4.3 is amazing

[RiyahArp]

Red choco savage is best savage. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen, and the devs need to make some form of actual event in homage to it. This is what you get for being impatient.

MSQ is really emotional, but it's a little bad because all of the emotional impact is in the middle, and you feel drained at end. The last quest is interesting/odd both in the instance, and the implications. Four lords proves now and forever Tataru is a troll.

Haven't done actual raid, but it and the namazu really poke fun at the whole fetch quest thing. Namazu and Aura Waifu quests are actually too easy for what they are, namazu had me mine all of three things, waifu was capped at 400 colectability.

[Rhus]

Red chocobo savage at least got me kindnes of stranger 2&3 o/

[Anarnee]

Ended up LOVING the four man dungeon.

Really well made.

[RaideDuku]

Yeah, colour me completely unimpressed with 4.3.

Opinions vary, but let's say for the sake of argument the MSQ is AAA. Let's say that Ridorana is a blast, and an upgrade in every way over Rabanastre, as well as the new Trial and Dungeon. So what? The MSQ is a one-off, and the Raid / Trial / Dungeon will be old hat within a couple of weeks, because they're shallow pieces of content that are essentially recycled, repainted versions of previous shallow content.

So too with the Namazu Tribe (again, even if the storyline is great, the turn-in quests are recycled versions of Ixal and Moogles), and the Doman Enclave, which is basically just a new NPC to sell things to that pays you a bit more than other NPCs do (I hate to think of the long-term effects this place will have on inflation...).

Where's the meat? Where's the long-term content that doesn't feel stale within two weeks' time? And how on earth are people happy with yet another patch day that features absolutely nothing really new?

I'm guessing you've played for awhile. I'd wager that'd you've played MMO's in general.

What did you expect? It's how MMOs work. Sure, maybe someday some MMO will find some magical formula in which to make content not become stale and grindy within a couple of weeks. It's not going to be this MMO. Yoshi-P's made it clear that the team does not have time/resources/inclination to really rock the boat gameplay wise. Honestly, aside from creating all new content every couple weeks, which is obviously infeasible, there's not much any current MMO system can do to keep content from being stale after awhile.

Not saying your complaints are without merit. It's just that the complaints are levied at the general known weakness of the genre.

[Wilford111]

Where's the meat? Where's the long-term content that doesn't feel stale within two weeks' time? And how on earth are people happy with yet another patch day that features absolutely nothing really new?

Maybe you should play something else for a while?

Personally, I only had time to do the msq, trial, and beast tribe before work, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it. I'm looking forward to playing more once I get home.

[Vhailor]

I'm guessing you've played for awhile. I'd wager that'd you've played MMO's in general.

What did you expect? It's how MMOs work. Sure, maybe someday some MMO will find some magical formula in which to make content not become stale and grindy within a couple of weeks. It's not going to be this MMO. Yoshi-P's made it clear that the team does not have time/resources/inclination to really rock the boat gameplay wise. Honestly, aside from creating all new content every couple weeks, which is obviously infeasible, there's not much any current MMO system can do to keep content from being stale after awhile.

Not saying your complaints are without merit. It's just that the complaints are levied at the general known weakness of the genre.

I disagree. It certainly wasn't a fault with FFXI, which is the other MMO I've primarily played.

The main issue facing FFXIV (and many other modern MMOs) isn't just a relative lack of new content - it's that the intensely vertical design that renders new content so necessary. As an example, a year and change into the ToAU expansion for FFXI, there was a vast reservoir of content available, because literally all of the stuff introduced in Zilart and CoP was still relevant. So if SE only added one new thing every six months, that was fine: burn-out was much less of an issue.

In FFXIV, virtually no content is relevant for more than six months. Rabanastre just turned six months: now, it's just potential filler if I queue for an Alliance Roulette. We have a much smaller collection of things to work with: usually one Trial, one 24-man Raid, one end-game Raid, one Ultimate fight, and 2-3 dungeons. That's rough, and it's a far cry from where FFXI was at this point in time, where you had Dynamis, {sky}, {sea}, Limbus, ENMs, Salvage, Einherjar, ZNMs... on top of loads of more middle-class content like Besieged, lesser NMs with nonetheless decent rewards, KSNMs, Assault, Nyzul Isle, and a host of money-making activities (since Gil was far more relevant in FFXI).

Amplifying this, on a personal note, is SE's habit of advertising all content for a patch cycle without distinguishing from the get-go when content will launch. I'm still salty over Heaven-on-High being a mid-cycle piece of content, something that wasn't mentioned whatsoever on the 4.3 Special Site, and to my knowledge wasn't officially announced until the preliminary patch notes.

