Should FF14 take a new route? Discussion

I can't really give an unbiased answer since I've been badly burned by wow, from my point of wiew even getting the normal formula is even of a victory and even for new content my expectation is kinda on the low side to the point I simply play it to see how it exactly goes.

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Originally Posted by Remedi

I can't really give an unbiased answer since I've been badly burned by wow, from my point of wiew even getting the normal formula is even of a victory and even for new content my expectation is kinda on the low side to the point I simply play it to see how it exactly goes.

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Tbh, it's not really a "XIV vs WoW" sorta deal...it's XIV vs most other MMOs period, and comes up short in comparison to most of them in a lot of areas, including the one that came before it, XI. Not all areas, but too many. WoW has just been the "king" for ages, and because of that it's popular. Even in its current state it has more active subs than every other MMO on the market. It's actually doing pretty well atm. So, people such as myself tend to look to it to see some pretty dang good ideas that could be beneficial here. But we don't stop there. Other MMOs should be looked at as well for inspiration.

We shouldn't have to have low expectations from the XIV team or even from SE itself. But, they are making it increasingly harder to remain optimistic. Time and time again they continue to disappoint in some way or another, while telling us "it'll be great next time guys, we promise!"

No, no it won't. Not with the current direction. Something needs to be done to correct the course of this game, whether it be more funds or new ideas...preferably with at least a few new sets of eyes.

All of this said, if I wasn't enjoying the game I wouldn't be here. I just want to see it improve, not go the opposite direction. In HW it began to stagnate. In SB it seems like we're basically going in reverse.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

Tbh, it's not really a "XIV vs WoW" sorta deal...it's XIV vs most other MMOs period, and comes up short in comparison to most of them in a lot of areas, including the one that came before it, XI. Not all areas, but too many. WoW has just been the "king" for ages, and because of that it's popular. Even in its current state it has more active subs than every other MMO on the market. It's actually doing pretty well atm. So, people such as myself tend to look to it to see some pretty dang good ideas that could be beneficial here. But we don't stop there. Other MMOs should be looked at as well for inspiration.

We shouldn't have to have low expectations from the XIV team or even from SE itself. But, they are making it increasingly harder to remain optimistic. Time and time again they continue to disappoint in some way or another, while telling us "it'll be great next time guys, we promise!"

No, no it won't. Not with the current direction. Something needs to be done to correct the course of this game, whether it be more funds or new ideas...preferably with at least a few new sets of eyes.

All of this said, if I wasn't enjoying the game I wouldn't be here. I just want to see it improve, not go the opposite direction. In HW it began to stagnate. In SB it seems like we're basically going in reverse.

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What I wanted to say to Marluxia was that I feel extremely detached by anything a game dev says and the reason is that I essentially grew up with the bed of broken promises of wow devs, which is also the reason that the whole debate that we lost 1-2 reskin dungeon for this (insert content) kinda humor me, since most of the time that you expected something aside the new raid tier from a wow patch you would've been left with nothing (then they started cutting on that too yeeee....)
As such my opinion is extremely biased and probably a tad depressing and that's why I'm not the right person to discuss this with

I mean, to me getting the same formula each patch is a victory and I'm sure I'm probably in the minority in thinking this way

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Originally Posted by Remedi

What I wanted to say to Marluxia was that I feel extremely detached by anything a game dev says and the reason is that I essentially grew up with the bed of broken promises of wow devs, which is also the reason that the whole debate that we lost 1-2 reskin dungeon for this (insert content) kinda humor me, since most of the time that you expected something aside the new raid tier from a wow patch you would've been left with nothing (then they started cutting on that too yeeee....)
As such my opinion is extremely biased and probably a tad depressing and that's why I'm not the right person to discuss this with

I mean, to me getting the same formula each patch is a victory and I'm sure I'm probably in the minority in thinking this way

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The formula itself is something that I don't have much of an issue with, oddly enough. But the formula isn't all there is to the game. There needs to be extra content on the side as well...and that is where they come up short most of all. I'll compare XIV to a ham sandwich: You have the ham, which is the center of it all (aka the formula)....then they add something else (idk, mustard?) but really skimp on it....oops, no bread. We have an unfinished sandwich almost incapable of holding itself together. This applies to just about everything NOT the formula, including the servers and content diversity.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

The formula itself is something that I don't have much of an issue with, oddly enough. But the formula isn't all there is to the game. There needs to be extra content on the side as well...and that is where they come up short most of all. I'll compare XIV to a ham sandwich: You have the ham, which is the center of it all (aka the formula)....then they add something else (idk, mustard?)....oops, no bread. We have an unfinished sandwich almost incapable of holding itself together. This applies to just about everything NOT the formula, including the servers.

