How i kicked the habit (FFXIV).

[Ath192]

I just stopped logging in.

That was the secret to kicking the habit, to just walk away.

Years of pent up frustrations with the direction the game has taken, catering all content to people that want to turn XIV into IMVU, and don't want the be challenged by even the smallest difficulty.

It's been 3 weeks, i am a much happier person. I have explored multiple other games, even picked up some side games to play in the 6 months between content patches that XIV has.

Guild Wars 2, Fantastic MMO, the world actually feels alive, people constantly active in old and new zones alike, actual world content with rewards that makes it worth completing.

Diablo 4, Another good story, although post 70, the game is utter repetitive garbage and I've already stopped playing it at level 92. Hopefully seasons improve the game, or else that will just be dropped in general.

ARAM games with friends on LoL, nothing serious, just messing around having fun.

This is the true way to play XIV and remain happy with the game, and i finally understand that. NOT playing the game is the secret to enjoying the game over a long period of time.

For 9 years i have been blinded by the simple truth that XIV is not a main MMO. it is made to be played a few times per year, catching up with content and then moving back onto other games.

Thank you to whoever told me to go play other games, because XIV will not change regardless of how much feedback you throw at it, and coming to that realization has allowed me to move on and improved my mental health significantly.

SE has an insane fear of developing an MMO that can be played 24/7 for fear of people becoming addicted and losing their real lives. The warning messages in XI and 1.0, as well as their punishment system in 1.0 made this obvious, wherein if you played too much you couldn't progress anymore. This crucial fear hampers them from producing a game at its full potential and also fails at keeping people from becoming addicted to this crippled MMO and or other things.

In other words, it doesn't prevent anything and it could be much better. But yes, indeed, the solution is to play this as a side piece for as long as it entertains you.

As a single play through story game this is an 8/10, as a game as a live service this game is a 3/10. Categorically awful to play year round and pay the sub the whole time.

[Absurdity]

As a single play through story game this is an 8/10, as a game as a live service this game is a 3/10. Categorically awful to play year round and pay the sub the whole time.

While I agree with it being maybe a 3/10 as a subscription mmo/live service game, at least since quite some time, I have to disagree with it being an 8/10 as a single player story game.

Because if I were to treat it as a single player story-focused game then I would inevitably have to compare it with other AAA single player games and compared to those it often also falls woefully short, mostly due to the gameplay that the MSQ offers but especially when it comes to story presentation. Even if I were to go as far as to only compare it to story-focused single player games from around 2013 when ARR released.
As a single player game it simply gets dragged down by it's mmorpg design.