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

[hagare]

Note that one of the best received expansions after WotLK was Legion, which is the expansion they added M+.

so was the 91% going poof before or after they started sticking with the M+ format?

[Deveryn]

This isn't even a disingenuous take. It's flat out wrong—to a comical degree even.

If you keep up to date on content, you will run out long before the next patch unless you barely play the game. Case in point, 6.3's entire content drop can be easily consumed over a weekend even playing at a slower pace. There is virtually nothing with any form of longevity save farming Rubicante 50 times. If it happens to take you nearly six weeks to finish the MSQ or Alliance storyline that isn't because there's oh so much content but because you've simply not been playing the game. Neither one of these things is more than a few hours. While I appreciate some people can only manage to play a few hours a week, content shouldn't be balanced around that sort of schedule for the precise same reason you shouldn't cater towards people with 10+ hours a day of free time. It's two different extremes when most people live in the middle where they do have time to play far more reasonable hours yet are still running out of things to do—particularly if they are long time players who have been caught up for years.

It shouldn't take what's looking to be two months for any form of content with longevity to release outside of Ultimate.

You're the one that's comically wrong. You have no idea of what's going on behind the scenes or any clue as to how long it takes to make content, even though the proof has been out there for whole decades. How fast people get through it is purely up to the individual. They've been very open and honest about things and said they fully expect people to stop and do other things. MMOs are a long term investment, but they're never meant to occupy 100% of your free time. The grinds people look back on longingly were just lazy design meant to try and keep people around while they spent a year working on the next batch of content. You can't prove me wrong and you can't point to a game that successfully and legitimately puts out more than XIV does.

SE has been pretty consistent on content delivery and that is what keeps people coming back time and again. It's more than most other developers have considered doing. Just because they don't have everything you want in a patch doesn't mean you can magically deny its existence.

LL part one comes out: "hey, we're two months away"
LL part 2: only 10 more days
Patch x.x0 - new story, new trial
Odd patches - alliance
Even patches - raids
x.x5 not-main-story add-ons

What's truly comical is the inability to come up with actual feedback that the devs can work with. You only ever say you're bored or this sucks. Things don't change for the supposed better way you may have had in mind, but never spoke. "Outrage! That's just them ignoring us and favoring JP."

[Striker44]

Wrong. If you look at the graphs for WoW's sub numbers before they stopped releasing them, you can see they climbed nonstop up until the end of WotLK. Then, it started to dip at the end of Cataclysm. The end of WotLK is when they added the Random Dungeon Finder, and the end of Cataclysm is when they released LFR and overall started trying to make things more casual friendly and whatnot.

Note that one of the best received expansions after WotLK was Legion, which is the expansion they added M+.

Not wrong at all. WotLK was the apex because it was the game at the time and for the entire RTS generation, Arthas was the villain. Speaking practically, there wasn't going to be a way to top that.

WoW was always casual-friendly up to that point. You can't compare it to "normal" things in MMO's today. You have to compare it to what existed at the time. WoW was the game back then that had plenty of non-raid max-level content, didn't have experience penalties for dying, and so on. Compared to the other MMO's at the time, such as EQ, FFXI, etc., it was very casual-friendly. What forced people away was precisely the switch from that philosophy to M+. They took away token-based gear and put it behind increasing tiers of M+ and Heroic/Mythic raiding as another example.

As for Legion, look at your own graph. Being "well-received" still didn't equate to much compared to the WotLK era, and when you consider how "since WotLK" included things like WoD and Shadowlands, being "best received" isn't really saying much. By the way, the popularity Legion had was because of the story once again referencing the RTS series, not "because" of M+. When you see how everything went right back down as soon as you removed that connection, it's obvious M+ wasn't what made Legion popular.

[Liam_Harper]

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.

WoW absolutely died.

Not literally dead and over in the sense that it's profitable and has a playerbase, more dead in the game itself. Sort of like an animated corpse that still moved but had no soul left. Their subscriber count absolutely plummeted (and ff14 has proved that even a decade old game can maintain sub counts). Their reputation died. Players lost all trust in them. Dragonflight turned out to be good, but most people won't look at it. They're trying to revive it and made some great changes, but it's an uphill battle and will never really be the same.

The WoW playerbase argued it was "fine" all the way until it was near unrepairable. "Game is fine, I'm having fun, stop whining or quit, it's normal MMO's are unpopular, old games lose subs". Next thing the game became a meme in Shadowlands and their players leave in droves for Endwalker.

