Where is all the content?

[Illmaeran]

I agree.

I really love that ARR zones are split into different sectors. The Black Shroud is beautiful and with the maps being smaller they feel more alive. The maps from HW onwards, on the other hand, are so vast but feel empty and lack life.

I agree with this, the Shroud especially as that's always what comes to my mind when people mention HW onward zones "lacking life". The point absolutely has merit but I chalk it up to designing world zones around flying vs walking/riding in ARR and try not to let it bug me too much.

To be completely honest, I would be quite happy if we never got flying and all the zones were small, but dense with assets, like ARR. Having larger areas without loading zones between them is nice, for sure, but I got so used to them in ARR that they don't really bother me and in a strange way feel like home.

And the restaurant learns nothing in the process. Ever watched an episode of Kitchen Nightmares? It may be hammed up TV drama, but a recurring theme in failing businesses is restaurant owners who refuse to acknowledge feedback and identify what they're doing wrong or where they could better please their customers. Why do you think businesses fixate so much on gaining customer feedback, to the point of sometimes hounding them for it? Although one does not need to "create a scene" or be dramatic about it, and do the whole "call your manager" schtick, complaints are very much part of the learning process for businesses.

Restaurants are a perfect example. If I get something that's undercooked or a side that wasn't what I ordered, it's a simple thing to call the waiter over and say "Excuse me, I asked for X but got Y, may I please have X?" or "This is a bit undercooked, on the rare side of medium rare, would you please ask the kitchen to cook it a bit more? Thank you.". Servers and chefs don't always get everything right, all you have to do is bring up the issue politely and quietly and they'll take care of it.

The same thing applies here. "I'm not a fan of X and would prefer if it were more ABCDEF." That says what you're not fully satisfied with and gives a solution. While it may not be practical to fix, at least the solutions mentioned open up an avenue for discussion and perhaps change in the future.

[Comfort]

6. Story issues
Not only that, Meteion is the worst Deus ex Machina I have seen for quite some time, if she was so dangerous, and Hydaelyn/Venat knew about her for this entire time, why not warn us earlier? The whole thing just doesn't make any sense.

Had she told us before us going to Elpis, we might not have gone to Elpis and therefore she would not have known of the fate of Etheirys (both) and we would not have discovered the cause.

In addition to this she probably would have not taken her actions at the final days (first time), she would not have been reborn as Hydaelyn and then sundered Zodiark and the world. We would not have existed.

If she had taken the same actions in the final days the story might have ended up vastly different (regarding her and the WOL) without the knowledge she gained in Elpis and not set up the plan to use the moon as a vessel to save the people of the source.

[Batbrat]

OP you are so right ugh I didnt like a single thing about Endwalker either, lazy lazy lazy!!! Ok so anyways, I'm gonna keep paying every month anyway. But I just need everyone to know that I am NOT! HAPPY! with what I'm paying for. This is MY money! So everything should be exactly how I imagined it to be. My money, my way. Don't you dare tell me not to keep spending it on what I don't like. That's annoying!! Here you go Soken, here's an extra $50. God I hated Endwalker. Let me cut a check to Yoshi right quick, I'm sure he could use a new bugatti. Can't believe they're just taking the money I'm handing them...without even doing what I like!! Where's that one writer-oh right, Ishikawa. Ishikawa do NOT speak to me, you did not let me hold graha's hand in any cutscene not even once. Here's 3 tickets to Disneyland, you, soken, and yoshi have a great time alright? SO disappointed in you ugh.

All this money I'm giving and you couldnt even buy the servers that dont exist. Yet again, I am let down by the very same people I continue to give money to. How does this keep happening?? I just wanted to play a video game that I really loved....get that Pokemon game out of my face-it's literally a collective hallucination, no other games exist. GOD none of you understand me

[Arcelor]

OP you are so right ugh I didnt like a single thing about Endwalker either, lazy lazy lazy!!! Ok so anyways, I'm gonna keep paying every month anyway. But I just need everyone to know that I am NOT! HAPPY! with what I'm paying for. This is MY money! So everything should be exactly how I imagined it to be. My money, my way. Don't you dare tell me not to keep spending it on what I don't like. That's annoying!! Here you go Soken, here's an extra $50. God I hated Endwalker. Let me cut a check to Yoshi right quick, I'm sure he could use a new bugatti. Can't believe they're just taking the money I'm handing them...without even doing what I like!! Where's that one writer-oh right, Ishikawa. Ishikawa do NOT speak to me, you did not let me hold graha's hand in any cutscene not even once. Here's 3 tickets to Disneyland, you, soken, and yoshi have a great time alright? SO disappointed in you ugh.

All this money I'm giving and you couldnt even buy the servers that dont exist. Yet again, I am let down by the very same people I continue to give money to. How does this keep happening?? I just wanted to play a video game that I really loved....get that Pokemon game out of my face-it's literally a collective hallucination, no other games exist. GOD none of you understand me

I agree with you, is our fault for keep paying them, lets rest our sup at least 1 month so they'll understand, lets hit them where it hurts, MONEY.

