Should FF14 take a new route? Discussion

[Clover_Blake]

I enjoy the game as it is and I have no idea of what exact changes people want to see. What's the magical formula for endless fun, considering that there are tons of different tastes and situations?

Also, saying that Yoshida should leave feels super random too. The game is doing well, yet the director should leave? O_O (??)
I'm always very confused about doomsayers.

[SinisterJoints]

They need to re-do the entire game really on a new engine.

It's amazing a game nearly a decade and a half old like WoW can manage smooth combat where any number of abilities register instantly, and in FF Ninja's have to take server lag into account to use Ninjitsu properly. Unfortunately they probably didn't expect ARR to be a success at all and were given a tight budget and as a result the servers and game engine are simply incapable of decent combat.

FF14 is just far too limited by its game engine. They can't give us lots of bag storage or make fully fleshed glamor systems or support proper vehicle quests or cope with large amounts of characters attacking a boss or anything fancy like other MMO's with good quality game engines can pull off. As a result the game never advances or develops, we just get variations of the same things. If they were serious about ARR, they should have invested right from the start. But they didn't.

absolutely nothing in your post has ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the game's engine lol.....just sayin

[Kaonis]

You are the living proof of the toxicity I am talking about.

If you find that toxic then you either don't understand the word or wish to water down its meaning to the point where it's meaningless.

[SinisterJoints]

Possibly. But if gained enough traction, this would just be a start. If it failed, well, hey at least they tried something outside the usual stuff that seems to be in every patch, you know. It doesn't even have to be huge. Just something that could be pretty innovative.

You say that now but guess what, the threads and complaints would still be there. Same doomsday and naysaying threads, same "you dont listen" threads, same "I unsubbed today" threads. It doesn't matter what they do, or what they add

[KaivaC]

You say that now but guess what, the threads and complaints would still be there. Same doomsday and naysaying threads, same "you dont listen" threads, same "I unsubbed today" threads. It doesn't matter what they do, or what they add

That's pretty much in any following for any game media...or really, any type of media in general. The point is, I feel like the devs should step out of their comfort zone after actually listening to actual feedback from the player base. I'm not talking about just with the glamour thing which was highly talked about, I mean actually listening to what the player base wants. Have an open discussion with us instead of picking select questions for their Live Letter.

[Moogly]

.

There are many in-game achievements for being realm-first, that's what I was thinking about when I was saying it was "official".
Also, during blizzcon, there are those raid competitions between the top guilds - those exhibitions that yoship wants to have.
All in all, Pve content in wow, and to an extent blizzard games, are competition oriented - may be it wasn't intended in the beginning, but now it is clearly their philosophy. Overwatch was definitely made and tought to be a competitive esport game.
For ffxiv, only PvP and PotD have official rankings, if I'm not mistaken. And, yes, it does try to add more competitive content, but overall, you cannot deny the game tries to stay as casual as it can. I mean, it's better for their business...

As for the direction it should take, I believe it is doing fine, with a few misses sure, but overall I don't feel like it necessarily has to move on or change director as OP is suggesting.
Yea, eureka has a lot of grinding, but the other relics had their fair share of grinding too ! In fact, grinding is part of the identity of mmo games.
As for the lifetime of content, yes, we clean those really fast. But not everybody plays at the same rythm.
Example : eureka, when most people are already lvl 15+, or even already got their relic gear fully augmented, I just barely reached lvl 10 yesterday and don't even have a hundred prot crystals, because these last days I just happened to have a lot of things irl to care about and couldnt play ffxiv that much. So if for some people eureka is already old content, to me and many others it is still relevant, and might stay relevant till next patch.
Now I kind of do like grinding - if you don't, I'll understand it - but you can't really complain that there is grinding, because as I said it is part of what a mmo is.

Also, it is impossible to tell what most players want - players on forums aren't necessarily representative of what the player base in its whole wants, as we forum users are just a very small (and more dedicated I'd say) part of the player base.
I guess the only real data that speaks to SE about win or miss is their number of subs...
And if they continue in a certain route, I believe it is because it is the most profitable one (and the less risky one ?)

Oh, and I was talking about wow because knowing OP, I am kind of guessing that it is the direction OP wants the game to take...

If you find that toxic then you either don't understand the word or wish to water down its meaning to the point where it's meaningless.

If you feel like all human interactions irl should be made through sarcasm and belittling, as he's doing, fine with me.
If you find that it is OK and that being harsh make people grow up, fine.
I am living in this jungle every dam single day.

But don't bring this in my fantasy world. Please.

[KaivaC]

Oh, and I was talking about wow because knowing OP, I am kind of guessing that it is the direction OP wants the game to take...

Not...really. Considering that I have maybe 2 hours of experience with Wow...but I am of the opinion that there are some things that other MMOs do well that the devs could really take some inspiration from. But that is neither here nor there at the moment. The only thing I'm really saying here is that base game has pretty much been the same from ARR, to HW, to SB. And Eureka wasn't really a huge talking point for me - I personally enjoy going in Eureka - it just feels like the devs are scared to try something. Understandably, yes, because of the original product, but surely they wouldn't be as hesitant if they opened discussion to the player base. Either way, it was just a thought that I had and wanted to share with the forums.

[Genz]

The game doesn't need a new route, just higher quality on the current template instead of stacking even more half-baked new side-content. There was no need to create an all new area like Eureka to have slightly more dangerous exploration, there are already "open world" areas and they are underused.

Also, on some aspects, Yoshida seems so unconvinced that asking FFXIV to go a new route could only lead to failure. For example, on "horizontal progression", would you really trust devs that are convinced it won't work? If they started to work on it, it would be with ill will (I suspect Eureka to have suffered from this too)

[Moogly]

The only thing I'm really saying here is that base game has pretty much been the same from ARR, to HW, to SB.

How can I say...?
Mc Donalds, Coca cola, KFC, they all use recipes that date, for some, more than a century back in time.
When you have something that works, you don't change it - people hate changes.
I think it's the same idea with ffxiv.
Also considering the catastrophy of 1.0, head management must be very cautious on betting on new ideas or game concept.

But well, since ffxiv dev team is really open to the community, and probably the most transparent I have ever seen (e.g Yoship's comment on the ungarmax exploit), you have all the right to be asking for changes.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I enjoy the game as it is and I have no idea of what exact changes people want to see. What's the magical formula for endless fun, considering that there are tons of different tastes and situations?

Also, saying that Yoshida should leave feels super random too. The game is doing well, yet the director should leave? O_O (??)
I'm always very confused about doomsayers.

While by no means a comprehensive list. Here are things which come to mind.

• Actual innovation on core concepts. Is it really so much to ask for a new progression system beyond "collect this newly coloured tomestome?"
• Gear which has greater longevity than a few months.
• More engaging and/or challenging low level content
• Variation in how we approach content. (Dungeons with slightly different layouts decided randomly once you queue in.)
• Allowing old content to rest. (It's simply not fun being synced down from 70 to 50.)
• More variation on encounter design. (Eureka suffers due to trash mobs doing little more than auto attacks)

Basically, not another retread of the the precise same formulas they have been using since ARR. Honestly, what has Stormblood offered that differs from Heavensward? They don't need to overhaul the whole game but they do need to innovate. The fact I can predict almost everything that will release before 5.0 speaks volumes to how absolutely safe their approach has been.