I love the game so much…

Let me explain what I mean by this.I love the npcs,the locations,the fantasy aspect and everything in between that I get immersed to the point that I wish It was my reality instead of the world we currently live in.Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

My honest question to the community is,Do you guys ever wonder the same?

I know Yoshi and the team won’t see this but I want to thank them all from the bottom of my heart for making this game and I hope it continues for more years to come

No the game is too stagnant. Too much of the same thing over and over again is bad. But you wouldn't understand unless you spend years with barely no change at all, and whats worse, every expansion things get easier and less complex, thus continually reducing the depth of the world.

But to give you credit, the game does have a pretty wrapper. But like any sweet or sugar, eventually it will be cloying.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

Let me explain what I mean by this.I love the npcs,the locations,the fantasy aspect and everything in between that I get immersed to the point that I wish It was my reality instead of the world we currently live in.Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

---

There's a reason for that:

1. It's a hero story. It's like saying you wish you were superman/clark kent. You're the hero, and the hero always wins and overcomes the odds - unlike in real life.
2. They quite intentionally try to make everything resolve in a way where everyone agrees with you and is happy and nodding their heads at eachother, working together in unison despite having been bitter enemies moments prior. After 12 years of this game, it's extremely clear that every single quest will arive at a point where you solved all of the problems, every single person is happy and there's a nice celebration sound and dopamine spike... which just isn't how real life goes. Things don't always resolve well in real life.
3. They quite deliberately make everything have bright and contrasting colors that aren't depressing - unless their intention is depress you like in Ultima Thule.

Quote:

---

My honest question to the community is,Do you guys ever wonder the same?

---

Yes, of course.

Quote:

---

I know Yoshi and the team won’t see this but I want to thank them all from the bottom of my heart for making this game and I hope it continues for more years to come

---

I think that's the idea, really. To create a game you can escape in where it's all positive, or where they may tackle subjects like depression but always bring it to a point where everything is rosey and perfect.

Speaking of that though, you won't find much positivity on the forums - this is where the most burned out players come to complain. You'd likely get better responses on the r/ffxiv reddit.

Other than the male Au Ra master race, no. They ruined the metaphysics (or what remained of them) in Endwalker and everything has to be a challenge to be solved or fought. No mystery can exist in this world. Characters are often anime tropes, though some remarkable exceptions do exist. I often yearned for the World that Was but the game kind of beats you over the head that that is bad.

nah... i would have died to some weak lvl 1 creature.


the ff14 world would be depressing as hell to live in. sure there is a warrior of light... somewhere. and elsewhere lot of people die depressing tragic deaths.
and even the warrior of light... going around killing misslead ordinary people
or slaves who just wanted to be free but got buried alive for 300 years living in darkness only to be killed by the warrior of light because someone wanted to get some ore.

i love fantasy worlds a LOT. but that isekai fantasy? no thats utter nonsense

It's called escapism, and while a little bit of it is fun, spending too much time living in a completely alternate reality is an unhealthy coping mechanism.

I love playing FFXIV, even to this day, even despite 7.X, but I do not want to live in Eorzea full time.

Oh yeah. I went through a troubled time when my mother was dealing with cancer. I wanted to escape real life and spent nearly all day playing games. Was diagnosed with gaming addiction (a real mental diagnosis).

But I can say that as years went by, even after my mom passed away, I want to lose myself in FF14. Then I remember I have a family and other hobbies. Use of alarms and taking breaks became very important to get my life back from my pc and games.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

...but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

---

I agree that the real world sucks. FF14 is a nice way of escapism- but living there, when the world is doomed to a horrible end every 2 years? No thanks.

i do like to immerse myself in the games i play an explore every corner an find every hidden passage etc. its nice not having to worry about the everyday struggles of life and to simple just enjoy a hobby.
i may have my gripes with some things in this game but one thing it always does good is scenery an making you feel apart of this world they crafted for ya i just hope they go back to letting us have more exploration in the open expanse no more locked doors or gated off spaces simply just let us go to every single space available.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ath192

No the game is too stagnant. Too much of the same thing over and over again is bad. But you wouldn't understand unless you spend years with barely no change at all, and whats worse, every expansion things get easier and less complex, thus continually reducing the depth of the world.

