Ok, lets do it, WHAT is wrong with this game?

[MomomiMomi]

Boring and pointless itemization.

In reality, it doesn't matter what you're wearing. Yes, there's some tiny amount of min-maxing you can do, but it isn't necessary and there isn't much room to do it because we don't even have much choice in gear. We have one or two sets of current gear and that's pretty much it.

They could completely get rid of gear and it would have minimal effect on gameplay.

[HyoMinPark]

What is wrong with the game? I could be here all day listing out things I think is wrong. But I'll just stick with these:

The repetitive formula for patches and expansions that doesn't deviate in the slightest.
The lack of challenging content below Savage/Ultimate.
Savage becoming a shadow of its former self in terms of difficulty.
Same with the Extremes.
The seemingly lack of a willingness on part of the Devs to listen to anyone who isn't JP with regards to feedback.

Boring and pointless itemization.

In reality, it doesn't matter what you're wearing. Yes, there's some tiny amount of min-maxing you can do, but it isn't necessary and there isn't much room to do it because we don't even have much choice in gear. We have one or two sets of current gear and that's pretty much it.

They could completely get rid of gear and it would have minimal effect on gameplay.

Not entirely true. Optimization just doesn't matter outside of players chasing their numbers in high-end content, and in ultimate. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of the game, which makes me sad. That being said, some gear builds and substats do affect some jobs quite a bit - take away 1,000 Crit from a BRD, and they aren't exactly happy. There are actually a couple of different BiS sets for several jobs out there, usually tuned to preference. BRD has 4 different ones in Sigmascape.

I wish stats mattered in more than just Savage/Ultimate content.

[Dedayius]

The seemingly lack of a willingness on part of the Devs to listen to anyone who isn't JP with regards to feedback.

This seriously seems like the best way to sum it up. Japan is very much about not rocking the boat and the continuing development of the game shows that.

They've taken little risks here and there. Introducing new mechanics. Changing up how things cycle. But it seems like it's 10% risk and 90% copy paste.

[KaldeaSahaline]

How can the general playerbase be below average skill? The general playerbase are the bulk of the player population. You have just said the average player is below average skill.

Also that's not something wrong with the game, that's something wrong with people. You find bad players who don't listen in every multiplayer game.

The general playerbase certainly feels below average overall MMORPG player skill. This is a subjective opinion based on playing well over 10 different MMORPGs for over 10+ years.

You can say that it's the players fault, but you'd be dismissing SE's complete and utter failure to actually help the playerbase to become better. They've nerfed content they shouldn't have, they waited entirely too long to build a hall of novice, and have yet to create a relevant end game level one.

Thank you. I wish I said this.

Why? Half of the stuff he said was nothing but juvenile exaggeration.

We wanted FATEs to be relevant again: Diadem; cue whining.
No - People wanted FATEs to be a viable leveling path compared to dungeons. It's not. People did not want FATEs to be relevant a la end game content.

We wanted the raid storylines to be accessible to everyone: Normal and Savage; cue whining because "MUH GATING".
I don't quite understand what this one is talking about. There are some issues that having a multiple difficulties causes, but gating, not sure that's even a relevant one.

We wanted harder raids: Midas; cue whining because "TOO HARD". Complaining about the raids being too hard: Omega; now it's "TOO EASY, WE'RE CLEARING ON DAY ONE!!"
Raids have consistently had a difficulty curve issue since day 1. It's just become more and more apparent over the years. It's not about being too hard/easy, it's about having stupid jumps, poor tuning, and simply not large enough sample sizes to create a well tuned curve.

Harder fight? Ultimate; whining because "TOO HARD! AND WHY DO I HAVE TO CLEAR SAVAGE FIRST?!?!?!"
Ultimate isn't obnoxious because it's hard. It's obnoxious because it was too long of an endurance test. I'd much rather have a ridiculously challenging 10 minute fight than a very challenging 20 minute fight. The raiding community at large is almost nearly unanimous in that feedback and agree that clearing savage is not an issue.

Don't want to level alt jobs? Role skills; "WHY DID THEY TAKE HALF OF MY CLASS SKILLS AND I ONLY HAVE 5 SLOTS!!"
Role class feedback is another example that's been pretty uniform in feedback. People didn't like leveling jobs they weren't interested in playing to acquire beneficial skills. Not to mention, leveling alts can be a very tedious experience due to lack of MSQ to increase pace. Removing job skills and moving to role slots was also pretty widely accepted to be awful.