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Don't take it the wrong way, I think that giving proper feedback and beign vocal is the correct way of doing things, I'm a bit bitter that most of the times it ends up beign an echo chamber of doom and gloom that doesn't really help the game.
I mean broken mess can and should be fixed

About servers, I'd rather have them taking a bold approach and even take the game down for as long as it needs to be completely fixed (Or in exchange removing this retarded 1k limit)

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

The formula itself is something that I don't have much of an issue with, oddly enough.

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I agree with that. I am fine with x dungeons, y raids and trails and all the basic stuff per patch if we at least get something really new every second patch or something. It does not have to be liked by everyone everytime but it would be nice to have a major new content that is for casual players that is quite well liked and more importantly live long. (I am talking about more than one expansion long)

PotD is the only more casual (but also great for a challenge) content that they have released that still is alive after the expansion itself is over. I dont find this to be a good track record and thats why I would have no problems if they take successful content from other game with maybe their own spin on it but without making it so complicated like Eureka..(or limited like the dresser)

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

Basically, not another retread of the the precise same formulas they have been using since ARR. Honestly, what has Stormblood offered that differs from Heavensward? They don't need to overhaul the whole game but they do need to innovate. The fact I can predict almost everything that will release before 5.0 speaks volumes to how absolutely safe their approach has been.

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Thank you for the reply! It's true we can predict the formula that next patches will follow. I understand this might not be good for some people, though it's not a bad thing for me. I enjoy doing dungeons and I especially enjoy doing 24-man raids, and knowing what's coming next helps me plan ahead with my alts. Furthermore, beside the means to obtain tomes, SE always makes efforts to add other different things and mini games, so I personally can't complain about lack of variety either.

If it's alright, I'd like to comment on a pair of the suggestions you said:

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[*]Actual innovation on core concepts. Is it really so much to ask for a new progression system beyond "collect this newly coloured tomestome?"

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I see many people asking for this, but no one actually says what kind of innovation. The current tomes system serves a) for everyone to get the gear if they work for it (no RNG involved), and b) for everyone, no matter how much or how little time you have, to get the gear at the same pace. This means no one is left behind, which I’ve always been thankful for. I for one can’t come up with any other system that might be better, and I fear that changing this might result in a less friendly system (>_<)

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[*]Gear which has greater longevity than a few months.

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This point comes with two possible problems that I at least can foresee. 1. Since the gear can last for a whole year instead of half a year, perhaps the means to obtain it might be more grindy and might take longer. Perhaps tons of RNG involved like Mabinogi:Heroes/Vindictus? (This wouldn’t be a good thing for me). And 2. Since there’s no better gear to obtain for a whole year, people who already own it would have no reason whatsoever to play. There could also be no point in releasing new sets at all for a long time. I like getting new gear because it gives me new purposes, and I personally think the half a year spawn is quite good, for it's not too demanding and neither does it make you wait forever with nothing else to aim for.

In any case, SE keeps experimenting with new kinds of content, like Eureka which is different than anything else we had ingame. So I don't think that they maintaining the same formula about gear progression is a bad thing; it's worked so far, at least for me. Other things you mentioned, like dungeons that have some randomly generated elements (if I understood that correctly) sound fun in my opinion; perhaps SE will implement that someday ^^

I would like to see combat redone. The combo system and skill bloat isnt fun. FF11 was much simplier but was fun. Skill Chain and magic bursts made the combat alive. For a group combat raids are nothign more then a solo battle.

