I was sick of tomes in 2.0 now I loathe them in 3.0

[Ashkendor]

Same here...I never EVER had that issue when playing FFXI lol. I don't like how "Take a break" is an acceptable response. Imagine if more and more people took breaks...most of them do not come back, and well...yeah, we all know how that ends up.

Instead of fix the game and make it more engaging and fun, just take a break..possibly quit, one less sub ! I saw in the lucky bancho sp? survery it looks like at least 100k subs were lost...but then again what do I know ; ;

The thing is, you have to take the complaints with a grain of salt and recognize them for the vocal minority that they are. For starters, only a small fraction of the playerbase even posts to the forums or even to the subreddit. A lot of people don't even know they exist. Then you get into the fact that people that are enjoying the game don't generally come to the forums to post about it. They simply enjoy playing it. Most people only post when they have a question or a complaint (aside from screenshot threads and "show your glamour" threads and things like that, which are in a cool little category all their own).

In any case, I'd like to see some kind of proof for the claim that "most" people that take a break from a game don't ever come back to it, because it's my experience that most of them do come back at one point or another. It may be weeks later. It may be months later. It may only be temporarily, but the fact remains that they do tend to come back. My ingame wife is a great example - he let his sub lapse back in October or so because he just wasn't feeling it anymore, and he came back in March to check all the new stuff out. Some people simply have cyclical interest in games. Other people tend to play one game to the exclusion of all others. FFXIV is great in that it's accessible to both types of players because it's very easy to catch up.

What if those FC and LS's are dead because of the state of the game though?

Then you move on and find a new FC or LS if you wish to keep playing and want to have people around to do stuff with. Clinging to a truly dead FC because you don't want to leave those people behind (when in reality they have already left you behind when they left the game) is just punishing yourself for the sake of old memories. People quit and move on from games all the time due to various things, whether it be because they don't enjoy the game anymore or because something in their real life changed. The very few people I know that have flat-out quit the game, it hasn't been because they wanted to or because they were tired of it; it's been because something had changed with their life and they no longer had time for it.

[Kazrah]

Honestly would feel better if the weekly top-tier tome cap was permanently removed as a concept. That way, hardcore players won't get completely bored once they cap within the first day or two of the week, more casual players won't feel so pressured into trying to hit that cap every week (I know it's easy to, but some might not have the time for it that particular week), and overall more motivation for people to play more jobs in endgame content. Sure, this would come at the expense of places like void ark where people can get "welfare gear", but that's an expense I'd definitely be willing to take since people do those places for glamour items as well.

I did quit the game multiple times, and all of them were because I got bored of saying "well I'm capped, see y'all on Tuesday".

[Ashkendor]

Honestly would feel better if the weekly top-tier tome cap was permanently removed as a concept.

Removing that weekly lockout doesn't remove the need for people to cap, though. People that don't feel the need to cap would be unaffected. People that do feel the need to cap would only have it worse then. Instead of a finite weekly amount you need to get to keep up, suddenly there's a situation where once you fall behind the frontrunners you can never catch up. Newer players come into the game far behind with no hope of ever catching up. That's a terrible feeling to have in any game. Abolishing the weekly cap just takes the gap between hardcore and casual, drives a wedge into it, and levers it wider until it's completely insurmountable.

[Kaurie]

For me, it is a combination of things...

1. Having a scripted count of tokens required to obtain an item makes the process of saving up tokens feel like a job. Instead of having the sense of satisfaction of obtaining my item at the end of hard content, I just walk up and buy it. This is not fun to me.

2. Having the way to obtain tokens be incredibly easy also makes the process feel like a chore. I do not feel like I "earned" that Lore chest piece by playing well, I feel like I could have just afk netflix healed expert a few times. If the content was at least remotely challenging, then at least there would be some sense of satisfaction and earning. Instead it feels like I did my chores and got paid my allowance.

So, in essence, I do not like how gear is delivered via tomes and I do not like how tomes are delivered.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Its a way for them to keep progression consistent and limit the impact of RNG on people who don't play as often. I certainly don't want to go back to the days of 60% sucess max on armor/weapon recipes, .5% drop rates on gear, and rare mobs dropping the best gear that are only claimable by 1 person or group. I don't have that kind of time to dedicate to a game. Or the flexibility of being on at 4am to kill a mob for that 10% chance it will drop the piece I need.

You could always impose a limit on yourself of only ever using crafted gear and drops from savage, if getting easy chore gear doesn't interest you.

[Kaurie]

Its a way for them to keep progression consistent and limit the impact of RNG on people who don't play as often. I certainly don't want to go back to the days of 60% sucess max on armor/weapon recipes, .5% drop rates on gear, and rare mobs dropping the best gear that are only claimable by 1 person or group. I don't have that kind of time to dedicate to a game. Or the flexibility of being on at 4am to kill a mob for that 10% chance it will drop the piece I need.

You could always impose a limit on yourself of only ever using crafted gear and drops from savage, if getting easy chore gear doesn't interest you.

That isn't really a solution. I'd rather just have both options than one, if that is the issue. For example, Expert dungeons could drop 220 level gear instead of 195. Expert dungeons should be tuned as such though - and then level 60 roulette could be the 'easy faceroll' stuff that you can grind away for Lore if you don't want something challenging.

There is a massive difference between 'challenging' and 'savage' unfortunately.

I don't entirely understand the don't have time argument. I'd rather be undergeared and behind while having fun, than caught up in max gear by doing chores. What part of the gameplay of content that requires no effort and very little thought, giving out a very predictable currency for an item is fun for you?

Regardless, I've pretty much just decided to unsub. I'm staying on to heal for my static while my co-healer is on vacation, and then I'm leaving when she is back (we have another healer we are trying out). I'll need to see some pretty major changes announced to change my mind, I think.

[Maero]

Myself i do not always cap every week, and does not bother me.
While i have never played other mmo's are they not all the same though? having to grind for tokens, tomes, whatever.

[Derio]

Funny how people complain about it but dont offer a viable solution or reasonable alternative that will suit the playerbase as a whole and not just raiders in general.

[Seraphix2407]

Myself i do not always cap every week, and does not bother me.
While i have never played other mmo's are they not all the same though? having to grind for tokens, tomes, whatever.

Not always the case. I think or well really hope once 4xx comes out they will add more raids and gear will be alot more interesting, but same time I feel it wont. They want to keep the same bland setup they use already.

[Elky]

I don't see the big deal about tomes to be honest.
To me they're a means to be rewarded by undertaking lots of different content. I'd rather do a bit of everything I feel like each week to progress than be forced to farm for specific drops.

However I am the type of person that doesn't worry about capping every week. For example I only do Expert if I have a friend that feels like going so that probably helps me avoid burnout.

Its a means of being rewarded with the best gear for the easiest, most mundane content that is excessively repetitive.