Why is diadem a duty?

[Jojoya]

I think it's cute you believe the people frustrated about having nothing to do aren't also playing other games, you genuinely believe we're only playing FF and that's why we're mad? Just because I'm subbed doesn't mean I'm not playing literally everything else the whole time. It's exactly WHY I'm frustrated, because every other game I play provides way more active content for their live services. It's been a YEAR with nothing to do, they release weekend long content a couple times a year that some people insist they stretch for that whole year? That's crazy.

I've been conditioned to stay subbed because of the housing system, if I let my sub lapse then I will typically not have the chance at another house. I'm basically just paying rent at this rate, and if I stop I might never find a place again due to how horrible the system has been setup. FF has the worst best housing system available, and people tell us they don't want FOMO systems so they discourage actual progress? Yet we're riddled with the worst.

We have the same exact issues we made fun of WoW for. Bots and shitty Dailies. We just hide our pain behind cat girls personas. lol

So in other words, you're doing it to yourself.

You don't enjoy the game but you keep paying for it.

You think you need to own a house in a game you don't enjoy playing.

Wouldn't it be better to get rid of the house then start spending the money you pay for this game on those other games that you are playing and enjoying so your experience there is enhanced? With luck, at least one of them also has a housing system so you can have a house where you're having more fun.

Personally, I've had plenty to do for the past year and I still have some things left unfinished that I'd really like to get to. I'm enjoying the game. I don't regret the money I spend on it each month.

If I got to the point where I felt like I was no longer enjoying it, I'd do the same that I did with WoW. Stop subscribing and spend my money elsewhere. I've got a couple of hundred dollars in Battle.net balance so I could play for several months free and I STILL won't play it anymore. I'm not going to waste my time on things I'm not enjoying.

If you want to waste your time and money on something you're not enjoying, that's your choice. One thing I would not suggest doing is hiding behind a cat girl persona. Ewwww.

[R041]

...

What am I doing to myself? Paying a sub? That's not even an inconvenience. I fortunately have the luxury of being able to sit here and actually talk against the echo, because otherwise the only people that CAN talk on this forum are echo chambered happy drought ERP subbies. I'm just speaking my opinion that I'd like to play after MSQ, but there's nothing to actually do.

Right now I'm just talking to you fine peoples.

[Jojoya]

What am I doing to myself? Paying a sub? That's not even an inconvenience. I fortunately have the luxury of being able to sit here and actually talk against the echo, because otherwise the only people that CAN talk on this forum are echo chambered happy drought ERP subbies. I'm just speaking my opinion that I'd like to play after MSQ, but there's nothing to actually do.

Right now I'm just talking to you fine peoples.

When I finish MSQ, I have the following to do:

gathering
crafting
roulettes
FATEs
Hunts
Raids and trials (synced or unsynced)
PvP (I don't touch it but it's an option)
PotD/HoH
relic grinds (I'll include Eureka/Bozja here)
leveling alt jobs
housing decoration
gardening
Island Sanctuary
farming items for glamour
achievements if there are rewards I want from them
tribal quests
side quests
Treasure maps
Gold Saucer
Probably some other things I can't think of off the top of my head.

The game is filled with content to do after you reach level cap, or really any time at all once you hit the appropriate level threshold for the content. You not being interested in doing that content doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

If you're coming back just for the MSQ, you could save yourself a lot of money by waiting for the x.3 patch (which usually wraps up the latest story arc, 6.3 being an exception), sub for a month or two, do all the MSQ since the last x.3 patch then unsub again until the next x.3 patch.

Or keep paying just for the forum access if you want. The forum here really isn't much of an echo chamber. Most threads have their dissenters as much as they have their supporters and posters will frequently change between the two sides depending on the topic. The main problem would be the people who come in here convinced that everyone hates the state of the game or hates a specific portion of game design, and then resort to the ad hominem attacks (like "white knight") trying to discredit those who are still enjoying whatever it is rather than admit it's possible for others to have different opinions.

If there are parts of the game you are still enjoying, like MSQ, then great. Keep paying to participate in them. Unsub once that content is consumed then wait until sufficient new content is released to make it worth the resub.

But considering the tone of your posts, I'm finding it hard to believe that there is anything you're truly enjoying especially when you make statements like "I've been conditioned to stay subbed because of the housing system," That makes it sound like you really don't want to be here.

People might dislike being told "if you're not having fun here, play a different game" but it's good advice being given for their benefit. It makes no sense to stay in a place where you are not happy, especially when you have to keep spending money to stay. It's far better to find what makes you happy than spend your time and money on something that leaves you unhappy.