But to give you credit, the game does have a pretty wrapper. But like any sweet or sugar, eventually it will be cloying.

---

I am Yet to get insulin resistance From That pretty wrapping's sugar

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

My honest question to the community is,Do you guys ever wonder the same?

---

If I was a powerful mage, a rich noble that gets to chill all day and enjoy life, or a similarly OP luck roll, then sure, why not!
Anything else, I'd be scared to be there. Maybe in Sharlayan I'd have a chance, but Eorzea is really scary for a normal person. Have you seen the size of those hornets...? :'D I think I'll pass!


Tbh, even as the WoL it'd be difficult. The game never really touches on it except the DRK quests, but going through all of that must be pretty traumatic. The WoL is dealing with it like a champ lol some strong compartmentalization going on there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

Let me explain what I mean by this.I love the npcs,the locations,the fantasy aspect and everything in between that I get immersed to the point that I wish It was my reality instead of the world we currently live in.Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

My honest question to the community is,Do you guys ever wonder the same?

---

Personally I have, and I'd sure love to live in a world filled with magic, even if I don't get the opportunity to be the Warrior of Light. Maybe it's because of real world bias, but I'd be blown away and fascinated by the usage of crystals to power things, just see adventurers come and go in the city from the mightiest of warriors to the most charming of bards. Being able to live in a world with not just humans, but also all the other allied races (elezen, roe, au ra, lala, miqote, viera, hroth, etc) would be incredible!
I know Eorzea is not all sunshine and roses, there's a lot of dark aspects deep down in the city states, but for the magic of it, the fantasy, the people, I'd take that trade <3

You stay safe out there, and hope you have a most joyous and exciting adventure in Eorzea! <3

Honestly I can understand how the OP feels. I’ve been the way same at many points; I think everyone turns to things like gaming for escapism at some point.

That said, Eorzea kinda depresses me too now to be honest. It feels like over the years they’ve gradually stopped caring about world-building, or just generally putting in real effort to create a compelling world. They rely on attention-grabs by referencing previous games and drawing from their elements only for them to have extremely little payoff or so little relevance to anything that you have to question why they’re even making the reference in the first place. Even things like them not giving a shit about how job skills actually relate to their lore/identity (i.e Seraphism).

I guess to put it simply, it feels like they’re draining the life out of the ‘world’ they’ve built all for the sake of efficiency, profit and a heavy focus on visual spectacle / aesthetic presentation in the absence of actual conceptual development (doesn’t matter what it means or why just make it look good).

And, I don’t say that in the spirit of ‘this game sucks’ or solely out of negativity. Having played FFXIV since like 1.23 (I wanted to be a Black Mage lol) I’ve seen the game do almost everything so much better than it does now. And that’s coming from someone who enjoyed Endwalker’s story lol which I think most people did not? I mean, it was hammy as hell and endlessly predictable, but it felt like they genuinely cared about creating an emotional payoff for what came before, like in Ultima Thule (even though it was extremely obvious they’d be back within the next 5 minutes lol)

Seeing something so beloved slide so far downhill does suck. I think sometimes what comes across as ‘negativity’ is people trying to protect themselves from disappointment, or wanting to see the game improve itself (but not necessarily expressing that in the proper way lol).

Wow not people dooming on the OP's joy, I don't understand that mentality at all..There's no reason to rain on someone else's parade just because you've become cynical. For me, it's lovely to see someone who has that much love and comes away from FFXIV with it being something very positive in their life.

