I'm Thinking About Quitting - But Not For the Reason You Might Think

[Purrfectstorm]

I know there have been lots of "I'm quitting" threads from the beginning and that this probably has happened with pretty much every game ever. I also know that I am just one player and the vast majority of the FFXIV players won't miss me if I do decide to leave. I expect the predictable "don't let the door hit you", "you won't be missed", "another of these threads?" and pics of people eating popcorn. However, my goal in posting this is not to get the community at large to care or be supportive of me. I just want to leave some feedback for SE in how/why they're driving me away, even though I really love this game.

I suspect this is going to be long-winded, so I'll offer you all a short version here then again as a TL;DR at the end: daily/weekly content

I wrote a research paper last semester about game addiction, notably because I was concerned with the amount of time I'd spend playing every day. I'll spare most of the details because this is going to be long enough as it is; the most important point relevant to this discussion is that MMOs were named as the biggest culprits of game addiction. Why?

A lot of reasons were suggested but I'm going to say that for me it's the daily/weekly content grind. It was cool at first when all you had to do was cap soldiery and maybe do Coil. Roulette livened the game up with its bonuses. No more doing Castrum or AK (or whatever) dozens of times for Darklight. The Challenge Log was interesting and made certain things less of a chore (chocobo/alt leveling for instance). But now I'm going to argue that there is simply too much on a daily/weekly timer

Daily Timers

- Beast Tribe Quests
- Supply/Provisioning Missions
- Leves
- Roulette
- Alexandrite Quest
- Hunts
- Map Harvesting
- Ventures
- Gardening

Weekly Timers

- Syrcus Tower
- Second Coil
- Soldiery
- Challenge Log
- EX Primal Quest
- Hunts

Now, arguably, some of these things require a miniscule amount of time (Ventures for instance) but you must log on EVERY day to be most efficient. Of course, the reason why the game may be designed this way is simple: SE wants people to NEED to play all the time. This is good from a business standpoint but bad if you're trying to play the game on your schedule, in a somewhat reasonable timeframe. And daily/weekly content isn't the only content designed like this.

Other Timed Content

- Vistas
- Gathering Nodes
- Hunts
- Fates
- Loss of FC Leadership

All of these things create the need to be in the game at such and such a time. It has gotten so bad that I find myself AFKing all the time while I play some other game or do homework. At least in the latter case I'm being productive, but my point still remains, FFXIV is becoming less fun for me when there all these constraints meant to control when and how often I (and others) play.

I liked the game better when I could play whenever I wanted, for however long I wanted. I feel like SE is fostering game addictive behaviors with their content design and in order to get back control of my own life, I should go back to playing non-MMO games. I get an achievement in the game and I know the feeling is just my brain's pleasure centers lighting up. Lately I've been feeling like real achievements are writing a novel, running in a marathon, being a good person. For too long, I've let a game company monopolize my time with meaningless achievements: "Triumph in Wolve's Den 5,000 times." Here, an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" sums it up nicely: "But I feel like when I'm winning in the game, I'm winning at life." Only, the truth is quite the opposite, especially when content is designed to be tedious and time-consuming.

Sure, I could stick to "just the fun content." Only it turns out there really isn't much of that, when I take my rose-colored glasses off. It's all just a relatively unfun grind for achievements/mounts/minions/gear. On top of that, my addiction won't let me ignore the rewards from doing the tedious/unfun content.

Perhaps I am being unfair to SE, but I believe this is purposeful design and game addictive behavior can't be blamed entirely on the people who struggle with it. Companies like SE take advantage of and foster game addiction in order to make a profit. If this is not the case, why not just design more fun content with good rewards that don't require logging on for hours EVERY SINGLE DAY? Sure, content locusts might devour it all in a few days and have every reward, but I thought FFXIV was designed to appeal to a more casual player base?

If you read all of this, thank you. If not, I promised a TL;DR version and here it is:

TL;DR Daily/Weekly Content may get people to play and/or sub longer but it's pushing at least one player away - me.

[ruinedmirage]

This is the reason I stopped back in April as well. I felt like I constantly HAD to do ALL of the content to stay competitive and provide for my FC as a crafter. I had to help myself first, then help other people second, but SE made it so improving yourself first involved a HUGE grind of time that it didn't leave much leftover to help other people learn stuff, craft, hold player driven content, etc before the next patch is released.