[Dewslam]

Everything involving Meteion really is a blight on the story, imo. The expansion's story isn't bad for the most part, but the moment you go back into the past it all just kind of shits its self and any time she comes back into the plot that stank makes its hard return. I don't care about her at all because she comes literally out of nowhere in the back half of the story, forcibly demands the spotlight despite having nothing of value to actually say and her cheesy jumpscare 2000's flash game horror aesthetic is just...bad? It's especially galling when we kill basically every other antagonist in the first half of the story and the game spins its wheels for a little bit going "OH NO WHY DIDN'T THE CRISIS STOP" only to reveal that this thing we have no way of knowing existed was secretly responsible for everything this entire time, retroactively making the *entire story* up until now feel just a little bit dumber. Every bit of plot revolving around Hermes and Meteion feels like it was written to rule on convenience and circumstance. Sure was cool that Hermes invented a memory blasting magic machine no one could bypass or avoid except you, sure was convenient Azem spent the next forever just...not bothering to try and fix that memory hole issue. Sure was cool that everyone forgot the space birds existed completely and utterly until just in time for you to go back into the past and learn they existed. By writing Meteion into the story like this, now it feels like every character has slightly less agency and slightly dumber motivation.

Also finishing up the storyline with another series of fakeout deaths was just kind of impactless at this point.

[hynaku]

With no new content other than savage there is no point for me to even get the new tomes gear. The worst expansion ever for FFXIV for content.

[StriderShinryu]

OP you are so right ugh I didnt like a single thing about Endwalker either, lazy lazy lazy!!! Ok so anyways, I'm gonna keep paying every month anyway. But I just need everyone to know that I am NOT! HAPPY! with what I'm paying for.

Bingo, and this is really the issue. No one is saying you can't complain, and it's not really that at least some of the OPs issues don't have merit. Plus there are a bunch of issues that the OP doesn't mention. The problem is that people keep bringing up their complaints again and again (and again).. but keep playing and paying for the game. Again, there's nothing wrong with criticizing but if you're going to do that then at least put the only weight you can behind it and stop playing. Find something else that floats your boat or, at the very least, just stop playing FF14 if it pains you that much. This is the true source of many of the "Just go play another game" responses. It's not that most people who say that are personally hurt that you're criticizing their dear FF14, it's that you're clearly not having a good time playing FF14 but are so obsessed with it that you just can't let it go.

To go back to the restaurant analogy that's been brought up a few times in this thread; this isn't about going to a restaurant once, being unhappy with the food and complaining and/or writing a poor review. This is about complaining that the food was terrible, the chicken was raw, the tables were dirty, the chef is a liar, the owner is a crook, and the bathroom was a mess... but going back every week for years because the wait staff are good at keeping your water glass filled and the Italian place that used to be in the same location had great linguine.

[Ravor]

I personally hate this kind of thread of lack of content, you guys simply focus on raiding, battle etc, here i am busy with gathering and crafting which is a lot of stuff to do, yes, more than a year playing this game and i never do savage when it was appear, i am busy doing crafting and treasure map and will do a 1 month focus on fishing soon, thank god the dev know that some players are like me who doesnt really care about doing savage, i am playing games to have fun and my fun is not doing savage, and this game have way many content aside from savage, if you guys already bored or finished doing your fun, that is a good game design, to actually have a finish line, not an endless grind or time gated content, you can play other content which is a lot or stop subscribing and play other game

[TaleraRistain]

If Venat told us sooner, there's a chance we wouldn't have gone to Elpis at all. So we wouldn't have experienced the events there and Venat wouldn't have knowledge of Meteion to share with us. She had to be sure we had done those events before she could talk about it with us.

In regards to zones, big doesn't necessarily mean better. The HW zones could be quite a slog, since they weren't really doing a lot with that space. This is a common complaint some AAA games also get, where they advertise having these big zones but they're empty. I'd much rather have smaller, succinct zones.

[Snorky]

Bingo, and this is really the issue. No one is saying you can't complain, and it's not really that at least some of the OPs issues don't have merit. Plus there are a bunch of issues that the OP doesn't mention. The problem is that people keep bringing up their complaints again and again (and again).. but keep playing and paying for the game. Again, there's nothing wrong with criticizing but if you're going to do that then at least put the only weight you can behind it and stop playing. Find something else that floats your boat or, at the very least, just stop playing FF14 if it pains you that much. This is the true source of many of the "Just go play another game" responses. It's not that most people who say that are personally hurt that you're criticizing their dear FF14, it's that you're clearly not having a good time playing FF14 but are so obsessed with it that you just can't let it go.

To go back to the restaurant analogy that's been brought up a few times in this thread; this isn't about going to a restaurant once, being unhappy with the food and complaining and/or writing a poor review. This is about complaining that the food was terrible, the chicken was raw, the tables were dirty, the chef is a liar, the owner is a crook, and the bathroom was a mess... but going back every week for years because the wait staff are good at keeping your water glass filled and the Italian place that used to be in the same location had great linguine.

This^ when I tell someone play a different game it's not because I don't want to hear a criticism about it. It's that most complaints (not all of the) usually have a lot of hyperbole or the complaint is so bad it would change the way the whole game works because this person complaining isn't happy. Why keep paying for something that you obviously don't really like? Someone has to say it because God knows some people distort every little fault like it's the end of the world as we know it. It's like the one who cannot get it through their thick skulls there is a semi conductor shortage and on top of that one of the major producing factory's just had a fire. When I see someone in one of these threads denying it I just think why bother giving a serious answer. Just play something else if you are that unhappy.