Anyone else just feeling really disapointed this expansion?*vent*

[Lauront]

No, it actually doesn't. The reality of the situation is the world is a shitty place and people are trying to carve out the slightest bit of fun where they can get it. To go in there and try to shut that down is the worst kind of behaviour. I may not have the best approach to some of the topics that comes through, but I'm not going to shit on someone for legit enjoying the game and having fun in their own way. FFS, we have people in here still upset over a cat having a cheezburger. Of course, there's people like you, trying to judge someone's skill in the game without actually playing along side them. Miss me with that bullshit.

It is all about perspective and some of you are severely lacking in it.

No, the reality is as he describes it.

If you want a positive space with zero potential for pushback, a forum intended for discussion of the game, which SE themselves direct consumers to for critical feedback, and where you cannot control who comes in and posts, is really not the best suited venue to that.

[Johners]

We all need to put things into perspective: This is a nine-year old game. Even older if you count 1.0. No game lasts forever. Square Enix puts in the usual stuff, which is basically the same as the old stuff. It’s only one game, after all, you can’t expect it to change every two years. And that $40 per expac is really just charging for the story mode, they don’t really expect you to continue playing long after that.

Yoshida and our community agree that FFXIV is not a live-service product and should never be played as such. You pay for the content, you finish it, and then you leave. This isn’t like WoW or Guild Wars 2 or ESO. It’s sad that people got the wrong idea when buying this game, but it’s up to the customer to do proper research before buying. It’s like expecting FFXV to still have new content. XIV is just 15 minus 1, so what’s the difference?

As Yoshida says, just unsubscribe, that’s Square Enix’s position and there’s nothing we can do to change it. FFXIV will end up tanking in subscribers, and SE will likely be happy, as they never planned (or can afford) for this game to become so popular.

Think of FFXIV as a side project for SE; it’s not like Blizzard which has WoW as one of their main projects. Square Enix makes a ton of games and FFXIV is just a fraction of their total revenue. Moderate your expectations.

This is an incredibly bad take and completely misunderstands what FFXIV actually is for Square Enix. This game is the soulless cash cow that gets drained to fund all the other projects within the company. That's the entire business case of a live service title such as a subscription MMORPG such as this.


"Unsubscribe and play something else" is a line Yoshi-P uses to generate good PR because it signifies the fact that investment into the game and the content cycle won't change. End game gearing in PvE, for example, is heavily timed so you're playing for the majority of a tier and it's even more obvious if you don't do savage and have to do your alliance raid weekly to upgrade tomestone gear. Sure, you play one day a week but you do that for most of the expansion and stay subscribed for ages as the weekly coin limit isn't limited until the next tier releases.


The core FFXIV community, GCBTW, really copes themselves into believing that Yoshi-P and/or Square Enix is their friend. Do they handle things better than other games? Absolutely. Is this still a milked cash cow with the bare minimum investment to keep it going? Absolutely.

[Avoidy]

I've been taking this time to level alt jobs to 90. This has nothing to do with Endwalker, but I'm enjoying the game in spite of its pretty lacking rollout atm. Holding out for the new alliance raid, but that's about it.
potential EW spoilers ahead, so idk, read at your own risk other people.
I agree with your whole post except the barb ex part; I liked that trial. Everything else though, I feel the same way.
The writers haven't had the guts to kill off a scion in years and it's made the whole story feel like there are no stakes at all. I don't think anyone watched the ultima thule events unfold and thought it was legitimate. And if you're the type of player who does EX but doesn't dive into savage because you don't have the time or you don't have 7 other people to run it with, but you thought maybe the new 4man savages would be something for you, apparently they're saying we'll need savage bis for it so there's your middle finger to that. If you want a new 24man like I do, you'll get to wait like 9 months for it. Some optimists were sat here like "i'M nEvEr gOnNa LeAve mY iSlanD" but they completed it in a week and now they're bored and quitting and then the corporate lawyers are out here like "ur fault for rushing it" but as someone who COULDNT EVEN ENTER for the first week, I still did that shit at a snail's pace and finished fast. There just wasn't much THERE. 80% of it is just setting shit up and then waiting. The other 20% is actually gathering or catching animals. Meanwhile, the ultimate/savage raiders I know just complain about it all the god damned time even though they literally signed up for that shit.

I could go on but I won't. I've never been one to level all my combat jobs. For years I stuck to only a handful. But recently, the game's been so bereft of new things to do, that I've started just leveled everything and seeing how it plays. I'm having fun, but it's despite endwalker, not because of it.

[Rufalus]

Seems like the roadmap becomes more boring as their revenue grows. Just stay the course, keep making the money. No plans for a next-gen FF mmo, no need. No changes to ffxiv's formula. Cancelled the remake of ffxi. Buhh. I hope the single-player game FF XVI (2023) is worth it because that took away some key staff from the mmo and split the focus of some others.

[Lauront]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fi.../1100-6507984/

I must say, concluding a story that continued from the original Final Fantasy XIV made me feel relieved. That said, a new adventure doesn't mean that the story up to this point is all going away; it'll be a continuation of the story thus far. As for our team, we're constantly thinking "How can we get everyone excited?" So even if we're working on a new story, our everyday experiences remain largely unchanged.

