Future direction of FFXIV

[MisterNublet]

I am slightly concerned that they're still leaning a bit too hard on their established formula/pattern of content.

We are slated to get something potentially refreshing and new with the Criterion dungeons and Island Sanctuary in 6.2, but if those fail to shake things up much, then I would be legitimately concerned about things going into 7.0 onwards.

As it stands presently, the only thing in 6.1 that's going to keep the bulk of the playerbase occupied for more then a couple days is the PvP "battle pass", as ultimates are extremely niche content.

It's stated that Criterion dungeons scale for 1 to 4 players, so I'm not expecting it to be any harder than current dungeon difficult. Probably easier even. I'll be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong.

They also told players to temper their expectations on the Island Sanctuary, so I'm not holding my breath that it is anything more than a place to AFK while I queue for roulettes.

Crystal Conflict is gonna be dead after a couple of weeks. Since, to be brutally honest, the playerbase is garbo and because they can't hide behind in numbers like they do in frontlines they wont play it.

The 6.1 LL wasn't very inspiring and didn't give me hope for the future of this game.

[sharknado]

They also told players to temper their expectations on the Island Sanctuary, so I'm not holding my breath that it is anything more than a place to AFK while I queue for roulettes.

I'm curious what features they pulled there. They started the feature long ago, mentioned during SHB if I recall correctly, people got hyped so they got afraid and delayed it to implement extra features. The cover art for it also has a lot of farming... so if Island Sanctuary does not allow for farming Thavnairian Onion then the feature is DoA If there will be option to use existing furnishing items then at least market will awaken a bit. But still Islands are listed for expansion in subsequent patches so it's surprising...

[MisterNublet]

I'm curious what features they pulled there. They started the feature long ago, mentioned during SHB if I recall correctly, people got hyped so they got afraid and delayed it to implement extra features. The cover art for it also has a lot of farming... so if Island Sanctuary does not allow for farming Thavnairian Onion then the feature is DoA If there will be option to use existing furnishing items then at least market will awaken a bit. But still Islands are listed for expansion in subsequent patches so it's surprising...

If they used any ideas from Wildstar's housing system, it could be pretty legit.

I have a feeling it is gonna be a place where you can select a handful of minions to roam around and /pet, and farming plots that only lets you plant seeds bought from the island sanctuary vendor which lets you grow plants used to buy/craft reskinned glamour.

[sharknado]

only lets you plant seeds bought from the island sanctuary vendor

So it will be dead on arrival. No bribe no viability Joking a bit but IMHO if they put so much time and so much patches to come then it really has to have bigger value and give some work for crafters.