Why I'm leaving and don't know if I'll come back

[Knahli]

If you feel differently, please I would like hear why? am I wrong? do you agree? discuss

I imagine many people will begin reading my post only to tune out before finishing the first paragraph, but I disgress.


I continue to have fun in this game because I am in love with the smaller things, the kinds of things a lot of other people eye-roll at or get mad over being considered "content".

I like to "live" in this game a bit more than any other typical game for example. I like variety and perhaps even the silly things, something that adds immersion or helps tie me in closer with the story which I am enjoying. It offers me a sense of attachment that keeps my feelings from turning cold or detached even when I feel there's not much for me to do at that very moment because I happen to be lacking goals. To use an embarrassing example, I like occasionally /bow'ing when approaching or leaving Vidnofir's company for instance, simply because her dialogue and insight into the ongoing story often makes me smile and it feels like my character is offering due respects to her that way. Absurd and ridiculous to many, I'm sure, but they're little private details about my own gaming experience in FF that somehow make me happy because she's a character I enjoy. Moreso than that however, I have an assortment of different fluff sets for my seven, legitimate characters. Normal, battle-wear.... casual wear, a rain cloak for bad weather and warmer clothing for the likes of Coerthas and some outdated ice-based maps - and even the Halloween barding to help keep my chocobo dry in the same instances. With that in mind, you can imagine that new emotes, poses and glamour updates always offer extreme significance to me. They're not things I try once for five minutes with my friends then forget about. If they are anything I like then they leave a lasting impression.

-Negligible, more in-depth rambling under the cut...-

Additionally, I've always taken character design seriously in any game. I want to create something I like and can be happy with. I'm not really into the whole -Fantasia'ing into something else for a change of pace- sort of thing. I like to have an attachment and actual liking toward my characters. They're not meant to represent me in any way, shape or form. They're just that, characters... my own personal bit of creativity. On that note, I like to imagine particular personalities for them - charismas and styles. I think it's really nice that the game allows one character to be all you need to experience all aspects of the game to it's fullest with the class system, but I don't really buy into that myself despite appreciating the convenience it offers to others. So I have several characters; one true class to each of them. So it's because I have seven characters - with the eighth being a sort of place holder for a future race - that I have a particular variety that caters to my interest in these smaller details.
New glamours become available? Wonderful. It may not suit my main character but perhaps it's just right for my Warrior or my Dark Knight; with that alone I have something to be excited about and work toward; in fact, I'd have far more characters were there not an 8 per server limit. So even if a particular character is way behind in content, something as simple as a suitable glamour update is enough to kick me into high gear and plough through a lot just to achieve that much for them. Take for instance the PvP sets, the PvP mount or as of right now, one of my characters who is currently hard-grinding Miner from 0-60, not because I will ever use the class on him(because I won't, my Main handles all of that), but simply because I like the new Miner Shirt and would like to have it as something new to wear around outside of dungeons even if it has no use to me in dungeons. Aesthetics have always been a weakness of mine, be it the maps, the music, the dungeons, the boss fights or the characters themselves. The "boring" content that people like to throw off as appealing only to the niche community of RP'ers only(which is an untrue, blanket statement) is a huge drive for me.

However.

Most people aren't as easily appeased as I am with the stupid, small things... and some people don't place 'that' much of an importance on acquiring nice glamours. So that just leaves the content SE provides rather than what you can make of what is already there. To that I can only answer with the rather tired and perhaps overused response of: "Well, what are you looking for out of this game?"

People seem to want SE to provide the answer for them rather than come up with anything on their own, but I honestly am unsure of what it is that you are looking for. I can list of a ton of things that I wish were implemented into the game, changed or improved upon but they are mostly quality of life details and I can't help but draw blanks if I am challenged to come up with some super amazing idea to revolutionise the end-game content like people seem to hope might one day happen.
So what is it that you're looking for?

Better raids? Better how? People complain when it's too hard and people complain when it's too easy. Worse yet, people continue to be surprised by the realisation that once they learn and practice mechanics regularly, they actually get better at them to the point that they no longer feel challenging.

How about better dungeons? If we toss aside the fact that most people tend to find them aesthetically gorgeous, how exactly are you expecting to improve upon the format of moving from point A to B as a collective party? If you were to split people up to make some sort of special adventure out of it then everything would have to be super easy to compensate for the absence of heals/tanks; so, again, it's not like they can do anything really out of the box and new as far as I can see without gimmicking something to make it feasibly possible and thereby drawing upon the ire of people who complain about content being too easy nonetheless.

