Please grow the MMO part of the game. End game is lousy.

[DPZ2]

Do we just go and tell anyone who wants open world content relevant beyond MSQ pathways, FATE grinds for the brief period a zone is relevant for leveling, and its few gathering node loops per zone to just go play something else rather than expanding the game itself?

Do we just go and tell anyone who wants a platform-style mode in game to go play something else rather than expanding the game itself?

Do we just go and tell anyone who truly want a Romance mode in game to go play something else rather than expanding the game itself?

Do we just go and tell anyone who wants to turn this game into <insert favorite MMORPG here> to go play something else rather than expanding the game itself?

If SE thinks the investment in time and money on such projects would both enhance the game and return a profit, they might consider it. If you're asking to turn FFXIV into your idea of what WoW, or even FFXI, brings to an MMORPG, and they don't think it's worth the effort, their answer will be no.

Personally, I think World of Warcraft should ditch the end-game Raiding in favor of massive 100-person open world Raids. I also think they should ditch their unique graphic style and replace it with photorealism.

Would my request be met with anything beyond derision by the development team? Absolutely. WoW has a unique feel, and unique gameplay, and those things provide a reason for WoW players to continue playing.

Turn Game X into Game Y sounds oh so reasonable if you give no heed to why you actually ended up playing both, and why the two will never be homogenized.

[KizuyaKatogami]

You're upset that SE has chosen not to change your particular playstyles as much as you think is needed, not that they're adding Trusts to the main story line dungeon instances. The need to describe this game (or any game with a battle system, really) as a 'visual novel' is pretty telling.

If you truly believe this game is becoming a 'visual novel', then you must have really disliked World of Warcraft/Star Wars: The Old Republic/Rift/Guild Wars 2/ArcheAge/Blade and Soul (those are the icons I can see on my desktop at the moment, there are a number of others out there as well), since one can solo-level (i.e. experience the non-raid-oriented story lines) in those particular games without ever engaging with another person in-game. It's not optimal, and some of the fun you can have is definitely tied to group interactions (guilds/FCs/Parties). But you can do it.

I play visual novels. The dynamics are quite different. The end-game is extremely different. There is no "rapport" system in this game. You can't Romance any of the Scions. You can RP to your hearts content, but it isn't part of the base game.

The reason these games are classified as MMORPGs is the same reason FFXIV is an MMORPG. There are instances where players can group up; there are persistent, distinct worlds to play on, you can interact with other players to your hearts content. Or not.

It’s not about my particular playstyle. They have objectively been simplifying jobs since Shadowbringers. They have made healing incredibly simplified, they gutted sch dots, gutted ast cards and abilities, have continued to make healing more and more easy while doing nothing for the dps side of things on healers. Their stance on this was because the casual playerbase would find more dps abilities too difficult to manage, but that rings rather hollow at this point now that they’re specifically working on making the game entirely solo. It’s not about a particular playstyle it’s about engagement, and yoshi p quite literally showed he doesn’t care about healer concerns in the recent QnA.

Yes it’s effectively becoming a visual novel to me, considering how much easier dungeons are thus expansion and yoshi p going on record saying he wants to streamline them even more. Dungeons being streamlined even more at this point just means a visual novel where you hardly focus on the mobs and bosses and focus on the pretty lights in the background. The problem with devoting so many resources to making the game soloable is what about the people who aren’t invested or don’t care for the story? Endgame is the only thing for them and if that’s lacking then what’s the point of even playing?

[hobostew]

I feel they should really frontload some of the repeatable combat type content for their expansions. As it stands if you're not into raiding you're looking at 2-3 dungeons for like 8 months and that just doesn't strike me as good value proposition given the sub cost. Worse still if you're into glam and have to get additional retainers due to the way the glamour system works.

It doesn't necessarily have to be "hardcore" but I feel there should definitely be more. Right now it feels like we're in a content lull and we just came off a really long one at the back end of Shadowbringers.

[AnimaAnimus]

Right now it feels like we're in a content lull and we just came off a really long one at the back end of Shadowbringers.

honestly, this game feels like it's almost always in a content lull due to the way their patch system works. We don't get that much each patch, and each patch outdates the previous, so the most useful thing old content is for is mostly just story/leveling/glamour.