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Originally Posted by Clover_Blake

This point comes with two possible problems that I at least can foresee. 1. Since the gear can last for a whole year instead of half a year, perhaps the means to obtain it might be more grindy and might take longer. Perhaps tons of RNG involved like Mabinogi:Heroes/Vindictus? (This wouldn’t be a good thing for me). And 2. Since there’s no better gear to obtain for a whole year, people who already own it would have no reason whatsoever to play. There could also be no point in releasing new sets at all for a long time. I like getting new gear because it gives me new purposes, and I personally think the half a year spawn is quite good, for it's not too demanding and neither does it make you wait forever with nothing else to aim for.

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That's false. GW2 for example adds new gear but it's not necessary to get it to continue the game. I've had a set there since 2012 that is still relevant and I can do every piece of content with it. I even made a new character and in a month got it to the endgame, got max level gear really easy and continue with it into the 2 expansions they released since. The game is still very much active, many people still play it since launch and enjoy it. That's because the emphasis is not on gear in that game, but on skills, as it has horizontal progression. The game is designed with much harder enemies and nothing is faceroll difficulty. Heck, the old launch dungeons are still sometimes so hard it's impossible to beat them.

Not to mention that the game changed and evolved a lot since it's initial launch. They changed how you move around the world, added masteries that also change your class on a almost basic level, and you can be building your character for months with those. In XIV, once you reach 70, that's it. Nothing changes anymore. No new abilities, no new traits, nothing.

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Originally Posted by Marluxia

I think it's important to note that we, the players, don't have a strong idea of where FFXIV is headed.

The Letters from the Producer are there, yes, but they're sporadic and don't really give players any idea of what to expect other than the content that's been played to death already.

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Good point. The letters from the producer are about what's immediately coming up. Long term? Who knows. Like, I have no idea what the vision for Eureka is beyond what's there, or even if there is one. Are improvements coming? Will there be additions that have more story, or whole new systems? Who knows.

I tend to think some early feedback might help. If we'd seen that level disparity breaks playing with friends in there outside of the train, maybe we could have brought that up early enough to do something about it instead of discovering it after the fact.

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Originally Posted by Clover_Blake

I see many people asking for this, but no one actually says what kind of innovation. The current tomes system serves a) for everyone to get the gear if they work for it (no RNG involved), and b) for everyone, no matter how much or how little time you have, to get the gear at the same pace. This means no one is left behind, which I’ve always been thankful for. I for one can’t come up with any other system that might be better, and I fear that changing this might result in a less friendly system (>_<)


This point comes with two possible problems that I at least can foresee. 1. Since the gear can last for a whole year instead of half a year, perhaps the means to obtain it might be more grindy and might take longer. Perhaps tons of RNG involved like Mabinogi:Heroes/Vindictus? (This wouldn’t be a good thing for me). And 2. Since there’s no better gear to obtain for a whole year, people who already own it would have no reason whatsoever to play. There could also be no point in releasing new sets at all for a long time. I like getting new gear because it gives me new purposes, and I personally think the half a year spawn is quite good, for it's not too demanding and neither does it make you wait forever with nothing else to aim for.

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First, FFXIV's "progression" is basically "gear, gear gear", which in other "RNG-only" based games (see the the 2.x raids) means you may have to play the same dungeon 1000's of times to get the piece of gear you want. That is bad. It increases player fatigue, and when people burn out on a game, they don't come back. That's the entire addiction problem in a nutshell. When you erase that person's effort by releasing new RNG gear that obsoletes the previous RNG gear, then people just quit, because they don't want to commit that much time, and probably subscription/cashshop to it.

Loot Boxes, is basically this, but without the game play. Why bother creating any content, just put the gear into gachapon, and let peoples gambling addiction take over.

Which, means, that "RNG" based reward gameplay is bad. Think about the difference between farming Atma's for the relic weapon, and farming these crystals to upgrade gear that you already paid tomestones for. At least you're gauganteed one crystal IF you get a chain of, what is it, 30? Let's do the math, if it takes at least 30 seconds to kill one enemy x 30 it takes 15 minutes per crystal, and you need 100 of them to upgrade one item. so you're looking at a minimum of a 25 hour grind provided you get no other crystals, provided you can actually maintain the chain. At least it's not like the Atmas which you can spend a week doing FATE's in Southern Thanalan and get nothing. Likewise when people were doing Coil, you could only get one reward per week, thus if that thing you wanted didn't drop, nobody was going to do the raid again just for you, if they got their reward already.

