From the eyes of a former F2P-only player. An alternate(?) take on the situation.
WARNING: Wall of text ahead. Also, people who approve of 3.15 can leave now. You're not gonna like what's in here. TL;dr at the bottom
Final Fantasy XIV: ARR is the very first P2P MMO that I've committed to for a considerable amount of time. Come the first week of January 2016, I'd have been an FFXIV player for exactly 1 year. The only other P2P MMO that I've ever touched was Ragnarok Online, and that was a really long time ago. I quit because the game went P2P(Played during Beta), unwilling to fork out the funds required.
Before I started my journey in FFXIV though, I played another MMO by the name of Granado Espada for a good 3 years long after it went F2P. Now that, that was a grindy game before their Lucifer's Castle(v8.1 I think) update. Your progression was gated in 1 of 2 ways:
1) Cash Shop. Buy popular stuff using IRL money, sell on the market. Quick profit.
2) RNG prayers for better equipment. Equipment progression in that game was completely RNG, not to mention a huge money/time sink(Either in-game or IRL, take your pick). What you would do was that you'd buy "Enchantment Chips" to give stats to weapons and armor. You could end up with a sword that did between +20% - +100% Damage to Humans or any of the 5 other "Monster Races" in there. Or you could end up with a completely blank weapon. No damage boost, no aspd boost, nothing.
As someone who did not touch their cash shop at all in the 3 years I've played, earning money in that game was one of the most difficult things I've ever done to date in an MMO. Your primary source of income would be to sell whatever you found lying on the floor after you killed a monster. If RNG smiles on you, you could get a somewhat rare drop and make a small profit. Rare items in the game was sold at a premium, due to how low the drop rate was. "Punisher Stance Book" cost 6billion at launch, which is roughly $300 USD if you purely rely on the cash shop for income when I counted it a couple of years ago. Top dollar for top DPS I guess.
Content delivery was somewhat moderate. A major patch can be seen once every 4-6 months, usually adding new zones, new storyline content, some side quests, new recruitable characters along with a major raid.
That's where my gripe begins though. I hopped over to FFXIV with a few friends to escape all of the F2P models which I simply could not support. This game had me hooked at launch. I blazed through content because I was loving the game so much. Almost addicted one can say. I was subbed from January to late-May, after finishing 2.55 that's when I decided to take a break. Returned to Heavensward in July and remained subbed on and off(Sub expired on 3rd December, had just missed their free login). It wasn't until yesterday I had just decided to resub to welcome 3.15. In case you're wondering, yes, by September or so the game was growing to become a chore for me. Daily expert roulettes just to cap my Eso. Repeated Void Ark runs to get my drop.
Relic weapon wise, I did Base - Nexus in 2.55, then finished my Nexus - Zeta post 3.0 but before the further 3.1 nerfs. I got it done in 4 days(Tank queues, thank god) and told myself that the Zeta line was the grindiest piece of crap I've ever done. Granted, it's 2 years worth of content crammed, but still, doing the Alexandrite/Book steps is the worst thing I've ever done. If I did my relic on a DPS, I'm sure I would have added Light farming to that list as well.
So that brings us to patch 3.15. I'm not satisfied with the 3.15 patch. It really pains me to know that I bought a game and its expansion, paid a sub for months, only to be greeted with the highest level of recycled and lazy rehashed content I've ever seen. I can excuse this if I were playing a F2P game, but this is NOT something I expect from a P2P game. I'd be even more livid if I touched their cash shop.
I gave a pass to your stupid hunt system that you introduced in 2.xx(Recycled to a lesser degree in 3.0-3.1) despite not doing it, that only meant it took me an astronomical amount of time to complete my Alexandrite. My choice, no complaints. Although as a paying customer, I do feel that hunts need to go. Fine with grinding, not fine with hunt camping, not fine with feeling like shit when you go into a dungeon only for an S rank to pop.
I gave a pass to your RNG drops in Atmas and Zodiac dungeon drops(Tam Tara hard still took me over 60 times post 3.0 nerf) during the original Relic weapon line, mainly because I did it after repeated nerfs. But since I did it post nerf, I'm only liable to give my opinion about it at the time of my doing. The RNG sucks, and I'm sure people would appreciate a token system for these sorts of things.
I gave a pass to your dull 3.0 -3.15 content simply because everything not Alex Savage was getting cleared in a single DAY, with optimization of said content taking THREE DAYS AT MAX, which turns it into a snoozefest when you've done it enough. No complaints about Alex Savage, but you don't realistically expect people to make that last for 5(?) months and counting do you? People who do it will get sick of doing it. People who don't do it will get sick of seeing it. People who tried it will get sick of being told to complete it. This post wouldn't exist if you simply introduced the rubbish you introduced in 3.1 - 3.15 way back at 3.0's launch. I still wouldn't have done the relic, but at the very least I'd stay subbed because I wouldn't have become burned out so quickly. Tired of leveling and gearing my alts? I MIGHT have tried the Anima step 3, since a lot of us were actively doing roulettes and Alex NM at the time.
We'll never know because that never panned out. Also, you wouldn't have left a bad taste in my mouth. The kind of taste that got me to cancel my card subscription a day after resubbing.
http://i.imgur.com/UXGIzwM.jpg?1
But when I'm greeted with recycled content as big as this, that's where I really draw the line. It's something I've experienced to death with. Beast Tribe quests are reskinned side quests you can find at the beginning of the game. I've got 9 alt jobs at 60 with i190 minimum, Alex normal and roulettes have been done to death. And I've only been a player for almost a year. What about players who have been with the game since 2013? Also as we all know, the relic weapons only got grindier as the steps progressed with the final Zeta step being toned down. If this level of grindiness is present at the first stage of the weapon, what of the subsequent stages? How hard are you gonna rehash content during then? God forbid you direct players to gather 10000 Light. Are you telling me that the sub I paid for is only worth copy+paste content, along with a 20 minute text-only sidequest? I can get more content out of Nekopara Vol.0 for a lower price.
In conclusion, 3.15 and the expansion as a whole has been heart breaking for me. I remember roasting myself over not playing FFXIV sooner as I missed the Lightning event multiple times and I really wanted the stuff. So I was determined to put dedication into the game ever since I started. But if my dedication is rewarded with an overly bare bones rehash of content, then even a child will know what I'm gonna do next.
Also before anyone asks, personal housing is what made me resub, not the anima weapons. The anima weapons were something I had planned to kill time with while I eagerly awaited inactive people to get evicted. As it stands though, I'm not touching the third step with a 10 ft pole.
TL;DR -- Defenders of the Patch can get out, this post isn't for you, nor do I value any sort of valuable(?) input you might have. Heartbroken that Heavensward is a flop content wise. Game shows no signs of improvement so long as people defending patches like these exist. I'm not happy knowing that the money I spent goes into recycled content. I jumped from F2P games to P2P to escape all the grindy RNG rubbish, but it's present, if not heavier, in here compared to all the other games I've ever played(Only thing I escaped were P2Win tendencies). I actually wanna tell my friends with a proud tone in my voice that I'm a FFXIV player. I don't want them to think me a fool when after an hour's worth of research, find out I'm paying for recycled rubbish.
