What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

when they break your universe's own internal logic or use cheap tricks to pull on your heartstrings.

Ok see, this is understandable, because as much as I personally loved Endwalker, I am there with people who criticize Ultima Thule. Because this is very much the case.
Or of course Y'shtolas Fake Deaths.

Story driven and narrative focused does not mean you need to have spectacle, "shock value" or "muh emotions" moments that seem specifically designed so terminally online people get to them and immediately post about it on Twitter or Reddit

People will do that even if the game wasnt made to get you all emotionally Excited, so I think this post is kind of silly.
And of course no game "Needs" it, but its just how they decided to tell their story, which a good many of us will agree, is flawed.
But hey, some people still enjoyed it and resonated with it. So its just different strokes for different folks.

[Theodric]

I don't think it matters if that'd happen anyway, nor do I agree that the post in question is 'silly'. It certainly wouldn't occur to the same extent if the game wasn't increasingly retconning large swathes of the established world building in order to tie absolutely everything to the player character and their immediate circle of allies.

If nothing else, there's a notable portion of players invested in the story and game who do not flock to social media in the first place or who at least restrain themselves there - so there's merit to the idea of the writers seeking to cater to more than just that particular crowd.

Which, in turn, is why there's a push from some of us to have more variety in terms of what sort of characters and stances are taken in the story.

Its not a Strawman if its exactly what they said.

No, what I said was this:

I'd just like more visible and meaningful engagement with regular players. Sending out a survey designed to gather some deeper feedback in regards to the future direction of the game would be a reliable metric - because as it stands, FFXIV and FFXVI very much feel like games designed largely for social media engagement and reactions first and foremost.

You trimmed down my post to remove the first part and the added context that came with it and then declared it to be 'weird'.

[Snorky]

There were places in the chapter that didn't ring true with my own perspective or rather broke my focus on the story of zodiark and Zeno's. But overall I loved the story of good vs bad. Reading fantasy's such as LOTR, participate in text based games where writing matters I have to give them a thumbs up for drawing me in. I hope the next story arc is another 10 year adventure or at least half of that. Something I can look forward to.

[Theodric]

Well, two paid DLC's were just announced for FFXVI. Not terribly surprising but it'll be interesting to see how it impacts FFXIV's development cycle and funding moving forward.

[BRVV]

There were places in the chapter that didn't ring true with my own perspective or rather broke my focus on the story of zodiark and Zeno's. But overall I loved the story of good vs bad. Reading fantasy's such as LOTR, participate in text based games where writing matters I have to give them a thumbs up for drawing me in. I hope the next story arc is another 10 year adventure or at least half of that. Something I can look forward to.

I fail to see how ARR - EW was a story arc in any way

[Snorky]

I fail to see how ARR - EW was a story arc in any way

I am not sure what you mean by this but do enlighten me, I am interested in your opinion.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

You trimmed down my post to remove the first part and the added context that came with it and then declared it to be 'weird'.

Because I -Very Specifically Was Replying to One Part of it, that I found Weird-
I read your whole post, and Twice, I Quoted: Highlighting "Exactly" what I was replying to.
It is Exactly what you said, which is how I was able to Quote it.

Regardless if you were talking about the Future Direction of the game and how the Devs should reach out to players for feedback that can improve the game, which I agree with, which is why I didnt say anything against it. You said, and I will Quote a Third Time: ""as it stands, FFXIV and FFXVI very much feel like games designed largely for social media engagement and reactions first and foremost.""
If you need an explanation on WHY I think this is weird, its because: and YOU said, that you Feel like these Games were made for Social Media Engagement "First and Foremost"

And so my reaction to that is....."because they are Story Driven and Narrative Focused? Idk, this was a weird read to me, thinking a game is designed for Reactions and Social Media"
A "Direct" reply to what you said.
Now your Followup here

I think Endwalker would have been much better if it were written to follow the established logical narrative progression and world building instead of banking on 'feels' that simply don't hold up under scrutiny.

Makes more sense, and would have worked if you thought of including something like this WITH your post beforehand.
I wouldn't have found it weird if you included a simple explanation to go with your post of
""as it stands, FFXIV and FFXVI very much feel like games designed largely for social media engagement and reactions first and foremost.""

Im sure you are just gonna tell me it shouldn't matter, as you do sometimes.
But if you have the foresight to not just assume people are going to agree with you, and think more carefully about how you word things, or just explain your thoughts, then you can avoid crap like this.

[Theodric]

I'm honestly not sure why you're so hung up on that particular post but rather than engage in increasingly pedantic back and forth quote sessions, I think I'll simply refer you back to one of your earlier posts:

Its really not that deep. Moving on.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I'm honestly not sure why you're so hung up on that particular post but rather than engage in increasingly pedantic back and forth quote sessions, I think I'll simply refer you back to one of your earlier posts:

All I did was explain myself.
You were confused, so I explained it. Something others dont like to afford me

[BRVV]

I am not sure what you mean by this but do enlighten me, I am interested in your opinion.

A story arc is a set of events all connected right? ARR and HW are already only loosely connected in my opinion. I see no connection for Heavensward to Stormblood. I mean the actual MSQ and the point of it, not the final quests that lead up to the expansion. Shadowbringers is almost completely detached from everything previous. Yes people will say otherwise but no i don't mean the things we found out but the actual story of ShB. No connection. When giving a summary of the most important events you can leave a lot that happened on the first out. EW makes up a new threat and retcons a lot to make it connect. So this is why ARR - EW is not a story arc imho. It loosely connected smaller arcs.