FFXIV is an incredible game, and while I personally don't daydream about wandering Eorzea IRL (though I have been interested in taking a look at the cookbooks), I have always advocated that the developers really should look into ways that encourage and motivate players to leave Limsa or Gridania and explore the world they've built. Yeah, the world is beautiful, the lore is interesting, so they should be utilizing those strengths in their content development to get people out there and interacting with the games world more and move beyond just the FATE system for open world content. Many people who are long term players such as myself do wish for a change up in the content formula to some degree and there are a lot of new games out there that encourage exploration that FFXIV could take inspiration from such as GACHA games with map completion and unlockable lore and cosmetics (not adding GACHA systems), GW2 for the same reasons, and Soulframe (which for a pre-alpha game has amazing potential in this department)

I love that the OP has so much love for FFXIV, and that should inspire the developers to enhance that experience for all of their players and shake the game out of being just a lobby to queue for instanced content for many people.

I would say this creates a bit of a catch-22 for me, cause I love the world of FFXIV and the environments within it. We need to start having more reason to be out in that world.

It'd be nice to see them drastically increase the XP rewards for side quests, which these days mostly go ignored. Making them into a viable and fun way to level up additional jobs again (instead of a sliver at a time) would be good. Restoring FATES to their former 2.0 glory (huge groups of people running around NThanalan) would also be...nice? It's not like levelling things up is 'hard', so don't know why we're still dealing with that xp being drastically reduced from the glory days.

Gathering needs a ground-up revamp.

We need more reasons to get people out in the world so it feels like a living, breathing place instead of sitting at FC houses queuing for roulettes. For several expansions now, the world is just a place you 'pass through' as you're going through the MSQ, not a place you go to and spend any real meaningful time in. And it sucks, cause it feels like something they spend a lot of time on, but every small town you go to for an MSQ quest is 'thanks, just visiting. 30 minutes from now, you'll never see me again.

Nah, escapism is fine and I enjoy the game well enough but I wouldn't want to live there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

Let me explain what I mean by this.I love the npcs,the locations,the fantasy aspect and everything in between that I get immersed to the point that I wish It was my reality instead of the world we currently live in.Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

My honest question to the community is,Do you guys ever wonder the same?

I know Yoshi and the team won’t see this but I want to thank them all from the bottom of my heart for making this game and I hope it continues for more years to come

---

Thanks for being a ray of sunshine. Really.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Connor

Honestly I can understand how the OP feels. I’ve been the way same at many points; I think everyone turns to things like gaming for escapism at some point.

That said, Eorzea kinda depresses me too now to be honest. It feels like over the years they’ve gradually stopped caring about world-building, or just generally putting in real effort to create a compelling world. They rely on attention-grabs by referencing previous games and drawing from their elements only for them to have extremely little payoff or so little relevance to anything that you have to question why they’re even making the reference in the first place. Even things like them not giving a shit about how job skills actually relate to their lore/identity (i.e Seraphism).

I guess to put it simply, it feels like they’re draining the life out of the ‘world’ they’ve built all for the sake of efficiency, profit and a heavy focus on visual spectacle / aesthetic presentation in the absence of actual conceptual development (doesn’t matter what it means or why just make it look good).

And, I don’t say that in the spirit of ‘this game sucks’ or solely out of negativity. Having played FFXIV since like 1.23 (I wanted to be a Black Mage lol) I’ve seen the game do almost everything so much better than it does now. And that’s coming from someone who enjoyed Endwalker’s story lol which I think most people did not? I mean, it was hammy as hell and endlessly predictable, but it felt like they genuinely cared about creating an emotional payoff for what came before, like in Ultima Thule (even though it was extremely obvious they’d be back within the next 5 minutes lol)

Seeing something so beloved slide so far downhill does suck. I think sometimes what comes across as ‘negativity’ is people trying to protect themselves from disappointment, or wanting to see the game improve itself (but not necessarily expressing that in the proper way lol).

---

The world needs to feel alive. Right now, it feels like the world is built for the sake of the story, and there aren't a lot of things you can do in the world. There are hunts and fates, and that is good, but once you are done with them, there is really nothing else to offer.

