What is going on with Square Enix and the 14 team?

[SturmChurro]

People are always comparing this game to wow and lost ark saying how these games don´t respect your time but never the games with better practices about it like destiny 2 or path of exile that while they are grindy themselves, you don't really have to put that much time into them weekly to be relevant and have fun with said games.

A lot of people with Lost Ark are on a hate bandwagon, and the complaints I've read are pretty ignorant of reality. How many weeks does it take to get geared up in this game on one job? I got the new 'Glavier' class to 1370 in one day, without spending real money on progression. People complaining about Lost Ark exaggerate the pay to win aspect, and simply don't like the perception a honing failure gives. It's largely surface level complaints. I can get through the tiers on a fresh character, in a few weeks. Here, I don't even have my full tomestone set on white mage. It takes like what... 7 weeks to upgrade your weapon?

[Theodric]

A lot of people with Lost Ark are on a hate bandwagon, and the complaints I've read are pretty ignorant of reality. How many weeks does it take to get geared up in this game on one job? I got the new 'Glavier' class to 1370 in one day, without spending real money on progression. People complaining about Lost Ark exaggerate the pay to win aspect, and simply don't like the perception a honing failure gives. It's largely surface level complaints. I can get through the tiers on a fresh character, in a few weeks. Here, I don't even have my full tomestone set on white mage. It takes like what... 7 weeks to upgrade your weapon?

Yeah, Lost Ark is pretty generous when it comes to helping players catch up. I started a month after the game launched and between the rewards offered from quests and dungeons/raids I was able to gear up my character very easily without resorting to using the cash shop. The daily login rewards are so generous that I even ended up having spare materials sitting in my inventory.

I can also take a break whenever I desire and not lose anything...which cannot be said of FFXIV. I get that different tastes exist but I think it's time FFXIV is viewed with a more critical eye because there are things that other MMO's are doing better.

[SturmChurro]

I can also take a break whenever I desire and not lose anything...which cannot be said of FFXIV. I get that different tastes exist but I think it's time FFXIV is viewed with a more critical eye because there are things that other MMO's are doing better.

Yep, I took a break from FF, and I am still weeks behind in gear. I can't even really gear up my RDM or tank, because I still need to finish up my tomestone set for WHM. I think FF has been able to get away with a lot for so long, because of there being no real competitors other than WoW, and it was generally doing things pretty well for a little while there, but if content remains on this same path, and even the patches have gotten slower, people will start looking elsewhere regardless. They will take that " go play something else", or "this game isn't for you" to heart, and just not come back.

[Theodric]

Yep, I took a break from FF, and I am still weeks behind in gear. I can't even really gear up my RDM or tank, because I still need to finish up my tomestone set for WHM. I think FF has been able to get away with a lot for so long, because of there being no real competitors other than WoW, and it was generally doing things pretty well for a little while there, but if content remains on this same path, and even the patches have gotten slower, people will start looking elsewhere regardless. They will take that " go play something else", or "this game isn't for you" to heart, and just not come back.

Yeah, I'd definitely consider there to be some genuine competition right now. I've been spending more of my gaming time on ESO and Lost Ark. There's also some upcoming MMO's that have piqued my curiosity.

Truth be told, I'd rather just pick one MMO to play and stick with that but FFXIV has been making all sorts of odd decisions lately. The biggest red flags for me are that the 'new story' looks to be more of the same thing and that all of the new expansion features have yet to be implemented.

[Kisshu]

Yeah, I'd definitely consider there to be some genuine competition right now. I've been spending more of my gaming time on ESO and Lost Ark. There's also some upcoming MMO's that have piqued my curiosity.

Truth be told, I'd rather just pick one MMO to play and stick with that but FFXIV has been making all sorts of odd decisions lately. The biggest red flags for me are that the 'new story' looks to be more of the same thing and that all of the new expansion features have yet to be implemented.