Hence, the "coins" and "parts" and "tomes", and "Crystals" are a way to ensure there is always some progression, you're never actually wasting your time (in theory)

In practice, people don't like the pace. Yeah, maybe it should not be such a grind, because it puts off solo-play, but we're not looking at the big picture either. What other way can people get rewards that are not "replace old gear with new over powered gear that makes high end content a faceroll?", there's all that level-1 glamour gear, which works for costumes, but still, think bigger.

What do other games do for progression? Advance other skills, that aren't used in combat. Like, I've not done much of the crafting stuff because it, itself is a tedious grind, what's the ultimate reward from that? In other games, crafting tends to be entirely RNG as well, and tends to not advance the game in any shape. Crafted HQ gear should be equal to whatever "end game" gear is present, otherwise there would be no point to crafting anything at all, but the gist of what I've seen is that crafted gear is entirely pointless. Blue gear has one or two materia slots. But this Eureka gear has 5. Yet is still not BiS. No, the BiS gear is the gear you get from turning in the Sigmascape datalogs.

So there is already quite a bit of grind in the game, regardless. It's either via tome farming, crafting, or playing the hardest content. To quote a friend who quit playing a different game "It's just a geargrind, there's no point."

At least with every piece of content we get, there is storyline that goes with it. Other games tend to just release new gachapon, and that's it.

Now that we've seen a good chunk of the 4.14 live letter, I decided to revive this because I feel like maybe the thought of a new direction isn't such a bad idea now. Lately, I've been thinking that ever since the drop of 4.0, the devs have made good steps in right directions, and completely dropped the ball in other areas. How do you feel now that the new live letter is out? Honestly, I feel like there does need to be a change in direction. Because this isn't it. The app, the changes to alliance loot, the recent issues with Eureka, the overall lack of communication at all...something needs to give here. And unfortunately, it feels like the devs are either completely tone-deaf to their Western audience, who are just as loyal as their local base or just do not care for the most part about what we think.

Thoughts?

Whoever approved putting a sub and two currencies into a phone companion app should be fired. That's it. If it was YoshiP, then he's lost the pot and needs to go. If it was someone else, same thing. He's being promoted to the SE board of directors, at this point it's getting pretty difficult to accept this stuff is being pushed from above and he has no sway in pushing back.

My previous reply in this thread had a lot of goodwill towards the devs. They just set that on fire.

Yeah new direction
remove the sub cost fee and admit you are f2p already, 33 USD a month for a game is ridiculous

I agree. They are clearly milking us. Not all of us want more of those dlc for FFXV. And it's not like we're really even seeing the work for all the money that they are taking currently. It's disgraceful.

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Originally Posted by Tridus

Whoever approved putting a sub and two currencies into a phone companion app should be fired.

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This. If the app was free, and whatever "sub" stuff was tied directly to the sub you have for the game, that would be fine. But what the hell SE, don't push this mobile trash on us.

S-E won't change the game and they will simply kill it when people leave in lieu of making something half the quality for twice the price.

Got fed up and stopped the renew on my sub. I will be here for the 24 man raid in 4.3 but that's it unless they show me they're worth spending money on. I'll be sad to lose the mansion and not see my char any more but holy crap this BS is not worth putting up with. I feel like my sub has gone to very few things I enjoy and many, many things I don't.

- unequal male/female glam quality and options
- a freaking cash shop with expensive exclusive items in a subscription MMO
- less and less communication and consideration since we are not JP players (fans will do all the translation work with the same quality as a paid professional who works for the company, no worries there!)
- the sense that this game funds other projects instead of itself
- less content overall
- the new stuff we do get is old stuff with all the fun sucked out of it, or something already in the game with a different coat of paint
- a deep-seated fear of shaking up the core, fundamentally flawed combat and loot systems (and even if they tried they'd probably botch it like Eureka and some of the job re-works)
- now "freemium" mobile game garbage that they definitely want to expand once people get used to and accept it