I liked this game when I started it. Later I realized how flawed it actually is and problems it brings with it. Then after a few years of playing I felt less excited. Friend list getting smaller, everybody offline. Whenever you ask they say: ''is new patch out? if not, i'm afk another 4-6 months", "oh it's yawntrail... no thanks i rather go and play another game" and so on. So now when I'm completely alone it just feels empty and bland. Seems like only reason I ever enjoyed this one was because I had some initial friends here. Right now it's stale old content and nothing impressively new made.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ath192

No the game is too stagnant. Too much of the same thing over and over again is bad. But you wouldn't understand unless you spend years with barely no change at all, and whats worse, every expansion things get easier and less complex, thus continually reducing the depth of the world.

But to give you credit, the game does have a pretty wrapper. But like any sweet or sugar, eventually it will be cloying.

---

I do understand what your saying because I’ve been here since a realm reborn and I have seen all the massacres of every job,content and all in between get destroyed but my stance on what I’ve said stills stands and I have hope that it can come back to how it was before they did so many unnecessary changes that ruins the game for a lot of people.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

There's a reason for that:

1. It's a hero story. It's like saying you wish you were superman/clark kent. You're the hero, and the hero always wins and overcomes the odds - unlike in real life.
2. They quite intentionally try to make everything resolve in a way where everyone agrees with you and is happy and nodding their heads at eachother, working together in unison despite having been bitter enemies moments prior. After 12 years of this game, it's extremely clear that every single quest will arive at a point where you solved all of the problems, every single person is happy and there's a nice celebration sound and dopamine spike... which just isn't how real life goes. Things don't always resolve well in real life.
3. They quite deliberately make everything have bright and contrasting colors that aren't depressing - unless their intention is depress you like in Ultima Thule.

Yes, of course.
I think that's the idea, really. To create a game you can escape in where it's all positive, or where they may tackle subjects like depression but always bring it to a point where everything is rosey and perfect.

Speaking of that though, you won't find much positivity on the forums - this is where the most burned out players come to complain. You'd likely get better responses on the r/ffxiv reddit.

---

I don’t mind facing realistic actions if I was in final fantasy 14’s world.That would be to truly experience the world where a writer can’t always write you to win and it all comes down wether you’re equipped to handle what’s in front of you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yuurei94

Other than the male Au Ra master race, no. They ruined the metaphysics (or what remained of them) in Endwalker and everything has to be a challenge to be solved or fought. No mystery can exist in this world. Characters are often anime tropes, though some remarkable exceptions do exist. I often yearned for the World that Was but the game kind of beats you over the head that that is bad.

---

I understand the feeling because Endwalker basically said we the wol have the power of emotions and that was the stupidest lore they introduced and I don’t accept that as lore because whoever decided that to go through the multiple proofreads without no one said “why is this anime style writing here?”

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Asari5

nah... i would have died to some weak lvl 1 creature.


the ff14 world would be depressing as hell to live in. sure there is a warrior of light... somewhere. and elsewhere lot of people die depressing tragic deaths.
and even the warrior of light... going around killing misslead ordinary people
or slaves who just wanted to be free but got buried alive for 300 years living in darkness only to be killed by the warrior of light because someone wanted to get some ore.

i love fantasy worlds a LOT. but that isekai fantasy? no thats utter nonsense

---

The idea of you going into the ffxiv world is that you would be your character so you would have an advantage as long as you think rationally and remember that you can’t respawn like the game…if you even can

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AngelCheese77

Oh yeah. I went through a troubled time when my mother was dealing with cancer. I wanted to escape real life and spent nearly all day playing games. Was diagnosed with gaming addiction (a real mental diagnosis).

But I can say that as years went by, even after my mom passed away, I want to lose myself in FF14. Then I remember I have a family and other hobbies. Use of alarms and taking breaks became very important to get my life back from my pc and games.

---

My condolences for your loss.I understand the feeling but in my case it’s related ti health since a lot of medical problems arose and I was too depressed and battling my own demons and what helped was ffxiv and seeing my own character which i created going throughout eorzea and having an adventure in a healthy and robust body and just picturing myself in my character’s shoes lighting my depression

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gwenkatsu

I agree that the real world sucks. FF14 is a nice way of escapism- but living there, when the world is doomed to a horrible end every 2 years? No thanks.

