The Perfect Response to "Take a Break"

[aveyond-dreams]

That's honestly the perfect response to this thread. People keep talking about how lackluster things are or say other games do other things better. Offer ideas of what exactly 'high-quality content' is to you. Chances are if its something that has never been in the game before, it might not ever be included, but this dev team does like to try new stuff in each expansion from time to time or try a different spin on old stuff as well. Offer ideas, not just say ambiguous stuff because that just comes off as being someone who's trying to get attention. Unless you have someone paying for you to post here, then you should be old enough to give SE money to keep posting here, so act 18+ and use words to form proper opinions that can be used to start a proper discussion.

I quite literally wrote out an entire patch schedule in response to a similar post such as this one. That too, was deemed insufficient.

It is not my job to spell things out in such detail regardless. I have been direct and to the point about what brings me and players like myself to the game and what is and is not capable of holding our attention in terms of both playable content and writing.

Given the severity of the situation with Endwalker, we are long past the point where feedback can afford to be prefaced with unnecessary fluff. And attempts to mischaracterize the desires of other players or tone police their feedback will not result in the changes the game so desperately needs if it still wants to try and claim to be a Final Fantasy title. With gameplay and story in this state, it is unrecognizable as one. Both aspects have been stripped of grit or compelling elements in favor of creating a wholly inoffensive and transient experience.

[Jojoya]

I quite literally wrote out an entire patch schedule in response to a similar post such as this one. That too, was deemed insufficient.

It is not my job to spell things out in such detail regardless. I have been direct and to the point about what brings me and players like myself to the game and what is and is not capable of holding our attention in terms of both playable content and writing.

Can you put aside your personal vision a few minutes to understand that others simply don't agree with you on what would make the game better?

Players like yourself are fewer than you realize. If the game content and story aren't holding your attention, then chances are good it's not intended to.

You can keep returning in an attempt to push your vision on the game but it will be futile effort. The game's vision is that of the development team, not yours. As players, we are either entertained by their vision or we aren't. If we aren't, it's time to move on.

[Saraide]

Can you put aside your personal vision a few minutes to understand that others simply don't agree with you on what would make the game better?

Players like yourself are fewer than you realize. If the game content and story aren't holding your attention, then chances are good it's not intended to.

You can keep returning in an attempt to push your vision on the game but it will be futile effort. The game's vision is that of the development team, not yours. As players, we are either entertained by their vision or we aren't. If we aren't, it's time to move on.

No bro, you dont get it. The next time he posts his fanfics, they will surely hire him. /s

[Absimiliard]

Players like yourself are fewer than you realize. If the game content and story aren't holding your attention, then chances are good it's not intended to.

The game's vision is that of the development team, not yours. As players, we are either entertained by their vision or we aren't. If we aren't, it's time to move on.

I can't help but feel it worth pointing out that completely discounting players who now find themselves unable to enjoy the game is a pretty bad idea. Why shouldn't long time players who don't like where the game they've put so much time, effort, and money into is going be allowed to voice their opinions? These are public forums; people are entitled to their opinions, whether the "majority" agrees with them or not. It's fine to disagree, but continually telling someone their posts aren't welcome when, near as I can tell, none of them are actually inflammatory or offensive, isn't exactly a good look. Disagree if you want. Call whatever thing a bad take if you want. Don't sit there and try and marginalize people for having differing tastes and/or opinions.

The "oh, but there are so few of you guys" argument is done to death. Someone's position on a matter won't magically change simply because they're in a minority, and I'm pretty sure most people know that. Using this argument is in effect simply an attempt to discourage further discourse by making someone feel outnumbered or shamed.

[Jijifli]

It's fine to disagree, but continually telling someone their posts aren't welcome when, near as I can tell, none of them are actually inflammatory or offensive, isn't exactly a good look. Disagree if you want. Call whatever thing a bad take if you want. Don't sit there and try and marginalize people for having differing tastes and/or opinions.

How else will we prove we're the best community though if we don't continue trying to snuff out anyone without a popular opinion?

[aveyond-dreams]

How else will we prove we're the best community though if we don't continue trying to snuff out anyone without a popular opinion?

I think it's important for a healthy gaming community to be able to openly and critically discuss aspects of the game so that it continues to improve. I think the lack of this has had not had a positive effect on FFXIV, as the situation demonstrates.

