The feeling of beeing Home ...

[Silverbane]

Ah yes, the old "the creators have a right to trash their product so just leave if you don't like it" argument.

If you had an ounce of humility and a bit of perspective, you might realize that just because you think it is trash doesn't mean most people think that, much less that it actually is.

Sometimes I wonder if you people even want the game ... to continue the downward spiral

Of record profits and subscribers? That "downward" spiral? Sure!

you prefer eating sludge.

Ever had Turkish coffee? Personally, I much prefer espresso, but tastes vary.

[Treesus]

Why would it be a bait post? The Scions are not what many people play the game for. Much in the same way that many people didn't play World of Warcraft purely for the sake of Jaina, Anduin, Baine and Sylvanas.

MMO's by their very nature are intended to appeal to a broad audience and a common criticism of the game's current trajectory has been that large swathes of what people find intriguing have been sacrificed in favour of more of the exact same thing we've seen many times over already.

Because OP mentions the scions and their current personalities as issues in the post? Sure, people play MMOs for various reasons, thats not a debated idea. But when someone says "blank bad now" when "blank has been that was for 5+years", it can look like bait. If their issues lie with other aspects of the game, sure go off. That can be a discussion. But when you say "this game was so good in every aspect until ___ time ago" and then proceed to point out things you view as issues that have been basically as is for FAR longer then when you said the situation got bad, it comes off as a kinda misplaced complaint. And considering its the forms, and alot of bait here exist, its easy to see oddly misplaced complaints and go "hm, might be bait".

[aveyond-dreams]

The Scions and their personalities are not why I was drawn to FFXIV or why I continued playing, but their handling in EW is part of the reason why I am playing other games and no longer feeling confident in FFXIV's current trajectory.

[Striker44]

There is a certain subcommunity of particularly... unintelligent people on the official forums (I could name names but I'm not gonna) who will tell you that you're weird or an outlier for disliking the glorious, amazing story that was Endwalker and that you must respect their majoritah. Don't listen to these people. There is nothing wrong with not liking it, especially with how poorly the expansion handled itself. You are not alone in not liking it, despite what they will tell you.

I think that mythical subcommunity is exactly that - a product of one's imagination. I haven't seen anyone here claiming someone is weird for not liking EW. I have seen people take issue with others claiming they are the arbiters of what is "good" or "bad," and then insisting that the story must be absolutely terrible because they said so, and how dare anyone actually claim they like it.

It's also a fact that the playerbase at large far and away enjoyed the story in EW. That doesn't at all mean everyone has to like it. But to try acting as if one's "EW is bad" mentality is actually the general feeling, and then insisting the dev team is bad because of that misinformation - that's not helpful. It was eye-opening to see the absolute shock some people displayed when polls showed most of the Scions are actually very popular characters, because they became so entrenched in the echo chamber of negativity on these forums that it was unthinkable the forums might represent only a tiny sliver of the playerbase, and that the general feeling outside of it was very different.

[Lustre]

Every right to be concerned looking at the trainwreck of an expansion we just got delivered OP. For me personally, 7.0 is make or break. 6.1 was pretty disappointing, so here's hoping 6.2-7.0 can make up for it. I'm not confident they will though. They completely mishandled both Garlemald and the Ancients in favour of another Hand-holding adventure with the Scions, who are probably the least interesting characters in this game rn. I can't really say the gameplay loop is really doing much for me either, but that's a whole different story.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

Part of what Yoshida believes/believed is the approach to making it successful is to listen to one's customers. Not exactly unheard of as a principle in business.

Can't say if he ever believed it before but he sure as hell doesn't anymore. I suppose it's a good thing we have all these people encouraging us to move to Canada to escape a dictatorship.

[AwesomeJr44]

If you had an ounce of humility and a bit of perspective, you might realize that just because you think it is trash doesn't mean most people think that, much less that it actually is.

1) I don't care what the majoritah thinks, and popular = good is a stupid argument.
2) Your post said that the devs have a right to do whatever they want, which would include things that are not good for the game. Thus your argument is that the creators have a right to trash their own product if they want to and that anyone who doesn't like that should leave. A fact I pointed out.

Of record profits and subscribers?

Are you referring to 6.0 or right now? 6.0 obviously did amazing. It was hyped up to the extreme, came right after the amazing expansion that was Shadowbringers and you can't just undo playing it if you hated it. For an example that is pretty relevant to Endwalker's situation, the Last Jedi (Star Wars ep8) did great profit-wise as it was hyped up just like Endwalker, yet it was hated by a LOT of people and you didn't see that impact sales until a bit later down the line. We're already seeing a large portion of the game's population leaving despite 6.15 AND a free subscription campaign. You might not care if people leave the game but SE will once it impacts their bottom line.

Ever had Turkish coffee? Personally, I much prefer espresso, but tastes vary.

I'm more of a tea person, coffee is very bad for your long-term health.

[Silverbane]

Can't say if he ever believed it before but he sure as hell doesn't anymore.

Live and learn: years of trying to make sense of the complaints in the forums have no doubt imparted Yoshida with a wisdom he previously lacked.

Besides, "listening to customers/complaints" doesn't mean taking all customers/complaints seriously:
there's far too many wack-jobs in the world for that.

[Aneshda]

snip

So other opinions as your own, are Bait Posts now?
When you get involed into the story of this game and suddenly a lot of things makes no sense anymore, cause they got changed last minute or never meant a thing cause Yoshi wanted to get rid of the old things ... don't know. Are we playing the same game?
The Scions are a bunch of boring yes sayers who thinks it is bad when the Garleans or others do something bad, but god forbid if the worst of it all was Hydaelyn. And what was the reaction of all that? Not a single tear, not a single bad word. My Friend Zenos would have said "Acceptance .... at last acceptance" and only that.

Maybe you agree with the story, maybe you liked it and how it turned out for you. You may even have skipped most parts of the story. But I put a lot of time into the story and a lot of money and that's all we're getting after all these years? A halfhearted clickbait story that raised even more questions than before Endwalker. Everything Yoshi has to say "don't look too deep into the story"...don't know if he was drunk but FFX14 lives for the story, everything else you can have in all other games.
If you like the Scions it's okay, but after all these years of always feeling the same, acting the same, it gets old and boring. No matter how many times we sit at a table, eat burgers, or watch a catgirl sleep in a library.
I can tell you next time we have Alphinaud back on our team and something happens... watch him clench his fist for the 100th time.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Hoo boy, this again. Seems like we can't swing a stick without hitting half a dozen threads about how the game sucks these days.

I don't get why people keep paying for a game they don't enjoy. Seems silly. But hey, do whatever you want, it's your money to burn.