Solutions for Content Drought during between Patches & other solutions for Gameplay

[TomsYoungerBro]

There is no drought. Not SE's fault if you decide you don't want to do any of the available content.

When you don't want to do what is available, what's the sensible alternative?

Find another game to play.

Then why does the game arbitrarily limit content to pad its lifecycle to keep people subbed? Surely if the monthly fee is such a steal, then the content should be able to speak for itself. And if Yoshi P is fine with us taking a break when we are done with we want to do, shouldn't he just be fine with people finishing the content at their pace and unsubbing?

When 6.2 released with the savage tier for instance, I would've loved to unsub for a couple months once I was done with the content...However, I still needed to stay subbed because I needed to gear my main job and at least an alt job in the same role (just grabbing another weapon basically) in preparation for the ultimate that comes out in 6.3 which requires the best in slot gear. For me personally, this patch is great because the ultimate came out (though there were plenty of bugs this patch...), but last patch the game arbitrarily limited myself and other raiders to do a raid weekly in preparation to do the actual content we want to do later. those lockouts are still in place in this patch...

The concept of "do what you want and then unsub til later" doesn't work with this game. Housing demolition, Unreal trial rewards, Alliance raid, Savage tier, tome cap, etc. all are in place to keep you subbed despite the content. With all the flak Island Sanctuary got last patch, imagine if it also didn't give you any XP from gathering materials on your island. You could not control any of the pace at which you ranked up, and it was just a time-locked "here is your XP, come back later for more" content. It would've been even worse . Yet they allowed a very slow "grind" method that let people speed up the process if they wanted to put the time in, but was not required. Those that rarely gathered when ranking up got their XP at their pace, and those that had some more time on different days (or a lot of time) got to rank up at their pace. That is not how any of the weekly/daily/etc. content I mentioned above work.

[IkaraGreydancer]

There are a lot of names I used to see on the forums and players on my FL who played for years and used to enjoy the game, that just silently vanished. They posted a lot of feedback, eventually gave up and they're gone for good now. It's no secret I've given up hope myself for quite a while now, I'm definitely unsubbing and basically am just here at the moment to make sure my FC is left in good hands and my static get the rest of their P8S mounts.

People talk about loud minority when it comes to complaints, but it's always the same few names posting over and over trampling feedback. Some suggestions get 50 likes quite fast, but then most of the comments are white knights wailing about how fine the game is. If the game was healthy, there wouldn't be a need to white knight it so aggressively nor would some players feel so threatened by simple feedback.

My advice? If you aren't enjoying FF14, quit, honestly. Why spend years more being trampled on and hoping for feedback in an empty game when there's better entertainment out there? Other MMO's are fairly flawed too in lots of ways, but many of them are fun and engaging. I've been having a blast. I'd almost forgotten games can give you that "I would play this all night if I could" feeling. The sooner you drop this game the sooner you can find something worth your time.

I'm sorry but feedback isn't being "trampled". If a few people can "trample" feedback that over 50 people like the feedback wasn't strong enough or good enough. I hate this notion some here pull where yall blame others that don't agree with you for you not getting what you want. Most of the comments aren't white knights in fact, REAL white knights are rare to see around here. Unless you also subscribe to the idea that anyone ok with the games current state and wants to defend it is one. Game can't be that bad if folks are still spending money on it despite not being happy with it or having fun. That only makes sense.

Also the double standard is interesting. People who like the game get called everything under the sun when they suggest you play another game if you aren't getting what you want from this one. No one is being trampled nor is the game empty.

[Deveryn]

Yeah, nobody tramples anything that I've seen. Folks just have terrible ideas. If anything they get drowned by other threads full of BS.

[Lunalepsy]

The root of the problem is "content." When you don't create a finished product, you just trivialize the product itself, and it becomes a treadmill.

[Derio]

The problem is the relic content get released far too late in the content cycle. So you end up with bad content drought during this time. Its great for me since it gives me a break to play other games before the last raid tier. But for the people who play the game non stop its bad because you are just in limbo until 6.35

[Jojoya]

And they will. People in your social network will get bored of the game and move on. Then they'll stop coming back for good. One by one, people will vanish. The more haughty and arrogant Square Enix is, the less the game improves, the more we stagnate, and the sooner this game dies off. Your communities will be dead and you'll be stuck asking yourself: why did everyone leave? Let it be known that we told you the reason why and you didn't listen. Hopefully Square Enix does before it's too late.