FF14 hasn't reached that point yet, but some people don't want to see it reach that point. There is an 800 page topic on how bad the story is, the craft forums are near dead, bots are everywhere, Island Sanctuary was a massive waste of resources, healers are down to one button most of the time and some people are sitting in a bubble trying to convince themselves nothing is wrong and getting aggressive every time someone tries to pull them out.

[IkaraGreydancer]

WoW absolutely died.

Not literally dead and over in the sense that it's profitable and has a playerbase, more dead in the game itself. Sort of like an animated corpse that still moved but had no soul left. Their subscriber count absolutely plummeted (and ff14 has proved that even a decade old game can maintain sub counts). Their reputation died. Players lost all trust in them. Dragonflight turned out to be good, but most people won't look at it. They're trying to revive it and made some great changes, but it's an uphill battle and will never really be the same.

The WoW playerbase argued it was "fine" all the way until it was near unrepairable. "Game is fine, I'm having fun, stop whining or quit, it's normal MMO's are unpopular, old games lose subs". Next thing the game became a meme in Shadowlands and their players leave in droves for Endwalker.

FF14 hasn't reached that point yet, but some people don't want to see it reach that point. There is an 800 page topic on how bad the story is, the craft forums are near dead, bots are everywhere, Island Sanctuary was a massive waste of resources, healers are down to one button most of the time and some people are sitting in a bubble trying to convince themselves nothing is wrong and getting aggressive every time someone tries to pull them out.

Stop using that page about the bad story as a point. Much of that thread has nothing to do with story. Craft forums are dead yet market boards are popping off rn. I've not seen a bot since 6.0. Sanctuary was a waste of resources. Tell that to the people enjoying said content and rewards from it. Imo it only becomes a waste if the content is abandoned. Not everyone is "convincing themselves" that nothing is wrong. For some people and their experience nothing IS wrong. I'm not gonna shove issues down someone's throat who may not have them. Makes sense of folks get aggressive if you're doing that.

No matter how it's sliced the masses are happy wit how the game is currently. That doesn't mean they don't want any change, just means they're content as is right now.

[Deveryn]

WoW absolutely died.

Not literally dead and over in the sense that it's profitable and has a playerbase, more dead in the game itself. Sort of like an animated corpse that still moved but had no soul left. Their subscriber count absolutely plummeted (and ff14 has proved that even a decade old game can maintain sub counts). Their reputation died. Players lost all trust in them. Dragonflight turned out to be good, but most people won't look at it. They're trying to revive it and made some great changes, but it's an uphill battle and will never really be the same.

The WoW playerbase argued it was "fine" all the way until it was near unrepairable. "Game is fine, I'm having fun, stop whining or quit, it's normal MMO's are unpopular, old games lose subs". Next thing the game became a meme in Shadowlands and their players leave in droves for Endwalker.

FF14 hasn't reached that point yet, but some people don't want to see it reach that point. There is an 800 page topic on how bad the story is, the craft forums are near dead, bots are everywhere, Island Sanctuary was a massive waste of resources, healers are down to one button most of the time and some people are sitting in a bubble trying to convince themselves nothing is wrong and getting aggressive every time someone tries to pull them out.

You're the one trying to convince themself (and others) of something. Maybe it's time to pack it up and move on, but your ego won't let you. It's hilarious that you pick those particular parts of the forum to gauge how things are, when we all know the forum in general is a poor way to gauge things at all. It's just you and your cronies bitching and moaning about this and that.

[Amenara]

I've not seen a bot since 6.0.

In what little I play anymore I still see bots, even still in the main cities...

For Island Sanctuaries being a waste of resources, I will say as someone who only went to the island once and confirmed the content was never designed for me that I don't consider it a waste of resources unless gameplay content was cut because of creating island sanctuaries. About the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that may have been lost is the sidequest with additional trials to do, ie the 4 lords in SB and the weapon fights in ShB. Part of this may have been a focus on doing 2 Ultimate fights, but at the same time DSR was initially planned for ShB so who knows on that front.

After all the WoW comparisons and whatnot I think the part that I worry about is the probably first real "content drought" in WoW which was WoD. The entire reasoning they had such a massive drought is thought to be that all of that focus went towards creating Legion. I think my comparison is that I worry that we are losing potential content to FF16, no matter how much it is denied. With how seemingly desperate SE has been to hire more developers, I wonder if they asked too much of CBU3 with maintaining FF14's cadence as well as creating an entirely new mainline game.

