm not defining it for you, I'm defining it for me, and for anyone who happens to agree with me. I apologize if you mistook that for anything else.

However, rather than be emotional, why not try to demonstrate where I am incorrect in my analysis?

For instance - take the few example systems I've detailed below and give me some insight into how each of these was either well designed, scalable, or fun; in your own words of course.

• Chocobo Racing
• LoV
• Diadem (1 & 2)
• Eureka
• Materia
• Dungeons
• Squadrons
• Retainers
• Airships/Subs/any other menu content

Yoshi-P and his team seem to be scared to take off the "Training Wheels" since ARR's launch. The gear trendmill is beyond bad, the patches are predictable (which they shouldn't, they need to keep the players guessing and or surprised), the open world (outside of Hunts) is a barren wasteland (sorry Thanalan), the gear designs keep getting more and more feminine, Eureka (imo) was a total flop (despite waiting almost a year for it), and the weekly lockouts imo are continuing to hurt this game.


By keeping a weekly cap on tomes and raid gear, they make the grind even slower than it shouldn't be. I think they do this, like housing, to keep the players subbed, despite Yoshi once saying "We don't want the game to be something the players need to do everyday. If they want to leave and take a break, its fine."

This translate too: "You can take a break, but if you're gone for too long you will not only be behind the 1% but you also lose your finite in-game benefits like your houses, etc. So leave, but leave in the knowledge that you'll lose something and wont have it when you come back".

Between Jump Potions (gameshark codes), upping the prices of misc. things on mogstation, to the upcoming "Companion app" and having micro transactions via kupo nuts/coins and Premium for extra benefits over the common player, they have set the bar even lower and imho they are becoming a little too greedy and are not devoting time to improving this beautiful game.

SE seems to resist "change" in this game and that is what is hurting it and will continue to hurt it in the upcoming years. I'm not saying the game needs a "complete overhaul" but changes NEED to be made.

Threads like this, that explain (in great detail) why the unsubbing player is unsubscribing is important and SE needs to take this into consideration going forward. SE needs to listen to the NA/EU base, and not just the JP base. They need feedback like this so change can be made. To those who keep attacking Bubblegum for his explanation, I think you need to stop white knighting and look at the bigger picture. Voices like Bubblegum's need to be heard and respected.

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Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline

Correct. My mark. I'm not defining it for you, I'm defining it for me, and for anyone who happens to agree with me. I apologize if you mistook that for anything else.

However, rather than be emotional, why not try to demonstrate where I am incorrect in my analysis?

For instance - take the few example systems I've detailed below and give me some insight into how each of these was either well designed, scalable, or fun; in your own words of course.

• Chocobo Racing
• LoV
• Diadem (1 & 2)
• Eureka
• Materia
• Dungeons
• Squadrons
• Retainers
• Airships/Subs/any other menu content

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Ooh, I want to get in on this.

Chocobo Racing
I really love the way they designed genetics in chocobo racing (i.e., realistically). The abilities and the way you customize them are pretty interesting as well. I had a lot of fun with this content for a while, though as I've gained in rank I have hit a bit of a wall where it's not really worth trying to advance. But I got plenty of fun out of it, so I'm pretty pleased. A bit annoyed that I can't really complete the win-based MGP challenges anymore though.

Lords of Verminion
I admit I haven't actually finished all the tutorials, because I suck at LoV (good at making an initial plan, terrible at reacting to changes on the battlefield). However, the depth of strategy here is pretty cool and I used to spend quite a lot of time statting out good combos of minions. I am impressed at how well they made this clearly mouse-driven style of game work with a controller. Even though I've kind of run out of ways to really enjoy it, the 10,000 MGP weekly challenge keeps this somewhat relevant for me.

Diadem
I never did Diadem when it was current, but I have looked at it after the fact (duoing from my FC house) and it seemed like an interesting idea. I can see why it failed on a combat level, but I do think the gathering was a neat idea as an alternate way to get some rarer items. The spoils have also been pretty useful as another option for getting various materials.

Eureka
I initially resisted Eureka because the idea of FFXI-style grinding wasn't appealing. By the time I decided to try it, everyone had moved to the NM train model. I've only recently started actually participating in Eureka, but I have to say I find it strangely compelling. There's a lot of downtime on the NM train, and my attempts to level outside of it have been pretty terrible, but the camaraderie of waiting on NMs and the level to which people go out of their way to help low-level nubs like me has been pretty great. I really misjudged this one.

Materia
Materia has gone through so many forms, all the way back to the strategic conversions of 1.0. Now that they've added materia to most dropped gear and allowed for materia removal, this system has really become something amazing. I'm pretty lazy with updating my combat gear, but in leveling crafting and gathering on alts the system as it stands now has been hugely helpful. I finally don't feel like my materia is just going to sit there waiting for the perfect time to be used. There are tons of ways to get good materia as well, and it seems pretty well-balanced between allowing you to easily get decent materia and it taking effort to get grade VIs and crafting overmelds.

