FFXIV's Future

[caffe_macchiato]

And here's the point. I read a lot on here about how the game is too easy, how SE isn't really trying anymore, etc. Yet on the forums and subreddits of other MMOs, such as WoW and ESO, they consistently praise FFXIV's accessibility.

But that relative ease of the game is exactly what people here complain about. The very things that have made FFXIV the third-place (corrected) market leader are the things people here would like to see changed. Which honestly makes me very grateful none of you are running SE

Absolutely true. In the AAA video game industry, quality is not as important as quantity. Many people find subjective value in products that have middling quality. In fact, consumers will buy just about anything and be generally content with it. Unless a product cannot be played at all, it’s generally going to be good. In that regard, FFXIV is a bit like Call of Duty or FIFA: give people more of what they want and they’ll be happy. Complexity isn’t as important as simple joy. Or like Folgers coffee and Hershey bars: there are hundreds of millions of people who deeply enjoy those things, despite snobs not agreeing. FFXIV is the exact same way. Just give people a game and they’ll like it and ask for more. Any game, really, as long as it’s not Superman 64. Because as far as I can tell, playing something is better than not playing anything, and if all you’ve got to do is watch paint dry, wouldn’t you play FFXIV?

[DPZ2]

FFXIV is not the current market leader. I think regardless of this, just because x game does something worse than FFXIV does not mean FFXIV does it perfectly. Gearing has been a wide discussion for a long time and the counterargument is always "Well WoW does it way worse". So? FFXIV's system is still also bad.

While there are a lot of bad suggestions on the forums, there are also a lot of good ones .

Just because FFXIV does not do X does not mean it will fail miserably if it doesn't incorporate X into the game.

Games are different for a reason. Playing the same game with the same features over and over and over again gets boring. It's why almost every MMORPG out there is either brand new, highly popular for Reasons, or surviving because players have developed a fondness for playing it. None of these is a bad thing.

To insist WoW become a clone of FFXIV (and vice versa) is the height of foolishness. They are each unique games, complete with outstanding features and, well, not-so-outstanding features. If one adopts everything from the other, why bother to play it at all? It is literally the same game at that point.

The poster here appears to desire a change in the way gearing is done. Will they stop playing if their desires are not written into the game? At a guess, the answer is "no", because SE hasn't made that change and they're still posting on the forums, which requires an active subscription.

While there are a few good suggestions on the forums, it does not mean the company producing the game has to implement them in order to continue operations.

Since what makes a suggestion good or bad is just a tiny bit subjective, I'm sure there are players who are entirely satisfied with gearing options, for example.

[R041]

FFXIV the current market leader

Delusions of grandeur - This is why we can't evolve. Because we're content with decade old mediocrity and actually believe we're the best.

[4clubbedace]

Pretty much..,
So much is in question right now..,
How much Focus did XVI take from XIV development.
How would the Change of CEO affect the next Years..,
How does the Graphics Update affect future systems/feedback? is it more that just visual?
Will XIV get more workers/funds injected to increase/support for the next 10 years..,

So much going on that affects many of topics..,

CBU3 doe more than just 14, 11, and now 16. They have their own internal divisions, think of it as a subcompany under SE.

FWIW, CBU3 also does the dragon quest builder games, its like complaining that when one of those games get made 14 suffers for it.

[Vrankyl]

CBU3 doe more than just 14, 11, and now 16. They have their own internal divisions, think of it as a subcompany under SE.

FWIW, CBU3 also does the dragon quest builder games, its like complaining that when one of those games get made 14 suffers for it.

While normally true, FFXVI has been noted to have taken several of the higher profile devs from FFXIV specifically and Yoshi P did admit that he borrowed quite a few devs from the FF14 team himself. So in this case, yes FFXVI has directly impacted FFXIV because there are only so many hours in a day and there is a limit to how much work one person can do regardless of how many projects they are on.

[TomsYoungerBro]

Just because FFXIV does not do X does not mean it will fail miserably if it doesn't incorporate X into the game.

Games are different for a reason. Playing the same game with the same features over and over and over again gets boring. It's why almost every MMORPG out there is either brand new, highly popular for Reasons, or surviving because players have developed a fondness for playing it. None of these is a bad thing.

To insist WoW become a clone of FFXIV (and vice versa) is the height of foolishness. They are each unique games, complete with outstanding features and, well, not-so-outstanding features. If one adopts everything from the other, why bother to play it at all? It is literally the same game at that point.

The poster here appears to desire a change in the way gearing is done. Will they stop playing if their desires are not written into the game? At a guess, the answer is "no", because SE hasn't made that change and they're still posting on the forums, which requires an active subscription.

While there are a few good suggestions on the forums, it does not mean the company producing the game has to implement them in order to continue operations.

Since what makes a suggestion good or bad is just a tiny bit subjective, I'm sure there are players who are entirely satisfied with gearing options, for example.

