It's become a chore to even log on to the game

[AjoraOak]

Currently, playing FFXIV means: Login, get myth, hope to increase your main stat by 2-4, log out. Repeat.

[Malamasala]

I actually encourage those who are opposed to the direction of the game to unsubscribe. The game will not change if we continue to feed them money.

Doesn't matter what they do, someone will quit anyway. Abyssea was one of the best examples. Half the user base was so bored at FFXI they were about to quit, and the other half thought it was the most grindcore and awesome they had ever seen. And then one update swapped the sides, and all who were thinking of leaving stayed or returned, while the ones who liked terribly crude mechanics yelled and quit.

But I agree that you are better off quitting unless you want to wait and hope the direction changes after 5 years.

[Roris]

Pretty much though I agree with some that it does feel a lot like Final Fantasy at times, way more than recent games and a couple of some older games in the series too, but considering how badly directed the entire franchise has been in the past years it's not really that big of an accomplishment. The rest of the game's design is pretty much the worst or most bland parts of modern MMOs with some chocobos and moogles sprinkled on top. I do like some stuff like the music, the artwork, some of the mechanics and fights and even the story is alright even if it's already way too predictable and the villains are generic stuff you'd see in KH, but yeah I can see why people keep making these threads and mentioning ARR's faults, turning a bland eye to them won't make them go away anyway and feedback is feedback.

[Misaki]

Pretty much though I agree with some that it does feel a lot like Final Fantasy at times, way more than recent games and a couple of some older games in the series too, but considering how badly directed the entire franchise has been in the past years it's not really that big of an accomplishment.

FF 9 was good ! After that....

[Lakshmana]

I don't honestly know what else they could really add that would increase the fun of "exploration," I would like to hear why people don't like exploring in this game and what would actually improve it, cause imo the game has what ever other does, just on a much smaller scale

Let me guess, you never played FFXI ^^ (really not trying to patronize you)

I think a lot of players from FFXI are simply missing the mysteries that world held. It was a world the mechanics of which you were LEARNING as you went along the way. Just to give you some examples about this exploration thing, to make it a bit more clear what I'm referring to:

FFXI: When you saw a mob you didn't know if it's aggressive or not. You had to judge by its look, its name or simply try and approach it and see what it does.
FFXIV: Aggro mobs have a big red sign so that it's clear they are aggro

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FFXI: The mobs were aggroing based on:
- sight (passing in front of them)
- sound (being close to them)
- magic usage (using magic near them)
- HP (being hurt while close to them, for instance undead mobs had this)

FFXIV: All mobs aggro sight. Of course, super casual and easy to understand, but immersion breaking (see all the speed runs that avoid mobs while passing 10 cm behind their back)

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FFXI: During the night some specific, night related mobs were appearing, like bats or undedead, making night a more dangerous time to be in the wild.
FFXIV: Day/Night cycle has no influence on mob spawning or behavior.

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FFXI: Some mobs were appearing only in certain conditions. For instance, elementals (wind, fire etc.) were appearing only during windy weather, hot weather etc.
FFXIV: Weather has no influence on the mobs spawning or behavior.

================

FFXI: There were secrets in the world. For instance, a wall through which you could pass to get into a secret passage or areas not marked on the maps and which you discovered simply by exploring the map edges.
FFXIV: No secret areas whatsoever.

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FFXI: The world was dangerous, with mobs being way more tough. There were a lot of areas in which exploration was only possible by using invisibility and sound deadening potions/tools, with limited effect in time. This was making exploration a dangerous thing, contributing greatly to the idea of ADVENTURER.
FFXIV: You can get on your chocobo and run circles around mobs 10 levels higher than you easily, meaning the exploration is completely devoid of any danger.