Dungeons
While I appreciate the early dungeon design with the alternate routes and such, they quickly became frustrating because no one ever uses them. Most of my alts still don't have map completion on a number of ARR dungeons. The newer dungeon design cuts out the fat and just leaves a great experience with fantastic bosses (Genbu being one of my all-time favorites in terms of neat mechanics), awesome visuals, and usually great music. I still love the Stormblood boss theme to death. I hate the type of speed running that was in vogue in the 2.x series, and I think they've done a good job of limiting that sort of thing to a fairly reasonable compromise. I have no complaints about dungeons.

Squadrons
I love squadrons to death. Initially leveling them up isn't terribly compelling, but once you unlock the weeklies and are strategizing what items to go after, doing missions just to hit synergies for cheap bonus items, and recruiting new wacky characters, it gets pretty fun. I am anxiously awaiting 4.3 for the squadron glamours. But the reason I love squadrons is command missions. There is no better way, in my view, to level a character to 50. Gaining 2+ levels per run, being able to kill everything without anyone complaining about taking your time... it's bliss. If you like the old school dungeons, this is the way to experience them.

Retainers
I have a lot of retainers and a lot of characters and I make the most of them. Now that ventures are a currency and not an item, I have a ton (over 2k on my main at one point) and I use retainers extensively to gather items, especially for FC projects. I spend my red gatherers' scrips getting them better gear (because how many hi-cordials do you need, really?) and spend a lot of effort customizing and glamouring them all.

Airships/Subs
I only got into the airship game after Stormblood released, as I moved servers and started my own FC. I've personally built every type of airship and sub piece, and capped all their levels, and enjoyed doing it. It's laid back content you can do whenever without much pressure, and you can get pretty cool stuff at relatively little cost beyond the initial building. Every now and then I send my retainer squad out to get a bunch of dark matter clusters for repairs, but otherwise it's a well-oiled airship/sub machine that provides me with a ton of weird mats, materia, and crystals to do with as I please.

Overall I'm very happy with the direction of this game. I never really thought about all these systems separately, but it is kind of amazing how much different cool stuff they've made here. I'm also a big fan of hunts, maps, chocobo companions, and gardening. There's a ton of stuff that you can do at once, which makes me feel like I'm being efficient even when I'm not really doing anything. Now if only I could get off my lazy butt and actually customize my housing a bit...

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Originally Posted by Remyogic

The game has ~600k active characters .

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Tbf I'm pretty sure we went a little below that with the latest unofficial census

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Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline

• Materia

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Oh god do not get me started on Materia. God awful mechanic. They could have made it something fun, but no. Enjoy blowing all your money into smithereens. Again. Again. Again. Do it again. This time for sure. Nope, maybe somewhere in the next 100.

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Originally Posted by Nestama

75 days is roughly 2 and a half months. That means a player can subscribe for one month, stop for two months and never be in risk of losing their house if they decide to resubscribe when the next patch comes out. Keeping it at 45 days, but extending the reclaim time to 6 months is a morefair option. Someone without a house doesn't have to wait until the next patch comes out to get a house of their own (and after waiting... two weeks? and this is assuming SE release new wards again) and the person who took an extended break can still reclaim mostly everything from their home (80% of the gil spent and some/most/all furnishings) and decide if they want to buy a personal house again.

The reason why housing has a time limit (ever since 3.1) is because housing is extremely limited (4320 per server, right?). I'm not familiar with GW2 housing, so I'll ask you this: is it unlimited and is it all instanced (two things that make it different from FXIV's)? Does the same apply to Wild Star (I think you start off alone with your home, but then can make a neighbourhood with other players)?

FFXI was... it really depended on if you had friends to play with. If you did, then you had stuff to do. If not, then you probably would only be on for a short time before unsubscribing out of boredom or some other reason (even if there was content to do).

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So you are admitting the game is so bad, we need short relinquish timer on housing? So you are basically admitting the malicious intent in the short timer? You clearly do not know what fair means. You would only had a point if content lasted, if SE can retain average attention, not play 1 -2 weeks, now everything is stale so time unsub for next reskin version. Yoshi-p even commented on the treadmill and knows he can't be doing the same things each expansion and is on the "second expansion" and needs to do something different. in 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, only difference was diadem, and deep, rest of it is generally the same, running 2 or 3 dungeons for 450 tome cap.. etc... You really did not expect me to rip appart the self defeating logic here? basically admitting the game is so bad you need to shackle housing to keep people subbed?

So I ask again, what is the real issue with making it 75-90 days? it should be a month to 1 month and 15 days longer then it is now, lets be fair please. Not the player's fault SE is unable to fix a problem.

FFXI had different things to while having different ways of doing then. FFXIV has not changed much while WoW and ffxi changed lots. Like how SE flip a switch to make 2 handed axe war useless to useful overnight. Fixing SCH from being borderline useless to borderline Op in one update. Here it is "we need to tip toe because we cannot make something op" (nerfs SMN because "too op" while nerfing SCH to the ground (thought this was an obvious reference to 4.0 but clearly not) FFXI Salvage? assault VNM? etc? cap BCNM? you had to learn how to adjust and such. Here in ffxiv it is the same thing over and over while pretending glorified fate train running is "new"

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Originally Posted by Melichoir

Complaint 4)

Ok, so you stopped crafting/gathering all together cause your inventory filled up and you decided not to get rid of older mats? Really? And then you dont like doing the relic stuff cause "Oh, new stuff will come out before i finish the old so why bother?"

