Endwalker is pretty great

[ZephyrMenodora]

Completely agree, and love to see a positive thread in the sea of negativity!

I was very much invested in Endwalker's story, and I was captivated until the end. I'm still enjoying the updates now but enjoying the feeling of relative "downtime" for my WOL, which is coinciding with him enjoying other interests (taking up a craft, other classes, housing, Island) that all fits me well now that the world is saved. Excited to see where this goes next.

I'm personally playing more FFXIV than I ever have before, as someone who started in ARR.

[NekoMataMata]

A lot of this just comes down to taste, but some of it is inaccurate, while other portions aren't truly honest.

• The portrait system is super fun
  I don't know about you guys but I think glamour and g-posing are some of the most important pieces of content this game has. It is the one edge that FFXIV has over its more visceral peers like WoW, and it's important for it to cultivate that edge.
  
  Through the power of a nice looking portrait, its also ushered in an era of DPS players getting comms that were previously monopolized by the tanks and healers.

Portraits are truly wonderful, but it hasn't been perfect. The portraits eventually had to be changed to force people to put their faces in them, and then later they changed the portrait system to make them break if you changed gear. There's also just an extreme lack of customization with them. We deserve better.

• Crystalline Conflict has been a massive improvement over The Feast
  On my datacenter, queues for casual matches are consistently <5mins starting from the mid-afternoon to past midnight. This would be an inconceivable level of engagement for The Feast back when it existed. By any metric you can name, the PvP rework has been a success.
  
  I know some Feast vets are glum about its slower, more strategic gameplay being replaced, but let me remind you that Lord of Verminion still exists. The Feast wasn't even the most competitive PvP activity in it's own game. Despite this, its playerbase was pampered with dozens of exclusive mounts and outfits over its lifespan. After a run like that, surely you can find it in yourselves to be gracious about passing the torch to CC.
  
  PvP is evergreen content and infinitely replayable due to the human element involved. It's very important to get right as a result, and I'm glad their efforts paid off this time.

This is definitely a matter of taste. It's true that CC has been far more successful, but PvP in general has really been dumbed down. I barely have anything more than over half a cross hotbar to manage in pvp. Most pvp veterans of the game don't seem to like the change. SE essentially made something incredibly popular but did so at the cost of the original crowd. Take that as you will.

• Side Content
  Orthos and Island Sanctuary I consider equivalent to the past expansions' equivalents in Bozja and the like. It largely comes down to a matter of taste as to which one strikes your fancy.
  
  It's worth noting that something very interesting is going to be happening on islands next patch - it's getting an outdoor furnishing quota of 80 items. Even large mansions only have a 40 item limit, as a result, outdoor housing builds have never received particularly strong interest from housing enthusiasts. A quota of 80 will enable builds that dwarf in scope anything that has been possible up to this date. For housing designers, this is going to be an earthshaking addition.

I'm sorry, but you can't compare Island Sanctuary to Eureka/Bozja. I shouldn't have to even bother explaining considering how painfully obvious the differences are.

I don't have much to say about Eureka Orthos because I haven't gotten to that, but considering it's a deep dungeon... I don't think it's comparable to Island Sanctuary either.

• Endwalker's Story
  Not much left to say that hasn't already been said. Endwalker's MSQ put a very neat bow on the story so far, with highs only rivaled by Shadowbringers. WoW tried similarly to frame Shadowlands as the end of an era, and they failed miserably. Destiny 2 is currently trying to do the same, and it's looking like they'll soon follow in WoW's footsteps. It's difficult to overstate what a coup this has been.

Another matter of taste. I'm not going to go into details over a pointless disagreement, but as someone that hasn't played other MMOs, this example reeks of blatant whataboutism. It's supposedly well known that other MMOs don't have very good stories and that the stories are just there to give reason for the content to exist. That doesn't mean they have to be the benchmark for FFXIV though.

I'd hate for SE to come away from these forums with the wrong impression, so I'm going to do something pretty rare and illustrate why this expansion has been a major success.