I love XIV, I've had a lot of fun for the 4+ years I've been playing. But the issues have been piling up and the game has been going so far from what I hoped to see that I can't feel good about supporting it any more. I hope Dalamud 2.0 comes around and nukes the current state of affairs into smithereens so we can get back to the fun and away from the current trend of having us pay the same or more for less.

and this why I said ffxiv has trolls. ffxiv is fine on it path, it story lead to next expansion. it not going ftp as yet there no sigh it even consider it is.
look twitter has use but the video detail have yet be put yet have they not wait few days to put them out.

and this problem why devs didn't use forum because forum is toxicity

plus SE office are close in USA on weekend

Don't you think SE folks want spend time with they families

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Originally Posted by Savagelf

and this why I said ffxiv has trolls. ffxiv is fine on it path, it story lead to next expansion. it not going ftp as yet there no sigh it even consider it is.
look twitter has use but the video detail have yet be put yet have they not wait few days to put them out.

and this problem why devs didn't use forum because forum is toxcity

plus SE office are close in USA on weekend

Don't you think SE folks want spend time with they families

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Do tell me what has led you to believe that because of my thread, we have trolls? Or better yet, what toxicity? Please explain. Or are you a one-and-done type of person that just makes these types of comments without necessarily backing them up?

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Originally Posted by Savagelf

plus SE office are close in USA on weekend

Don't you think SE folks want spend time with they families

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What does any of this have to do with the thread? This is the definition of a strawman argument.

The exact same thing very patch cycle is really old, and even when they add something new it boils down to an annoying grindfest and nothing else. In fact it feels like we are getting LESS content these days, less dungeons every patch for...Eureka grindfest on bosses with 1 mechanic for items worse than tome gear? Expert roulette is more boring than it ever has been. I wouldn't be subbed anymore if I wasn't in a raid static, but even then, its 4 bosses per 6-7 months and 3 of them are throwaways.

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Originally Posted by Hestzhyen

Got fed up and stopped the renew on my sub. I will be here for the 24 man raid in 4.3 but that's it unless they show me they're worth spending money on. I'll be sad to lose the mansion and not see my char any more but holy crap this BS is not worth putting up with. I feel like my sub has gone to very few things I enjoy and many, many things I don't.

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I'm pretty sad to see you go, especially because you support the equal male and female glamours. (This problem alone has driven people away) I also support male glamour, but tend to keep quiet about it.

But I'm in the same boat, with all this freemium and paying the same and getting less, I'm really questioning keeping my sub. Honestly I hope this whole mobile thing fails, we are paying a sub already, it's a ridiculous highly obvious cash grab. If it doesn't fail, they will expand it more.

I dunno, I mean there are other games I play but XIV my favorite, but its' really been testing my nerves lately with all this.

Really they already missed their chance with ARR. They didn't just make a better base engine and the net code is embarrassing. They missed their chance and I highly HIGHLY doubt they care to go back and do it again because the game is DEFINITELY profitable. You don't even need to ask about sub numbers. Just look at some of the threads where people talk about how many fantasias they consume or look at all the people who buy cash items. Additional retainers, server transfers, story skip. Monthly fees on top of expansion prices. SE makes a killing off this game and it makes a killing not doing much of anything and everyone is content with mediocrity.

In short, FFXIV would benefit IMMENSELY from a mechanical overhaul, but because there is still undoubtedly heavy profit being made and because players are more than likely 'happy' with it, nothing is going to change. And it sucks.

At ARR, all was possible.
Now, they took the road of the overly casualed content, to get more and more people, to sell more and more in cash shop. and more and more vendor, and now, the premiumsub.

Dont forget the first year of FFXIV v2 was cash shop free (it came in 1 year after, little more) so, there really was a different way than what we have.

To be clear, in my mind, more cash shop = intent to have a overly casual game...
they dont want to do a good game, but a game that make money, those two things are not all time the same...

FFXIV and WoW are probably the biggest MMOs on the market right now and they're both doing the same thing; going from a game to a business.

Nickel-and-dime-ing/shady player retention tactics are the two most prevalent things I see in both.

Remember back when FFXI was 'the' MMO then WoW came and set the new standard? We need that again, someone's gonna have to break the mold and break it right.