Honestly I'm really interested in what they're gonna do with the story now, and not in a good way. At the end of EW it seemed like a new tale was gonna start, Emet hinting at several places we could visit for a new journey as an adventurer. But then when 6.1 dropped we got a 75% Drowned City of Skalla plot and we're back with nearly all the Scions again. Furthermore, it seems we're now gonna focus heavily on The Void, and it would honestly not surprise me if we end up saving that shard in an afternoon.

[LisSquid]

Honestly I'm really interested in what they're gonna do with the story now, and not in a good way. At the end of EW it seemed like a new tale was gonna start, Emet hinting at several places we could visit for a new journey as an adventurer. But then when 6.1 dropped we got a 75% Drowned City of Skalla plot and we're back with nearly all the Scions again. Furthermore, it seems we're now gonna focus heavily on The Void, and it would honestly not surprise me if we end up saving that shard in an afternoon.

It took them 2 seconds to try to get us to be on board with going to another shard again. Let the Void be a mystery for a while longer!! We're already breaking down too much of the mythos!! Let us just explore some Allagan ruins and uncover some unknown history of Eorzea..

[Theodric]

Honestly I'm really interested in what they're gonna do with the story now, and not in a good way. At the end of EW it seemed like a new tale was gonna start, Emet hinting at several places we could visit for a new journey as an adventurer. But then when 6.1 dropped we got a 75% Drowned City of Skalla plot and we're back with nearly all the Scions again. Furthermore, it seems we're now gonna focus heavily on The Void, and it would honestly not surprise me if we end up saving that shard in an afternoon.

Yeah, I was hoping that being an adventurer again would lead to actual adventure instead of...conveniently having everything align with finding new ways to help the Scions. If Y'shtola cared so much about Runar, she should have just stayed behind on the First. It's not like she contributed much during Endwalker. I also dislike the idea of fixing the Void. What happened to the supposed need to 'move on'? Which, mysteriously, only seems to ever apply to the antagonists - no matter how sympathetic their plight may be.

[CrownySuccubus]

Wanting to be able to travel between shards may have been inspired by her promise to Runar, but Y'shtola has made it clear multiple times that she wants to learn a method to do it moreso out of scientific discovery than merely getting back to her catboy crush.

Besides that, the game was pretty clear that their options were either to return to the Source or die.

[SturmChurro]

Yeah, I'd definitely consider there to be some genuine competition right now. I've been spending more of my gaming time on ESO and Lost Ark. There's also some upcoming MMO's that have piqued my curiosity.

Truth be told, I'd rather just pick one MMO to play and stick with that but FFXIV has been making all sorts of odd decisions lately. The biggest red flags for me are that the 'new story' looks to be more of the same thing and that all of the new expansion features have yet to be implemented.

Yep, I have over 1k (granted a lot afk) hours in Lost Ark, over 1400 Ilvl on my sorceress. So I've been spending a lot of time in that. If I had things I really wanted to do in FF I'd be playing it more. Like, I've said before, burn out wasn't the reason I took a break. There just wasn't anything interesting for me to do. I think even Shadowbringers held my attention longer.

I just want things to do in the game, and more things to strive for. The reward structure in FF is really lacking, in my opinion.There isn't really any lasting content, other than maybe CC currently, that keeps you playing, and it's taking so long for them to release even little things like Island Sanctuary.

[IdowhatIwant]

Yep, I have over 1k (granted a lot afk) hours in Lost Ark, over 1400 Ilvl on my sorceress. So I've been spending a lot of time in that. If I had things I really wanted to do in FF I'd be playing it more. Like, I've said before, burn out wasn't the reason I took a break. There just wasn't anything interesting for me to do. I think even Shadowbringers held my attention longer.

I just want things to do in the game, and more things to strive for. The reward structure in FF is really lacking, in my opinion.There isn't really any lasting content, other than maybe CC currently, that keeps you playing, and it's taking so long for them to release even little things like Island Sanctuary.

I think this is sadly becomes more obvious after SHB being very lacking due to covid. Now we get EW and it feels familiar in a bad way.