[R041]

When I finish MSQ, I have the following to do:

gathering
crafting
roulettes
FATEs
Hunts
Raids and trials (synced or unsynced)
PvP (I don't touch it but it's an option)
PotD/HoH
relic grinds (I'll include Eureka/Bozja here)
leveling alt jobs
housing decoration
gardening
Island Sanctuary
farming items for glamour
achievements if there are rewards I want from them
tribal quests
side quests
Treasure maps
Gold Saucer
Probably some other things I can't think of off the top of my head.

It's sad to me that you provide this great list, and I feel nothing.

It might just be because so many core systems have been streamlined to the point that none of these except for Raids/Trials even look mildly compelling in their current state, or are so old and withered that Sync feels horrible in them.

[Jojoya]

It's sad to me that you provide this great list, and I feel nothing.

It might just be because so many core systems have been streamlined to the point that none of these except for Raids/Trials even look mildly compelling in their current state, or are so old and withered that Sync feels horrible in them.

Or maybe after a decade of play, you've had your fill and are ready for a new adventure on a new world.

Game developers streamlining their systems and content is a response to how players are engaging with content. You may like something. I may even like it as well. But if 85% of the player base doesn't like it, they're probably not going to continue developing in that style for the 15% who did. There will always be some outliers when it comes to the response in participation numbers because it helps generate publicity for the game (like Ultimate) or because it's building off a system already in place intended for the general player base (Criterion being built off Variant) and doesn't require a substantial amount of extra effort on the part of the team that builds the world assets, which is by far the biggest time sink in development.

As has been brought up by a YouTube content creator, and repeated here and in many other gaming forums, player demand for efficiency has taken a lot of the fun out of games. They're no longer looking for adventure but rather the most efficient ways to get their rewards.

And so game developers change the way they design their games to match how players actually engage with the content instead of how players say they want to engage with the content because the latter leads to more complaints. Players say they want branching dungeons but the moment they step foot into the instance with a random group, it's take the most efficient path to get the reward and leave. What do the game designers do? Remove the branching paths that would end up ignored because that cuts the time needed to create the dungeon in half.

Players want their jobs to be right at the top of numbers performance instead of filling niche roles that don't have that performance but still provide important utility. Higher numbers = higher efficiency in their heads. So developers have to start homogenizing jobs so numbers are decently balanced across them. There's no room for creative utility because players will just complain about how their job underperforms compared to the rest. Things like rDPS at FFLogs don't really help because the player's performance then becomes dependent on how well the rest of the party is making use of the utility provided.

It's not really a problem if you're working with a static where you're trying to achieve continued success as a consistent group, you're all going to look out for each other. But if you're pugging like the majority of the player base does, it's going to hurt you because of the underlying Every Man for Himself mentality.

One could say it's on game developers to not cater to efficiency and force players to accept other types of systems but that's going to reduce the number of players they get and in the end, it's a business. If X amount of effort produces Y revenue using a method that promotes adventure and creativity at the loss of player efficiency but that same X effort will produce 3Y revenue if they focus on efficiency, what do you think the develop is going to choose (especially if it's a large multi-national corporation that has an obligation to its shareholders to produce profits)? They're going to create the 3Y revenue stream.

Do I wish some content in the game was designed differently? Sure. I'm not obsessed with numbers and efficiency. But I understand why game design has gone the path it has and so I make the best of what is available. If I find I can't enjoy it, then I move on and try other games until I find one where I'm enjoying myself again.

A question for those players who think striving for efficiency is fun: has it genuinely made you happy or do you feel like there's something still missing?

[R041]

Or maybe after a decade of play, you've had your fill and are ready for a new adventure on a new world.

I don't know why you people keep saying that - Again, I'm playing other games as well. I'm mostly just actively subbed.

They've designed their game so into efficiency that content is no longer actively engaging and it stifles curiosity and failure. You see all the players around us? It's the lowest pop we've had in 2 years and it's getting even lower until January. We'll see what happens and if it can retain a playerbase after that.

But I'm not concerned with you trying to keep me engaged, people should be concerned about keeping the majority engaged, and I don't believe that's been successful.

[Jojoya]

I don't know why you people keep saying that - Again, I'm playing other games as well. I'm mostly just actively subbed.

They've designed their game so into efficiency that content is no longer actively engaging and it stifles curiosity and failure. You see all the players around us? It's the lowest pop we've had in 2 years and it's getting even lower until January. We'll see what happens and if it can retain a playerbase after that.

But I'm not concerned with you trying to keep me engaged, people should be concerned about keeping the majority engaged, and I don't believe that's been successful.

I keep saying it because you're doggedly hanging on here despite your dissatisfaction. Even if you're just posting in the forums, you're clinging to something that's bringing you down.

Again, they're designing the game into efficiency because that's how players engage with the game. Most of us are living in a materialistic society where people are valued more by what they have than what they do. As a result, players are on a quest to get more more more rather than enjoy what they're doing. If they would shed their materialism and focus on their experience over their reward, maybe game developers would have incentive to change how they design content.

