Few close friends quit FFXIV, one wants to explain why, hopes SE improves the game

[Bahati]

I appreciate this perspective but if I'm not mistaken Yoshi P has recommended people go play another game if they don't like the repetition of this one? This gives me very little hope the dev team is concerned with our boredom. The sad part is most players aren't asking for anything extravagant, just some new ideas so that we aren't stuck in this endless cycle of prediction and stale content.

[Aerlana]

To laugh a little, what yoshida says about "same thing"

We can accomplish this because of what we've built up over 5 years instead of repeating the same thing over and over, and I want to keep doing that.

https://old.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._and_soken_at/

[JackHatchet]

Eureka killed the game for me. I only stay subbed for my house.

To me, FFXIV has always been one of those games with a lot of little flaws that absolutely annoy me, but if I was doing something so exciting--I would easily overlook them. But when it comes to grinding. It just makes me dwell on things that I hate. Like the combat tic, inability to message in instances, ect. I've ranted about it enough.

[Edax]

I think the biggest issue Square-Enix has not just with this game, but seemingly all of their games these days, appears to stem from a greater priority of being a better business over being a better product maker.

In the case of FFXIV, it's pretty easy to notice that what money is expected to be going in really doesn't seem to be returned to the game: all the money from all the various subscriptions and mogstation wares, and while the game is still going, we get less and less adequate content and plenty of valid claims that the game is now being run by a skeleton crew of a dev team that regardless of whether or not such claims are true, the state of the game is so subpar that they sadly make sense.

So where's the money going if not FFXIV? Other projects. While FFXIV has given Square-Enix a ton of money, that unfortunately looks like the company has understood things as "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", and has no problem pulling people and other resources off of that project because of such a mentality. Meanwhile, Square-Enix has definitely had their eye on mobile games for a while now because they know that's where the market is, so they'll happily take out resources away from riskier projects like FFXIV (and MMORPGs generally are really risky investments) and place them into games that are far simpler to design, much cheaper to maintain and yield far more potential profit due to a greater reliance on micro transactions.

In short, Square-Enix likely won't fix FFXIV (and may risk making it worse) because they're acting more like a business rather than the company renowned for its masterful works of gaming art.

At the very least, it's better then the EA model of being becoming a worse business and worse product maker. So far, I don't feel like FFXIV has been crudely trying to reach in my wallet, which is commendable in the current video game climate. I'll agree it feels like FFXIV is being a bit neglected and underdeveloped, but I've seen so much worse by game publishers being so much greedier.

[Kewitt]

The even patches bring me back but the odd ones there is so little content added I basically ready to leave.

[JackHatchet]

I feel like FFXIV is itching at my wallet a lot more than Warcraft does.

I pay the same sub price for both games, but with FFXIV I feel like I'm being punished by not having more retainers or the paid app or any of those 200+ mogstation items. Heck, even in Warcraft I've been slowly buying the few mounts on their dollar store with gold. Who knew running old content that's fun would be so profitable. ^.^

[Claviusnex]

Eureka killed the game for me. I only stay subbed for my house.

To me, FFXIV has always been one of those games with a lot of little flaws that absolutely annoy me, but if I was doing something so exciting--I would easily overlook them. But when it comes to grinding. It just makes me dwell on things that I hate. Like the combat tic, inability to message in instances, ect. I've ranted about it enough.

Even my house wasn't enough. It has been reclaimed and I have 2 days left on my subscription.

[Zephanoa]

One of the problems also stems from the fact that some players are so adamant about defending SE. Whether it is Pagos, the current server issues (which granted aren't entirely SE's fault) or lackluster content in general. There's always a bunch of people saying nothing's wrong with it. I really wish some people would just stop being fanboys. Newsflash: You can like a game/company but STILL bring up legit criticism.

I disagree with the stance on this and I think the entire community needs to hold up and think about what they are saying at times. Usually people get called out on the forums for "white knighting" SE or just blatantly defending them. The "newsflash" is that not everyone shares the same opinions on this game. Do not blame "the community" for not sharing beliefs with you.



Secondly, yes there has to be some semblance in the game play between each expansion. Whenever you make an expansion to a title you are effectively going out on a limb each time to develop the content and take a limb to walk on. That's not to say that SE is or isn't playing it too safe. SE continues to take slight risks moving forward to try to make it's community happy without going off of the rails too far so that they don't lose subscribers to a significant change that nobody likes. For some people that pace isn't enough and if that is the case then there are other games to play and avenues to voice your concerns. This is not an echo chamber, and people are going to disagree with you.


SE certainly has a lot of room to grow and to make changes. This game is made upon an engine that was meant to run in the PS3 era and is a forked version of the original title. There are drastic limitations to the coding based on the original instruction set that the game is based off of. I think its apparent that the coding in this game isn't the best but it could be a lot worse.



As for gameplay they have been making changes every go of it. Pagos was garbo. Anemos was okay. I have a feeling that Pyros is going to be a significantly better variation. I use this because they originally started with the Diadem because people requested open world content that they could get together and leave whenever they needed but was open world. This is what most people were asking for during 2.0 for 3.0 and they provided something. Granted it left a bit to be desired but it wasn't that bad, getting people to do an alliance content together was a bit abysmal but that is because this game doesn't require a whole lot of team work to get things done outside of raiding.

[Dzian]

Y: It is the second expansion pack, and if we were to do the same thing all over again, a lot of people would get tired of it. Like I said earlier, the base design of FFXIV will not change. It’s a game made for this age, but that’s exactly why even if it were to change in the future to fit the future trends, it won’t return to the past. And even if a past trend were to become a modern trend, it still must include a “modern vibe” to it. It is not negating the past, but rather extracting the interesting elements, and inviting players who like them. That’s the product we are a
iming for.

Going to admit I did laugh reading this... "extracting the interesting elements of past games" hahahahahhahahahaaaaa so um eureka. supposedly homage to FFXI fans but the elements of FFXI they extracted were quite literally the least interesting elements they could have chosen i mean no where did anyone ever say you know what was really cool and interesting about ffxi. lolkurm dunes exp grindsss...

now if the devs were serious about extracting the interesting elements they would have extracted the elements of FFXI players actually loved such as the endgame or beseiged or sky or absolutely anything but an valkurm dunes with fates..

it's like most of the collaberation stuff they do is basically just fate grinding... again the least interesting thing ever...

It also seems quite common these days that games companies aren't listening to players. The companies try and tell players what players want without listening to what players want.

SE as well. Telling players what they want from a game but it's quite obviously not what players want from the game. If it was subs and retention would be much much higher than it is.

The treadmill for example so many players are sick and tired of it. but the developers are like this is what you want..... obviously not listening.

diadem had so many people saying what was wrong ewith it and why they didn't like it and so many people hatied fates... and then they launched diadem 2.0 and said this is what you asked for......

eureka. players wanted structured endgame content like XIs many varietys. eiherjar sky limbus etc... devs throw us diadem 3.0 with valkurmdunes exp grinding.. "this is what players said they wanted.." WTF????????

[Maero]

Stormblood in general has not been an overly great expansion, Heavansward i feel was better how it was presented.
The code is very outdated and we all know it would take time. Perhaps they also need test servers.
In the 5 or so years i have been playing (since launch of 2.0) it is the very first time i do not finish off Relics and i have also had long periods of not bothering to log on
Gear gets outdated within a short period of time getting it, and well not much feels rewarding anymore.

Other games reward you just for playing or logging in.... This game they let go of vet rewards, it is not a big deal i just think at times other games/developers care more.
Not to say SE does not care, more like they are tired and need a refresh as a team and maybe just maybe go out and do something not so safe all the time.