I felt that if I played at my own pace, I was ultimately a hindrance to all of my friends. So by turning this into a more "improve yourself over the next 3 month grind until the next patch and then do it again" solo experience instead of a "help other people, interact, and create some fun events" (which isn't for everyone, especially the longer MMO players or those into sandbox), I've been less inclined to stay competitive and figured I'd go find a better single player experience offline and not drag my friends down by not playing every day. Leave player interaction and adventuring to tabletop RPGs....

I was sad to leave as well, but I just couldn't keep up with the expectations. But I'm just a drop in the bucket as well. I don't expect SE to change their policy or model any time.

[Elven]

This is literally every MMO I can say if you don't find it fun anymore stop playing.

[Renik]

This is literally every MMO I can say if you don't find it fun anymore stop playing.

Not really, some MMOs are fun, i played ffxi for 8 years because the content was fun, while the world of ffxiv is really "pleasant", it makes you feel good when you login, ffxiv has some of the most boring and repetitive content i have seen in a MMO, from fully scripted battles to zerg-only open world content, and time lockouts telling you how and when to play aren't helping.

Some players are so addicted that can't really see how boring the games is, because the game keeps them hooked whit a shinny reward after every corner.

[Purrfectstorm]

This is the reason I stopped back in April as well. I felt like I constantly HAD to do ALL of the content to stay competitive and provide for my FC as a crafter. I had to help myself first, then help other people second, but SE made it so improving yourself first involved a HUGE grind of time that it didn't leave much leftover to help other people learn stuff, craft, hold player driven content, etc before the next patch is released.

I felt that if I played at my own pace, I was ultimately a hindrance to all of my friends. So by turning this into a more "improve yourself over the next 3 month grind until the next patch and then do it again" solo experience instead of a "help other people, interact, and create some fun events" (which isn't for everyone, especially the longer MMO players or those into sandbox), I've been less inclined to stay competitive and figured I'd go find a better single player experience offline and not drag my friends down by not playing every day. Leave player interaction and adventuring to tabletop RPGs....

I was sad to leave as well, but I just couldn't keep up with the expectations. But I'm just a drop in the bucket as well. I don't expect SE to change their policy or model any time.

Really well-said and as for the part about tabletop RPGs, I've stared playing Dungeons and Dragons again. I didn't realize how much I had missed it (and so many other activities) because I was too absorbed with the NEED to login.

This is literally every MMO I can say if you don't find it fun anymore stop playing.

Sorry to pick on you but this is the type of response I was anticipating in my post. Since this is a "thinking about quitting" thread (says so right in the title), there's a good chance I'll take your advice.

Some players are so addicted that can't really see how boring the games is, because the game keeps them hooked whit a shinny reward after every corner.

Sadly, I think you're right and this describes me perfectly. However, it was only a matter of time before I started to wake up

[Elven]

Not really, some MMOs are fun, i played ffxi for 8 years because the content was fun, while the world of ffxiv is really "pleasant", it makes you feel good when you login, ffxiv has some of the most boring and repetitive content i have seen in a MMO, from fully scripted battles to zerg-only open world content, and time lockouts telling you how and when to play aren't helping.

Some players are so addicted that can't really see how boring the games is, because the game keeps them hooked whit a shinny reward after every corner.

Now you're quoting literally everything and you know the best advice right? All in moderation.

[Demeos]

Everything in life is optional...except dieing. At the end of the day, everything else is still your choice. Not SE, not your friends, not anyone's choice but your own. If you're leaving then that's fine. More power to you. But at the very least, you might find it beneficial to take responsibility for the choices you make.

[Purrfectstorm]

Now you're quoting literally everything and you know the best advice right? All in moderation.

Even trolling should be done in moderation

[Elven]

Even trolling should be done in moderation

No trolling at all is the answer there

[Renik]

Now you're quoting literally everything and you know the best advice right? All in moderation.

I won't take this from a sheep who can only response with troll posts, if you check my posts you'll see they are all made to help the game, well not really needed you just have to check my sig, those fast and unoriginal answers you and your kind use are just child's play.