Why it's okay for FFXIV to be flawed

I've seen a rise lately in people voicing concern and discontentment with the state of the game, stating that it's boring and they no longer have the will to do anything in the game anymore. And that's okay. FFXIV understands something that many development teams do not, that they can't please everyone. FFXIV understands that it does not sit at the center of the MMO industry, and that it has a lot of fundamental qualities that will turn certain audiences off instantly. This means that FFXIV, no matter how hard it tries, will always receive criticism and backlash in some form or other. And that's okay! Because gaming is not a single project but a whole industry, full of rich variety and history. FFXIV is never going to be a perfect MMO because it's not meant to be, and does not want to be. Naoki Yoshida himself stated that he does not want players to play FFXIV all day every day, he wants them to have the freedom to play other games without feeling like they're missing out, because he understands that trying to please anyone and everyone is an exercise in futility, so instead he's allowing his team to play to their strengths, that being story and art design, without forcing a chokehold on the players so if they don't like the direction they can go their own way, because that's the kind of game he and the team want to make. The game that is now being built is not a game made for everyone. It's a game made by people who love Final Fantasy and love MMOs, and the direction they are going is the direction they want solely for their own game, and not for the gaming industry as a whole. It's okay to criticize in an effort to improve the game, because it's always good for a thing to be constantly learning and evolving, however I want to say this as a warning to people who are discontent to not expect every gripe to be resolved. Because it won't be, the FFXIV team has a vision and a plan for the game's future that they've decided on, and it was made knowing that not everyone would be on board with it, however it's what the team is passionate about and by extension what they are best equipped to put 100% of their time and energy into. It's going to be a game made for people who have busy lives and don't have all the free time in the world, who love beautiful art and amazing stories, and who love Final Fantasy. If this does not appeal to you, that's okay, that's why there's other games out there for you to play, so you aren't bound to only one way of living like WoW used to do.

So, tl;dr, this game is not made for everyone and will not ever be made for everyone, and those who might have once loved this game might end up in the crowd that feels dissatisfied with it. That's okay, though, because you're free to play whatever game you want, and you can make FFXIV as big or as small a part of your life as you wish. Exert your freedom and explore other things more to your taste, don't let FFXIV make you feel neglected!

Oh, this'll be good.

https://i.imgflip.com/pxi7k.jpg

The way it is currently tho, it's hard to even find anyone the game is made for lol

Then again, that's just my perception of the whole situation, can't wait for the proper Island Episode tho :P

It's also okay to voice your concerns and frustrations with the game.
People usually don't complain about flaws because they fully dislike the game, they usually complain because they love the game and want better for it.

I think the issue is that FF14 isn't pleasing many people to a big extent anymore, The main people it pleases is casual players or people who tend to not play a lot of content or jobs, Those players aren't usually going to change their opinion if you change something gameplay wise as long as the baseline is fundamentally easy to get into.

I'd even say people like me who aren't really hardcore players (I've done some sav/ext here and there but it's not something I'm invested in) aren't really satisfied with how the game is going, I think it's good that people complain about issues they have, I know people who do complain just want better for the game, people who say "oh no you can't complain, the games good!" tend to always think people who complain dislike everything about ff14 when it's further from the truth.

Mediocrity is never ok.

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Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

Mediocrity is never ok.

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I wanted to say the game was not mediocre, but then I realised well... it's kind of got to that point for me, considering i usually log in for friends and not usually because its a active choice anymore.

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Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

Mediocrity is never ok.

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That mediocrity is better then your fanfiction so thank god :)

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Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

Mediocrity is never ok.

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Is that why you came back to the game after you said you were done ?

Or perhaps maybe you love mediocrity since you keep coming back.

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

Is that why you came back to the game after you said you were done ?

Or perhaps maybe you love mediocrity since you keep coming back.

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It seems he either still likes the game enough to resub or wants to subject us to his edgy fanfics after every patch and how he thinks his ideas are so award winning that the devs would take his ideas.

The game was way better before they started to "streamline" everything or make it so easy you don't need to stay awake anymore. A game holding your attention isn't this impossible goal. No amount of taking a break can fix how boring the battle system has gotten.

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Originally Posted by Nebelheim

It seems he either still likes the game enough to resub or wants to subject us to his edgy fanfics after every patch and how he thinks his ideas are so award winning that the devs would take his ideas.

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Dunno why were singling out them when half of this forum thinks their ideas are gifts from God.

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Originally Posted by LianaThorne

Dunno why were singling out them when half of this forum thinks their ideas are gifts from God.

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I don't really think most of the forums likes there ideas only a small handful at most does. People are just pointing out that he keeps coming back after multiple "I'm quitting" threads. There post really aren't gifts from god and his post in the past have been filled with misogyny and various other bad takes. More people might have agreed with him in the past but as time went on I think people got more annoyed with there fanfics and threads.

