Zepla: Endwalker is the Worst FFXIV Expansion I have played

[Jojoya]

30 pages since we hit 100 of people caring an awful lot about trying to get Jojoya and Rentharis to change their minds.

I've got no problem agreeing that the game can stand improvement in some areas and that there were better expansions.

I don't agree that Endwalker sucks, that there's nothing to do, content isn't worth repeating, the game is dying, etc.

I would like to see players become smarter consumers. Too many posters around here are angry and yet they're paying to feed their anger instead of paying to be happy. Pay for something because you like what it is now, not because you liked it in the past or think it might change into something you like in the future.

That has... nothing at all to do with the "2-minute meta", or any of the questions raised above. Nor does one have to go back to Stormblood to see Kaiten.

That was related to my comments about player agency and fun, not combat design details.

SAM players felt empowered by having Kaiten to push when they chose. Removing Kaiten took that away.

The detailed problems with combat design I'll leave to you and others are who far better versed in it.

[AlexiaD]

I've got no problem agreeing that the game can stand improvement in some areas and that there were better expansions.

I don't agree that Endwalker sucks, that there's nothing to do, content isn't worth repeating, the game is dying, etc.

I would like to see players become smarter consumers. Too many posters around here are angry and yet they're paying to feed their anger instead of paying to be happy. Pay for something because you like what it is now, not because you liked it in the past or think it might change into something you like in the future.


That was related to my comments about player agency and fun, not combat design details.

SAM players felt empowered by having Kaiten to push when they chose. Removing Kaiten took that away.

The detailed problems with combat design I'll leave to you and others are who far better versed in it.

I like how you try and fake this whole "oh look I am genuine guys I want people to use their money better" with a signature like you have

the irony, dont pretend to care about other people, be honest with yourself at the very least

The overall snarky-ness of that signature honestly screams that you dont care and just want to bash on people's complaints, with the good "haha you're paying for a game in which you dislike some aspects, look at you!"

As I said above, dont pretend that you care about others when all you want is to spit on people's faces because they have valid complaints about the game that you disagree with.

And yes, this is not only based on the signature but your overall attitude towards complaints, your go-to is always "just quit lol" "if you dont like x just quit be mindful of your money"

Literally no one asked you for financial advice, who are you to tell people what they should do with their money ? Are people posting their complaints regarding the game telling you to unsubscribe ? I dont think so, so mind your own business and stop being condescending towards people.

[Sebazy]

Do the Coils on level, I wont take a respond from soone who reply with a character listed august 2021 for anything valid.

I didn't realise doing BCOB in the end of 2016 counted as 'on level' =(

But you don't realize the time it take to develop games and content, as well as the people needed for it, you could get 10x the content we get now, but the subscription fee would then have to be 100 dollars per month.

If you look back in time old for old MMORPGs... they had similar cost per month... now 20 years+ later the subscription fee is more or less the same, but inflation and the likes has kicked in, so you are paying less than what you did in the past.

Everquest and FFXIV peaked at just over half a million subscribers each back in their day.

FFXIV's peak monthly active player counts are somewhere in the region of 20 million. *Edit* debunked! The daily seems to be more accurate at around 1.2mil, inactive players with active subs likely bumps that up by some amount.

Plus as mentioned elsewhere, the likes of Everquest didn't have huge lines of Merchandise and cash shop 'DLC'.

FFXIV's turn over dwarfs anything Verant/SoE could have dreamed of with Everquest. The issue isn't the amount of money FFXIV brings, it's that it's not being invested back into the game. Instead it's being used to fund other titles.

[Supersnow845]

I didn't realise doing BCOB in the end of 2016 counted as 'on level' =(

Ironic he said that to an actual legacy player as well

[Themarvin]

Yes I know Square Enix is a small indie company, I know

It sort of is, money is not just there and just because some big company earned a billion during the year, then you need to cut in all the expenses as well, I don't think you realize the business point of view as in having healthy business running as well, it is not like they can just take funds earned from other other projects, those funds need to be there for these other projects and further development of eg. seequals and new games down that line as well.

SE is not just FFXIV... there is quite the amount of labes branded with SE, you can compare SE to EA and the pick would be easy from where you would buy games from to begin with.

It is also like went right over the head of people that FFXIV is or have gotten new and better servers as well.... and well they need to focus on their main market as well, which is very much Japan and Asian region most of all...

I for one welcomed the new DD, the Critierion Dungeons, have to say I got better used to them later on before the initial release to be honest, and I like the pvp part of the game as well, CC alone can be very intense.

In EW... I barely got into the Extreme Trials did a very little of that... on the first 3 ones... though I would like to get all the mounts from them, but in due time.... SB I just did pretty much everything of note... SHB was a bit 50/50.