And I just want to finish this on this note. Can we talk about the arrogance displayed here. Some people on these forums are insufferable, rude, and very arrogant to think that they have the only opinions that matter and that they matter much more than anyone else's, but is this any different?

Why is it up for you to decide whether the impression SE takes from these forums is correct, or wrong?

[IDontPetLalas]

The bugs involved with the portrait system doesn't take way that it was still a nice feature to implement that no one was asking for, but many enjoy. They just need to fix it so it is less cumbersome and more user friendly. I've seen players do many creative things with their poses, which tells me those particular players are having fun with it.

Your face being a requirement is a given. That restriction should have been in place from the get go. I've still seen portraits with players getting around it though. Just requires a little more creativity. As an example I just recently saw a DRG in a duty and his portrait just showed his lance with a ghostly effect from the lance's particle effect and background used to hide his face. I believe he was using one of the backgrounds locked behind content.

I would agree that the bugs don't detract from the concept of a portrait, however for the "many" that enjoy it there could equally be many that don't , given the number of default portraits that show up. So as a number of people have said, there are multiple usability issues that should be addressed.

[Reimmi]

Why is it when ever there's some complaints on the forum we get one of these?
You're allowed to like those things but this feels like it's a reaction to people validly criticizing the game

[ZephyrMenodora]

Why is it when ever there's some complaints on the forum we get one of these?
You're allowed to like those things but this feels like it's a reaction to people validly criticizing the game

Why aren't people allowed to discuss enjoying the game? Contrary to popular beleif (here at least), forums aren't only for endless complaining and bait threads. There is one of these for every 40 complaint threads, but all I see are people looking to turn this thread into something negative too when you literally have nearly every other topic for this.

[RyuDragnier]

The portrait system is cool but is also a pain in the ass to get working properly. As many have said and I agree with, the earlier versions were better and easier to use. Praying that they eventually just revert back to how it was.

I'm hoping that they change it so linking a portrait to a gearset makes it so it auto-updates when you update the gearset. I hate having to fix my portrait every time I do even the slightest thing with the gearset.

[SturmChurro]

Yes I imagine that for people who have a fascination with games akin to the Sims are having a wonderful time with portraits, which to date still break too often to be of any use. Some of us came for a video game instead of a dress-up simulator, but it’s clear to which crowd they are choosing to pander to now.

Hey! Why not both? I have played this game primarily for dress up, and I also like the Sims.. actually I played a bit of Sims 3 recently.. ANYWAY, I'd like to have a game to play along with my dress-up simulator too!

[Boblawblah]

Why is it when ever there's some complaints on the forum we get one of these?
You're allowed to like those things but this feels like it's a reaction to people validly criticizing the game

Huh. Whenever someone makes a negative thread and people disagree with them they're told "go make a positive thread, and stop harassing those that have issues" and yet, sure enough when someone does make a positive thread, what's the first thing that happens? "Why are you making a positive thread? you're just harassing people that have complaints."

How exactly are people that enjoy the game supposed to comment then?

[ZephyrMenodora]

Huh. Whenever someone makes a negative thread and people disagree with them they're told "go make a positive thread, and stop harassing those that have issues" and yet, sure enough when someone does make a positive thread, what's the first thing that happens? "Why are you making a positive thread? you're just harassing people that have complaints."

How exactly are people that enjoy the game supposed to comment then?

Oh, they don't want happy players here at all.

[NekoMataMata]

Huh. Whenever someone makes a negative thread and people disagree with them they're told "go make a positive thread, and stop harassing those that have issues" and yet, sure enough when someone does make a positive thread, what's the first thing that happens? "Why are you making a positive thread? you're just harassing people that have complaints."

How exactly are people that enjoy the game supposed to comment then?

You can comment however and whatever you feel like on threads. You can also make your own threads for anything and whatever.

The issue they're pointing out is that this thread is made purely as a reaction thread to other threads. The thread does not feel geniune, it feels forced(especially with the inaccurate comparison of IS to Orthos to Eureka/Bozja). A lot of the OP's post reeks of trying to be unique and different, rather than for the sake of putting something accurate and genuine forward.