Longer-lasting content? How do you even achieve that without applying content to farm and grind for - something which many people loathe doing as is. It's natural that things will feel stale if you're repeating the same daily tasks mindlessly and just chasing the carrot simply to reach end-tier stats. It's not even necessary, so if you don't enjoy it then I would hope you're at least being more casual about it, and if there's nothing else this game has to offer that can reward you with any sense of happiness or joy then maybe you really should stop playing. Even when I don't have goals, my friend whom I play all new games with usually will, and so I make her goals my goals too. Running old ARR dungeons doesn't sound like fun to me, but if she's levelling a new character then you can be sure that they will have extra meaning because I look forward to seeing her reach her own goals, spending time with her and having fun along the way... which brings me to a final and pretty important point.

Friends.
If you really want to survive in a game for the long haul then you really ought to surround yourself with people whose company you really enjoy and have very similar interests to you. My friend and I are both alt-aholics with tons of appreciation for the aesthetic side of the game, so even if something doesn't suit me and my characters personally, they might for her and I can share the hype alongside her on her behalf. As much as I love this game and all it offers, I likely wouldn't be here at all if it weren't for the company I kept. It's not really a game to be enjoyed solo on a daily basis in my opinion, unless you have serious love for the repetitive grind or are at least on the more extreme side with many characters and a ton of goals and ambitions as I might be considered(but even then, I don't think that would be enough to keep me alone).

It doesn't even require direct friends for you to look at the game and still have a sincere love for what it's all about. That's why I like browsing screenshots and uploads made by others. It breathes a whole new life into the game that you might otherwise miss and gives me, personally, an inspiration to want to continue being a part of it and further adding to my own characters' goals and experiences. I love taking screenshots and making horrible attempts at editing them to make them look nice. These are the things that keep me happily going, even if I skip my weekly Mhach run and don't do any end-game raiding whatsoever.

Maybe it's worth considering asking yourself what is it about this game - or perhaps even any game - that you can find some sense of enjoyment within beyond the basics. Can you look at it differently than you have been up until now? What is it that you see when you log into FFXIV each day? Do you see a random character on your screen ready to take you on a monotonous tour of a tired, old dungeon to collect a set of boring, imaginary tomes that you don't even need? Do you just seem random numbers and figures that are practically meaningless and whose worth dictate little more than the time you've put into the game in recent weeks/months? Or do you allow yourself to see something more alive, something with actual meaning and sentimental worth to you? Something that's worth is only amplified by the fact you share it with people you enjoy spending time with be it grinding out the latest, best weapon or just sitting back in your private estate's jacuzzi together making stupid jokes and conversation? Exactly what element of MMOs appeal to you, which of those are missing from FF and how would you go about reasonably applying them? You tell us what content you want, and if enough people agree with you, then maybe your voice will be heard.


For me, one of the biggest drives is the sense of community among the people who like to try and make the game bigger than what it is, those who come at it with a more creative and artistic approach and make you think: "Wow, that's the game I am playing", the people who look at the small things and just come out and show you how stupidly happy it makes them for the most bizarre reasons whatsoever - like those who obsess over the new, poofy Moogle mount and it's silliness, despite the drama surrounding it. The people who can turn relatively stagnant game characters into these:

These are people who know how to enjoy the game; these are the same people who remind me on a daily basis how much I love it and that I have a limitless appreciation left to give for the elements of it that do appeal to me. I don't deny this game has many faults, but that doesn't get in the way of me enjoying the great elements that it does provide me and my friends with.

[Magic-Mal]

Serious question here; I didn't want to make yet another thread like this so I figured I'd post here. Is there a way to erase your character data completely? I know you can unsubscribe, but I'm talking about erasing your toon.

The "Delete" button! On character select if you are PS4 just press Square and "Save Appearance" and "Delete" should pop up. That's how you delete your character. Forever. For good

[Istaru]

The "Delete" button! On character select if you are PS4 just press Square and "Save Appearance" and "Delete" should pop up. That's how you delete your character. Forever. For good

Not quite forever and for good. There is a character reclamation process.

[Aarik]

The "Delete" button! On character select if you are PS4 just press Square and "Save Appearance" and "Delete" should pop up. That's how you delete your character. Forever. For good

.....man that should have been obvious, knew I'd feel stupid lol. Thanks!