More and more, it seems like you want easy mode rather than being pragmatic and making decisions about the game. Inventory full? Sell some of it, Vendor it, Dump it and then continue doing the stuff. New content coming? Keep going with what you have (they dont out date it immediately). Beast tribes are kinda a pain to do? Theyre time gaited? Yeah, they do that so you will do them daily. THats part of the game. Sorry if that sucks for you, but if youre going to play, expect to invest time into it a bit. Doing beast tribe dailies doesnt take hours (well after ARR). As I mentioned, it sounds like you want easy mode. You want all the perks of people who dedicate an ok amount of time, wihtout any actual dedication.

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You just do not understand what it is like to be a decatated crafter, and no being an "omnicrafter" or crafting here and there is not what I mean. When all you do is craft, the inventory is not enough, because how much different items stuff requires, purely a game flaw.

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Originally Posted by Vstarstruck

snip

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If you're not playing the game for 2-3 months, then you really don't need a (personal) house. SE have handled housing poorly, this is completely true, but you also can't forget about the players who have taken advantage of SE's lack of hindsight and finding loopholes. There are those who own entire wards, either with personal housing (before it was limited), or with FC Workshops. If any of those players stopped playing for 45 days, then entire wards will open up. Giving those players more freedom to take a 2-3 month break means those wards will always belong to them. Again, SE is to fault for their lack of hindsight, but you can't give players a free pass either.

And most of those things in FFXI (may) require you to be in a group of friends/raiders (Trusts are... okay), to which I say again: if you're doing stuff alone, you're most likely not going to stay for long. Especially if you're waaaaaaaaaaaaay behind in Job Points. I'm looking at the nerfs SMN was given in 4.2 and none of those affect SCH whatsoever. SCH has so far only received buffs. SE makes these nerf/buff decisions so that all Jobs will feel welcome in Savage/Extreme content.

IS there such a thing as an effective casual?

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Originally Posted by Nestama

Giving those players more freedom to take a 2-3 month break means those wards will always belong to them.

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Those wards are always going to belong to them anyway, because they're not going to unsub because that would mean losing their wards. The only thing that has been accomplished here is that they can't take a break in their sub, so SE has secured their money.

This is of no benefit to other players.

The unchanging state of the game and the general lack of enjoyable content are the reason I pretty much raid log now, depending on what I do later in the year, this might be the first time I unsub from the game.

I love this game to death, but I find myself just not having much fun outside of raiding with my static (and occasional silly RP for a laugh) might be a case of burnout, but I am certainly finding it harder to justify staying subbed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nestama

There are those who own entire wards, either with personal housing (before it was limited), or with FC Workshops. If any of those players stopped playing for 45 days, then entire wards will open up. Giving those players more freedom to take a 2-3 month break means those wards will always belong to them. Again, SE is to fault for their lack of hindsight, but you can't give players a free pass either.

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implying 45 or 90 days makes a difference the grand scheme of things
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...30/877/271.gif
You are only saying that because you blindly accept that from SE, if they released it with it being 90 days, I guarantee you, you would not be fighting for a shorter time for the auto demo.

First off the people that did that before things got limited did so because of hard work that is fine. Second off the reason there was a shortage later on is because the gil sinks in this game are bad. There is way too much gil gain compared to gil sinks, so now it is "Oh I get a house because nothing else to do with it" Why did SE even bother to lower the costs of housing in the first place? They should kept the prices what they where when released if they where so limited in how many they can give out.

For the second wave however, the ones that did it with the extra shiro housing should be banned. It is no different then the limit break "exploit" and "loopholes" It was quite clear SE wanted give more people a chance to get housing, not have some world first FC buy up a ward.

Sorry people have a right to keep their hard work, not the player fault SE can't release content that lasts long enough, along with not their fault SE can't give enough housing. Should not be punishing the players for your shortcomings, what is why it needs to be longer, 75- 90 days is fine, still prevents forever quitters from keeping a house, while at the same time covering enough time in case something happens in RL too.

If you want to argue that it should not be more then 45 days you need to try again, not giving weak blind fanboy arguments.

bump.

I want this to stay on the first page.

Hmm...

Reason 1, the formula in the game never changes.
- Yeah, the three month armor redundancy thing is also why materia is basically useless. They had to make it recyclable and even then, the user has to pull the materia out, see if any got lost in the transition, and then replace the ones that broke. That and the armor sets need more work to account for anatomy of the Miqote and Au-Ra races, as they've had too many pieces with cloaks or other oddities causing clipping on appendages such as the horns and tail.

Reason 2, I can’t be an effective casual.
- This is the main story gating issue along with the frankly unwieldly queue times for dps. The only reason I main a tank job is because of the damn roulette queues.

