Quote Originally Posted by hobostew View Post
I don't think every content has to be catered to everyone and that includes things like "exploratory content". It's probably better to make content be both optional and as good as it can be for the people that do like it so people who don't like it can just ignore it and the ones that do can have a really good time.

I remember when people swore up and down that the only reason they hated F.A.T.E.s was that they were too easy and if they made F.A.T.E.s harder they would absolutely do them. So they increased the HP values and damage and just like that F.A.T.E. grinding and by extension the overworld died. SE has been trying to recapture that feeling of shared world/experience since then with various iterations and each time compromising the content in order to try to appeal to everyone. I really feel like the right play might just be to not bother. If you don't like this type of content then just don't do it. ezpz
That seems to be the problem. Not enough people like the content so they aren't doing it once there are no rewards left that they want. Those who like the content aren't finding enough others to keep the zones active so they're looking for ways to attract others back into them.

Players have become too reward focused. If they aren't getting a "proper" reward for the time spent, they aren't interested. Criterion is an excellent example of this. The content itself has had good response. The rewards haven't and so players don't bother with it.

It's not a problem unique to this game but FFXIV lacks the heavy RNG reward systems that other MMORPGs use to drag out content longevity. It's good in that players generally don't have to wait years to get that one neat item they want. It's bad in that players with more time to play run out of things they want to do faster. There are the occasional players like Supersnow that love a piece of content for its own sake and not the reward but they're the exception.

If you want a quick way to get players back into Eureka and Bozja, add in new rewards that they want and won't be able to get through other methods. It would only be a short term fix since they'd quit doing the content once they got those rewards but those zones would be very busy for a while.