Final Fantasy 14 is starting to lose appeal because...

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

Note: I say everything here as someone who is not at all bored with the game, and has plenty to do. However, I can take a step back and see it from others' perspectives as well. So, please bear in mind, that nothing I'm saying here reflects my own current view of the game... ie. I'm not bored or burned out on anything. I can still, however, see places where it could be improved upon.

Finally, someone who while being on the other side of the fence, puts themselves in our shoes and actually reads the concerns while trying to understand (and ends up understanding) the actual problem without going all "waaa you are whining" "game's fine, go away if you are bored" "there is tons of things to do, stahp rushing, it's your fault for rushing", "did you lvl all your jobs to 60, collect all minions?" etc.

Thank you sir/ma'm. You bring tears of joy to my face.

[Subucnimorning]

I've enjoyed the game much more after going super casual the second time around. When ARR launched I was in a static pushing progression, killed Twintania 10+ times got bored and quit the game before second coil. This time around I am just pugging everything and I really enjoy taking time and leveling different classes at my own pace, even trying to pug a1s and a2s is enjoyable. I realize I likely won't be able to pug a3s/a4s ever but i'm ok with that. Not saying everyone needs to be a super casual player but it does help with this type of game to not burn yourself out after being someone who has raided in mmo's for about 15 years it does feel odd not to be in a guild/fc consistently raiding though!

[Tenku]

I've enjoyed the game much more after going super casual the second time around.

I didn't play the first week of Heavensward release because I was completely unimpressed with how they didn't turn the new maps into a seamless open world with the introduction of flying. Do any of you even know where Revenant's Toll or Idyllshire is on the world map? How about Limsa, Uldah, and Gridania? Do you know the relative location of each main cities on the world map? I sure as hell don't. I know it doesn't matter because you can teleport everywhere, but little things like this makes you feel part of the world.

When I started playing, I only played about 2 hours a day before falling asleep because the quests were an absolute chore going from point a to b and back to point a. The only time I actually spent hours and hours in the game was to learn and clear Ravana Ex. After that, it's been logging in for an hour a day just to check on retainers, do a daily expert and turn in some crafts for gc daily.

I would probably quit already if I played this game like I did in other MMOs where I spent over 5 hours a day on them. The only thing that's keeping me going at this point is that I have not maxed out my crafting and gathering classes yet, but have lost motivation to cap them because there's no reward in doing so.

[Ryaz]

I'm to the point where I might log on to do a dungeon for tomes if I have nothing else to do. But with Taken King out for Destiny and Fallout 4 coming in a month, I don't see myself playing a lot until 3.1 is released.

[Hito-Shura]

Here is the major problem with FF14 that might make you feel that way. The core of the game is flawed and no amount of additional content will heal its player base from their weariness.

First of all, the game is trying to appeal to too wide a playerbase. The content of the game is incredibly easy and everything can be done quickly and easily. This lead to the corruption of the community who now cannot tolerate too much work. The other part of the playerbase is the hardcore and mediumcore audience who simply want some challenge. This combination has separated the entire community in two which undoubtly cause friction when met in the Duty Finder, on the forums and in any kind of debate about the game.

As for the Duty Finder... That idea is good in theory but the amount of content is not enough to make it viable and the repetition of the same old content has made the playerbase impatient, bitter and perfectionist, a consequence of the easy difficulty of the game and the unsatisfied medium/hardcore players. Alongside this, the old players are stuck with new players who play on very different level of interests. Some just want to have a good time or don't want to give too much effort but the jaded veterans have been capping their tomes for 2 years now. They are sick and tired of it and don't want to waste too much time doing it again.

But what defines the core of FF14. Repetition and timesink. One might say it is the core of any mmos which is true but by giving such a core life with substance is the key to make your players forget about the repetition and the time spent in the game. Sadly, FF14 handles it poorly. Such can be said with the current content which is in fact an exact copy of 2.0, with more fluff but nothing new. Tomes have to be capped weekly thus forcing players to test their patience in the duty finder with players who have yet to become tired of the recurring, limited and mindless grind. If you do not cap, you cannot catch up, it's over. You are out of the race. You may catch up eventually but you take a considerable step back if you don't. It's been that way for literally 2 years, forcing players to play because the devs know their recipe won't keep players on the game long enough to please SE. We don't play because we want to do this or that, we play because we are forced to. Needless to say things have gotten worst too with the cap set on gathering and crafting thus forcing players even more to do their things weekly instead of giving them freedom.

But this flawed progression doesn't end there. Aside from forcing players to play, you need to please the hardcore audience with your raid which is poorly managed aswell. Items you eventually get from your enslavement can partially compete with the gear from raids that are but 10 ilevel higher thus making them obsolete and with the increased difficulty of the savage mode, not even worth the time aside maybe for the bragging rights. Even the appearance of the gear is uninteresting and worst, easily accessible through Alex normal mode thus removing the exclusivity of the raid gear. Poorly designed for the rewards it offers in other words. Having no incentive to put the time and effort to clear (since the story and the gear is the same as normal mode to appease the casual community), I witnessed a clear and obvious decline in the hardcore raiding community. Sure, many groups still run including mine but I see many also disbanding due to many things with the most obvious of all, the increased difficulty for the same rewards albeit the sightly higher numbers.