Reason 3, other contents other than the mainstream contents has low population of players.
- Yeah, this is that same issue that is messing up the market boards on some older crafted gear and such. There's also the issue of the FCs basically turning into a shattered husk of what they once were because of the housing system and player migration incentives. Seriously, going through some of the housing districts is like looking at a museum sometimes.

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Originally Posted by Talraen

Ooh, I want to get in on this.

Chocobo Racing
I really love the way they designed genetics in chocobo racing (i.e., realistically). The abilities and the way you customize them are pretty interesting as well. I had a lot of fun with this content for a while, though as I've gained in rank I have hit a bit of a wall where it's not really worth trying to advance. But I got plenty of fun out of it, so I'm pretty pleased. A bit annoyed that I can't really complete the win-based MGP challenges anymore though.

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So, based on what you're saying it's "fun", but lacks the well designed/scalability marks.

I won't argue against your definition of fun, but what I think Chocobo racing should have been is basically FF14's iteration of Mario Kart or Crash Team Racing. A side activity that is simply fun to play with friends during downtime. It didn't need all the progression systems and stuff that drove it further to a solo adventure.

In order to be well designed it'd need good modes for solo matching, team matching, as well as allowing people to grab people out of PF/FC/LS's to to go up against. Allow people to spectate and bet and set up their own prizes. As far as rewards go, this REALLY should have been the system where you unlocked new colors, some bardings, etc, rather than the menu content it was placed in.

Lastly, scalability is important. I would have liked to have seen a crisply made level editor UI so people could craft their own tracks and a means to share them among the community. Not only that, but time trials or battles could work.

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Lords of Verminion
I admit I haven't actually finished all the tutorials, because I suck at LoV (good at making an initial plan, terrible at reacting to changes on the battlefield). However, the depth of strategy here is pretty cool and I used to spend quite a lot of time statting out good combos of minions. I am impressed at how well they made this clearly mouse-driven style of game work with a controller. Even though I've kind of run out of ways to really enjoy it, the 10,000 MGP weekly challenge keeps this somewhat relevant for me.

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Based on your response, I don't see "fun" mentioned, it's definitely not scalable, and well designed is up for debate.

For me, LoV could have gone 2 different routes. The route I care significantly less about would have been a pokemon styled approach.

The better approach I would have liked to have seen is SE to leverage some of their existing IPs. Namely FFT. I envisioned a system that was basically like editing FFT teams and battling out in scenarios and against other players, almost like a really neat version of FF chess.

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Diadem
I never did Diadem when it was current, but I have looked at it after the fact (duoing from my FC house) and it seemed like an interesting idea. I can see why it failed on a combat level, but I do think the gathering was a neat idea as an alternate way to get some rarer items. The spoils have also been pretty useful as another option for getting various materials.

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So not fun, not well designed, nor was it scalable. Got it.

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Eureka
I initially resisted Eureka because the idea of FFXI-style grinding wasn't appealing. By the time I decided to try it, everyone had moved to the NM train model. I've only recently started actually participating in Eureka, but I have to say I find it strangely compelling. There's a lot of downtime on the NM train, and my attempts to level outside of it have been pretty terrible, but the camaraderie of waiting on NMs and the level to which people go out of their way to help low-level nubs like me has been pretty great. I really misjudged this one.

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Like many mentioned, the only reason it's "fun" is because it's an activity that is so trivial it allows downtime to socialize. So does AFKing in town, but that's hardly what I would considered well designed fun content.

The Magia board being nothing but a binary if/then statement doesn't lend well to it being well designed either, and it certainly isn't scalable as we've seen now that people have moved past the content.

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Materia
Materia has gone through so many forms, all the way back to the strategic conversions of 1.0. Now that they've added materia to most dropped gear and allowed for materia removal, this system has really become something amazing. I'm pretty lazy with updating my combat gear, but in leveling crafting and gathering on alts the system as it stands now has been hugely helpful. I finally don't feel like my materia is just going to sit there waiting for the perfect time to be used. There are tons of ways to get good materia as well, and it seems pretty well-balanced between allowing you to easily get decent materia and it taking effort to get grade VIs and crafting overmelds.

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So you are saying that the process of overmelding is fun? The ridiculously prohibitive cost and tedium and low % success rates on binary/boring stats was fun to you?

It definitely isn't well designed with how many clicks it takes to get through the process, and with how basic materia itself is, it's certainly not fun putting in bland +stats that do absolutely nothing to your gameplay either.

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Overall I'm very happy with the direction of this game. I never really thought about all these systems separately, but it is kind of amazing how much different cool stuff they've made here. I'm also a big fan of hunts, maps, chocobo companions, and gardening. There's a ton of stuff that you can do at once, which makes me feel like I'm being efficient even when I'm not really doing anything. Now if only I could get off my lazy butt and actually customize my housing a bit...

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I just kind of gave up after the first few. It's clear you didn't understand the exercise. You label these things as "cool", but the gameplay forms you list are either zerg content (i.e. not engaging) or menu content (aka click this, get that), and that getting stuff for minimal effort makes you feel efficient, even when you're not really doing anything.

I appreciate the time you took to respond though regardless, as I suspect the person I originally did won't.