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Originally Posted by toiletvape

FFXIV and WoW are probably the biggest MMOs on the market right now and they're both doing the same thing; going from a game to a business.

Nickel-and-dime-ing/shady player retention tactics are the two most prevalent things I see in both.

Remember back when FFXI was 'the' MMO then WoW came and set the new standard? We need that again, someone's gonna have to break the mold and break it right.

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I'm not saying WoW doesn't do it from time to time, because it does...but XIV has gone above and beyond what WoW is doing, and they continue to stoop to new lows. There's not really any mistaking that.

I don't think activision-blizzard ever dared to explain why expansions after MOP were more expensive or why UK players had their sub increased.
Also let's not forget that the whole lootboxes fiasco is to blame mostly on them for essentially making the whole gaming community like it, even pro consumers advocate fell for it and that's why I think they are worse than everything SE has ever done.
SE doesn't even try to make you like their ways, activision-blizzard has a huuuge PR management that is designed exactly to make you accept them, which frankly is worrying

Don't get me wrong I think FFXIV is a better game in terms of the company managing it, but it's not hard to see the direction it's heading.

I do give SE credit where it is due, however. Far lower costs of account services (level boost/appearance change), lower sub cost, not shadily making leveling take 3x as long around the same time they release new races to level on top of already having to put in hours upon hours on menial grinding just to be able to use said races; maybe got too specific there but you get the point.

Blizzard is far and away much worse, not to mention influential and egotistical. If they make these awful decisions to make them more money and the game remains a powerhouse, others are gonna see that.

So, you prefer an abusiv cash shop, 3 different sub (1 to pay, 1 for more storage, and last for this app) just to get lower account services (for myself, i nearly never used them, on game or other... and wow sub is the same than FF sub...)

Say why blizzard is worse? i see a 500 euro cash shop for blizzard with a 13 years old game, 8 years old cash shop (and can get the whole CS / account services for... 0 euros, only ingame money...)
700 for SE + vendor sub + app + wedding + dyes. for 3 years old cash shop...


SE is doing a bad way... really bad one... one i hate

You speak about allied race, i didnt grind hours and hours for them, i just played the content... and when they were avaible, i did met all what was needed to play them (miracle probably...). wow already had 11 race, those 4 need some request to get, yes and we did know what we needed far before they were avaible... I did a long pause on wow (6 month) came back and didnt have any matter to play my void elf...
But we could also speak about FFXIV grind, atma's at release, the obvious fun of eureka which is the only way to get an obsolete weapon. there again, hard to say wow is worse...

Other part of your post could be discussed, but, i dont think it is a good way to save FFXIV that saying "[insert random game]doest worse"
I would gladly prefer to say "no one does better FFXIV" and not only on subjectiv way (because you speak about leveling on wow... 1 week to go from lvl 1 to lvl 110 with the new one... i dont think it is "too long" ... 2 week if i go slow)


All your way to say "FFXIV is not so bad, watch wow" is mainly your opinion, and other could have others...

FFXIV can do better. you speak about "making new rule" as wow did when came in? ok... but the rule FFXIV are making now are "cash shop, more cash shop in sub MMO" ... and i really REALLY dislike it...

The game needs a soft reminder of what it used to be a long time ago. I really miss being a true Black Mage!

The devs should add more 8-man dungeons or make the next 8-man normal "raids" similar to how Alexander normal was. The current 8-man normal "raids" might as well be called "Trials" for all I care.

Also in 8-man normal raids from previous patches, make at least one piece of gear drop aside from the currency drops to increase incentive of running them.

And for Crafting/Fishing Levequests, bring back the "Ingenuity" type quests (these are the ones that have the quest giver and item recipient at different locations, with a high reward to match the travel time/cost).

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Originally Posted by Aerlana

-stuff-

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WoW is $15/FF is $13.

Not everyone plays both games the way you do, some had to grind for weeks for allied races, only to get punched in the face with the reworked leveling. As for FFXIV, I have no reason atm to pay anymore than standard sub fee, and while I think some things you have to pay for should be baseline, you at least get the option.

If what you got from my post was "FFXIV isnt that bad compared to WoW" then you're not completely wrong, and that's my point. You just seem really dead-set on crucifying this game with your negative attitude.

