I feel we deserve certain item-related assurances about the future of XIV

[Zofian]

XIV has been around for a good 10 years now and it's great. The best FF story I would say.

Given this is a microtransaction game, I feel that at this point, we need some assurances out of the development/oversight about the future of the game (in live letter or something I guess). But not in regards to expansions. Dawntrail will be and do it's own thing. I'm talking about the game itself, which is essentially not the same as 'expansions' matters.

I am grateful that the second dye channel is coming. I do not believe it will be for all gear, and not all at once, but hopefully so. The devs would be wise to clarify the dye channel situation in the months ahead. The 'Far Eastern Noble's Attire' (as an example), for those who don't know, has a thing where it's main overall color is already behaving as a secondary, so if you dye it red, the main overall body of the dress is a light red, or of you dye it jet black, it ends up a shade of gray. One of my questions is if the second dye channel is going to resolve this (some people may not even consider this an issue with this particular garment). How exactly will the dye channel system work? Will previously uncolorable parts of dyeable gear, become colorable?

Aside from that- The main issue I feel we need 'assurances' on, is class-unlocking gear. The Late Allagan gear is a good example of something that should all become class unlocked, and before 7.0 even comes. This set, and a good many other pieces of gear, need to be class unlocked and dyeable. If such necessary things are never going to happen, then I do not see why I should bother with this game anymore (especially when it comes to online store/microtransactions) if things are going to continue being as extremely restrictive as they are, if non-expansion-related things are going to be the same in 2 years. Too much of this game is restricted. Summoner is a mess. The Praetorium being 8-player was important, it's gone. PvP will have to be overhauled again, removing all skills that result in 'teleport' actions to characters (including draw-ins), and removing all the input-blocking stun-type abilities. There are little-to-no sandbox aspects to XIV, which is why 'glam is the real endgame' is a running joke, but also true. I want to believe that the game will be freer and more open within the next year, but I don't see it. We need to know now, whether or not this game will reach it's potential. I fear it won't.

Opening up the game and unlocking glam restrictions (republican/late allagan/garo/wolf mark gear), making certain gear dyeable (shadowless/paglathan etc), and other customization/sandbox/minigame related additions (not housing or sanctuary), is more important than expansions. You could even put Dawntrail on ice, focus on the game more, and release the story in a new way instead of the established expansion slab.

I'm happy to see the Fall Guys thing coming to the Gold Saucer, we need more things like this.

[Raraka]

I agree with the general sentiment. It feels like they randomly do amazing QoL changes while letting some things that seem very minor but welcome from the outside just completely ignored

Im on copium thinking that now that we are basically done with adding duty support for the MSQ, the content in post patches will go waaay up.... if only...

Oh, but new mogstation outfit and mount, please look fowards to it

[ChonkGoblinSuprem]

That was a scattered post with a lot of ins and outs and moving parts, but is there any precedent for removing job glam restrictions or is that some new crusade?

[Jojoya]

It's extremely unlikely that SE is going to offer any sort of assurances of that nature. If that's the hill you have decided to stake your subscription status on, you may as well unsub now and find a new game to play.

That was a scattered post with a lot of ins and outs and moving parts, but is there any precedent for removing job glam restrictions or is that some new crusade?

There's no precedent in game beyond SE adding recipes for a very limited number of replica Sky Rat and Sky Pirate gear sets that bypass the role restrictions of the original gear sets. Even the replica sets for Coils gear retain the role restrictions.

It's not a new crusade. There have been a lot of requests to remove role restrictions from gear for glamour purpose.

This is just the first time I remember someone saying "I'm going to quit if you don't" as if one person threatening to quit would make a difference to SE and claiming the new expansion are less important than a revamp of the glamour system. Considering the poster is dressed up as a tin can as I read this, I'm leaning toward the possibility of this being a troll post.