If you haven't noticed, any feedback from western players usually fall on deaf ears. Goodluck on seeing any particular changes unless the Japanese fanbase, the audience that Square Enix only cares about in regards to feedback, are vocal about any said changes

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Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline

So, based on what you're saying it's "fun", but lacks the well designed/scalability marks.

I won't argue against your definition of fun, but what I think Chocobo racing should have been is basically FF14's iteration of Mario Kart or Crash Team Racing. A side activity that is simply fun to play with friends during downtime. It didn't need all the progression systems and stuff that drove it further to a solo adventure.

In order to be well designed it'd need good modes for solo matching, team matching, as well as allowing people to grab people out of PF/FC/LS's to to go up against. Allow people to spectate and bet and set up their own prizes. As far as rewards go, this REALLY should have been the system where you unlocked new colors, some bardings, etc, rather than the menu content it was placed in.

Lastly, scalability is important. I would have liked to have seen a crisply made level editor UI so people could craft their own tracks and a means to share them among the community. Not only that, but time trials or battles could work.

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I can't agree with you here. I don't think it's fair to expect a side activity to be on par with the best kart racing series of all time, or the best kart racing game outside of that series. (Side note, I appreciate the CTR love! Great game.) What you're describing sounds pretty awesome, but it also sounds like a completely different game they should sell on its own. Particularly the level editor part.

For an MMO side activity, I expect something which is fun to do, doesn't demand constant attention, and can be played for a very long time. (Note that I wish MMO stuff wasn't all designed to last forever, because who has time for that? But it is what I've come to expect and it seems like everyone else wants it.) I think chocobo racing hits all of those notes.

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Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline

Based on your response, I don't see "fun" mentioned, it's definitely not scalable, and well designed is up for debate.

For me, LoV could have gone 2 different routes. The route I care significantly less about would have been a pokemon styled approach.

The better approach I would have liked to have seen is SE to leverage some of their existing IPs. Namely FFT. I envisioned a system that was basically like editing FFT teams and battling out in scenarios and against other players, almost like a really neat version of FF chess.

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I have some of the same arguments here, especially since you're literally comparing Verminion to a different game the same company made (FF Tactics). I would love to see a Tactics-style side game in FFXIV, and I don't think the existence of Lords of Verminion prevents that. It's a totally different thing. They were looking for something relatively quick and action-oriented, and they did an OK job. Not great by any means, but not terrible. I do think the game lacks any compelling reason to play it, though I think that's largely a symptom of its unpopularity. Why invest in something most people don't care about? I hope they try more stuff like this in the future, hopefully with better results.

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Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline

Like many mentioned, the only reason it's "fun" is because it's an activity that is so trivial it allows downtime to socialize. So does AFKing in town, but that's hardly what I would considered well designed fun content.

The Magia board being nothing but a binary if/then statement doesn't lend well to it being well designed either, and it certainly isn't scalable as we've seen now that people have moved past the content.

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That's a fair analysis, but so what? If there's one thing I learned from Eureka, it's how much difference the downtime in a game like FFXI actually made to its enjoyment. FFXI was extremely obtuse and anti-player, yet people still loved it, and Eureka taps into a lot of the reason why that was the case. Why is that a bad thing? If it's designed to be fun, and it is fun, doesn't that make it well-designed?

The Magia board is a bit extraneous, but I don't know what design for that sort of thing would have actually worked well. The only thing I can think of would be to more heavily restrict how often you can change it, and I think that would have just made people mad. It doesn't really add anything to the content (except justifying a few quests), but I don't think it detracts either.

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Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline

So you are saying that the process of overmelding is fun? The ridiculously prohibitive cost and tedium and low % success rates on binary/boring stats was fun to you?

It definitely isn't well designed with how many clicks it takes to get through the process, and with how basic materia itself is, it's certainly not fun putting in bland +stats that do absolutely nothing to your gameplay either.

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In terms of crafting, I do enjoy the materia system. I generally don't do a lot of penta-melding because I craft for fun and not to make money, and I can't afford it. But I'll do a lot of +1 melding or +2 on accessories to gain some slight advantage. The fact that it has a prohibitive cost is what makes it interesting. If it was trivial to max-meld everything, you'd just do that and move on. On the other hand, while I was crafting my two-star crafting gear, I had to decide how much to rely on grade 5 materia (which has a chance of loss upon removal), how much to overmeld, and which pieces were better off as yellow scrip gear compared to the previous crafted set. That's interesting because it requires real choice and there are real risks. Because I craft fairly conservatively, I waited a long time to do this and spent very little (probably lost a few dozen grade IV materia and little else). But if you wanted to be on the bleeding edge of crafting, that was an option as well. That's the epitome of good design to me.

For all other purposes than crafting, I can take or leave materia melding. I find the requirements a bit annoying for gathering, and I don't do any combat content that's hard enough for it to matter whether I melded my gear or not, honestly.

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Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline

I just kind of gave up after the first few. It's clear you didn't understand the exercise. You label these things as "cool", but the gameplay forms you list are either zerg content (i.e. not engaging) or menu content (aka click this, get that), and that getting stuff for minimal effort makes you feel efficient, even when you're not really doing anything.

