Future direction of FFXIV

[ReynTime]

I mean, not only that, there is also just more content for people to clear than there are people queueing for roulettes. That's been a problem forever so people get 40 minute queues and it's only going to keep getting worse as we get more MSQ content.

The reason I provided was reiterating the reason we were given in the live letter. We were told it was to get people who only play single player FFs to try out this game.

This will not work the way they expect. No one who intentionally avoids MMOs will rush to pay a subscription fee to play ONE game solo. At best it will work like in FFXI where it helped future-proof the lv1~99 grind.
Besides XIV has a lot of combat, dungeon and progression design decisions even in the pre-Endgame range that only works because it's a MMORPG.

[Yencat]

What sort of questions did it ask?

I also got the email about the survey September of last year and I was able to look through the questions again. I'm not gonna list the whole thing because it was quite a lot with a lot of choices, but to name a few they started with general questions about your age group etc.

Where you first heard of FFXIV.

Where you get your news on the game.

What social media you use, what you do on there, and how often you use them.

Where you interact with other players outside of the game.

What you like doing in the game and how well you feel FFXIV does those things.

Which recent updates/events about FFXIV you've heard of (this included patch 5.5, upcoming Endwalker launch, and the PS5 version). If you selected Endwalker then what you're looking forward to most in Endwalker.

How long you expect to keep playing XIV based on current experiences, choices ranging from less than a month to longer than a year (and you get to elaborate why and asked to be as specific as possible).

What consoles you own.

What other games you play (this included quite a few other MMO's).

What you like about how those games do things and if you feel FFXIV delivers on those things as well.

Reasons you play games in general and how well you feel FFXIV does at those those.

Most of these were rather elaborate multiple choice questions with an "Other" option where you could fill out something different, or 1-5 options with 1 being Not at all interested and 5 being Extremely interested.

[Nekokaori]

This will not work the way they expect. No one who intentionally avoids MMOs will rush to pay a subscription fee to play ONE game solo. At best it will work like in FFXI where it helped future-proof the lv1~99 grind.
Besides XIV has a lot of combat, dungeon and progression design decisions even in the pre-Endgame range that only works because it's a MMORPG.

u havent played much single players have you? I can name many times in ff history of single player where i had to dungeon crawl/grind to progress better or well ff7 getting all the summons and ultima weapons it worked fine.. plus do i need to mention dark souls,demons souls, skyrim, oblivion etc ...

people need to stop acting like the "mmo" makes it diffrent it doesn't it only means more than one person playing on a server at a time online... really... its annoying acting like the "mmo
matters that's just a tag on the real generic of rpg

not even counting old digimon and monster rancher games where u had to dungeon to progress or u know pokemon games lol

[ReynTime]

u havent played much single players have you? I can name many times in ff history of single player where i had to dungeon crawl/grind to progress better or well ff7 getting all the summons and ultima weapons it worked fine.. plus do i need to mention dark souls,demons souls, skyrim, oblivion etc ...

people need to stop acting like the "mmo" makes it diffrent it doesn't it only means more than one person playing on a server at a time online... really... its annoying acting like the "mmo
matters that's just a tag on the real generic of rpg

not even counting old digimon and monster rancher games where u had to dungeon to progress or u know pokemon games lol

None of the games you mentioned are MMO-like. People just see open world + some level of grind and use the hyperbole that they're "JUST LIKE MMORPGS!".
There's a reason FFXIV homogenized its job design to oblivion and is completely anti prep (a freaking STAPLE even in action RPGs like Kingdom freaking Hearts of all things). That gets in the way of player retention. Something single player games don't need to worry about.
Same reason why XIV has horrid themepark attraction style dungeons in Heavensward onwards. Because it's a MMORPG they need the players to stay subbed. To keep players subbed they need all instanced content to have activity. For the content to have activity they introduce the tedious roulette + tomestone system. Which in turn creates the culture of treating dailies as a checklist you want to get done with asap. Which results in focusing on making dungeons as straight to the point and unchallenging as possible, raids to be just a bunch of boss arenas, etc. Again, not something single players need to worry about.
A game like Elden Ring would abso-freaking-lutely NOT work as a profitable MMORPG. And that's why it's not one. Nor is FFVII. Nor is Tales of Arise. Nor Xenoblade Chronicles. Nor Pokemon Legends. They're not MMORPG-like beyond a very surface level that PREDATES MMORPGs as a genre.

