does anyone else not play xiv as much as before after dt?

Definitely. I haven't even bothered to finish patch 7.1's MSQ. That's NEVER been the case for me in 10 years of playing this game. I just find myself not caring now, and I log in maybe once or twice a week at best. The only reason I'm still subbed, is because of my houses. And at some point, that will probably not be enough to keep paying the sub.

I play less, but not because of the story. The story has always been a one-and-done thing for me that has zero bearing on the end-game loop, which is where the vast majority of play time goes. It was a step down this expac, but as soon as I was done with it, I forgot about it moved on, as always. I read a lot, so I'm not feeling bereft of good stories, anyway.

I just realized that the grind for pretty much anything wasn't worth it. I don't care about playing make-believe dress-up, I don't care about jobs I'm never going to play seriously, I don't care about running a billion boring-ass FATEs for nothing, I can buy anything crafted I need, etc. So I cap tomes, get my weekly 24-man coin, and do static nights, and that just feels so much better and healthier than dumping a ridiculous amount of time into the game for nothing, which I did with previous expansions.

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Originally Posted by Clockworks

Even the oh so called "graphical update" was a partial disaster, there is still to this day this weird fog everywhere in areas like the sea of clouds, that used to have a fully clear sky with a beautiful sunset, now they have this very weird fog that ruins the entire sunset and the area around it, it's just filled with a weird thick fog.

The characters (especially miqos) are still as mediocre as they used to be, and some faces look outright creepy to this day even after that update.

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I think the faces are largely an improvement, but sometimes there's this weird segmented lighting that just looks...wrong.\

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Originally Posted by Archeron

I won't squarely place the blame on Dawntrail for having played less. It's two reasons for me mainly.

2. The community leaves much to be desired

This community prides itself on being "The Best gaming community", while also displaying some of the most entitled, selfish attitudes I have ever seen. This game harbors a dark underworld of stalking, and harassment (Which even persists after changes to Blacklisting). The more normal people quit the game, the more exposed you get to the two extremes you'll see on this game. One side, will bend over backwards for sprouts, and make unreasonable demands of people to accomodate the sprout, and will go out of their way to crucify anyone who makes a percieved transgression towards a new player. Lets stop pretending duty support hasn't been in the game for years... Then you have the Hardcore raiders who are incapable of putting up with even the most trivial of setbacks, and who are incapable of teaching people strategies, and just expect people to know everything, and execute every mechanic flawlessly without failure. The extreme gatekeeping and toxicity in PF's being a prime example of the worst our community has to offer.

When my friends quit playing this game, I'll quit with them - and I probably will not return until 8.0 (Assuming major steps are taken to address current issues that have persisted for several expansions at this point.)

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It's gotten steadily worse, I think. The WoW refugees may not be all bad but I definitely feel they opened Pandora's box, and once exposed to that aggression, toxicity, and progression at all costs, people started reacting to it. And just like real life, when one extreme gets too vocal, people who have a problem with it go all in on the other extreme.

FF14 has also given up a lot lately to cater to hardcore or progression players, or for gimmicks like trusts. While there are exceptions, a lot of gameplay feels the same. A lot of company feels worse. And without the story to carry it, if you don't have a good circle of peers to do SOMETHING with, there's no point in being online. Dawntrail might legitimately be FF14's Warlords of Draenor.

I was playing it more tbh, I was enjoying the reward grind in FL. Then 7.1 PVP update dropped and it's everything I didn't want. I would gladly go back to the DRK domination meta. Surely the 7.2 FL update will fix everything though, surely :)

I definitely play less of XIV nowadays, only to log to resend ventures & keep my house while I play another game or work on another tab.

Often enough, there are FCmates & my few, packed CWLS that kept the experience enjoyable. But they’re running thinner as more and more of those names turns from bright white to dull grays.

My gripes? Too much. But I think I’ve said enough in this forums at this point.

It's really just the constant repeated sameness.
everything feels so templated out and rinse-and-repeat it's like I'm burnt out before i even start

I mean like I know it's still the same base game but look at FFXI as an example, despite all it's problems every expansion had wildly different new activities. It's not just treasure hunt, exact same thing with different scenery, exact same thing with different scenery, over and over

The graphics change has been the killer for me. All my alts are sidelined because I'd rather remember them as they were, and any time I do log in with them I hate seeing how they look now; my main has lost her spark and her sweet wide-eyed look and I miss how she used to be. I've still played content as it comes out, mostly, but I've lost interest in glamouring.

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Originally Posted by Basteala

It's gotten steadily worse, I think. The WoW refugees may not be all bad but I definitely feel they opened Pandora's box, and once exposed to that aggression, toxicity, and progression at all costs, people started reacting to it. And just like real life, when one extreme gets too vocal, people who have a problem with it go all in on the other extreme.

FF14 has also given up a lot lately to cater to hardcore or progression players, or for gimmicks like trusts. While there are exceptions, a lot of gameplay feels the same. A lot of company feels worse. And without the story to carry it, if you don't have a good circle of peers to do SOMETHING with, there's no point in being online. Dawntrail might legitimately be FF14's Warlords of Draenor.

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I would say the state of the game is worse than the infamous 434 day WoW content drought. The stagnation has been ongoing for probably 2 years at this point. I'm personally tired of being fed recycled content with a new skin and I'm sure most of the community is by now as well.

I combine the droughts from Post Endwalker with Dawntrail and post Dawntrail patches. Endwalker had some of the Worst patches in this games history. 6.3 for instance might as well not have existed for how littled it offered. The fatigue from all this recycled content, and weak patches carries on, but now since the story sucks and half the community seems to be skipping cut scenes, and losing faith that 7.0 will offer anything worth resubbing for, the loss of players has only accelerated, it's a chain reaction. I honestly don't see anyway for them to fix this without making sacrifices to Dawntrail to make 8.0 something you wouldn't want to miss. Just like how WoD was sacrificed so extra development was put into making Legion fantastic.

I have logged in way less this expac. I did not really like the changes to my character and also the story was nothing special and not what I enjoyed. I just tend to run old content as I enjoy it more..I have a house and just enjoy doing that here and there but the story really did nothing for me and I liked the Island sanctuary but now its just go in and do my workshop and get a firework lol. I hope they look at the MSQ and bring back some of the old characters and magic as it feels flat.

On the contrary, I play more cos I'm kinda bored of Diablo 4. Catching up on Island Sanctuary, leveling DOL/DOH smelling the roses along the way.

LMAO.