We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[WaterShield]

Why would I ever ask you to validate my opinion as a fact? I expressed an opinion and it triggered a couple people in the forums. You do realize a simple "I disagree" is adequate? There is a very good reason I am not arguing your opinion... because that is pointless. You are entitled to your opinion and I fully support you in that, even if our opinions differ.

Then this may be an instance where text fails to convey tone very well. The first thing I responded to seemed to be rather derisive.

I have no issue with you having an opinion that differs from mine. I simply took exception to what appeared to be an attack on a whole group of people simply because they like something you don't.

It also did read as though you were listing off facts rather than giving your opinion of something. Again this cycles back around to tone via text.

[Imuka]

The rest of the game is pointless and poorly designed."Raids" are nothing but ridiculous memorization and execution exams. I showed an extreme encounter to friends and we all laughed it it. It was silly and frenetic, and studying for something then executing is what you do in school. It was pretty much Dance Dance Revolution, the RPG [...]

I think, I can give that sentence a better description of your Problem.
"There is often just one real solution to a Mechanic/Problem, which leads to a memorization of every step till the Point, where a Bot could clear a fight.".

Dark Souls is also a Game with a lot of memorization. The Attacks of a Boss, Enemy placement etc. But what you do with those Informations is up to the Player. I know, that there is an Enemy with a Lance and now I think of "how do I defeat that guy, without taking to much damage. But how I solve that Problem is up to me.
This is the same with nearly every Action RPG, like The Legend of Zelda, The Witcher, Bloodborne (okay, that one is still a Souls Game. You got me).
But this also appears in Games like Fighting Games or any type of Shooter. You need to memorize the Attacks of all the other Characters, but they will not allways do the same, so you need to keep that in mind, when fighting the Opponent.

But in 14, Mechanics often have just one solution, because they often involve the whole Party. And therefore the System needs to make just 1-2 Solutions, to make it easier for the Party.
But in 24 Player Raids, you can see more of those "one the fly" decisions, when a Player gets a AOE Marker and needs to run away or people need to move to certain Spots. I have to keep Track of the Players around me, the fight itself.

I allways thought, that maybe a procedual Generated Fighting Pattern for a Boss could work better, than playing the Mechanics allways in the same order.
A complete RNG System would not work, because a Boss could use a Tankbuster 5 times in a row, but with some rules, like with procedual generating System, it could work.
The System would keep track of the used Attacks and use them in a new Orders. Sometimes it might be a bit weird, but I think the majroity of fights would look more interessting.

[MrKimper]

I know this might be stupid, but I wish the open world was more like breath of the wild, more so. I wish moving through the world was more like breath of the wild, movement in this game is generally quite, understandably, bad. I'd be more interested in exploring the open world if I didn't feel like was a floating chess piece.

[Darkplanet]

[B][COLOR="darkred"]•Glamour in this expansion is so boring especially since over half of it is all Asian. The mendacity gear looks like stuff we already got. Everything is dull and crappy. Too much of the stuff we get looks the same and they're already recoloring gear from the Lv69 dungeon and giving it as a reward. Holy cow devs come on. At least make it from the lv61 dunge- oh wait I forgot. That gear is recolored HW gear too.. unlike HW dungeons that all gave unique gear sets. Oops.

oh goodness. like god, people really, you can have your opinions ok you don't like how "Asian" style gear or aesthetics look, FINE. but come one lets not crap on the developers. I'm an artist and I see this every patch, half the people are like "oh this new gear looks terrible" and there are hundreds of people unspoken that love it. "dull and crappy" is your opinion and a pretty offensive one at that. yea artists slaving away making dozens of gear designs and everyone just calling it shit, like just stop. have some respect for the artists on the team. The designs are not BAD, you can dislike them, but they are NOT bad. And I really don't think people understand the challenge developers face continually and constantly making new outfits, you have NO IDEA the workload and money it takes to develop this stuff. They reuse things to save time so they can actually make content lol, if they made a new set every single dungeon we'd be waiting multiple years for patches. And look we went to Doma this patch people, which is based on eastern aesethetics, complaining about it all being "Asian" is dumb, of course its Asian. you just don't like it lol. And look like there is a lot of gear this patch that isn't "Asian".

So "holy cow" stop mistaking your opinion for what is actually good or bad. you don't like "Asian" stuff? lol well too bad, a ton of people do.

[Darkplanet]

I know it won't be a well-received reply but the game might only get better when Yoshida is gone.

yea like I just see these comments and I'm like how dare you lol. He's the reason this game is still here, or even that people play it at all. He is the reason this game is a success, and quite frankly will continue to be a success. He cares about the player base and the game itself, which I find much less common these days especially in mmo's. its so stupid to me when people think they could design the game better then him, or someone else to take his place. Look you can have your opinion about what you like in a video game, but its so selfish to say a developer shouldn't work on a game just so YOU can get what YOU want lol, like come on... And you know what, he is the kind of guy that would read this and be humble enough to say "ok i'll try and do better, cause I love all of you" lol

Yoship is darn good at what he does, and all my respect goes out to him.