But aren't suggestions geared towards improving the game, not simply whether its to "save" it or not? My post did not insist taking anything from WoW. Rather, it was to say just because WoW system of something is bad and FFXIV's is "better" doesn't mean they aren't both bad. FFXIV's gearing (for example) has been heavily criticized needing an improvement based on how the game functions. The suggestion isn't to take WoW's concept of gearing. Not sure where you got that from .

Being critical and offering improvements =/= hating the game. Don't you remember Yoshi P's own presentation? Seeing that in the community is a good thing because they still care. The nonsense of "if you don't like it, then unsubscribe" is the height of foolishness (in your own words).

[ASkellington]

I mean it really depends. There are plenty of things FFXIV does better and others that it does worse in and some where people just don't mind.

For example, FFXIV has a much better narrative story, but unlike ESO and WoW and most other MMOs it requires you to do the story to even get to do dungeons and raids.

Conversely, I would say that WoW and ESO have better side story quests thought their overall narrative is... weak to say the least. And that's not including that ESO has a modicum of choice that gives some replayability.

WoW has a much better class system. Each spec within a class feels different to the other ones, and no class/spec within a role (dps/tank/healer) feels very same-y. ESO and FFXIV on the other hand I feel there is very little difference between their specs and/or class. With the caveat that some things are more balanced.

ESO and WoW (and GW2 who I haven't mentioned yet) have better customization options, particularly in gear than FFXIV.

GW2 has better open world gameplay, all 4 suck in terms of PvP imo but FFXIV (and kinda ESO) has an easier bar to entry (dunno about GW2 haven't tried pvp there) and so on.

It boils down to what the person is looking for in an MMO. For me personally - FFXIV sucks at its combat and classes. SB era would have ben the era that I'd have loved FFXIV and I'm sorry that I missed out on it. GW2 and ESO also don't provide what I'm looking for and I don't know how WoW is these days to make a judgement call.

All of them can do better in certain respects, while also keeping themselves unique from one another, but at the end of the day, each one is going to be lacking depending on what you want.

[Lium]

I mean it really depends. There are plenty of things FFXIV does better and others that it does worse in and some where people just don't mind.

For example, FFXIV has a much better narrative story, but unlike ESO and WoW and most other MMOs it requires you to do the story to even get to do dungeons and raids.

Conversely, I would say that WoW and ESO have better side story quests thought their overall narrative is... weak to say the least. And that's not including that ESO has a modicum of choice that gives some replayability.

WoW has a much better class system. Each spec within a class feels different to the other ones, and no class/spec within a role (dps/tank/healer) feels very same-y. ESO and FFXIV on the other hand I feel there is very little difference between their specs and/or class. With the caveat that some things are more balanced.

ESO and WoW (and GW2 who I haven't mentioned yet) have better customization options, particularly in gear than FFXIV.

GW2 has better open world gameplay, all 4 suck in terms of PvP imo but FFXIV (and kinda ESO) has an easier bar to entry (dunno about GW2 haven't tried pvp there) and so on.

It boils down to what the person is looking for in an MMO. For me personally - FFXIV sucks at its combat and classes. SB era would have ben the era that I'd have loved FFXIV and I'm sorry that I missed out on it. GW2 and ESO also don't provide what I'm looking for and I don't know how WoW is these days to make a judgement call.

All of them can do better in certain respects, while also keeping themselves unique from one another, but at the end of the day, each one is going to be lacking depending on what you want.

If this was Reddit, I'd give this post an award. Take a like instead. Thanks for the well-reasoned and balanced post.

[Velvet_Lunarfang]

I will say FFXIV probably has about 2 years left if that before it gets to quiet levels. Unless they can find a way for people to be entertained for long periods it isn't happening. I mean all you see these days is Venues that host DJ's no one has ever heard of before where people just take their digital character and go dancing. I been to quite a few of these venues and they are dreadfully boring.

[Chasingstars]

Its hard to say what the future of the game. After all just look at the past

• HW Bow Mage & Gun Mage (You're ranged physical, but you have cast timers)
• Scholar's old cards weren't simply just a damage increase
• Selene was the to go to for scholars for removing status afflictions and also giving increased haste
• Cross-Job Skills for both combat and also hand
• Monk's old Greased Lightning wouldn't be a passive trait and would require uptime
• Summoner would have like 5 dots to manage along with a pet with an actual health bar and how titan/topaz could actually taunt things
• Dark Knight and its old abilities like having increased parry
• Job abilities that were exclusively there just to reduce enmity
• Melding Vitality or Agility or Intelligence materia into your gear
• Elemental resistance potions and elemental resistance materia and how your guardian like Nald'thal for example would give you 50 fire resistance
• A player's race choice would matter far more for content. (Example: Duskwight and Midlander and Veena would be the preferred dps caster races and anything else would be just less optimal because they have the highest intelligence of 23 among the races)
• A wipe didn't reset the players cooldowns when they respawned, so there was that part of waiting for everyone to have everything come off cd for another pull attempt

And I am very certain I am forgetting things.

Addition: Oh and one other thing I forgot is you had to meld for Accuracy so you could actually hit things.