I appreciate the time you took to respond though regardless, as I suspect the person I originally did won't.

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I'm sure it's coincidental that the four you skipped were the ones I unabashedly loved. ;)

If the "exercise" was to justify content you don't like in terms you've defined, then I would say I "understood" it but made no attempt to actually do it, because that's silly. My point is just that content you find terrible is enjoyed by other people. This game is well-designed for me, perhaps it is not so well-designed for you. And perhaps if they changed the design to your tastes, people like me would like it less. Would that be better or worse? That's a complicated question and I have no idea. But it's not as simple as "this is not engaging, therefore it is bad" because both halves of that premise are in question.

I do appreciate your response as well though, because it's always good to see things from multiple perspectives. And your original question helped me appreciate the game more by thinking about it in the first place. And because now I want a chocobo-based Mario Kart clone really bad!

"If you've played one patch, you've played them all."

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Originally Posted by Talraen

In terms of crafting, I do enjoy the materia system. I generally don't do a lot of penta-melding because I craft for fun and not to make money, and I can't afford it. But I'll do a lot of +1 melding or +2 on accessories to gain some slight advantage. The fact that it has a prohibitive cost is what makes it interesting. If it was trivial to max-meld everything, you'd just do that and move on. On the other hand, while I was crafting my two-star crafting gear, I had to decide how much to rely on grade 5 materia (which has a chance of loss upon removal), how much to overmeld, and which pieces were better off as yellow scrip gear compared to the previous crafted set. That's interesting because it requires real choice and there are real risks. Because I craft fairly conservatively, I waited a long time to do this and spent very little (probably lost a few dozen grade IV materia and little else). But if you wanted to be on the bleeding edge of crafting, that was an option as well. That's the epitome of good design to me.

For all other purposes than crafting, I can take or leave materia melding. I find the requirements a bit annoying for gathering, and I don't do any combat content that's hard enough for it to matter whether I melded my gear or not, honestly.

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You wrote quite a lot here to basically say "you either do it or you don't." I don't see how that's an interesting decision to make. Good design should assume that the players will want to choose to do it, and make the process of doing it fun and interesting.

The interesting decisions should come in the form of which materia to meld, not if you will meld or not.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

You wrote quite a lot here to basically say "you either do it or you don't." I don't see how that's an interesting decision to make. Good design should assume that the players will want to choose to do it, and make the process of doing it fun and interesting.

The interesting decisions should come in the form of which materia to meld, not if you will meld or not.

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It does. If you're not overmelding, you have to mostly focus on Craftsmanship and Control in order to hit minimum requirements for crafts. But if you are overmelding, your main focus is probably going to be CP, because CP makes the biggest difference. The order in which you meld also matters quite a bit in terms of how much it's going to cost. No matter how you do it (and there are many options), getting to the highest crafting tiers is difficult.

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Originally Posted by Talraen

I can't agree with you here. I don't think it's fair to expect a side activity to be on par with the best kart racing series of all time, or the best kart racing game outside of that series. (Side note, I appreciate the CTR love! Great game.) What you're describing sounds pretty awesome, but it also sounds like a completely different game they should sell on its own. Particularly the level editor part.

For an MMO side activity, I expect something which is fun to do, doesn't demand constant attention, and can be played for a very long time. (Note that I wish MMO stuff wasn't all designed to last forever, because who has time for that? But it is what I've come to expect and it seems like everyone else wants it.) I think chocobo racing hits all of those notes.

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Here we can agree to disagree. I see absolutely no reason that they can't do something like this. In fact, it's almost NEGLIGENT to design something in the same space, but NOT use the benchmark as inspiration.

I.e I would NEVER ever think to create a "party kart" game and not look at Mario Kart/CTR for some ideas of good/bad.

For me, side content needs to be fun enough to stand on its own, if it isn't it failed as "side content".

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That's a fair analysis, but so what? If there's one thing I learned from Eureka, it's how much difference the downtime in a game like FFXI actually made to its enjoyment. FFXI was extremely obtuse and anti-player, yet people still loved it, and Eureka taps into a lot of the reason why that was the case. Why is that a bad thing? If it's designed to be fun, and it is fun, doesn't that make it well-designed?

The Magia board is a bit extraneous, but I don't know what design for that sort of thing would have actually worked well. The only thing I can think of would be to more heavily restrict how often you can change it, and I think that would have just made people mad. It doesn't really add anything to the content (except justifying a few quests), but I don't think it detracts either.

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The magia board detracts because of opportunity cost (much like most other content forms I discussed above). The fact that something SIGNIFICANTLY better COULD have existed is why it's awful. In my opinion, Eureka had a few opportunities to really push the envelope and they dropped the ball. It's literally nothing I (and a lot of others) wanted. I didn't want more FATEs. I didn't want mindless mob grinds. I didn't want an illusion of choice less pitiful than the old level up stats we used to have. I wanted weather to matter. Mob AI to react to weather and have interactions with elements. I can go into examples, but I've done that in other threads.

