Who else is bored? Same Content and Formula...Was SB a waste of money?

[Kosmos992k]

MMORPGs are cyclic, as are their audiences. But the core mechanics of the games vary not a lot, and the core content types such as dungeons, raids and trials will always be core to the game. Acting like there is some magical innovation that will completely change the genre and game and thus save it from certain doom is just plain silly. Any change so drastic would alter the genre of the game, which in effect would kill the original game.

Honestly, when people complain about things like this, it's as if they are complaining about Doctor Who for being Dr Who. Dr Who is like an MMORPG, it has a continuing story arc and universe in which the action and stories of each Doctor are set. But every few years a new Doctor replaces the old one, and we start over with new stories, sometimes they are similar to prior stories but with different points of view and the details are of course different. But the same enemies keep coming back. Do people demand that Dr Who change it's very nature to survive? If it did, it would die overnight as it would leave it's audience behind. It would cease being the thing that it's audience wants to watch. Each time there is a new Dr, we see new characters, we get new stories, we see the same universe, and existing worlds/factions. But we also see new worlds and factions. The formula remains the same with new stories being told and new things to be discovered and played with.

FFXIV is like that, every two years we get an expansion, new stories, new characters, new places. But even though the existing raids, dungeons and trials still exist, there are still new dungeons, raids and trials and new things to encounter in addition to that. The basic formula remains the same, be new stories are told and new things are there to be discovered and played with.

The utter nonsense of complaining about a game that has such frequent content updates as FFXIV just bewilders me. There are many online games that barely get annual updates, and other that don't even get annual bug fixes. Complaining about the updates to FFXIV being predictable is crazy. Reliable might be a better word since you can rely on new things to do and play every 3 months or so. Saying it's predictable because you know the overall type of content being delivered every 3 months also misses something obvious. This is an MMORPG that updates every 3 months. What kind of content does this MMORPG consist of? Dungeons raids and trials, plus other side attractions. So what will the patch contain? New dungeon, raid or trial content along with a few side attractions. How is that a surprise to anyone here? Why is it a surprise to anyone here?

If SE changed the update cycle or altered the kinds of content being delivered, that would present a major problem to the game. Frankly their commitment to new content is amazing to me and I cannot for the lfe of me understand people complaining about it.

No matter what you add to any MMORPG, it eventually turns into a slow grind until its death. That's why they're dying as a genre.

Not sure you understand games if you think this is true. All games and genre have their standard content types and every online game becomes a grind - from a certain point of view.

If repetition and lack of new content were an issue, then how does Call of Duty continue to thrive and survive?

[Sandpark]

No matter what you add to any MMORPG, it eventually turns into a slow grind until its death. That's why they're dying as a genre.

The nature of an mmorpg is:
Persistence- firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition, the continued or prolonged existence of something.

What gamers want when they are feeling bored is novelty or an expansion/building onto what was built before. Novelty is the most expensive content to create because all that time spent conjuring up new things isn't being spent actually delivering non stop.

Not sure you understand games if you think this is true. All games and genre have their standard content types and every online game becomes a grind - from a certain point of view.

If repetition and lack of new content were an issue, then how does Call of Duty continue to thrive and survive?

All offline games have a definite end no matter how long the game is because offline games do not get updated for years and years. In those games that is fine, because you can pick it or put it down and you get the new novel content on other games. And don't have to pay a monthly charge to revisit the original game.

I want to re-iterate what I was commenting on about the nature of mmos.

XIV has lots of already implemented novelty, call it variety if you have been playing this game for a while. But not everything has been expanded upon in a fresh way.

Some examples and their expansions, note what the content is called might be named differently but the basic premise is the same.

• Intro tutorials- Basic Definition of game features
• Hall Of The Novice- Introduction to party dynamics with npcs
• Guildhest- Introduction to party dynamics with players
• SSS- Introduction to intermediate difficulty stuff

• Fates(How could these be expanded to be high level stuff not similar to beginner fates)
• Hunts(How could these be expanded to be high level stuff not similar to beginner hunts)
• Eureka(We know little as of now)

• Gold Saucer
• Gates(How could these be expanded to be high level stuff not similar to beginner gates)
• Lottery
• Triple Triad(How could these be expanded to be high level stuff not similar to beginner card matches)
• Chocobo races(How could these be expanded to be high level stuff not similar to beginner races)
• Mini-games
• Lords Of Vermillion

I could list alot more but you can see that variety is not an issue with this game. You may not like some of the variety but it exists. I'd prefer an online XIV tactics over vermillion but it is how it is.