Maybe you should play something else for a while?

Personally, I only had time to do the msq, trial, and beast tribe before work, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it. I'm looking forward to playing more once I get home.

I would, but as we well know (certainly as SE knows), MMOs appeal to people for reasons far beyond the game itself. Most MMOs, in some sense, are actually kind of terrible games: they don't typically feature the best plots (XIV and XI are exceptions here), they don't have the best graphics, they have server issues, they can be expensive, they typically don't feature the deepest gameplay mechanics. What they offer, however, is a world to run around in with friends, and an amazingly strong sense of allegiance to an alternate identity. I remain very attached to my character from FFXI, even years after I logged out for what's likely the last time. I can remember my Mog House, friends made, places of Vana'diel that were particularly beautiful or nice places to sit. These are not things that SE created, for the most part: they're things that naturally arise when players are put into the proper setting.

These aspects mean that FFXIV will continue to be something I play. I enjoy the time I can spend online with my girlfriend, particularly when I'm traveling, as I am now. I have an attachment to my house, and my character. I'm not someone who is currently ready to quit - though if my house were ever demolished somehow or my girlfriend to lose interest, I'd surely leave and never look back.

So, as long as I'm here, I very much want the content to be appealing. There are a number of ways to accomplish that, but so far, SE hasn't been very successful, which is frustrating. Broken systems languish for too long, like a lack of housing availability for quite some time, or the still-clunky Glamour system. New forms of content are poorly-designed, like Diadem or Eureka, and progression continues to be sharply vertical, reducing the appeal of dungeons, trials, and raids. Each patch I get my hopes up, and each time I am met with disappointment.

I'm not an innately pessimistic person, however, so each update cycle I experience until I do end up leaving, I'll hope the game shifts course. I'll also continue to voice my opinions on the forums, because I think it's valuable feedback for SE, and I know I'm not alone in feeling this way, and I want to encourage a feeling of solidarity among people who similarly want XIV to grow in new directions.

-----------------------------------

I am curious, however: do you honestly feel as if the content additions we receive are sufficient? I mean, obviously if one plays only 5-10 hours a week, there's plenty to do - so let's separate out that argument, and examine, say, a piece of instanced content. How long do new 4-person or 24-man instances hold your active interest, or do they always hold it? For me, as an example, Rabanastre felt interesting for about 2-3 runs. After that, I didn't interact with it beyond when the Roulette landed me there, and it didn't feel in any way different than Labyrinth of the Ancients, which released years ago. As such, it didn't offer me much value. Is this not something you experience, or do you experience it only much later?

[Duskane]

I do hope we get the gear you know who and his friends are wearing at the end of 4.3 msq

Dungeon was great but if you wipe at last boss its a loooooooooooong walk
Also a bug that he's stuck in the ground till you start the fight

[silentwindfr]

honestlt the 4.3 in terms of lore is amazing, in terms of content, a bit meh...
i means when you did get you raid 24 loot... do your weekly delivery and come do your daily for the namazu, bah you don't have a lot to do... since eureka can allows you to get your cap in 4-5 hours.
and i'm a bit scared, that even with the deep dungeon and pagos we will see some lack of content....

pagos when you will have your elemental level maxed and your relic, you will probably not do it anymore... and deep dungeon, will depend of the content of the chest and the reward (outside the weapon) by the way, i'm the only one thinking that we have far too many different weapon? relic, deep dungeon, tomes, raid, primordial.... and we do get ... 2 set of armor (maybe 3 if your count the 24 raid, that a bit lackluster on this side)

in terms of story however like said before, it's top notch, between the reveal about dalmasca (that i hope we will visit in the 5.0). the MSQ, that was filled with many up and down in terms of emotion.... and the reveal at the end.... zenos body probably under the white ascian control, the elezen at the end probably zeno soul inside it and.... the shadow hunter that is clearly gaius von baelsar! soo good! oohhh and the most important, the fact that other type of ascian exist, we did seen 3 type of mask on the shadow hunter belt.... more ascian incoming?

[ko_]

I dunno. I find 4.3 to be nearly perfect. The music, fights and raid are fun as hell and I'm loving every bit of it. It's nice that the game feels like an actual Final Fantasy again. It's simply awesome. Loved the trial. So awesome.

[RiyahArp]

Eh, i kind of don't like the raid though. I mean, it's way too movement heavy for what it is. I think I know why SE added more movement to blm, and more mobility to AST now, but my first experience wasn't really all that fun even with helpful people telling us everything about the raid. We ended up running out of time. I notice in general they seem to demand a lot more movement and placing in casual content this time, or at least it feels like it.