[Jojoya]

WoW absolutely died.

Then why hasn't Activision-Blizzard put it on the chopping block with all the other IPs in their portfolio that weren't performing up to expectation?

They don't need an expensive to develop game like WoW to protect their IP rights to the Warcraft franchise. All they have to do is push out another P2W mobile lootbox pinata using some of the Warcraft characters and locations. Even another Warcraft Remaster failure would do it.

WoW isn't dead. It's still got more active players now than most current MMOs that are operating successfully. It might feel dead to those of us who once played it then left because we didn't like the changes they made to the game but that does not make it dead.

FF14 hasn't reached that point yet, but some people don't want to see it reach that point. There is an 800 page topic on how bad the story is, the craft forums are near dead, bots are everywhere, Island Sanctuary was a massive waste of resources, healers are down to one button most of the time and some people are sitting in a bubble trying to convince themselves nothing is wrong and getting aggressive every time someone tries to pull them out.

Except every game is going to reach that point one day. It's unavoidable. Technology changes but the underlying game engine can only be changed so far so fast. Gaming community tastes change and what was once popular no longer is, though could be again in the future.

People can complain about how bad the story is but can they point out a popular MMO that as a better story?

The crafting forums are near dead probably more because of the number of crafting specific websites and Discords out there that are able to share detailed information in a far better format than what could done here (Lodestone and the forums really need some modernization).

Bots have always been everywhere and FFXIV is hardly the only MMO to suffer that problem.

Considering the number of players who seem to still be having fun with Island Sanctuary and lacking knowledge of what percentage of the game's development resources were spent on it we can't state it was a massive waste.

If you think healers are down to a single button most of the time, it seems like the game has done a reasonably good job teaching those you play with the importance of doing mechanics correctly instead of standing still like glass cannons. I wish I always got to play with whomever you play with because I promise you I'm using a lot more than a single button in hunts and random Duty Finder groups.

I don't know of anyone who doesn't see room for improvement. I do know that a lot of players who view issues as minor overall and not having a major negative impact on their enjoyment of the game just as there are players like you who see everything as a major problem that has doomed the game.

SE may listen to feedback but in the end the developers are going to do what they feel is in the best interests of the game. Unless most of the player base starts moaning doom and gloom and then unsubscribing, we're not going to have much impact on their long term plans.

Remaining loyal to a game that has no specific loyalty to you and is making you unhappy doesn't gain you anything. Sometimes you just have to move on.

You should have learned at least that much from WoW.

[IkaraGreydancer]

In what little I play anymore I still see bots, even still in the main cities...

For Island Sanctuaries being a waste of resources, I will say as someone who only went to the island once and confirmed the content was never designed for me that I don't consider it a waste of resources unless gameplay content was cut because of creating island sanctuaries. About the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that may have been lost is the sidequest with additional trials to do, ie the 4 lords in SB and the weapon fights in ShB. Part of this may have been a focus on doing 2 Ultimate fights, but at the same time DSR was initially planned for ShB so who knows on that front.

After all the WoW comparisons and whatnot I think the part that I worry about is the probably first real "content drought" in WoW which was WoD. The entire reasoning they had such a massive drought is thought to be that all of that focus went towards creating Legion. I think my comparison is that I worry that we are losing potential content to FF16, no matter how much it is denied. With how seemingly desperate SE has been to hire more developers, I wonder if they asked too much of CBU3 with maintaining FF14's cadence as well as creating an entirely new mainline game.

Thing is though how much have we really lost to 16 development? I can't really think of much we haven't gotten compared to ShB. If anything were getting more (6.3 isn't over yet). I'm with you Sanctuary isn't for me BUT my friends love that damn content lol. And it'll be something SE updates probably until EoS I'd imagine.

I'm more excited to see what 7.0 does personally. Folks forget the team is working on things that are incorporated into the graphic update as well. I'd imagine they're applying all the old stuff into that as well (unless they're going the PSO2 route and leaving old cutscenes and content most untouched)

[seolhyun]

content drought was solved for the last 2 xpacs with eureka and bozja. all they had to do was keep alot of the bozja design and make the zones pretty again like eureka but instead we got island sanctuary.