Well, it's okay to take a break and I play other games but like, I want to play FFXIV and FFXIV doesn't allow me to play.

"I bought my sub, please, can I have content?"
"Sure, here it is."
"Thanks... But this is only one week of content or even less."
"Yes, go play other games."
"But I bought my sub, and well, I like this game, I want to play it and I'd like to see some big flaws it has fixed. And I have to sub to not lose my house."
"GO PLAY OTHER GAMES, DON'T PLAY THE GAME IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT."

Not much to do lately if you are an endgame player, which are not so uncommon as people say. Even if we complain about the game, we love this game and want to see it at its best. Some people don't seem to understand that.

The "problem" is where we are from a Doylist perspective.

Whether you like it or hate it, 6.0 wrapped the story arc started back in 1.0 and they needed time to get things set in place moving forward. As such 6.x was destined to be a filler arc, and I agree it could have been better and there are glaring flaws in its storytelling, even if I still liked elements (Golbez and the Archfiends); but at the end of the day it's just filler and shouldn't be seen as "the direction the game's story is going" because its only purpose is to kill time (and maybe provide setup for 8.0+?). 2.x was the same way, the bits not setting up 3.0, at any rate. The ancillary stories (Pandaemonium / Myths) were hit and miss; Panda was pretty good, but Myths barely had a story at all.

The population dip right now is just a matter of course; player count always falls off at the tail end of the expansion when all the content's been released and people have cleared what they want to. Furthermore the population surge was the result of a lot of external factors and not entirely due to the game's quality (WoW quality sinking like a stone, mass exodus from ActiBlizz properties due to the controversies surrounding them, and COVID-19 all contributing to Shadowbringers' overwhelming success). SE is also in a financial kerfuffle after Yosuke Matsuda's unwise business moves and Yoshi-P has said before that corporate doesn't provide CBU3 with the proper funding to grow the game, so the drop in content quantity (we used to get 3 dungeons per patch, now it's just 1...) is kind of expected. There is a wider variety of content (Variant / Criterion, Deep Dungeon, and Ocean Fishing were all added in 6.x) intended to appeal to a wider audience, but that just means people who don't enjoy that content get bored faster.

In short, there are legitimate reasons the game is in the state it is, and players invariably get bored later in the patch cycle (which isn't helped by it now being 4 months). I agree it could be - should be - better, but have confidence the devs are working things out in the background and not just sitting on their hands because it prints money. Dawntrail is not going to kill the game because a fraction of the playerbase refuses to enjoy the fun and lighthearted adventure story it's shaping up to be (and what's so wrong with G'raha happily biting into a taco?).

If I had to offer something helpful, I'd say while communication between them for continuity is necessary each expansion should have only one lead writer.

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Originally Posted by Nebelheim

I don't really think most of the forums likes there ideas only a small handful at most does. People are just pointing out that he keeps coming back after multiple "I'm quitting" threads. There post really aren't gifts from god and his post in the past have been filled with misogyny and various other bad takes. More people might have agreed with him in the past but as time went on I think people got more annoyed with there fanfics and threads.

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I meant half of the people on this forum think their own ideas/thoughts are gifts from God, not that there's a cult of people who look at Aveyond's ideas/thoughts as such.

Cant tell if you misunderstood me or not due to phrasing.

I get your point here, but if people don't complain there won't be a change. People are just afraid that the game won't evolve, they want the game to be better they are not whinging because of the sake of complaining. Criticism is for improvement, criticism is not an attack tool against the devs, they WANT people to suggest new things to them. And I think the good ol' "Go play other games and have fun" argument flows out the window when you have an FC house and personal house under demolition threat so you need to keep paying the sub.
In essence, if the devs suddenly say they don't want to improve the game at all, then that's that. But they DO want to improve the game judging by their actions and the feedback, so there is nothing wrong in giving them more suggestions or signaling discontent with things that people don't like. A plan for the 10 next years doesn't sound like "Yeh, we don't care, we wanna stay mid, play what you want." The game gives a possibility for freedom and lack of FOMO, it's great for that, but let's not pretend that housing demolition isn't there to fight against this in it's core, but content wise you are right. The game lacks a lot of QoL and needs to be oompfed up to that "next 10 years" state. Simple facts if this MMO wants to compete, and SE wants to compete, it's a company that wants money after all, that's what all companies do. Let's just hope the money garnered from this game goes to actually developing this game, because it is the best MMO out there overall, while some MMO's do stuff better in other aspects. My opinion only naturally.