[Masekase_Hurricane]

It kind of is since people like to make a spectacle about leaving.

I didn't make the big fuss and dance either. When I left FFXI I said bye in my linkshell gave my friends my gil and gear that I could trade, deleted my character and uninstalled the game. Same when I took a break for a year and a half from 14, except I knew I would be back so I kept my character but uninstalled the game.

[MaFi0s0]

This thread is funny and heres why.

You are playing the ONLY MMO on the market of many that can actually compete with WoW, remember the rest are B2P or even F2P.

You have so many things to do in this game compared to other MMOs which are plagued by repeated type of content (raids, PvP, in WoWs case, garisons).

The genre is one of the most diverse in terms of gameplay, for example FPS games = do the same thing over and over.

And whats peoples excuse for quiting? No longer having fun, not enough content.

And the rationale behind it? "Oh I cbf getting this weapon.". No one is forcing you to do this content. This single bit of content doesnt define the game.

[Shurrikhan]

It kind of is since people like to make a spectacle about leaving. If this particular individual wanted to be taken seriously about the issues they are having with the game, then articulate it as such completely, not "I'm leaving and might not come back." Doing so only draws trolls (like myself) and other people rolling their eyes saying "Not another one of these." Of course there are many people who do not like the game in its current state, myself included, but many dont need validation to leave, since I suppose many of us have more self-assurance. For example, I tend to come back to the game only for the story, usually around free logins, but I wanted to use my amazon codes and stick around for deep dungeon so I paid a sub for the first time this year, then I'll leave again. I dont need a thread saying what I'm doing, I just do it lol and so do many others. Am I saying follow the crowd? No. But if someone needs reassurance in making decisions about themselves in terms of entertainment, one has to question if entertainment is really the most important thing they are looking for or something else.

I will say that the "I guess its time" thread did spark a lot of good discussion amongst the community and also broadened the NA/EU awareness of how the JP community feels about the game, since we desire similar interests for the game. But sadly, that might not be known given the title of the thread in itself. People should try to make things more interactive if they have issues with the game, which the JP community tends to do, or so it has been translated to me. Words like "I" "me" "my" are very powerful and come across as arrogant to a lot of people, drawing conclusions such as "Who is this person? Why should I care?" which is something you dont want companies to think either since they will automatically skip it even if it has a lot of good information in it.

All great points. And in this case there certainly doesn't seem to be much of a question involved anyways. Simply wanted to point out that the form of address itself wasn't entirely without some merit, even it could have done more if introduced differently. I'd rather have that discussion in the wrong places than forbid it occur because it's misplaced.

But at the same time (and I'm speaking in general again here), I can't help but think that the poster-centricity isn't something limited to the OPs, and that maybe such click-baity titles are a particular way of dealing with that. If you were to place the same core content within two differently titled threads, one baiting criticism or spite, and the other asking openly for a real discussion, the prior or a combination substantially including the prior is more likely to see significant conversation, if only because it's less likely to fall off the front page and into obscurity – that advantage snowballing over time as posters find thought or other posters to attack or agree with.

Make a thread openly inviting ideas on any but the most controversial topic, and it sinks really quickly. Give a task, a list to quickly fill, or something to scorn, something to correct, and it lingers. For better or worse, click-bait works here. Real, well-labelled topics focused in their discussion, much less so. From what I've seen popping on briefly a few times per day on average since ARR, a lot of our best stuff is mired in a much less formal sense of argument. And at this point I'm not sure there's a contradiction, or even a paradox, in that fact (assuming my sample / findings are at all representative). They start off from the sympathetic and the critical, and hopefully starts climbing up the registers until it reaches the technical posters (beyond just the initial helpful or invested few). In the end, rival or collegue posters seem as likely to bring someone back to the thread as the OP. More posts you can get originally, the more arguments you can start... Idk. Sorry for the rant. Just feeling sad and ranty, I guess.

[KitingGenbu]

...

I dont like that you're so smart. I'll probably make a thread on it lol. But yeah I see your point.

[Dumbledoremd]

I have 1 rule about spending money on videogames. I must be having fun doing it and tbh I am no longer having fun playing this game.

Dont come back see if i care tbh this just looks like an attention seeking post

[Nuna]

I have 1 rule about spending money on videogames. I must be having fun doing it and tbh I am no longer having fun playing this game.

Quite a bit of people aren't having fun playing this game anymore. That's why they're on the forums complaining instead of playing. The lot of them should join you in cancelling their subs.