I just don't get it.

[odintius]

I have played other MMOs. This is the best one. I've played WoW, Aion, Tera, Blade & Soul, Elder Scrolls Online, City of Heroes, Guild Wars 1, Guild Wars 2, Lord of the Rings: Online, and probably more I've forgotten about.

Good to see can we agree there could be some room for improvements to this game as well and I acknowledged not everything I suggest is going to be liked by everyone

[Adventica6]

It seems your issue is with gear longevity, 6 months for ilvl raise is how it's done around here. The fact that we can predict things is because the producer makes live letters, explaining what is happening with the game constantly. Most other games don't even tell you who the producer is let alone communicates with it's playerbase... so if you were wondering how we know when stuff get's released it's through him.

[Skivvy]

I have played other MMOs. This is the best one. I've played WoW, Aion, Tera, Blade & Soul, Elder Scrolls Online, City of Heroes, Guild Wars 1, Guild Wars 2, Lord of the Rings: Online, and probably more I've forgotten about.

Opinions are a funny thing. I honestly wouldn't recommend XIV to people as I find the game quite shallow. And since you hate dem silly buzzwords, let me explain why I think the game is shallow.

At times this game feels like a gigantic lobby. They have this nice world out there that is hardly touched because most of the game content is instanced. Want a raid? Go queue up and get popped into your instance. Dungeons? Same. MSQ fights? Same. Trials? You see where this is going?

Then there is the issue that each patch brings more of the same. Dungeons, raids and trials all follow the same pattern, and there is far too much scripting.

Gear is predictable as well. We get new styles every ~6 months or so, all from a new fancy tome which acts the exact same as the previous version. Full gearsets have to be replaced constantly, and with caps in place, forget trying to play and gear up more then 2-3 jobs unless you absolutely love that gear treadmill. This game is horribly linear.


Edit:
Some things I've loved from other games:

XI:
-the merit system. Already at max level? Lets start putting some points into various skills and traits to boost your character
-all the various forms of end-game came with their own distinct flavour and style
-open world NMs. Hunts are XIV's version of this, but like most things, the implementation is rather iffy
-Everything is done on your own server - greater sense of community which adds A LOT to MMOs. I get why DF exists in XIV, but they really need to bring in cross-server chat, or a guesting feature. At this point, most DF runs feel like you're playing with NPCs.

AA:
-Massive open world filled with monsters that provide an actual threat to you.
-Extensive farming/husbandry system in place that ANYONE can do. Not just those fortunate enough to own a house.
-Job customization. They have an obscene amount of possible jobs depending on what classes you pick. And from there you and pick various skills that you like

GW2:
-Another large world without many invisible walls
-Jumping puzzles!
-Your level scales based on the zone you are in so you can always help out friends no matter your level
-Cross-server chat / guest options
-Buy/sell orders
-Frequent open-world events going on in all zones that provide actual rewards outside of just XP

There are definitely more items, but I'm at work and cant keep pissing away the time on this post

Each game has its pros and cons. Even XIV has some things that they've done well. But with that said, I would say XIV is not the game for me due to the shallowness. Sure, I've wasted plenty of time here, but at this point I log in more out of habit. Like many others, I am just keeping the game around until something else comes along, or more likely in my case, until my sub runs out.

[Krissey]

At times this game feels like a gigantic lobby. They have this nice world out there that is hardly touched because most of the game content is instanced. Want a raid? Go queue up and get popped into your instance. Dungeons? Same. MSQ fights? Same. Trials? You see where this is going?

So what MMO have you played with a super rich and interesting and diverse world? Eve Online? No instances of any kind? I literally can't think of one that isn't basically a "lobby" at this point in time. Almost all of them if not precisely all of them have instanced raids, dungeons and so forth.

[Deuce]

It seems your issue is with gear longevity, 6 months for ilvl raise is how it's done around here.

See, this statement is a perfect example of what is wrong with this community. Too many players accept a poorly thought-out design concept as being okay. "It's how things work, so just accept it." Did players accept a terribly designed game when it was released? If you can't figure out what I'm referring to, then I'll help you. I'm talking about FFXIV. When it was launched we didn't accept it as, "it's how it done." Even though Tanaka may have tried that line on us quite a few times, especially during the Beta. The game was a failure that quickly became a meme and a joke in the MMO community. It failed publicly, it failed internally, and it failed financially. Square Enix themselves claimed that it severely 'damaged the Final Fantasy brand' and the company as a whole.

Criticizing A Realm Reborn for its constant vertical climb and rapidly increasing item levels is a perfectly valid criticism. This is an issue that is impacting the game's success right now.

The fact that we can predict things is because the producer makes live letters, explaining what is happening with the game constantly.

Actually, the game has become predictable because the development team chooses to copy and paste their established design philosophies, which are quite narrow. We know now, after two years of the same, that we will receive, linear dungeons, four 'raids' every 6 months, that are hardly raids, one 24-man snoozefest dungeon every 6 months, a primal fight each patch, which is heavily scripted, some uninspired daily quests, and possibly one new idea.

About the only thing that we are unable to predict these days are QoL adjustments, buffs/nerfs to jobs, and some minor tweaks to already existing content. These are about the only things that we are unable to currently predict about this game's path moving forward. The live letters merely serve to fill in some of the finer details about what we can predict, while answering some questions. Nevermind the fact that they're generally softballs about glamour and whether or not the box in your house is going to be able to fly next patch. Anyone who has been around since the live letters started in 2011 can tell you that they've gone down in quality significantly. Production quality may be up, but the actual quality of information has gone down.

Most other games don't even tell you who the producer is let alone communicates with it's playerbase... so if you were wondering how we know when stuff get's released it's through him.

