Zepla: Endwalker is the Worst FFXIV Expansion I have played

[Snorky]

Well hopefully something good will come of this thread. Personally I am hoping for the best. I have to think it's one of the most difficult things to do trying to fit in content everyone likes. I don't want to see veteran players leave and I do want to see new players continue. I hope for some mid tier content also. One thing I do know that regardless which side you lean to (positive or negative) one thing we all have in common is we want better things for this game. As far as streamers I just don't follow them as closely as others, I may tune in once in a while to get a sense of what people think but that's it.

[Jeeqbit]

He actually has been known to create alternate, contradicting personalities and post as them at the same time. So...who knows.

Has, but he can't resist slipping his real views or things only he ever says or talks about sometimes or engaging in posting behaviour only he does. Beside character details, that's why his current alts are pretty obvious if you've been around here regularly for long enough.

[Theodric]

I had to look up when EverQuest launched. According to a quick internet search the date is 16 March 1999. That's a pretty long time ago.

I'll always find it strange that so many people come to FFXIV not because they like the genre or the game itself necessarily but because they want to hijack it to 'spite' some imaginary foe that they've conjured up in their minds.

...and to achieve their goal, they rabidly seek to push for aspects of the game to be changed or removed all whilst being oblivious to the fact that they're really just taking away stuff that other players enjoy and would be quite happy to compromise on if a healthy balance could be struck.

[OdinelStarrei]

Well hopefully something good will come of this thread. Personally I am hoping for the best. I have to think it's one of the most difficult things to do trying to fit in content everyone likes. I don't want to see veteran players leave and I do want to see new players continue. I hope for some mid tier content also. One thing I do know that regardless which side you lean to (positive or negative) one thing we all have in common is we want better things for this game. As far as streamers I just don't follow them as closely as others, I may tune in once in a while to get a sense of what people think but that's it.

No no no, you don't understand.

The entire point of tribalism is to discount, minimize, and delegitimize players who do not fall within your specific circumstances or situation. You cannot think that someone who is positive and someone is negative have any common ground, because that means that they are actual people with agency and their own fishbowl of experiences that has influenced their current perception of the game. That means they might not be trolls, or basement dwellers, or simps, or elitists, or anything like that.

They just might be people. And that means they might deserve a little bit of respect and consideration, unless they prove otherwise. And we can't have that. We left rationality behind a long time ago. I want fun-to-me jobs. Someone else wants jobs that require minimal effort or risk. We are in conflict. There will never be a resolution, and that is by design. I want a reason to play the game. Someone else wants no reasons to be pressured to play the game at all. We are in conflict. There will never be a resolution, and that is by design.

And Square Enix laughs. Tidus.webm

[Snorky]

I had to look up when EverQuest launched. According to a quick internet search the date is 16 March 1999. That's a pretty long time ago.

I'll always find it strange that so many people come to FFXIV not because they like the genre or the game itself necessarily but because they want to hijack it to 'spite' some imaginary foe that they've conjured up in their minds.

...and to achieve their goal, they rabidly seek to push for aspects of the game to be changed or removed all whilst being oblivious to the fact that they're really just taking away stuff that other players enjoy and would be quite happy to compromise on if a healthy balance could be struck.

Has it been so long omg I'm old here's one for you Therodric I beta tested EverQuest and before that game I played a MMO called Neverwinter Nights on AOL it could hold maybe 250 people and it was dial up they charged you by the hour back then, turn based pvp. Fun times!

[Snorky]

No no no, you don't understand.

The entire point of tribalism is to discount, minimize, and delegitimize players who do not fall within your specific circumstances or situation. You cannot think that someone who is positive and someone is negative have any common ground, because that means that they are actual people with agency and their own fishbowl of experiences that has influenced their current perception of the game. That means they might not be trolls, or basement dwellers, or simps, or elitists, or anything like that.