Someone tried to tell me the other day that it's not the game that's the problem but rather the conservative gamer. No not conservative as in right wing politics but conservative as in, the 15 year MMO vet whoms life revolves around the glory days of their nostalgia. They tried to tell me that the game is doing better than ever, it's just "video game boomers" who can't accept that times have changed and that they are the ones weighing the game down.

I know a load of bull.

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Originally Posted by KikiTia

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Of course, citizen. It's ok for FFXIV to be flawed and it's also ok for players to make fun of those flaws. It is only fair that way.




The strongest spirits will always triumph.

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Originally Posted by KikiTia

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The problem with this expansion is that they are burning out every player with the time limited rewards and savage / ultimate focus. There isn't even time in most peoples schedules to DO anything that isn't on a time limit or a timer. Savage becomes a serious problem for people to clear if they end up not clearing in the first couple of weeks just because of ultimate, PVP rewards for each season have to be acquired while the season is still on patch, so people have to log in and do the same thing constantly. Island Sanctuary is basically the Warlords of Draenor phone game where someone could literally log in on a phone app at work and just click some buttons to keep it going, but they have to log into the actual game on a PC to do it. The Relic series is disconnected from any type of secondary currency and uses the same tomestones people would normally use for easy money to fund their savage runs (buying those tomestone crafting mats and selling them is actually how a lot of people get their tinctures).

The mental process the average player has now is "I got to go get this done as fast as possible so I can actually enjoy the rest of the game before the next release". Shadowbringers had none of that from what I remember. The most I remembered doing was coming in to do my daily Bozja grind and then sometimes doing savage.

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Originally Posted by Colt47

The mental process the average player has now is "I got to go get this done as fast as possible so I can actually enjoy the rest of the game before the next release". Shadowbringers had none of that from what I remember. The most I remembered doing was coming in to do my daily Bozja grind and then sometimes doing savage.

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ShB definitely had FOMO issues. I remember all the threads around this forum when people couldn't get past CLL because for a lot of people it was a one and done and so it wasn't staying populated.

Every time I see a thread like this I think ‘well, that’s a fair point’. Then I go to reply…and realize it was never a thread at all. It was a spider web and I am now trapped in its snare. (The spider is trolls lol).

It’s hard to trust that anyone is actually making an argument on the forums these days and not just trolling / starting arguments / whatever you want to call it

I don't raid. I mostly hop on to do roulettes, weekly stuff etc and do some stuff with FC friends, this game isn't even for me. The jobs became so bad, it's not fun to play them. That's my main issue with this game, Combat design and job design.

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Originally Posted by Connor

Every time I see a thread like this I think ‘well, that’s a fair point’. Then I go to reply…and realize it was never a thread at all. It was a spider web and I am now trapped in its snare. (The spider is trolls lol).

It’s hard to trust that anyone is actually making an argument on the forums these days and not just trolling / starting arguments / whatever you want to call it

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I don't think people are intentionally "trolling" by talking about issues, a lot of people are genuinely wanting the game to be better. (I'm sure you're right on that sometimes people only post to troll others)
Everyone has a right to speak on why they like or dislike certain aspects of the game, I think we should treat that as a positive thing as a community that we should embrace players talking about their wants for the game, I don't mind if people enjoy or like the current state of the game, I think it's healthy that we all have discussions as a community.

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Originally Posted by Rithy255

I don't think people are intentionally "trolling" by talking about

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I definitely agree. The only thing is, I’ve noticed sometimes is that ‘forum trolls’ (i.e Titanmen I guess lol) disguise their troll posts as genuine discussion threads, so it’s harder to notice when someone’s just trying to stir the pot as opposed to properly discussing the issue.

That said, it’s also not fair of me to start assuming a large amount of posts aren’t genuine in what they want to discuss. It’s never fair to let one or two bad apples make it seem like the whole bunch is spoiled, before checking them to make sure first

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Originally Posted by Connor

I definitely agree. The only thing is, I’ve noticed sometimes is that ‘forum trolls’ (i.e Titanmen I guess lol) disguise their troll posts as genuine discussion threads, so it’s harder to notice when someone’s just trying to stir the pot as opposed to properly discussing the issue.

That said, it’s also not fair of me to start assuming a large amount of posts aren’t genuine in what they want to discuss. It’s never fair to let one or two bad apples make it seem like the whole bunch is spoiled, before checking them to make sure first

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I try to be postive really myself, I personally like knowing what others find wrong with the game, lately I feel like others get really angry if someone has a issue with the game and resort to some sort of personal attacks :/

I treat posts genuine (usually, but i dont comment on some obvious bait posts...), if someone's trolling to create drama and arguments, I find the best approach is just to try and get your point across without stirring the drama (if possible)

but yeah i get your point more now, I don't want to be lumped in with certain trolls just because my opinion can lean more to the side of complaining at times :/