[Imuka]

yea like I just see these comments and I'm like how dare you lol. He's the reason this game is still here, or even that people play it at all. He is the reason this game is a success, and quite frankly will continue to be a success. He cares about the player base and the game itself, which I find much less common these days especially in mmo's. its so stupid to me when people think they could design the game better then him, or someone else to take his place. Look you can have your opinion about what you like in a video game, but its so selfish to say a developer shouldn't work on a game just so YOU can get what YOU want lol, like come on... And you know what, he is the kind of guy that would read this and be humble enough to say "ok i'll try and do better, cause I love all of you" lol

Yoship is darn good at what he does, and all my respect goes out to him.

I would say, he is the boon and bane of the Game.
He raised the Game out of the broken State with ARR, but over time he got so captured by his own Formula how to do things, that he can't get out of it. He can't think in another way anymore. He became something that we call "Berufsblind" in German. He is so used to his working Routine, that he is not really able to see flaws of the Design anymore.
14 sits at the same Spot as Games like Call of Duty, doomed to repeat itself, until it dies an ugly death somewhere in the future.
You saw people who played FF11 for 13 Years and now many people fell bored and burned out after less than 6 Years of 14.

I don't think, it is better, when he is gone, but I believe he needs another Designer dragging him out of his Formula.
Somebody forcing him, to rethink his design, forcing him to rethink, what the Players might like and what not.
Rethinking if an Idea is as good in the Game as it sounds on Paper. The Gauges are a good Idea on Paper, but some classes got so weird Gauges, with no real larger pupose for them.

Shadowbringer will be the "Make or Break" Point for the Game.
If they keep on doing the same things over and over again, more and more people will leave and the Game.

He is a super kind Person. I met him a few Years ago at the GamesCom, but I think he needs somebody behind super honest with him. Not in a bad way, not to just hurt him, but to make him rethink his Ideas from the Ground. Lets somebody rip apart those Ideas and be super honest.
Sometimes I think, he comes up with something, thinks about it for too long, tries to build everything in his Head before talking about it, and then nobody wants to stop him, because he allready created so much stuff in his Head.
There is a Concept, called "Fail Faster". Come up with an Idea, look at it, throw it in the Room and see if you end up with something good or something bad. Try it out as fast as possible. Sometimes a stupid Idea can be great and something that sounds great at the beginning ends horrible. Flappy Bird and Angry Birds are just stupid Ideas on Paper "A Bird flapping between Pipes", "Shooting Bird at Pigs", but they made Millions. Then there are Ideas, that sound good on Paper and failed horrible, like Battleborn or Lawbreakers.

This is the Basic of every Brainstorming Meeting. Come up with an Idea, try it and look if it is fun or just horrible. But if you only spend 20 Minutes with it, it is not so hard to just drop it. If you waste Days, Weeks or even Months with it, you lost a lot of Work.
This was btw. the way of the Original Witcher 3 Combat System. 3 Guys worked on it for 2 Months, with aiming at certain Body Parts etc. just to notice, that they scrap it and it was not even so much fun to begin with.

[MoroMurasaki]

(Also, just in general, not directed at Mal- I don't mind being written off as a filthy casual and not the target audience for some things- that is valid. Telling people their opinions don't matter is just juvenile and toxic behavior. Learn to disagree without demonizing other people, trying to trivialize their perspective, or score imaginary points on a scoreboard that exist only in your mind.)

This isn't about demonizing you or your opinions it's about you calling endgame garbage despite never even playing it. You are uninformed. I didn't call you a filthy casual, no one has. For the record I consider myself quite casual and see nothing wrong with it. If you'd like a compliment to soothe your bruised ego you are absolutely amazing at arguing against these perceived slights and strawmans.

There is no scoreboard, there is only developed opinions and those based on... whatever it is yours are based on. Popular opinion amongst the salty, militant casual OF playerbase perhaps?

I'm not saying someone can't believe endgame is trash. I'm not even defending it and saying it isn't trash in this instance. I'm saying you are not qualified to deem it trash because you haven't participated in it. Would you review one video game by playing another in the same genre? Because that's essentially what you're doing.

By all means keep spreading this lack of awareness, I'm bored enough to keep calling it out for what it is.

[ApolloGenX]

I think, I can give that sentence a better description of your Problem.
"There is often just one real solution to a Mechanic/Problem, which leads to a memorization of every step till the Point, where a Bot could clear a fight.".

I like your restatement of my issue with the design.

[Lunalepsy]

Like I said before, this is pretty much what you call streamlining. You want them to rethink their whole model and do something new, which is tiresome and expensive. I totally agree with your arguments, but there is no way SE is going to let go of such sweet tactics to destroy their treadmills once and for all.

[KageTokage]

We really do need some fresh forms of content that aren't tedious grindfests like Eureka.

Even just building on the existing cycle with things like true "hard mode" dungeons or new types of hunt marks would be nice.