I even built my own concept of Eureka a while ago (long before it came out) and posted it on these forums. To me, it had a significantly more engaging core design, but like all development had some issues. Fortunately, I have the luxury of sharing the concept with players to get feedback rather than pushing it live and hoping its well tuned/received.

As far as fun goes, Eureka itself isn't fun (again IMO). Killing nameless/mindless mobs and spamming one move over and over isn't fun. It's only fun because of the social aspect, Eureka can't get credit for that. Maybe it isn't fair to be that way, but I just cannot justify it.

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I'm sure it's coincidental that the four you skipped were the ones I unabashedly loved. ;)

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I honestly didn't read them. I'm sorry for that, I got busy at work. I will put some effort into it tomorrow though if i get time (busy day tomorrow sadly).

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If the "exercise" was to justify content you don't like in terms you've defined, then I would say I "understood" it but made no attempt to actually do it, because that's silly. My point is just that content you find terrible is enjoyed by other people. This game is well-designed for me, perhaps it is not so well-designed for you. And perhaps if they changed the design to your tastes, people like me would like it less. Would that be better or worse? That's a complicated question and I have no idea. But it's not as simple as "this is not engaging, therefore it is bad" because both halves of that premise are in question.

I do appreciate your response as well though, because it's always good to see things from multiple perspectives. And your original question helped me appreciate the game more by thinking about it in the first place. And because now I want a chocobo-based Mario Kart clone really bad!

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The exercise I was hoping for was a more structed approach to my criteria. I.e. going itno specific details/examples as to how something is fun, well designed, and scalable. While your response very briefly touched on "fun" (subjectively speaking of course), you ignored the other aspects.

Ah, irony. How you tickle me. Someone doesn't meld and thinks it's a good system, while I do meld and think it's a terrible system.

I hate to say it but i agree.. i mean like without even pointing to the normal melding system, the fact that materias are retrievable & overstocked now... yea im with you on that MomomiMomi.I do meld but i just feel that even if i do not & even if i did now, it doesnt change much

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Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline

Here we can agree to disagree. I see absolutely no reason that they can't do something like this. In fact, it's almost NEGLIGENT to design something in the same space, but NOT use the benchmark as inspiration.

I.e I would NEVER ever think to create a "party kart" game and not look at Mario Kart/CTR for some ideas of good/bad.

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Here's the thing though, SE could conceivably design a PvP Chocobo-racing like the Mario Cart PvP mode. Almost everything is there for it. We have PvP maps, we have Chocobos, we have debuff "items". All that is needed is a way to allow the players to target each other on a PvP map and not be knocked off their mount. Heck... go one further and allow other mounts to be used as well, give every (non-cash shop) land mount their own specs for racing/pvp.

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Originally Posted by Talraen

That's a fair analysis, but so what? If there's one thing I learned from Eureka, it's how much difference the downtime in a game like FFXI actually made to its enjoyment. FFXI was extremely obtuse and anti-player, yet people still loved it, and Eureka taps into a lot of the reason why that was the case. Why is that a bad thing? If it's designed to be fun, and it is fun, doesn't that make it well-designed?

The Magia board is a bit extraneous, but I don't know what design for that sort of thing would have actually worked well. The only thing I can think of would be to more heavily restrict how often you can change it, and I think that would have just made people mad. It doesn't really add anything to the content (except justifying a few quests), but I don't think it detracts either.

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Considering the sheer number of players who AFK, I am hard pressed to call Eureka well-designed. Even should I choose to contribute, things die at some a breakneck pace, I often spam the same 3-5 buttons endlessly. What fun I have in Eureka comes from jumping into Discord chats or 'trolling' shout. The content itself is absolutely mindless.

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Originally Posted by Talraen

I generally don't do a lot of penta-melding

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How can you have an opinion on a system you do not actively participate in? As someone who does overmeld on crafters, gathers and combat jobs, I assure you, it feels absolutely dreadful. You have as little as a 5% chance to meld a single piece, thus you can spend over thirty minutes literally watching your gil blow out only to get nothing out of it. This says nothing of the sheer grind required to obtain higher level Craft and Gather materia—nevermind the abysmal Spiritbonding system. Good design does not have players screaming profusely at how unfair their luck is after blowing up 65 materia on a supposed 17% chance. There is no skill or effort involved. You click through menus, sacrifice a Lalafell and hope RNJesus doesn't hate you.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

Here's the thing though, SE could conceivably design a PvP Chocobo-racing like the Mario Cart PvP mode. Almost everything is there for it. We have PvP maps, we have Chocobos, we have debuff "items". All that is needed is a way to allow the players to target each other on a PvP map and not be knocked off their mount. Heck... go one further and allow other mounts to be used as well, give every (non-cash shop) land mount their own specs for racing/pvp.

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Oh I know they COULD. That's why I'm so frustrated. I'd be open to exploring other mounts in there, but keep specs as a choice not tied to the mount IMO. This way you can pick the one you want (aesthetically) without being beholden to specific kart style.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

How can you have an opinion on a system you do not actively participate in? As someone who does overmeld on crafters, gathers and combat jobs, I assure you, it feels absolutely dreadful...