Want whole new content and the XI players want open-world NMs? Eureka "BUT IT'S TOO BRAINLESS".
Eureka is brainless. Full stop. That's valid feedback, and feedback that's pretty mainstream. They could have easily ADDED content inside Eureka that wasn't mindless for people who like to be engaged, but instead they were comfortable leaving it as strictly derivative content. People liking it because it's "relaxing" and allows them to chat with friends shouldn't confuse professional developers.

Complaining about the Relic/Anima having too many steps? Eureka, again, just do the crystal farming, the relic was always supposed to be a grind weapon in contrast to the raid weapon.
Just because it was "always" supposed to be XYZ, doesn't mean the devs are right. They made 1.0. That was an unmitigated failure. They made Diadem and LoV, etc. etc. They're not beyond making bad decisions. I would LOVE for alternatives to acquire a relic weapon via harder/more engaging content. So would others.

It was trivially easy for me to offer a reasonable rebuttal for nearly every comment made by that poster, so by agreeing with them, you're only solidifying that you think that juvenile analysis is in any way shape or form valuable.

To be extremely fair. Every ff game is linear tho so SE isnt doing anything they don't do.

You kind of already covered this with the other poster, but that's not a good thing lol and only further substantiates the OP and demonstrates that they lack the ability to change/pivot/innovate.

That being said, some gear builds and substats do affect some jobs quite a bit - take away 1,000 Crit from a BRD, and they aren't exactly happy. There are actually a couple of different BiS sets for several jobs out there, usually tuned to preference. BRD has 4 different ones in Sigmascape.

I wish stats mattered in more than just Savage/Ultimate content.

Sure taking that crit from a BRD sucks because less procs, but at the end of the day, it's a binary decision. Crit is always better than everything else for a BRD. There's never a decision that says if you have X or need Y, then Z becomes more valuable. That means that in effect, you could quite literally get rid of gear and bake that crit gain effect into any other system and gameplay would be identical.

That's why gear/itemization in this game is an issue.

Oh ofcourse it doesn't have to be like that, not at all. :O But sadly they aren't at a point to change that design. And I don't see them changing it just cause wow does sadly. SE may have changed from when 1.0, but like sega they are still VERY stuck in their ways.

If I was a professional developer I'd HATE to be lumped in with SEGA lol. I loved SEGA as much as anyone, but how far have they fallen...

[ko_]

Why? Half of the stuff he said was nothing but juvenile exaggeration.

.

I agreed with him cause his over all point was no matter what SE has done the complaints never ended. Things get hard the player base cries and things get nerfed, and thats been happening until SB honestly. Like you know it's bad when they had to make it a point to NOT nerf something like Weeping, or Shinryu. Those should not have been points. It's like sonic calling you inpatient. That should never happen I feel. So thats why I agreed with his post. You're free to not agree and thats fine, but SE is doomed no matter what they do. Look at the MHW event. WE finally got a 4 man ex and what do you see? People complaining it's too hard. Now if SE goes and nerfs it, THAT would be imo why we can't have nice things. It's cause the playerbase cries about EVERYTHING and SE listens - to the wrong things I add- but they do and change everything to where it's carebear land. This isn't to say SE is innocent but they are fucked no matter what they do. If they said -F you this is our game deal or leave- they are a horrible company, if they bend over backwards they will just break their back and people will STILL be unhappy. Thats how it looks from my end anyway. And it's not just a SE problem... this is mostly a gaming problem.

[Penthea]

The general playerbase certainly feels below average overall MMORPG player skill. This is a subjective opinion based on playing well over 10 different MMORPGs for over 10+ years.

Either you have strange luck or I do. I haven't found FFXIV's player population to be any more or less skilled on average than playerbases in other mmorpgs I played.

You can say that it's the players fault, but you'd be dismissing SE's complete and utter failure to actually help the playerbase to become better. They've nerfed content they shouldn't have, they waited entirely too long to build a hall of novice, and have yet to create a relevant end game level one.

Most bad players know the basic requirements to get through the game but they don't care if their laziness or "unique" playstyle forces other players to work harder. No amount of novice hall classes is going to change a bad player's attitude towards teamwork. The only thing that gets through to these people is "some playstyles will get you kicked from the party". They only change if their choices are reduced to get kicked or git gud.

Yes there are some players who mean well but are legitimately clueless about some aspects of the game, but I am loathe to call these people bad because they do get better with time and/or guidance. Truly bad players will take any opportunity to get carried.