To Square-Enix.

Hello,

This game is an example of hard work and proper execution. I'm grateful to have tried FFXIV and recommend the game abroad consistently. Although, with that said. I'd like to criticize an aspect that seems forgotten along with an active player base.

Competitive PvP, in this game, feels moot. The jobs can be better balanced, rewards may be improved, and even advertisements. So the player base grows in it. Compared to WoW, ranked PvP is a failer.

I've played both games since release, and FFXIV is the stronger, of the two. When it comes to story and community. It has been years and ranked PvP isn't in a better place in the game.

Many people disliked "Feast", "Feast" was a step in the right direction to appeasing ranked PvP. Reducing the game to a more casual approach with "Crystal Conflict" is perfect and all good. Just don't forget the community, that was loyal for 20 seasons of "Feast". Build on it, be creative, and bring more appealing rewards and titles. Better yourself as a company and show some support, for the more "Hardcore PvPers".

Hell having a hotfix to balance jobs once a blue moon, would be a step in the right direction. While competitive PvPers are a smaller group than Raiders or RP, they also deserve some light and not neglect.

WoW is doing a bad job at balancing PvP, but they are >>>trying<<< with hotfixes. So why can't you "Square-Enix"? Just build on "Feast" and "Crystal Conflict". Reaching a middle ground for competitive players isn't hard. Instead of discarding "Feast" or "Crystal Conflict"... B U I L D and properly advertise PvP to gain Followers/Hype.

I hope someone from "Square-Enix" can see this. RP/PvE have a base, as do competitive player. Not everyone is a casual...

Thank you for taking the time to read.

To put it bluntly...

It doesn't really matter what the developers do with PvP because the community outside of JP just really doesn't care about it PvP.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ransu

To put it bluntly...

It doesn't really matter what the developers do with PvP because the community outside of JP just really doesn't care about it PvP.

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If anything, this makes it matter even more. Japan makes a large chunk of the player base, and if they are interested in PvP. There are more customers yearning for attention. Not to mention it's premature to assume other shards hold no interest. If Crystal Conflict attracts players on all "Shards". Those are still a lot of subscriptions that enjoy PvP.

In a way it's poor management and neglect of many customers.

CC has been a huge success for casual (as seen with the casual mode), but ranked has issues for sure, especially on the longer run during each seasons once everybody reaches crystal and stops playing. This is without mentioning technical design issues like the last riser of a league being queued with the league above, which completely blocks people from leagues lower from rising to the next if the next has stopped playing long ago. One just has to look at the rankings of every season to see that the ranked population at diamond and crystal level has shrunk by 4 or 5 at least, with some variations depending on the datacenter.

Now then, it really annoyed me seeing SE spend a lot of resources and dev time over exclusive pvp rewards for top rankers and whatnot (during feast especially), which was essentially resources literally spent for a handful of players at best. I don't think this is a good way to spend valuable resources, much like it is not for the paraserpent or whatever, that could instead be dedicated to more valuable things to have ingame that actually touch a lot more players. FOMO rewards is also problematic in that regard, albeit it at least reaches more players (the ones being able to play the content while the rewards are in place). On top of this, Feast had a lot of competitive rewards as mentioned, and yet wasn't played much with a tiny community, which makes me question if the exclusive rewards the ranked crowd keeps asking for is the correct solution to be honest.

Fact of the matter is, most players don't want to play pvp for competition in this game.

It's a pity "Feast" was not built upon and just removed. Some ideas could have influenced "Crystal Conflict" for the better. The resources and manpower could have been recycled for the better.

Some of the issues may be fixed. To increase participation and prevent sitting on rating. They could seek influence from other games and achieve the goal. Compromises between casuals and competitive players can be achieved.

That said, I just sincerely hope they try to tune issues. Even if it's a small fraction of players, putting it all aside won't benefit the company or players.