---

I understand why the scare but wouldn’t it be after every major boss Is resolved and if not then we can resolve it since you’ll be your character from the game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ShadowyZero

i do like to immerse myself in the games i play an explore every corner an find every hidden passage etc. its nice not having to worry about the everyday struggles of life and to simple just enjoy a hobby.
i may have my gripes with some things in this game but one thing it always does good is scenery an making you feel apart of this world they crafted for ya i just hope they go back to letting us have more exploration in the open expanse no more locked doors or gated off spaces simply just let us go to every single space available.

---

I wouldn’t call love if they do that because in the beginning of this game we were adventures…where did that go?can we go on adventures instead of whatever they’re having us do which I don’t to do

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shistar

If I was a powerful mage, a rich noble that gets to chill all day and enjoy life, or a similarly OP luck roll, then sure, why not!
Anything else, I'd be scared to be there. Maybe in Sharlayan I'd have a chance, but Eorzea is really scary for a normal person. Have you seen the size of those hornets...? :'D I think I'll pass!


Tbh, even as the WoL it'd be difficult. The game never really touches on it except the DRK quests, but going through all of that must be pretty traumatic. The WoL is dealing with it like a champ lol some strong compartmentalization going on there.

---

As a normal person we would be cooked but if we were our characters we created with their utility we unlocked then we have a high chance to fight anything that pops up

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by XtremePrime

Personally I have, and I'd sure love to live in a world filled with magic, even if I don't get the opportunity to be the Warrior of Light. Maybe it's because of real world bias, but I'd be blown away and fascinated by the usage of crystals to power things, just see adventurers come and go in the city from the mightiest of warriors to the most charming of bards. Being able to live in a world with not just humans, but also all the other allied races (elezen, roe, au ra, lala, miqote, viera, hroth, etc) would be incredible!
I know Eorzea is not all sunshine and roses, there's a lot of dark aspects deep down in the city states, but for the magic of it, the fantasy, the people, I'd take that trade <3

You stay safe out there, and hope you have a most joyous and exciting adventure in Eorzea! <3

---

I agree with you.I find fantasy elements so fascinating and if I don’t started playing this mmo years ago when it began after it got rebooted into a realm reborn then I wouldn’t have this fascination of it…although I read manga and such back then and I was reading manga with fantasy aspect and I can’t say I wouldn’t be interested as before starting ffxiv but ffxiv amplified it deeper

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tatiana

Wow not people dooming on the OP's joy, I don't understand that mentality at all..There's no reason to rain on someone else's parade just because you've become cynical. For me, it's lovely to see someone who has that much love and comes away from FFXIV with it being something very positive in their life.

FFXIV is an incredible game, and while I personally don't daydream about wandering Eorzea IRL (though I have been interested in taking a look at the cookbooks), I have always advocated that the developers really should look into ways that encourage and motivate players to leave Limsa or Gridania and explore the world they've built. Yeah, the world is beautiful, the lore is interesting, so they should be utilizing those strengths in their content development to get people out there and interacting with the games world more and move beyond just the FATE system for open world content. Many people who are long term players such as myself do wish for a change up in the content formula to some degree and there are a lot of new games out there that encourage exploration that FFXIV could take inspiration from such as GACHA games with map completion and unlockable lore and cosmetics (not adding GACHA systems), GW2 for the same reasons, and Soulframe (which for a pre-alpha game has amazing potential in this department)

I love that the OP has so much love for FFXIV, and that should inspire the developers to enhance that experience for all of their players and shake the game out of being just a lobby to queue for instanced content for many people.

---

I do see the forums post sometimes and it’s a little depressing since I can sympathize with them on the state of the game but I just love the game that I honestly will play it until it’s initial shutdown.I do hope they can improve it and fix a lot of the issues others are facing so we can continue enjoying this game

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Atma

I would say this creates a bit of a catch-22 for me, cause I love the world of FFXIV and the environments within it. We need to start having more reason to be out in that world.