They just might be people. And that means they might deserve a little bit of respect and consideration, unless they prove otherwise. And we can't have that. We left rationality behind a long time ago. I want fun-to-me jobs. Someone else wants jobs that require minimal effort or risk. We are in conflict. There will never be a resolution, and that is by design. I want a reason to play the game. Someone else wants no reasons to be pressured to play the game at all. We are in conflict. There will never be a resolution, and that is by design.

And Square Enix laughs. Tidus.webm

Thanks for the laugh! But why do I feel as if there is some truth in there.

[Jeeqbit]

I want fun-to-me jobs. Someone else wants jobs that require minimal effort or risk. We are in conflict. There will never be a resolution, and that is by design.

There could be if it was a choice, where you could select an easy or complex version of each job that is similar to the Stormblood style but produces the same potency as the easy version when done right.

I think some people would pick it just for fun, when they are finding content boring.

Or they could make it increase damage by 100 hit points over a 10 minute period, just because that will justify playing the complex version to min-maxers while being ultimately pointless or not being noticied due to general RNG and crit/dh RNG.

[Sebazy]

People like you are why I’ve avoided the entire MMORPG genre since I played EverQuest at launch. You aren’t that damn nuanced. The only reason I am playing FF14 is because there isn’t a levelgrind -> endgame mentality apart from a small and very vocal minority. The OP of this thread has posted about ten threads in the past week, but I’m the problem lmao. Keep on gatekeeping on, kiddos.

Walking backwards through BlackBurrow tunnels as a blind Barbarian to get to Qeynos was more entertaining than this post TBH.

[VerdeLuck]

I hope for some mid tier content

The major issue I keep seeing with mid tier content right now is that it pretty much gets shoved to one side, either it becomes part of the casual content or the hardcore content, since there is the elephant in the room of savage and ultimate raiders coming back down to it with way higher ilvl than the casual/midcore players.
It makes a situation where either you balance for higher ilvl gear to not bore the raiders and it becomes hardcore content that locks out casuals due to their lower gear score, or you balance for lower ilvl casuals and the raiders come down to it way overgeared and breeze through it super fast, making it have a short lifespan and get outgeared quickly.
If they followed the example of Unreal where it's tightly synced ilvl that you really aren't allowed to outgear, and then it has forgiving dps checks it feels like that would be the best of both worlds, but they're pretty set in their content schedule for the next expansion or so.

[Renathras]

So, question. From how people are talking about Eureka/Bozja, you make it sound like you've completed everything there is to do there. So all the relic weapons/armors for all jobs, all the items/mounts (included that awesome Fran bike!! so jealous)/etc (silly achievements aside if there are any). Is that true?

It's not...

...but that's not the best counter. Not all content is for everyone. The trick in a good game is to have a smattering of content that appeals to all types of people, and at a rate that there's always something for people to kind of work on IF THEY WANT. Note the caps there. Not forcing people. For example, Relics are never strictly required for anything in the game (no, not even synced Ultimates, they just are a slight power edge there in future expansions but not strictly needed). This makes them good content for side-grinds because if people don't want to do them, no harm. If they do, then they have things they can spend hours on. Well, the pre-EW ones, anyway.

"Oh, look, new Ultimate!" doesn't help the people who don't care about Ultimates. WoW did this in WoD where they appealed exclusively to raiders (and PvPers) and no one else. So it doesn't matter, per se, if there's a ton of content not done if it's not content people like to do. I love Exploration Zones (Eureka/Bozja) for the group and casual nature of them. I don't care - AT ALL - for the "duel" system and thought it was stupid (yes, have a group focused zone, encounters that give a zone-wide buff...but make the encounters solo only; yeah THAT makes sense. /sarc), so I'm not going to grind out achievements for things that I think are dumb, even if it's part of more overall content that I enjoy in more general terms.

It's fair to say that's all content, but with the grain of salt that not all content is for everyone. So not having 100% achievements isn't REALLY a defense against all criticism of the game.

I feel EW patches put too much dev time into solo activities that don’t have longevity...

