If you're unhappy with this game then unsub... forever.

[Zabuza]

And what about those players who don't enjoy those types of games and/or haven't played them?


Same question to you - what about players who don't enjoy those games and are looking for something different?

Not everyone enjoys the same thing. I'll probably enjoy BG3 (having played the original) but haven't played it yet and so have no way to use it as a base standard. Elden Ring I have not and will not play - I'm not into that combat style.

There is no single standard for every player to judge every game by. The correct standard for a player to use is "Is this a fun and satisfying experience for me?" The answer to that can change over time even if the game doesn't change.

Our likes and interests adjust as we grow older. We may go from the short attention span games as children to long, in depth game play with challenging combat as young adults with plenty of free time to games of shorter duration as family or career oriented individuals back to longer, more in depth game play that is considerate of those with less physical agility compared to their younger days of gaming when we're close to or have retired.

Stop complicating things. There's no need for a game to meet any other standard other than "I'm having fun".

If you're not having fun, find a new game to play that is fun to you.

I don't really understand your argument. Fun games have been on the decline thanks to the predatory practices I've been referring to.

Do you think a videogame is more or less fun when the full product is released with all of the features? Well companies have been milking additional money out of their players by pushing out half-finished titles before they're ready and then later releasing the remainder of the game in the DLC that players get charged for.
Do you think people have more or less fun when they have to spend real $ to buy items that should be built into the game? Take a look at mobile gaming and especially a certain major mobile release that came out this year and tell me players enjoy having to spend thousands of dollars to get fully geared.
Do you think people enjoy having to spend real $ on gacha mechanics where they have a 1% chance of actually getting the item they want, or do you think they would actually just be able to earn the item they want in-game?
Do you think people enjoy companies sometimes even going so far as deceiving them into buying things?
Do you think people enjoy games that completely hold their hand and offer no challenge whatsoever?

Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3 are universally acclaimed because they were created for love of their product rather than maximum profit milking tactics that treat the player like a money pinata rather than a human being.

In FFXIV's case, the devs are making it braindead difficulty for everything outside of Savage difficulty and above. Alliance raid is typically CT which I bet everyone in the raid could auto-attack the whole raid and still win. Expert roulette and below you can probably win while watching Netflix on a second monitor. I can't imagine players having fun doing any of the combat in the MSQ when going through the game. Imagine fighting Thordan and cinematically and thematically, it's built up to be this epic moment. The fight looks cool, but you find out it's braindead easy and you'd have to try extremely hard to LOSE. What about that is epic?
They also tell players that ONLY purchases made to their cash shop go back into funding the game. Subscriptions get diverted into resources for other projects that players didn't ask for. On top of being told that, the number of dungeons per patch was cut down and also the time between patches was lengthened and SE's response was 'COVID guys please understand.'
On top of this, they didn't just divert our money to another project(FF16, that we KNOW of.) They also diverted resources from CBU3 that could've gone into making new ideas or further polishing FF14. There's no way you can tell me that Yoshi-P and Soken working on FF16 did not affect this game. It's literally impossible. Because of FF16, they were unable to give this game 100% of their focus. It may have even been second priority in their minds and their passion for it may have waned given FF16's looming release. Is that what people gave Yoshi-P their monthly sub fee and mogstation purchases for? For them to work on something else?

If you're not having fun, find a new game to play that is fun to you.

I'm trying. I really am. Thankfully, Baldur's Gate 3 just came out, but typically? The gaming landscape is mostly devoid of life and full of blood hungry sharks.