Things sure have been stale around here...when is the next major patch ?

[Xatsh]

So what is missing?

Personally I have plenty to do right now and I've got far more time on my hands to be playing than most players.

The problem isn't the developers. Content does take time to develop.

The problem is players who rush through content at breakneck speed then complain when they run out of things to do. That's their choice to play that way. They need to accept responsibility for that choice.

Most gamers would not consider 8-10hrs a week a lot of playtime. Which I am assuming is your average game time with your comment. That would be the definition of a extremely casual player.

If I am wrong with that assumption then you either came back after a long break and are playing catchup, you have started the game recently, you are spending most your time socializing not playing content/not really actually playing the game's content, or you are playing about as unproductively as possible in terms of time spent / productivity. I hate to break it to you but FFXIV in the actual content department has always been lacking. They release alot but it is burned through in weeks to a month tops. This is not players overplaying it, that is the content being way way way too far to the casual side of the curve which is the point of things. Someone playing 20hrs a week that did not start fresh in ShB that took no breaks should easily have most things nearly capped at this point if they are actively playing ingame content and not just socializing.

ATM almost everything in ffxiv is designed for people who play 8-15hrs a week tops. That is very bad design for a mmorpg in my opinion, the content developed is very good but it works like a bell curve. Too little content that is really really good is just as bad as a ton of crap content, there has to be a balance. Playing bad content is not fun, just like not having anything to do is not fun. You need content not just for the casual crowd but the midcores 15-30hrs a week and hardcores 40+hr no lifers (Which are a very big minority and arguably the only group that should run out of content). This is 100% the devs fault not the players as it is a direct design choice. It is also the design choice of devs to negate all content on a roughly 6-8month cycle, again not the players fault again it is a design choice. NO average player should feel required to play competitors games because your game of choice is failing to keep you occupied. That is a sign that something is wrong in content design.

The point is in most other mmos if there was a release delay it would of not mattered because some of the content developed easily would last months longer then patch cycle would. There needs to be some content in FFXIV that had longevity to it. Eureka had serious problems, but that style of content in terms of alot of various rewards (tomes/mounts/music/glamour/armor/weapons)/long lasting/endgame tier rewards/and so on should be adopted and released at the start of every expansion and updated every single major patch. That way there is always something to be doing that is productive in the end.