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Simple answer: I used to keep up with the bleeding edge of crafting in ARR, penta-melding and all. It was a lot harder (and more expensive) to get materia back then, too.

You're basically saying that the way you use the system - which you describe as feeling "dreadful" - is the only way to use the system. It isn't. Have you considered not using the system in a way that makes you miserable? I don't, and I quite like it.

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Originally Posted by Talraen

Simple answer: I used to keep up with the bleeding edge of crafting in ARR, penta-melding and all. It was a lot harder (and more expensive) to get materia back then, too.

You're basically saying that the way you use the system - which you describe as feeling "dreadful" - is the only way to use the system. It isn't. Have you considered not using the system in a way that makes you miserable? I don't, and I quite like it.

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There isn't another way to use the system if you want to get to the end result of being able to actually make use of the system: being able to craft or gather the top tier of items.

Again, what you're basically saying is "don't use the system." Which, to most people, generally translates to "thus, it's a bad system." That anyone would consciously and willingly choose not to do it is plenty evidence that it's bad.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

There isn't another way to use the system if you want to get to the end result of being able to actually make use of the system: being able to craft or gather the top tier of items.

Again, what you're basically saying is "don't use the system." Which, to most people, generally translates to "thus, it's a bad system."

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That's true, if you want to be at the very top tier, you need to do a lot of melding. However the idea that you're not using the system if you're not at the top tier is ridiculous. I don't do savage or ultimate, does that mean I'm not using the combat system? The game isn't the sum of its least accessible parts.

If the only way to craft at all was to be at the very top, that would be a badly designed system because it would have no flexibility. But that's not "the system." I can do as little or as much with the crafting and materia system as I want to, and what I get out of it depends on what I put into it. That's the essence of good design. On my main, I level every crafting class in parallel, crafting HQ gear for myself every time it becomes available, do every leve, etc. On my alts, I level one craft at a time using vendor-purchased NQ gear and beast tribe quests and GC hand-ins. Those are two entirely different strategies, both completely viable for the goals I'm pursuing, and neither of which involves top tier crafting or gathering.

You have a very limited concept of what the game is. It's not the only valid interpretation. It's about the journey, not the destination.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

The only way to craft at the top is to be at the top. There is no flexibility here. By your own logic, that's a badly designed system.

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This is such a ridiculous misreading of what I said that I won't even waste one of my rapidly decreasing daily posts responding to it, lol. Who says crafting at the top is the only thing that exists? I craft for a variety of reasons, none of which involve or require being at the top. And I seem to be having more fun than you guys with it, which makes me think I must be doing something right. Maybe stop sabotaging yourselves with ridiculous purity requirements?

This was very well said. Alot of people with crafting and gathering are looking at the game through a pinhole.

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Originally Posted by Talraen

If the only way to craft at all was to be at the very top, that would be a badly designed system because it would have no flexibility.

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The only way to craft at the top is to be at the top. There is no flexibility here. By your own logic, that's a badly designed system.

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This is such a ridiculous misreading of what I said that I won't even waste one of my rapidly decreasing daily posts responding to it, lol. Who says crafting at the top is the only thing that exists? I craft for a variety of reasons, none of which involve or require being at the top. And I seem to be having more fun than you guys with it, which makes me think I must be doing something right. Maybe stop sabotaging yourselves with ridiculous purity requirements?

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I wasn't talking about your statement in general, but your argument of what makes a good system. You said that flexibility makes for a good system. But endgame crafting has no flexibility. To do it has requirements which must be met by making use of overmelding. There is no going around this. No flexibility. If you're using flexibility as a sign of a good system, then endgame crafting clearly lacks it and thus is a bad system. Endgame crafting and materia overmelding are inextricably linked as a system. If you're saying that no flexibility is bad, then what we have here is a bad system.

Logical conclusion: materia overmelding is a bad system.

which is a problem of crafting in this game, everyone has the same recipes and the same ability to craft things, ye specialization exist, but it's no longer that prevalent and it's less restricted than before.

I mean why the mount is so easy to craft? It was too much having it requiring much higher stats and maybe requiring HQ to be crafted?

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Originally Posted by Talraen

You're basically saying that the way you use the system - which you describe as feeling "dreadful" - is the only way to use the system. It isn't. Have you considered not using the system in a way that makes you miserable? I don't, and I quite like it.

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... this literally makes no sense. As Momo said, if a system is designed as a binary where you use it, thus feeling dreadful or don't and get nothing. It's a terribly flawed system. Should I want to craft current endgame items, I am required to overmeld. Yellow Scrip gear simply will not reach the minimum requirements, let alone HQ it.

On the combat side of things, I may not require overmelds. However that does not make the system well designed. A good system encourages the user to participate and perhaps get creative. Nothing of the sort exists with materia. You either overmeld for those extra stats or you don't. Should you choose the former, you'll be screaming at the game when it takes a stack of 99 Grade Vs and says, "fuck you."

Tbh materia is a working system that requires an overhaul
Working because it does what it's meant to do
In need of an overhaul because overmelding in my opinion is not well designed, not involved and has a RNG that is irritating
I want not have this feeling of doing something BS when I overmeld anything (accessories are the worst)