It'd be nice to see them drastically increase the XP rewards for side quests, which these days mostly go ignored. Making them into a viable and fun way to level up additional jobs again (instead of a sliver at a time) would be good. Restoring FATES to their former 2.0 glory (huge groups of people running around NThanalan) would also be...nice? It's not like levelling things up is 'hard', so don't know why we're still dealing with that xp being drastically reduced from the glory days.

Gathering needs a ground-up revamp.

We need more reasons to get people out in the world so it feels like a living, breathing place instead of sitting at FC houses queuing for roulettes. For several expansions now, the world is just a place you 'pass through' as you're going through the MSQ, not a place you go to and spend any real meaningful time in. And it sucks, cause it feels like something they spend a lot of time on, but every small town you go to for an MSQ quest is 'thanks, just visiting. 30 minutes from now, you'll never see me again.

---

I agree with what you have said.I hope they improve it more so we can experience the world more that they’ve created

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rabblerabble

Thanks for being a ray of sunshine. Really.

---

I like being positive about the game because I don’t want the world that I love to get deleted

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MayuAmakura

I liked this game when I started it. Later I realized how flawed it actually is and problems it brings with it. Then after a few years of playing I felt less excited. Friend list getting smaller, everybody offline. Whenever you ask they say: ''is new patch out? if not, i'm afk another 4-6 months", "oh it's yawntrail... no thanks i rather go and play another game" and so on. So now when I'm completely alone it just feels empty and bland. Seems like only reason I ever enjoyed this one was because I had some initial friends here. Right now it's stale old content and nothing impressively new made.

---

I understand why you feel that way.I may be the odd one but I just love going around the world with the various jobs I level up which is all of them and a sense of happiness plus nostalgia flows within when I go through the world and think of the 1st times I went through it as a new player without knowing anything

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

Let me explain what I mean by this.I love the npcs,the locations,the fantasy aspect and everything in between that I get immersed to the point that I wish It was my reality instead of the world we currently live in.Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

My honest question to the community is,Do you guys ever wonder the same?

I know Yoshi and the team won’t see this but I want to thank them all from the bottom of my heart for making this game and I hope it continues for more years to come

---

OP I want to be completely honest with you, I know that feeling pretty well because it comes when you immerse yourself in a world and lore so much that it lives in your heart. I'm pretty sure that many players like me have this critical eye because they care about the game and would like to see something change for the better as veteran players. Sure there are different playstyles and all, but we all invested our time and money because at some point we loved this game. So ye I know that feeling but when you'll have more years spent on this game you'll see why people are so critical on its current state, until then I wish you a good game and a lot of fun hours with your current or future friends. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

Let me explain what I mean by this.I love the npcs,the locations,the fantasy aspect and everything in between that I get immersed to the point that I wish It was my reality instead of the world we currently live in.Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

My honest question to the community is,Do you guys ever wonder the same?

I know Yoshi and the team won’t see this but I want to thank them all from the bottom of my heart for making this game and I hope it continues for more years to come

---

I see a lot of negativity on the thread which I believe was not exactly the intent. However, I for one would much rather prefer to be the WOL I created vs whatever the heck is going on in this world. But that's just me.

I too am grateful for them creating this game and for giving us the chance to experience it, regardless of the hiccups and issues some may highlight and while not perfect, if I did not have this world when I did, I can assure you, I would no longer be on this earth.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

Let me explain what I mean by this.I love the npcs,the locations,the fantasy aspect and everything in between that I get immersed to the point that I wish It was my reality instead of the world we currently live in.Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

My honest question to the community is,Do you guys ever wonder the same?

I know Yoshi and the team won’t see this but I want to thank them all from the bottom of my heart for making this game and I hope it continues for more years to come

---

I used to, and that's the problem. It was the naive optimism of the game I liked. I liked alphinaud's naive idealism. And i liked that sentiment did permeate the players. Instead it turned into a den sexual degeneracy, teen thirst, highschool fashion, with everyone determined to imprint their culture over the fantasy world that CB3 created. (All of which was driven my SEs management and mismanagement) Furthermore endgame was abandoned by very many of those who feel as we do, and was left overwhelmingly populated by those who are 'hostile' to anyone who impedes the meta of their high end progression.
Best exemplified by the shift from it being taboo to interrupt a first timer's cutscene, to it being acceptable and cool to speed run anything casual.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