For dungeons, there is not many ways that could be expanded upon in a different format excluding making them more difficult or allowing no req for full or light party with companions similar to something like delves from ESO. Raids? More difficult, or more mechanics unless there is public types of raids where people can group similar to something like a GW2 world boss.

Guildleves have a potential to expand greatly as being the fastest way to access oodles of specific/unique content for all disciplines but have not been touched in a long time. The obvious one being BCNM type guildleves.

Gather your guildleves
Group up or solo
Go to destination(For example Behemoth's Dominion)
Insert quest in area to spawn or hunt it
Kill it
Return for reward to leve giver or continue to the next destination
Have world boss guildleves
Endless possibilities

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post3633068

[Pomelo]

Honestly hoping DQ11 is a success and they consider localising DQ10 which is FAR the superior MMO.

[ArcanoJones]

How much content do you think they can make for this game. You think they have 20,000 people working on producing content . They already produce more content in patches than any other MMO that I know of. If you are bored. You simply have played all the content. There are 1000s of hours of it already. Expecting dozens of hours of new content every couple of months is not realistic.

[Nhisso]

Streaming means nothing. The fact that people actually sit and watch others play games like some kid with no quarters in a 1992 arcade is mind numbingly sad.
And what content do you think is lacking? Im so tired of people who rush to cap and then do the same raids over and over every moment of every day coming to MMO forums and whining about content.

[Chiramu]

Honestly hoping DQ11 is a success and they consider localising DQ10 which is FAR the superior MMO.

I would dearly love for DQX to be released in an English client. Dragon Quest just makes me smile and it would be awesome to be able to play an MMORPG with such a whimsical atmosphere.

ドラゴンクエストX　冒険者たちのきせき　EPISODE①「名前の想い」 Dragon Quest X type of anime made for the anniversary. Please Square, we love DQ too!

[TarynH]

Not sure you understand games if you think this is true. All games and genre have their standard content types and every online game becomes a grind - from a certain point of view.

If repetition and lack of new content were an issue, then how does Call of Duty continue to thrive and survive?

And that's why I said MMORPG, not online shooter. Shooters tend to keep their audiences entertained through quick matches, and pvp competition. No match is ever the same, which keeps it fresh for the most part. They're repetitive, but usually with a lack of an extreme end game grind. I doubt CoD has relic weapons, for example, that require certain times of the day to get light bonuses.

MMORPGs tend to add additional grinds to prolong the life of the game. And the older the MMORPG gets, the longer, more voluminous, and more tedious the grinds get; to give players a feeling of being "invested" in the game. And in FFXIV, a lot of players feel they need to grind out each patch's latest greatest gear. Despite knowing it will be quickly replaced in the next patch, and really isn't necessary to have the absolute best to progress anyway. I guess they enjoy doing it, and there's nothing wrong with that.

But there is not a lot you can do when an MMORPG's content well runs dry. FFXI, for example, is now just readjusting what monsters appear in their last raid content. There is literally no reason to get gear, as there is nothing to progress towards. So FFXI is basically reduced to grinding old content, until the day they decide to pull the plug.

I'm not even saying FFXIV is to that point yet. I really don't mind the formula right now. There are a lot of grinds, but there is also new content being added. I'm simply pointing out the fact that anything they add, someone will inevitably complain that it is a grind. Because it always is a grind in MMORPGs. It's how they operate. To complain about it, is to complain that there is too much blue in the sky.

PS - Did you even read the rest of the post you quoted? Because I said exactly what you said.

[Claviusnex]

The number of streaming users has no relevance towards what people think of SB content. Without surveying the reasons people were watching and why they stopped you cannot say it was from content. A more likely reason is people watched early on to see if they might want to buy the xpac. Another could be people were trying to learn the instanced content before the typical Youtube video guides were available. It could also be something as simple as people didn't like the Twitch host for whatever reason. I for one never watch streamed content yet am generally happy with the new content.


If you truly want to determine what people think of SB you have to have access to information we don't have. How many people bought SB? The number of subscriptions at release, release + 30 days, release + 60 days and so on. Even with this knowledge some loss could be considered normal. You always have a group of players who will play until they've finished the content then then go away while they wait for more new content to be released.

[RainesS]

Yep, getting bored as well. I already had enough with endless gear treadmill this game offer. I will resub again at next expansion, but for now meh, FFXIV is just not fun anymore. I'm still reading the forum from time to time though, cause the forum more fun than the game itself.

[Dark-Saviour]

I would dearly love for DQX to be released in an English client. Dragon Quest just makes me smile and it would be awesome to be able to play an MMORPG with such a whimsical atmosphere.

I'm still waiting for this one.

Any day now, they'll reveal a revival...
Any... Any day now... :-(