Strange how you call the player base a dying community when the player population has increased each expansion.

Strange how friends who laughed at the idea of playing this game 5 years ago are now giving it a try and *gasp* enjoying themselves. For them, it's not an hour of game to play every 4 months. Even those that have been playing for over a year are overwhelmed by the amount of content they haven't even touched yet.

You can continue with your fearmongering but it's going nowhere. There will continue to be a healthy number of people playing it in the future because the game is new to them alongside those who continue to play it because they still enjoy it.

You remind me of the conversations in the WoW forums going all the way back to Cataclysm (and I know others say the conversations predate Cataclysm but I wasn't paying much attention prior). "WoW is doomed, WoW is dying. If the developers don't make this change I want then it will be dead and it will be the fault of other players who didn't want the same change."

WoW isn't dead yet even though a decade has passed. It may not have as many players as it had back in Cataclsym but it's still got a healthy population and profitable as a MMO. Many of us moved on because we didn't like the design choices made and no longer enjoyed the content but our departure has not killed the WoW community.

It will be no different here. We may all move on eventually but the community will survive long past our departure.

[Jojoya]

The concept of "do what you want and then unsub til later" doesn't work with this game. Housing demolition, Unreal trial rewards, Alliance raid, Savage tier, tome cap, etc. all are in place to keep you subbed despite the content.

So which is it? Is there too much to do or not enough to do?

"Do what you want then unsub until later" works far better in this game than it does in other MMOs. Content here doesn't become obsolete the moment a new patch is released. There are always players who haven't done it yet or want to do it again if you go looking for them. You're at no risk of losing anything other than a house by taking a break from the game, and players can always get an apartment instead of a house if that is a concern for them.

It comes down to "are you having fun or not?" If you're not having fun, why are you here? Why are you not playing another game that is fun to you instead?

The root of the problem is "content." When you don't create a finished product, you just trivialize the product itself, and it becomes a treadmill.

We know what the content release cycle is. It's very predictable.

If you feel like content being released isn't finished, then wait until you feel it is finished before resubbing.

Others appreciate the staggered release because they don't have 40 hours a week available to play. The staggered schedule allows them to mostly keep up with the few hours a week they do have available.

[Absurdity]

Even those that have been playing for over a year are overwhelmed by the amount of content they haven't even touched yet.

Is this supposed to be a serious argument? Of course people who have only been playing for a year have an overwhelming amount of things to do, this game is in it's 4th expansion.
If 7 years of additional releases could be done within a single year I would be asking myself what people were paying money for the entire time.

So which is it? Is there too much to do or not enough to do?

"Do what you want then unsub until later" works far better in this game than it does in other MMOs. Content here doesn't become obsolete the moment a new patch is released. There are always players who haven't done it yet or want to do it again if you go looking for them. You're at no risk of losing anything other than a house by taking a break from the game, and players can always get an apartment instead of a house if that is a concern for them.

It comes down to "are you having fun or not?" If you're not having fun, why are you here? Why are you not playing another game that is fun to you instead?

The answer is within that same post.
Depending on what content you enjoy there is not enough to do but "Do what you want then unsub until later" doesn't work either because said content is timegated.

Want to do Ultimate? You can't just unsub until that releases, you better farm savage every week to even be able to enter. If that's all you care about you spend maybe 3-5 hours in the game every week but you still have to subscribe for several months.

Want to get the Unreal mounts? Same thing, you can't just grind it out an then unsub, you have to stay subbed for several months despite only logging in for 1-2 hours to get your weekly Unreal clear done.

[Absimiliard]

Here's a solution:

It's free, and it comes with a ton of mental and physical health benefits.

[Jirah]

Would be a perfect time to rotate unreal. I’ve grown to love unreal for what it is. Or rather add more prizes to it, double so for Sihldin as the prizes there are mediocre and few and as much as I want to try the content no one ever joins my parties