Recent decisions are bad for this game, but it's not at the stage WoW is at and nobody wants it getting there.

That app needs to GO! That is the one thing I will agree with everyone and say it's a big fat NO! I love this game and feel the content we get is awesome, I also understand the cash shop has a completely different team that's not tied to the normal devs for the game. And that's fine, but SE listen to me... alot of your paying costumers hate that as it is. You seriously think making a paying app for phones is going to help you with them or the general people at large? So much for LBR being in a good mood :c but in this case .. I agree with the incoming backlash.

Okay, thoughts.

1. the app isn't entirely good, but I think people are overreacting a lot. This is probably the mildest "pay for power" thing I have ever seen, with very limited reach save for market barons. I do think it is troublesome as a first step, but the cash shop here is still incredibly mild for what it is. Some MMOS would essentially charge us rl cash for the materials that let us meld gear, and the materia itself would be random out of a gacha box.

2. ..it's really dangerous to change direction. I'm worried they would just go in the other way and start making things a lot harder to do. Idk, I think the devs would need to do a lot of research and planning to even try, and it may be something to build into the next MMO, not this one.

3. The game does have issues. I'm playing less myself. I think it is evident that the "less content but more niche or experimental things" isn't working well.

For one thing here is what I believe Yoshi P. should at least try:

1) All Dungeons would have random encounters instead of Fixed encounters so that way each dungeon run is different every time, he could take it further by adding rare encounters inside the dungeon like how Classic Final Fantasy always did.

2) Reduce Normal Enemy HP to a more practical amount except special enemies and give them more better abilities & specific battle patterns, this was one complaint among many players as normal enemies really don't offer any challenge whatsoever. Again this goes back to Classic Final Fantasy when even some normal enemies had something hellish behind their fierce gaze.

3) Stop relying on many instant Death Mechanics within one Savage Boss, I find this really unfair for the people who Play Savage Content as one mistake could end the raid in disaster. People who don't have that kind of time to spare constantly, and it is really deterring them away from the content half of the time.

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Originally Posted by JCharms

This is as simple and correct as it can get. Continued financial support of the game = supporting the games direction, even if you don't.
Only when all these people vote with their wallets and move on, will they have a serious look at the overall and wider design decisions.

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Except the norm for SE when seeing financial decline or instability in a product is to shore up all risk or cut their losses... A month's boycott gamewide, even by the majority of players in each and every region, would most likely simply cut development of all but the stalest (and to the supervising staff, sturdiest) content forms.

I think SE as a whole should take a new route. If I were a stockholder, I'd be looking to fire the entire leadership team.

I really can't say for a certainty how much of a new direction FFXIV itself needs. I'd certainly remove Yoshi-P from any involvement with FFXIV if I had my way; he doesn't seem to have any ambition left in him, and the game is stagnating under his stewardship. That said, I think XIV could probably do well with only small changes; more responsiveness to the community, real efforts to add QoL features, and a bit more creativity are probably all it needs. There's a solid foundation to build on. All it needs now is a director with the willpower to take some risks.

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

I think SE as a whole should take a new route. If I were a stockholder, I'd be looking to fire the entire leadership team.

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This makes no sense. Stockholders are interested in profits, and as long as the game keeps producing numbers to their satisfaction the game will not change. SquareEnix is extremely unique in that it is the only company to ever completely REDO their MMO after a complete flop. This means they are probably more conservative than ever in changing the status quo of what's working to try new things. To the company, Yoshida is the one who salvaged their game and made it profitable.

It may seem the game is stagnant to you. Stockholders see numbers and make decisions on that, not on their in-game experience.

By the way, I completely agree the game is stagnant (recently unsubbed after seeing the latest live letter) but to say you'd fire the entire leadership team if you were a stockholder makes absolutely zero sense.

make a new mmo with action based combat is my thing. as others said, they would need to rework this game from the ground up and a lot of people won't like it. the watered down battle system is killing us from any fun and new content.
I just wanna new ff mmo at this point.
I am sorry but I can barely stomach this game anymore.

monthly boycott of a free service how does that help anyone. the app is free. SE is doing fine