================

FFXI: There were a lot of complex quests and things to do in order to get great rewards. Just as an example, here's how a Notorious Monster called Goblin Archaeologist was spawned in FFXI:

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Goblin_Archaeologist

Forced Spawn by trading at least one item with merchant value to the spawning point marked by a ???
A player may initiate a trade of any number of items only once per game day. The higher the Resale Price of the item(s), the closer the NM will move to the surface of the ground to claim that item. The minimum value required to move NM by exactly one position is approximately 250 gil.

You can receive the following messages which indicate how close the NM is to the surface:
You hear a voice coming from somewhere extremely deep under the ground...
You hear a voice coming from somewhere very deep under the ground...
You hear a voice coming from somewhere deep under the ground...
You hear a voice from under the ground...
You hear a voice coming from somewhere close to the surface of the ground...
You hear a voice coming from somewhere very close to the surface of the ground...
You hear a voice coming from somewhere extremely close to the surface of the ground...
You hear a voice from right beneath the surface of the ground.
If it has been spawned recently, the spawning point can disappear completely for about 6 game hours.
The level of the NM can vary widely. The NM can range from level 30 to 75 and the level determined is completely random.

Isn't this cool? Imagine doing this for the first time and the anticipation growing as the thing came closer to the surface.
Compare this to FATE and you can understand why some people miss the mystery in FFXI ^^

FFXIV: Fates. 'nuff said!

And so on and so forth.
FFXI had a ton of bad things in it, but some things were great. We're simply sorry that the good went away with the bad ; ;

-Lak

[Mihael_Longclaw]

Lucky for me I stopped reading the instant the Dark Souls sig caught my eye.......which was right away.

Gee! You sure showed me!

[Mihael_Longclaw]

I stopped reading at "I cancelled my sub."

It would have been a lot more helpful and less time wasted had you said that first.

Enjoy.

'Cause discussion is bad

[Hyrist]

If it's become a chore to log in. Don't. It's that simple. I hate to be reactive at this but honestly sometimes, the game is just not for you. And that's fine. The changes people try to propose here on the forms often stem to greatly endanger the enjoyment of far more people who do not log onto these forums for various amounts of reasons. (Not the least among these is the toxicity of the forums themselves.)

It's innumerable the amount of people I've encountered that have said that the official forums are really a poor representation of the player-base, and that they fear that the developers will listen to the wrong kind of feedback. There's a major difference between complacency and contentment, and there are a LOT of people content. The counter-argument I have heard most common from my circle is that those who are complaining about boredom are unjustly resting the responsibility for their entertainment entirely on SE's feet, rather than embracing casual content or participating in player-generated content. And these sentiments I agree with and stand by.

If it feels like a chore for you to log in, don't. Do not force yourself to play a game during moments you will not enjoy it - you will cause permanent damage to your ability to enjoy it in the future. There is no shame in taking a break or stepping away. But at the same time I cannot encourage people hard enough to start community building and embracing community activities.

As the game grows, its ability to sustain people who play at different paces will grow as well. There's no point in blaming a new game for not having enough content to satisfy particular play-styles - they have a long list of them to appeal to. Therefore, I will repeat the mantra I have said time and time again: MMO games favor and reward the patient. The easily bored or impatient will always find cause to complain in this genre far more than is valuable to the game its community because the mechanics, by design, cannot appeal to them.

[C-croft]

'Cause discussion is bad

What discussion? You already cancelled your sub. End of discussion.

[Mihael_Longclaw]

Snip

Tell me about the characters, their personalities and how they developed over the story, and if you thought they were a well written character?
I personally don't know any FF game that is 80% filler content and only 20% actual story quests, dungeons, and cutscenes.

I'm not arguing about the environments, they're gorgeous and the music is great. They still feel lifeless and like just their cause they can be, you can't interact with the world in any manner, and world mobs have little to no replayability or even interesting mechanics. the majority of the *actual* game is spent in instances, not the world. Not to mention the robots called NPCs in this game.

This is my first MMO so I can't say, but I know more singleplayer games that have the feeling, much stronger than this game.