Why are you worried about the size of the player base compared to 2 years ago? That was about 4 times what it was when I began playing just before Heavensward's launch. If the player base back then was large enough to make the game worth playing, then it's certainly still worth playing now.

You too seem to have an obsession with numbers that really don't mean much.

SE doesn't need to keep the majority engaged 100% of the time. That's Acti-Blizz thinking. They just need to keep the majority engaged enough that they'll return when the next expansion is released, just as WoW is currently getting a lot of returning players to see what Dragonflight is like.

[IkaraGreydancer]

What am I doing to myself? Paying a sub? That's not even an inconvenience. I fortunately have the luxury of being able to sit here and actually talk against the echo, because otherwise the only people that CAN talk on this forum are echo chambered happy drought ERP subbies. I'm just speaking my opinion that I'd like to play after MSQ, but there's nothing to actually do.

Right now I'm just talking to you fine peoples.

I hear the "there's nothing to do" alot from you guys. My question is do you have every item possible to get in this game? I'm talking glam, mounts, armour, weapons, titles, minions, triad cards etc. If the answer is no then objectively you're wrong.

Also someone starting mid ShB can still have looked at changes over the years and talk about them. That logic is as dumb as when folks say someone has less subscribers on YT so their opinion doesn't matter.

[R041]

I hear the "there's nothing to do" alot from you guys. My question is do you have every item possible to get in this game? I'm talking glam, mounts, armour, weapons, titles, minions, triad cards etc. If the answer is no then objectively you're wrong.

Also someone starting mid ShB can still have looked at changes over the years and talk about them. That logic is as dumb as when folks say someone has less subscribers on YT so their opinion doesn't matter.

No, I don't mean their opinion doesn't actually matter - But when they're arguing and clearly not showing an understanding of the changes that have occurred as we've experienced them over the past 10 years, they don't have the same perspective of HOW we've evolved and where we've been heading. So an opinion of "Yeah but nobody actually liked that content" doesn't really seem honest when they never actually did it when it was live. So it's more assumed to the genre as a whole and not an experience of XIV.

Also no, Shadowbringers and Endwalker were very mellow to me, I've already busted my ass getting all classes to cap every expac since ARR, and it wouldn't be the same as me telling you to level all classes, and gather all mounts today as it did even 2 years ago. So that doesn't even equate here. There's nothing to do because that base content is no longer engaging as it's been evolved to a more streamlined version of itself. I no longer feel the need to level classes that all feel the same and have boring rotations, while spamming dungeons where nobody needs to talk or strategize. It's also been nearly impossible to actually queue for the things I enjoy like the Nier series.

Every year more Triple Triad cards come out, but because I don't update my Card List every minor patch since 2.51, then I must not have experienced Triple Triad and I haven't done everything! - No, it's all more of the same with a difference skin and everything is systematically linear now. Like a card comes out and I go "Wow, I finally have content to do! Thank Yoshi-P!" I do love TT though.

[IkaraGreydancer]

No, I don't mean their opinion doesn't actually matter - But when they're arguing and clearly not showing an understanding of the changes that have occurred as we've experienced them over the past 10 years, they don't have the same perspective of HOW we've evolved and where we've been heading. So an opinion of "Yeah but nobody actually liked that content" doesn't really seem honest when they never actually did it when it was live. So it's more assumed to the genre as a whole and not an experience of XIV.

Also no, Shadowbringers and Endwalker were very mellow to me, I've already busted my ass getting all classes to cap every expac since ARR, and it wouldn't be the same as me telling you to level all classes, and gather all mounts today as it did even 2 years ago. So that doesn't even equate here. There's nothing to do because that base content is no longer engaging as it's been evolved to a more streamlined version of itself. I no longer feel the need to level classes that all feel the same and have boring rotations, while spamming dungeons where nobody needs to talk or strategize. It's also been nearly impossible to actually queue for the things I enjoy like the Nier series.

Every year more Triple Triad cards come out, but because I don't update my Card List every minor patch since 2.51, then I must not have experienced Triple Triad and I haven't done everything! - No, it's all more of the same with a difference skin and everything is systematically linear now. Like a card comes out and I go "Wow, I finally have content to do! Thank Yoshi-P!" I do love TT though.

That's a roundabout way to say I'm correct. There IS stuff to do you just don't feel like doing it. There ain't a game out there that isn't repetitive. That's the nature of any game really. It's how you value said repetition that makes the difference.

Maybe the game isn't for you with how the devs prefer to run it. What they're doing works and a big selling point for the game often spoke on is how people don't have to deal with FOMO and their time is always respected.

If you want a game that's more grind we have the likes of Black Desert around now. Maybe try Lost Ark or something. There's other avenues