What does Heavensward actually bring to the table as an expansion?

[Ryel]

Was I the only one who upon hearing about Alexander's "Floors" expected something more like Nyzul Isle Investigation or even climbing the crags\Delkfutt tower?

Nah i'm right there with you, i was totally expecting (hoping for) something in the vein of Nyzul Isle, but then again there was a part of me also hoping that when hunts were first announced that they were going to be like ZNMs (minus taking selfies with mobs) and well... yeah.

[Obysuca]

Seeing as how I had a 15 day trial.. and a 30 day free subscription.. and I'm 16 days into my current subscription, it's more than a month. Did I say a month. Perhaps. It's still 'new' to me. But I've played enough content to see a lot of people enjoying it at all levels.

I really hope you're not talking about low level dungeons and the lvl 50 ones lol People don't choose to do those, they do them because they want eso and only do them once a day. That's not "enjoying it at all levels"

Like I said, go look at your post history. You only have positive things to say about XI and this game seems your desperate attempt to get some of that magic back. You clearly don't like it or enjoy it, you are rude to your fellow players, you are elitist, you belittle others experiences and those who disagree with you and most importantly, doesn't look like you're having all that much fun. Maybe you should take a break. But yeah, good luck with your life, i'm done with you.

The reason a lot of people have positive things to say about XI and the reason we keep bringing it up, is because it was made by SE also, so it shows they can be creative and fun, rather than giving us rehash after rehash and little to no content, like XIV is doing.
And how exactly am I being rude? For giving suggestions that'd improve the game and keep it alive longer? Have I gone and straight up insulted someone and told them to "gtfo and quit"? No. The only people who have been saying for people to quit are people like you and the ones who are blindly following Yoshi. That right there is being rude to players.
It's not belittling others experiences when you're a fresh new player with barely a month of experience, trying to give a huge opinion on stuff you know nothing about. Come back in a year after you've been through a couple of updates and then we'll talk.

[Seryl199]

I'll chime in with my 2 gil here, I feel that 3.0 offered 2.0 with a new coat of paint. New enemy types, new classes, new story, and hey, flying was neat for a bit. Other than a story mode raid, all the treadmill conventions that were in place in 2.X were transplanted directly into 3.0. Hunts, an alternate currency tomestone, another type of tomestone, endgame dungeons, endgame raid, EX primals, treasure maps, it's all been used before and implemented in the same manner as before.

I'm not saying these things are evil, I trudged through them for 2 years, and they serviced the need. They are, however, old. Throwing these tired conventions at us is like hitting that chute at the end of Chutes and Ladders that sets you right back to the beginning, you look all the way back to the top of the game board, sigh, and say, "Whelp, let's do it again." There's nothing new about the climb, the only thing that changed is you're at the bottom instead of the top. Variety is the key here, and while I recognize that SE did over time implement new things to do over the course of 2.X, feeling hard up for fresh content after dropping an expansion doesn't leave me with anything near a powerful urge to continue logging in like I did before.

[aurace1095]

I repeat, I think you've played for too long and it's probably time for you to move on, because most people i see in game are happy for the most part and there doesn't appear to be anything you like about the game anymore. I don't wanna be mean but go look at your post history. You haven't posted anything positive... seemingly ever.

Addiction is never good sweetie, go do something you enjoy, life will be better.

Here's the thing - unless an MMO is shutting down, it should never be time to "move on" from it. It's not addiction, it's built into the genre of the game. We all love this game, and want to keep playing it. The issue is that, even though an expansion just came out, we feel like there's very little to do. The game should have new and varied content that keeps you logging in to play. As far as the complaints go, Yoshi-P said himself at his GDC presentation a few years back "Running an MMORPG is like running a country... If citizens are complaining, it means they still care." If we didn't care about the game, we wouldn't be complaining about it.

[Vickii]

snip.

I'm talking about players in general. My FC enjoys the high end raids and dungeons. People enjoy levelling crafting classes. I've done things in gold saucer with level 60s. I can assure you some of them do do lower level stuff and enjoy it.

Why? Because a lot of us are nice people, make and have friends and can find fun in anything. Where as you don't seem to be looking for fun. You're looking to recapture some magic you found somewhere else. You play for tokens and gear, not for enjoyment. And you forget you're a minority.

Sorry, but it's not lots of players. Its you and a few others. Barely anyone is praising XI over XIV. Also you are not helpful, you are negative and unconstructive. They won't listen to you because it's little more than crying, you don't consider much beyond you and yours or acknowledge the good parts. Thats not constructive. And you are rude, so lets move on. I hope you can find enjoyment in the game, or another game you enjoy. Best wishes.