Yeah, I think this is the most accurate way to say it. It's not that EW hasn't had content, it's that the content is "one-and-done".

Base Endwalker was fine, it's the patches that have been completely lacking.

Agreed so much I said it in my first post in this thread. EW is kind of the "reverse SB". Where SB's base expansion was weak but the patches made it strong, EW's base expansion was great but the patches, while having some good stuff, have been a let down by comparison. I know it's me saying this, but I think that's a fair and rational appraisal.

It's time to report them, since the white knights really love reporting the criticizers, while actually being as big of a " bully " as TitanMen or anyone else really.

How many times has Ren used " negative nancy " ? Or white knights saying you're mentally ill if you play too much ? (But if you don't play too much you can't complain according to Blah) But if you say that his takes are stupid, not that him as a person is, just his takes, you get called a bully.

Just pointing out the irony of trying to get people to report others (something Renault has been attacked for endlessly by Titanalt defenders) for insulting others...while insulting them/calling them "white knights", and by one of the most prolific insult peddlers on the forum. I know self-awareness isn't your strong suit, Titan, but this one is especially ironic, even for you.

it's just crazy how far things go in this game and how toxic positivity is prevalent.

This isn't "toxic positivity" nor unique to FFXIV. People are getting death threats with disturbing regularity in the modern world. There's not a single modern politician who hasn't gotten any at this point, for example. It's like people decided this was an acceptable way to express "disagreement".

That's an indictment on modern Humanity and our internet connected culture. Do you GENUINELY think people being positive about the game don't get death threats? Does that prove "how toxic negativity is prevalent"? You're one of the big offenders in modern polarization with talk like that, btw.

Everyone needs to understand death threats are a big no-no and no one should be doing them against anyone. Extremism like yours - blaming literally everything on "the other side" you disagree with and painting them all as toxic people instead of normal people with normal feelings and valid concerns - is the kind of stuff that leads to that, so you know. It's why my sig...well, exists.

There could be if it was a choice, where you could select an easy or complex version of each job that is similar to the Stormblood style but produces the same potency as the easy version when done right.

I think some people would pick it just for fun, when they are finding content boring.

Or they could make it increase damage by 100 hit points over a 10 minute period, just because that will justify playing the complex version to min-maxers while being ultimately pointless or not being noticied due to general RNG and crit/dh RNG.

I...don't think so.

I've literally proposed this (on a number of occasions), and been told - with colorful language - that it's an unacceptable solution. Unless people are getting more reward for their "more work" (never mind them literally asking for/demanding said more work...), that it is unacceptable and rewarding people being lazy, dirty casuals, <insert insult>, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inp7MTOAwro

Just an update if this hasn't been posted already. Zepla posted an update video for the reactions to her original video.

Interestingly enough she states she loves the game so much she is the type of player to find things to do even if she's not super hyped.

So not a hate video.

Yeah, saw this.

It seems "Zepla hates EW" wasn't an accurate take by anyone who pitched it. And this goes for both the side trying to use her first video to support her views and the contra. (Granted, we can't be sure how much of that is genuine vs how much might have been from pushback comments that she DIDN'T read, but I prefer giving her the benefit of the doubt.)

Well hopefully something good will come of this thread. Personally I am hoping for the best. I have to think it's one of the most difficult things to do trying to fit in content everyone likes. I don't want to see veteran players leave and I do want to see new players continue. I hope for some mid tier content also. One thing I do know that regardless which side you lean to (positive or negative) one thing we all have in common is we want better things for this game. As far as streamers I just don't follow them as closely as others, I may tune in once in a while to get a sense of what people think but that's it.

Yeah, I think this is the general take from moderate/sensible people here.

EW hasn't been a disaster, but it's been...hollow? It's been lacking. It absolutely is a challenge to appeal to all camps of players, but FFXIV has done a good job of that for most of its history, so it should be something the Devs know how to do by now and maybe dropped the ball with EW's patches. Maybe they can pick it back up with DT. At the very least, they're hopefully aware of it at this point.