I think people expect to get more than what they want to pay for, and long story short... it is cheaper much cheaper to play FFXIV than buying every AAA game that is released based alone on the time spendt playing each game, also uhm... AAA games today has been downgraded to HHH games due to Larion Set the Bar of games with Baldurs Gate 3 and big companies like EA and UBISOFT and more has been out complaining about that they made the game is too good.... ( it is an epic good game ) and they did not even add lootboxes and other kinds of stuff and forced on weird server things.

For games today and the future, you may see an uplift, but you may also see an increased price.

[Themarvin]

I didn't realise doing BCOB in the end of 2016 counted as 'on level' =(



Everquest and FFXIV peaked at just over half a million subscribers each back in their day.

FFXIV's peak monthly active player counts are somewhere in the region of 20 million.

Plus as mentioned elsewhere, the likes of Everquest didn't have huge lines of Merchandise and cash shop 'DLC'.

FFXIV's turn over dwarfs anything Verant/SoE could have dreamed of with Everquest. The issue isn't the amount of money FFXIV brings, it's that it's not being invested back into the game. Instead it's being used to fund other titles.

I would like the Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies days and games in those ways back instead of games like WoW, FFXIV and similar, if you want it that way, and you can play any content in FFXIV on level of what it was supposed to be like, if you dare to do such, it is actually quite fun doing such.

[Theodric]

I'm just going to go ahead and quote a previous post of mine to address the 'take a break' and 'stop spending money on the game' declarations and explain why they often don't go down well:

It's because, historically, it's been used to try and get people to stop offering feedback altogether. You can only post on the forum if you have logged into the game within a two week period. That only happens if you have an active subscription or, like me, you're only posting temporarily due to the free login campaign.

Many people can and do take breaks, yet when they return they find the same problems persist and in their absence the people who don't take breaks have vocally demanded that the game change to their liking. Which is precisely why the game became less of an MMO and more of a weird Second Life clone over time.

Some people would also prefer not to lose their house, since it's unlikely they'll acquire a new one if they lose it. This, in turn, is due to the housing system in itself being terrible - especially when you can own multiple account bound houses in TESO and take breaks for weeks, months or even years without losing those houses.

Then there's people who still find some enjoyment from FFXIV but aren't oblivious to its problems.

Furthermore, the monthly subscription fee isn't exactly a lot of money to some people and it's ultimately their money to do with as they so choose so the concern over 'wasting money' often comes across as disingenuous.

[Jojoya]

FFXIV's peak monthly active player counts are somewhere in the region of 20 million.

Where did this number come from? Because dang that's a lot of bots.

Toning back on the sarcasm a bit:

As generally happy as I am about the state of the game, even I can't take 20 million unique active players a month for FFXIV as credible. The number of log-ins per month (which could include multiple per player)? Sure, 20 million sounds about right. Maybe 2 million unique players a month? Definitely possible if free trial accounts are being included.

I'm just going to go ahead and quote a previous post of mine to address the 'take a break' and 'stop spending money on the game' declarations and explain why they often don't go down well:

Certainly people have a variety of reasons for maintaining a subscriptions for a game even when unhappy. Their choice what they do with their money.

But it comes with risk, like companies not thinking twice about releasing half-finished, sloppy games and content updates.

Disagreements about the quality of the current expansion aside, I don't want players to send signals to the gaming industry that players are happy to pay for content they don't like and have no interest in playing. That's how players get stuck with trash games and trash releases - too many throw money at anything. If they want developers to be making games they want to be playing, they need to be putting their money into the games that have content they're enjoying and not the games they don't want to be playing.

I know a few of those who are negative and vocal do have some content they enjoy - great, keep playing. They're getting something they like for your money even if it could be better. But once someone is on the "there's nothing to do" path or "there's only 2 hours of content per patch rant", they're not getting anything of value for their money. Are they happy paying to support content development for other players with minimal chance of getting any content they might like in turn?

I kept pushing money at Blizzard for about 28 months out of a 52 month period thinking maybe they would wake up, maybe they would change things In WoW. I finally realized nothing was getting better. They had their own vision for what they wanted WoW to be, they didn't care about what the player base felt. I finally got smart and quit once and for all.

$15/mo doesn't seem like a lot of money. It looks a lot different when you realize that wasn't $15 I wasted. It was over $400. It adds up over time as you keep waiting for things to change and they don't.

[JamieRose]

[Sebazy]

Where did this number come from? Because dang that's a lot of bots.

It’s from Activeplayer.io (https://activeplayer.io/final-fantasy-xiv/)

Both that and MMO-Populations have the daily population at ~1.3mil. Given how common place it is for people to log in once or twice a week, I certainly suspect the active subscription count is way way higher than the daily player figure.

You’re also not wrong about the bots. I suspect they make up a rather frightening percentage of that figure, but they pay the bills all the same. (I’m assuming that there isn’t a loophole to get RMT gil off a trial account ofc).

In your later points, remember SE have a history of using pressure tactics in MMOs to keep people subscribed even if they weren’t playing. FFXI used to archive your character (and early on gave the impression that your character would literally be deleted). FFXIV simply uses your house and the potential difficulty of replacing it should you return.