This game is on a terrible state right now.

The fear every time they reveal a new expansion is that they spend the whole event talking about lore, locations, narrative direction. No time is spent revealing gameplay systems because there aren't any new ones.

It's always a new story slotted through the old gameplay cookie cutter. Everything is exactly where you expect it to be. Travel through your 6 field zones, spam those linear trash dungeons to level cap, buy that tome gear at cap from the city that has the tome npc, etc.

I like Yoshida as a person. I like the solid foundation he built to ensure this game had a chance. I don't like the eternal formula he adheres to for ongoing operations. We all get older but the game stays the same.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

I dunno. I would call his childhood pretty bloody tragic. Being the Garlean-equivalent of a designer baby whose parents couldn't even be arsed to glance in his general direction, whose caretakers (not to mention everyone else around) were absolutely horrified of him, and whose supposed swordsmanship teacher kept trying to kill him... well, with that in mind, the man he grew up to be makes perfect sense. The Garleans wanted to create a monster -- and they did, but they mishandled everything that came afterward so badly that any hope of keeping him under control went out the window before he was even an adult.

It's basically just a retelling of Sephiroth's backstory, which makes sense considering Zenos himself was a rather blatant expy. At any rate, I find it curious how people will regard Sephiroth's upbringing as a terrible tragedy and ample explanation for what he became, whereas Zenos, whose backstory is the largely same, is apparently widely considered wholly unjustified in becoming a monster.

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He could have been a just as amazing final boss. I was recently thinking it would be a twist 8 man where you queue as a 4 man but halfway through the fight he completely immobilizes the first party and removes them, but then the second party shows up and bring the first party back. The fight would then have no mechanics like anything seen before and be completely random. These are things I've been seeing in some games and XIV could have gotten something as great. But no, flailing wings were more important. They didn't even let Hades have Black Cauldron as anything cool, literally just flaps his wings and you die. Even Endsinger's hair looks like Sephiroth's, to say Zenos got cheated is like saying water is wet. But Yoshi personally doesn't like him, so whatever, it is what it is.

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Originally Posted by Ishe-P

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Note: They do check player feedback. They look at engagement metrics they have on their own end. What they don't necessarily bother with is a couple dozen bitter dregs perpetually negative about everything on the forum here. This forum doesn't in any way, shape, or form resemble the reality of the larger playerbase.

Personally, I appreciate a director who believes it's okay for people to take breaks and play other games, rather than someone so obsessed with your time-played metrics that they make the game itself feel like a job rather than entertainment. I appreciate that I could do the main storylines in FFXIV with the latest patch, then flip over to Destiny 2's new expansion, have time to go play some old single-player games I enjoy (Warcraft II at the moment), and then rotate back to FFXIV being my main game when the next patch comes out. It's healthy to diversify that way.

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Originally Posted by Ishe-P

I don't think 'play other shit' is a valid excuse for any MMO, to be honest and frank.

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Why isn't it valid ? The formula has been set for a long time now. I find a lot of players (specifically on the forum) expect XIV to be the one and all game for them. Not just as an MMO, but their one game they play.

I don't defend YoshiP alot. If anything I criticise him more than anything, but the argument to unsubscribe or play other games, while terribly blunt, is just another way of saying that you should diversify your library and not expect any one game to be the one and all.

It's also ok to outgrow a game because it no longer satisfies what you're looking for. A lot of people struggle with that one, particularly imo with MMOs.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

They look at engagement metrics they have on their own end..

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Damn, DRK is the most played tank, surely that's because people like it, right?

Metrics can't solve everything, and you can't get feedback from general playerbase unless you implement ingame surveys. Feedback from loud minorities are all that's left.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

I appreciate a director who believes it's okay for people to take breaks and play other games

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I would appreciate director who puts MMORPG content into MMORPG, instead of one and done content more suited for some single player games.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

Note: They do check player feedback. They look at engagement metrics they have on their own end. What they don't necessarily bother with is a couple dozen bitter dregs perpetually negative about everything on the forum here. This forum doesn't in any way, shape, or form resemble the reality of the larger playerbase.

Personally, I appreciate a director who believes it's okay for people to take breaks and play other games, rather than someone so obsessed with your time-played metrics that they make the game itself feel like a job rather than entertainment. I appreciate that I could do the main storylines in FFXIV with the latest patch, then flip over to Destiny 2's new expansion, have time to go play some old single-player games I enjoy (Warcraft II at the moment), and then rotate back to FFXIV being my main game when the next patch comes out. It's healthy to diversify that way.

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"I rotate back to FFXIV being my main game when the next patch comes out"

For how long ? 3 days ? A week at most ? And then another 3.5 months until the next one, great game we have there, full use of the "just play other games but dont forget to keep your subscription up so you keep your house"

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Originally Posted by VirusOnline

Why isn't it valid ? The formula has been set for a long time now. I find a lot of players (specifically on the forum) expect XIV to be the one and all game for them. Not just as an MMO, but their one game they play.

