I guess it's time

[Dextro]

TFW you realise the average XIV player has had to grind out the same 2 expert dungeons more times per patch than an XI relic holder has ever had to grind out Dynamis

XIV punishes you for not capping out each week, forcing you to play content you don't necessarily want to.
It punishes you for not playing each day, because you'll miss the daily bonus, forcing you to run 2 additional dungeons to make up for the 1 that you missed.

This leads to people wanting to do things(dungeons) as quickly as possible to get it out of the way, which of course leads to frustration and lolforumposts when the players they're paired up with are bad and slow the run down.

So, when you examine things a little closer, a lot of complaints that arise around this game are largely a result of forcing players to milk the same content.

[RiceisNice]

TFW you realise the average XIV player has had to grind out the same 2 expert dungeons more times per patch than an XI relic holder has ever had to grind out Dynamis

XIV punishes you for not capping out each week, forcing you to play content you don't necessarily want to.
It punishes you for not playing each day, because you'll miss the daily bonus, forcing you to run 2 additional dungeons to make up for the 1 that you missed.

This leads to people wanting to do things(dungeons) as quickly as possible to get it out of the way, which of course leads to frustration and lolforumposts when the players they're paired up with are bad and slow the run down.

So, when you examine things a little closer, a lot of complaints that arise around this game are largely a result of forcing players to milk the same content.

Don't confuse "punishing" with "not rewarding".

[Dextro]

I'm not.
You fall behind the rest of the global playerbase with no means of catching up if you miss a weekly cap.

[KitingGenbu]

Don't confuse "punishing" with "not rewarding".

Would agree. Having a relic in XI far more rewarding than any 'rewards' XIV has put out so far. Not saying that XIV can't put out something, but they need to. If PvP can have exclusive skills, PvE should get the same option, making relics a prime catalyst for that.

[Zojha]

XIV punishes you for not capping out each week[...]

What exactly does this "punishment" entail...? Not being quite as terribly overgeared for every content bar savage...?

[RiceisNice]

I'm not.
You fall behind the rest of the global playerbase with no means of catching up if you miss a weekly cap.

Worst case scenario you're just behind players in the gearing process (which in itself is very shallow since it's only numbers). The ilvl requirement on dungeons are so lenient that it doesn't have any repercussions. If you were actively playing the game and gearing, this would not be an issue. Likewise if you aren't actively playing the game for progression and don't need the gear, I don't see missing the weekly cap as a big deal.

The XIV dev team is great at giving us new pieces of content to play with. Case in point, there is no logical argument to be made that Weeping City is the same as Void Ark. Each plays completely differently, all the way down to the emphasis on party mechanics in Weeping City.

While this is subjective, I hardly think anyone considers LoV and Diadem, while being "new pieces of content", is a great thing. As I mentioned before, a lot of their additions end up being throw-away content, and most of them ultimately fall back onto the same base gameplay of "Dodge telegraph", only with different rewards. It does not "play completely differently" for the most part, just look at the objectives for FATEs and they're all functionally the same, likewise with the mobs.

While it's not the "same" content, it's largely on the same gameplay that repeats the same cycle (specifically talking diadem here)... nor has the developers shyed from milking the aforementioned old content (2.x beast tribes and hunts specifically)

[Thayos]

I hardly think anyone considers LoV and Diadem, while being "new pieces of content", is a great thing.

LoV and Diadem were meant to serve two completely different purposes. I think LoV was a great example of the devs trying to "Tanaka" us by giving us content nobody really wanted. As for Diadem, I think that could have been incredibly fulfilling had it been more carefully designed (and the dev team is revamping it as we speak, so we'll see how that turns out).

Both Diadem and Deep Dungeons are meant to be content types that are expanded and kept relevant from here on out, as are the game's other dominant content types. So none of that is really "throwaway content." It's more accurate to call the various pieces of content within each type "repetitive."

And I do get your point about how a lot of the game is just song/dance while doing DPS. And there are downsides associated with that, for sure -- like battles being won based on memorizing patterns rather than using your job's skills.

But I don't view that as a deal-breaker. That's just the type of game this is. The upside of this game's design is that all the jobs are incredibly balanced, and we don't have jobs that are shunned by the community or excluded from certain content types like we saw in XI.

XIV punishes you for not capping out each week

I also don't agree with this.

As a longtime player of FFXI, I find this game to be incredibly FORGIVING for people who don't grind to stay on the bleeding edge of iLevels. In XI, if you fell behind it could take months to catch up... YEARS even if you fell out of line for certain drops in events like Dynamis. Damn, I had to grind dynamis for six to eight hours per week for TWO FREAKING YEARS just to get my rdm hat. And that was just the time spent in the same Dynamis zones.

In XIV, I could leave the game for six months, come back and have a high enough iLevel to succeed in most content within a month or two.

[odintius]

Both Diadem and Deep Dungeons are meant to be content types that are expanded and kept relevant from here on out, as are the game's other dominant content types. So none of that is really "throwaway content." It's more accurate to call the various pieces of content within each type "repetitive.".

I believe these content are catch up for gearing up other jobs or exp so then you can proceed to repeat the current content of what you would of been doing anyways on any other job to begin with just so people can take more breaks from the game I guess. /shrug

I say for those they could have introduce gear set bonus to armor and accessories as well as keeping the current reward for weapon. Say you do deep dungeon as whm your earn all the point needed at the end you can chose between say 2 bonuses only one can be apply from option menu for a piece of gear/ acc if this were the case and at same time fun to repeat would be a lot more rewarding. /shrug

[KitingGenbu]

I guess one could argue that fights in XI were more advance than XIV due to the TP system playing a bigger determining factor rather than just a resource in this game. The coupling of predetermined patterns with the ability for monsters to build tp made it so that certain fights couldn't be 'cheesed' by zerging unless you had a chainspell stun I suppose. Physical dps required a certain degree of subtle blow (lowering how much tp the monster got when hit) and store tp (increasing how much tp the player built when hitting the target). Then you had skill chains and magic bursts as opposed to this one man army that everyone plays in this game.

[Vantol]

The upside of this game's design is that all the jobs are incredibly balanced, and we don't have jobs that are shunned by the community or excluded from certain content types like we saw in XI.

This "balance above all" is actually killing game. All classes play the same. Nothinbg is unique. Zero theorycrafting. Why not make everything equally unequal? For example, trial A is best for blms, trial B is best for drgs and etc The game would get so much more depth in instant.

In XIV, I could leave the game for six months, come back and have a high enough iLevel to succeed in most content within a month or two.

And that's exactly the problem we are all talking about.

Actually those 2 things combined are the root reason of all problems.

It's either throw away any sights of balance, but keep gear raining with no effort, so everyone can play any job and have fun.

OR

Keep everything balanced, but gear hard to obtain and last 1-2 years/

But not both. Any of those ways will fix game for the most part.