If They Need Class Inspiration...

[RitsukoSonoda]

In my opinion the problem is not that they need new inspiration for jobs.
the problem is we have a dev team that is not creatively competent enough to properly implement, and use the many jobs and ideas they already have, and until that problem is resolved other classes that are created will either be clones of already existing jobs in the game (like the entirety of the healer role, and basically the tank role), or the new classes will be confined to be limited jobs -- essentially making them unusable in any current content (like one of the most unique and expansive jobs in the franchise Blue mage...how on earth did they mess that one up -_-)

IMO it's not a matter of the dev's not being creatively competent. It's more of an issue of the overall design direction pushed into the game has effectively placed excessive limitations on what they can actually do. The desire of the game to be for "everyone" has placed limitations on design due to the "need" for every job to be easily playable regardless of player ability or skill level stacked on top of this other need to have every job somehow perform almost exactly the same as every other job in that role type on any piece of content.

[SeverianLyonesse]

IMO it's not a matter of the dev's not being creatively competent. It's more of an issue of the overall design direction pushed into the game has effectively placed excessive limitations on what they can actually do. The desire of the game to be for "everyone" has placed limitations on design due to the "need" for every job to be easily playable regardless of player ability or skill level stacked on top of this other need to have every job somehow perform almost exactly the same as every other job in that role type on any piece of content.

Another consequence of this is that it reinforces design that predominantly distinguishes jobs by "aesthetics" and "flavor" instead of mechanics, a method which seems to be working since the overall spectacle-based job design is what attracts new players and keeps players invested in the game. There is considerably more effort put into making sure each job has a unique weapons and skill animations, unique job fantasy and effects kits, and unique costuming, than on developing novel playstyles. And they have leaned into this methodology so hard that now the success of new job designs is all the more heavily reliant on aesthetics to sell them as new engaging content, because the jobs will in all likelihood do very little to differentiate themselves as a matter of gameplay and mechanics.

Again, the overall quality and customizability of fashion in this game had ultimately led to a huge reduction in difficulty curve and job complexity. The most consistent gateway into subscribing to the game is glams, and the most consistent end game drive is glams. Comparatively far more effort is put into designing gear for this game than other MMOs, and that eats up developer resources. And since the developers seem to subconsciously realize that pursuit of glams is what keeps casual subscriptions up, the whole game has been streamlined more and more around role-based scripted gameplay with excessive sustain redundancy so that anyone across the skill spectrum feels like they have a shot of obtaining said glams.

FFXIV is, at its heart, a glorified dress-up doll simulator coupled with a fairly robust social avatar system. There is just enough current tier content to maintain the illusion that it is a combat-based game, but in reality "combat" in this game is just slightly more punishing DDR to create just enough scarcity of new glams to give them social value.

[Lihtleita]

FFXIV is, at its heart, a glorified dress-up doll simulator coupled with a fairly robust social avatar system.

call of duty is a point and click adventure but the action is gun

[RitsukoSonoda]

Another consequence of this is that it reinforces design that predominantly distinguishes jobs by "aesthetics" and "flavor" instead of mechanics, a method which seems to be working since the overall spectacle-based job design is what attracts new players and keeps players invested in the game. There is considerably more effort put into making sure each job has a unique weapons and skill animations, unique job fantasy and effects kits, and unique costuming, than on developing novel playstyles. And they have leaned into this methodology so hard that now the success of new job designs is all the more heavily reliant on aesthetics to sell them as new engaging content, because the jobs will in all likelihood do very little to differentiate themselves as a matter of gameplay and mechanics.

Again, the overall quality and customizability of fashion in this game had ultimately led to a huge reduction in difficulty curve and job complexity. The most consistent gateway into subscribing to the game is glams, and the most consistent end game drive is glams. Comparatively far more effort is put into designing gear for this game than other MMOs, and that eats up developer resources. And since the developers seem to subconsciously realize that pursuit of glams is what keeps casual subscriptions up, the whole game has been streamlined more and more around role-based scripted gameplay with excessive sustain redundancy so that anyone across the skill spectrum feels like they have a shot of obtaining said glams.

FFXIV is, at its heart, a glorified dress-up doll simulator coupled with a fairly robust social avatar system. There is just enough current tier content to maintain the illusion that it is a combat-based game, but in reality "combat" in this game is just slightly more punishing DDR to create just enough scarcity of new glams to give them social value.

To be fair in regards to visuals numerous titles and studios have progressively sunk more and more time and resources in just visual effects as gaming hardware became more powerful. In all honestly I would probably attribute the bulk of the development for most if not all AAA titles to just visual effects, sprites, and textures as studios push to make the games as pretty as possible often going as far as to spend considerable time and effort for small details like now realistically a t-shirt worn by the character flows in the breeze. However when they don't spend the time an resources on details like that they get accused to being lazy despite the fact that we've lately been seeing development timeframes reaching 5-10 years on titles that non completionist players are usually finished with after 40hours or less of gameplay.