Zepla: Endwalker is the Worst FFXIV Expansion I have played

[Jeeqbit]

HW didn’t have enough content. Nobody denies that, 3.1 is still the worst non legacy patch in the game despite the EW patches giving it a run for its money, gordias was hot garbage, diadem 1.0 and 2.0 were messy at best (280ilvl RNG weapons) downright annoying at worst (even for me who is probably field contents biggest fanboy)

I don't know, back in Heavensward it felt like most people didn't have their jobs all maxed at 90 like they do now when I would analyze them. So there was something to do back then which was to level your other jobs through FATE farms or roulettes until POTD came out.

The relics were something to do as well, because they were more than just tomestones, with steps such as trials and light farming that were an actual social experience.

There were also more dungeons released, POTD was a new concept, we had the squadrons release, and all the standard content such as MSQ, trials, extremes, normal and savage raids. And we had an interesting change to the final alliance raid after it had been out a while.

I'd admit the patch lull before Stormblood was really empty though. I felt like I spent up to 9 months just reclearing savage and joining first-time clear parties for alex and coils, because the 1,200 poetics was great for the relics and so many people needed them clearing. I was also just too nice, constantly helping them out when I didn't need to.

But now you don't see as many parties to clear coils because it's easier to solo and you don't see them for alex because they added the normal raids roulette. Coils were also more fun in Heavensward because there was still a bit of danger remaining unlike now.

We also got Wondrous Tails then and although you just solo them now, back then it was a social experience and you actually needed to recruit in party finder to take out the ARR trials.

but we do know is that the vast majority of the streamers agree with us and that speaks a lot considering their cumulative knowledge and pull in the community

To be fair, a lot of streamers and content creators are veteran players and there is certainly a disparity between what veteran players think and what newer players think who still have a backlog of content to get through.

That isn't to say that veteran players' concerns don't have merit, but they do have to take into account how many players don't get paid to play the game all day and rush through all the content on day 1. I feel that many of them have taken this into account, particularly MrHappy, but there are going to be some that don't with how many content creators we have now.

[CNitsah]

That isn't to say that veteran players' concerns don't have merit, but they do have to take into account how many players don't paid to play the game all day and rush through all the content on day 1. I feel that many of them have taken this into account, particularly MrHappy, but there are going to be some that don't with how many content creators we have now.

On the problem of people rushing the content on day one and complaining after that there is nothing to do, I think it's a false problem. Those people were there in ShB, yet most of those agree that without being perfect, ShB did a far better job at giving the said content longevity. Once again, a lot of the complaints are about this patch cycle doing a far worst job at making long term content than the previous extensions. The same devs literally did a better job at that in the past, and that's why people complain. You can't do like people rushing content didn't exist 2 years ago. Something that is often (always?) implied when that argument comes out.

[Jeeqbit]

On the problem of people rushing the content on day one and complaining after that there is nothing to do, I think it's a false problem. Those people were there in ShB, yet most of those agree that without being perfect, ShB did a far better job at giving the said content longevity. Once again, a lot of the complaints are about this patch cycle doing a far worst job at making long term content than the previous extensions. The same devs literally did a better job at that in the past, and that's why people complain.

Yes, I agree. The people who rushed to do content on day 1 and then complained there was no content have always made such complaints, but they have not seemed to manage a long-term grind in Endwalker the way they did with the Bozja stat grinds. We could argue the hunt mount, perhaps, but that was in the other expansions as well. We could argue the FATE mount, which previous expansions didn't have, but it's just so boring to farm. And the Island Sanctuary grinds lack the social experience.

Rather than SE's focus being on new players, I think it is just on two things.

1. Returning players, whose average player behaviour is to return to the game for a major patch, play few a few days, then slowly fizzle out and stop logging in, regardless of the longevity of the content.
2. Second life players, who engage in roleplaying, housing, music or glamour.

It is temporarily on new players if you count them revamping the MSQ and MSQ dungeons.

But as everyone is trying to say, there are players who play every day, all year round, who don't engage in second life content such as roleplaying, who get bored when the content is catered to the average "returning player" who quickly moves onto another game that released DLC.