[Cilia]

The "oh, but there are so few of you guys" argument is done to death. Someone's position on a matter won't magically change simply because they're in a minority, and I'm pretty sure most people know that. Using this argument is in effect simply an attempt to discourage further discourse by making someone feel outnumbered or shamed.

I respectfully disagree. Pointing out that negative critics of the game (whether it be story or gameplay) are in the minority is meant to put things in perspective - it's easy to forget hanging out in locales that are frequented only by people with concurrent opinions, but more people than not are happy with the state and direction of the game. In spite of its flaws (and they do exist), people enjoy the game and its story - even if you don't and have objections to their direction. Vis a vis telling these people what they're enjoying is low-quality and poorly written isn't going to change their minds, and is pretty likely to leave them incensed.

Or at least, enough people are happy with it to keep it profitable, and at the end of the day that's what matters to the SE suits.

The game - with its current story direction and gameplay - might just not be for you. Sometimes you gotta accept that, and refusing to do so because of how much time and money you've spent on it is just Sunk Cost Fallacy. If you're not having fun with it, tell SE / CBU3 in the only way that really matters.

[aveyond-dreams]

I respectfully disagree. Pointing out that negative critics of the game (whether it be story or gameplay) are in the minority is meant to put things in perspective - it's easy to forget hanging out in locales that are frequented only by people with concurrent opinions, but more people than not are happy with the state and direction of the game.

If you say so. For people who are so concerned with how others come across it's interesting that of all things you chose this to follow up and then proceed to double down on.

Vis a vis telling these people what they're enjoying is low-quality and poorly written isn't going to change their minds, and is pretty likely to leave them incensed.

I am not responsible for your reaction to criticism of FFXIV.

The game - with its current story direction and gameplay - might just not be for you. Sometimes you gotta accept that, and refusing to do so because of how much time and money you've spent on it is just Sunk Cost Fallacy. If you're not having fun with it, tell SE / CBU3 in the only way that really matters.

It has been explained multiple times that for users such as myself at the point of purchasing Crysta the money has gone to SE and where they choose to allocate those funds is completely beyond our control. The Crysta I have purchased for FFXI has no doubt been funnelled into FFXIV over the years so unfortunately this tactic is not effective. However, as the chart posted by Deceptus shows, the player population is plummeting back down to the level of previous expansions after having completely failed to retain the WoW population boost.

[Cilia]

I am not responsible for your reaction to criticism of FFXIV.

I neither said nor implied that you were.

It has been explained multiple times that for users such as myself at the point of purchasing Crysta the money has gone to SE and where they choose to allocate those funds is completely beyond our control. The Crysta I have purchased for FFXI has no doubt been funnelled into FFXIV over the years so unfortunately this tactic is not effective. However, as the chart posted by Deceptus shows, the player population is plummeting back down to the level of previous expansions after having completely failed to retain the WoW population boost.

Spoiler alert: where the money anybody spends on a subscription-based game goes is entirely unknown. Ideally it will be reinvested into the game itself, but nobody knows for sure. (You mean the money I spent on XIV might have been reinvested into Marvel's Avengers or, heavens forfend, Forspoken? G-gasp!) Whether you spent money on Crysta for XI is kind of irrelevant; if you aren't satisfied with the product, don't buy it. If you spent so much money on Crysta you can sub to this game every patch and even buy an expansion despite allegedly not playing and hating it all the same, you ought to find yourself a new hobby.

Player population always goes down between patches and expansions, and anyone doing a modicum of research could have told you post-6.0 MSQ would be kind of lackluster (as the 2.0 story arc concluded in 6.0 and they told us so, meaning the devs / writers were going to use 6.x as filler to get 7.0 written instead of leading to the expack's "True End" and setting up the next as per usual). CBU3 also had its hands full with XVI, and one thing Yoshi-P has said over the years is that the SE suits don't properly fund the game. Failing to retain the WoW population boost - at this point in time - is not as big of a deal as you seem to want it to be.

[Jojoya]

Why shouldn't long time players who don't like where the game they've put so much time, effort, and money into is going be allowed to voice their opinions?

No one is saying they shouldn't. By all means leave feedback. But the same person leaving the same feedback over and over doesn't accomplish anything. It takes thousands of different voices leaving the same feedback to get noticed and change to occur.

Aveyond has spent every patch release since 6.1 bashing the game and trying to push their personal fanfic as the "savior" of the game when general reaction to their ideas has been negative.

How does the saying go? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

The results here aren't going to change. The game is in the hands of the developers and they have set their course for Dawntrail already.