Let me explain what I mean by this.I love the npcs,the locations,the fantasy aspect and everything in between that I get immersed to the point that I wish It was my reality instead of the world we currently live in.Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

---

So im technically a boomer and I still remember the days of .hack//sign. I thought that world and the message was awesome. "The World" was this new place that you could escape to. Where the sorrows of reality disappear, even if its just momentary. I researched and found that there was actually a real 3d MMO out (not like that neopets shit), it was called "Everquest". "That is the ticket" I thought. Now to learn as much about it as possible and figure out a way to save money so I can buy the base game and maybe try to rug pull my parents into paying the sub lol.

Six months go by and at that point Toon Town came out with a free trial. I had been playing that to get me by, but then I find on a forum that Final Fantasy actually has an MMO that is coming out and it looks SO much better than everquest, and even better it has all of the Final Fantasy tropes that I grew to know and love. Elemental Spells, weapon types, Jobs, a sub job system, you party with other players and explore the massive world together, etc. etc. etc. That game was what we know as Final Fantasy XI (or Senpai for some of you). To say that the devs understood the "this place is a separate world to live in" mindset really doesn't do them justice. Compared to any other game I've ever played (and I later played a lot of MMO's) FFXI understood the assignment and executed it flawlessly for at the very least two expansions, though I though the third was great as well.

So minus the period where I didn't have a game system or a decent PC, I finally got around to playing FF14 in the beginning of StormBlood. At least to my eyes it was more simplified but the game was fun and with a really awesome fresh coat of paint. When I started learning about the lore spanning from 1.0 I made a concious effort to do all of the side quests for ARR and HW. I really loved how this all built on itself and there was something particularly special spanning from the original lore that I felt was starting to get lost with StormBlood side quests. I mean ARR has some sidequests with like whole cutscenes, it's noticeably different lol. That love that OP is talking about for "THE WORLD" of the game is something that I was really starting to pick up on for the first time in a while. However again I shift back to StormBlood. Though I liked the story going into ShB and thought that the EW base expansion story was fine, I just couldn't help but feel that disconnect happening. Almost like it was tearing slowly. Then came the patches where they basically blitzed through the void, made it an FF4 clone, and shoved The Twelve into raids to wrap them up before we had even gotten to really experience them. I mean we're talking MASSIVE plot points from 1.0. Gods that represent statues that we went to pray to in the open world. The void being a mysterious realm that has leaked over and caused us massive issues since ARR, and technically before. Now we are in DawnTrail, and there was hope that they would recreate that sense of lore, but to say it failed is just regurgitating whats already been said a million times.

Idk where we're going next, or what direction this game wants to go in. But I said all of this to kinda build a story that doubles down on this one point. They need to remember that this game is a separate WORLD. This needs to be a world that people want to escape to, and want to be in. MMO's are unique for the very reason that they can fulfill this niche. There are a lot of things that make that happen, but currently the veil that this is a separate world and not just another video game is off. It is for me at least and has been since EW when I started unsubbing. This game has some insanely cool aspects to it but if they don't quickly figure out a way to make this place a world that more people want to live in again, the veil will be off for everyone and it's hard to put the veil back on.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithGardenia

Let me explain what I mean by this.I love the npcs,the locations,the fantasy aspect and everything in between that I get immersed to the point that I wish It was my reality instead of the world we currently live in.Although,I know it sounds weird but sometimes our current reality is depressing that I prefer to go on an adventure in eorzea and experience what my character experienced as well.

My honest question to the community is,Do you guys ever wonder the same?

I know Yoshi and the team won’t see this but I want to thank them all from the bottom of my heart for making this game and I hope it continues for more years to come

---

Sometimes my brain goes that way, especially with our WoL being our self-insert. I don't think life would be easier in Etherys, and honestly, if it were ME, I wouldn't do any of the crazy things my WoL gets into. I'd be a crafting guild doing my best to make ends meet.