That's great, but this community now treats Yoshida as a celebrity, a person who can do no wrong. His ideas and concepts are infallible. No matter how poorly the community reacts to them, Alexander Gordias, Lord of Verminion, and the 3.0 relic, only to name a few, players will come out of the woodwork in an effort to defend him. If anyone wants to start picking their games based on celebrities then may I suggest Clash of Clans? I heard they have this well-known supermodel who is the face of their game. Certainly that must be a higher quality game because of her noteworthiness, right?

To be honest, I don't care whether or not I know who the producer of this game is. And to say that other games don't tell you who their producers are is flat out wrong. Other developers just choose not shove that person in your face because they know ultimately you only should care about the game itself.

[Nyalia]

Is it really that hard to believe that some of us enjoy the game that we play and want it to continue being the same game at its core? Is that really a "problem" with the community? Which is more logical to you - someone who enjoys the underlying mechanics for a game that they play and is willing to say that they enjoy it and defend their enjoyment of the game, or someone who hates the underlying mechanics of a game that they play and constantly asks it to be changed into a completely different game? Are we somehow "sheep" for enjoying something that other people don't?

Each patch brings more of the same because it's the same game. Surprised? I'm certainly not, and am totally baffled by some of the views expressed in this thread (and others like it).

[FabricioRF]

You're saying having BiS gear for 6 months isn't long enough?

Not when it takes about 4 months to get a full lore set. Are you guys forgetting the lockouts?

[Welsper59]

Is it really that hard to believe that some of us enjoy the game that we play and want it to continue being the same game at its core? Is that really a "problem" with the community? Which is more logical to you - someone who enjoys the underlying mechanics for a game that they play and is willing to say that they enjoy it and defend their enjoyment of the game, or someone who hates the underlying mechanics of a game that they play and constantly asks it to be changed into a completely different game? Are we somehow "sheep" for enjoying something that other people don't?

Each patch brings more of the same because it's the same game. Surprised? I'm certainly not, and am totally baffled by some of the views expressed in this thread (and others like it).

Come on now, you should know how this works with the interwebz. If you're not with the popular thinking of the time, which is to defy reality and have infinite resources, time, and manpower to make changes instant and unique to each players enjoyable experience, then you're obviously dumb.

Not when it takes about 4 months to get a full lore set.

Logically, doesn't that mean you're spending time with the previous equips individually for that 4 month period as well, until each piece gets replaced? Or is it logical these days with this game that as soon as the next tier comes out, all equips are now useless, and any time spent with them is like cancer?

[Deuce]

Is it really that hard to believe that some of us enjoy the game that we play and want it to continue being the same game at its core?

It's not hard to believe and I never said that it was. Also, I believe it's debatable whether or not rapid iLvl progression is part of this game's core.

Is that really a "problem" with the community? Which is more logical to you - someone who enjoys the underlying mechanics for a game that they play and is willing to say that they enjoy it and defend their enjoyment of the game, or someone who hates the underlying mechanics of a game that they play and constantly asks it to be changed into a completely different game?

Here you are mincing words and extrapolating what I said about "this" community, the official forums, and confusing it with the overall community of FFXIV, which due to its size is hard to generalize. My main complaint about this community is not whether or not you enjoy the game. It's about the extreme bias found within these forums. It's about the shouting down of criticism with thinly constructed arguments because someone doesn't agree with the way something is done.

You are making assumptions about what I believe this game needs when I have never said anything to that effect. You're also assuming that I have a complete dislike for this game. If that were the case I certainly wouldn't have been paying sub fees since March of 2012. I have never asked for a completely different game, nor has anyone asked for it in this thread. However, if you view that a desire for improvements upon established systems that are causing longtime players to unsubscribe at high rates is somehow wrong, then I don't know what to tell you.

Are we somehow "sheep" for enjoying something that other people don't?

Also, you seem to be attributing a statement to myself and others about what we've said because we believe that certain systems can be improved upon and/or changed for the betterment of the game. Going back to what I said earlier in this thread, the official forums is full of confirmation bias. This is what I believe is wrong with the forums, specifically, the general discussion section.

Each patch brings more of the same because it's the same game. Surprised? I'm certainly not, and am totally baffled by some of the views expressed in this thread (and others like it).

I'm not exactly sure why you are baffled that there are people who would be unhappy with the direction that the game is going in. Is it because there are so many people willing to voice their criticisms of the game, many of them quite common, that has you baffled?

The other day there was a post on the FFXIV subreddit asking people what their complaints were about the game. There have been several threads like this in as many months since Heavensward was released in that particular community. The most recent thread had more than double the amount of comments posted to it than any of the other most recent popular threads. A majority of those comments were critical of the game and certain design decisions as of late with several repeated criticisms being ones that have been voiced here in the past and presently in this thread.

While this is another form of confirmation bias, I do find it interesting that these complaints are cropping up more frequently in several different places post Heavensward. I believe that anyone who has been paying attention for the past year could tell you that there is an ever growing discontent among the playerbase about certain aspects of the game. Now, it's debatable whether or not those groups all agree about what they're unhappy about it should be noted that these complaints have begun to coalesce into a much larger complaint about the direction the game has gone in.

[OmegaStrongtan]

I just don't get it:

Have a system allowing you to switch jobs on the fly ---> can only equip 1-2 jobs to 'not suck' level for the newest hard content thanks to weekly limit. Sure there is 220 crafted gear but to craft it you need multiple crafting jobs ---> OH HAY red scrips limit. Also the materia needed to get 3star crafts done is hilarious. Have fun gearing multiple Crafter to 3star level.