Suitably vague.

And if you're the type of player who does EX but doesn't dive into savage because you don't have the time or you don't have 7 other people to run it with, but you thought maybe the new 4man savages would be something for you, apparently they're saying we'll need savage bis for it so there's your middle finger to that.

I wasn't aware of that - do you recall where it was stated?

[Boblawblah]

Then why are people telling us to unsubscribe? Why is the story “80% of the game content”? Combine the two together. A story has a beginning and an end. It is not a live service if a majority of players only play for a few hours once every four months. A live service is something you utilize during the full extent of your subscription. What we have is a hybrid approach, whereas SE charges us for a monthly live service but only gives us quarterly content drops in exchange. If we were charged for every 6.X patch, each patch would cost a whopping $52. That content does *not* last most players for a single month, let alone a full four-month cycle.

The only thing we *do* use continuously is the right to log on and play the content that we already purchased. Either the game isn’t really a live service type of deal or people are getting massively ripped off for the amount of money they pay.

You're misrepresenting what people are saying. If you're not enjoying the game STOP PLAYING IT. Every month you sub, you encourage the developers, you support whatever they are currently doing. The 10 year veterans that constantly complain on this forum HELP the game because they refuse to stop playing. Money is ultimately what corporation understands. If it isn't worth your time, then stop subbing. If you continue to sub, and continue to complain, hey, fair enough, but don't be surprised when people tell you to maybe take a break from the game because of it.

[FireMage]

It's one of the most idiotic arguments, really. People trying to dictate what "real final fantasy" is when Square-Enix hasn't gotten a grasp on it since Sakaguchi left. Every Final Fantasy since X has been a war of directors stating "this is MY vision of what Final Fantasy is".
Those are usually the same players who claim new SMN is more "FF-like" even though the way Summoning works in FF hasn't been the same in over two decades.

That's EVERY FF. Besides branding, FF is constantly changing

[Atelier-Bagur]

Then why are people telling us to unsubscribe? Why is the story “80% of the game content”? Combine the two together. A story has a beginning and an end. It is not a live service if a majority of players only play for a few hours once every four months. A live service is something you utilize during the full extent of your subscription. What we have is a hybrid approach, whereas SE charges us for a monthly live service but only gives us quarterly content drops in exchange. If we were charged for every 6.X patch, each patch would cost a whopping $52. That content does *not* last most players for a single month, let alone a full four-month cycle.

The only thing we *do* use continuously is the right to log on and play the content that we already purchased. Either the game isn’t really a live service type of deal or people are getting massively ripped off for the amount of money they pay.

Because normally, people still have stuff they want to do to justify staying subscribed. Just because you finished the base of a current patch doesn't necessarily mean you're done for good.

[MonsutaMan]

I thought FFXIV was mediocre from the beta. I thought every expansion was mediocre in terms of jobs which were a let down. However, I play a lot of mediocre MMO such as MU and DCUO. When I say mediocre, I mean average. Not terrible.

I made a thread about BLU, which I was planning on unsubbing; only to re-sub because I wanted to try Island Sanctuary............... but did not realize I had to complete the game, so there is that.....A waste of game time lol......

I don't quit FFXIV perse (Regardless of how much I may trash it). I simply go on the free-trial or come back during a "Make it rain" or "Collab" event. I truly don't believe, anyone ever truly quit an MMO they invested a lot of time in (Nothing to do with the OP).

What people have to understand about me, is I came from XI. That combat system is as deep as the ocean. Every expansion was a hit. Going from that, to a theme park mmo is tough. I was expecting deep FF combat, but got WoW with updated graphics.
(Then go play XI then because we are tired of hearing about it)
"I do....and too bad......"

[Sweetness]

Yoshida and our community agree that FFXIV is not a live-service product and should never be played as such. You pay for the content, you finish it, and then you leave.

As Yoshida says, just unsubscribe, that’s Square Enix’s position and there’s nothing we can do to change it. FFXIV will end up tanking in subscribers, and SE will likely be happy, as they never planned (or can afford) for this game to become so popular.

Think of FFXIV as a side project for SE; it’s not like Blizzard which has WoW as one of their main projects. Square Enix makes a ton of games and FFXIV is just a fraction of their total revenue. Moderate your expectations.

Uh, I think the term live service kind of went over your head. One google search of the definition, and this is what you get. ”A live service game is a game that sees a constant stream of new content added post launch, and is purposefully designed to keep you playing years after launch. This is unlike traditional single-player games, which can be completed in a set number of hours. Such content can vary drastically”.
Now, I understand what Yoshi was saying by telling people to take a break, but it also comes off to me as a veiled sentence meaning that this game isn’t their main project and as such “don’t expect too much”. But hey, I guess we shouldn’t expect much for a game we pay monthly for /s

And I find it increasingly odd they’d keep saying that when this game’s profits were a huge chunk of Squares recent earnings. I’m looking forward to ff16 mostly at this point. I hope it will be good.