A single player RPG only needs to sell once. Majority of people don't even finish them but that never mattered in the 40+ years they have existed. The challenge is there for those who WANT to take them. And the extra challenge is also there for those who want to go beyond just beat the story. No costs with server hardware means they don't need to appeal to people who baw at the thought of playing for any longer than 2 hours a session because the niche audience they have will already give them profit.

All of this affects the design significantly. I play single player RPGs all the time. Probably a lot more than people impressed with Endwalker because I don't limit myself to SE's shallow style over substance AAA offerings.
This is why I've been so incredibly unimpressed by PvE content in XIV in the last 6 years. Finally XIV is not even remotely similar to offline FFs beyond the references and fanservice it throws. Even XI is way closer than XIV is.

[Minarisweet]

u havent played much single players have you? I can name many times in ff history of single player where i had to dungeon crawl/grind to progress better or well ff7 getting all the summons and ultima weapons it worked fine.. plus do i need to mention dark souls,demons souls, skyrim, oblivion etc ...

people need to stop acting like the "mmo" makes it diffrent it doesn't it only means more than one person playing on a server at a time online... really... its annoying acting like the "mmo
matters that's just a tag on the real generic of rpg

not even counting old digimon and monster rancher games where u had to dungeon to progress or u know pokemon games lol

Hi neko uhm, a lot of people will argue that xiv is doing the same thing as a lot of games but the reality is that its not, also the irony is that most xiv players have had to adapt to the fact that this game is now treated like a singleplayer game (yes I know it makes no sense since everything is in party) that gets dlc every now and then instead of an mmo to live in... So people will keep treating it that way and will never try to empathize with the more passionate mmo crowd. What I'm saying here is that these kind of people won't ever find common ground and its a lost cause trying to talk with them so if you see someone stuck on "but xiv is an ff game therefore it is perfect the way it is" or "but xiv is an mmo therefore it is perfect the way it is" (yeah... the hypocrisy) you should stop arguing.

[EaraGrace]

All of this affects the design significantly. I play single player RPGs all the time. Probably a lot more than people impressed with Endwalker because I don't limit myself to SE's shallow style over substance AAA offerings.
This is why I've been so incredibly unimpressed by PvE content in XIV in the last 6 years. Finally XIV is not even remotely similar to offline FFs beyond the references and fanservice it throws. Even XI is way closer than XIV is.

God are people incapable of making arguments without being elitist or condescending. You don’t need to be a jerk to breath friend.

[Nekokaori]

snip

lol first off u want an example of a singe player that is mmo like good old diablo 2 or hell most elderscrolls can be moded to be multi player so honestly yes they do...

Also i have legitly bought many single players 3-4 times plus there collectiables etc...

as for "mmo" like that is just flat out retarded statement...

What is mmo like huh all it Mmo means is massive multiplayer online thats it just a shit load of people in a fishbowl thats all lol there is nothing special to it...

everything your referring to is "Rpg" stables not mmo lol hell if you really want to and wouldnt get sued we could legitly turn ff7 into a mmo with a few mods here and there to just allow character creation and online play thats all it would take to turn any game into a mmo lol

[SamsaraTrickstar]

God are people incapable of making arguments without being elitist or condescending. You don’t need to be a jerk to breath friend.

At what point he was? Can you losers (of the argument) start make some point to support what you say. Cry elitist don't work the way you think it is.

[LittleImp]

God are people incapable of making arguments without being elitist or condescending. You don’t need to be a jerk to breath friend.

How can you unironically try to tone police ReynTime while ignoring the way the person he was responding to has been speaking, which is much much worse? Is it because they're on your side of the argument and get a pass?

[Vahlnir]

How can you unironically try to tone police ReynTime while ignoring the way the person he was responding to has been speaking, which is much much worse? Is it because they're on your side of the argument and get a pass?

Not to mention the person ReynTime responded to was incorrect on just about every level.