I don't defend YoshiP alot. If anything I criticise him more than anything, but the argument to unsubscribe or play other games, while terribly blunt, is just another way of saying that you should diversify your library and not expect any one game to be the one and all.

It's also ok to outgrow a game because it no longer satisfies what you're looking for. A lot of people struggle with that one, particularly imo with MMOs.

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Or it's just lazy.

He wants people to play other games ? Sure, remove auto demo then.

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Originally Posted by VirusOnline

Why isn't it valid ? The formula has been set for a long time now. I find a lot of players (specifically on the forum) expect XIV to be the one and all game for them. Not just as an MMO, but their one game they play.

I don't defend YoshiP alot. If anything I criticise him more than anything, but the argument to unsubscribe or play other games, while terribly blunt, is just another way of saying that you should diversify your library and not expect any one game to be the one and all.

It's also ok to outgrow a game because it no longer satisfies what you're looking for. A lot of people struggle with that one, particularly imo with MMOs.

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It isn't an authentic stance for any business to embrace, though. The 'play other games' statement is in itself rooted in an interview as far back as the days of ARR when FFXIV was first finding its footing during its relaunch.

If not for the - quite frankly, creepy - cult that has formed around Yoshi-P it would never have been taken seriously. Interestingly, a lot of the people who echo it started the game years later and simply echo it without having been around themselves when it was first spoken.

I also don't think many people expect to be catered to 24/7 - there just isn't much in the way of content with staying power and depth, whereas when people do take breaks they're unable to leave feedback after two weeks of not logging in. Putting aside that this place doesn't have any real visible engagement from the community representatives in the first place...there's just a very unfortunate set of circumstances that have allowed the 'venue goers' to effectively hold the game hostage and move it further and further away from being an actual MMO rather than a strange Second Life clone.

There might not be a lot that expect to be catered to 24/7, but they sure do seem to expect to have new stuff that often. Or it highly comes off like that.

Yeah, expecting patches to contain actual content instead of the most boring relic in the game's history and some island garbage is definitely the same thing as expecting new things constantly. Infallible logic.

Personally love that I can lightly engage and am able to do other things, that said some people want to play the ever living mammet out of an mmo (hence guaranteed never enough content complaints).. but... it was certainly exacerbated by less reward enhanced DD and lack of eureka. For one missing eureka to be able to get the island I'm actually fine to call that fair, but you'd hope a lot stronger longevity on say the DD then, which was the opposite unfortunately.

I am a huge fan of the rolling mountain, with intentional design, where a lot of content comes out ready for those 'I only play one game' in a more repetitive nature, but as other content can replace it then the older content becomes more reasonably acceptable to people who split time or are more time constraint (like grinding the same content for months for a rare drop just sounds really boring and stressful to me, but that's content to people who like grinding).

Still feel they should return stats to pvp gear, as pvp is one of those things that can be a forever grind (that and other things to further validate it as one way to spend significant amount of time).

So.. from a hyper casual- everything is fine lol... but without eureka (worth the one time cost, imo) and slower patches and the DD for some reason not having as many rewards (without eureka probably should have more than usual not less) I can see the 'I play this A LOT and only focus on battle content' people having a bit thinner moment.

Bleeding edge content, for those more classic wow battle content like players, always seemed really boring and time wasted but I think it's more the 'content to do with others that produces results' like an intentional rut that creates a blanket of comfort for those players. The people who liked grinding for xp for hours in the Yuhtunga Jungle.

Anyway rolling mountain always made sense to me, and maybe brining back more value to pvp (with some methods to reduce the power of leeching lol, 0 in/out damage players should get nothing...). Also have to imagine some older players might be approaching the crusty mmo vet stage where everything is similar and has lost its new game glow, and everything new is not what was. Not impossible to puncture, certainly a harder thing to do, and I feel like what partially happened with WoW was in part people were getting older and the game couldn't weave 'different but same' to shatter the narrowing fossilized views coming from players aged experience from many many hours, days, and years of game time with the same game-- something that playing other games can help with ... ;).

I don't say the last bit to invalidate all feedback, just that I do believe it's very possible, appears to be observably happening to some people, that it's your favorite shirt so worn out it is now a sling bikini and feels incomplete. It's also why I mentioned PvP as that type of content seems to be the most resistant to the effect. Horizontal / deeper itemization tend to be other popular ones (like Diablo or gw2), but they come with significant design changes and implications. Honestly 'hard repetitive content', particularly partnered with linear/simple itemization, I feel is actually one of the weaker ways to address this task as I feel it is very susceptible to fossilization lol, works for some but actively contributes to player burn out / and narrow type of player.