SB is great, but are there any plans to shake up the endgame formula?
I've now gone through all the content in SB. Completed all MSQs, sidequests, ex primal battles, raids, etc. While I found the experience up to this point fantastic (like I always do) I've hit an all-too-familiar point with this game. I'm bored to death with the repeated formula for endgame.
- Repeat same round of expert dungeons for tokens
- Repeat same primal ex battles for tokens
- Repeat same set of raids for tokens
- Turn in tokens for gear
- Hit gear cap
- New patch comes out
- Repeat same formula with new content
Now, I'll agree that the FFXIV dev team is fantastic. They are extremely disciplined in their execution and delivery of new content and how it is presented prior to patches. It's just that once I hit my caps for the day/week, I feel like I have no reason to log in anymore. I would level alts, but I know that I'll never be able to gear them up to my main job's item level due to the weekly token caps (from raids & tokens). Leveling new jobs just so that they perform sub-par when compared to my main isn't exactly interesting.
I also get this overwhelming feeling when I play this game that SE has its thumb on top of my characters progression all the time due to the gates. "For this patch, you can reach this ilvl. Then we'll very quickly move the gate back a bit and let you get to this level. Then we'll very quickly move the gate back a bit and let you get to this level... (and so on). Progression feels very stifled to me. No meaningful gear drops in this game (outside prime ex weapons). You do a calculated amount runs of this or that, then turn in you badges for the time spent. It almost feels like clocking in. I understand that this is probably the preference of a large chunk of the player-base, but I'm finding it more stale this time around than ever. It also took the wind out of my sails pretty hard when I saw Yoshi say that he is fine with a game model that pushes players to unsub once they've completed content and then come back for the next patch over and over.
Don't get me wrong, I've already gotten my money's worth for buying the expansion. What I would like though is for something in endgame to hook me and keep me paying my subscriptions. Sadly though, I don't think there is anything like that planned. Still though, FFXIV is a wonderful game, and I thoroughly enjoy everything about it outside of its endgame.
Thoughts, comments, praise, criticisms? I'm happy to hear what you guys have to say.
