FF14 Becoming More "Solo Friendly" is bad, Maybe

[IdowhatIwant]

How is that bad?

It's not bad, if it does not affect the current player base. How ever this is why I do not like the current direction, they are making changes to the game such as simplifying the game play, classes, and content as well. Now this may not be related to them attempting to make the game more single player friendly, but, it's happening around the same time this was brought up. This is where it makes it bad.

Is what would be awesome, is if there is some one that has played FFXI recently or knows alot about it in general to explain what changes were made and how that game progressed into having a single player experience for comparison. And if these changes were positive or negative over all.

Edit: I found a good article on FFXI's progression.
https://www.pcgamer.com/life-in-vana...ike-any-other/

[Dzian]

Just a few examples, but, a lot of that "community interaction" content gets a lot of backlash and is poorly received.

Because it was borked from the outset.

Housing for example. The wards and neighbourhood model was designed around building and growing communities. But where was the content that supported that?

FC Primals and other FC based content that everyone in the free company could be included in and work together to achieve.. Workshops for example need 4 crafters. Yet 3 of them just stand there while the 4th presses a button and done.. FC's devolved into nothing more than glorified chat channels because there was absolutely zero content that members could do toghether and build community build bonds etc. Despite players asking for actual FC content since day 1. And being promised lots of it in beta.

However, Everything is built around the duty finder and the solo player from the outset and does everything it can to discourage group play because if the game actively encouraged group play and playing together the duty finder would be dead.

Even the basic MSQ. in a party of 3 friends, you're all on the exact same quest. but "you cannot progress this quest because you are in a party" It's an MMO ffs I want to play with my friends....

It's numerous little things like that that killed off group play and neighbourhoods / communities and as a result everything is so superficial.

I crafted some stuff for someone yesterday. no idea what there name was and I bet they couldnt remeber mine without looking at the stuff I made to see the signature.

In such a superficial world. group based content was doomed straight away.. which is why the housing wards were empty on release. because the anti social, anti cooperative nature of the game drove pillars between groups of players and pushed them apart into smaller groups or circles and none of them could afford a house because of how small they were.

[Kuritzkale]

This line of thinking kinda gets me here - why is it a good idea to force people to do something during their freetime, when practising their hobby? And why do you assume that people need to be forced to interact with the community? If that is your assumption - that people in general dont want to interact with each other in an online game - we should maybe get rid of the MMO genre alltogether.
I'm not sure why but quite often when this topic comes up people (who I assume like playing with others) seem to worry that there will be no on left to play with them, because everyone else will simply pick the singel player option. For some reason everyone whos worried about these changes believes that they're the only person on the planet who likes running dungeons with other people - and is in addition perfectly fine with forcing the rest of the games popultaion to do that with them even though they must be sure that everyone else loathes it...

Well if someone chooses to spend their free time playing an MMO I think it's fine to """force""" them to interact with the playerbase, because they're playing an MMO, lol. And I don't think people don't want to interact with the community, I am saying that if the game doesn't incentivize it or force it to some degree, people probably won't go out of their way to do so. Not because they don't want to, just because most people take the path of least resistance. There will be people who still do make an effort to interact with people, I'm sure, but you kind of sign up for interaction when you play an MMO.

That's great that you would enjoy that when you first started, and I understand not everyone likes the MMO aspect of 14, but coming to 14 to seek a SINGLEPLAYER, NON MMO FF experience is NOT valid. That isn't the kind of game it is. Let me make this more clear- people can enjoy different aspects of the game. They can enjoy playing it as a mostly single player experience. But guess what, "MMO" isn't an "aspect of the game", it's the genre. It colors the WHOLE experience. You cannot interact with FF14 without interacting with an MMO. That isn't how it works.

On a side note, I don't get the distaste for "forcing" players to do things lmao. The game forces you to do stuff all the time. Sometimes it's necessary. (Also sorry about formatting I tries to respond to your whole post but apparently this was too long to post, so I just deleted a bunch of your quoted post. Sorry. I respond to stuff not quoted. No idea how this works really.)

[hagare]

It's an RPGMMO. not the other way around

[IdowhatIwant]

If you edit your post you can go beyond the character limit.

Thanks king. Also want to say, you and one other brave warrior fighting in the FF14 forum trenches have been the main characters of my life for the past couple of days as I lose my mind and my eyesight staring at these posts, you are without a doubt one of the most BASED posters on here. Big fan.

Thank you sir, I get bored at work a lot. I like the game and I like to complain so it goes hand in hand and makes the day go quicker. I also don't know what based even means.

[Kuritzkale]

If you edit your post you can go beyond the character limit.

Thanks king. Also want to say, you and one other brave warrior fighting in the FF14 forum trenches have been the main characters of my life for the past couple of days as I lose my mind and my eyesight staring at these posts, you are without a doubt one of the most BASED posters on here. Big fan.

[Adeacia]

Even with this new thing I'd still run with players. I have ever since trusts were added to begin with. I only use the single player system to level up jobs I don't know nor care to know how to play. That way I don't rightly anger other players for playing bad.

That's the thing, people seem to be acting like the single player dungeons are forced when they are completely optional.

[ACE135]

I would be fine if they just make it so that people can do the story solo if they want to. But I'm not okay with that they change or remove mechanics everywhere just because the NPCs otherwise weren't be able to do it. And I don't like either, that in future patches they want to even change the story to make it possible that some of the Scions or other known NPCs can be used for the dungeons and trials. So everyone has to "suffer" just because SE wants to attract some people who only want to play solo Final Fantasy titles.

[Dzian]

Even with this new thing I'd still run with players. I have ever since trusts were added to begin with. I only use the single player system to level up jobs I don't know nor care to know how to play. That way I don't rightly anger other players for playing bad.

That's the thing, people seem to be acting like the single player dungeons are forced when they are completely optional.

There were a couple of times during endwalkers story where I'd just unlocked a dungeon had a friend say they'd come with me. Queue up get in. Be like "hey first time". and then get remarks like "wtf? Why haven't you done it with your trust?"

"Because its a bloody nmo. I play to play with friends and people."

if that mentality grows then single players dungeons could end up feeling forced and not optional at all.

[Ryaze]

Even with this new thing I'd still run with players. I have ever since trusts were added to begin with. I only use the single player system to level up jobs I don't know nor care to know how to play. That way I don't rightly anger other players for playing bad.

That's the thing, people seem to be acting like the single player dungeons are forced when they are completely optional.

Other than the fact that they are clearly using up a substantial amount of limited developmental resources, that could be repurposed elsewhere, to do these solo friendly updates in a game that has up to now succeed off the loyalty of it's current player base. MMOs have generally over time reduced group content and made their games more and more solo friendly, but this has usually been done when monthly subscription numbers drop or when the new player experience in older zones has worsened over time. This is not the case for FFXIV though. There's no mandatory or optional group content while leveling in the overworld that requires finding random like minded players while questing, and thanks to their duty finder system almost all group content is easily available/easily completed. FFXIV box purchases and monthly subscriptions have never been higher. So why FFXIV devs are using up limited resources for solo play when the game has never been more popular is baffling. There is something to be said for planning ahead but when just months ago there were so many players interested in playing the game, as it is currently, that the servers were overloaded, the timing of these updates just seems silly.