They really need to make some form of content that either scales with each patch in a expansion cycle or just provide more activities that are not necessarily something to power us up. The farm is a good step imo, but there really should be more.

What I would really like to see is a Mythic Weapon/Gear. Something that is basically a hq relic weapon. Maybe have us make all prior relics and fuse them into a mythic or utilize extreme and ultimate content as a way of powering them up. Even use the beast tribes as a way to get items since once you complete them there is absolutely no reason to go back. It would be grindy, yes, but if it's worth it, it's worth it. I would also love a way to power up our job specific gear in lieu of tomes. Then alongside of making them stronger, the first step could make them dyable, next step change their appearance slightly, repeat.

We can still have relics but giving us an option that is not just a fate grind like Eureka or Bozja would be amazing.

[Ixon]

Tbh, I just don't think people understand the direction or design of the game. It's almost always been this way. Like I said, this isn't a 24/7/365 game. It is purposefully designed to not take up your entire week and Yoshi-P has said in the past it is intended to be this way. They WANT you to play other games, they don't want you to be confined to a single game as other MMO's would force you. I've been playing since ARR, I have like 80% of the achievements done. On paper, there isn't a lot for me to do. I raid with my static three days a week, log in every now and then to do roulettes, level a job if I am in the mood, PVP, gold saucer(specifically TTT), then I log out. I enjoy that I have the freedom to play other things and not feel left out of something in this game. Expansions are all about story, some people didn't grind it out in 2-3 days and some took weeks to finish. There are people who still haven't cleared all the floors of the Savage Raid tier either. So in a month we will get new content, content that will tie us over till the next content, and so on and so forth.

Content that scales with each expansion would probably be a pain to balance. The closest you have is content that is still mildly relevant regardless of the expansion such as PotD/HoH, Eureka/Bozja, PVP, and anything else that is sync'd. Like it's been mentioned. They design content from new to veteran players, casual to hardcore. They try(not always succeeding let's be honest) to hit the middle ground while also ensuring it does not consume all your time. You could say that this is lazy game design, by not putting in more content whether required or optional(let's be real, if you are a real gamer all optional content is required lol), but it helps me not feel burnt on the game and get legitimately excited for new content.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Tbh, I just don't think people understand the direction or design of the game. It's almost always been this way. Like I said, this isn't a 24/7/365 game. It is purposefully designed to not take up your entire week and Yoshi-P has said in the past it is intended to be this way. They WANT you to play other games, they don't want you to be confined to a single game as other MMO's would force you. I've been playing since ARR, I have like 80% of the achievements done. On paper, there isn't a lot for me to do. I raid with my static three days a week, log in every now and then to do roulettes, level a job if I am in the mood, PVP, gold saucer(specifically TTT), then I log out. I enjoy that I have the freedom to play other things and not feel left out of something in this game. Expansions are all about story, some people didn't grind it out in 2-3 days and some took weeks to finish. There are people who still haven't cleared all the floors of the Savage Raid tier either. So in a month we will get new content, content that will tie us over till the next content, and so on and so forth.

Content that scales with each expansion would probably be a pain to balance. The closest you have is content that is still mildly relevant regardless of the expansion such as PotD/HoH, Eureka/Bozja, PVP, and anything else that is sync'd. Like it's been mentioned. They design content from new to veteran players, casual to hardcore. They try(not always succeeding let's be honest) to hit the middle ground while also ensuring it does not consume all your time. You could say that this is lazy game design, by not putting in more content whether required or optional(let's be real, if you are a real gamer all optional content is required lol), but it helps me not feel burnt on the game and get legitimately excited for new content.

The problem is it does feel like a cop out way of just not giving us more content. The problem here is though when they then take away the little bit of endgame content we get. Like them taking away some dungeons that we’d normally get in shb, or the deep dungeon. Yoshi p acted surprised so many people wanted it and it’s like….just how out of touch with their playerbase are they? Of course people would be upset about the loss of deep dungeon it’s one of the few endgame things to do. They are putting far too many eggs in one basket aka msq, which is a one and done thing, instead of endgame which is what the rest of the game relies upon.