There are plenty of other things that contributes to the current downfall of the game but I can't state them all.

I love this game very much and I still play it daily... But my love for this game has made me worried of its obvious decline. Now is the time to state our concerns before it is too late to act.

[Tenku]

Here is the major problem with FF14 that might make you feel that way. The core of the game is flawed and no amount of additional content will heal its player base from their weariness.
First of all, the game is trying to appeal to too wide a playerbase. The content of the game is incredibly easy and everything can be done quickly and easily. This lead to the corruption of the community who now cannot tolerate too much work. The other part of the playerbase is the hardcore and mediumcore audience who simply want some challenge. This combination has separated the entire community in two which undoubtly cause friction when met in the Duty Finder, on the forums and in any kind of debate about the game.

As for the Duty Finder... That idea is good in theory but the amount of content is not enough to make it viable and the repetition of the same old content has made the playerbase impatient, bitter and perfectionist, a consequence of the easy difficulty of the game and the unsatisfied medium/hardcore players. Alongside this, the old players are stuck with new players who play on very different level of interests. Some just want to have a good time or don't want to give too much effort but the jaded veterans have been capping their tomes for 2 years now. They are sick and tired of it and don't want to waste too much time doing it again.


But what defines the core of FF14. Repetition and timesink. One might say it is the core of any mmos which is true but by giving such a core life with substance is the key to make your players forget about the repetition and the time spent in the game. Sadly, FF14 handles it poorly. Such can be said with the current content which is in fact an exact copy of 2.0, with more fluff but nothing new. Tomes have to be capped weekly thus forcing players to test their patience in the duty finder with players who have yet to become tired of the recurring, limited and mindless grind. If you do not cap, you cannot catch up, it's over. You are out of the race. You may catch up eventually but you take a considerable step back if you don't. It's been that way for literally 2 years, forcing players to play because the devs know their recipe won't keep players on the game long enough to please SE. We don't play because we want to do this or that, we play because we are forced to. Needless to say things have gotten worst too with the cap set on gathering and crafting thus forcing players even more to do their things weekly instead of giving them freedom.

But this flawed progression doesn't end there. Aside from forcing players to play, you need to please the hardcore audience with your raid which is poorly managed aswell. Items you eventually get from your enslavement can partially compete with the gear from raids that are but 10 ilevel higher thus making them obsolete and with the increased difficulty of the savage mode, not even worth the time aside maybe for the bragging rights. Even the appearance of the gear is uninteresting and worst, easily accessible through Alex normal mode thus removing the exclusivity of the raid gear. Poorly designed for the rewards it offers in other words. Having no incentive to put the time and effort to clear (since the story and the gear is the same as normal mode to appease the casual community), I witnessed a clear and obvious decline in the hardcore raiding community. Sure, many groups still run including mine but I see many also disbanding due to many things with the most obvious of all, the increased difficulty for the same rewards albeit the sightly higher numbers.

There are plenty of other things that contributes to the current downfall of the game but I can't state them all.

I love this game very much and I still play it daily... But my love for this game has made me worried of its obvious decline. Now is the time to state our concerns before it is too late to act.

Spot on and best post yet.

[NorthernLadMSP]

Snip

Yes, this all the way. Very intelligent (and correct) post.

[Preypacer]

I love this game very much and I still play it daily... But my love for this game has made me worried of its obvious decline. Now is the time to state our concerns before it is too late to act.

Aside from hyperbolic claims of being "forced to play" (you're never forced to play a game, or anything in it - it's always a personal choice at the end of the day)... and 'enslavement'... Really? You sure that's the word you want to use to describe a voluntary activity that you can walk away from at any time, with no meaningful negative repercussions?

Other than that, I agree with the "repetition and grind" aspects... though I kinda put those two words in the same category. There are ways they can create goals that require time and effort to achieve without implementing large amounts of either of those things (they achieved this in XI, in a variety of ways.. which didn't involve grinding levels or anything like that; other MMOs have done it as well.. so it is possible).

[Tenku]

Aside from hyperbolic claims of being "forced to play" (you're never forced to play a game, or anything in it - it's always a personal choice at the end of the day)... and 'enslavement'... Really?.

You're taking his words literally instead of reading the context. When he says forced to play, he means you are forced to play a certain way to keep up with the rest of the server to do certain content.

[Gilthas]

You know, I've barely played FFXIV in the past month because of the crap they did to DoL and DoH, but I was actually fine with pretty much everything else in the game. SE won't have any complaints from me if they go back to designing DoH and DoL content for players that aim to be self-sufficient instead of designing DoH and DoL for players that want everyone else to be driven off so they can jack up prices on the MB.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

I also want to point out a severe problem with your logic: if you're happy getting the same result from doing the same thing over and over again, that's not really insane.