[Kaurie]

I feel that 3.0 added lots of great content, but made it all pointless at too rapid a rate. Things that have already been mentioned in this thread:

1. Leveling story, amazing, but no way to reply it (or side quests)
2. Leveling dungeons, no use to go back once leveled
3. Hunts, no use doing these once you have 180 gear
4. Bismark Ex, no use doing this except for clear (law weapon is better and easier to obtain)
5. Rav Ex, no use doing this except clear (outdone by Eso weapon)
6. Alex NM, no use doing this after a couple of weeks, eso gear is better/maxed out 190 gear
7. Massive beautiful maps, no use going here unless gather/crafting/hunts

Anyway, there is more I am sure, but they added a lot, but it was all outdated at an extremely fast rate. Leaving only a small amount of content not outdated and thus we just do the same few things over and over (2 ex dungeons and savage).

[Obysuca]

Sorry, but it's not lots of players. Its you and a few others.

Just going to point out, it actually is a lot of players. Look at the total amount of subs now, compared to a year or even two years ago. They've dropped massively and theres a reason for that.
Not everyone posts on the forums either. 5 mil accounts =/= 5 mil players. Going to say it again, since some people still don't get it and think theres a ton of players and the game is doing good, when it isn't. But the actual total of players is about 600k-700k (but 5 million accounts?), out of those 600k-700k, about 100k-200k are rmt. Out of whats left, theres about 100k or so that aren't actively playing and only have an active account because they bought extra subscription time. So, not counting rmt, people with 2 accounts for refer a friend and people who have extra time, there's really only about 300k or so. So yes, it is actually a lot of players who feel this way about XIV, seeing as how in 2.0, there were tons of people, by 2.1 the number dropped by 1/4th and has continued to drop each update.

You play for tokens and gear, not for enjoyment. And you forget you're a minority.

So playing for tokens and gear means you don't play for enjoyment? LOL Some people find enjoyment in getting those things you know. Sure sounds like you're belittling people's experiences, being rude to fellow players and all that stuff you claimed about me. Perhaps you were really talking about yourself.

[zosia]

Fully agree with the Alexander part. Adding normal mode was a huge mistake.

Yup, it took an already underwhelming story and watered it down. It had no mystery about it. It definitely lost it's appeal when you could get the entire story in about an hour on patch day. I miss how coil worked where the story was such a rewarding part of raiding.

[Souljacker]

Seeing as how I had a 15 day trial.. and a 30 day free subscription.. and I'm 16 days into my current subscription, it's more than a month. Did I say a month. Perhaps. It's still 'new' to me. But I've played enough content to see a lot of people enjoying it at all levels.

Like I said, go look at your post history. You only have positive things to say about XI and this game seems your desperate attempt to get some of that magic back. You clearly don't like it or enjoy it, you are rude to your fellow players, you are elitist, you belittle others experiences and those who disagree with you and most importantly, doesn't look like you're having all that much fun. Maybe you should take a break. But yeah, good luck with your life, i'm done with you.

If you have only been here ~2 months, then you never even experienced the content we are talking about when it was relevant. Some of us have been here since actual launch, and I don't mean ARR launch. I mean all of it right down to buying Ps3's in anticipation of a game that never came (well, eventually it did but most of us were already settled on PC by then). Once you have played for a year or two and experienced the endgame at different stages, you might have a different opinion. I wish I could go back to being a starry-eyed two month old adventurer instead of the cynical creature the lifetime of this game has made me.

It's better than 1.0 was, in many ways worse than 2.0 was, and overall not living up to what XI was. Sometimes I feel like they just underestimate us as players, running the gamut from calling Firaga Fire II because they didn't think Americans would understand Firaga was an AOE, to dumbing down summons because they didn't believe players could handle complex and dynamic levels of play. This game feels like it was designed for very casual with very short attention span, else very hardcore with OCD tunnel vision that doesn't care about the experience and only the win\bragging rights.

There's very little in between and what IS in between, is just copy pasta. It's copy pasta from other games. It's copy pasta from earlier encounters, and there's so little of it that it's impossible NOT to notice that it's just copy pasta.

Again, all of us are here because we genuinely like aspects of this game and want to keep playing. We are FF fans. But that's all the more reason for SE to listen to our grievances, because we are the ones who kept XI running for over a decade. We are the ones who will keep this game running as well. If they don't address the grievances, eventually we'll just move on and that will be absolute tragedy for the continuing development of this game. They need subscriptions to keep designing content. If they aren't putting real effort into designing that content, the subscriptions will die out and you and those other two month old people will inherit a F2P game with a P2W cash shop and an even more overwhelming army of RMT and bots than we already have.

Think about it before telling people who are having a rational discussion about what they'd like to see changed to quit.

[Vickii]

Just going to point out, it actually is a lot of players. Look at the total amount of subs now, compared to a year or even two years ago.

All of those players thought FFXI was better? Because I'm pretty sure thats just you and a handful of others.

As far as people leaving, that's kinda the trend for MMO's as a whole. The generation who were really into them are getting married and having kids. The facebook generation has never picked up on them in the same way, which is why there was that boom you were talking about 15 years ago. It has nothing to do with archaic mechanics. FFXI was in the right place at the right time. This is infinitely a better game. Don't cry.