[Minarisweet]

Tbh, I just don't think people understand the direction or design of the game. It's almost always been this way. Like I said, this isn't a 24/7/365 game. It is purposefully designed to not take up your entire week and Yoshi-P has said in the past it is intended to be this way. They WANT you to play other games, they don't want you to be confined to a single game as other MMO's would force you. I've been playing since ARR, I have like 80% of the achievements done. On paper, there isn't a lot for me to do. I raid with my static three days a week, log in every now and then to do roulettes, level a job if I am in the mood, PVP, gold saucer(specifically TTT), then I log out. I enjoy that I have the freedom to play other things and not feel left out of something in this game. Expansions are all about story, some people didn't grind it out in 2-3 days and some took weeks to finish. There are people who still haven't cleared all the floors of the Savage Raid tier either. So in a month we will get new content, content that will tie us over till the next content, and so on and so forth.

Content that scales with each expansion would probably be a pain to balance. The closest you have is content that is still mildly relevant regardless of the expansion such as PotD/HoH, Eureka/Bozja, PVP, and anything else that is sync'd. Like it's been mentioned. They design content from new to veteran players, casual to hardcore. They try(not always succeeding let's be honest) to hit the middle ground while also ensuring it does not consume all your time. You could say that this is lazy game design, by not putting in more content whether required or optional(let's be real, if you are a real gamer all optional content is required lol), but it helps me not feel burnt on the game and get legitimately excited for new content.

So you recognize this has been a long time issue and they could do better just like us... but when it comes to me I just don't like how things end very quickly especially relic farm which is supossed to be the time sinks and very optional are kinda limited? Once you are done you are done and bozja you are done with it very very quickly. The best time I've had in this game was with eureka but that also ended... Mmorpgs and other online games usually have currencies you wanna always be getting but when it comes to xiv gil is used for nothing more than housing and week 1 savage so even if you can get gil from eureka and bozja its not enough reward to want you to keep playing. This game has a replayability issue not a lack of content issue.

[deadman1204]

If a public space in the game turns them off, why are you even looking at ffxiv? You are aware of what MMO means?

[Ixon]

So you recognize this has been a long time issue and they could do better just like us... but when it comes to me I just don't like how things end very quickly especially relic farm which is supossed to be the time sinks and very optional are kinda limited? Once you are done you are done and bozja you are done with it very very quickly. The best time I've had in this game was with eureka but that also ended... Mmorpgs and other online games usually have currencies you wanna always be getting but when it comes to xiv gil is used for nothing more than housing and week 1 savage so even if you can get gil from eureka and bozja its not enough reward to want you to keep playing. This game has a replayability issue not a lack of content issue.

I never said it was an issue though, it's a format I am comfortable with and have enjoyed for many years.

[HemlockEvergreen]

We have people in this community already shouting "Emet-Selch did nothing wrong" and they're swooned all over him because of his burden and charm. At least I see this view on him more often and they choose to ignore all the terrible things he's done. And like I said, Venat did confided the truth to some people, which is where the whole debate between summoning Zodiark came from in the first place. Now I realize we dont know the full details that occurred during that exchange but Im pretty sure it involved Venat and her group trying to tell the Convocation of XIV that Zodiark wouldnt be the best solution due to Meteion but they still summoned him anyway. I'll admit this on itself is just another assumption but its how I would think it would've played out. Also Emet-Selch was more prone to investigating the Final Days because of the WoL being there. The WoL time traveling to the past and having a connection to Venat was his bread crumb that maybe something was definitely off, otherwise Emet-Selch being the prideful stubborn individual that he is who wouldve scoffed at such claims if it were anyone else. If he still retained his memories from the Hermes and Meteion reveal he no doubt would've continued to try to convince the others of the truth behind the Final Days but he was robbed of such knowledge so he just resumed being his usual self that everything was alright nothing to see here.

I seriously dont get where people's knickers get into a twist about the whole thing, its almost as if they desperately wanted to have Venat be this manipulative evil villian all along because that just tends to be the case in most jrpg stories with gods and what not but they pulled the twist that her decisions werent so black and white as we were led to believe.

Venat's plot ultimately prevented the acceleration of the heat death of the universe an the end of all existing life, even if it wasn't without sacrifice. IDK why people get so pissy about it. It's all Hermes' fault for being reckless AF and deploying what amounts to a swarm of a highly experimental AI drones based on barely understood theoretical principles, without a single test, oversight or peer-reviewing.