[Zofian]

It's more of a 'I'm saying it because I care thing'. The initial overtone may read a little aggressive to some, but the underlying issue is that XIV has long been exposed to losing a chunk of it's playerbase if another MMO-like game comes along with similar quality and style of player models, similar overall gameplay, but with almost no restrictions on glam, and more spontaneous group-activities that people can do (XIV doesn't have many at all, it's basically Gold Saucer, stuff like the moonfaire tower, and Bozja). That XIV still has it's playerbase intact is partially down to luck of similar games not having been made. There is another significant MMO that released recently, and while that will not put a dent in XIV's players, it's only 'a few neighbourhoods over' from possibly having done so given the kind of game it is. Not quite a near miss, but could have been. If XIV doesn't get certain unnecessary restrictions lifted and more ways for groups of random players to do fun, spontaneous activities with unknown outcomes (how many prisoners your alliance will rescue in CLL, as an example)- there may be a noticeable player vacuum when 'the right game comes along', because the devs will not be able to add such things quickly enough to stop a partial exodus- that's why those things need to be in place before such a game comes. If you look closely you can see an undercurrent vibe that XIV is a waiting room for a decent chunk of people, they don't know what game they're waiting for, but they're doing what they can to make the best of XIV until a game comes along that gives them what XIV refuses to. Thus back to my opening post, the devs clarifying once and for all if glams will become unlocked and focusing on adding repeatable group-activities that are always fun, worthwhile and not a linear part of an expansion, will be good for the game because, in making that clear, we will all know where we stand, without the blind hope and wishy-washy, maybe-maybe about the games future. Trying to patch up XIV in this way later on, in order to try and win back players from a game that drew them away from XIV will not work, it will be too late. Such a draw could even be done by a MMO-like game that wasn't even trying to attract XIV's players over.

I know I type that at risk of it looking like an 'oh no the sky is falling', but really I want to give encouragement and a firm, loving nudge on something that may not be obvious as an issue. I don't mind risking looking a fool to some people if it may help our game in the long run.

[Brightamethyst]

Wall of text

Assuming another game like you described does come out, do you really think unlocking all glamours will single-handedly save FFXIV?

And really, cosmetic are always going to be a matter of personal preference. Personally, I like the fact that not everything is available to everyone. Things like racial/gendered animations, racial/gender locked gear, job/role locked gear, etc make the game more interesting to me. And yes, sometimes I'm envious of other people's glamours and such, but that's life. It's okay for things to be different.

[Jojoya]

snip

As much as many call glamour the end game for FFXIV, it's rarely at the top of the list of things players look for when choosing a new game to play. Very few would leave this game just because another game out without restrictions on their glamour system unless the other game's gameplay was as good if not better in the player's eyes.

As for spontaneous group activities, those are player created. The game at most provides a location. Nothing that the Gold Saucer offers is spontaneous - it's all either on a schedule or handled via roulette. If anything happens there, it's because the right players were present at the right time to make it happen. It could just as easily happen in other locations where lots of players hang out.

If you want to bring up a recently released MMO as a possible threat, try naming it so others can make their own judgment. Considering I'm not hearing of any that are getting any sustained publicity, it makes me think that no such game exists or it isn't a MMO.

What MMORPG hasn't been used as a waiting room by a large portion of its end game players? I saw the same thing happen in WoW and RIFT. I don't understand why people try to make it sound unique to this game. The only real difference is that FFXIV allows you to enter a duty instance from just about anywhere. With WoW and RIFT, it would be chill in the big cities until your party is online then head to the dungeon/raid entrance to go in. Done? Return to the big city to chill again.

FFXIV has its flaws but so do other games in the MMORPG genre. People will jump from one to the other, and get excited because there's all this new to them content to do but once they get caught up they start to see the shortcomings of what they're now playing.

No MMORPG is going to last forever. At best, they'll hang on with a tiny core of loyal players paying enough to keep the servers online. SE is aware of player concerns but they're still going to make the game they want to make.

Rather than worry about what is to come in the gaming future, worry about whether you are enjoying what is available to you now. Not everyone is looking for the same things in a game.